The Little Baby Snake of the Vermilion Bird Family - Chapter 78

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

Episode 78
The servant flew in swiftly and released her Beast Transformation in front of Hwanya.
Bang!
White smoke billowed up. But before the smoke could clear, the man spoke urgently.
“The Street is in utter chaos! Suddenly, Beast-kin are fleeing into the streets as if possessed!”
“What?”
“People who were perfectly fine are running about screaming that their limbs are severed, that they’ve been stabbed—the madness is spreading! They all seem to have lost their minds!”
At that frantic cry, Hwanya felt as though he’d been plunged into ice water.
“How many? Can we at least…?”
“It’s not just a few! They’re all raging about like madmen!”
Then.
Thump, thump, thump.
Someone was approaching the Office. A servant girl standing outside hurried to announce the visitor.
“Hwanya, Siyeom has arrived!”
The moment the servant girl spoke, Hwanya couldn’t wait and flung the door open.
Siyeom stood in the doorway. She held her hands clasped before her and spoke to Hwanya with measured formality.
“The Dragon’s Resentment has begun to rampage.”
She was different from before—formal and respectful toward him.
In the absence of the Vermilion Bird Divine Lord, she was offering due courtesy to his proxy.
“We still have two days before the week is complete, do we not?”
“Someone has tampered with it, it seems. I have my suspicions as to who, but…”
She forced a smile, pulling at the corner of her mouth.
“I cannot see where they’ve gone.”
With those few words, Hwanya understood who Siyeom suspected.
The Black Tortoise Family attendant who was always at Siyeom’s side was nowhere to be seen.
Unless she had issued him a separate order, there was no reason for him to leave her side at a moment like this.
“The Incantation Spell has been broken, and now that the spirit is raging, the spells I was using have become useless.”
She spoke with finality.
“I will go into the Street with Doeui to try to restrain what visible Ghost Dragon Fragments we can, but with so few hands, I cannot say how long we can hold them.”
“You said it was a Plague Deity? That it brings pestilence?”
“Yes.”
“Yet why aren’t people catching an illness—”
“Why are they going mad instead?”
Siyeom answered lightly, as if his question was obvious.
“The spirit possesses them, so they lose their minds. Look at their madness—what else would you call it but plague?”
She posed the question back to him.
“How soon did the Divine Lord say he would arrive?”
“He should be here by this evening.”
“Then we’ll be cutting it close, but not too late. First, let’s go observe the Beast-kin’s condition.”
In place of the young Divine Lord’s proxy, Siyeom took charge, indicating their next course of action with an adult’s composure.
“Yes.”
Hwanya nodded.
***
The Street was a nightmare.
“Ah, ahhhhh! I don’t want this, I don’t want it! It hurts so much! Mother, mommy!”
“No, why is this happening? Physician, please look at my child!”
“Don’t, please, don’t… I’m scared! The dragon is devouring me!”
The Beast-kin afflicted by the Dragon’s Resentment writhed in terrible visions.
Their very spirits had been damaged. This was beyond anything physicians could treat.
Moreover, because Siyeom had spent the past five days using Incantation Spells to suppress the Ghost Dragon Fragments, their malevolent strength had only grown fiercer.
This was the power of the Plague Deity, of the Ghost Dragon.
Pestilence wasn’t merely about harming the body.
Madness spreading like this was also a kind of plague. The wounds from the Ghost Dragon were contagious.
Siyeom squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them.
And she muttered.
“A hell on earth, it seems.”
Though she still appeared composed, her insides were burning with urgency.
A catastrophe of this scale would surely spread from Namto to Bukto.
Once that happened, everyone would learn what Siyeom had been doing in Namto, what she had been hiding.
That was the very thing she had been desperate to avoid.
“That bastard, Mo Hyun.”
Grit.
She ground her teeth.
At this point, she could only believe that Mo Hyun was the culprit behind this chaos.
Perhaps he was also the one who had severed Doeui’s restraints and released the Dragon Fragments.
But why would he do such a thing?
‘To humiliate me?’
Or to drag Doeui back to Bukto?
Either way, it brought no benefit to Mo Hyun. That was precisely why she had brought him along.
Doeui’s existence neither profited nor harmed him.
After all, people rarely concern themselves with matters that don’t touch their interests.
Yet only three people in Namto had the capacity to ruin Siyeom’s Incantation Spell and trigger the Ghost Dragon Fragments into raging ahead of their time.
Only three.
Siyeom, Doeui, and Mo Hyun.
Siyeom and Doeui had been together the entire time, so it wasn’t either of them. Besides, neither had reason.
Which left only one, didn’t it?
‘Surely not…’
A thought crossed Siyeom’s mind.
If the Ghost Dragon rampaged here and reduced Namto to ruins, the Black Tortoise Family could gain grounds to intervene in Namto’s affairs.
According to the Ancient Pact forged long ago by the Four Divine Beasts, whenever a ‘solvable’ problem arose in another’s territory, they were obligated to send their Direct Line to resolve it.
And only the Black Tortoise Family could resolve a rampaging spectral dragon.
‘To give the Black Tortoise Family direct grounds to intervene in Namto?’
If that was Mo Hyun’s true purpose, the situation had grown far more serious.
It would mean he was not acting of his own will, but under orders from Xuanwu Star Lord, the Family Head of the Black Tortoise Family, or someone of equal authority.
And if the Ghost Dragon rampaged unchecked and wrought irreversible destruction…
‘And if Doeui or I were to die in that chaos…’
Xuanwu Star Lord would not let Namto stand. The Black Tortoise never forgot a grudge, never forgave a wound.
“Doeui.”
Siyeom looked at her son. Doeui stepped forward and bowed his head.
“From this moment on, you must never leave my side. If you spot Mo Hyun, either capture him yourself, or if you lack the strength, call for me.”
Doeui answered in silence. Siyeom paid it no mind and lifted her gaze to the Street of Namto.
Beast-kin were screaming from all corners. To Doeui and Siyeom’s eyes, the spectral dragons’ spirits flew about, tormenting them.
The necks and limbs of the screaming people bore red solid lines.
People clawed frantically at the red lines. Flesh was torn beneath their nails, bleeding raw.
“What is that?”
Doeui asked, squinting.
Siyeom answered at once.
“Marks left by the Dragon’s Resentment. If we delay any longer, the spirits will consume them all.”
To be more precise, it was the dragon’s mark indicating that this flesh was not its own.
A spirit inspects whether a body will house its soul before possessing it fully.
And if it judges the body incompatible, it ‘discards’ it.
This was the mark of discard.
Those in agony would all be killed by the spirit as time passed.
Siyeom’s brow furrowed.
The Dragon’s Resentment hung so thick over Namto that even breathing became difficult.
The Ghost Dragon alone was already difficult and burdensome to face, but with the spirits trapped within it now released, it was twice as troublesome.
“Your little white snake better arrive soon.”
“…Your little white snake?”
“You took a liking to her, didn’t you? You even gave her a Talisman bearing a spirit.”
She exhaled a long breath.
“She needs to get here fast. We cannot borrow the strength of the Black Tortoise Divine Beast here.”
“Are you afraid of Xuanwu Star Lord finding out?”
“Yes. Since Mo Hyun has betrayed us, discovery is only a matter of time—but borrowing the Divine Beast’s power directly is another matter entirely.”
The Black Tortoise Clan could borrow the Divine Beast’s power ‘directly.’
But now, in this situation, they could not. So she would have to rely on her own Supernatural Abilities as much as possible.
Whoosh!
As Siyeom opened her Fan, green Flames flickered to life.
“Jangwangshin should have given me a proper answer…”

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