Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The Daoist’s Record

Like the Daoist’s clothes, the book was also covered in the passage of time and yellowed.

The front part was severely discolored and unreadable, but while flipping the pages I read the sporadically decent parts.

[Struggling with tracking the Child-Luring Ghost.]

[The main office even lent the Three-legged Crow, but it seems to be a powerful individual above Earth-grade.]

[I did not bring the items needed for sealing it.]

[Anyway, I cannot deal with it alone.]

[Upon discovery, do not approach rashly and focus on requesting support from the main office.]

Reading the neat handwriting as if measured with a ruler, I recall the story of the Child-Luring Ghost.

[I had my fortune told by some street fortune-teller, claiming I was chasing a criminal.]

[The fortune-teller said that if I go to Shanxi Province I will meet both an auspicious sign and an inauspicious sign at the same time.]

[It seems my mind has gone a bit strange after a tracking that has continued for 10 years.]

[Even in the Heavenly Net those who can prophesy are extremely rare, and even those require special offerings, an auspicious day, and an auspicious place.]

[I had the Three-legged Crow loiter in front, but there is no reaction.]

[As expected, an ordinary person without spiritual power and a worthless fraud.]

[If I ever have leisure, I will drive those shameless things into one mountain...]

The last part is erased and cannot be read.

[When a powerful strange force and turbulent spirit dies, special death energy lingers like a residual scent.]

[A few days after coming to Shanxi the Three-legged Crow discovered it, and following the traces arrived at a certain cave.]

[As a result of investigation, I learned that the Child-Luring Ghost was extinguished here.]

[The extinction of an existence with strength above Earth-grade and the power of immortality speaks of one result.]

[An incomprehensible Heaven-grade has appeared.]

The once neat handwriting became crooked.

[Even at the arrived destination the thing’s death energy is stained.]

[Thinking that a Heaven-grade might be here makes my heart ache.]

[Every time I see people living peacefully without knowing there is a tiger that bites its own flesh and eats its entrails, nausea rises.]

[I want to tell the truth to those who do not know the truth. However, fools do not understand even if shown the world.]

[They are merely faithful to their instincts like beasts.]

The writing after that is hard to read.

Flipping a few more pages, the handwriting regained its form.

[Great fortune! I tested because praise of being extraordinary was widespread, and I discovered the best talent!]

[Powerful spiritual power and extraordinary head, courage, mindset, and even insight—nothing is lacking!]

[Thinking it was a child I showed various tools, but it is indifferent.]

[It is certain that it has the great righteousness of eliminating strange forces and turbulent spirits and setting the world right, but I do not know if it will be with us.]

[When the work is finished I must take it somehow.]

[Before it is dyed by ordinary people.]

Flipping to the next page, a scribbled handwriting greeted me.

[I know well that I cannot deal with a Heaven-grade.]

[I planned to only confirm the situation from afar using the Three-legged Crow and return.]

[But why am I in the middle of Hundred Beasts Mountain?]

[It is not that I was bewitched, nor that I was out of my mind.]

[The moment I turned my body to return, I was here.]

[The staff disappeared. Therefore the Three-legged Crow also disappeared together.]

[And I met the Heaven-grade.]

[Right...]

The initial neat handwriting was no longer there.

The hastily scribbled or fear-stained handwriting was at a level that could not be called writing, and only after flipping for a long while did it barely calm enough to be readable again.

[Even though three days have passed I am wandering the path.]

[I tried to descend the mountain, but no matter how much I go down I am still in the mountain.]

[The sun does not set and the weather does not change.]

[If there had been no Time-Passing Stone I would not have known how many days had passed.]

[The most bizarre is that neither hunger, nor thirst, nor the sleep demon visits.]

[A land with no change whatsoever—even the words reverse heaven bizarre delusion are insufficient.]

I flipped to the next page.

Every time I flipped a page the date passed quickly.

[Over a hundred days have passed. I still cannot escape this place.]

[Once, I heard the story of a jailer who locks up a prisoner who does not listen alone.]

[It is said that even a violent prisoner goes mad from boredom in three months and begs for forgiveness, but I did not believe it.]

[Isn’t being alone better than living uncomfortably with others?]

[My thinking was short.]

[In this place with no stimulation whatsoever I can no longer feel fear or dread.]

[I cannot sleep and I cannot flee.]

[There are no beasts and the weather does not change.]

[There is no meal and no thirst.]

[I am crushed by endless boredom.]

The handwriting changed.

It is readable, but sprawling and extending in all directions.

[Over five hundred days have passed.]

[I can no longer endure, so I tried to take my own life.]

[I do not die. There is no wound and no pain.]

[After continued attempts, rather the Heaven and Earth Throwing Sword broke.]

The handwriting is unrecognizable again.

It seems the mind was not sound for a much longer period than before, and only after flipping dozens of pages did it calm.

[Over a thousand days have passed.]

[In severe boredom I saw illusions, and even though I did not sleep it feels like I dreamed.]

[In the illusion we conquered all strange forces and turbulent spirits and achieved a true era of peace.]

[We extinguished, subdued, and completely subjugated countless strange forces and turbulent spirits.]

[With existing power and their strength we created a better world.]

[No more famine comes, and those who shed tears from floods disappeared.]

[Those who become guests of no return decreased, and we no longer fear illness.]

[When autumn comes the horses grow fat, and in winter we wear hemp clothes by an unextinguished hearth.]

There was written the world the Heavenly Net desires.

[However, the illusion did not end that way.]

[The reality where countless strange forces and turbulent spirits eat people, toy with them, and treat them like playthings came like a nightmare.]

[To the boy whose name I cannot remember after a long time passed, we said we protect the world, but that is a lie.]

[We do not have the strength to protect the world.]

[Even now countless strange forces and turbulent spirits are driving the world into chaos and secretly working to create a chaotic age.]

[What we can stop are only the weak and not-so-clever ones.]

[Powerful strange forces and turbulent spirits can only be barely sealed by grinding in countless manpower, and there are still many that escape our eyes and toy with the world.]

[What need is there to speak of Heaven-grade? Never once in history have we done anything about them, and those who dreamed and challenged them must have all ended up like the current me.]

[I am worried. Whether that thing will attack the village like this.]

[Although all are ordinary people except that boy, they are also existences we must protect.]

There is no more special writing.

The more I flip the paper, the more it only records monotonous and simple emotions and states, and that continues to repeat.

Flipping a few more pages, now as if forgetting characters the handwriting like a worm crawling continued, and it was full of uninterpretable drawings, and at the end of the book full of scribbles it was written like this.

[Finally.]

Looking at the plain and bitter will, I closed the book and put my two hands together to pray.

‘May you attain rebirth in paradise.’

Daoist Mu Gyeong was a supremacist.

Armed with chosen-people ideology, he called people without spiritual power ordinary people and ignored them.

Nevertheless, there was no falsehood in the heart that wished to protect people.

‘...’

I quietly raise internal energy.

He died in a situation where he does not die.

That means the existence that made him unable to die killed him.

“There you are.”

『Hoo, can the old man be seen?』

“I felt it.”

Behind an ordinary tree no bigger than my body.

A tiger of an unbelievably huge size revealed itself.

The tiger with a human face crouched its house-sized body and prostrated before me.

『An interesting child. The old man’s face makes children fear and easily burst into tears, yet are you not afraid of the old man?』

There are no eyelids so it does not blink.

There are no lips so the sharp teeth are revealed as is.

There is no blood so it looks as if a corpse’s face was peeled off and attached.

“I’ve experienced so many things that I’m not one to tremble before a wicked monster cub.”

My face was reflected in the cat-family characteristic pupils.

『There is a misunderstanding. The old man is not a wicked monster. It is only that ignorant ones put a false charge on me.』

“False charge?”

『First, let us introduce each other.』

It spoke calmly, but I am barely suppressing the trembling of my body.

As if death is flickering before my eyes, I am overwhelmed by the thing’s energy.

I thought that after awakening the current strength I would have no match no matter what strange force and turbulent spirit I met, but that was my misunderstanding.

『The old man is called Taowu. Foolish ones call me the one who toys with and kills sages, brave generals, and chivalrous heroes, so they also call me the one who severs the way and disorders the world.』

Is this the Heaven-grade that Daoist Mu Gyeong spoke of?

Perhaps today is the day I face a second death.

『Call me whichever way you want.』

* * *

“Looking at killing the Daoist, it doesn’t particularly seem like a false charge?”

『Even if heaven’s net looks sparse, when looked at again in the distant future there is a reason for everything. Those who do not learn that mysterious principle and merely imitate cannot help but regard the old man as evil.』

“Then it’s not?”

The human-faced tiger, Taowu, laughed.

The tongue visible between the sharp teeth was red like blood.

『What the old man did was merely testing those who imitate sages, follow brave generals, and boast of being chivalrous heroes. The old man likes such ones among humans, but it is unpleasant to see the chaff imitating.』

“You’re saying the Daoist was such a person too?”

『It seems he was a good person to you. However, good and evil change according to position, so I hope you think about how it is to me.』

“The Heavenly Net marked you as an enemy so you killed them too?”

『A fairly clever fellow.』

“It would have been fine if you hadn’t killed people from the start.”

『There is also backbone. So what is your choice?』

The raised internal energy rides the wooden sword and shines blue.

“I have to fight, what else.”

『Humans are truly amazing. Even knowing it is not a match, is that so?』

“You don’t know long or short until you compare.”

『Whether a rolling stone or the moon in the sky is larger can be known without comparing.』

“There are times when you have to do it even if you know.”

The human-faced tiger’s form disappeared.

The thing’s voice echoes from all directions.

『An interesting fellow. Even though still young, there is backbone and you know well what fame and great righteousness are.』

『So I will test you.』

『Come up to the summit. I will be waiting there.』

『A very easy test, right?』

『If you come up I will take one hit from you.』

The scenery changed.

A single path trail going up to the summit unfolds before my eyes.

When I turn my body back, a trail going to the summit was waiting there too.

“Ha.”

The moment I take one step, a pain like being poked with an awl brushes the entire body in an instant.

It felt like experiencing death from being hit by countless blades on a battlefield.

I tried resisting by raising all internal energy, but as if not caring about such a thing the pain dug into the bones.

“This is pure bullshit season.”