Chapter 38 – Tiger Ghost

Chapter 38 – Tiger Ghost

“What? You're not the Green Forest?”

At the unexpected news, San-ho blinked as if flustered.

An empty clearing densely overgrown with wild weeds.

The men who had popped out earlier were sitting in a row, each with a bump on their forehead.

“Ah, no… Then you should have said so sooner.”

As San-ho awkwardly reached his hand out, the men visibly flinched their large bodies.

‘Ghost-like bastard.’

‘Did you even give us a chance to speak?’

‘In all my life, I've never seen such a crazy bastard.’

Though they muttered harshly inside, they didn't dare to make a sound out loud. San-ho, who had approached, glanced around at the bumps on the men's heads and smiled brightly as if it were nothing.

“Oh. You're fine.”

‘Where and how are you looking?’

‘Did you even look properly?!’

Although various forms of resentment swirled in their heads, they all shared one common opinion.

‘…Just what on earth is this guy?!’

It was no wonder.

Hadn't his first impression been completely ruined?

They had thought he was traveling the mountain path alone without fear, but it wasn't that guy who lacked fear. It was them.

‘You are bandits, right? Otherwise, we'll have a big problem.’ Hearing those words was their last memory. Their vision had simply gone dark in an instant.

By the time they regained consciousness, everyone was lying face down on the ground.

What happened, you ask?

There was no way to explain. Because they didn't know!

‘I want to know too, just what on earth happened!’

The men, who were fuming internally, glared at San-ho with dumbfounded looks.

But San-ho was equally dumbfounded.

Why on earth did they pop out of the forest wearing beast skins when they weren't even the Green Forest? They gave him a fright.

Really, because he had been so startled, he had no choice but to quickly subdue them.

So, this was self-defense.

Of course, he did knock them out before hearing the rest of their words, but…

“So why did you jump out of the mountains holding swords? You startled me.”

“That's because…!!”

When the men, who had been protesting indignantly, suddenly shut their mouths as if by agreement, San-ho tilted his head.

“I knew it. You are bandits, aren't you?”

“We're not!”

“So you are saying you had no intention of stealing money?”

“………That…”

“Are these misters really playing games with me…”

“Hieek!”

The unfamiliar terror quickly turned into a learned fear. Although San-ho had only let out a small sigh, the men—who had been thoroughly and undeniably beaten by this incredibly young kid—shrank back in absolute horror.

“If you block the road and take money, you're bandits!”

“T-That's unfair!”

“What is!”

While it was partially true that they had intended to take money, hadn't they failed to utter even a single word!

At that moment, the man wearing tiger skin stood up abruptly and spoke.

“We are not bandits! We are all good… y-young men living in this village.”

“……Good… what?”

“Ahem. Of course, it's a situation that could be misunderstood, but how could what is visible be everything? The road ahead is extremely dangerous, so we blocked it.”

“Oh, really?”

“Anyway. If the young hero does not wish to suffer a terrible fate, please turn back quickly. If you go back the way you came and take a long detour, you will find a village called Yeonnam Mountain Village, and you will be fine if you go that way.”

“Ah…”

Tsk. Should I believe this or not?

San-ho cast a suspicious glance as he scanned the bandit-like misters who claimed to be good young men.

‘Considering they are giving directions, is it true?’

San-ho roughly estimated the location of the neighboring village he had seen on the map.

Since this village itself was located so deep, it would take at least two more days to go around. No matter how much one increased their speed with lightfoot techniques in the mountains, there were impassable gorges, so he might have to detour even more than expected.

Though such a thing would not be particularly difficult for a martial artist.

‘Wait, then that means I'll have to starve for another two or three days. Tsk…’

Thus, San-ho was extremely hungry right now.

Furthermore, recalling how he had gotten lost on the mountain paths on the way here, he could expect the journey back to be even more treacherous.

“Can't I just pass through?”

At those words, the man wearing tiger skin raised his eyebrows and asked.

“Young hero, do you really not know the rumors about this village?”

“Rumors? What rumors?”

“………”

After hesitating for a moment, the men exchanged glances with each other and nodded.

“A haunted village. I am talking about the rumors of demons and monsters.”

“……Ghosts?”

What, is it shamanism here too? As San-ho wore a displeased expression, the men whispered among themselves with serious faces.

***

He was able to hear more of their story only after returning to the village.

They said it was dangerous and they had to return before the sun went down.

Returning to the village with the men, San-ho entered the empty tavern he was guided to. The inside of the tavern was fairly neat, unlike the outside where dust was piled up, yet it still smelled of musty dust.

‘Is it just that they aren't open for business? The shop is quite clean.’

As San-ho looked around the shop for a moment, he asked curiously.

“Why is this place closed? Because there are no customers?”

At that, the man draped in clothes made of tiger skin, who introduced himself as Chu Yeong-rak, spoke.

“……Since we couldn't run the business, the customers disappeared.”

“What? Is that the correct order?”

They didn't close because there were no customers, but the customers disappeared because they closed? What did that mean?

“This is Sogu Village. Although one must pass through deep mountains, it is one of the pathways to Chongqing, so it wasn't a place that lacked foot traffic.”

The fact that the village was marked on the map meant that merchant travelers were passing through to some extent.

With a deep sigh, Chu Yeong-rak began to explain the events that had occurred in Sogu Village and the reason they were there.

“……There was an accident a few years ago. Four martial artists who were staying here suffered a tiger calamity on that mountain.”

“………”

Although tiger attacks were not uncommon in this era, for four martial artists to suffer a tiger calamity all at once…

‘Could that even be possible?’

San-ho asked as if he couldn't understand.

“All four of them?”

Of course, he had heard that spiritual beast-level tigers were as large as houses. By that point, trying to defeat one with the skills of a third-class martial artist would be out of the question.

But it wasn't one person; it was four.

No matter how lacking their skills were, at least one of them should have been able to escape.

Chu Yeong-rak nodded.

“We couldn't even find their corpses. All that remained were torn pieces of clothing and bloodstains. But… ever since they met that end, tiger attacks have not ceased in the village. In particular, cases of outsiders meeting with accidents were frequent. There were also residents who got caught up and suffered accidents alongside them.”

“………”

“Since no one knows when another disaster might strike, everyone tries to avoid getting involved with outsiders. As we shunned outsiders, the people passing through Sogu Village naturally vanished as well. This tavern also closed its doors back then.”

“Hmm…”

So that was why.

‘But if there is such damage, wouldn't the government handle it?’

San-ho recalled the gazes he felt and the empty streets when he first arrived in this village. Sogu Village, which must have once been quite bustling with people coming and going, had now lost its vitality and become desolate.

“Can't you report it to the government office?”

“Haha……”

At San-ho's words, the men sitting together let out bitter laughs.

“It was useless. Is a tiger calamity something unique to us? They said they couldn't send tiger-hunting soldiers to a small village like Sogu Village for every single incident.”

“No, what kind of… Then what about the sects? There are three major sects in Sichuan as well.”

“Mmm. It might be different if it were the work of the unorthodox path, but martial artists don't pay attention to these kinds of matters…”

Watching the men trail off awkwardly, San-ho furrowed his brows without realizing it.

‘What is this.’

For the government, it was because it was a small village.

For the sects, it was because it was the work of a beast.

They ignored them for different reasons.

Then who should the people here reach out to?

“……”

Words he couldn't speak surged in his chest.

‘Tiger calamity damage in Sogu Village near Guangan.’ A few years summarized in a single line. Thinking about it this way, it felt as if it were truly nothing. Perhaps even if they had requested aid from the Tang Clan, the story would have been brushed aside. Shamefully, that was the truth.

Though the reality was not so.

A village slowly dying as it lost its vitality, people who had to tremble in constant anxiety. A dusty tavern and shops.

Seeing with one's eyes and reading in writing were stories of entirely different worlds.

San-ho, who had kept his mouth tightly shut, clenched his jaw.

‘Is there some way to help…’

While San-ho fell into thought for a moment, Chu Yeong-rak, who was sneakily checking his expression, subtly continued speaking.

“That… after all, a small village like Sogu Village has no source of income once merchant travelers disappear. Ah, we just did a little. Yeah?”

It seemed he was self-conscious about what had happened on the mountain earlier.

He had claimed they were good young men from the village, but they were indeed budding bandits after all. Chuckling, San-ho spoke to him, who had half a foot stepped into the Green Forest.

“Ah, so that's why you were extorting money?”

“It's a warning fee. A warning fee.”

“It's the first time in my life I've ever heard of such a term.”

“………”

“……”

“Ahem. Originally we usually just scare them a bit and stop there…”

“Stop there?”

For the first time in his life, Chu Yeong-rak learned that an opponent with a smiling face is more terrifying than one raising their fists.

Faced with San-ho's slightly smiling face, he ultimately had no choice but to meekly admit his wrongdoing.

“I, I apologize. I'm sorry.”

Having successfully extracted an apology with a smile, San-ho continued his questions.

“But what was the rumor you mentioned earlier? The one about demons, monsters, and ghosts.”

“Didn't I say those martial artists suffered a tiger calamity? However, the accidents after that were somewhat strange. They looked like tiger attacks, but they weren't the work of a tiger…”

San-ho, who had been quietly listening to the story, murmured softly to himself. Tiger calamity, ghosts, demons and monsters…

Ah, this.

“……Tiger Ghost.”

The soul of a person bitten and killed by a tiger was called a Tiger Ghost.

According to the Records of Seo Ak's Observations, those who die to tigers have their clothes, headbands, and shoes all torn and scattered on the ground, and it was said that this was not the work of the tiger, but the work of the Tiger Ghost.

“That's right. Everyone thinks it's the work of a Tiger Ghost. Corpses torn apart by claws keep appearing in succession… but to call it the work of a tiger, the traces are not those of a beast, yet it cannot be seen as the work of a human either.”

“Why? Is the corpse different if killed by a Tiger Ghost?”

“Rather than that, a corpse from a tiger calamity usually has a tiger's foul odor and shed fur, but there was none of that. The area around the torn wounds rotted particularly fast. Isn't it strange?”

‘Hmm. If the speed is fast enough for ordinary people to notice the strangeness…’

It must be poison, after all.

As San-ho organized his thoughts internally, he asked what suddenly came to mind.

“Those martial artists. Were they people of this village?”

“Hmm? No. They came to search for something…? I think I heard something like that.”

San-ho's expression changed in an instant.

“…What were they searching for?”

“Yes, they seemed to be talking about something… related to energy. I don't know the details either. Don't martial artists have so many secrets?”

“………”

Tiger Ghost.

Poison that rots wounds.

And four martial artists who were searching for something died of a tiger calamity all at once…

The more he listened, the more strange points there were.

San-ho raised his head as if he had made up his mind.

“I will catch it.”

“Huh?”

“I'm saying I will catch the Tiger Ghost.”

“……How could the young hero? No… why on earth?”

“Ah, well… I also made a bit of a mistake earlier.”

San-ho glanced at the bump on Chu Yeong-rak's forehead before continuing.

“I'm also searching for something.”

“What?”

“Tsk, that is not certain yet…”

“………?”

Is he a madman?

“That won't do. Do you think other martial artists haven't passed through that mountain all this time? Before a tiger, everyone is just the same human.”

“It's fine.”

“No, look here, young hero.”

“It's really fine. I am… friendly with scary-looking guys like that.”

“……Uh?”

“Anyway. I will catch it, so do not worry. Whether it is a Tiger Ghost or a tiger.”

“No, that… Haa…”

Chu Yeong-rak, who was about to stop San-ho, hesitated for a moment and lowered his hand.

Hadn't he already personally verified the young hero's skills? Though it was only for an instant, his neck still felt cold whenever he recalled the gaze they had locked.

Above all, he did not seem like the type of person who would listen even if he stopped him further.

Look at that. Merely saying he was stubborn was not enough… to describe the madness filled in those clear eyes.

Shiver.

Chu Yeong-rak, who shuddered slightly without realizing it, cleared his throat and asked.

“……For now, I understand. Is there anything you need?”

“Yes. Ah, but there is something you need to do for me.”

“What is it? If I can help, I will do so to the best of my ability.”

“Give me some food.”

“……Huh?”

“I'm hungry.”

“………”

Hmm.

Something seems wrong.

“Make it delicious.”

A furrow of doubtful worry creased Chu Yeong-rak's brow.