🚨 Warning: This chapter includes depictions of graphic imagery. Please remain mindful of this as you read. If you feel uncomfortable, do not hesitate to stop reading. 🚨
Swish―!
With a sound that tore through the air, everything came to a halt. The pain she had braced herself for, and even the eerie calm of death, failed to arrive.
A brief pause hung in the air. The strange silence that filled the room felt unsettling, forcing Nokhee to open her eyes reluctantly.
As soon as she did, a familiar ornament came into view right in front of her. It belonged to Myunghoon. Nokhee slowly lifted her head. Myunghoon’s head, which had transformed into that of a snake, was nowhere to be seen. And then—
Whishhhh—!
Hot blood erupted from the severed surface like a fountain.
It was only natural that Nokhee and Yeojin, who were beneath it, would get splattered.
Her vision was completely stained red with the sticky blood. As the blood cascaded down, it gave the haunting illusion that the villa was crumbling away.
The unbearable stench made Nokhee feel lightheaded, but even through her hazy awareness, she could clearly see someone approaching, trudging through the crimson puddle. It was a man who would pass by without a word of greeting and offer his reluctant service more like an obligation than genuine help.
Knowing full well he would be punished, he had prioritised himself over Yoon Jucheol’s commands. Yet, he dared to blame her, saying she should not issue any unnecessary commands ― the insolent servant of this household.
Hers.
Her one and only salvation.
“...Kijoon.”
After calling out like that, Nokhee lost consciousness.
Manseon was a six-hundred-year-old weasel yokai.
Unlike ferocious beasts like tigers or wolves, surviving for six hundred years was no small feat for a mere weasel.
However, by evading its natural enemies and wandering through the mountains and rivers, it eventually became an entity that outlived many deities and spirits.
As time passed, it naturally accumulated power, and by the time it became skilled in the rare art of human shapeshifting, it began to yearn for land.
Even those born long after it was claiming small patches of land as their domains and living like lords, while it found itself aimlessly wandering without a home, making it an easy target for those seeking to prey on its accumulated power instead of achieving ascendance.
Thus, while searching for a place to settle down, it came across the news that the guardian spirit of a vast territory in the northern region had suddenly died.
This was an opportunity. It needed to seize the land and the power of the deceased guardian spirit before a horde of various creatures arrived to stake their claim.
While other yokai dismissed it as mere rumours, Manseon rushed north, travelling day and night without rest and ignoring its waning power, only to discover that the rumours were true.
Had the guardian spirit still been alive, lowly beings like Manseon would not have been able to set foot anywhere near that land.
However, not only was it able to step onto the land of Hwangju, but it also discovered that the barrier protecting the core area, where the guardian spirit had settled, had weakened, allowing for an easy invasion.
Fortunately, it seemed the rumour had not yet spread widely, as only those unable to breach the flimsy barrier were wandering around, causing harm to humans. Manseon easily disposed of them and ventured deep into Hwangju Castle, where it could sense the presence of the land’s spirit.
The place where the guardian spirit had established itself was a secluded lakeside, and the overwhelming stench of snakes was unmistakably a sign of an Imugi's lair.
Yet, even if it was on the verge of death, the power that governed the land could not possibly be this feeble. When Manseon delved into the depths of the lake with its divine senses, it quickly discerned the reason.
The Imugi, having given up on becoming a dragon and laid eggs after mating, seemed to have exhausted its energy and lifespan, dying in the process. As it breathed its last, its power seeped into the newly laid eggs, causing the barrier to weaken rapidly.
Manseon was overjoyed to finally have land to settle in, yet it was deeply disheartened by the fact that it lacked the power to steal it. Even if it established itself here, it could not ensure that it could defend the expansive territory of Hwangju from being seized by other beings.
Furthermore, once the twelve offspring of the Imugi hatched, it would undoubtedly descend into chaos as they battled for territory...
Suddenly, a cunning idea crossed Manseon’s mind.
After all, until they developed a certain level of intelligence over time, whether they were mythical beasts or not, they were no different from mere animals. It was common for wild beasts to perish in power struggles or to scatter when driven away by stronger ones.
‘What if I instigated a fight before they emerged from the ground?'
Then, all it had to do was bide its time and consume the last one standing, and everything would fall into place.
Having lived for six hundred years, it had encountered all sorts of legends. Among them was a tale of an emperor from the East who, in his pursuit of immortality, had caught a thousand-year-old centipede that had laid eggs and confined it in a jar. After three months, when he opened the lid, only one survived, possessing dozens of poisonous fangs.
The ending of that tale was tragic. To prepare the centipede for consumption, a physician extracted dozens of its fangs, leaving just one. In the process, he lost his grip on the centipede, which then escaped and bit the elderly emperor. The emperor died on the spot. It was said that once the last fang fell out, the centipede also perished without resistance.
Those who heard the story, including Manseon, believed it was a punishment from heaven. Both the emperor, who defied the divine and coveted immortality at the cost of an innocent spirit’s life, and the centipede that survived by devouring its mother and siblings, ultimately faced their fates.
The moral of this story was obvious: do not act against the natural order or risk divine retribution. Conversely…
‘Isn’t anything acceptable as long as one doesn’t bring divine punishment upon themselves?’
At that moment, the leader of the humans residing in Hwangju grew suspicious of the unusual happenings and was searching everywhere for a solution. Unbeknownst to them, the guardian spirit had died, resulting in a surge of various creatures to flock to the area.
Thus, disguised as a shaman, Manseon re-entered Hwangju, using the same scheme employed by the emperor from the East.
Deceiving others into believing that the corpse of the dead Imugi was a Gangcheol and tossing it into the fire to burn was simple enough. However, the energy contained within the eggs was much more formidable than it had anticipated. Manseon had assumed that these unborn creatures, resembling mere worms, would possess limited power, but the offspring of the Imugi proved to be quite different.
Thus, Manseon used half of its accumulated power to seal them, ensuring they could not crawl out onto the land until only the strongest one remained after they had consumed one another.
At last, three months later, just as expected, only one strong creature remained in the pit, having devoured all its siblings.
Similar to the centipede in the legend, the creature's body was indeed covered with reverse scales, one for each of its devoured siblings. Despite being newly hatched and lacking intelligence, it possessed incredible strength. Manseon had no choice but to muster the last of its power to subdue the creature.
With the plan set in motion, Manseon successfully had the humans’ hands stained with blood, effectively evading the watchful eyes of the heavens. However, it had exhausted all its energy, rendering it no more than a decrepit beast. Though it had laboriously secured the land of Hwangju, it now appeared incapable of being even a yokai, let alone a god.
It proclaimed to the humans that the Imugi was destined to become a dragon, but since the creature had grown weak due to its crimes, ascension was no longer possible. Therefore, Manseon intended to exploit its weakness with the reverse scales and, over time, accumulate the power befitting an Imugi. When that day came, it would extract the last reverse scale, steal its energy, and devour it to become the true guardian spirit of the land.
However, if things continued like this, the creature would soon reclaim its reverse scales and seek revenge once it had gained intelligence and grown larger.
Urgently finishing its calculations, Manseon decided to hide the eleven reverse scales in different locations to ensure the creature wouldn’t easily find them.
"I will keep one scale, so the rest should be carefully shared among the Yoon family. Do not let one person keep them all, and do not lose them. If you protect this well for three years, you will attain the greatest power in this nation."
Subtly encouraging them to swallow and hide the reverse scales, the foolish Yoon Duseok eagerly complied.
Even so, exhausting its power to make the Imugi its servant did not seem like a futile endeavour, as the Yoon family regarded Manseon almost as a goddess.
Manseon fully exploited the Imugi, now restrained by a leash.
It had the creature eliminate those who sought to claim the land, sometimes sending it to steal treasures, manipulate the weather for bountiful harvests in Hwangju, and even assassinate political enemies at the request of the Yoon family — making full use of it for various tasks.
Whenever Manseon sensed its own energy waning and worried about its lifespan, it ordered the creature to hunt down various spirits and monsters, utilising it like a convenient servant.
Knowing its precarious position, the creature said nothing, even when belittled as a 'lowly servant,' a 'snake bastard,' or a 'worm.'
However, within less than ten years, Manseon’s dreams of consuming the Imugi and becoming the true ruler of Hwangju faced significant setbacks.
The reverse scales consumed by the Yoon family began to awaken the vengeful spirits of the Imugi that had been killed and devoured by their sibling.
The eleven serpentine spirits, torn to shreds upon hatching, were filled with resentment and began to wreak havoc in all directions. If Manseon had been powerful enough, it would have captured and eliminated them, but it no longer had that kind of strength.
Although it tried to spur the servant into action, it received only indifferent replies. The spirits, akin to spiritual cores searching for their bodies, could not be easily subdued.
Consequently, the unfortunate Yoon family members continued to perish. The reverse scales had become deeply intertwined with their bloodline, making recovery exceedingly difficult. Even if they were somehow located, there were no suitable hiding places from the watchful gaze of the enormous Imugi.
As a result, after repeatedly passing the reverse scales down to the descendants of the Yoon family, the clan began to dwindle when the family head changed for the third generation.
To make matters worse, even the servant no longer obeyed orders promptly. It began to procrastinate or outright refuse to listen. As it failed to bring back the offerings, Manseon's power diminished, causing its transformation to unravel.
With grotesque fur, a thick beard sprouting from its face, and its eyes sunken like a beast's, the layers of ash and soot smeared on its visage only grew thicker. Manseon felt as though it was teetering on the brink of collapse, its insides burning with anxiety day by day.
It urgently needed to hide the reverse scales in a new location to tighten the grip on the Imugi's life.
Around this time, it discovered Nokhee.
She was a rare human with a pure and clear spirit. Such individuals possessed a miraculous ability to naturally purify themselves, even in the presence of wickedness, and to soothe those who were filled with anger.
Had the runaway Yoon Hocheol not transformed into a snake, Manseon would have been forced to scour the country at great expense to acquire such a person and treat them with utmost care and caution.
Fortunately, Nokhee was of lowly status, had dependents, and was easy to manipulate. Her robust physique also meant she could fulfil her role effectively, giving Manseon a sense of relief.
Nonetheless, Manseon recognised that there was a significant debt owed to the Yoon family for bringing Nokhee. Thus, it chose to turn a blind eye to the family head’s frequent exploitation of her for his own selfish desires, oblivious to the potential consequences.
That was the source of its troubles.
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