The Little Baby Snake of the Vermilion Bird Family - Chapter 65

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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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Chapter 65
Doeui’s face contorted.
“I even placed a seal on it just in case, but all the fragments have disappeared.”
“All of them—gone?”
“Yes, every last one.”
Ju Jeokseo, Baeksa, Yo Nyeong, and Doeui hurried toward Yo Nyeong’s Research Laboratory.
The space that had always been meticulously organized and spotless now looked as though a thief had ransacked it.
The windows were shattered completely, and the countless documents Yo Nyeong treasured like her life had been scattered into fragments across the floor.
“Ah, ah…”
Yo Nyeong cradled her head in despair.
Ju Jeokseo’s gaze fixed first on the broken golden cord running through the center of the wreckage, before anything else.
He turned to face Doeui.
“Did you do this?”
Doeui nodded immediately.
“Yes. Since these are Ghost Dragon Fragments with residual spectral power, I sealed them with golden cord.”
“But it’s been torn through.”
He rubbed the broken cord with his thumb.
Something had clawed its way out from inside, leaving the cord mangled.
“Did it escape on its own?”
“When I investigated, no one else had entered this laboratory. I was sensitive about my cleaning and had instructed the servant girls not to enter separately beforehand.”
“Then either the fragment escaped by itself, or someone slipped past all notice and took them.”
Baeksa gripped the cord and stared intently at the broken seal.
Then she found something.
“Oh! There’s one left here!”
The girl grasped the fragment firmly in her hand.
She spun around and offered it to Doeui.
“One was left behind—they didn’t manage to steal it.”
“Let me see. You’re right.”
Doeui took the fragment. The Ghost Dragon’s piece wriggled in his palm.
Baeksa gazed quietly at the hand that had just gripped the fragment.
‘The spiritual power felt weak.’
Could Ghost Dragon fragments have torn through the golden cord and fled with only this much power?
The girl sensed something was wrong with this whole affair.
And the others seemed to think the same.
“Wait, if that’s the case, what I saw in Je-ui—could it be…?”
“We need to check. She won’t have transformed completely yet.”
“But what happens if a Ghost Dragon Fragment lodges itself inside a person?”
Baeksa asked carefully.
Of everyone here, only Baeksa had ever been inside the Ghost Dragon’s belly and come out alive.
Only she knew how many resentments and grudges were tangled within that creature.
Baeksa grieved that she was still too young and weak to bear those grudges herself.
But for something like this to happen…
Ju Jeokseo shook his head, his expression grim.
“We don’t know yet. This is the first time I’ve ever seen fragments fall from a Ghost Dragon. That’s why Doeui brought these back to begin with.”
“May I offer my thoughts?”
Doeui, who had been staring at the fragment, lifted his gaze.
Ju Jeokseo nodded.
“Go ahead.”
“I suspect it could result in Spirit Possession.”
“Spirit Possession?”
“Yes.”
When he flicked the fragment away, it writhed in the air, and dark force could be seen struggling to escape from within.
Doeui spoke calmly.
“This is the dragon’s resentment. It is the very foundation that moves the Ghost Dragon. A dragon’s resentment differs from that of ordinary Beast-kin—it roots itself deep within the soul.”
“Then if a fragment embeds itself… the dragon’s spirit enters that person’s body?”
Doeui nodded at Baeksa’s question.
‘Ah, that could very well be.’
The spirits Baeksa had seen inside the Ghost Dragon’s belly all wanted to escape outward.
Perhaps those very spirits had shed their forms as fragments and landed here on the surface of Namto?
But if that were true, it was a grave problem.
“If one’s body is seized by the dragon…!”
“Being seized by a spirit is extraordinarily dangerous in itself, and we still don’t know what happens to anyone whose body is taken by the Ghost Dragon.”
Baeksa’s face went pale.
‘Next time, if my uncle permits, let’s go together! Maybe if I ask nicely, he’ll say yes.’
The friend who had kindly invited her to visit for the first time.
‘So please come visit the Ha Clan Estate next time. Mother will really love it.’
Je-ui’s face hovered before her eyes.
In truth, even if she hadn’t been kind to her, Baeksa’s heart would have ached.
How could anyone not worry, knowing someone might be possessed by a ghost dragon?
But Je-ui weighed especially on her mind.
“Uncle, Je-ui is in danger. We need to recover the fragments quickly.”
Baeksa gripped Ju Jeokseo’s sleeve tightly. He nodded and stroked her hair.
“Don’t worry. I’ll see to it so you have nothing to fear. That girl will come to no harm.”
And just then.
A servant girl hurried up and bowed at the doorway.
“Family Head, a guest has arrived.”
“A guest?”
“A guest from the Xuanwu Family Estate has come.”
***
Doeui closed his eyes slowly, then opened them.
‘Two guests.’
Which one was the welcome guest, and which was unwelcome?
The Black Tortoise Family was no welcome visitor to Doeui either.
But the probability that they were the welcome ones was higher.
With the Ghost Dragon raging and Je-ryu’s hair turning black.
With the need to meet Jangwangshin, one of the Tortoise spirits, the timing of the Black Tortoise Family’s visit was most opportune.
But.
‘Live or die—it depends on your will, Doeui.’
Who had come? From Xuanwu?
‘All I can give you as a mother ends here.’
There was one among them he didn’t wish to see.
As Doeui’s emotions churned, the spirits nearby began creeping back into view.
Those with souls too faint to be seen by anyone but Doeui couldn’t cause real harm, but they could still mock him.
Again—a cackling, jeering laughter echoed from the wraiths.
The boy stood motionless, unable even to think of following Yo Nyeong and Ju Jeokseo to greet the guests.
He felt the spirits trapped inside his body clawing their way out.
He could keenly feel them wanting to tear his soul into ten thousand pieces and scatter it like meat scraps.
‘Compose yourself, Doeui.’
The more his emotions raged, the greater the burden on his body.
This was not something those with Supernatural Abilities were naturally born understanding, but rather something influenced by Doeui’s own feelings—which was why the Scale Baeksa had given him couldn’t take effect.
Doeui squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them.
‘If you don’t want to be devoured, conduct yourself properly. No one will grieve if you’re consumed. The weak are devoured. That’s the rightful way in this family.’
A voice more terrifying than any spirit.
When Doeui was still a tearful child, that voice had often appeared in his dreams, and it haunted him still.
Just the news of a messenger from the Black Tortoise Family left him like this.
‘This is bad.’
At this rate, he really would be devoured.
But it didn’t seem like such a terrible thing.
If that was simply the way of heaven and the law of the family, then following it seemed acceptable.
Better than struggling pointlessly…
“Doeui?”
Then.
In an instant, all the spirits that had been clamoring in his ears vanished.
And as his vision brightened, Baeksa’s round, clear face came into focus.
“Doeui, are you hurt? Uncle and Yo Nyeong already left.”
Baeksa held Doeui’s hand firmly, studying him with worry etched across her features.
The girl rose onto her tiptoes and pressed her palm against his forehead.
“You don’t seem to have a fever, but if you’re in pain, would you like to go rest? I can help you.”
Doeui’s gaze shifted from the Bead hovering softly beside Baeksa to the girl’s pale, clear face.
Concern overflowed from her round eyes, pooling at the edges.
He looked around.
Not a single spirit was visible.
‘When I first saw the baby snake, the spirits rushed at me to tear me apart.’
Now it seemed the very existence of this baby snake frightened them all into hiding.
Come to think of it, the larger Baeksa’s Bead grew, the weaker the spirits’ presence became near her.
“Doeui?”
When Baeksa called his name again with worry, Doeui shook his head.
“I’m fine. Let’s go.”
He gently took Baeksa’s hand and began to walk.
What reached his ears as they moved was different from usual.
Not the sound of spirits, not their mocking laughter, not the old phantom voices.
Chirp, chirp-chirp-chirp.
The clear song of a mountain bird from far away filled his ears instead. Doeui’s brow furrowed at the bright sound.
Holding Baeksa’s hand made everything that had tormented him vanish like a dream.
‘This shouldn’t be.’
He couldn’t spend his whole life holding her hand.
But now that he’d tasted a world where nothing was heard, a peace so profound—how could he bear it?

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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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