As True as a Dream Chapter 167

Startled, Hae-Joo crumpled the Guishan Dao as she grabbed it, moved behind the desk, crouched low, and hid.

She stared intently at the shadow dimly cast upon the study door.

A hand holding a short dagger slashed at the shadowy figure’s neck—a figure wearing a military cap. Liquid splattered in dots across the study door. The shadowy figure with the dagger sharply cut the dangling neck, tore it away, and caught the dripping liquid in its mouth.

Hae-Joo stared wide-eyed, unable to properly exhale at the beastly shadow.

 

“Kheekheekhee…! I should have just killed you…!”

A somewhat hoarse child’s voice came from outside the door.

She realized it now—the left hand holding the short dagger belonged to that child, but the right arm that should have been there was missing.

The child within the shadow, its right ankle also twisted strangely, threw the now bloodless neck to the side.

Then, tilting its head, it spoke ominously.

“The more I think about it, the less I understand? How exactly… are you standing here?”

 

“Who knows.”

Hae-Joo, who had been holding her breath, inhaled sharply at the familiar, cold, yet deep voice—one she couldn’t possibly mistake.

“Must be reason enough for me to be standing here, no?”

It was Yi Ho’s voice.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Five minutes earlier, at the detached building.

“Heeeey? What’s all this? It’s a complete mess?”

Kneeling before the blackened corpse on the bed, Governor Saito jerked upright at the inappropriately cheerful child’s voice.

[“Give it to me!”]

The Governor lunged towards Man Insa, who had appeared on one side of the devastated building and was smirking, reaching out with his right eye, the one covered by an eyepatch.

“Eh? What’s this? Father, have you gone mad?”

Man Insa easily evaded Governor Saito, frowning as he spoke. Governor Saito drew the sword from his waist and pointed it at Man Insa.

[“With that, she can live. Right? That thing you have, the Bloodstone of Ten Thousand Souls! It can bring the dead back to life! Right! Say it’s true!”]

Governor Saito’s eyes were bloodshot as he shouted, trembling uncontrollably, seemingly unable to master his boiling emotions. Man Insa dodged the sword swinging towards his eye and leaped away again.

“Are you insane? Even the Bloodstone of Ten Thousand Souls can’t revive someone already dead…!”

[“No! With it, Mao will come back to life! She can live! How many lives have I offered you…! Give me the stone!”]

 

At Governor Saito’s actions, surging with madness, the hired help of the residence, who had been managing the situation, all knelt and pressed their heads to the floor.

They all knew.

To keep their footing in this mansion, they must have no eyes, no ears, and no mouth.

So, as always, trembling all over, they lay flat on the ground.

[“Man Insa! Give it to me! Give me that stone I fed and raised…!”]

Just as Governor Saito, with a demonic face, swung his sword at Man Insa again, a soldier, failing to grasp the situation, ran up urgently from the rear courtyard and shouted.

[“Your Excellency! The owner of Song Yue Pavilion, locked in the basement, has disappeared! The chains were torn off!”]

 

The one who reacted to that frantic shout was not the madness-engulfed Governor Saito, but Man Insa.

Man Insa’s face, which had reacted indifferently to Governor Saito’s actions, hardened terrifyingly.

Then, as if a wind had blown, the child’s form, which had been flickering east and west to taunt Governor Saito, vanished.

And thus vanished, Man Insa appeared in the prison where Yi Ho had been confined.

 

“You fox bastard…!”

Just as a furious Man Insa slammed his palm violently against the prison bars, grinding his teeth—

 

“You called?”

A voice seemed to echo from deep within the corridor, from within the darkness-drenched shadows, and golden eyes, wild like a beast’s, appeared.

Before Man Insa could turn his head, a clanking iron chain flew from the shadows, attempting to wrap around his neck.

But Man Insa nimbly dodged it, and the chain coiled around his arm instead.

Man Insa almost sneered at the missed attempt, but that judgment was too premature.

As the chain pulled on his ensnared arm, Yi Ho, who had been hiding, surged forward in the blink of an eye and grabbed Man Insa by the throat.

The pressure in his hand was fierce enough to snap Man Insa’s neck instantly, showing no mercy.

 

“Gack…!”

Man Insa immediately drew a dagger and stabbed Yi Ho’s arm. Taking advantage of the momentary slackening of force, he broke free.

At that moment, Japanese soldiers with swords appeared at the corridor entrance.

Yi Ho immediately turned, reached towards a soldier’s waist, grabbed the hilt of his sword, and drew it.

The startled soldier tried to draw his gun immediately, but it remained a thought.

 

The soldier’s neck was slashed by the fluidly moving blade. Without looking back, Yi Ho immediately attacked Man Insa.

 

“Why! How…! Clearly, fox, you weren’t normal…!”

“Indeed.”

Yi Ho muttered low and immediately swung his sword, severing Man Insa’s right arm.

It was a movement faster than light.

His eyes glowed faintly gold, and his movements couldn’t be lighter or sharper.

Sensing something abnormal, Man Insa tried to withdraw, not even having time to feel the pain in his arm.

But Yi Ho’s hand grabbed and twisted the small foot that kicked off the wall to leap.

 

“AAAAGH-!”

A crunching sound of shattering bone was followed by Man Insa’s scream, wretchedly echoing through the underground prison.

Yi Ho indifferently shook the blood off his sword and looked at the pale, terrified Man Insa.

“Don’t you know anything except drinking human blood? What do you think it means that I’m the only monster surviving and thriving in this land where finding even one monster’s shadow is difficult?”

“What kind of monster are you! A mongrel fox bastard, not even a gumiho!”

“So what if I’m a mongrel. I’m stronger than you.”

 

Man Insa felt a chill run down his spine for the first time at the glint of the sword blade flashing occasionally in the dark.

Growing anxious, Man Insa thought it impossible. He looked at Yi Ho’s arm, dripping blood from where it had been stabbed by his dagger.

It wasn’t healing.

Monsters all possess some degree of self-healing ability, but Yi Ho’s arm showed no sign of healing at all.

Man Insa observed Yi Ho’s complexion, his dripping blood arm, and his glowing golden eyes.

At that moment, Yi Ho closed the distance to Man Insa in the blink of an eye. Man Insa, disregarding his tattered ankle, flipped his body to dodge, then stabbed and withdrew his dagger from Yi Ho’s back.

Blood gushed out again.

Man Insa’s eyes lit up.

He quickly slashed at Yi Ho’s body with his dagger numerous times. Yi Ho also tried to grab him and strike back.

But Man Insa was absolutely smaller in stature compared to Yi Ho, and that became an advantage.

Dozens of attacks and defenses ensued in an instant, and wounds from the dagger appeared all over Yi Ho’s body.

But, as Man Insa expected, none of the wounds began to heal.

Nevertheless, the fox was incomprehensibly strong.

‘This fox is weird…!’

He definitely wasn’t normal.

He had become laughably weak.

‘So how could he be so lively again?’

 

Man Insa looked down at his own severed right arm and his broken, shattered right foot—the bleeding had stopped—and turned his body.

He needed blood.

If he didn’t recover quickly, he might have to abandon the shell he had finally found after hundreds of years.

Man Insa flipped backward through the air, extracting himself towards the prison entrance.

Then, without looking back, he fled.

“I need blood, blood…!”

Muttering, Man Insa rushed towards a mansion servant in a kimono running towards him and slashed her stomach with his sword.

Blood splattered all over Man Insa’s small face.

 

Meanwhile, Yi Ho, left alone in the corridor, finally exhaled the breath he had been holding and braced himself against the wall with one arm.

As he did, a mouthful of blood he had been suppressing poured out.

Though he hadn’t shown it thanks to superhuman endurance, he was burning his fox bead—essentially his life force—fiercely.

He couldn’t use it for something like healing wounds.

To deal with Man Insa, he needed the fox’s power, and drawing out that ability required the fox bead.

Barely gathering the shattered pieces of the fox bead, he immediately freed himself from the locks binding his limbs and assessed the situation outside.

It seemed someone had set off a bomb at the residence and was causing a commotion, making the outside chaotic.

He first leaned against a dark corner, focusing on his dantian to continue gathering the breaking beads.

He didn’t know how much time had passed.

When he gathered the broken beads, barely half the shape remained.

Most seemed to have been used when he vomited blood or to heal previous wounds on his own.

Yi Ho tightly bound the remaining fragments within his dantian and was using them to fight Man Insa.

As if burning his last soul, the fox bead, burning with a blue flame, gradually turned to ash and disappeared within his dantian.

He had to kill Man Insa before this fire was extinguished.

Ignoring the surging pain throughout his body, Yi Ho straightened his waist and walked out.