Chapter 691

Sometimes a dream is so wonderful, so hard to leave behind, that you don’t want to wake up. Even after you do, you keep your eyes closed a while longer, going over everything that happened in it.

But as always, things didn’t go the way I wanted.

“Jin Taekyung!”

—Grrr!

Two figures, one large and one small, rushed at me with cries that sounded almost like screams. It wasn’t hard to guess what was about to happen.

Or to prevent it.

Thwack. Splash!

I tripped Yohi and shoved away Muyaho’s drooling muzzle. Then I closed my eyes again.

“Three seconds. Just leave me alone for three seconds.”

I counted to three in my head. Very slowly. I recalled everything I’d seen in the dream, held it in my mind, and opened my eyes again.

Above me was an unfamiliar sky. I couldn’t even tell whether it was day or night.

An unfamiliar sky, huh?

That was a new one. How could the sky I saw whenever I looked up feel unfamiliar? But there it was, right in front of my eyes.

I pushed myself upright, my body throbbing.

“First, a question. You’re not about to tell me Dark Heaven took over Nanman while I was unconscious, are you?”

Soaked from her fall into the pond, Yohi stared at me in disbelief.

“That’s what you say after tripping me the moment you wake up?”

“You rushed at me the moment I opened my eyes. And look at the sky. I’d believe you if you told me this was hell.”

“What would you do if it was?”

“Who knows?”

I looked around.

A pond full of clear water. Lush trees and plants. Mountain birds chirped in the thickets surrounding us, where wild animals watched with curious eyes.

The scenery’s a little too nice for hell.

I shrugged.

“I’d already be dead. Might as well go back to sleep.”

“…Sleep? Are you out of your mind?”

“No. In fact, everything is still spinning in front of my eyes.”

It was true. Just sitting up made my whole body ache and left me dizzy.

Still…

“I do seem to be alive. Definitely.”

Yes. I’d survived again.

The pain washing over me and the System notifications ringing in my ears were proof enough.

Ding.

System

You have unchecked notifications.

Would you like to check the new notifications?

Y / N

I was about to open the System window when I remembered something and turned my head.

Blue-white eyes shone as they watched me warily. Behind them, a tail spun like a propeller. I let out a quiet laugh.

“Yeah. I’m alive thanks to you.”

—Kraaang!

With a whoosh!

Muyaho hurled his enormous body at me as though he’d been waiting for those words.

My not-quite-healed body screamed beneath his weight, but that was all right. It was a good kind of pain. It reminded me I was alive.

Crunch.

“…Ah.”

It was starting to feel less good.

Fortunately, Muyaho’s assassination attempt—which had made me suspect he might actually be Dark Heaven—ended in failure. After confirming that my ribs were still in place, I asked what I was most curious about.

“Where’s Heugung? Why don’t I see him?”

Yohi’s face stiffened the instant I said his name.

“Don’t even mention that bastard.”

“Wait. Don’t tell me…”

“Yes. It’s what you’re thinking.”

“Heugung proposed to you?”

“…!”

“What a lunatic. No matter how much he likes you, how could he propose then?”

Yohi stared at me as though I were the lunatic.

“He wasn’t the Heugung we knew. He fooled all of us.”

“I’ll say. Once he used the Bone-Shrinking Technique, he turned out to be a pretty good-looking guy.”

“…The Bone-Shrinking Technique? You knew?”

“Of course. He sent me a secret letter, and we met.”

“Then you knew Dark Heaven had planted him as a spy?”

“Of course I knew th—what?”

What had I just heard?

I thought for a moment before asking, “Is that true?”

“Do I look like I’m lying?”

Fuck. It’s true.

Only then did I remember the Quest to follow the tracking scent. Now I understood why the System had singled out Yohi by name.

“Okay. I take back what I said about Heugung being good-looking. My apologies.”

I shouldn’t have said it at all. To hell with his looks—the mood had gone cold long ago. Yohi answered with a sigh.

“It doesn’t matter. I survived thanks to you.”

“Oh, and I’m sorry about the proposal thing.”

“That’s fine. He did propose.”

“What?”

“He did. Though it was less a proposal than a threat from someone who had my life in his hands.”

“Did you… accept?”

“I’ve been meaning to ask. Are you actually fucking insane?”

“Uh, sorry. My head’s a mess. I keep saying stupid things.”

The back of my head still tingled. It was true that I had once suspected Heugung, but after running into the two old monsters in the Poisonblood Grounds, I had erased even that slight suspicion.

But Heugung, that bastard, was Dark Heaven’s lackey?

He’d been the knife in the sleeve. One last move the Southern Heaven Demon Empress had kept in reserve.

And the question that came to me again at this point was how Yohi and Muyaho had managed to avoid that move. From what Yohi had said earlier, they must have been in serious trouble.

“What happened to Heugung?”

“He’s dead.”

After a moment, she added, “Probably.”

“Probably?”

“We don’t know exactly what happened. That White Tiger was at death’s door, and I passed out because of the pill he gave me. When I woke up, I was here.”

The rest of her account was brief. They didn’t know where they were or how much time had passed outside. Muyaho had been moments from death, and I’d been severely injured. Both of us had survived thanks to this mysterious pond.

“I know. It must sound impossible. But really…”

“I get it.”

“What?”

“I get it. All of it.”

What was so hard to believe about a pond that healed wounds?

Only people of this world would be unable to understand such a phenomenon.

I had come from the modern world, where potions, Magic, monsters, and Gates existed. Even if a few Orcs crawled out from those bushes right now, I was confident I wouldn’t bat an eye.

“…”

On second thought, I might raise an eyebrow. Orcs appearing in Murim wouldn’t exactly be normal.

Unless an actual Gate opened here, like back home.

I reached out and skimmed the still surface of the pond.

Its effects were much like a potion’s. My father making an entrance like General Kim Jwa-jin¹ couldn’t have been the only reason I’d shaken off the exhaustion in my mind and body so quickly.

Item Appraisal.

Beep.

System

—A mysterious power rejects the System!

—The target cannot be identified!

There it was.

I’d expected as much. Everything about this place was a mystery, from one thing to the next.

And Yohi was about to give me one more.

“I saw a Black Tiger. A black tiger that felt stronger and more extraordinary than any beast I’ve ever encountered.”

“…!”

Splash.

My trembling fingertips disturbed the surface of the water, which had been slowly settling. I swallowed a groan as I watched the ripples spread into the distance.

Ailao Mountain’s Wraith…

The enormous Black Tiger flashed through my mind. I’d seen it only once, but I could never forget it.

It had appeared like a ghost, true to its name, then vanished the same way. I could still see it clearly.

And that was the first and last time.

That night, the Beast Miao King and I had discovered the Poisonblood Grounds while pursuing it, but the tiger itself had been nowhere to be found. The Nanman Beast Palace investigators sent out after the fight with the Thousand-Year Spider had found no trace of it either. Then one crisis after another had pushed it to the back of my mind.

Now it had appeared here.

And from the looks of it, it saved us.

I didn’t know what it was or why it had done that. Frowning, I gave the System a command in my head.

Check notifications.

Ding.

With a clear bell only I could hear, holographic windows that had been held back burst into the air.

System

—Level Up!

—Some injuries have recovered due to the effects of Level Up!

—Some Status effects have been removed due to the effects of Level Up!

—You have achieved the exceptional achievement The Legend of One Against Two!

—The achievement Reward has been granted!

—You acquired bonus points!

—You acquired a large amount of EXP and Fame!

—A sudden Quest, The Knife in the Sleeve, has been created!

—The sudden Quest has been forcibly canceled!

—You discovered ???!

—A sudden Quest, ???, is pending. It will proceed once all activation conditions have been met!

I was only seeing them now. The System had kept doing its job while I was unconscious.

The problem was that even a System as all-knowing as a god couldn’t give me a straight answer.

Those question marks are supposed to bother the hell out of me, right?

As I stared intently at the last two notifications—the ones that bothered me most—Muyaho, who had been circling me for a while, thrust his enormous head at me.

—Nnngh. Ngh.

“Need to poop? Go over there. Hyung’s² busy.”

—Whiiine.

“I said I’m bu—”

I stopped and looked up.

Something was looking down at this place from atop the cliffs encircling the pond, without giving off the slightest hint of its presence.

That’s…

Before I could finish the thought, an unexpected voice rang out inside my head.

—You’re awake, human.

“…!”

—Come up. We need to talk.

At that moment, I remembered something from a few months ago: the time when an imugi³ that had failed to become a dragon sent a thought into my mind from within a broad, deep river.

I climbed the cliff alone, leaving Yohi and Muyaho behind.

My body was still in poor shape, but I made it to the moss-covered top. There, at last, I faced a massive Black Tiger dark as the shadows.

Ailao Mountain’s Wraith. It was the same one.

“What… are you?”

At my first words, the Black Tiger stared at me with eyes of unfathomable depth.

—I don’t know.

“What?”

—Even I don’t know what I am. Too many years have passed for me to remember everything, and I’ve been called by many names.

“…Ailao Mountain’s Wraith.”

—I haven’t heard that name in a long time. Was it around two hundred years ago?

It sent the thought calmly and took a step. It clearly had a physical body, yet it moved like a ghost. I heard nothing and sensed no movement at all.

Just as I was seized by the sensation that every hair on my body was standing on end, the thought continued.

—But you know what kind of being I am, human.

“…”

—There’s no use denying it. I’ve already confirmed his existence through you.

The Black Tiger slowly turned and opened its mouth. Between its jaws lay something brilliantly blue and clear.

The Water God Dragon’s Origin Essence.

“When the hell did you steal this, you bastard?”