Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 63

Not far from the valley where the steel marble competition took place and the mountain where the flag battle was unfolding.

There was another cave there.

– Creak! Creak!

Five carriages in a procession headed towards that cave.

Red-belted warriors were pulling the carriages and entering the cave illuminated by torches.

The carriages that had entered the cave like that stopped at a certain place.

There, numerous bodies of boys were lying down.

“Phew. Is this the last of them? Then shall we move them?”

The red-belted warriors who had pulled the carriages started the task of laying the corpses side by side.

The remaining carriages that arrived one after another were the same.

– Plop!

“Is it because we took them out late? The bodies are bloated.”

A red-belted warrior clicked his tongue while looking at a corpse that was swollen with water.

Although it was shallow valley water, there were deep parts, so it seemed the entire body had been submerged.

Then, a middle-aged man wearing a Taoist robe with yin and yang drawn on it approached and said:

“Exclude that one.”

“Isn’t this much fine?”

“We can’t perform the work with this.”

“Oh my.”

At this, the red-belted warriors moved the corpse to a carriage on the left side of the cave.

As they were moving the corpse to the carriage, one warrior couldn’t hold back and vomited.

“Blech.”

Seeing this warrior, the other warriors clicked their tongues.

“Tsk tsk.”

“As expected of a rookie.”

Of course, they said that, but they actually understood.

At least the corpses lying over there had few wounds, so they still retained human form.

However, the ones in the carriage were the “dropouts”.

None of them were intact.

Having crushed heads was common, and there were many missing a leg or with organs torn out.

It was so horrific that it made one want to vomit just by looking.

“Get it together. Rookie.”

“Ah, yes sir.”

The warrior who had thrown up the contents of his stomach barely got up and replied.

As the corpse sorting work was somewhat finished like that, the dropouts nearly filled three carriages.

Then, the middle-aged man in the Taoist robe from earlier approached the warriors and said:

“Let’s go.”

The Taoist-robed middle-aged man led the way, and the red-belted warriors pulled the carriages piled with corpses.

The carriages moved along a narrow sloped path and stopped in front of a cliff at the foot of the mountain after half a sichen.

The Taoist-robed middle-aged man took out a handful of something from his bosom.

They were talismans.

[Chain]

Was written on them, and the Taoist-robed middle-aged man said as he attached a talisman one by one to the dead corpses on the carriages:

“When throwing them, don’t look down the cliff.”

“Yes sir.”

The red-belted warriors, who answered nonchalantly, threw the corpses with talismans attached off the cliff one after another in a familiar manner.

Seeing this, the rookie warrior was inwardly baffled.

If they were unusable corpses, it would be cleaner to just burn them, but if they threw them all in a place like this, wouldn’t the bottom be overflowing with corpses?

Even in broad daylight, it would be too horrific to muster the courage to go down.

The rookie warrior asked his senior who was also carrying corpses:

“Senior. Why are we throwing them off this cliff instead of just burning them?”

“Just do as you’re told. Why are you being curious?”

“S-sorry.”

As the rookie shut his mouth in dejection, the senior clicked his tongue and said in a low voice:

“Listen and let it go in one ear and out the other. From what I’ve heard, the stream flowing down from this cliff connects to a branch of the cave below.”

“What does that have to do with this?”

“I told you I don’t know. Something about becoming nutrients or whatever, but for lowly folks like us, we just need to do as we’re told. You’ll only bring trouble upon yourself by needlessly having doubts. Got it?”

“… Yes sir.”

‘Nutrients?’

what the …. was becoming nutrients?

He couldn’t understand at all.

Come to think of it, they said they did this every time the barrier of the Corpse Blood Valley was conducted, so just how many corpses have been discarded below this cliff?

Even now, it exceeded a hundred.

– Shudder!

Without thinking, he looked down, and for a moment, goosebumps rose all over his body.

It felt like something ominous and unpleasant was creeping up from the darkness that seemed to suck him in.

– Tap!

“Gasp!”

Just then, someone grabbed his shoulder.

It was the man in the Taoist robe who had been attaching the talismans.

The man in the Taoist robe said to the startled rookie warrior in a low voice:

“What did I say earlier?”

“Pardon?”

“I asked what I said earlier.”

“Ah, not to look down the cliff…”

“Then it’s best to never look down.”

“Y-yes?”

To the flustered rookie, the man in the Taoist robe warned in a meaningful tone:

“You may be bewitched.”

Bewitched? What did that mean?

***

It was around the time when a shichen and two ke had passed since the flag defense battle began.

As a considerable amount of time had elapsed, nearly half of the flags had been discovered by the boys, and the fighting to defend and seize them was in full swing.

However, an unexpected variable occurred within this flag defense battle.

That was,

Oink oink!

The appearance of the man-eating beast, the Gal-jeo.

It was already incomparably more brutal than regular beasts, and it could be said to be the worst variable for the boys whose internal energy was sealed and had no weapons.

In particular, the boys who were searching here and there alone to find flags without their teammates were being indiscriminately attacked and killed.

Chomp!

“Aaaargh!”

Another boy was caught by the Gal-jeo in the middle of the mountainside.

The Gal-jeo liked human heads, so it crushed and devoured them with its vicious teeth every time it caught one.

It didn’t even eat the other parts.

As a result, corpses with crushed heads were being discovered in various parts of the mountain, heightening the boys’ vigilance to an extreme level.

“shit. What is this? Are you sure they ended up like this from fighting?”

A group that had not yet found a flag was shocked upon discovering a corpse.

This was definitely not a trace of having died while fighting.

“Even if internal energy is sealed, they couldn’t have been caught by a beast, right?”

“You’re right. These are teeth marks.”

“No. No matter how much of a beast it is, can it completely chew up a head? Even a tiger would have gnawed on the skull, no?”

A corpse with its head completely missing.

No matter how they looked at it, they couldn’t understand.

Mok Yu-cheon, who was with them, had dark circles under his eyes.

‘Hah…’

This place was truly like hell.

While engaging in a flag seizing battle, he had lost three boys who were his comrades, and now the five of them were wandering around looking for another flag.

But in the process, he had seen over twenty corpses.

Among them, only about three seemed to have died while fiercely fighting over a flag, and the rest had met bizarre deaths.

Ten corpses without heads like this one.

And he had discovered seven corpses that had died cleanly.

‘… Most of them had their necks broken.’

Not all of them had their necks broken, but most seemed to have been killed in a similar manner.

It didn’t seem like they had engaged in hand-to-hand combat or fought fiercely, but rather died without being able to properly resist against someone.

‘What the? Just what?’

Those who killed like this seemed to have lost their lives unrelated to the flags.

The problem lay in this.

The flag battle alone was already making everyone struggle with bloodshot eyes, but it seemed that unknown beings were killing boys left and right.

‘Just who is doing these things?’

About two hundred jang east from where Mok Yu-cheon was, on the middle of the mountainside.

One of the culprits he was curious about had his hand on the chest of a headless corpse, absorbing death qi.

It was none other than Mok Gyeong-un.

Mok Gyeong-un, who had been quickly absorbing death qi, soon removed his hand.

And as if displeased, he muttered:

“It’s lacking.”

– You mean death qi?

“Yes.”

– Of course it would be. For corpses attacked by man-eating beasts, most of the qi they possessed rapidly depletes as it gets devoured.

At Cheong-ryeong’s words, Mok Gyeong-un clicked his tongue.

Even the qi that comes out upon death depletes this quickly.

It was quite troublesome.

“Hmm.”

He had diligently moved to kill more boys than the Gal-jeo, a man-eating beast, to obtain death qi, but he was falling behind instead.

“It’s starting to annoy me a bit.”

Unlike himself who needed time to absorb death qi, this Gal-jeo, a man-eating beast, would just gobble up the heads and go after another prey.

It should be full enough by now, but it kept eating endlessly.

“It feels like I’m eating someone else’s leftovers.”

– Hmm.

“Why are you doing that?”

– But this bastard… seems to be eating a lot more than I thought.

Mok Gyeong-un shrugged and said:

“It doesn’t seem to be full.”

– No. It’s a lot even considering that. It should be full enough by now, but it’s eating quite a lot.

“It may be because it’s in a period of active growth.”

– … I see.

“What is it?”

– It might be a fellow that’s right before becoming an adult.

“An adult?”

– Yes. Among man-eating beasts, there are those that require a lot of qi for reproduction or to become adults.

“So Gal-jeo is that type?”

– Perhaps?

At Cheong-ryeong’s words, Mok Gyeong-un stroked his chin as if troubled.

If this guy kept eating like this, his share would be significantly reduced.

Thus, Mok Gyeong-un decided to change directions.

“This won’t do. I’ll have to catch that Gal-jeo first.”

He had thought that leaving it alone would cause chaos around him and actually benefit him.

But in the current state, it was rather a hindrance.

So Mok Gyeong-un made up his mind to kill the Gal-jeo first.

– How?

“Can you help me?”

– You said you could do it alone, but even you can’t help it in this situation, eh?

Cheong-ryeong snorted and said:

– Then take me out of this cramped place.

At this, Mok Gyeong-un held the wooden puppet she was in, formed hand seals, and chanted a spell.

“The origin connects to the earth, the nine turns return to the source, release!”

– Swoosh!

Eventually, a large shadow appeared from the wooden puppet, and Cheong-ryeong slowly revealed herself holding a long pipe.

Having come out, she stretched and said as if refreshed:

– As expected, it’s much better than being trapped. Phew.

Cheong-ryeong took a puff from the long pipe and exhaled a long trail of smoke.

To her, Mok Gyeong-un said:

“Can you confirm where that thing is? No, if you can eliminate it, Cheong-ryeong, that would be fine too.”

– I’ll do that even without you pestering me. Just wait.

Poof!

Cheong-ryeong soon soared into the sky.

Unlike a demonic beast, she was of a higher class, so even without possessing a body, the range in which she could move was extremely wide.

Cheong-ryeong, who had flown higher than the treetops like that, surveyed the surroundings.

Her blood-red ghostly eyes slowly swept over the entire mountain.

‘Hmm.’

But Cheong-ryeong, who had been looking around, raised an eyebrow.

She had thought that if it was obsessed with eating humans to that extent, she would find it quickly, but contrary to her expectations, the beast was not visible to her ghostly eyes.

If it was right before becoming a monstrous beast, its appetite should be overflowing, so it was strange.

‘Where the hell did it go?’

Was it not in this vicinity?

Thus, Cheong-ryeong flew even higher.

It was because she thought the Gal-jeo might have moved to a more distant place.

As she was looking around like that,

– Flinch!

Her gaze was fixed on somewhere.

‘Ha!’

An exclamation naturally flowed out of Cheong-ryeong’s mouth.

When she was inside the wooden puppet, she couldn’t sense the external qi, so she had no way of knowing this.

But now, she couldn’t help but see it.

No, it would be strange if her eyes and ears weren’t drawn to this tremendous thing.

From the distant cliff she was looking at, countless screams were spreading upward.

So she immediately descended.

Mok Gyeong-un asked:

“Did you find it already?”

– No. I didn’t see it. More importantly, you better quickly follow me now.

At her somewhat excited voice, Mok Gyeong-un couldn’t hide his puzzlement.

Regardless of that, Cheong-ryeong flew ahead as if guiding him somewhere.

So Mok Gyeong-un followed her.

***

It wasn’t that far.

That place, two ke away, was located deep in the boundary of the mountain towards a certain cliff.

Looking at the ground,

‘Wheel tracks?’

The sloped path was full of wheel tracks as if carriages had been pulled.

As he was proceeding with bewilderment,

Flinch!

Mok Gyeong-un’s steps momentarily faltered at the ominous qi spreading from ahead.

‘What in the world is this…’

Ever since his ghost eyes opened and his sixth sense awakened, he couldn’t help but become sensitive to such things, so why hadn’t he noticed this until now?

With suspicion, he surveyed the surroundings.

Then he discovered something.

‘Ah…’

The talismans and carved spells attached between the cliffs and trees.

They were controlling the ominousness flowing out so it couldn’t escape outside.

But even with this many talismans attached, as he approached closer, just what was there for such tremendous ominousness to leak out to this extent?

When he reached the place where the wheel tracks ended, he saw Cheong-ryeong sitting on the edge of the cliff smoking a long pipe.

– Do you see it?

At her question, Mok Gyeong-un’s flesh trembled.

Kyaaaaaaa!

Aaaaaargh!

Save meeeee!

Please! Please!

The endless screams spreading from below.

Along with those sounds, ominous qi that made the skin feel prickly was crashing upwards as if desperate to climb up but unable to do so.

– Take a closer look.

Mok Gyeong-un approached the edge of the cliff and looked down.

“Ahhh.”

It was like a bottomless pit.

Countless resentments were intermingled, spewing out endless malice and ominousness.

Even with talismans attached all over the cliff, if it was to this extent, those with weak mental strength might lose consciousness just by looking at it.

– Kid. Do you know what gu poison is?

“… How could I not know?”

There was almost nothing he didn’t know about medicinal herbs and poisons.

Of course, he had never directly seen gu poison, but he remembered what he heard from his grandfather.

It was a secret art originating from the Nanman region where dozens or hundreds of poisonous creatures were put into a jar and the lid was not opened until only one survived.

The worst one that survived like that was called gu poison.

“Why are you asking that?”

Cheong-ryeong said with the corners of her mouth twitching:

– There’s gu poison down there.