episode_0062

“Sera. But we can go outside again, right?”

“If you pass through the wall, you can go back, right?”

“Let’s check.”

After entering the ghost road, we found a way to get back out onto the streets of reality. I lifted my hand and felt the wall we had passed. However, the wall that I could pass through when I came in was as solid as a real wall.

“The entrance is blocked?”

“I’ll look at it in the mirror.”

Sarah looked at the wall with a bronze mirror. Then my hand, which was touching the wall, was sucked into the wall.

“Oh, it breaks through again.”

“It’s fascinating. The wall goes through and it doesn’t go through.”

The wall we passed was the entrance to the ghost road. If the bronze mirror was illuminated, the doorway would open and one could pass through, but if the bronze mirror was not illuminated, the doorway would close after a while. It was not an entrance that one could pass through at any time.

It seemed that the doorway could only be opened when it was illuminated by a bronze mirror, or when ghosts or monsters were nearby. Otherwise, there would be no way for such a mysterious space to remain undiscovered by people. A passerby could accidentally find it by touching the wall.

“How did the informant get here? Did that person have a bronze mirror?”

“On days when the negative energy is particularly strong, there are cases where even living people accidentally flow into the path of ghosts. Even if it’s not a designated entrance, you’ll be walking down the street and before you know it, you’ll have arrived at a ghost road. That’s why ghost stories like “When I came to my senses and found myself in a strange place” were created.”

“Did your mom tell you?”

“Yes.”

On days when the yin energy is particularly strong, even living people may accidentally end up on a ghost road while walking. This was the truth that Hwayeon Bodhisattva taught Sarah. The informant from the mystery site did not pass through the wall and enter the ghost path like we did. It really was a case where I accidentally ended up on a ghost road while walking.

“When I leave here, I can reflect the wall with a bronze mirror. If you didn’t use the mirror and just ran at him, you would hit your head on the wall.”

I took out a pen and drew a circle on the floor where the wall was. A sign was drawn so as not to be confused about the entrance when exiting. After checking the entrance, we started walking down the ghost road.

“I feel like I’m in a ghost town. Jinwoo.”

“I wanted to go to a ghost town, and it worked out well.”

As we walked along the ghost road, we looked around at the surrounding scenery. It was a scene that seemed to have been copied directly from the streets of Chinatown. The Chinese restaurant where we had been fighting the monsters just moments ago was still in the street. There was no one there, so it felt like a ghost town.

The scenery of the ghost road was not completely identical to the street in reality.

The Chinese restaurant where the monsters had been rampaging earlier was in shambles in reality. However, the Chinese restaurant of the same shape on Ghost Road showed no signs of any shattered furniture. I was curious as to how the ghost road was created.

Even though I walked and walked, I could only see streets empty of people.

But we couldn’t stop searching Ghost Road. There must be escaped monsters hiding somewhere along this road.

There could have been a kidnapped female student. That is, if the girl is still alive.

Sarah spoke to me.

“The ones we saw earlier were Gohoekjo and Bidouman. There is a sure way to hunt Bidouman.”

“There is a hunting law?”

“Biduman’s weakness was mentioned in Chinese legend. If the head is separated and the neck is covered with a cloth or tray, the Bidhuman will not be able to breathe. If you block the throat, only Bidou will die.”

“Ah… .”

The Chinese legend we researched also included a method for hunting Biduman. It was a hunting method of blocking the neck of a Bidouman whose head had fallen off with an object. Strangely enough, there was a legend that Bidouman had a flying head and could not breathe if the separate part of his neck became blocked.

Is it possible to send air like Wi-Fi to the head separated from the body? The more I imagined it, the more bizarre it became. Of course, there was no guarantee that Biduman would die by actually blocking his throat. There is no way that the hunting method described in the Biduman legend is necessarily true.

“If you follow along, you won’t die, right? In Chinese legend, there is no mention of Bidouman spitting centipedes out of his mouth.”

“It’s worth a try. Bidouman didn’t die even though we drilled a hole in his body. I’ll have to try another method.”

Sarah took out a towel from the bag she was wearing and showed it to me.

“I’ll block Biduman’s neck with this.”

“You want to hunt Bidouman?”

“Yes. Let’s take them one by one like we did before.”

I nodded. Sera said that she would hunt only Bidu. All I had to do was take charge of the high-catching team and hunt. It was neat if we took care of everything one by one like we did at the Chinese restaurant.

“Jinwoo. Goheokjo didn’t have any weaknesses?”

“I think it can hit parts other than the wings. It’s not something that can be called a weakness.”

Gohyeokjo had nothing in particular that could be called a weakness. When blocking an attack, the Gohoegi always used its wings as a shield. If so, it would mean that any part except the wings can be damaged.

There was no legend that Goheukjo was an immortal monster. If you hit it with a diamond and cut it with a knife, you would die. I had no choice but to rely on physical exorcism.

“Well, if you stab and cut, you will probably die.”

“I see.”

We searched the ghost road, looking for two monsters and a kidnapped child.

*

Two o’clock in the morning.

Chinatown’s Ghost Road.

The lady leader ran with the young man and arrived at their hideout on Ghost Road. It was a clothing store in a secluded area. The female manager and the young man went into the clothing store and took a break.

The female manager, who revealed her naked body, spoke to the young man who was resting.

“It’s a shame.”

“… … .”

“Do you also regret missing out on those kids? Jang Geol.”

The young man nodded silently.

The female boss and the young man were regretting the boy and girl they had lost outside. They were food that stimulated the appetite, but when the police came on patrol, they had no choice but to miss them.

“I wanted to bring them here too… .”

The lady boss quenched her appetite while looking around the inside of the clothing store. This store was a hideout they used to store kidnapped people. Inside the store, handkerchiefs soaked in anesthetic and various weapons were lying around.

There was now a person in this store, not a monster.

She was a female student that a female boss and a young man had kidnapped from outside some time ago.

“Wow… .”

A female student wearing a school uniform was tied with a rope and left inside the store. The female student, whose mouth was covered with tape, trembled violently as soon as she saw the female manager and the young man entering the store.

The female president smiled and waved to the trembling female student.

“Did you have a good time while we were away? Blind man.”

“… Eup.”

It was a female student named Blind.

The lady boss greeted the young man as if she were joking and then spoke to the young man again.

“We’re tired of living in this neighborhood anymore. I have to go somewhere else.”

“… … .”

The police came to the Chinese restaurant they were running in Chinatown.

By now, the police would have been searching the inside of the Chinese restaurant, which was in disarray.

The female boss and the young man did not like being involved with the police. It was better to run away cleanly than to go back to the Chinese restaurant. It was a store that was doing well, but it wasn’t particularly disappointing. The two youkai preferred hunting humans safely rather than making money.

“Pack your things.”

All I had to do was hide somewhere again and repeat the process of hunting humans. The female boss and the young man have been hunting humans together for a long time. I started hunting while I was in China, and now I came to Korea posing as a Chinese. Changing where you live was something they were used to.

“If you go outside, stop hunting for a while. I have to go to the auction house first.”

The lady boss and the young man were planning to participate in an auction to be held in Korea soon. It was a secret auction where shamans sold items containing curses.

The female president recalled the Geumgangjeo that the two students were holding, which shoots lightning. Even from the perspective of the ghostly female leader, their Geumgangjeo was a mysterious object. If you participate in the auction, the female boss and the young man will be able to get some decent items.

The female manager and the young man organized the items in the hiding place.

Of course, there was one human that needed to be dealt with before leaving Chinatown.

“You blind person.”

The female leader smiled and approached the female student tied up with rope. It was emergency food they had been saving ever since they kidnapped him. Now it is time to enjoy the dinner.

“… Ugh!”

The moment the female manager approached, the female student tied to the rope began to struggle. However, he was tied so tightly that he could not move properly even if he struggled. The female principal stroked the trembling female student’s cheek.

“It’s no use making a fuss. No one can come here.”

“Ugh!”

“You know… .”

A young man approached the female student holding a sharp Chinese sword.

The lady boss said with a smile.

“There is no one here to save you.”

The two monsters tried to eat the girl.

It was right then.

━━Thump

The door of the tightly closed store was smashed.

The dented door flew down and hit the young man who was standing there squarely.

“Ugh.”

The young man was hit by the door and flew away bleeding. The female manager opened her eyes wide and looked towards the entrance of the store. A boy with curly hair was standing with his feet raised in the open entrance. A silver-haired girl appeared behind the boy.

“Ah?”

The female leader quickly grasped the situation.

A boy with curly hair just kicked in the door. The fallen door flew down and hit the young man who was with the female manager. It made absolutely no sense, but it actually happened.

‘Does it make sense for a door to be shattered by being kicked by a human subject?’

The door, which was made of aluminum and not glass, was smashed. The moment the female boss saw the curly-haired boy reappear, goosebumps appeared on her forearms. I couldn’t figure out how those students got into the ghost road.

“How did you…? !”

It was the moment the female president shouted to the boy.

The curly-haired boy spoke softly while holding a sword and a gold spoon.

“It’s nice because there’s no one here. You can destroy everything.”