Chapter 719

System

Quest: Corrupted Divine Artifact

Will you accept?

Y / N

That wasn’t the only holographic window to appear before me. I quickly scanned the information for the new Quest.

System

Quest

Corrupted Divine Artifact

The sacred stone that once protected this land has lost its original form.

Consumed by demonic qi, it is a spark that could ignite another calamity. You must dispose of this Corrupted Divine Artifact by any means.

Grade: Supreme Peak

Restriction: Jin Taekyung

Mission: Dispose of Corrupted Divine Artifact (Incomplete)

Reward: Varies according to how the mission is carried out

Failure: Increase in the Corrupted Divine Artifact’s demonic qi

After reading the Quest information window to the end, I muttered quietly to myself.

Accept.

System

You have accepted the Quest Corrupted Divine Artifact!

Unlike some of the Quests I’d been more or less forced into, this one gave me a choice. But as far as I was concerned, refusing wasn’t an option.

I can’t keep suppressing the demonic qi forever.

The sacred stone—no, the Corrupted Divine Artifact—was a bomb that could go off at any moment. We were lucky the Beast Miao King had been keeping it. An ordinary Peak master couldn’t have withstood the demonic qi inside it.

Like the Quest says, we have to deal with it somehow.

How many people had we lost closing the rift? For the sake of the guardian spirit that had thrown itself into it at the very end, I couldn’t let that bomb go off.

I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“Demonic qi of this magnitude… This won’t do.”

Jeok Cheongang muttered with a frown, then gestured toward the Beast Miao King and me.

“Stand aside. This old man will handle it.”

As if he had guessed what Jeok Cheongang meant, the Beast Miao King’s eyes widened.

“Old Master Jeok, surely you don’t mean…”

“Exactly what you think. If it might cause trouble, we pull it out by the roots.”

“But this… won’t be easy to destroy.”

Jeok Cheongang’s answer was short.

“For you, maybe.”

“……”

“I can do it.”

That was some fucking macho-man talk.

One sentence had silenced even the Beast Miao King, the beastliest man in Nanman. Jeok Cheongang slowly reached out.

Whoosh.

Scorching Yang Qi gathered around his hand, giving off such terrible heat that the haze rising on every side made the air seem to warp.

But—

“Old Master.”

The words slipped out after a moment’s thought. Jeok Cheongang stopped just as he was about to strike.

“What?”

“I don’t think you should do that.”

“Why?”

“I gave it some thought, and I have a feeling things could get ugly if we mess with it carelessly.”

“What?”

His eyes widened at my serious tone.

“You mean you actually thought?”

“……”

Jeok Cheongang looked at my thoroughly deflated expression, cleared his throat, and opened his mouth.

“If we leave it like this, it will become a source of trouble sooner or later. We need to deal with it as quickly as possible.”

“I know.”

“Then why stop me? Don’t you trust this old man?”

“Oh, come on. Why would you say that? If I can’t trust you, Old Master, who can I trust?”

That was my answer. In truth, about half of me did have doubts.

Not because I distrusted Jeok Cheongang. I was worried about what might happen.

What if he doesn’t destroy it completely?

The Corrupted Divine Artifact was like the teacup in front of me. While the cup stayed intact, the tea stayed inside. Break the cup, and it would spill everywhere.

If we lose control of the demonic qi, we’ll have another goddamn disaster on our hands.

One mad tiger, however wildly it rampaged, could be beaten down. Demonic qi spreading through the area was another matter. If that happened, we’d be lucky if it was merely troublesome.

I had to stop Jeok Cheongang. No matter how much I trusted him, I couldn’t stake other people’s lives on this gamble.

Even if the chance is one in a thousand—or one in ten thousand—not now.

Too much blood had been spilled already.

People had died fighting to the bitter end. Others had lost their minds, become monsters, and died that way. Even people who had never held a sword had died in considerable numbers trying to escape that hellscape.

If the guardian spirit hadn’t sacrificed itself to close the rift, the casualties would have multiplied like a snowball by now…

Wait.

The guardian spirit?

A sudden sense of déjà vu came over me. Those words kept circling in my mind.

The memories from the day I first met it until now brushed past my eyes and ears one after another, racing toward a single thread of enlightenment.

And then—

“Ah.”

The sound escaped before I knew it.

Jeok Cheongang and the Beast Miao King stared at me as if wondering what the hell was wrong with me. Jeok Cheongang spoke first.

“Yeah, why the fuck are you suddenly throwing a fit all by yourself again? Let this old man in on it.”

“Have you perhaps thought of some brilliant strategy?”

Maybe. I didn’t know whether it deserved to be called a plan. Not yet. But if I was right, it was worth trying.

At least we won’t lose anything by trying.

I looked from the still-open Quest window to the two men waiting for an answer, then shrugged.

“Why don’t you both come get some air with me?”

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

Our little group raced through the wind. With only three tigers and three people, group might have been too grand a word.

Then again, it depended on who those people were. The two riding on either side of me made all the difference.

“I wondered how fast a beast could be, but this isn’t bad. Comfortable saddle, too.”

Jeok Cheongang inspected the tiger running beneath him with interest. The Beast Miao King, riding to my left, answered at once.

“He’s one of the bravest and fastest tigers in the Nanman Beast Palace. He’s descended from the one that fought alongside me in the Great Faction War.”

“Oh-ho. That huge one crouching in front of the barracks? I remember him. I thought he looked familiar.”

Yeah. Who needed an Azure Dragon on the left and a White Tiger on the right?

I had the Fire King on my left and the Miao King on my right. My chest swelled at the thought of that insane lineup. If the Southern Heaven Demon Empress came back to life, these two could take her apart.

The feeling of security was more comforting than a bowl of gukbap could have been.¹ The quiet conversation between the two men reached my ears.

“The more I look at him, the more I like him. Good stamina, quick feet. Looks clever, too.”

The Beast Miao King smiled with pride.

“I raised him with particular care. He was such a picky eater as a cub that I had quite a time of it. Whenever that happened, I even fed him milk myself.”

“What? You fed him?”

“……It’s a figure of speech. Not what you’re thinking, Old Master Jeok.”

Jeok Cheongang studied the Beast Miao King’s massive pecs before nodding.

“If you say so.”

“No, when you say it like that, it sounds as though—”

“Never mind. I’ll take this one with me.”

The smile vanished from the Beast Miao King’s face.

“Pardon?”

“Why are you asking again? Were you planning to make him run his legs off all the way back to the Central Plains?”

“O-of course not. But I raised the one you’re riding like a son in my old age…”

“Give him to me.”

“But—”

“Go on.”

“……”

“If you don’t want to, I’ll take that one instead. He looks like a spiritual creature.”

The Beast Miao King looked at the tiger Jeok Cheongang had pointed out and shook his head in alarm.

“Gasp. Anyone but him. I only borrowed him for a while in the first place.”

“What if this old man were to take him?”

“I-I didn’t raise him myself. And how could I, as a father, give away someone my son thinks of as a brother?”

“The sky’s clear today. Your tongue’s awfully long.”

After a moment’s silence, the Beast Miao King answered glumly.

“……Understood. You may have the one you’re riding.”

“Well, if you insist. I’ll accept your generosity.”

“……”

So much for my chest swelling with pride.

Was this really the senile Fire King I knew? The Fire King truly was a legend…

As I tried to steady my suddenly shrunken chest, the creature carrying me let out a low growl.

Grrr.

He glanced back at me. He seemed to know he’d narrowly escaped the clutches of the Fire King, that dog trader. I felt sorry for him and gently stroked his trembling white fur.

“It’s okay, buddy. You survived.”

Whine.

Muyaho let out a forlorn little cry, like a puppy that had lost its mother, and slowed down. He must have realized that showing off in front of Jeok Cheongang would only make it more likely he’d be dragged all the way to the Central Plains.

Fortunately, Jeok Cheongang’s attention had already shifted.

“What’s that…?”

His voice trailed off. Ahead of us stood a bare mountain, almost completely burned.

No, even that sorry-looking mountain had a name: Ailao Mountain. Everyone who lived in this land knew it.

Just as I was about to explain that to him, Jeok Cheongang’s eyes flew open and he shouted,

“What shameless son of a bitch burned down these precious mountains, trees, and grass?”

“……”

“……”

For an instant, the Beast Miao King and I exchanged a heated glance. Then I answered with all the outrage I could muster.

“Dark Heaven.”

Some truths are beautiful when left unknown.

Once Jeok Cheongang realized the sorry-looking mountain was our destination, he frowned.

“Did we come all this way to plant trees?”

“……I’m asking because I genuinely want to know. Just how crazy do you think I am?”

What a ridiculous question.

Today wasn’t Arbor Day, and even if it had been, I wouldn’t have planted any trees. I had come with these two to Ailao Mountain, which had been reduced to a bare mountain, for a purpose that had been decided from the beginning.

“This way.”

The Beast Miao King soon realized where I was going.

“The Poisonblood Grounds. Or should I call it the Sacred Land now?”

It would have been stranger if he hadn’t known. Yohi must have told him roughly what had happened, even if she’d left out the details.

I shook my head.

“They’re different. The Poisonblood Grounds are the Poisonblood Grounds. The Sacred Land is the Sacred Land.”

The two places were separate. The Poisonblood Grounds were a land of death made by human hands. The Sacred Land was Nanman’s heart—a land of life.

Life itself.

I set the Corrupted Divine Artifact on the ground. Demonic qi drifted from it like mist, and Muyaho growled softly.

But though darkness had consumed it, its essence had not changed.

Whoosh…

The ground pulsed like a beating heart. A veil lifted from another world that had been hidden for countless ages.

Then I saw it: a space filled with warm radiance, and at its center, a small pond shining more brilliantly than anything else.

“Ah.”

“That’s…”

Jeok Cheongang’s and the Beast Miao King’s exclamations faded without either man finishing his thought.

But I knew what they had felt. And I knew what I had to do.

Purification.

Today, a new sacred stone would be born.