Chapter 160
Whack!
When he struck the cursed object, instead of a dull sound, a boom like a water balloon bursting spread.
Jinseong continued to swing the staff while frowning at the boom, and with each swing, the sound gradually changed into something like a pig's squeal.
Squeal!
Squeak!
A sound like a pig being hit with a club.
Not simply striking leather, but a sound like hitting something alive.
It was as if the ankh (☥), symbolizing 'life', was breathing its vitality into the leather and giving breath to the head of the cursed object. Especially when seeing the impurity being contained inside the body instead of being spewed out in all directions with each strike, it even created the illusion of an evil spirit from the underworld possessing a wild boar.
[Hee, heeek.]
The evil shaman spirit stepped back as if frightened by that scene.
What had been spewing out impurity was now containing it and using it as material to form its body and blood vessels.
Using that material to weave muscles and make the skin move and twitch.
Extending the four legs, which had been mere branches protruding from the skin, to stand on the ground.
Until it moved its neck around and raised its head to look at the evil spirit.
The evil shaman spirit, too frightened to even think of turning its body to flee, could only watch as the cursed object gained life.
Squeeeeeal-!
And finally, when the cursed object created large tusks with impurity and swelled its body to become a monster the size of a two-story building.
The evil spirit crouched down tightly, prostrating itself and shouting:
[Oh, Mountain God! For what reason have you descended here, Mountain God!]
The shaman, who until just moments ago had been rolling its eyes back while tearing apart evil spirits and demons and trying to bewitch Jinseong, was now trembling in fear, its previous demeanor completely gone.
Fearing that it might make eye contact with the cursed object, it buried its head until its neck was completely bent, and as if that wasn't enough, it stretched out its hands to its eyelids and dug out its eyeballs with its fingernails.
[Mountain God, Mountain God! Have mercy on this worthless wench and let me keep my life! This old body that has lived in the lower village will be tough and tasteless, so do not chew it with your teeth, and as it may be too tough and damage your tusks, please do not pierce my belly with your tusks, and as I have already dug out these eyes that might appear disrespectful, please overlook this old person who can't see anything in the darkness and is just waiting to die! This old and talentless one begs you like this! Please spare my life!]
The shaman's begging was desperate.
It was so pitiful that it looked like a living person making every effort to save their life rather than an evil spirit, and its screaming as if its throat would tear made it seem like a young person with many days left to live rather than an old person squeezing out all the strength in their body to survive.
Squeal!
The cursed object stood in place, looking at the shaman as it listened to its begging.
The wild boar, gradually swelling its body, inflated its size each time the shaman's begging came out of its mouth, and by sucking in the impurity emanating from the shaman's body through its nose, it gradually completed its monstrous form.
The hair made of straw became pitch black by absorbing the impurity, and each strand became a sharp thorn. The thorns were sharper and more terrible than those stuck in the body of a mountain madman, and the stems of the thorns had densely spaced serrated gaps, making it look like they could never be pulled out once they pierced flesh.
The leather, which had given an ominous feeling even when it was a cursed object, became stronger than steel, and the tusks made of impurity looked like spears with a black sheen. And the eyes were full of black sclera without any white, giving the feeling that the air became humid and mold grew just from its gaze. And from the monstrous mouth below, black saliva dripped, which made the ground turn black and rot wherever it fell.
There were bulging blood vessels all over its body, and their snake-like thickness and tentacle-like writhing looked unusual, and from the small holes in the blood vessels, impurity leaked out like steam, even turning the air black.
It has become an excellent monster.
Jinseong smiled as if satisfied with that appearance.
You've done very well.
Jinseong looked at the evil spirit desperately begging for its life.
Thanks to you, such a powerful monster has been created.
Evil spirits differed in appearance from country to country.
Just as the 'jokbak (gourd) ghost' with its mouth stretched out like a tube from earlier could only be seen in Korea, there were differences in their forms depending on culture and lifestyle.
The evil spirit called 'The Women Who Wash at Night (Les lavandieres de nuit)' appearing in France could take the form of an ordinary-looking woman or smoke, and the evil spirit called 'Phi Tai Hong (ผีตายโหง)' in Thailand retains the appearance it had when it died.
But while these evil spirits differed slightly in appearance, behavior, and abilities, they had only one purpose.
They all tried to bewitch people and commit terrible acts.
Although the forms of evil spirits appearing in each country and ethnicity and their actions may differ, their purpose of harming humans was clear.
Evil spirits did not hesitate to use their abilities to harm people, and in some unusual cases, they even devoured other evil spirits to grow their bodies in order to increase their own abilities.
Scholars called this 'soul absorption'.
And the evil shaman spirit in front of Jinseong now was a special individual capable of soul absorption.
When a shaman who was a psychic in life died and became an evil spirit, they gained strong psychic abilities and could repel evil spirits and demons to absorb their impurity, just as they did in life. And even if their soul rotted and their stomach burst, they didn't try to expel that impurity but accumulate it, continuously repeating gut rituals and erasing evil demons and spirits to try to become a great evil spirit.
And Jinseong had exploited this habit of the evil shaman spirit.
By erasing the same things as itself while performing the gut, this is both a sacrifice and an offering, and by forcibly eating and storing it in its body, it has made its own body into an offering. And now, by submitting to a strong ghost as it did in life and handing over the power over its life and death, this is giving the cursed object the symbols of an idol and spirit and worshipping it.
In the end, what the evil shaman spirit had done was no different from the foolish act of throwing itself into the fires of hell.
And even now, it was doing something that was throwing its own body into the abyss in real-time.
Without even noticing that its own body was becoming emaciated, it continued to have its impurity stolen by the wild boar, and even while enduring its body being torn by the thorns the wild boar was shedding, it kept begging and begging.
Having lived by serving ghosts in life, it couldn't even think of resisting the wild boar it perceived as the 'Mountain God'.
Thus, the evil shaman spirit stupidly offered its body to the wild boar without even thinking of resisting or fleeing, and before long, this vicious cycle came to an end.
[Ugh, the Mountain God is angry. The Mountain God, the Mountain God is angry...]
The evil shaman spirit, in that prostrate position, had all its impurity stolen by the wild boar and its soul torn to shreds and disappeared.
Squeal!
As the wild boar finished off the shaman and sat down on the ground with its belly, looking satisfied, Jinseong took out the charcoal pieces loaded on the A-frame carrier and piled them in one place. Then he grabbed a long piece of charcoal, wrapped it with the cloth covering the A-frame carrier, and lit it with samadhi fire to make a makeshift torch.
Then he threw the torch into the pile of charcoal to make a bonfire, and changed the crushed ankh of the gold staff he was holding in one hand into the shape of a flat tray.
Jinseong grasped the air to move the charcoal around, pulling ash powder and dropping it on the ground, then cooled it by blowing out cold air. Then he covered one hand with the cooled ash and began to paint his skin black, using the gold tray as a mirror.
Wildness was emanating from Jinseong's face reflected in the gold tray, and with each stroke of black paint on his skin, Jinseong seemed to be gradually regressing from civilization to barbarism.
And finally, Jinseong made all the skin exposed outside his clothes easy to blend into the darkness. The skin covered with charcoal looked exactly like the color of darkness where light doesn't reach, and instead of skin carrying human scent, it gave off the smell of nature held by burned wood.
Jinseong nodded with satisfaction after carefully examining himself reflected in the gold tray, and twisted the tray's shape into a sharp spiral spear.
Then he took off the rags he was wearing and looked at the wild boar.
"The one carrying the grace of great ancestors and the earth will finally become human! Under the gaze of the great mother moon, the trial proceeds! Let the abundance of the forest allow me to meet the beast, and let me have courage like flames to end its life without fear!"