abcnovels
Chapter 247
Chapter 247
Chapter 247 – Consort Ho (1)
“Won’t you let me join in too, guys?”
‘!?’
The sudden appearance of the stunningly beautiful woman in splendid red and gold clothes momentarily hardened the expressions of Mok Gyeong-un and Cheong-ryeong, who was possessing Prince Gyeongjin’s body.
That’s because in the hand of this woman, whom they were seeing for the first time, was the torn head of Chief Eunuch Ho of the Western Depot.
‘What the hell?’
Mok Gyeong-un’s hardened eyes wavered.
Since he had surrounded the room with deadly energy to completely block out sound, he couldn’t accurately sense the approaching sounds from outside.
However, he didn’t feel anything from this woman who had opened the door and entered.
He couldn’t see the color of her energy, neither through his senses nor his physical eyes.
‘…What is her identity?’
There was one time he had encountered a similar case.
It was when he met the old man with the bamboo fishing rod.
Due to his overwhelmingly superior level, it was difficult to even sense his energy, and even when he opened the power of his Third Eye, his eyes couldn’t withstand the pressure of the energy.
At that moment, Cheong-ryeong, who was possessing Prince Gyeongjin, opened her mouth.
“Consort Ho?”
When possessing someone, depending on the degree of assimilation, one could read their memories.
Even if it wasn’t complete assimilation, if it was someone Prince Gyeongjin was familiar with, Cheong-ryeong could also immediately recognize them.
‘Consort Ho?’
At Cheong-ryeong’s words, Mok Gyeong-un couldn’t hide his bewilderment.
If she was Consort Ho, wasn’t she one of the two women the emperor favored?
How did she appear holding the head of Chief Eunuch Ho of the Western Depot, who had gone out to seek help?
As he was puzzled, Cheong-ryeong spoke with a perplexed expression.
“Consort Ho, what in the world are you doing? Isn’t that Eunuch Ho’s head in your hand?”
She spoke as if she had truly become Prince Gyeongjin.
With this, Mok Gyeong-un immediately grasped Cheong-ryeong’s intentions.
It seemed that since she couldn’t determine the other party’s true identity, she was trying to act as Prince Gyeongjin for now.
Therefore, to play along, Mok Gyeong-un tried to clasp his hands together and bow his head.
However,
“Pft.”
The woman called Consort Ho let out a mocking laugh.
Then, she tossed the head of Eunuch Ho she was holding.
-Thud! Roll roll roll!
Consort Ho walked into the quarters and spoke.
“Don’t overdo the acting. spirit.”
‘!?’
At those words, the eyes of Cheong-ryeong, who was possessing Prince Gyeongjin, slightly wavered.
What the hell was this woman’s true identity?
Since she had reached the level of a Blue Spirit, even ordinary necromancers had difficulty discerning that she was possessing someone.
Yet, she had immediately noticed it.
Her confident tone made it difficult to play dumb or make excuses.
Therefore, Cheong-ryeong spoke with sharpened eyes.
“Who the hell are you?”
“You?”
“That’s right. You…”
-Pak!
At that moment,
Consort Ho, who had appeared in front of Cheong-ryeong possessing Prince Gyeongjin in an instant, tried to grab her neck.
However, at that very moment,
-Pak!
Cheong-ryeong, who was about to be grabbed, pushed herself to the side, and someone grabbed Consort Ho’s wrist.
It was none other than Mok Gyeong-un.
Looking at her grabbed wrist, Consort Ho curled her lips and said,
“You’re quite fast for someone with an old man’s face.”
“…”
Mok Gyeong-un didn’t respond to her words.
No, it was more accurate to say he couldn’t respond.
-Tremble tremble!
Although he was grasping her wrist, apart from it being slender, it was so unbelievably strong that it was difficult for him to withstand it.
Just as he thought he should let go,
-Bam! Crash!
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un’s body, which was holding Consort Ho’s wrist, crashed into the wall of the quarters and broke through it.
Consort Ho, who had easily thrown off Mok Gyeong-un, turned her gaze to Cheong-ryeong.
“I can tell your level is quite high, but it seems you don’t know your place. spirit.”
“You…”
-Bam!
Before she could finish speaking, Cheong-ryeong’s body was slammed to the floor.
Consort Ho was pressing down on her head, and although she shouldn’t have been able to feel pain even if she was possessing a human body,
“Ugh…”
A groan escaped her lips due to the intense pain that seemed to penetrate her head.
Cheong-ryeong looked at Consort Ho with perplexed, widened eyes.
The sight of her grinning as if she was having the time of her life made it seem like she was enjoying this situation.
At that sight, Cheong-ryeong could instinctively tell.
‘This woman… is not human.’
It wasn’t a statement stemming from her personality.
She truly wasn’t human.
She hadn’t noticed it because her energy wasn’t revealed, but this force pressing down on her head was undoubtedly demonic power.
Moreover, it was demonic power that was immensely vast and pure to an immeasurable degree.
If just a fragment of it was this powerful, what was the true identity of this being?
‘A demon beast?’
No.
It could be even higher than that.
No matter how high-level a demon beast Imae Mangnyang was, as a spirit who had reached the Indigo Spirit level, her spiritual power was not inferior to it.
At least, she couldn’t be overwhelmingly suppressed like this.
If that was the case, could it be,
‘A spiritual beast?’
Was this woman, who had the appearance of a beautiful human, a spiritual beast?
Spiritual beasts were considered the highest level of Imae Mangnyang.
How could such a being exist in the palace as a woman favored by the emperor?
As she was perplexed, Consort Ho spoke.
“You’re an interesting one. Most spirits or monsters wouldn’t dare enter my territory, but seeing you enter so fearlessly.”
-Crunch!
“Aargh!”
As Consort Ho pressed down on her head even harder, a scream burst out from Cheong-ryeong’s mouth.
Cheong-ryeong felt pain that seemed like it would shatter her spiritual body.
Right at that moment,
-Rumble!
A vast curse power spread throughout the quarters.
Along with it, four pillars shot up around Consort Ho.
Seeing the four pillars that had risen, Consort Ho’s eyes flickered with interest.
“I wonder what this is.”
Consort Ho looked at the pillars, then turned her gaze.
There, Mok Gyeong-un walked out from beyond the shattered wall, forming a hand seal with one hand and grasping his sword finger with the other.
“I felt curse power, but I didn’t know you could also use sorcery.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Mok Gyeong-un extended his sword finger toward Consort Ho.
“Four Peaks Linking Technique.”
-Whoosh!
Along with this, a wall of curse power formed from the pillars and connected.
Then, it tried to imprison Consort Ho.
“Shrink!”
Mok Gyeong-un made a grasping motion with his palm.
The size of the wall created by the Four Peaks Linking Technique began to shrink.
The intention was to cleverly reduce the size of the curse power wall to cut off and trap only Consort Ho’s wrist, which was pressing down on Cheong-ryeong’s head.
However, right at that moment,
“You have a lot of tricks up your sleeve, but what can you do?”
Consort Ho smirked and flicked her finger at the wall of curse power that was about to connect.
-Clang!
-Rip!
At that moment, along with the rebound, Mok Gyeong-un’s palm was torn and forcibly opened.
Not only that, but the wall of curse power that was meant to imprison Consort Ho shattered into pieces, and the curse power scattered in all directions.
“Petty tricks won’t work, so what…”
-Swoosh!
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un’s figure appeared in front of her.
Then, he thrust his sword finger, infused with sharp sword energy, toward Consort Ho’s eyes.
Realizing that sorcery didn’t work on her, Mok Gyeong-un immediately switched to martial arts and chose to directly attack her.
However,
-Pak!
Consort Ho waved her hand without dodging Mok Gyeong-un’s sword finger at all.
Then, Mok Gyeong-un’s figure, which was thrusting his sword finger, scattered like an afterimage.
At the same time,
-Bam! Crash!
Mok Gyeong-un’s figure was hit by something right behind her and slammed into the floor.
The impact was so strong that it broke through the floor of the quarters and created a depression around it.
“Disciple!”
Cheong-ryeong called out to Mok Gyeong-un in shock.
Then, she noticed something fluttering above the spot where Mok Gyeong-un had fallen.
It was a tail with golden fur.
‘A tail?’
The tail was connected to none other than under Consort Ho’s skirt.
Consort Ho covered her mouth and laughed.
“Hohohoho, petty tricks like that shadow clone technique won’t work on me. No, you should at least create ten clones for me to possibly find an opening.”
-Swish swish!
Along with that, golden tails rose from under Consort Ho’s skirt.
There were quite a few tails.
Seeing the tails, Cheong-ryeong’s pupils shook intensely.
‘Golden tails?’
At that moment,
A vicious and dark energy suddenly surged from the crater in the floor.
It was none other than demonic energy.
Consort Ho’s eyes glimmered with interest as she looked at the flowing demonic energy.
It was because she had never felt such energy before.
‘It’s not human, not a spirit, and not an energy I’ve felt from monsters either…’
Right then,
-Whoosh!
The surging demonic energy suddenly multiplied several times in an instant.
Then, the energy gathered into a single point within the crater and brushed past Consort Ho in a fleeting moment.
-Swish!
A black line appeared in the air.
Along with it, Mok Gyeong-un stood right behind Consort Ho, breathing roughly.
“Haa… Haa…”
The greatest technique he could currently execute was this sword energy and the technique of gathering all his power into a single point.
-Creak! Creak!
His muscles tensed up and cried out throughout his body.
Although he didn’t collapse like before, it was still a tremendous technique beyond his comprehension, so he couldn’t use it consecutively more than once at the moment.
Mok Gyeong-un slowly turned his head.
‘!?’
Upon turning his head, Mok Gyeong-un frowned.
That’s because despite it being his most powerful strike with all his might, Consort Ho was unaffected.
No, it wasn’t that she was completely unaffected.
-Drip!
A single scratch appeared on her beautiful cheek, and a drop of blood flowed from it.
Consort Ho wiped it with her sleeve and raised an eyebrow.
“Blood…”
Although it was just a single drop, when was the last time this had happened?
No, it was virtually nonexistent.
It was the first time since her birth that a mere human had inflicted a wound on her.
Consort Ho’s eyes turned cold, and then the color of her eyes and hair began to change.
-Swish swish!
They took on a golden hue that felt noble and splendid.
At her transformation, Mok Gyeong-un swallowed his dry saliva.
Even without opening the power of his Third Eye, the energy emanating from the transformed Consort Ho was so distant that it sent chills down his spine.
-Swish swish!
Behind her, whose hair and eyes had turned golden, nine tails rose like mountain peaks.
‘Nine tails?’
Seeing this, something flashed through Mok Gyeong-un’s mind.
[There is a being known to be even worse than the Great Demon King, who is said to be the oldest among the Six Demons. That being is an evil incarnate and leads everything to destruction.]
[…Leads to destruction?]
[Many nations, from ancient times to the Yin and Zhou dynasties, have fallen because of that being.]
[Yin and Zhou? Could it be that spiritual beast you’re talking about, Golden…]
[That’s right. It is the great fox Imae Mangnyang, the Golden Fur Nine-Tailed, who has a hundred faces and is thus also called the Hundred-Faced One, with nine golden tails filled with ominous demonic power.]