Longevity - Chapter 45

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 45: The Audacious Spirit Beast
The village was smaller than he’d expected.
Even counting all the houses and courtyards together, there weren’t more than a hundred. In the center stood a Crossroads where four paths converged, and the large Manor House with light spilling from its windows sat to the northwest.
Jang Saeng tapped his walking staff against the ground as he approached slowly.
Most of the houses on either side had their doors standing open. Inside lay tables and chairs, farming tools and earthenware jars—all abandoned as they stood. If people had fled war, wouldn’t they have acted with more haste? At the very least, they’d have closed the doors and gathered what they could carry.
Had everyone died?
Jang Saeng slowed his pace. Yet the sound of laughter drifting from the Manor House courtyard was unmistakably that of living men.
Outside the gate, several carts had been left standing. The horses had been unhitched and tied to posts along the roadside, and hay still remained in the feeding troughs.
Jang Saeng pressed himself against the side of the gate and peered inside.
A campfire burned in the center of the courtyard. Men in martial garb sat around it, laughing as they shared meat and wine. The doors of the Main Hall to the north stood wide open too, and inside, candlelight illuminated figures deep in conversation.
Between inside and out, there were perhaps fifteen men. In the center of the Main Hall, several sealed wooden chests sat arranged in neat rows.
Just then, one of the men by the campfire turned his head.

“Hey there, young monk—come on in.”

The man waved with a smile, and everyone else turned to stare at Jang Saeng at once.
Jang Saeng hesitated for a moment. Judging by their expressions and tone, they didn’t seem like wicked men.
He stepped over the threshold, bringing his hands together respectfully.

“I’m just passing through.”

A younger man among them burst out laughing.

“We never said you were a robber—why are you making excuses?”
“I’m not a monk either. My hair burned off in a fire.”

Jang Saeng didn’t approach the campfire. Instead, he settled beneath the eaves of the Side Building to the west.

“I’ll rest here for one night. I won’t be any trouble.”
“The fire licked clean, didn’t it? You haven’t even got eyebrows.”

An escort merchant in his twenties looked Jang Saeng up and down.

“How old are you? What brings you wandering alone in times like these?”
“Fourteen.”
“Fourteen, out alone in this chaos?”

Jang Saeng said nothing. Instead, he laid his walking staff beside him and leaned his back against the wall.

“Come here and eat.”

Someone gestured from the fireside.
Jang Saeng shook his head.

“That’s all right. I have food.”

He had flatbread left in his pouch. He felt uneasy accepting further kindness from strangers.
But these men weren’t about to let his refusal slide. A burly man stood, retrieved a chunk of well-cooked meat, and brought it over.

“Eat. Looking at the state of you, I’d say you haven’t had a proper meal in a while.”

He pressed the meat into Jang Saeng’s hand and asked:

“How did you end up like this?”

Jang Saeng smiled awkwardly but offered no answer.
The man didn’t press further. He patted Jang Saeng’s shoulder once and returned to his companions.
Jang Saeng looked down at the meat resting in his palm. The fat was still warm.
As the firelight flickered, his eye caught several flags planted in front of the Side Building to the east. On the flags was written the Taepyeong Escort Agency

The characters “Taepyeong” were written there.
Jang Saeng’s heart grew heavier.
Were the Taepyeong Escort Agency and the Taepyeong Guest House branches of the same family? There was no way for him to know. But he did remember one thing: Song Bo on the second floor of the Taepyeong Guest House had died by Na Yang-ja’s hand.
If he suddenly got up and left now, it would only look suspicious. Jang Saeng stayed in his seat, pretending ignorance.
The guards paid him no attention. They passed around wine cups and talked about how strange this Village was.

“The houses stand intact, yet there’s not a shadow of a person anywhere.”
“If they’d evacuated, they’d at least have closed the doors.”
“We didn’t see a single dog when we came in.”
“It’s as if the whole Village was swallowed by ghosts.”

A few men laughed at that last remark, but their laughter was short-lived. They too seemed troubled by the dark, shuttered houses.
Jang Saeng had walked all day and was hungry. It was difficult to refuse the meat he’d been offered. After a moment’s hesitation, he ate it slowly.
The salty taste and smell of spices spread across his tongue. It had been a long time since he’d eaten meat.
As he wiped his hand clean on his robe and turned to lie down, three small shadows slipped through the gate. The one in front was a black ferret, and the two behind it were grey.
The three creatures showed no fear of the men. They stopped in a line beneath the Gate Tower, then lifted their front paws and stood on their hind legs.
Cold sweat broke across Jang Saeng’s back.
The sight of a ferret standing upright like a human was strange enough. What was even more disturbing was that no one had reached for their sword.
One of the guards by the fire opened his mouth with a bright expression.

“Three young ladies—are you people from this Village?”

Jang Saeng held his breath.
What young ladies? Beneath the gate stood only three ferrets with narrow eyes and long tails.
The black ferret opened its mouth and chirped—click, click-click.
The guards nodded in succession at that strange cry and yielded their places to one another.

“I see. You must have been quite startled.”

People from inside the Main Hall heard the sound and came outside. They too spoke to the ferrets as if addressing young women.

“Where have all the people of this Village gone?”

One of the grey ferrets chirped again—click-click.

“They took refuge on the Northern Mountain?”
“Bandits raided us, you say? That’s terrible.”

Jang Saeng’s hand froze against his walking staff. What sounded to him like animal cries was translating itself into human speech for the guards.
Then one of the grey ferrets turned its head. A pair of eyes with a blue-green shimmer fixed directly on Jang Saeng, and a chill crept up his neck.
He had skinned two ferrets this afternoon and rendered their oil. If vengeance had come looking for him, that glint in its eyes would have made perfect sense.
He wanted to rise immediately, but he did not move. The moment he showed alarm, he would reveal that he alone was not caught in the illusion.
The grey ferret watched Jang Saeng for a moment, then turned its head away again.
The guards gestured, making room.

“Come warm yourselves by the fire—it’s cold out there.”

The three ferrets waddled forward on their hind legs, their bodies swaying unsteadily. The two grey ferrets settled by the fire, while the black ferret made its way toward the Main Hall where the sealed wooden chest lay.
It was then that Jang Saeng realized the three spirit beasts’ target was not him, but the guards.
He had heard stories of ferrets clouding human minds. But he had never imagined they could deceive so many martial men at once.
Why only he could see their true forms—why was that?
Then Jang Saeng recalled the pungent stench of ferret oil rising from his body. He had covered himself entirely with it, so the demons might have mistaken him for one of their own kind.
Or perhaps the smell itself warded off their sorcery.
He couldn’t be certain which.
The guards in the Main Hall gathered around the black ferret and spoke to it. The men by the fire questioned the two grey ferrets about various matters.
To Jang Saeng’s eyes, they were only beasts with long tails drooping, clicking and baring their teeth. Yet the guards laughed at those sounds, felt pity, and sometimes made hearty promises.

“Have no fear, young ladies. With us here, you’ll be safe tonight.”

The grey ferret’s tail swayed slowly, and a sharp, foul stench filled the air. Jang Saeng held his breath shallow.
The escort merchants didn’t seem to notice the smell. Several of them even drew deep breaths through their noses, their faces brightening with pleasure.

“You wear a fine scent.”

The ferret chittered again, a sound like tiny laughter.
One by one, the merchants who had been speaking fell silent. Hands holding wine cups froze mid-air, and heads tilted to one side.
At last, the broad courtyard grew quiet.
Only the sound of the crackling fire remained.
A dozen escort merchants stood rigid, eyes open but vacant. No surprise marked their faces, no wariness. Their expressions were emptier than sleep itself.
The three ferrets tore open the wine pouches without hesitation, lapping at the spilled liquor before letting out short, contented cries.
One with black fur and two with grey.
Jang Saeng recalled something he’d heard in childhood—a boast of a tale that black ferrets lived a thousand years, white ferrets ten thousand. Whether it was true, he couldn’t say, but one thing was certain: the beasts before his eyes were far from ordinary.
The three Spirit Beasts turned toward the gate.
Jang Saeng thought they were leaving. But the moment the creatures passed through the gate, the frozen merchants stirred to life.
Men whose eyes held no light filed forward in their wake.
None so much as glanced at the carts or wooden chests. Swords still belted, wine cups still in hand, they drifted out through the gate as if sleepwalking.
In an instant, only Jang Saeng remained in the Manor House.
For a long moment, he couldn’t even breathe.
He had never witnessed anything like this. Before fear could take hold, his grip on reality simply slipped away. People who had laughed and shared meat with him moments before were now following three beasts into the darkness.
The villagers hadn’t fled to safety. They had all been drawn away like this.
Where they had gone, he didn’t know. But the fact that none had returned was spoken by the open gate and the abandoned household goods. Jang Saeng stared at the gateway.
He was no Daoist priest. He knew nothing of capturing Spirit Beasts. The Thousand Gold Benefit Methods contained no prescription for awakening those whose minds had been stolen.
Yet he couldn’t pretend ignorance.
The warmth of a single piece of meat still lingered in his palm.
As he’d grown, few had offered him food without asking for something in return. That the gift was small didn’t make the kindness any smaller.

“All I have to do is wake them.”

Jang Saeng scanned the courtyard.
Drawing a sword and pursuing them would be futile—three ferrets would easily best him. But if the merchants were truly enthralled as deeply as sleep, perhaps a loud enough sound could break the spell.
Beside the Taepyeong Escort Agency flag beneath the eastern side building lay an enormous gong. Far larger than any ordinary gong, it stretched more than a span across, with a thick wooden mallet attached.
Jang Saeng ran and lifted the gong.
It was heavier than he’d expected. When the burned skin of his palm touched the handle, pain flared upward, but he didn’t let go.
What if he couldn’t wake them?
He gripped the mallet tighter.
Wake them or not, he had to try. He couldn’t sit idle and forget the kindness of that shared meat.
Jang Saeng bolted through the gate.
On the northern road ahead, the merchants’ silhouettes were visible. The three ferrets walked before them with swishing tails, and the men followed at regular intervals behind.
Jang Saeng drew a deep breath. His chest, still burning from the smoke, felt like it would tear apart.
He raised the mallet with all his strength.
Boom—! The night air split in two.
The three ferrets ahead yelped and leaped in alarm. The black ferret twisted to glare at Jang Saeng, while the two grey ones scattered toward the roadside.
Jang Saeng struck the gong again.
Boom! Boom! Boom!

“Come to your senses!”

His voice cracked. Coughing welled up in his throat, but he pressed on.

“Open your eyes! They are not human!”

The gong’s voice echoed again and again between the rooftops and walls of the empty village.
One merchant staggered. Two more clutched at their heads, and a young escort merchant dropped the cup from his hand. Jang Saeng gathered every last ounce of strength and struck the gong with savage force.
Cra-BOOM—!
Light returned to the merchants’ vacant eyes.
They stared in turn at the ferrets before them and at the road they had walked. Fear bloomed across their faces, swiftly darkening into rage.

“Spirit Beasts!”

Swords sang as they were drawn as one.
The Black Ferret shrieked and hurled itself into the darkness to the north. The two Grey Ferrets bolted beneath the wall.
The escort merchants burst into curses as they gave chase.
The largest of them, the first to recover his senses, ran a few paces before glancing back—catching sight of Jang Saeng still gripping the gong. He hesitated for a moment, but when his companions ahead shouted not to let the Spirit Beast escape, he seized his blade and ran again.
Only then did Jang Saeng lower the gong-mallet. His burnt palms had stuck to the handle; the skin split open as he withdrew his hands. The strain of his repeated cries had left him gasping for breath alone. Yet seeing the light return to the men’s eyes drained the strength from his legs.
He sank onto the road still clutching the heavy gong. From the darkness to the north came the clang of steel and the ferrets’ piercing shrieks, woven together in a dissonant chorus.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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