Resurrection Chapter 92 - See You Again Then

Seo Heesoo looked up at the building before him.

The place where the great shaman Tae Yeongwoo resided was not very far from where Team A’s office was located. As one of the few great shamans in the country, wealth naturally accumulated even if she did not try to gather it. Since she had already bought land in the Naseong-dong area in the old era, she could now be called a tycoon with just that one building alone.

Originally, he should have accompanied Kim Yitae, who had headed to the Oleander Alleys instead of here. The reason he had not was not just because of Kim Yitae’s suggestion that they move separately to save time.

If he moved with him, he would inevitably have to see Tae Yeongwoo together with him, and that was problematic. It was because there was something he wanted to ask her separately. Seo Heesoo lowered the head he had been holding up and walked into the building.

The building, whose purpose was not clear from the outside, had airtight security. It was certain that no one could enter or exit without a prior appointment or business. Seo Heesoo approached the security guard standing watch on one side of the empty lobby.

As he got closer, the security guard’s expression seemed to show that he recognized him. He hurriedly raised his radio, said something, and took off the cap he had pressed onto his head. A youthful face was revealed, and he said with a flushed expression.

“Mr. Seo Heesoo?”

“That’s right.”

“Could you please wait a moment? Someone will be here to guide you shortly.”

To be guided when he hadn’t even stated his business yet. Seo Heesoo was slightly surprised and asked.

“Did Ms. Tae Yeongwoo know I was coming?”

“Pardon? Didn’t you come with an appointment?”

Seo Heesoo was once again astonished by Tae Yeongwoo’s spiritual powers. Realizing she had set aside time for him, he readily nodded his head and said.

“I came with an appointment.”

When he said that, the security guard hesitated. Wondering why he was acting that way, he saw him carefully hold out his cell phone and say.

“Um, if you don’t mind, could you please take a picture with me just once?”

As Seo Heesoo looked at him, the security guard mustered up courage he never had before and continued.

“I’m, I’m a fan of yours, Mr. Seo Heesoo…!”

He did not like taking pictures. Now that he was a berserker and not a holy warrior, there was no reason to have his picture taken. In his days as a holy warrior, he couldn’t refuse fan service in order to fulfill his responsibilities as the first apostle of the White Goddess, but not anymore.

He should have refused, of course, but for some reason, he did not want to. Seo Heesoo readily approached him, and the security guard, delighted, pressed the camera button.

While the security guard was thanking him over and over, the person who would guide him appeared. It was a young woman with her hair in a chignon, wearing a modernized hanbok.

“This way, please.”

Seo Heesoo, who got on the elevator following her, went up to the top floor. When he got off the elevator, a hallway appeared, and he could see a few offices connected to the hallway.

The woman, who had chosen one of them and knocked, soon opened the door and stepped aside. At the gesture to go inside, he stepped in, and a spacious area with a glass front came into view.

Overall, the room had a modern atmosphere. In complete contrast to that, the gorgeously decorated shrine on the front wall drew the eye.

On the wooden floor, where a Buddhist painting of the Five Directional Spirit Generals was hung, a woman so old it was doubtful she was even alive could be seen.

That was Tae Yeongwoo. She was a figure officially recognized by the country as a great shaman and a widely respected great shamaness.

Seo Heesoo took off his shoes, went up onto the wooden floor, and knelt before her. Then he bowed his head and spoke politely.

“It’s been a long time.”

Tae Yeongwoo looked at Seo Heesoo intently instead of replying. It was difficult to read the expression on her face, which was wrinkled like an old tree. Her eyes, too, were hidden by drooping eyelids, but her gaze upon Seo Heesoo was as clear as a star.

It was a fact most people did not know, but Tae Yeongwoo was not actually that old. She was from the new generation, not the old generation, and even if she had Awakened in the old era, she should not look as old as she did now.

The slow aging process, as if it had stopped, and the vitality that allowed survival without eating or drinking. There was only one reason she had lost the ability of eternal youth, which was considered a privilege of the Awakened: spirit possession.

Tae Yeongwoo, with a trembling hand, took out a jar from under the low table. From within it, she grabbed a handful of rice and scattered it on the table. Then she spent a long time counting the scattered grains of rice.

Seo Heesoo did not know what the rice grains meant, but he could not harbor any doubts in front of the fortuneteller who had repeatedly undergone spirit possession to foretell the disasters that would befall the country.

After a not-so-short time, Tae Yeongwoo opened her mouth.

“There is something you are curious about, isn’t there?”

Seo Heesoo saw her scatter the rice grains before she was even asked a question. She already knew the reason he had come here and had seen the divination regarding it. The answer to Yaksha’s whereabouts would have already been found.

Nevertheless, the reason Tae Yeongwoo asked a question was that she had noticed that he had an extremely private matter in addition to his original purpose. Since she was not someone who originally did personal divinations, she had asked the question as an indication of her willingness to accept a private question.

Seo Heesoo, still kneeling, moved his lips. When it came to actually voicing his curiosity, he couldn’t muster the courage. Only the fists resting on his knees curled tighter. But Tae Yeongwoo waited as if time were infinite.

After a not-so-short time, Seo Heesoo opened his mouth and asked.

“Is there a baleful spirit upon me?”

At the out-of-context words, Tae Yeongwoo muttered as if to herself.

“A baleful spirit.”

“Will I really go mad and destroy the world?”

Hearing the words that Seo Heesoo spat out as if vomiting, Tae Yeongwoo silently swept up the rice grains on the low table. She scattered them again, counted them slowly, and continued speaking.

“There is someone inside you.”

“…”

“It is baleful and at the same time auspicious. It is an enemy of three lifetimes and at the same time a benefactor, a karmic bond and at the same time a good match. But everything is empty samadhi, so what meaning could this have?”

“I do not quite understand what you mean.”

At Seo Heesoo’s words, his expression clouding over, Tae Yeongwoo, who had been looking at the rice grains, raised her head and clicked her tongue.

“You pitiful thing, your pain from having to forsake your own will is still so vivid. I know that because of that experience, you cannot trust your own choices. However, there is no such thing as a predetermined fate in the world, and what is important in the end is choice. Everything is bound to change depending on what kind of heart you have and what decision you make.”

“As you say, I cannot trust my own choices, so how can I make the right decision?”

“If you look deep into a person’s heart, there is no right or wrong. In the end, what’s important is what you truly want.”

Seo Heesoo spoke as if in pain, like a groan.

“What if this world is destroyed because I pursue what I truly want?”

Tae Yeongwoo replied as if it were no big deal.

“Then that must be what they call fate.”

👑

Min Gongchan, atop his ghost horse, glared at the facility located on the mountainside.

The facility, illuminated with minimal lighting to save energy, was quite large in scale. Several annexes were attached to the main building, and the auditorium that also served as a gymnasium was also sizable. Considering that a section that had collapsed in a previous incident was under construction, its scale was considerable.

Though not visible from the outside, the underground scale there was even larger. This was because it housed a training ground for supernatural abilities. In the training ground, which had been poured with concrete several meters thick and overlaid with reinforced aluminum and all sorts of barriers, no impact would leak outside no matter what kind of ruckus was raised.

Of course, building that must have cost an enormous amount of the national treasury. In a way, it was natural. Because that was a place that raised Awakened who hunt down other Awakened.

It was none other than the Otherworld Supernatural Ability Management Agency Training Institute.

Not long after he stood there glaring at it, a noisy presence approached from behind him, and then he heard labored breathing. Min Gongchan, feeling his ears ring, turned around. There, Yoon Younghyun, who had just arrived following the ghost horse, was breathing heavily.

“Pant pant, haah, pant, hey, you, phew. Can’t you, can’t you give me a ride?”

Yoon Younghyun shouted, but Min Gongchan did not bat an eye.

“This is a one-seater.”

“Damn it, I’m all out of energy from running after a ghost horse.”

Min Gongchan stared intently at the grumbling Yoon Younghyun. At the shimmering light in his eyes, Yoon Younghyun flinched and ducked his neck like a turtle.

“You, you, why are you looking at me like that? Don’t you dare think about drinking my blood. I refuse to be bitten by a vampire!”

At Yoon Younghyun’s threatening words, which were spoken with the force to strike him if he got any closer, Min Gongchan scoffed.

“I told you, didn’t I? Vampires don’t drink the blood of lycanthropes. I’m the one who refuses the dirty blood of an infected.”

He spoke as if it were absurd, but Yoon Younghyun was not at all reassured. He knew that vampires disliked werewolf blood, but wasn’t that only when they could choose from a menu?

Min Gongchan himself seemed unaware, but his ears, which were listening to his own panting, had become pointed. He was undoubtedly listening to the sound of his heart pumping blood nonstop.

His eyes were also flashing as if LED bulbs were embedded in them, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down several times as if he were swallowing saliva. Yoon Younghyun, knowing that he had not fed since transforming, cautiously asked.

“Are you really okay? Usually, vampires have to drink blood after they transform. I heard they have to drink a lot, too.”

Min Gongchan looked toward the OSAMA Training Institute again and said.

“Then did you eat people after you transformed? You didn’t.”

“I didn’t eat people, but I ate three cows!”

“If I wasn’t confident I could endure the urge to feed, I wouldn’t have transformed. Stop your useless worrying, and if your breathing has calmed down, get ready to fight.”

“Fight?”

“Security has been tightened since Yaksha attacked that place, so we won’t be able to get in quietly.”

Yoon Younghyun finally realized that he was right in front of the OSAMA Training Institute. Only then did he recall what Min Gongchan had said before transforming, and asked in a skeptical tone.

“Is Shinrion really in the basement there?”

Unlike Kang Cheoljun, who had been stern-faced, saying it was a national secret, Min Gongchan answered easily.

“Yes. Shinrion is there.”