Lady Seok stormed back to her quarters . With a thunderous crash, she kicked a chair, her internal energy shattering it in half. Her face flushed red with anger as she seethed, "How dare he!"
She had managed to contain her fury while in the medical hall, but now that she was alone, her rage boiled over. Her guard, Hu-Ying, cautiously tried to calm her. "My lady, please compose yourself."
"Compose myself?" she snapped. "How can I possibly remain calm? I went to all the trouble of finding a supposedly capable shaman, only for that unexpected brat to claim the seal!"
Suddenly, Lady Seok clutched the back of her neck, feeling dizzy as her blood pressure spiked. In truth, while she had been wary of the cunning second son and the favored youngest son, she had never considered the third son, Mok Gyeong-un, a threat. He lacked martial talent, and his maternal family was all but ruined. She had paid him no mind at all.
But now, this overlooked son had become an unexpected obstacle. Lady Seok gnashed her teeth in frustration. She had never imagined he would try to negotiate over the clan leader's seal. She had assumed a little intimidation would make him relinquish it immediately.
"Was he always like this?" she wondered. The Mok Gyeong-un she knew had never shown such cunning. He had seemed cowardly and timid. There were many stories attesting to this. "Did he hide his true nature all along?"
Come to think of it, before his mother's death, he had been praised for his intelligence, if not his martial prowess. "Perhaps he's been protecting himself all this time by playing the fool," she mused. If so, he might be even more dangerous than she'd thought. Those who could conceal themselves and exercise patience were often the most formidable.
And then there was that strange power he had displayed. Lady Seok recalled how her maid Sohwa had suddenly choked, her veins bulging as she struggled for breath. It reminded her of how the shaman Myosin had died. The similarities were striking.
"Mok Gyeong-un must have killed Myosin as well," she concluded aloud.
"You mean that boy?" Hu-Ying asked, incredulous.
"Yes," Lady Seok confirmed. It made sense. She had brought in a reputable Shaman; there was no way such an expert would have been possessed by a malevolent spirit and gone berserk. It had to be Mok Gyeong-un's doing.
Hu-Ying was incensed. "How dare he kill someone you summoned, my lady! Let me handle this. I'll dispose of him quietly before he can use any sorcery—"
"Enough," Lady Seok cut him off. "If we act rashly and the seal ends up going to the second or youngest son, my own son will bear the consequences."
"But my lady, we can't allow that boy to manipulate us—"
"Who said anything about being manipulated?" Lady Seok interrupted. She retrieved a small jade bead with unusual markings from a white porcelain vase in her cabinet and handed it to Hu-Ying.
"Take this to the Phoenix Pavillion," she instructed. "Inform the sect leader about Myosin's murder."
Hu-Ying's eyes widened in understanding. The Phoenix Pavillion was the organization of Shamans to which the deceased Myosin had belonged.
Meanwhile, in another part of the compound, the guard Go-chan received a stinging slap from his superior, Gam.
"You let that mere boy wander around freely?" Gam berated him. "I gave you permission to subdue him if necessary, but instead, you escorted him to the main hall? Have you lost your mind?"
Go-chan remained silent, conflicted. He wanted to explain what had transpired in Gam's absence, but now he hesitated. An inexplicable unease had taken root in him after his encounter with the imposter Mok Gyeong-un.
Rationally, Go-chan knew that his superior could easily dispose of the boy if he chose to. Yet, after witnessing the fake Mok Gyeong-un's abilities, Go-chan found himself afraid. It wasn't just the toxic blood or the strange sorcery that unsettled him; there was something fundamentally inhuman about the imposter that chilled Go-chan to his core.
"What a mess," Go-chan thought bitterly. Initially, he had been pleased to find a suitable stand-in for Mok Gyeong-un. Now, he found himself at the mercy of that very imposter.
The fake Mok Gyeong-un's parting words echoed in his mind: "I trust you'll keep this to yourself." Though the imposter couldn't possibly overhear their current conversation, Go-chan felt an eerie sense of being watched.
Gam continued his reprimand: "If that boy starts snooping around again, I won't be so lenient."
"His thigh was pierced. He won't be walking easily for a while," Go-chan offered.
"Injured or not, keep him out of sight," Gam ordered. "You're certain the senior madam didn't notice anything amiss?"
"Yes, I'm sure. I was right there. She was only upset about his visit to the main hall," Go-chan replied, omitting the crucial detail of the imposter's negotiation with Lady Seok.
Go-chan's mouth went dry as he realized how blurred the lines of loyalty had become. He was now concealing half-truths from his superior, the very person to whom he should be reporting everything.
Gam shook his head in disappointment. It was becoming clearer that their chosen impersonator was ill-suited for the role. While Gam had recognized the necessity of disposing of the real Mok Gyeong-un, he now saw that controlling this imposter would only grow more difficult with time.
"We need to act quickly," Gam thought. If the imposter continued to act so unpredictably, their entire plan could unravel. They needed to find a more suitable replacement soon.
"Watch him constantly. Don't let him out of your sight for a moment," Gam instructed Go-chan.
"You won't warn him directly?" Go-chan asked.
"There are too many eyes around," Gam replied. The medical hall was full of doctors and servants. Even though they were of lower status, Gam and Go-chan couldn't openly interfere with or scold someone posing as a young master in front of others.
Moreover, Gam recognized the imposter's cunning nature. "It's better not to engage him in lengthy conversations," he reasoned. Keeping the imposter in the dark about their intentions would make it easier to replace and dispose of him later.
Oblivious to these machinations, the fake Mok Gyeong-un sat comfortably in his room, engrossed in a book on Yin-Yang philosophy. His eyes lingered on a particular passage: "When the spirit of the deceased becomes a malevolent entity, its power varies depending on several factors."
The text went on to describe different grades of spirits, from the weakest that could only induce goosebumps or slight chills in the living, to more dangerous entities capable of possessing humans and causing severe illness or even death.
As he pondered this information, a smoky figure materialized through the wall—the demonic monk spirit. The imposter realized that this entity was more powerful than he had initially thought.
"So that's why it couldn't affect the dead shaman's body," he mused. "It can only influence the living."
He recalled how Lady Seok had immediately resisted the spirit's touch, while her maid had been helplessly overwhelmed. "Could it be that those skilled in martial arts are less susceptible to spiritual attacks?" he wondered.
Just then, Go-chan entered the room. The imposter's lips curled into a slight smile as he murmured, "What an excellent test subject."
"Pardon?" Go-chan asked, confused.
"Oh, nothing," the fake Mok Gyeong-un replied. "Say, could you raise your arm slightly?"
Before Go-chan could react, he felt an eerie sensation throughout his body. Suddenly, his arm began to lift against his will. Startled, he tried to resist using his internal energy, but after a brief struggle, his arm was forcibly raised.
"What... what did you do?" Go-chan demanded, thoroughly unnerved.
The imposter merely waved his hand, releasing Go-chan from the invisible grip. "I just needed to confirm something," he said cryptically.
As Go-chan stood there, deeply unsettled, the fake Mok Gyeong-un pondered his newfound knowledge. He had learned that the spirit's power easily affected ordinary people and martial artists of Go-chan's level. However, it seemed less effective against high-level experts like Lady Seok.
"This demonic monk could be quite useful," the imposter thought. He could use it for eavesdropping, reconnaissance, and perhaps even to influence others subtly. As he continued reading about even more powerful spiritual entities, a thought occurred to him: "It might not be a bad idea to acquire an even stronger ghostly ally."
With this new understanding and these burgeoning plans, the imposter settled in to further study the ancient text, his mind alive with possibilities for exploiting the supernatural forces at his disposal.
"The fourth level is Nokryeong (Green Spirit)... extremely dangerous. Exorcism is absolutely necessary.
These are spirits of resentment that have existed for over several decades. They can influence surrounding objects and cause confusion in living beings, even making them hear hallucinations."