Chapter 72
"The eldest daughter from the house in front is getting married, while the bachelor from the house behind is going to hang himself."
The evil spirit sang as it stuck its hand into its throat. Then it pulled out a tongue long enough to reach the floor, wrapped it around its neck, and danced merrily.
Then, suddenly tearing its mouth vertically, it shouted:
"Come on, let's go hang ourselves!"
And with that sound, numerous tongues sprouted like tentacles. The tongues that grew from the throat like sea anemones extending their tentacles stretched out and spread in all directions, aiming for the necks of the numerous fortune-tellers who were quietly watching and forming a surrounding net.
"Disgustingly repulsive! Damn it!"
The fortune-tellers, looking at the tongues flying towards them, each began to manifest their supernatural abilities through the cards in their hands. Those holding cards with swords drawn controlled swords like martial artists using sword-controlling techniques, while those holding cards with wands depicted used wooden spears sprouting from the ground and air to pierce the tongues.
The fortune-tellers maintained a distance from the evil spirit, stubbornly sticking to a thoroughly defensive attitude as if in a group hunt, focusing only on intercepting and piercing the flying tongues. After repeating this offense several times, when dozens of the evil spirit's tongues were skewered like fan ribs, one fortune-teller stepped forward.
In that fortune-teller's hand was a card depicting a vampire lady, whose languid expression and blood dripping from her mouth showed that the woman had finished her meal. The vampire lady was leaning on a chair with her chin resting on her hand, and in her other hand was a sword dripping with blood as if she had just butchered something.
It was the Queen of Swords from the Minor Arcana.
"Ugh, how disgusting."
He looked at the evil spirit, which was barely holding its dangling head and continuously pulling out tentacles, as if nauseated, and drew a sword made of blood from the card.
The sword made of blood, as soon as it was held in hand, climbed up the fortune-teller's blood vessels and strengthened his body. Moreover, perhaps because it was held by a fortune-teller behaving in a feminine manner, a power that only worked when used by women was applied.
Authority and pressure derived from sorcery permeated the sword.
The sword, reinforced again by sorcerous symbolism, became so hard and sharp that it was hard to believe it was made of blood.
The fortune-teller, after confirming the sword energy flowing through the blade, thrust the blood-made sword directly into the evil spirit.
The diagonally thrust sword pierced straight through the evil spirit's solar plexus and dangling head, and when the evil spirit's body was skewered by the sword, it struggled as if trying to resist, but soon realizing it was futile, it grinned.
"Oh my. In life, hanging from a rope, in death, hanging from a sword."
Kekekekeke.
The evil spirit laughed like that with its dangling mouth as if about to tear, then collapsed its form right there.
Opposite to how it had appeared like paint spreading, it fell with a splat as if dirty sewage was pouring from the air to the ground.
The remains spilled on the floor held a terrible stench as if scooped from a garbage dump, and for some reason, had a sticky quality.
"Phew, it doesn't even die gracefully."
"Still, we got rid of it unexpectedly easily. Such a disgusting evil spirit shouldn't disappear so easily, it's strange."
"Oh my. No matter how strong it is, there are many of us and only one evil spirit, what could it do? It's already impressive that it held out this long against us. Besides, it didn't disappear that easily. What would have happened if it had been ordinary fortune-tellers? Ho ho."
He looked blankly at the remains left by the evil spirit, seemingly uneasy about winning so easily even while celebrating the victory.
"By the way, this stench is severe. Does it usually smell like this when using insects as a medium?"
"That can't be. A medium for summoning... No, wait. Damn it."
The fortune-teller using rough speech approached the remains, sniffed, and cursed.
"This isn't the stench from the medium."
"Ghost stench?"
Ghost stench.
The smell emitted by ghosts.
Ghosts who drowned smelled of water.
Ghosts stabbed to death smelled of blood.
Ghosts who died away from home smelled of rot.
Ghosts who burned to death smelled of roasting meat and burning.
And, it was said that ghosts who hanged themselves smelled of urine.
From the remains left after the evil spirit disappeared, a strong, nose-stinging smell of urine was wafting.
Moreover, just as the form of a ghost was seen not with the eyes but with the soul, the smell of a ghost was also smelled not with the nose but with the soul.
All souls within the range of influence would be able to smell this urine stench clearly.
"Oh my, damn it. Will this smell attract a swarm of ghosts?"
Realizing the nature of the smell, he cursed continuously and went to the makeshift kitchen set up in the tent to get salt. And while he was going to get salt, the fortune-tellers moved in unison, setting up mirror walls as if to block the entrance of the tent.
And just as he was about to sprinkle the salt.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of roughly knocking on a door echoed from the mirrors.
"I've come for a fortune-telling."
"Please open the door."
"I know everything that's in there."
"You're open for business now, aren't you?"
"Open the door, please!"
Along with the earnest voices of several people, the mirrors set up as walls began to shake.
But the fortune-tellers kept their mouths shut and only sprinkled the salt they had brought on the mirrors.
"Hey! Customers have come!"
"Fortune-teller! Why aren't you opening the door when we've come for a fortune-telling?"
"Come here and greet your customers! Open up. Open!"
"I know everything that's in there, so why aren't you coming out!"
"Please open the door! Please open the door!"
Crash-!
Bang!
Bang bang!
As the fortune-teller sprinkled salt, the voices became more rough and louder as if excited. Moreover, proportionally, the sound of knocking on the mirrors also intensified, and the mirrors acting as walls shook as if they would collapse at any moment.
"Is anyone there? Is there no one?"
"Goodness, I know everything that's in there, did you think I'd just leave if you don't open?"
"Goodness, you've locked it so tightly! Do some business!"
"You should at least pretend to hear when we're asking so earnestly!"
"Please open the door! At least stick your head out! You should show some sincerity! People should have sincerity!"
"Is anyone there? Is anyone there? Is there no one at all?"
"Is there really no one there?"
Crash-!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Answer!"
"If no one's there, say so!"
"Is anyone there? Is no one there?!"
"I know everything that's in there, so I don't understand why you're holding your breath and keeping your mouth shut like that. Man, do you think I'll just leave like this?"
"Would you please open the door?"
"Please open the door!"
And along with voices shouting as if possessed, the sound of knocking on the door echoed again and.
Crash!
The mirrors that had been set up shattered into pieces, and the entrance of the tent opened wide.
Between the rags that the entrance curtain had become, there was an evil spirit.
It was smiling widely while standing on its hands, with dirty blood pouring from every hole in its body.
"So there was someone?"
The evil spirit behind it, with a thin and elongated form like an inchworm crawling, also grinned and said.
"Hey, fortune-teller. Give me a fortune-telling."
And as those two opened their mouths, the evil spirits behind them also swarmed in like a swarm of bees, sticking their heads into the cramped entrance of the tent and starting to shout one by one.
"Please remove the salt!"
"Would you please open the salt?"
"Please say we can come in!"
"You're open for business now, right? You're open for business now, right?"
"If you're open, you should greet customers!"
The fortune-teller gritted his teeth at this hellish scene.
"Ha. It seems like every single trick is filled with malice."
"They're really fighting disgustingly..."
He sighed, looking at the salt turning black.
"Business is impossible now."
* * *
Jinseong was surrounded by insects like a curtain.
"Om Amogha Vairochana Mahamudra Mani Padma Jvala Pravartaya Hum (ओं अमोघ वैरोचन महामुद्रा मणि पद्म ज्वाल प्रवर्त्तय हूं)."
He set up insects in a round shape as if building a mound of earth, and using mold and parasites as thread and cotton to make a curtain, its form was similar to a military tent. And inside that dark insect curtain, Jinseong sat cross-legged, continuously chanting mantras, and with eyes blazing with flames, he pierced through to see what was happening in the distant tent.
In his pupils, small pillars of fire repeatedly protruded out of his pupils and disappeared, looking like prominences bursting from the sun.
When the prominences burst out, some of the insects flying on the surface died and turned to ashes, and those ashes, emitting a foul smell, flew towards the tent riding the wind.
The ashes fluttered and flew, settling on the bodies of the evil spirits pushing their way into the tent, and the evil spirits with ashes attached became even more frenzied, rushing at the fortune-teller without even thinking of their own safety.
But the fortune-teller continued to fend off the evil spirits using the cards in his hand, and this continued until dawn broke.
"Tsk."
As dawn broke, the evil spirits outside began to crumble in the light, and the evil spirits inside the tent began to evaporate even faster than those outside due to the sunlight amplified by reflection in the mirrors.
But the frenzied evil spirits, due to the ashes sticking to their bodies, instead of hiding or fleeing as usual, kept rushing towards the tent, towards the fortune-teller, like moths rushing into flames. And just as moths meet their end, the evil spirits also all shattered and met their end.
When all the evil spirits disappeared, the fortune-teller sighed deeply, then laid a full-length mirror on the floor and threw his body towards the mirror as if diving into a pond.
Thus, the fortune-teller disappeared into the mirror.
Crash!
As soon as the fortune-teller hid his body, cracks appeared in all the mirrors inside the tent and they all shattered into pieces, and the tent blazed up as if someone had set it on fire.
The flames, burning fiercely as if burning oil-soaked cloth, instantly burned everything in the tent and the tent itself, and eventually turned everything into ashes, leaving only shimmering mirror fragments.
The mirror fragments were shimmering and reflecting sunlight without a single smudge of soot despite the fierce blaze of the flames, and they were gathered together forming a shape.
That shape resembled a person's clenched fist, with what looked like a middle finger sticking out prominently, and on the back of the hand, words were engraved.
『 Fuck you 』