The Calamity-Class Artifacts in Ghost Stories Are Obsessed with Me - Chapter 72

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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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Catastrophe-Class Relics from Urban Legends Cling to Him — Episode 72
The man saw Woo Ju. And then he saw the monster’s head held in that hand.
He looks at Woo Ju again.
“You’ve already dealt with all of them?”
His voice was thick with exhaustion.
It couldn’t have been otherwise.
What kind of monsters had those been?
Ten years of preparation for today’s work. Monsters he had gathered and cultivated over ten full years.
He had endured all manner of hardship to make ready, even wondering if such elaborate preparation was truly necessary.
And yet how much time had actually passed?
Seven minutes? Eight at most?
All that painstaking preparation had failed to hold this monster of a man for even ten minutes.
“Heheheh. Hehehehe.”
As the situation reached this point, laughter welled up inside him.
The Tatarikami was sealed. The Hyakki Yakou had been annihilated. The monsters he had struggled to gather lay dead, every last one.
Naturally, escape from this place would be impossible as well.
That woman alone had been a formidable opponent, and now a far more monstrous individual had been added to the mix.
The Great Boundary had crumbled, and there was no visible path to slip cleanly away from here.
“Let’s go together.”
So the man made his decision.
Even if it meant death, he would choose it by his own hand.
Sensing something in his words, Woo Ju raised his hand.
The Iron Pipe embedded in the ground then appeared in that hand again. And he took a posture to throw it.
But this time the man was slightly faster. Without hesitation, he plunged his hand deep into his own chest and then wrenched something out with all his strength.
Splooooosh!
Blood gushed up from his chest. And what was torn out along with that blood was none other than his heart.
Bang!
The Iron Pipe that came flying afterward struck the man’s body.
The heart in the man’s hand left his grasp and flew spinning into the air.
Normally, the heart should have fallen and rolled across the ground as expected.
But it did not.
Instead of falling to the ground, the heart spun in place and then burst with a soft pop sound all by itself.
“Fall back!”
The moment Hwa Ryeon saw it, she cried out sharply.
Woo Ju, who had been moving to finish it, did not resist or question—he simply retreated without a word.
Experience had taught him that trusting Hwa Ryeon’s judgment in such circumstances was wise.
Ssssssssh—
Soon, something bloomed from where the heart had burst.
It was a flower made of blood.
From root to stem to leaf to bloom, the entire process took mere seconds.
As the fully-formed flower blossomed at once, a sweet scent mingled with the iron reek of blood spread in all directions.
The smell was so potent that even a single breath left one dizzy.
“Huuuuuh—”
At that moment, as Hwa Ryeon exhaled smoke once more, the smells that had been clawing at their noses grew diffuse.
Only then could Woo Ju regain his senses.
“Be careful.”
“Yes.”
Woo Ju nodded with a grim face in response to Hwa Ryeon’s warning.
Despite being quite far away, his consciousness had briefly clouded.
If he had not heeded her words and fallen back at once, he would have been much closer to that scent.
Had that been the case, it likely would not have ended with merely a brief cloudiness of mind.
“Shall we throw again?”
“No. It’s not that I doubt its power, but his final demeanor troubles me.”
Hwa Ryeon spoke with a furrowed brow.
The man who had torn out his own heart to make the flower bloom had worn a smile even as his life fled.
He had been watching all along to see what kind of power Woo Ju possessed.
And that he smiled even as he died meant he believed that, knowing as much as he did, his final gambit would still succeed.
Woo Ju nodded after hearing this explanation.
“What should we do then?”
“The target is dealt with, so there’s no immediate rush. What matters is getting out of here unharmed.”
Their hurried movements had been solely to capture the man before he could escape.
But when he found himself in danger, he’d detonated himself instead, leaving nothing urgent to chase.
Now all that remained was for the two of them to resolve this situation safely.
“I don’t think we can just back away from this.”
Hwa Ryeon murmured without taking her eyes off the flower.
The bloom remained exactly where it had first appeared, motionless. Yet for some reason, it felt impossible to simply turn away and leave.
It was the instinct of a veteran who’d walked through countless scenes like this.
But standing still wouldn’t solve anything either.
“Whoooosh—”
Hwa Ryeon exhaled smoke again, attempting to get a better look at the flower.
But the dispersing smoke vanished the moment it touched the area around the bloom, as though it had never existed at all.
Ssshhhhh—
Simultaneously, the scent of blood and sweetness grew markedly stronger.
Hwa Ryeon recognized what she was seeing and immediately grasped something crucial.
“It’s absorbing.”
“What?”
“It absorbed the smoke and grew stronger.”
Woo Ju’s brow furrowed at her words.
“Absorption and enhancement… Could the same thing happen if I attacked it?”
“Exactly. Given your strength, it might even collapse under the strain midway through—but that’s when things get dangerous. We might not be able to contain it safely.”
What if it detonated when it burst? What if it scattered the vile aura it held in every direction?
The entire surrounding area would be completely contaminated.
“There’s no choice then. We’ll use that.”
Hwa Ryeon spoke to Woo Ju.
Woo Ju understood immediately what ‘that’ meant and reached his hand into empty space.
Thunk!
Something heavy materialized in his grasp.
It was a book—one containing all manner of profane and cursed laws.
Shiver!
The Necronomicon, out on an outing for the first time in ages, trembled with delight.
The club had powered up, but hadn’t had a chance to show off since then, so it seemed even more excited than usual.
The Iron Pipe, recognizing that this time it was the Necronomicon’s turn to shine rather than its own, remained obediently still.
Crack.
Before Woo Ju could do anything, the Necronomicon writhed and opened of its own accord.
Pages flipped rapidly with a rustling sound. But it lasted only a moment.
Soon the Necronomicon’s movements ceased.
Woo Ju reflexively checked the open page.
‘Devouring Worm?’
That was the name of the Incantation inscribed on the revealed page.
The moment he saw the name, its effects and costs seemed to surface in his mind as naturally as if he’d known the Incantation all along.
“Mm.”
Woo Ju’s expression clouded slightly.
For one thing, the ability itself seemed perfectly suited to the current situation.
The problem lay with the cost.
Until now, the Necronomicon had only offered Incantations that were either nearly costless or carried only minor prices—but this time was different.
‘I have to carry the worm for ten days, feeding it at designated times, and the moment I skip even once, it targets the master’s soul?’
Even setting aside the burden of feeding it, the consequences of failure were brutal.
Carrying a worm that devours souls for ten days straight?
“Hmm.”
The thought alone unsettled him, though the other conditions were manageable enough.
Any food would do, and it only needed to be fed three times a day.
“I’ll use it.”
After deliberation, Woo Ju placed his hand on the page.
The flower was quiet now, but there was no guarantee it would stay that way. There was no point in wasting more time.
As Woo Ju began to chant the Incantation, Hwa Ryeon positioned herself in front of him, keeping watch over the flower.
And the moment his chanting reached its climax.
Shrieeeek!
Crimson light burst forth from the flower, as though it had suddenly sensed a threat and unleashed its power.
The vile aura that swept across the area was so intense that even Hwa Ryeon, shrouded in smoke, staggered violently.
She responded by exhaling even more smoke, pushing back against it.
The more he drew on the pipe, the more a searing sensation spread across his entire body—but in the current situation, that actually proved invaluable.
The intense pain allowed him to break free from the flower’s influence.
“Aham-rah. Le-ruior. Debat.”
Even as this unfolded, Woo Ju recited the Incantation without wavering.
Then, in one moment.
Crack—!
Without warning, the air tore open.
The light pouring from the flower immediately surged toward that rifting void, as if intent on annihilating the threat.
But that proved unwise.
Crunch—.
The sound of something being gnawed, and a handful of the light that had rushed toward the fissure vanished.
It was then that the “worm” revealed itself from within the crack.
‘A worm, they call it?’
Woo Ju furrowed his brow.
If anything, its form resembled a mammal far more than an insect.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t grotesque at all. If anything, there was something almost endearing about it.
“Ugh—!”
Yet while Woo Ju found it not entirely unpleasant, Hwa Ryeon’s reaction was immediate—she clapped a hand over her mouth and dropped to her knees.
“Are you alright?”
Woo Ju caught her in alarm, steadying her.
Hwa Ryeon answered in a strained voice.
“Is that… is that really something you can control…?”
“Yes. Yes, it is absolutely under my command.”
“O-okay.”
Hwa Ryeon managed to gather her strength and pulled herself upright.
Yet her complexion remained pallid, and she deliberately kept her gaze averted from the “worm” entirely.
Woo Ju was about to ask why, but held his tongue.
Dealing with the flower took priority.
Whoooosh—.
The worm that had emerged from the fissure advanced through the air with deliberate slowness.
The flower responded with violent intensity to the creature’s approach.
Just as before, it unleashed bursts of light in an attempt to eliminate the worm.
Crunch! Snap-snap!
But each time, the worm responded effortlessly.
It simply swallowed everything that flew toward it whole.
Oddly enough, though it was consuming nothing but light, sounds of shattering and crushing echoed through the air.
With each mouthful the worm devoured, the flower’s color grew paler.
What had been blood-red at first was now a deep shade of pink.
Shudder—.
Then the flower trembled where it stood, and the surrounding air darkened in an instant.
In that darkness, Woo Ju watched the flower undergo some kind of transformation.
It took on a shape that was deeply, profoundly alien.
An ordinary person could scarcely imagine such a form.
Yet what came next was even more startling.
It stretched its body toward the worm before blooming open again like a flower—
as if to swallow the creature whole.
For a moment, Woo Ju feared the worm was about to be consumed.
Snap!
But his concern was misplaced.
Without hesitation, the worm lunged at the gaping maw and bit down hard.
It then proceeded to devour everything within reach, utterly indifferent to whether the thing’s body engulfed it.
The flower thrashed about, desperate to eliminate the worm, but the creature paid no mind—it was entirely absorbed in its meal.
Crunch, snap-snap—.
The sounds of crushing, breaking, and tearing filled the air.
A high, piercing shriek erupted—!
Amid the cacophony, Woo Ju heard something like a dying wail.
And with that cry, the flower that had dyed everything crimson vanished without a trace.
Whirrrrr—.
The worm, now satiated, circled the spot where the flower had been before flying back to Woo Ju.
It then shrank to the size of two finger joints, just as it had first appeared, and settled snugly on his shoulder.
“Phew.”
It was then that Hwa Ryeon straightened her bent frame.
“Did it… disappear?”
“Pardon? No, it’s right here.”
Woo Ju pointed to his own shoulder, puzzlement crossing his face.
Yet even as Hwa Ryeon looked where he indicated, she could not focus her eyes on the worm at all.
“You mean to say you can’t see it?”
“Right. Nothing.”
At those words, Woo Ju looked at the worm settled upon his shoulder.
For all that it was called a worm, it bore the appearance of something strange yet endearing—like a peculiar little doll.
‘Is it only visible to me now?’
Woo Ju turned that thought over in his mind as he spoke to Hwa Ryeon.
“Well, it seems only I can see it. But we’re finished now, aren’t we?”
“We are.”
Hwa Ryeon nodded, a weary smile crossing her lips.
“Let’s go back.”
To be continued ▶
Urban Legends and Catastrophe-Class Relics: Their Obsessions
Author
Lee Segye-sa-jang
Publishers
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Publishing House
Grae Publishing
Inquiries
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260410110
※ This e-book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and copying are prohibited. Violations may result in both criminal and civil legal liability.
※ Pentagram looks forward to receiving your precious manuscripts.

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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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