Chapter 720

Whew.

A cool breeze brushed past me. I took a small, deep breath and looked around.

The Sacred Land.

Could there be another place where those two words fit so perfectly?

But where I stood was only its body.

Even this Sacred Land has a heart of its own.

A place filled with the energy of life and Purification. The place that had brought my dying body back to life.

I walked slowly toward the distant pond.

There was no sun, yet the light falling from above was warm. Flowers and grass bloomed lushly in every direction.

Jeok Cheongang and the Beast Miao King stared at the bizarre space with stunned expressions. Their lips moved as though they were about to say something, but before long, they firmly shut their mouths and followed behind me.

Their patience didn’t last long.

Splash.

I waded straight into the pond. Cold water soon rose to my waist, and Jeok Cheongang cried out in alarm.

“Th-that bastard…!”

Apparently he thought I meant to kill myself.

He looked ready to grab me by the collar and drag me out. Instead of explaining, I bit my pinky.

Crunch.

A faint sting. The skin split, and blood flowed.

But after giving the wide-eyed Jeok Cheongang a crooked grin, I plunged my hand into the clear water without hesitation.

One. Two. Three…

I counted slowly in my head before pulling it out. In barely thirty seconds, my pinky had healed completely.

Jeok Cheongang, who had looked ready to jump in after me, and the Beast Miao King, who had been trying to stop him, muttered in disbelief.

“What in the world…”

“…Everything Yohi said was true. All of it.”

There was a reason people came up with the saying that seeing once was better than hearing a hundred times. I could talk until my mouth went dry, but showing them was faster.

It was a kind of performance.

It worked. And I’d confirmed something for myself, too.

The pond still works.

I’d been a little worried. Like a Golem collapsing when its core was destroyed, the Sacred Land might have vanished once demonic qi consumed the sacred stone.

But that concern vanished as cleanly as the wound on my pinky, replaced by a suspicion bordering on certainty.

This is it. The answer.

The System had never lied to me. It presented the facts as they were; finding a new path in its maddeningly plain text was up to me.

Just like now.

The Quest information said “by any means.” I’m sure of it.

That was right. From the beginning, the mission I had been given was to dispose of the Corrupted Divine Artifact, not to destroy it.

I’d caught on rather late, but my memories of the guardian spirit had led me back to this place. To the pond that had healed me when I was near death and cleansed the impurities from my body.

Healing and Purification.

I didn’t know where its mysterious power came from. I only knew I had no better option.

I walked toward the center of the pond.

Swish.

Gentle ripples spread outward from me. The pond wasn’t very deep, and on its surface—clear enough to see through—I could see the face of a man stiff with tension wavering in the water.

Gulp.

I swallowed and looked at my clenched fist. I felt the hard surface of the Corrupted Divine Artifact—and the powerful demonic qi pulsing up between my fingers.

…If this backfires, we’re in for a real shitshow.

I wasn’t joking. That much demonic qi could ruin not just the pond, but the entire Sacred Land.

Then this place would become the real, true Poisonblood Grounds, and the guardian spirit—who had only just finished filing his move-in registration in the afterlife—would show up in my dreams every night and hiss at me.

But still…

What else am I supposed to do? There’s no other option.

Fuck it. I don’t know.

I squeezed my eyes shut and plunged the Corrupted Sacred Stone into the water.

Splash! Fwoooosh!

The calm surface broke. Spray shot up and soaked me from head to toe.

And then…everything went quiet.

“…?”

What the hell? Why was it so quiet?

I hesitated through a moment that felt like an eternity, then opened my eyes.

A little. Just a little.

And at the moment I cautiously peered through narrowed eyes—

Blub blub.

Bubbles rose to the surface.

Whoooooosh.

From the center of the pond, water mixed with murky darkness began to whirl into a vortex.

Which meant…

Fuck. I’m standing right on it.

The realization had barely struck when an enormous pillar of water surged up beneath my feet.

Kwaaaaaaah!

I had no time to react. Water and darkness filled everything around me.

Caught in the chaos that had rushed upon me without warning, I thrashed about with all my strength. No, I tried to. I would have, if I hadn’t realized the truth a moment later.

“…!”

I could see it. Feel it.

Water and darkness spun fiercely around me. But so did fresh air and wind—things I couldn’t have felt underwater.

Air? Wind?

I blinked and looked around.

I wasn’t floating beneath the surface. The water that had risen to my chest was gone. Solid ground lay beneath my feet, while water and darkness swirled endlessly on every side.

It…wrapped around me?

There was no doubt. Instead of sweeping across my entire body, the enormous pillar of water had enclosed me. Beyond the darkness and waves blocking me in on every side, impossible and unbelievable scenes flashed past my eyes.

Fwoooosh!

This is…

I understood at once. What I was seeing wasn’t a hallucination caused by extreme confusion or anything of the sort. It was simply the history of some place contained within this pond.

Or perhaps the memories of the divine artifact that had shared this land’s fate since its birth.

“…The sacred stone.”

I muttered the words like a groan and gazed with stunned eyes at the column of water walling me in on every side.

Time flowed through its ceaseless waves.

A sprout pushed up from barren ground and grew into a towering tree. Grass and flowers spread, and animals appeared one by one.

So fast.

The scenes reflected in the water changed in less than an instant. Day and night traded places dozens of times in the blink of an eye. On one day, thunder and lightning filled the world. On another, a mountain collapsed and erased a river.

Hundreds of years. Perhaps thousands.

Through it all, the sacred stone remained where it was. And others stayed beside it.

Horses. Monkeys. Leopards. Bears…

They differed in species and appearance, but I could hardly call them mere beasts.

Countless among them shone like stars in the night sky before fading away, and eventually, a snow-white White Tiger began guarding the sacred stone.

The guardian spirit.

Then darkness came. A darkness dreadful enough to make me shudder. Sticky, wicked qi surged through the waves.

After all those years, the memories had reached that day.

But the final guardian spirit charged forward, its white mane streaming behind it. With a roar, it bit and clawed at the darkness.

Until demonic qi seeped into the wounds across its body. Until the moment its blue-white eyes turned black.

And then every memory contained within the sacred stone ended as well.

No. Perhaps this was a new beginning.

Swish.

The water rippled again. The darkness vanished, and a face appeared in the pillar surrounding me.

The figure of a young man with his eyes squeezed shut as he immersed something in his hand deep into the pond was unmistakably familiar.

The sacred stone’s newest memory began with me.

And that could mean only one thing.

Ding.

System

• The energy held within the Pond of Life becomes rain and seeps into every part of this land.

• The earth will grow more fertile, the plants will stay green, and the wounded will be healed.

• The Pond of Life has lost all its energy and dried up. But do not worry. Time has the power to change many things.

• The sacred stone will remain in this land, as it always has. Together with a new guardian spirit.

A clear chime rang in my ears. The darkness writhing in the pillar of water faded without a trace.

As I stared blankly at the sight, a translucent holographic window appeared before me.

System

• The Pond of Life purifies all evil and impure energy.

• The demonic qi that had seeped into the Corrupted Divine Artifact has completely disappeared!

• Mission: Dispose of the Corrupted Divine Artifact (Complete)

• You have successfully completed the Quest, Corrupted Divine Artifact!

• You have obtained a vast amount of EXP and Fame as a Quest completion Reward!

• Level Up!

• Level Up!

• You have accomplished an unbelievable achievement!

…

…

…

System

• The Pond of Life purifies all evil and impure energy.

• The demonic qi that had seeped into the Corrupted Divine Artifact has completely disappeared!

• Mission: Dispose of the Corrupted Divine Artifact (Complete)

• You have successfully completed the Quest, Corrupted Divine Artifact!

• You have obtained a vast amount of EXP and Fame as a Quest completion Reward!

• Level Up!

• Level Up!

• You have accomplished an unbelievable achievement!

…

…

Ding. Ding. Ding.

System notifications rang without pause, and holographic windows filled the air. But all of it felt distant. Through the slowly dispersing pillar of water, a single object shone.

Swish.

As if entranced, I reached out. The water parted before my hand.

It was smaller and lighter than a child’s fist, yet impossibly warm. The moment my fingertips touched it—

Fwoooooosh!

Dazzling light swelled. At the same time, the column of water walling me in on every side shot into the sky and burst apart like an explosion.

Fwoooooosh!

The power of life spread endlessly beyond the hidden Sacred Land, toward some faraway place.

With the new sacred stone in my hand, I tipped my head back and looked up. Another clear chime rang out among the falling droplets.

Ding.

A new guardian spirit?

Before I could grasp what that meant, I heard footsteps.

Thud.

A large forepaw came down on the dry ground where the pond had been.

Snow-white fur fluttered in a breeze that had come from somewhere, and the blue-white eyes, now clearer and more distinct, looked exactly like those of someone from my memories.

“…So it’s you.”

Grrrr.

Muyaho—no, the new guardian spirit—approached and rubbed its head against me.

Without saying a word, I stroked the back of its neck. Jeok Cheongang, who had watched the entire scene with a dazed expression, barely managed to part his lips.

“…Can’t this old man take him with me?”

The Beast Miao King’s face went stern.

“Would that be possible?”

Neither of them noticed the green leaf that had just poked up beneath the rain falling around them.

Nor did they know that the rain would soak all of Nanman for three days.