Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 248 – Consort Ho (2)

Ordinary monsters are typically recorded in books known only to necromancers, such as the “Compendium of Monsters and Oddities from the Classic of Mountains and Seas.”

However, this being with nine golden tails was different.

Records of it could be found not only in ancient texts but also in the Historical Records.

Its first appearance in the Historical Records, considered an official history, was during the Yin Dynasty.

[The fox monster Daji, who devoured King Zhou’s concubine Su Yang and transformed into her, corrupted the king, leading him to create the Alcohol Pool and Meat Forest, indulging in extravagance and pleasure. As a result, tyranny arose, and the Yin Dynasty fell at the hands of King Wu of Zhou.]

This fox monster was called by many names, befitting its title of the Hundred-Faced One.

Daji of the Yin Dynasty.

Bao Si of the Zhou Dynasty.

Lady Huo of the Tianzhu Kingdom.

Tamamo-no-Mae of the Eastern Ying Kingdom.

Appearing in numerous forms and names, it influenced the fate and history of nations.

Necromancers and monsters with knowledge referred to this catastrophic and worst monster as follows:

The Hundred-Faced King, the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed.

-Swish swish!

The nine golden tails emitting an ominous and tremendous demonic energy.

With its matching golden hair and eyes, this monster was both mysterious and beautiful.

‘This… This is beyond imagination.’

Cheong-ryeong, possessing Prince Gyeongjin’s body, was at a loss for words.

The demonic power emanating from Consort Ho, no, the Hundred-Faced King Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox who had revealed its true identity, was truly immeasurable.

It was incomparable to the monstrous raccoon dog, the Sea Slaying King, she had seen in the Sihyeol Valley.

In the first place, the Sea Slaying King was in a weakened state due to being sealed.

However, this worst calamity-level spiritual beast, known to be close to a divine beast, not only crushed her fighting spirit but also made her will submit.

‘…There’s absolutely no way to face this.’

Even if one’s martial arts reached the pinnacle, surpassing the wall of walls, it would be impossible.

In the first place, the level of existence of this monster, which had existed since ancient times, was completely different.

It was truly perplexing beyond words.

How could one encounter such a being in the palace of all places?

‘Ah!’

Cheong-ryeong’s eyes wavered.

Come to think of it, this Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox, known as a great calamity, often appeared when a nation’s fate was coming to an end.

The current Central Plains was exactly in such a state.

The Central Plains had become impoverished in many places due to the long-lasting famine, but the emperor and the powerful officials were enjoying extravagance, engaging in power struggles, and exploiting the commoners’ blood and sweat.

Even the martial arts world, which had opposed the government for the sake of chivalry and martial arts, was now colluding with them to plunder the commoners to the extent that it wouldn’t be surprising if the current Central Plains erupted at any moment.

If that was the case, this worst monster might have appeared to put an end to the weakened fate of this nation.

-Clench!

Cheong-ryeong bit her lip hard.

The situation was completely different from when the monstrous raccoon dog Sea Slaying King, who was sealed and imprisoned, had not been fully released.

She couldn’t escape, and there was no hope of fighting against this opponent.

She had never felt such despair before.

However,

-Swish!

At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un was composing himself.

He was seen grasping his sword finger and once again gathering demonic energy into one.

Seeing this, Cheong-ryeong couldn’t hide her bewilderment.

‘Disciple, you…’

Aren’t you afraid?

Even though you can feel this tremendous pressure that makes it difficult to even breathe, are you thinking of fighting?

‘What are you thinking?’

Mok Gyeong-un was always cold and rational.

Therefore, he must have naturally realized that he couldn’t do anything against this worst being.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t understand why he was burning with such fighting spirit.

“Oh.”

This was the same for Consort Ho, no, the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox.

Although she hadn’t transformed into her true form, she had properly revealed her demonic power, yet he didn’t diminish his sharp aura toward her at all, which piqued her interest.

So she opened her mouth.

“Even if it’s just a single drop, since you made me bleed, I will kill you.”

“Do as you wish.”

“Aren’t you afraid, human?”

“If I die because I’m weak against my opponent, it’s ultimately just the natural order of things, so what is there to be afraid of?”

At his nonchalant words, her eyes flickered with interest.

She had encountered countless humans over a long period of time.

Among those humans, there were certainly some who were so strong that they could hardly be called human.

However, even those individuals, when suppressed by her and faced with the threat of death, showed their ugly sides and revealed their emotions of fear and pain.

“Hmm.”

The corners of the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox’s mouth twitched.

Seeing a human who seemed to have lost all fear after a long time aroused both her interest and curiosity.

She wondered if this human, who showed a nonchalant attitude while talking about the natural order of things, could maintain such composure even in the face of true pain and suffering.

‘I have never seen such a thing.’

She had engaged in amusement for thousands of years, but the outcome was always the same.

Regardless of the being, they were all the same in the end.

Humans became infinitely weak in the face of desire and always succumbed to fear in the face of terror and death.

The Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox spoke with a radiant smile.

“Human, I’m curious to see how long your bold appearance can last.”

-Swish!

She pointed her index finger at Mok Gyeong-un.

At that moment, a mass of white light formed by demonic power rippled and rushed toward Mok Gyeong-un’s head in the blink of an eye.

-Swish!

Mok Gyeong-un moved his neck in an instant to dodge it.

‘Oh.’

He dodged it?

It was a mass of demonic power she had launched, taking into account the speed at which he moved.

Yet, he lightly dodged it.

“Not bad. Then…”

-Swish! Bang bang bang!

The Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox fired demonic power at Mok Gyeong-un in rapid succession with her fingers.

It was so fast that it was impossible to even discern with the naked eye.

However,

-Swish! Swish! Swish!

Mok Gyeong-un dodged them with minimal movement, narrowly avoiding them.

‘I can’t take my eyes off her.’

Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes never left her fingers.

Although the speed was even faster than ultra-high-speed movement, he could predict the trajectory by keeping his eyes on where her fingers were pointing.

The corners of the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox’s mouth rose.

“Ah, so that’s how you dodged? You’re a clever one. Then how about this?”

-Whoosh!

In an instant, spheres of demonic power, each about the size of a finger joint, surrounded Mok Gyeong-un in uncountable numbers.

“Try dodging this too.”

As the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox made a grasping motion with her hand,

-Bang bang bang!

The small spheres of demonic power that had surrounded him simultaneously rushed toward Mok Gyeong-un.

There were so many of them that they engulfed him in an instant, making his figure no longer visible.

‘Disciple!’

-Crunch!

Just a single sphere of demonic power piercing the ground was enough to imagine its tremendous power, and he had been bombarded by such an incredible number of them.

It wasn’t something that could be dodged or endured.

Cheong-ryeong’s expression, which had been hesitating in despair, changed to anger.

-Swish!

With that, she abandoned Prince Gyeongjin’s body and came out.

Then, she gathered all her spiritual power and struck the floor.

‘Blood Realm.’

-Rumble!

At that moment, blood began to form on the floor, centered around her palm.

-Drip drip!

Blood droplets rising as if falling in reverse.

Blood droplets gushed throughout Prince Gyeongjin’s quarters, dyeing everything red.

This was her Ghost Realm created by her strong thoughts.

Although she knew she was no match for the opponent, she had decided to help Mok Gyeong-un rather than perish without doing anything.

However,

-Crack crack crack!

Cracks appeared in the quarters that were being dyed red.

Then, as if nothing had happened, her Ghost Realm, the Blood Realm, disappeared.

The Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox spoke as if it was absurd.

“In front of whom are you arrogantly deploying a realm, spirit? Do you want to perish first?”

-Swish!

The Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox extended her hand toward Cheong-ryeong.

Then, with a strong suction force, her spiritual body was forcibly pulled toward the hand.

Cheong-ryeong’s expression distorted.

‘Too strong.’

She knew she was no match, but the gap was too wide.

To the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox, she was literally no different from an insect crawling on the ground.

-Grab!

-Ugh!

Cheong-ryeong’s face, whose spiritual body’s neck was grabbed by the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox’s hand, contorted in pain.

The demonic power was so strong that even a little force seemed enough to instantly annihilate her.

But right at that moment,

-Boom!

A black line burst through the floor and rose upward.

-Slash!

The black line slashed the back of the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox’s hand.

The Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox, who had been trying to annihilate Cheong-ryeong, lost her grip on the spiritual body’s neck.

‘Disciple?’

In an instant, Cheong-ryeong’s eyes widened.

It was because she saw Mok Gyeong-un, whose entire body was covered in blood.

Despite his appearance being a mess from the demonic power bullets, his eyes hadn’t lost their spirit at all.

-Whoosh!

As Mok Gyeong-un extended his left hand, Cheong-ryeong’s spiritual body was flung backward.

Immediately after that, Mok Gyeong-un tried to strike the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox’s head with his right hand in a chopping motion.

However,

-Grab!

Before he could do so, one of the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox’s tails wrapped around Mok Gyeong-un’s body, and another tail coiled around his wrist.

-Squeeze! Tremble tremble!

Mok Gyeong-un’s hand, bound by the tail, trembled violently.

The Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox’s eyes flickered with interest as she watched this.

‘Look at this.’

Even though she had grabbed him with her tail, the force contained in Mok Gyeong-un’s chopping hand was no ordinary.

She could immediately understand the reason.

Mok Gyeong-un’s right hand was concentrated with tremendous demonic power.

That demonic power was none other than her own.

“You’re interesting.”

The corners of the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox’s mouth twitched.

She didn’t know what technique he used to absorb the demonic power, but it seemed he had endured the numerous demonic power spheres rushing toward his entire body and gathered that power to the fullest.

And in the fleeting moment when her attention was focused on that spirit, he hadn’t missed the opportunity and burrowed into the ground to attempt a surprise attack.

-Drip drip!

Blood flowed from the wound on her right hand.

Seeing this, the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox let out a hollow laugh.

“Ha!”

She had tried to push him to the extreme and show him the fear of death.

But instead, he had counterattacked in such a situation, and on top of that, he had inflicted another wound on her.

This was truly the first time such a thing had happened.

-Lick!

The Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox licked the flowing blood with her tongue and glared at Mok Gyeong-un with a cold smile.

Through her golden eyes and disheveled hair, she saw Mok Gyeong-un’s face covered in blood.

Seeing his face, her eyes flickered with interest.

“You?”

That’s because although she knew he was concealing his face with something, she didn’t expect the face hidden underneath to be so young.

No matter how she looked at it, he wasn’t even in his late teens.

And such a fellow had inflicted wounds on her body, who had lived for thousands of years, twice?

‘This one is completely crazy.’

Rather than feeling unpleasant, she became even more intrigued.

-Creak! Creak!

The blood vessels in Mok Gyeong-un’s right hand swelled up as if they were about to burst.

This was a phenomenon that occurred because the blood vessels couldn’t withstand the concentration of demonic power in one hand, which was difficult to handle.

-Spurt spurt!

And as a result of not being able to release that power, blood vessels burst in various places on Mok Gyeong-un’s right hand, and blood flowed out.

Nevertheless, there was not the slightest change in Mok Gyeong-un’s expression.

He only showed a look of regret in his eyes.

At this,

-Squeeze!

The Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox exerted force on the tail that was wrapping around Mok Gyeong-un.

The force was so strong that even the blood vessels on Mok Gyeong-un’s face, which was already covered in blood, bulged and seemed like they would burst at any moment.

However,

‘Look at this.’

Even though he was on the verge of death, Mok Gyeong-un didn’t even groan and instead stared straight at the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox.

There was not a hint of fear in his eyes.

Seeing his appearance, the corners of the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed Fox’s mouth twitched.

She had seen so many humans, but in the end, no one had overcome their fear in the face of death. This was the first time.

So, with the corners of her mouth raised, she said,

“I have seen countless humans over thousands of years, but you seem to be the first human who truly shows no fear in the face of death.”

“…”

Mok Gyeong-un only glared at her without saying a word.

“Seeing such unwavering and upright eyes makes me curious.”

“…About what?”

“I wonder if a human like you would also remain uncorrupted in the face of desire.”

“Corrupted?”

As soon as those words ended, the splendid clothes that had been covering her body slid down.

Along with it, an extremely beautiful naked body was revealed.