episode_0090

I never thought I would be talking to a beast.

However, even if words were exchanged, it was not possible for us to grant Susalgwi’s request.

Doesn’t asking for just one person to sacrifice mean that one of us has to die?

I shook my head resolutely.

“No.”

“Why? If you don’t want to sacrifice, just pretend you didn’t see it and go home.”

“Are you asking because you don’t know the reason? It’s a sad situation, but I can’t pretend I didn’t see you killing people. If you want to be released from there, get transferred. Go to heaven and enjoy your trip to heaven to your heart’s content. Because there is a fairy there that we know.”

“Go to heaven? Ha!”

The moment I brought up the topic of heaven, the ghost of Susalgwi burst into nervous laughter.

The smiling girl’s face gradually became expressionless and eventually became distorted.

“Heaven? This is something only healthy, living people would say. You don’t know how much the dead want to remain in this world. This world is heaven. The food you take for granted and the friends you meet for granted are not taken for granted by dead people. If you leave this world, you will be lost forever.”

The ghost’s ghost glared at us with hatred.

I just made eye contact and I started getting chills all over my body.

It’s like falling into cold water.

“… Ugh.”

In an instant, the scenery I saw changed.

Now I was looking at the scenery in the river. Things in the deep, dark river water were visible with eerie clarity. However, contrary to the scenery I was seeing, my feet were still stepping on solid ground.

I immediately realized what I was looking at.

I didn’t fall into the water.

Susalgwi was showing me a new illusion.

The voice of a murderous ghost filled with extreme resentment rang in my ears.

“Can you see inside the water? My soul is tied to it. It’s a place so dark and cold that you’ll go crazy even if you’re locked there for just one day. If you disturb me, I will trap your souls in the water as well. How sane can you stay in the water? I’m going to go crazy in less than half a day, right?”

Are you saying that if I interfere, you will kill me by drowning me?

I had goosebumps all over my body, but I couldn’t back down like this.

I raised my palm and slapped my cheek hard.

━━Party

My cheeks were tingling.

But thanks to the pain, I became conscious.

My vision, which had been briefly possessed by a ghost and seeing illusions, returned to normal.

“Jinwoo! Are you okay?”

“It’s okay now.”

The scenery of the fishing spot was clearly visible.

I could also clearly see Sarah’s face next to me.

“Sera. Didn’t you just see something strange? Suddenly I could see underwater.”

“I saw it too. The evil spirit was trying to possess us.”

It seemed like Sarah, like me, had a vision and came to her senses. Because Sarah was of shamanic descent, she was able to withstand being possessed by ghosts well. Neither of us were completely possessed by the beast.

It is time to start saving souls.

Sarah and I walked closer to the water, holding the wedding band and soul bowl. The illusion of the female student who had been blocking our path just moments ago disappeared without a trace. This was because as the possessed mind regained its normal state, all the illusions that Susalgwi had shown disappeared.

Of course, the ghost of a beast did not disappear.

Black aquatic weed-like hair was still floating in the depths of the river.

The sea lion that had been hiding all this time stuck its head out above the river water.

The hair rose up, revealing the hideous face hidden underneath.

The face of the female student I had seen as an illusion was horribly disfigured.

The rhinoceros ghost glared at us with empty pupils and shouted.

━━I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!

I thought that no matter how much I screamed in the water, it would be of no use. Where we were was on land, and where the snail was in the river. If we rescued souls on land, the means by which the beasts could interfere with us were limited.

At best, you can just sprinkle some water and disturb them.

I held my belt tightly.

Sarah took a stance to throw the soul bowl into the deep water.

It was right then.

The beast immediately threatened us.

However, the threat did not end with just throwing some water on it.

The river surged upward. Originally, the water depth of the Han River fishing spot was approximately 2 to 3 meters unless it rained. However, the water suddenly rose and the depth of the river more than doubled.

“Huh?!”

The water of the Han River was flowing into this fishing spot. In an instant, the river water rose up to our ankles and up to our waists. I could feel the cold chill from my submerged body.

From the depths of the river, a sea turtle stuck its head out and glared at us.

It was a trick by that water demon.

The water level in the river rose and we ended up falling into the water.

It was a power on a different level from that of mere ghosts.

‘It wasn’t at this level when I saw it yesterday?’

Obviously, when I rescued the soul yesterday, the power of the beast was not this strong. At best, it was just a matter of holding on so as not to be dragged to land. However, in just one morning, the power of Susalgwi changed.

Perhaps his strength grew stronger after killing someone this morning.

It was because of President Park Jae-ho who offered a sacrifice to his daughter.

━━Kihihihihihihihi!!

A rhinoceros snake came up to us in the water, laughing like crazy. The speed of the sea lion floating leisurely in the water with its pale hand with broken nails stretched out was beyond imagination.

Grabbing something like that in the water is crazy.

“Run away! Go up!”

Sarah and I hurriedly tried to climb to a place that was not yet submerged in water. It was on the side of the road near the fishing spot. But before we could get out of the water, something strange happened.

The river surged loudly behind us.

There were waves like those seen in the sea.

“Wow!”

Huge waves cast shadows around us. We tried to run away quickly, but it was impossible. It was impossible to overcome the waves at the speed at which people ran away.

━━Slap!

Sarah and I were swept away by the waves and dragged into the river. The water was very fast, as if there was a storm. We tried our best to swim, but all we could do was barely keep our faces above the water.

“Crrr!”

My eyes were sore and I was completely unconscious after falling into the water.

The good news was that Sarah didn’t miss the soul bowl. Sarah was swimming with one hand and holding the soul bowl tightly with the other hand.

The soul vessel forcibly pulled in the soul of Susalgwi.

All we had to do was seal the ghost in the soul vessel before we drowned.

If you hit the beast directly with the soul bowl, the soul will be sealed faster.

“Sera! Don’t miss the soul bowl!”

“Don’t miss it!”

We floated on the river and looked around. We were swept away by the waves and washed up in the deepest part of the river. When I looked down, I could barely see the bottom of the river.

However, there was no sign of a deer in sight.

The snail that was approaching us earlier disappeared without a trace.

‘Where have you gone?’

I pulled out my martial arts knife from the water and watched the surroundings. We both had decent swimming skills, so we wouldn’t have easily drowned. Unless someone pulls it by force.

It was right then.

Suddenly, I spotted a pitch-black aquatic plant that rose above the water and came toward me.

‘Is that it?’

Is it Susalgwi’s hair?

I swung the sword with all my might and cut down the water plants. The spray splashed hard and the cut aquatic plants sank into the water.

When I cut it, I realized it wasn’t the hair of a snail.

It was really aquatic plants floating in the Han River.

It was when I swung the knife and my body became disheveled.

Something huge and black appeared from deep in the water.

It was underneath me.

There, the beast was looking at me and laughing from ear to ear. Eyes with empty pupils looked up at me from the water.

I tried to quickly slash my sword, but the swordfish was moving even faster.

A pale hand grabbed my ankle in the water.

“Pfft!”

“Jinwoo… !”

It hurt like my ankle was going to break.

The rhinoceros snake dragged me into the water. Sarah tried to catch me as I was dragged away in the blink of an eye. But Sarah’s hand couldn’t reach me.

A whirlpool appeared in the water.

Sarah, holding the soul bowl, was trapped in the whirlpool. As if water was going down a drain, a whirlpool formed and Sarah couldn’t hold me and was just swept away by the current.

The distance between us has grown.

My body sank into the dark, deep river.

“Crrr.”

I couldn’t breathe properly.

My entire vision was colored dark blue. It was a dark, cold, and frustrating world where you couldn’t even breathe.

This is the blue hell.

I had no choice but to express the world in the river that way.

Susalgwi had been trapped in this hell-like place ever since he drowned.

I almost went crazy.

I felt like I could understand why all of these beasts harbored such intense resentment.

My body, which had been sinking helplessly, eventually reached the bottom of the river.

The pale hand that was clutching my ankle loosened.

He didn’t mean to let me go.

There was no way that damn ghost would try to save me now.

I forced my stinging eyes open. In the infinitely deep and dark river water, a snakehead was circling around me like it was hunting its prey. The vague and gigantic shape of a ghost appeared before my eyes.

Now I can finally see Susalgwi’s body clearly.

It was the body of a female student wearing rag-like clothes. The limbs were extremely miserable, with pieces of flesh torn off here and there. The only thing that retained its human form was the pale hand.

The fish was looking down at me from above as I fell to the bottom of the river and was smiling with its mouth open.

The river pressed down on me as if it had its own will.

My body was increasingly reaching its limits.

I couldn’t hold out for long unless I could breathe.

My head felt dull and my stinging eyes kept trying to close.

I lost the sword from my hand.

At that moment, as if it was targeting this very moment, the fish freely crossed the water and grabbed me. It wrapped its cold limbs around my body like a snake, preventing me from moving. They were trying to kill me in the water like this.

In the end, my eyes closed.

I closed my eyes in the dark, cold river water.

*

… … .

… … … … .

How much time has passed since I closed my eyes?

Suddenly, something from a long time ago came to mind.

This happened when my father was still alive.

I have looked up to my father since I was young.

My father was a hero, and I thought that his exorcism was completely evil.

Because I was too young back then.

I could only divide the world into good and evil.

My father once said something to me when I was young.

━Jinwoo. Evil spirits are not necessarily just people who have been evil since they were alive. People we commonly see around us can become evil spirits.

━Why? Don’t only bad guys become evil spirits?

━That’s not it.

My father said while stroking my head.

━Anyone who harbors resentment can die and become an evil spirit.

━What is Han?

━It is a negative emotion in a person’s mind. People who become ghosts are easier to be tempted by evil things than when they were alive. Han makes ghosts go crazy. If you keep obsessing over and over and over again, you end up making bad choices.

━It’s difficult… .

It took me quite a while to understand what Han meant.

In short, what my father said was that not only psychopaths become evil spirits.

━Among the evil spirits that my father saw, there were some with sad stories. There were demons who went crazy because they were betrayed by their children, and there were demons who went crazy because they were abused by their parents. Don’t you feel sorry for those people?

━Ugh.

━Are there a lot of evil spirits with stories? However, if you neglect the evil spirit out of pity, something bigger will happen. When a ghost goes crazy, it not only kills people it has a grudge against, but also kills innocent people. Everyone in the neighborhood undergoes a mourning ceremony.

My father looked straight at me and said.

I still vividly remember those determined eyes.

━Keep in mind. No matter what the story is, you cannot miss the evil spirit who committed the murder. A ghost’s grudge will never be relieved even if it kills a person. Rather, the obsession with life only gets worse.

━Then what should I do to catch it?

━I need to do an exorcism. Cut off the resentment of the ghost with your own hands.

Don’t hesitate.

Cut off the resentment that will continue endlessly.

My father told me that.

━Okay.

This was a promise between me and my father.

The time has come to keep your promise.

*

My heart, which had stopped beating, started beating.

I opened my eyes feeling my heart beating.

My body was still submerged in the cold water. The snake’s ghost wrapped around me like a snake, weighing heavily on me. I felt the extremely scary weight of resentment.

━━Exciting

The heart rate increased.

My body, tied up by the beast, trembled violently.

The muscles of my entire body were shaking as if screaming, and the veins were sprouting from my limbs.

━━My heart is pounding, my heart is pounding

Susalgui sensed something was wrong and hugged me tightly.

It carried even more weight.

But my movement didn’t stop.

My entire body was restrained, but miraculously, I was now able to move as I wanted. My head felt hot due to the adrenaline being released. I was able to think clearly about what to do.

‘I guess I’ll just have to stand first.’

I stretched out my feet and stepped on the riverbed.

It was only when people walked on two feet that they could use their strength.

The snake ghost staring at me opened its empty eyes wide. The beast’s mouth, which had been laughing so hard, opened as if to scream. Did he feel fear when he saw me moving around with a ghost hanging in the water?

You probably thought you caught me in the water.

Now, my whole body felt strong and I could speak confidently.

It wasn’t me who got caught, it was the assassin.

‘It’s going up.’

I kicked the river bed as hard as I could.

The floor was deeply sunken, as if there was a hole.

My body, which had been sinking in the water, rose with a fishtail hanging from it. It penetrated the water flow changed by the snail and rose steeply upward.

━━Pang!

Maybe I kicked the ground too hard, but the speed was too fast. As if a bullet had passed through, a trace of countless air bubbles was left behind.

“Puha.”

Eventually my body came out of the water.

The only thing that came out was my upper body, but I was still satisfied.

The beast was still holding onto my body.

I saw Sarah trapped in the vortex, holding on tightly to the soul vessel.

I took a deep breath of clean air and shouted to Sarah.

“Strong!”

Sarah saw me floating on the water.

Just calling his name was enough.

“Take it! End it!”

Sarah threw the soul bowl towards me.

The soul bowl flew high into the sky, drawing a parabola.

The brightly shining moon illuminated the soul bowl.

I caught the soul bowl falling onto the water with my hand.

━━Keee!!

When the snail saw me holding the soul bowl, it screamed.

This time, the ghost’s scream came clearly to my ears.

The exorcist doesn’t hesitate.

I hit the soul bowl towards the beast’s head.

The top of the ghost’s head collided with the soul vessel.

The sensation of a heavy slap was transmitted thrillingly through the bowl to my hands.

The beast’s form was distorted and sucked into the soul vessel.