Ch.97097 – Those Who Bow to Idols 4

# 097 – Those Who Bow to Idols # 4

Our plan was to thoroughly disrupt the gut ritual.

When everyone would be chanting the Cheondogyeong or whatever that incantation was, I intended to interfere in various ways. Since I had already thought of several methods, it wasn’t really going to be a problem.

Swoosh-

The director’s eyes, which had been watching me, now turned toward Yang Juhui who was wearing a fox mask.

“And who might this be?”

“Oh, this is Ms. Reiko from Japan. She’s from Gunma, Japan, and she’s an incredibly impressive person.”

“Domo, hajimemashite.”

I completely lost it watching Yang Juhui speaking Japanese.

Of course, I only laughed on the inside.

We got in the car and headed to the Oseong Group headquarters.

This was my first time back since I came looking for my mother.

There wasn’t a single person in this huge building—perhaps it was a company without overtime work.

Just as I was thinking it felt like being inside a massive tomb or gravestone, the director guided us underground.

And when I entered the basement, I was shocked.

Unlike the sophisticated first-floor lobby, what appeared was a cave-like space with a terrible musty smell of damp mold.

Two straw ropes twisted with gold thread and talismans created a path under the light bulbs.

It was dark, humid, and even hot.

My silk clothes were damp with sweat, making me feel extremely uncomfortable.

To make matters worse, wearing a squid mask on my face made the fishy seafood smell unbearable.

After walking through the cave-like basement for quite some time, a large cavern finally appeared.

Many people were already gathered there, murmuring among themselves, with a long-horned black goat and a black ox tied to posts.

What caught my attention most were the countless iron stakes driven into the ground.

The underground space was filled with what looked like well over 100 iron stakes.

Each stake was densely covered with talismans, similar to the warding stakes I had seen when I climbed Gaeryong Mountain.

Soon, a man dressed in white samurai attire approached Kwon Sua.

He was a man with pitch-black ink smeared around his eyes.

“Sua, you’ve come.”

“Uncle.”

“Now that you’re here, our Suho will be pleased.”

The man with ink on his face was Kwon Oseong, the chairman of the global conglomerate Oseong Group.

He wore a serious expression as he looked at Kwon Suho kneeling on the floor.

“Arrrrrr, grrrrrrr, arrrrrr-.”

Kwon Suho growled like an enraged beast, with his hands and feet bound and a bit in his mouth.

His face was also covered with something like a white sack.

Seeing this, the shamans with their faces covered by talismans or masks were horrified.

“Oh my, what is that?”

“It’s a vicious one. A vicious spirit has entered and twisted everything.”

“Smell that. It’s the stench of rotting corpses.”

“The dead spirit is eating away at the living body. It’s rotting alive.”

Whoosh, whoosh-

Blazing flames.

Someone began frantically beating gongs and playing folk instruments.

A man bound like a dog.

A humid cave.

All of this made my head spin as the cleansing ritual or whatever it was began.

The middle-aged man, Kwon Oseong, wielded a Japanese sword in a way that was unimaginably barbaric compared to his neat appearance on TV.

Swish-!

Swish-!

Every time that blade touched Kwon Suho’s body, Suho convulsed like a mad dog.

“Grrrrrr! Woof woof woof!”

“Aeuayayaya, bahramuhya, marhamuho!”

Kwon Oseong also shouted incomprehensible languages loudly as he struck the goat’s neck with his Japanese sword.

Thwack-!

The black goat’s neck didn’t cut cleanly, causing blood to spurt like a fountain. Kwon Oseong quickly caught it in a bowl, filled his mouth with the blood, and sprayed it all over Kwon Suho.

“Phuuuuu!”

“Aaaaargh! Aaaaargh!”

Kwon Suho now screamed like a crow.

Seeing this, several shamans awkwardly rose from their seats.

“…This is bullshit, I can’t do this.”

“This isn’t normal. Where in the world does a gut ritual like this exist?”

“I’m feeling bad too! Chairman Kwon! We’re out of here!”

Honestly, I wanted to leave too.

Just as I was thinking about leaving with those women, Kwon Oseong bulged his eyes, blackened with ink, and shouted.

“Nobody leaves! If you leave now, you all die!”

When Kwon Oseong shouted fiercely while holding his blood-stained Japanese sword, no one could take a step.

Kwon Oseong now took the severed goat’s head and rubbed it all over Kwon Suho’s body while making groaning sounds, “Aeueu, aeueu!”

A scene of madness spreading through the dark cave interior.

Could this really be called a gut ritual?

If there were devil worshippers conducting a devil worship ceremony, wouldn’t it look exactly like this? Just as I was thinking that, Kwon Oseong began pulling out the iron stakes driven into the ground.

Sook, sook-.

The sight was quite ominous.

Weren’t those stakes supposed to be items placed to seal evil ground?

If he pulls them out…

“……”

Squeeze-.

Yang Juhui, who was kneeling, tightly gripped the fabric around her knees.

Though her expression wasn’t clearly visible because of the mask, it seemed Yang Juhui was scared too.

“Ah shit, my foot’s falling asleep.”

I see. I was also glad Yang Juhui was here.

If I had come here alone, I would have wet my pants by now.

Sook-, sook-.

Finally, almost all the iron stakes had been pulled out, with only a few remaining.

Kwon Suho’s condition was also getting worse.

“Graaaaargh! Graaaaargh!”

Kwon Suho now made inhuman noises.

It sounded like the hellish voices of countless beasts tangled together in one place, wailing.

But that didn’t last long, and Kwon Suho collapsed as if his breath had been cut off.

Instead, one of the women with her face covered by talismans and bandages began to convulse.

“Grrrrrr, woof woof woof-! Woof woof woof-!”

The woman made dog sounds.

Seeing this, a male shaman wearing a Hahoe mask shouted.

“Kwon Oseong, you son of a bitch!”

“This is different from what you promised! You said there would be absolutely no harm to us!”

“You crazy bastard! You used us as sacrificial offerings! We need to get out of here! Otherwise, the evil spirit from your son will possess us!”

“Grrrrrrrr-.”

More and more people started growling like dogs.

Soon, people watching this scene shouted in fear.

“F-fuck this, I want to get out of here!”

“Help! Help!”

A chaotic situation with people fleeing amidst dog barking sounds.

However, Kwon Oseong just smiled, revealing his red teeth through his blood-stained mouth.

“If you want to live, find my son.”

Sook-.

Kwon Oseong pulled out a stake.

Clang-!

Whoosh-!

The moment the stake was pulled out, a wind that shouldn’t exist underground blew strongly, extinguishing all the light bulbs and torches.

Complete darkness.

The underground was filled with dog barking, loud instrument sounds, and the murmuring of crowds far larger than the thirty-some shamans present could account for.

Mumble mumble mumble mumble-.

It was so noisy it felt like there were easily a thousand people beside me.

“Oh fuck…”

Tears welled up in my eyes.

I was terrified and couldn’t understand what I was doing here.

Why did I come here?

I must have been enchanted by those large breasts.

Just as I was thinking about finding an exit, someone firmly grabbed my hand.

“Mr. Yeongwon! There aren’t many stakes left! When the last stake is pulled out… I really don’t know what will happen. Haven’t you noticed? Right now… there are non-human things mixed in here… If you listen carefully…”

No! I didn’t want to listen carefully.

But I could at least feel the sense of crisis that if we let Kwon Oseong have his way, many things could get much worse.

I pulled myself together.

# # #

Kwon Oseong had pulled out several stakes.

‘Now only one stake remains that seals the water vein. All the beasts that were in my son’s body have been transferred to the shamans I gathered, so all that’s left is to find my son.’

If he pulled this out, at least this area of the Oseong Group would have its sluice gate opened, and that water vein would overflow, submerging many things in spiritual water.

But Kwon Oseong was prepared to make any sacrifice if he could bring back his only son who had disappeared beyond that door.

Now what he needed was a virgin’s blood.

Perhaps because Gaeryong’s water vein had received the blood of local shamans for many years, it favored women’s blood and valued virgin blood the most.

In the cave that had sunk into complete darkness, Kwon Oseong searched for Kwon Sua.

The water vein would surely be satisfied with Kwon Sua’s blood.

“Sua, where are you? Come here. I won’t hurt you. It will be over soon. Give your life for your brother. That’s what family is about. Your family has been living off the money your uncle has given you all this time. So today, fulfill your role.”

As he shone his candle around, Kwon Oseong spotted a woman wearing a white kosode top over a red hakama, and his breath nearly stopped.

That appearance and figure were all too familiar to Kwon Oseong.

“…Junko!”

Kwon Oseong recalled his teacher, Madam Sunja.

Could it be that the woman who had died senile had returned from beyond like this?

It didn’t matter.

“Y-you woman! Ghost or not, don’t block my path! I’ve opened the sluice gate, so dead spirits will overflow and flood the world! My son Suho will be among them!”

Squeeze-.

Kwon Oseong gripped the Japanese sword in his hand even more tightly.

Just as he was about to strike down the ghost shaman with his sword—

Thwack-!

A powerful front kick, faster than the sword, struck Kwon Oseong’s solar plexus and liver.

“Ugh!”

Kwon Oseong collapsed to the ground, spitting blood from the unbearable pain, and in that moment, he could see someone wearing a strange squid mask doing something very odd.

“Give me peace like a river-. Give me peace like a river-.”

A hymn!

The guy was singing a hymn.

What’s more, he was even putting the stakes back into the ground while singing.

“Y-you bastard, who are you! Why haven’t you turned into a dog? Who are you! Wearing a martial arts uniform and singing hymns! There’s a limit to blasphemy! You! Aren’t you afraid of divine punishment?”

To interfere with the opening ritual of the sluice gate.

This was surprising in a situation where even experienced shamans couldn’t resist the evil spirits of beasts and were foaming at the mouth from possession.

‘Could he have shaken off the beasts’ possession by his own power? Does he think he’s some kind of Buddha? If there were a shaman with that kind of spiritual power, I would have heard about them! A person who wasn’t noticeable when I was looking now happens to interfere with me today! Of all days!’

He wanted to go and cut off his neck immediately, but he couldn’t move his body because of the kick to his solar plexus.

Kwon Oseong had always prided himself on his strong body, having done all sorts of rough work since childhood.

But could a person really deliver such a powerful kick?

This was truly impossible without some ghostly intervention.

“Don’t interfere! Once the new moon passes, the sluice gate cannot be opened! I must find my son’s soul before the next new moon! My son’s body is rotting! Don’t interfere with me!”

Kwon Oseong cried like a child.

Was it so wrong to want to bring back his only son?

“By the blood of the Savior’s cross-.”

The man in the squid mask was putting the stakes back in their original places as if Kwon Oseong’s cries didn’t matter at all.

Kwon Oseong spoke almost pleadingly.

“Stop it! Stop! My son is dying! He’s my only son! Money! I’ll give you money! I’ll give you all my shares too! You! Do you think you can make an enemy of Kwon Oseong and still live comfortably in Korea! You bastaaaaard!!! What’s wrong with saving my son by killing a few con artists who cheat people and civilians who don’t pay taxes!!!”

Though he screamed like an evil spirit, there was nothing Kwon Oseong could do with his back pinned down by the person in the fox mask.

Everyone would have thought so.

But Kwon Oseong was an apostate who had learned ominous things like curses for a long time.

He moved his hand to take out a straw doll shaped like a person from his pocket and stabbed its heart with a knife.

“Die! Die! Die!”

He filled it with pure murderous intent, without any other emotion.

Crack, crack crack-!

Now the interferer would die with his heart bursting, spewing blood from every orifice.

But the man put all the stakes back in their original places as if nothing had happened.

The extinguished torches blazed again, and the shamans who had been raging madly regained their lost consciousness.

“Ow, my head feels like it’s going to split.”

“…What happened?”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!”