Chapter 55

The Dead Slayer sword drew a large arc in the air, and then a golden light shone through the space.

Seol Young opened his eyes wide.

‘This far?’

This was a huge energy.

The dark qi had merged with Zaha’s original qi, and he raised it to the limit at once. So wherever the sword cut, golden light was flashing, and Seol Young’s eardrums were hurting from the sound.

It felt so powerful that even a great monstrous demon could be torn down.

But…

It couldn’t pierce the darkness around the evil spirit that appeared, but it managed to block the Mandala of Darkness from spreading as it was eroding the space.

The other side was too strong.

However, Zaha unleashed an attack without much agitation.

The golden trail left by his sword slashed through the darkness in an amazing manner.

Every time it collided with the dark energy, sparks flew and exploded. In the dazzling afterimage, shock waves spread everywhere.

‘Amazing…’

Seol Young just stood there and watched everything happen.

Until now, Zaha had a very relaxed attitude when it came to him or the evil spirits.

But it felt different this time.

As Zaha was fighting, Seol Young could see him display emotions that he had never shown before.

Hate.

A will to kill. Cold emotions.

It was like he had pictured the image of himself cutting down the head of this evil spirit many times… It was that feeling.

Bang!

A roar.

A golden aura exploded around the floor. Even though the aftermath was enormous, it wasn’t enough to stop the evil spirit.

The talismans on her face swayed violently, and at some point, her illusion-like form became clearer.

It had to be stopped!

A command closer to instinct.

Reflexively, Seol Young’s hand reached out. A bright blue light shone, and he used his talismans to fend off this dark energy.

But they all shattered like glass. His attack didn’t work at all. On the contrary, the darkness, which was spreading everywhere, was now heading in his direction.

Seol Young immediately raised his sword to block it, and the moment his spirit qi rose, he felt dizzy.

He couldn’t shake it off. On the contrary, he was strongly pulled toward it. The mandala energy, which repeated life and death, moved to the Blue Rainbow.

He couldn’t do anything, everything happened in the blink of an eye.

‘Why…?’

Seol Young hurriedly raised his spiritual qi to resist it, and right then, something like fireworks exploded right in front of his eyes.

A tingling shock went through his sword, and someone struck it.

“It cannot be helped.”

Zaha coldly said as he cut off a part of the darkness. There was a deafening sound of a crash, and waves of wind pushed them back.

He said it couldn’t be helped?

When he came to his senses, Seol Young was pushed out of the way.

Through the attack he did earlier, he learned that normal attacks wouldn’t work. It only gave the spirit the means to encroach on Seol Young.

So, he was of no use, then?

‘No.’

Seol Young shook his head. Even if his previous attack didn’t work, there was something else he could do. So he picked up his sword.

He recited something, and letters shone on his sword’s body.

It was similar to the rope that bound Dohwa earlier, but this time not just one but dozens of letters appeared.

‘… tie!’

Seol Young swung his sword with all his might.

A golden light flashed, and a shock wave spread as letters containing sorcery spread all over the area. They rotated while creating a barrier.

The Heaven and Earth Barrier.

A barrier that the shamans with the greatest spiritual energy used against strong spirits.

Maintaining this barrier required enormous power, so he hadn’t used it much in actual combat before.

But this held two advantages.

One was that it could prevent the spirit from escaping, and the other was that it could create an area where he could hide from this mess.

‘Because I need time to find a new way.’

Seol Young drew a large circle on the floor with his sword, and he shone a character on it.

And then it was finished.

The dark energy that spread in all directions clashed, and then there was a strong reaction.

It hit Zaha. And he was being dragged around like a whirlwind.

Ah…

Seol Young threw several talismans in a hurry.

“Get out!”

“…?”

He pulled Zaha out, who was confused as to why he was doing this. But Seol Young just gulped and used the talismans without leaving a trace, and the dark energy burned them all.

“What is this?”

Zaha asked.

Seol Young first pointed out the barrier around the space.

“That is a kind of barrier called the Heaven and Earth Barrier…. This is the center that governs the barrier and is called the Close Demon Barrier.”

It was a place to subdue evil spirits, and at its center was where the sorcerer would stay.

“In this circle, the evil spirit cannot come, but it won’t last long either.”

Seol Young slashed the sword in the middle of the text, and a blue aura spread as the barrier became clearer.

At that moment…

The evil spirit’s form vanished. It wasn’t that they were being chased.

This was a space where all of them existed but couldn’t exist simultaneously.

Its existence was just pushed for a second. The spirit was flickering, blurry, and uncertain. And then it stopped.

This showed that the evil spirit wasn’t perfect.

But soon, the spirit would change from its flickering form and take on a clearer appearance.

And the moment that would happen, a certain existence would form, and then the real nightmare would begin.

But before that, he had to come up with something.

Seol Young looked at Zaha.

“What was that? Why are you that strong?”

He was staring at the evil spirit even then.

“I couldn’t believe it until I saw it with my own eyes…”

“What? That one?”

Seol Young asked.

And only then did Zaha take his eyes off the evil spirit, and he said,

“All of this happened because I was lacking, so it was a fail.”

“Why are you saying that? You have a similar aura, so you must be able to attack it, right? But instead, you were at a disadvantage when it dragged you to the side… Anyway, you haven’t failed yet. So you have to come up with another way.”

“I wasn’t talking about that.”

Zaha coldly said.

In the shimmering darkness they were in, the golden light in his eyes stood out so clearly that he didn’t look like a human.

“You said it’s the Heaven and Earth Barrier?”

He glanced at the barrier around them.

“This will lose its effect without you, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter.”

He looked back at the spirit.

“You somehow knew that the evil spirit and I were similar, right? So why did you pretend that you didn’t know anything?”

“Because I didn’t want to judge hastily. Because that trick you…”

“Should I thank you?”

He cut off Seol Young’s words.

“Well, your role here is done.”

“Done?”

“Yes.”

Zaha raised his sword.

“Do not waste your life in such a place and find a way to live. I can stop it for a while so you can make a move.”

He spoke those words without any emotion, and Seol Young looked at him.

‘Now…’

He spoke with a sneer.

“This makes it clear.”

“What?”

“Everything you said until now was bullshit. You had no intention of stealing my spiritual power, and now you say stuff like this.”

“So? Don’t you know that all of that doesn’t matter?”

“It matters to me. I need to know why. Why deceive me with such words?”

“I don’t have time now.”

Zaha swung his sword.

The energy of darkness began to move like a whip.

Before the wind, thick and evil demonic qi pressed in. And it wasn’t just a warning. It was intent on killing.

Seol Young stepped back. It seemed that he would die by his hands first.

“Then.”

Zaha left the center spot, and Seol Young bit his lip.

‘Now, find an exit.’

The dark energy emitted by the form of the evil spirit had covered many areas around them, and he couldn’t figure out where to go.

And then he suddenly remembered.

Seol Young took something out of his sleeve.

It was the plaque that sealed the ghosts of the courtesans who died in the pavilion.

He threw it into the air, and the spirits floated up. They were beings that belonged here, so they all knew this area well, and they all flew in one direction.

It was the doorway where ghosts could come and go.

The only exit between the spirit world and the human world.

Seol Young hurriedly headed there and looked back.

“I found an exit…”

At that moment, a tremendous scream echoed throughout the area.

The darkness, which had been suppressed for a moment by Zaha’s attack and the barrier, had exploded.

Various branches of darkness moved around, and they began to turn into thick pillars and attack Zaha.

Bang!

Explosive sounds happened one after another, and along the border, another spark flew.

Zaha was caught in it, and his body was pushed back.

The mandala’s energy hit the area he was in, and it wrapped itself around Zaha’s body like a whip and tried to drag him.

At that moment, the floor began to shine.

It was the Dead Slayer sword. The Sword Spirit was moving by itself and was using all its might to drive the demonic qi away. Everything happened in the span of a single breath.

“….”

Seol Young was taken aback.

I didn’t get to do anything!