The Calamity-Class Artifacts in Ghost Stories Are Obsessed with Me - Chapter 94

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

Urban Legends and Catastrophe-Class Relics: Chapter 94
Woo Ju surveyed the empty Shrine slowly, methodically.
He examined every corner carefully, wondering if something might be hidden, but the Shrine itself wasn’t very large, and there didn’t seem to be anywhere suitable to hide in the first place.
Then Chae Wol spoke.
“I don’t think it was ever here to begin with.”
Her tone had returned to normal.
Woo Ju lowered the Iron Pipe as he asked, “What was that voice just now?”
“What did you mean by that voice?”
“Look at that.”
Chae Wol pointed toward the inner wall of the Shrine.
Behind where the Shamanistic Deity Painting had been hanging, something was affixed to the wall.
Drawing closer, he saw an old Talisman stuck there.
“It seems like it was communicating through that. My guess is it sensed we were coming and fled before we arrived.”
Woo Ju’s expression grew puzzled as he spoke. “What kind of Talisman is that, exactly? And what do you mean by ‘sensed we were coming’?”
“A Talisman itself carries the power of communication, of connection. Of course, it’s not a Talisman used in the traditional shamanic way.”
Chae Wol paused, considering how best to explain, then continued.
“It looks like something was hosting a False Deity there. In other words, think of it as the work of something otherworldly. And ‘sensing’ you—well, that’s exactly what it sounds like. I think it must have known you were coming.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
This time, her words carried absolute certainty.
In fact, they did. Though Chae Wol didn’t say it aloud, in her eyes Woo Ju resembled something like a small sun.
At first, Woo Ju had simply wielded the power of mighty Artifacts. But through handling such Artifacts for so long, his own presence had grown so refined that things of a lower order instinctively recoiled from him—a visceral rejection at the level of their very nature.
Things beneath a certain threshold, conversely, often failed to sense him at all due to the sheer gap in rank.
“Hmm.”
Woo Ju opened his mouth after hearing the explanation. “Can we track it?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Then let’s go now.”
If he’d intended to give up just because the target had vanished, he wouldn’t have come this far in the first place.
Chae Wol, too, nodded without hesitation at Woo Ju’s words.
“Then I’ll begin the Tracking right away.”
She began gathering items scattered throughout the Shrine and preparing something, while Woo Ju examined the interior once more.
He hadn’t visited many Shrines, but something about this place felt distinctly different.
Unsettling, if he had to put a name to it.
And the Ritual Vessels on the altar were thick with dust, and somehow didn’t give the impression that anyone actually lived here.
“Found it.”
Just then, Chae Wol rose from where she’d been working, announcing that the Tracking was complete.
Woo Ju’s gaze shifted from the altar as he spoke. “Where?”
“The Back Mountain.”
Chae Wol’s eyes fixed on a single direction.
“It’s settled in somewhere dark and damp.”
After that.
Woo Ju and Chae Wol slipped out of the Shrine and climbed steadily up the hillside path.
Partway along, they spotted a fork in the road that led to a hiking trail.
As they walked along the path, which had turned to dirt underfoot, Woo Ju found himself thinking.
‘I seem to be climbing mountains a lot lately.’
He’d done plenty of running through mountains in Busan, climbed in Japan. And now here he was, hiking again.
You’d think there’d be more spirits and such in cities.
“By the way, what exactly was that False Deity you mentioned earlier?”
At the question, Chae Wol replied in a measured voice.
“A False Deity. Literally translated from the characters, it means ‘false master’—something pretending to be master. The term is used similarly in Shamanism.”
Her explanation continued.
“In Shamanism, practitioners receive a Spirit into their bodies. In doing so, they gain the ability to perceive things beyond the ordinary and perform special acts.”
“I see.”
“Yes. But sometimes, something that isn’t a proper Spirit covets the body. Minor Ghosts. Malevolent Spirits. Things like that.”
“And that’s what you call a False Deity?”
“Exactly.”

It was then that Woo Ju noticed Chae Wol’s expression darken slightly, and he asked.
“Is something troubling you?”
“Geum Ok Nyeo… she was likely devoured by a False Deity.”
“I see. Could that be connected to her spiritual power diminishing, or something of that nature?”
“It could well be. I suspect the god she originally served wasn’t a False Deity to begin with.”
“Then what happened?”
“It seems she took on a False Deity later.”
Woo Ju was about to ask the reason when something occurred to him, and he spoke.
“Because her spiritual power waned? Was she trying to accept a new god?”
“Exactly.”
It was a guess pieced together from scattered knowledge—and he’d struck the mark perfectly.
“It’s common for shamans whose spiritual power has faded to attempt accepting a new god. Usually, though, the results are far from favorable.”
“Why?”
“Usually, when spiritual power—or divine force—fades, it’s not simply because time has passed. After the initial Spirit Descent, there are exceptions, but if power continues to wane for a long time afterward, it means something else is at work.”
Hwa Ryeon paused to steady her breath, then continued.
“An unclean heart. Breaking a taboo. Excessive greed. Or neglecting the god they serve. In those cases, spiritual power typically fades.”
“Ah. So in that situation, taking on a new god wouldn’t make sense at all.”
“Right. When someone’s own failings lead to that state, but they blame it on the god they serve and try to take on a new one—which god would look favorably on such a person?”
Woo Ju nodded.
If you thought of it as a master-and-disciple relationship, it would be like the disciple being lazy and unmotivated, failing through their own lack of effort, yet blaming the master and trying to seek a new one—wasn’t that the situation?
In such a case, no one would willingly step forward to become that new master.
Unless they were a con artist approaching it with the intention to exploit them from the start.
“There it is.”
Not long after, they finally found the Cave.
Though it was called a cave, it wasn’t particularly large—perhaps just large enough for a single animal to enter.
But there was one peculiar feature: the interior was unnaturally dark.
You could barely make out the inside even by shining a phone’s light.
Beyond a certain depth, light wouldn’t reach properly, so they had to estimate the cave’s size by watching the light reflect off the walls.
“There’s definitely something in there.”
Woo Ju naturally put on his mask and gripped an Iron Pipe in his hand as he spoke.
Even before putting on the mask, Woo Ju could sense that something was lurking inside the cave.
Something quite vicious was in there.
Chae Wol, sensing it too, spoke with a hardened expression.
“In effect, it’s become as one with the False Deity.”
“That sounds bad.”
“Very bad.”
Woo Ju twirled the Iron Pipe in his grip as he spoke.
“So, should I just smash it?”
“No!”
Chae Wol cried out in alarm.
“The person will die too. We need to perform the False Deity Exorcism Ritual.”
“The False Deity Exorcism Ritual?”
“Yes. It will be difficult, but if we drive out the False Deity, we should be able to save the person.”
“I see.”
Indeed. This was different from an ordinary anomaly.
Even though a False Deity occupied the body, the body itself was still human.
In other words, it was a case of Possession.
Which meant attacking it here would also kill the possessed subject.
‘Couldn’t I just hit it gently?’
Woo Ju considered briefly, then decided to follow Chae Wol’s approach.
There was no need to take unnecessary risks.
“Then, let’s try it. How should we proceed?”
“Normally, it would require a very lengthy preparation. But I think we can manage without all that now.”
Chae Wol said this while looking at Woo Ju.
When Woo Ju met her gaze, Chae Wol turned her eyes forward and spoke again.
“Still, it could take several hours at most.”
“That’s no problem at all.”
“Then I’ll prepare right away.”
With that, Chae Wol set down the Bag she’d been carrying on her back and began removing items from inside it.
For the preparation of the False Deity Exorcism Ritual.
* * *
Whenever the wind picked up, the leaves trembled and rustled with a whisper.
Chae Wol heard the sound in one ear and let it pass out the other, continuing to arrange something on the ground.
The False Deity Exorcism Ritual was ordinarily quite finicky, requiring considerable time in its preparation.
But now she could skip a substantial number of steps.
And that was thanks to Woo Ju, without question.
Chae Wol glanced at him sideways.
‘Bright.’
She’d thought the same thing back at the Shrine, but Woo Ju really was bright.
Like a small sun drifting and bobbing just above the ground.
His spiritual power hadn’t been weak when they first met, but it was nothing like this.
If it had been, she would have been startled the moment she laid eyes on him.
‘With Woo Ju here, I can substitute for most of the steps. And as for materials, this much should suffice…’
Chae Wol carefully tallied which steps could be omitted and which supplies could be foregone.
Then she glanced toward the depths of the Cave.
Immediately, an ominous aura stretched toward her body.
Vicious. Cruel and vicious.
She’d witnessed those who harbored a False Deity several times over, but never one this vicious.
The False Deity itself was malevolent, and the length of its residence seemed extraordinarily long.
‘And it seems to have caused all sorts of trouble.’
She couldn’t know the exact nature of those misdeeds, but at this level, it wasn’t simply a matter of hosting a False Deity and dispensing a few fortunes.
The False Deity must have driven the shaman who harbored it to commit countless wicked acts.
It had corrupted the shaman’s spirit and soul, molding her into a vessel perfectly suited to itself.
The result was that the False Deity had come to occupy her body entirely.
“Huh.”
Chae Wol exhaled a long breath.
It would be a grueling task, but she had no thought of giving up.
Especially when she thought of her colleague right beside her.
Hadn’t Woo Ju never once retreated, even in situations far more perilous and demanding than this?
And this time, moreover, it had little to do with him directly and wasn’t even part of his duties—yet here he was.
So Chae Wol pressed on with her preparations in silence.
“All set.”
When everything was finally ready, she told him so.
Woo Ju, who had been leaning against a nearby tree, straightened at her words and spoke.
“What should I do now?”
“I’ll conduct the ritual. While I do, keep the False Deity from escaping out of there. Fair warning—it could get dangerous.”
“Understood.”
Despite the warning, Woo Ju simply nodded once and walked steadily toward the mouth of the Cave.
The moment he took his stand at the cave’s entrance, the ominous aura that had been pressing down on the surroundings vanished as though washed away.
Or more precisely, it was now being held back from escaping the Cave by Woo Ju’s presence.
Because of this, Chae Wol could begin the ritual with a much lighter heart.
At first, it was quiet.
Only the soft murmur of Chae Wol’s voice and the rustling of leaves in the breeze filled the air.
But it wasn’t long before a response came from within the Cave.
Thud!
Woo Ju fixed a steady gaze on the depths of the Cave.
Thud! Thud!
A succession of violent tremors reverberated outward.
As if something were struggling to break free.
At the same time, Chae Wol’s voice grew louder.
She felt it—the thing inside thrashing in desperation, as if it would tear its way out and shred her in an instant.
But Chae Wol didn’t stop.
She trusted the one standing at the cave’s entrance.
And Woo Ju responded to that ominous sign with simplicity.
Crash!
He brought the Iron Pipe down hard onto the ground inside the Cave.
The earth buckled as if struck by heavy machinery.
Woo Ju looked toward the depths of the Cave and spoke.
“Come out if you can.”
Then the Cave fell silent.
To be continued in the next episode ▶
Urban Legends and Their Obsession with Disaster-Class Relics
Author
Lee Sae-gye
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
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 duplication are prohibited, and violations may result in criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram is always waiting for your precious manuscripts.

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