Requiem of Subdued Souls

Judging by the absurd attitude of the spirits, it seemed like the situation was taking a turn for the worse. Moreover, even at this moment, more and more spirits were gathering.

‘They have to be annihilated at once.’

Seol Young thought.

What would be the best way to do it?

Then an idea came to him.

There were many large tombs around this area, and he surely saw them on the way to the village.

‘Let’s try that method then.’

Seol Young stared at the spirits.

When all of them gathered close, he drew his sword out and touched it with his palm. Blood gushed out of a long scar that ran from his index finger to his ring finger.

Seol Young mixed the blood with red cinnabar and sand. Then, he drew a huge summoning circle on the ground. When he was done, he put the Blue Rainbow Sword in the middle.

*Thud!*

The ground rang loudly. This circle contained strong spiritual qi. It spread far and wide over the land.

“…?”

All the demons and spirits were looking around. They looked a bit confused, not knowing what was happening.

After a while, a reply came. A low growl grew closer and larger beyond the bushes along the path until it appeared.

They were creatures made out of stones. Some were as big as rocks, some had horns on their foreheads, and some swung tails as strong as whips.

These were the stone statues put around the tombs to guard them. And they shouldn’t be able to leave the vicinity of the graves. But with the power of summoning that Seol Young used, he was able to call them here.

In response to his call, all the statues from the nearby tombs came running. They roared in rage when they saw all kinds of evil because they were intended to protect the tombs in this area.

“Kwaak!”

The screams of the spirits resounded. And the stone statues crushed them to pieces with their sturdy claws, horns, and whips.

“Kuak…!”

Those who were shocked tried to run, but the stone statues were not the type to let them leave after seeing them. So the result was a slaughter.

It was just as Seol Young thought. The statues held spiritual qi too, and they could deal with evil spirits. And because the one who cast them was strong, they were strong too.

‘This was a good way.’

Thanks to the crisis, he was able to devise a creative way out. Seol Young just watched this fight happen, feeling glad, and as he watched, there were some that looked remarkably valiant.

They were four animals—a blue dragon, a white tiger, a black tortoise, and a vermillion bird. He wasn’t sure why such beasts were placed to guard them, but they surely did most of the work.

Seol Young felt curious about it.

‘Who were they protecting?’

Thanks to them, the absurd scene he had witnessed was settled quickly. The spirits and demons failed to fight back and collapsed, with screams resonating everywhere.

Eventually, everything ended, and the gloominess around the area, which had lingered for a long time, finally got swept away.

He was glad to have gotten through the crisis. But the moment he turned around…

‘As I thought.’

Seol Young had a bitter smile. It was unreasonable for someone to use such a technique. It took a huge amount of spiritual qi to get the tomb guardians out of their stations and control them.

Seol Young was still lucky enough to stand on his own two feet. If he were someone who lacked spiritual qi, he would have already coughed up blood and passed out.

“Thank you.”

Seol Young stroked the heads of the four, which represented the Hwarang troops. Then he stroked the other ones too.

They all rubbed their heads like dogs. Some even wagged their tails. It was truly reassuring to have them.

“When I recover my spiritual qi, I will return you to normal.”

Seol Young walked again with the statues as his escort.

But…

After a while, he had to stop again.

“…?”

Something unbelievable happened behind his back. The evil spirits were following him again. Seol Young was confused.

Weren’t they killed?

How could there be so many of them at once? The number kept growing.

The more they gathered, the more things got out of control. He hadn’t even recovered his qi yet, so it seemed better to get rid of the small amount right away.

Seol Young’s eyes gleamed and scanned through the darkness. His eyes were able to see through the darkness, and after a while, he found a lamp in the distance.

“Ah!”

He considered this to be good. He found a fairly large place to keep horses.

It was on the road before the high hill, so hunters usually gathered quite a bit. Many travelers could be seen resting.

And he needed a place just like this now.

The energy of strong people could never be ignored. And the sounds of drinking, cups clattering, loud laughs, and singing…

…all of them were strong.

Even the spirits avoided such places.

‘I need to get inside.’

Seol Young hurriedly stepped ahead and soon went to a place that looked like an inn and entered it.

But there was no luck.

There were only two people in the inn—an old man who seemed to be the owner and his grandson, who was a clerk.

Suddenly the door opened, and a man in a white robe came in, which surprised them. Their faces said they were a bit too shocked.

“Oh my, I thought you were a ghost.”

At the old man’s words, Seol Young just shook his head and pointed to his sword.

The man said,

“A warrior? Do come in. Sit anywhere you find comfortable. This inn is empty, after all.”

Seol Young looked around the inn. Again, not a single rat could be seen.

“How can there be no guests here?”

“Strange, right? I know. It is strange for us too.”

The man spoke politely.

“Even if this place seems out of the normal path, it should be crowded with passing people. But not a single customer dropped in today? It has been like this since the morning. I just don’t understand what happened.”

Seol Young felt an ominous feeling for the first time today.

-The fifth month is called the ‘evil month’ because ghosts often harm others.

The words of Baek Eon.

Bad luck wasn’t simply bad luck. Once the flow begins to falter, even the most insignificant things will cause great chaos.

Perhaps…

This wasn’t a crisis he could get through. However, he also wasn’t the kind to be troubled just because he was pushed into a corner.

He nodded at the old man’s words and asked for the strongest alcohol he could get.

“From now on, bad things are going to happen here, so it would be best for the two of you to walk out.”

“Uh?”

The owner and the clerk looked at each other.

“What do you mean by that? Is something bad going to happen?”

It was a sight that was hard to believe. But then came the whistle.

A mournful one, and it continued to get closer.

This made the two people go pale.

There was a sudden roaring sound outside. People gathered and mumbled words that couldn’t be understood at all. Sometimes it sounded like a gulp, and sometimes ‘crying.’

They clearly weren’t the voices of humans.

Seol Young said it again,

“The back is safe, so you can leave now.”

The two didn’t wait long after what they heard to run through the back door. 𝗯𝗲𝐝𝐧𝗼𝘃𝗲𝐥．𝗰𝗼𝐦

And now the inn was empty, with Seol Young sitting alone.

The cry of the ghosts began to get closer and closer until it felt like it was right next to him.

And then they came in. Through the cracks in the door and windows in the walls, they continued to gather.

They appeared to be twice as numerous as before. Were all the evil spirits gathered here?

Seol Young sat upright, still wearing his white robe. His eyes, which had been sunken, didn’t waver.

He felt excited. They had always been in this love-hate relationship—like wanting to touch it but yet wanting to cut it.

And now he was alone, while the opposing side had numbers. This made the spirits excited.

And their numbers gave them confidence. But there was a downside too.

Thinking that someone else would steal the chance to kill Seol Young, a group rushed in to attack first.

But then there was a loud roar from the tombs, and all of the grave keepers appeared from the air at once. Once again, they went back to killing the evil spirits.

It was a one-sided massacre.

But…

Gradually, the situation changed. There were too many enemies.

There was no end to the killing. One by one, the stone statues began to slowly falter, yet even in those moments, they tried to take even one more extra spirit down.

But they couldn’t stand it.

*Thud!*

One fell and shattered.

After a while, another fell and shattered. The evil spirits swarmed like ants.

Seol Young just concentrated on quietly conjuring his spiritual energy, but it didn’t work.

*Thud! Thud!*

In the end, each statue fell, one after another. Even the four statues representing the Hwarang troops began to fall despite fighting valiantly until the end.

“…”

Seol Young, however, was indifferent.

But with things taking a turn for the worst right in front of him, he started wondering if this could be the day he would die.

He thought…

‘If I am to die, it won’t be from being trapped like this. I will make sure to take even one extra demon down with me…’

And he looked at the bottle of alcohol and the glass placed before him. He didn’t order it to drink, but right now, it felt like doing so would be good. So he poured it into the glass.

The atmosphere was tense. Every spirit was looking at his movements.

And the moment he put the drink down, the spirits who noticed it attacked.

A blue lightning flashed, and true to the name of Blue Rainbow, a blue rainbow arc was drawn.

“Kuaaak!”

The horrifying screams rang out.

The spirits which were attacking had split into two groups, and no one could see how Seol Young swung the sword to cut them.

“…”

They were agitated.

However, seeing Seol Young’s spiritual power, they became greedy again. Wouldn’t it be great to just kill the human and absorb the strong energy in his body? They couldn’t resist such greed.

“Kuaaak!”

The second group rushed in.

Again, the sword shone in blue. They screamed and yelled as they surrounded him.

Everyone looked at the Hwarang in a white robe. His sword was sharp when it came to cutting down the spirits. And the alcohol on the table.

But…

Still, it felt like the result had been decided. There were still too many spirits, and with just twenty-five of them being taken down, it didn’t seem like he had a chance of surviving.

No one had any intention of leaving. As both sides clashed, wanting to win, it was obvious who would fall first.

The spirits knew it too. However, they were not ready to jump hastily.

“….”

Both sides faced each other in silence.

And it was then that a squeal broke out.

The door opened.

And through the fog created by the darkness, someone came in.

And looking around the inn, he mumbled to himself,

“You never know if this is in business or not.”