Mok Gyeong-un revealed himself from within the chains.
Gooooooooh!
His appearance was anything but ordinary. Could it be that he had been devoured by the perfected Gu poison? Blue Spirit, her voice tinged with anger, aimed her long pipe and spoke.
"You fool. Did you really go and get eaten?"
At her question, Mok Gyeong-un's lips twitched, and he soon looked at Blue Spirit and opened his mouth.
"I wasn't eaten. I ate it."
"…!?"
At those words, Blue Spirit's expression went blank for a moment. Just from his unique way of speaking, it was clear that his body hadn't been taken over; it was Mok Gyeong-un himself.
"What's wrong?"
"…You… did you really devour that thing?"
To her question, Mok Gyeong-un shrugged his shoulders and replied.
"Just as you see."
"Ha!"
How utterly absurd. Even if he had multiple lives, the probability of failure was higher. And yet, this ignorant mortal had actually done it.
"It's just that I overate so much, I feel like my stomach is going to burst."
"Feels like it's going to burst?"
"Yes. It seems I ate quite a lot."
After a push and pull with the creature, he had succeeded in absorbing its energy. But a problem had arisen from this. He had certainly absorbed the energy, but the amount of resentment and death energy the creature possessed was beyond comparison to anything he had taken in before.
At Mok Gyeong-un's words, she furrowed her brow. 'Come to think of it, this one's a human.' Blue Spirit realized her mistake.
Having been a vengeful spirit for over 100 years, her way of thinking from when she was human must have grown rigid. The human body could be called a kind of vessel. And a vessel has a limit to what it can contain.
'More important than simply taking in internal energy is expanding the size of that vessel through enlightenment.' But Mok Gyeong-un had little enlightenment.
He hadn't grasped how to handle qi as a first-rate master, and despite learning the sword forms of the Moon, which could be called the secret to a profound martial art, his understanding of the sword was low. If he had gained enlightenment step-by-step through the proper path, the limit of internal energy he could accept would have naturally grown.
But Mok Gyeong-un was not like that at all. Blue Spirit spoke in a somewhat serious tone.
"You, discharge the energies you can't handle right now."
"Pardon?"
"It is said that too much is as bad as too little. If you take in a level of energy your body cannot handle, it will become poison to you, mortal."
"Ah. Is that so?"
"Yes."
"Then I suppose it's better to pass on the surplus energy."
"What?"
While she was wondering, Mok Gyeong-un bent over and searched for something on the floor. As she puzzled over what he was looking for, Mok Gyeong-un said, "Oh," and lifted up what he had found. It was none other than a skull, its face and forehead area crushed and mangled.
Strangely, an old talisman was attached to the skull's head. It looked quite ancient, and it was a wonder that it remained undamaged. 'It must be due to the curse power.'
She surmised that was likely the case. Of course, her guess was correct. Mok Gyeong-un peeled off the old talisman with the character for 'Lock' written on it from the skull he was holding.
And then. Woooooong!
"What are you doing now?"
No. He wasn't just discharging it, why was he infusing that thing with his energy? In her spirit eyes, she could see a being huddled inside the skull. It was a vengeful spirit, hiding, terrified.
"Why are you giving energy to that thing..."
Before Blue Spirit could finish her words. As the aura of death was injected into the skull, the vengeful spirit within reacted.
Goooooooooh!
Like dried seafood regaining its form when put in water, the huddled vengeful spirit absorbed the aura of death and soon revealed itself. It was none other than, Clank, clank! A girl with a cold impression, draped in thin chains as if they were clothes, appeared.
From her youthful face, she looked to be about 15 years old at most. What was peculiar was that half of her hair had turned white, truly half-white. At the sight, Blue Spirit frowned and spoke.
"What? It was a girl?"
Hearing those words, the girl bit her lip hard, then suddenly shouted.
"Who are you calling a girl? This young master is a man."
"…What?"
At the girl's words, Blue Spirit raised an eyebrow. Then she muttered in a tone of disbelief.
"You're joking, right?"
No matter how she looked at her, she was a girl. And yet, "This young master is a man!" Staring intently at the girl who was passionately insisting she was a man, Blue Spirit soon extended her hand.
The girl's body was then forcibly sucked into Blue Spirit's hand.
Swish!
"Uh-oh?"
Pak!
Blue Spirit, who had seized the girl's neck, spoke in a slightly cold voice.
"Where does a little brat get the audacity to raise her voice at an adult. Are you that desperate to die?"
"!!!!!!!"
The girl was momentarily speechless from Blue Spirit's immense pressure. It seemed vengeful spirits could sense each other's rank, and the girl could also guess it from the energy emanating from Blue Spirit.
However, it seemed she wasn't one to give in so easily, "I-I may look like this, but I've been dead for about fifteen years, so by year I'm thirty-three…
Kegh."
Blue Spirit's hand tightened. She pulled the girl closer and said, "If you don't want to be called a brat by this master, come back after another hundred years." At Blue Spirit's words, the girl's expression hardened.
Just from her words alone, she could guess how many years Blue Spirit had lived and what her rank was. Blue Spirit turned her head toward Mok Gyeong-un and spoke.
"Why did you revive this thing by giving it energy? You should have just killed it."
"She seemed useful."
"Useful?"
At Mok Gyeong-un's words, the girl's face twisted. She then spoke to Mok Gyeong-un.
"Who are you calling useful? A mere human..."
Grip!
"Kegh!"
"Who told you to open your mouth?"
Although she wasn't literally suffocating, the girl couldn't speak, suppressed by Blue Spirit's grip. At that, Mok Gyeong-un grasped the skull he was holding with both hands. Then, showing it to the girl, he said.
"This is your head, isn't it?"
The girl glanced at Blue Spirit. In response, Blue Spirit nodded with a displeased expression. The girl replied.
"... Yes. It is, so just leave it alone."
"Why?"
"What good can come from touching the bones of the dead?"
"Good things? There are."
"What?"
Crack!
In that moment, a crack appeared on the girl's skull. Seeing this, the girl, flustered, reached out her hands and shouted.
"St-stop!"
"Why?"
"No. Why are you trying to break that?"
Unlike the girl who was desperately trying to stop him, Blue Spirit's lips were twitching in amusement. She had wondered why this mortal had revived this girl, and now she thought it was to torment her once more like this. That skull could be called the source of the girl.
If it were shattered, she would suffer immense pain. 'Such a ruthless one, anyway.' Just then, the girl tried to shake off Blue Spirit's hand and rush at Mok Gyeong-un.
But she couldn't break free, as she was outmatched in rank. Instead, the skull in Mok Gyeong-un's hands, Crunch!
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!"
The girl let out a piercing scream. The pain of having her living body destroyed was beyond words. But here, besides pain, she witnessed a shocking sight.
Sssssssss!
Wasn't Mok Gyeong-un crushing her skull into fine pieces with his hands and then putting the powder into his mouth? Even Blue Spirit hadn't expected this, her eyes widening in surprise. Who would have thought he would put bone powder in his mouth?
"Youuuuuuuuu!"
The girl screamed. Mok Gyeong-un paid her no mind, grinding the broken skull fragments between his palms to crush them even finer, and put all the remaining powder into his mouth.
"You son of a... aaaaaargh!"
In that moment, a strange thing happened. The girl's spiritual body trembled violently, as if she were having a seizure. Then, a red thread-like substance emerged from the girl's body and connected to Mok Gyeong-un.
"…!?"
Seeing this, Blue Spirit was dumbfounded.
'This one...'
He ate the source of a vengeful spirit and forcibly made it his Spirit Guardian. It was merely a simple act, but the result was not simple at all. How could such a thing be possible?
She couldn't believe what she was seeing. On the other hand, seeing that his attempt, made on a whim, had actually worked, the corner of Mok Gyeong-un's mouth curled up in a smirk.
'It worked.'
He had wanted to test it once if he got the chance. To see if his guess was correct. And it really worked.
"Th-this is..."
The girl looked at the red bond, unable to hide her bewilderment. Having been a vengeful spirit for a long time, the girl naturally came to know everything without anyone teaching her. Therefore, she knew at a glance that this was the bond of a Spirit Guardian, a thread that established a master-servant relationship.
"How could this..."
The girl, her face flushed red with anger, tried to grab the red bond. But there was no way it could be grasped.
Flail!
"This young master! How could this young master become the Spirit Guardian of a pathetic human like you?"
Mok Gyeong-un asked the girl, who was flailing her hands madly.
"What is your name?"
"Shut up! Who do you think you are to this young mas..."
"What is your name?"
The girl, who had been about to explode with rage, suddenly saw her expression soften at Mok Gyeong-un's repeated question. Her lips twitched, and then, with a much softer face, she spoke to Mok Gyeong-un.
"Gyu So-ha. Master."
'This girl?'
Blue Spirit was inwardly surprised. Even if they became Spirit Guardians, vengeful spirits rarely revealed their own names. The reason was because of the power a name holds.
When one becomes a spiritual being, one approaches the realm of gods, and in doing so, one becomes bound by one's true name. Thus, vengeful spirits do not reveal their names. And yet, as if completely subjugated, her very expression had changed as she revealed her true name.
Mok Gyeong-un looked at the girl and said.
"That's a nice name."
"Thank you. Master."
"So-ha. You can be my faithful dog, right?"
"Aaaah! It is what I desire most."
At the sight of the girl making an emotional face as if moved by Mok Gyeong-un's words, Blue Spirit clicked her tongue as if she found it absurd. This was even worse than the Demonic Monk. For a Green Spirit, who almost reached Blue Spirit's rank even if she ultimately didn't, to be subjugated to such an extent.
It was a sight of submission down to the very root of her spirit. '... Is this the effect of his strengthened aura of death.'
Gooooooooh!
It was clearly visible to her spirit eyes. Mok Gyeong-un's aura of death had grown incomparably stronger than before. But even after infusing enough energy into this Gyu So-ha to restore her this much, he's still overflowing like this?
Besides, she had been wondering about it for a while, but his energy seemed to be subtly layered. So she asked.
"You... your energy is a bit strange. Why does it seem to be overlapping?"
"Ah. Can you see it, Blue Spirit?"
"See it?"
"As it happens, a new incantation came to mind."
"A new incantation?"
"For the Eight Arts of Shattering Thought."
"What?"
She couldn't hide her surprise. In the midst of all that, he had come up with a new incantation for the Eight Arts of Shattering Thought? Blue Spirit asked.
"What kind of incantation did you come up with?"
To her question, Mok Gyeong-un gestured to So-ha with his head and said.
"Jeon-geo-seo-yang-hyeong, hyeol-mu-i-mu-geuk, ma-ryang-hyeong-jeon-sim, wi-hae-jeon-mu-ga, yeok-geuk-mu-mang-ryeo, o-geo-jeon-jeol-mu." '!?'
Hearing this, Blue Spirit's pupils trembled. 'This one... he's awakened an incantation I don't know.' The reason Blue Spirit was surprised was precisely that.
What Mok Gyeong-un had recited was an incantation she did not know at all. Even she, with her heaven-defying martial genius, had only managed to master four of the Eight Arts of Shattering Thought. But this incantation was one she did not know.
She hid her inner excitement and asked.
"Ahem... this is a form this master has not learned. What principle does it hold?"
"I've become able to split my dantian into two places."
"What?"
"I can distribute my energy to the area near the Baihui point on my head and to the central area near my heart." '!!!!!!'
At Mok Gyeong-un's words, she wore an expression of disbelief. Mok Gyeong-un probably didn't even know what he was saying right now.
'Ha.'
Until they break through the wall, all martial artists are bound by the shackles of the lower dantian. But the moment they gain enlightenment and break through that wall, they open their middle dantian. Those who had opened their middle dantian were extremely few, even in the martial world.
And yet, this mortal claimed that his middle dantian had been opened not through enlightenment, but through the principles of the Eight Arts of Shattering Thought.