Episode 11
Chapter 4: Unit Thirty (2)
Unit One’s residence was in a place with beautiful surroundings.
To the left flowed a stream of considerable size, the training grounds were spacious as well, and the building itself was larger than Unit Thirty’s. Moreover, either because great care had been taken or not, trees and flowers were neatly arranged around the area.
It was completely different from Unit Thirty’s gloomy residence, where even ghostly energy seemed to flow.
The members of Unit One did not seem to have returned from the main training grounds yet; the surroundings were quiet.
Having gone to Unit One’s residence, settled in, and surveyed the surroundings, Seonu confirmed the direction and climbed a tree some distance to the left of the building.
Moyonggyeong quietly watched Seonu without a word.
Seonu stuck a talisman invisibly on the tree, then immediately climbed another tree a short distance from the center of the building and stuck a talisman there.
Having stuck talismans in eight places like that, Seonu dusted off his hands and said,
“Now all that’s left is to wait.”
“Will ghosts really flock here when they see these talismans?”
“No. Passing ghosts get trapped by the talismans and can’t go elsewhere. Then what do you think will happen to Unit One inside that building in the center?”
It was a sight he had never encountered before, and lacking experience, Moyonggyeong shook his head.
“Who knows? I don’t really understand. What happens?”
“They probably won’t even be able to sleep properly.”
* * *
Unit One’s leader was a master swordsman bearing the epithet Iseom Chohon (一閃剿魂), and his name was Jeo Chanseong.
Originally, upon becoming a leader, he was to stay with the unit members, so he had taken a room and was living together with Unit One.
Besides Hwang Suho, Baek Rijong, and Baek Riyuha, Unit One had two more members, and since they were all outstanding talents, Jeo Chanseong was very pleased at heart.
There was little to teach them; he only needed to occasionally oversee their training and instruct them on enemies and matters they should be wary of in the murim.
That evening, after the members treated him at an expensive restaurant, Jeo Chanseong, pleased at heart and deeply intoxicated, had been lying in his room sleeping when he woke up needing to urinate and went outside the building.
The latrine was a bit far, so in his urgency he entered a densely wooded area and began to relieve himself.
Heuheuheuheu…!
But then—wasn’t that a chilling laughter he heard, and the feeling that someone was staring at him?
But as a master, Jeo Chanseong steeled himself and turned his head.
There, a face drenched in blood was floating in midair.
Below the head, only a faint form flickered, and it was the most terrible sight Jeo Chanseong had ever seen in his life.
No, he had seen it before—in his dreams.
It was precisely the ghost that had chased him in his dreams.
Kwaaargh…!
Jeo Chanseong screamed, grabbed his waistband, and ran toward the building.
Startled by his scream, the members rose from their places and rushed outside with their swords.
“Leader! What is the matter?”
“Th-there… g-g-ghost…”
At Hwang Suho’s question, Jeo Chanseong couldn’t even turn his head, pointing and trembling.
But the members couldn’t see anything.
“There’s nothing there, Leader.”
When the members looked at him with strange eyes, Jeo Chanseong slowly turned his head to look back.
There really was nothing.
Hem! Ahem!
Only then realizing his disgraceful state, Jeo Chanseong tried to straighten his pants and recover his dignity, but there was no way that would go properly.
“I seem to have seen things for a moment. I must have had too much to drink.”
Jeo Chanseong hurried into his room with an embarrassed face, and the members shook their heads before heading to their own rooms.
But such incidents did not stop at one.
This time, it was Baek Riyuha.
Late at night, while doing his business in the latrine, he inadvertently turned his head toward the ceiling—to find a woman with black hair hanging down, grinning at him.
Kyaaaaak…!
Unable to even properly adjust his pants, Baek Riyuha shrieked and burst out of the latrine door, running outside.
The leader, Hwang Suho, and Baek Rijong, who had been sleeping, rushed out with their swords, but what they saw was Baek Riyuha hunched over, clutching his waistband in terror, his face planted in the ground.
Baek Riyuha’s scream had been so loud that members came running out from Unit Two’s building, which was some distance away.
And that night, none of the members could sleep a wink.
Because chilling laughter and weeping sounds continued to be heard.
Such matters continued for a full three days.
Looking at the members of Unit One eating with haggard eyes, as well as the members of Unit Two, Moyonggyeong laughed in a hushed voice.
“Hehehe… Hyung-nim, the effect is incredible. Yesterday it seems Unit One and Unit Two swapped places to sleep, but even Unit Two ended up fleeing. Right now Muryeong Hall is in an uproar over the ghost disturbance.”
Just as Moyonggyeong said, all the hall members eating their meals were staring at Units One and Two.
Some with pitying faces, some watching them full of mockery.
“Then do we just need to take Unit One’s place now? Teacher.”
O Bongdal, who had heard and learned from Moyonggyeong, asked Seonu in a small voice.
“As if that would happen. Not everyone here is a fool. We’ll have to wait a bit longer.”
“There must be a way, right? Even I wouldn’t know how to deal with this.”
When Paeng Mijin asked with a face full of interest, Seonu answered while scooping up broth.
“Well, they’ll probably bring a daoist priest or something.”
“Then isn’t that a big problem, Hyung-nim?”
“Who knows? How many proper daoist priests are there anyway?”
Just as Seonu said, the Gwanju, having heard reports from the leaders, made inquiries and invited a famous daoist priest from a nearby daoist temple.
When even a daoist priest whose specialty was exorcism arrived at Muryeong Hall, the hall members flocked to Unit One’s quarters to see him.
Seonu and Unit Thirty also watched from afar with the hall members to see what the priest would do.
“What deep grudge makes you wander the netherworld? Now release that grudge and leave this place.”
Walking here and there in Unit One’s quarters, the priest muttered into the empty air, then chanted some kind of incantation.
Then he took out a bundle of talismans from his bosom, lit them with a candle burning to one side, and hurled them into the air.
“Wandering vengeful spirits of the netherworld! Return now to your world!”
The priest, shouting toward the empty air in a solemn voice, suddenly shuddered.
Then, wasn’t he suddenly speaking in a woman’s voice?
“Where did you go, leaving me behind? Unable to forget you, I wander the world.”
The priest, having spoken in a woman’s voice, shuddered once more and suddenly let out a deep man’s voice.
“Kwahahaha…! I am a madman who beheads traitors. Traitors, hang your heads!”
The priest’s eyes rolled wildly as he grabbed a candlestick set to one side.
And he swung it at the Gwanju, who was watching nearby.
The Gwanju dodged as the priest suddenly swung the candlestick, then clutched his chest with his hand.
The priest fell backward with a thud, then got up again and lunged at the hall members.
“Stop him! Block him! Stop that priest!”
The Gwanju shouted at the top of his lungs, and the area near Unit One’s quarters, where the exorcism ritual had been held, was thrown into chaos.
“A fraud of a priest.”
At Seonu’s brief words, the members nodded.
“Now it’s only a matter of that building becoming ours.”
Moyonggyeong said with a pleased face, but Seonu shook his head.
“Not yet. Let’s wait a little longer.”
* * *
The Gwanju, who had pinned his hopes on the priest, returned with a frustrated face and summoned the leaders.
“What would be best to do?”
To the Gwanju’s question, Goetong, who was in charge of Unit Three, offered an opinion.
“How about yielding the quarters to whichever unit has the guts to either exorcise the ghosts or live in Unit One’s quarters?”
At Goetong’s opinion, Jeo Chanseong, Unit One’s leader, snorted.
“Why? Does Unit Three want to try taking it?”
“Watch your tongue. Do you think Unit One can continue using that building?”
Jeo Chanseong could not answer Goetong’s counter-question.
“I think giving another unit a chance, as Leader Goetong suggests, is a good idea.”
When the other unit leaders agreed with Goetong’s opinion, the Gwanju seemed to make up his mind and spoke to the leaders as if making a declaration.
“Then from now on, any unit may use Unit One’s quarters. Whichever unit can use those quarters without trouble shall continue to use them from now on.”
As soon as the Gwanju’s words fell, the leaders who had not yet experienced the ghosts hurriedly rose.
To take their members and go first, in order to seize Unit One’s quarters.
Watching such leaders, the leaders of Units One and Two let out sighs.
“You have to taste it by taking a bite to know. Fools.”
The ghost disturbance at Muryeong Hall spread to the Northern Alliance, even reaching the ears of the Sword God.
The Sword God called his strategist, Muk Jigong, and asked.
“There are rumors of ghosts appearing at Muryeong Hall; what is going on?”
At the Sword God’s question, Muk Jigong answered with a troubled face.
“They say it is not appearing at Muryeong Hall itself, but at Unit One’s quarters. They called a daoist priest, but he went mad and rampaged, and I have received reports that other unit members suffered great humiliation while trying to sleep in Unit One’s quarters.”
“An interesting event has occurred. Will you go with me to see it?”
“It is night now; how about going during the day?”
“Do they not say ghosts appear well at night? Let us go.”
When the Sword God rose, Muk Jigong followed, though unwilling.
There were two paths to Muryeong Hall; one required circling far around the mountain, so it was a path others did not use.
It was a path only the Sword God occasionally used, so perhaps others did not even know one could travel this way.
Circling the mountain and arriving at the rear of Muryeong Hall, the Sword God and Muk Jigong set their direction toward Unit One’s quarters and moved.
After walking for some time, Unit One’s quarters, located a short distance from the stream, appeared.
Arriving at the quarters, Muk Jigong doubted his own eyes.
To think the rumors were actually true.
He saw hazy forms passing through the building and coming out the other side, walking as if floating through the empty air.
“Interesting.”
The Sword God smiled as he watched those hazy forms.
For Muk Jigong, it was the Sword God’s happy face, which he had not seen in a long time.
Paying no heed to the ghosts, the Sword God looked around Unit One’s quarters here and there.
Then he stood in the center and turned his gaze toward a place some distance away.
“Truly interesting. Who could have played such a prank?”
Hearing the Sword God’s muttering, Muk Jigong approached despite his fear, asking with a curious face.
“What do you mean, Alliance Chief?”
The Alliance Chief laughed heartily at Muk Jigong’s question.
Then he said to Muk Jigong,
“It means the one who takes this place is the culprit behind this matter. Then leave them be; they have the qualifications. However, I would like to see who it is.”
The Sword God answered Muk Jigong and burst into loud laughter once more.
Hearing that laughter, Muk Jigong thought it was truly fortunate.
He did not know who it was, but since they had given the Alliance Chief a joyful mood, he wanted to give them any treasure he possessed.
However, he never imagined that person was Seonu.
If he truly knew the culprit was Seonu, would he still want to give him a treasure?