Chapter 119: Fortuitous Encounter (4)

The deafening roar concluded with a blizzard. White snowflakes whipped through the air, tousling Lee Taebaek’s distinctive three-tiered hair.

‘Je’ and ‘Ju’ were bald as charred eggs. The snow dusted their heads white in streaks.

A bizarre resonance lingered. It was a silence that gnawed at his mind like the biting cold scraping his skin.

Drip, drip.

A droplet of blood started from his forehead and trailed down his chin. Lee Taebaek frowned at the black spots splattering onto the snowflakes.

The mood was foul.

‘Feels like they’re dirtying my world.’

The outline of this mess was gradually coming into focus. He vaguely recalled how he’d ended up in a decisive showdown on this snowfield with these two.

‘Je’ was the curse the Heavenly Demon had inflicted on Goeun, and ‘Ju’ was the innate curse speech Rock possessed.

The hanja characters on their forehead and in their mouths were surely because of that.

‘Je’ manifested through thought.

‘Ju’ through speech.

A curse was a technique that killed with the mind or mouth. They’d straightforwardly symbolized it by pasting hanja characters on.

“—-.”

‘Je’ clamped its mouth shut and stared at Lee Taebaek. ‘Ju’ did much the same.

Neither had eye sockets. Yet their heavy gazes prickled his skin.

Was it the cold? A disturbance rippled through the frozen expanse once more. Three pairs of tentacles sprouted from ‘Je’s cervical vertebrae.

Purple tentacles wriggled like an octopus through the hazy snow mist. Goosebumps erupted across his soul.

The six tentacles seemed to possess individual egos. Bickering among themselves, perhaps. They lacked harmony, clashing frequently.

‘Je’ clicked its tongue in annoyance. Then, like handing out candy, it generated skewers as before and distributed them to the tentacles.

His mind went numb.

‘Ju’ took it further. Suddenly, it shoved a curved blade into its mouth and shredded it every which way.

Not only did it butcher the snowfield into a mess, the grotesque scene churned his stomach. It was enough to unsettle even Lee Taebaek’s reinforced gut.

‘Ju’ lifted its head, fixing its gaze on Lee Taebaek. Its mouth, split into four ragged flaps. Inside, four 呪 characters were carved boldly.

It hacked roughly several times to catch its breath.

One of ‘Je’s tentacles poked its side with a skewer, and it irritably swatted it away.

The next moment.

Thud-thud-

They charged again. This time with a fan-shaped blizzard three times larger. It felt like a herd of buffalo stampeding in.

Speed surpassing sound. Perfect timing for Bullet Time to hit its limit.

“Gotta face tentacles and this pervert barehanded?”

He muttered in disbelief. Meanwhile, the pair closed the considerable distance in an instant with ferocious momentum.

‘Self-inflicted disaster fits perfectly here.’

He’d brought them to purge Goeun and Rock’s curses, only to wind up in a midnight bloodbath. Just as futility washed over him, a sudden conviction struck.

“If I kill those two here.”

He could claim their powers.

Grip.

Lee Taebaek wrapped his hand around the hilt like a sheath while raising the umbrella fabric like a shield with his other.

Whiiiiiish, clang!

His hand tingled. Skewer-wielding tentacles crashed into the fabric, slashing wildly. Sharp textures protruded jaggedly against the lining.

Bulletproof or not, more hits and it’d tear. The Para Blade itself wouldn’t suffer, but it’d spell defeat in this fight.

Clang!

Lee Taebaek swung the fabric to bat the tentacles upward.

A clear line of sight opened.

“Kagagagak!”

The moment ‘Ju’, handling the low stance, gaped its mouth, curved blades emerged from its four-way split maw.

Clang-

He swept low to repel the ambush, then twisted upward to deflect the upper tentacles.

Undeterred, ‘Je’ and ‘Ju’ fluidly swapped high and low stances before lunging again. They alternated leading the assault, slowly but surely stripping his room to maneuver. Boom! Boooom! Snow dust trailed long and rough beneath his feet. Though pushed back sliding, he drew on abdominal tension and leg torque for steady pivots.

“Kkaek!”

Then ‘Ju’ would appear like a ghost, forcing pure retreat. As if declaring the offense entirely theirs.

This bastard.

Suddenly gripping a sword in its mouth and one per hand. ‘Je’ wielded the Eight Swords Style, ‘Ju’ the Three Swords Style. In any other situation, he’d have scoffed.

‘Fuck, fuck.’

Reduced to cheap swears in reality.

Already outmatched one-on-two. Now with five pairs of arms. Whatever, the numbers were killing him.

‘Bullet Time would be nice!’

Damn cooldown. Life was always like that—one beat off.

Lips cracked dry. Ears rang deaf from successive blasts, like being underwater. His mind mirrored the chaotic snowfield, scratches zigzagging wildly across the blank canvas of his psyche.

In mere minutes, dozens of clashes crossed. It looked like a silver barrier enveloped Lee Taebaek and the curses.

They traversed the barren plain while upholding it. ‘Je’ and ‘Ju’ pressed relentlessly untiring, while Lee Taebaek swung, parried, and chained counters in openings.

If they were human, he’d have uttered admiration.

But they were mere concepts given form. Even ‘Je’s tentacles seeming more ego-driven wasn’t just his imagination.

‘Their attacks aren’t just sharp.’

Skewers and curved blades were coated in greenish liquid. At minimum, deadly venom.

Looking back, their strategy shifted from mid-awakening(?). Previously aimed at ‘severing,’ now ‘injuring.’

Amid the blade storm, Lee Taebaek mustered focus.

The shield was a godsend—guns and blades would’ve shredded him early.

They strained desperately for even a graze on his flesh. Midway through combat, they’d wipe off liquid, mutter to recoat, and resume.

‘No way.’

Curses were inherently imperceptible to the eye. Only Madam Celine’s Dimensional Eyes could detect them.

To reiterate, not see—detect. The world’s sole Dimensional Eyes barely sensed them.

‘Can I see curses?’

Net tales circulated of third eyes awakening in ruins. He’d dismissed them as bullshit, yet something transcending Dimensional Eyes had opened in him.

He itched to name it.

Whiiish!

The sword path veered slightly off prediction. The wavy blade tore air with extra grating whoosh, blisteringly fast. Yet.

‘Why’s it getting clearer?’

Lee Taebaek twisted his shoulder, barely letting the curved blade skim past his chest. The big motion created a gap in ‘Ju’s assault. He crammed a kick into ‘Ju’s dantian.

It spewed blood and leaped far back. ‘Je’ glanced at its ally before charging fiercer. Tentacles hammered the fabric relentlessly.

Ting-ting-clang, skewers strained to pierce.

‘Getting sharper still.’

Bullet Time cooldown hadn’t reset.

[Agility] was long since buffed via restrictions—no further vision boost possible.

Consciousness outpaced sound. Lee Taebaek chuckled unwittingly.

“Did I awaken too?”

In his mental world, the intruders had awakened. Thus, the world’s master had inadvertently awakened as well.

Normally absurd hypothesis, but he was the operator. Bug-hunting was his core duty. A bug invading his mental world had unlocked a new ability for ‘efficient’ elimination.

The truth he didn’t know.

Still, he quickly sensed the change in his body.

Their hitherto overwhelming offense faltered—or seemed to.

No difference from before, yet his counters grew adept. Even ‘Ju’ joining barely staggered him momentarily. Initiative began shifting his way.

‘This.’

Euphoria crept into his head before victory was certain.

“Squeeze ’em more, and I awaken further?”

It started with absorbing internal energy on clashes.

Looks like extras came bundled.

Life’s feast after famine.

One beat astray, yet luck reels it back. That’s life, no?

‘Lucky.’

Vision of juicing these uglies made his lip twitch.

“Might as well learn those tentacles and mouth-swords while at it!”

‘Je’ and ‘Ju’ both flinched. No expressions, but he felt their intimidation.

Meanwhile, outside, Madam Celine was putting up a desperate fight.

She busily coordinated from the trio’s center. Shock plain on her face.

“Wh-what’s with this.”

“What?!”

Jin Sobang bellowed amid his fidgeting.

“Vomiting blood’s normal then! Nitpicking now?!”

Things had looked off since the three started hemorrhaging internally. The room already reeked of blood.

“Thought handling curses meant zero blood? Purging requires bleeding to near-death!”

“What if they d-die!”

“Bad luck! That’s what curses are—bad luck ensnaring you!”

Even Jin Sobang, veteran of qi deviations, pinched his nose as it threatened to melt.

“A-anyway. Explain short.”

Madam Celine somehow held. Professionalism shining. She gulped thickly and spoke.

“Curses dissolve by clashing mutually, weakening one. Inject mana to erase?”

“Simple!”

“Fuck! Counterfire strat. Let ’em fight and tear, I mop up last!”

Mana-wise, she was average murim folk. Evolving one curse demanded heaps; two was beyond her.

“So I take only two hosts max! Evolves embers within my power!”

“Now three. Easier suppress, right!?”

“Theory, yes!”

Jin Sobang and Madam Celine shared unified dread. Him at the crisis severity. Her at the unforeseen variable freezing her brain.

As sharp shouts intertwined.

Gurgle!

Both women spewed a mouthful of bloody froth at once.

“Oh, fuck.”

Jin Sobang and Madam Celine glanced at them, then locked eyes.

“Far from excessive bleeding?”

Jin broke silence first.

“…….”

“Hey, you…!”

Suddenly.

Ice trickled down their spines. Butts clenched like iced rods sliding vertebrae.

Instinct swiveled gazes to the one still quietly circulating energy.

Lee Taebaek. Three pairs of translucent figures bloomed from his back, dancing like heat haze.

The instant they sensed wrong, his brows furrowed—and his eyes snapped open.