Chapter 692
Sometimes, instinct trumps reason.
Like the moment I saw Azure Dragon God’s Elixir sitting neatly in the Wraith of Mount Aino’s mouth.
“You little bastard. When did you steal that?”
It slipped out before I could stop it.
The Wraith of Mount Aino stared at me with a chilling gaze and sent a telepathic message.
-Steal? Your words are excessive.
Honestly, it was.
Even if it had stolen Azure Dragon God’s Elixir, I’d still be the one in the wrong. It could swallow the whole thing whenever it felt like it.
“Okay, I apologize. Sorry.”
After apologizing cleanly, I politely held out both hands.
“So spit it out now. See my palms? Spit it out here. Huh?”
-It was astonishing.
“Yeah. I’m astonishingly astonished too. I get it, so let’s get that over with first…”
-I felt the power contained within it, and then I saw an immeasurable span of time.
I paused, then asked,
“Time?”
-Yes. Hundreds of years of time and memories—something only those of the same kind could glimpse. Everything of an imoogi that could not become a dragon was contained within.
-At the end of that long memory, a human appeared. A young, rough, endlessly reckless human.
Muyaho-like blue-white eyes stared straight at me. Then a calm, manlike voice echoed in my mind.
-Be grateful to that imoogi. If I had not seen its memories… you too would have met the same end as that unpleasant human.
There were plenty of unpleasant humans in this world. Flip it upside down and shake it, and you could fill the Yangtze River with them.
But I had a feeling I knew exactly who it meant.
“Could it be… Heukung?”
-I do not know his name. However, unlike you, that one had only one forepaw.
Not a forepaw—a hand. But that wasn’t important right now.
I looked at the Wraith of Mount Aino again.
“Hm. Should I start by thanking you for saving me?”
-It does not matter. It was my choice.
“Then I’ll say it anyway. Thank you. I mean it.”
The Wraith of Mount Aino glanced at me, turned, and began walking. I followed naturally and spoke.
“I have a few questions.”
-Annoying.
“What? You’ll answer sincerely even if it’s annoying?”
-I will not.
“Oh. Thank you for agreeing so readily.”
-…Human methods of communication are truly peculiar. Is it because too much time has passed?
I brushed off the telepathy and asked the most important question first.
“How much time has passed?”
Its tail hung stiffly, clearly displeased, but the answer came soon enough.
-You have remained here for one day in human time.
“One day?”
An absurdly short span in normal circumstances.
But not now.
Great Snow Demon and Black Hand Demon Fist had foretold the Blood Wind that would soon strike the Southern Barbarian Region. Beast Miao King’s whereabouts were unknown. And there was no one left who could stop Southern Demon Empress.
‘Damn it.’
It was unavoidable, but it wouldn’t be strange if thousands—no, tens of thousands—had died in the day I’d been unconscious.
I clenched my teeth, swallowed the curse, and forced the words out.
“The exit. Tell me how to get out of here.”
-You intend to leave?
“Yeah. I appreciate you saving me, but I don’t have time to linger.”
-You intend to save your fellow clansmen in danger. As recklessly as last time.
“You… were watching?”
-Rest assured. I cannot read human memories. I merely guessed from the image you left behind in the imoogi’s memory. The reason you fought so fiercely must have been similar.
“…You were watching.”
-Yes. From beginning to end. Always watching everything that happens here, as always.
The Wraith of Mount Aino turned its head toward me and continued calmly.
-But I could not find a reason to interfere in human affairs. At least, not until you took out ‘that thing.’
Gasp.
My eyes widened.
Not because I didn’t know it meant Azure Dragon God’s Elixir, but because I remembered it—the moment I’d tried to take the Elixir as a last resort, then froze as a chilling wind swept in from nowhere.
Something felt wrong. I set the Elixir down.
And thanks to Muyaho arriving right after, I survived.
“Then that wind…”
My words trailed off, and the telepathy followed.
-You were doing something foolish. If you go against the established order, that is defying Heaven’s Will. If I had left you alone, you would not have overcome the power left by the imoogi, and you would have died.
I watched its back as it walked along the endless cliff, then muttered,
“Not once, but twice.”
-What are you talking about?
“You saved me.”
The Wraith of Mount Aino gave a soft, low chuckle.
-I merely pitied someone who gave everything to a foolish human. If it were not for that reason, you would deserve to die.
“That’s unfair. I don’t know why you antagonize humans, but I’ve never done anything that wrong in my life.”
-Even though you try to take innocent lives and burn down places where they lived in peace?
“What?”
Instead of answering, it tilted its head toward the bottom of the cliff.
Below, countless beasts with blackened bodies drank from a nameless stream. Roughly thousands.
And if you counted the beasts spread across this endless space, the number was impossible to guess.
‘What the hell…’
I stood rigid on the cliff, staring down.
-The Fire Demon you unleashed is still devouring the entire mountain. If the flames had spread, everything would have burned away long ago.
-Yes. I led them here. Just like seven nights ago.
Seven nights ago.
That was the day Beast Miao King and I received the urgent report and headed to Mt. Aino.
A flash of realization swept through me as I retraced my memories.
‘The beasts.’
I remembered clearly.
Of the roughly three hundred warriors stationed at Mt. Aino, about two hundred returned alive.
But the beasts didn’t.
I hadn’t seen them anywhere—not on Mt. Aino, not in the Poison-Blooded Land.
“That was you too. You saved the beasts.”
-I could not simply watch the demons disturb this place. I have not interfered in human affairs for hundreds of years, but I could not help stepping in at that time.
Normally, I might’ve let it slide.
But listening closely, I caught something off.
“Unleashed?”
-Did you not know?
Blue-white eyes, faintly contemptuous, pinned me.
-It was all the work of humans. You have been doing so for a long time, and I have remained here and watched all of it.
Damn it.
Until now, what happened at Mt. Aino had been a suspicion.
Now it was certainty.
Dark Heaven. Again.
‘If only. If only we’d learned this sooner.’
Regret hit late, and I stared at the Wraith of Mount Aino.
Now I understood, at least vaguely, why it had acted the way it did that day.
The image of its back—appearing and vanishing over and over, even though it could’ve escaped easily—rose in my mind.
“That day, you weren’t attacking us.”
-Yes. Because that is not the mission given to me.
“You were just… trying to tell us. The place where the Thousand Year Old Spirit Tree is.”
-I could not simply watch the Evil Spirit disturb this mountain. Since it is a seed planted by humans, it is the natural order for humans to reap it.
Its steps never stopped.
The cliff path narrowed and steepened. Birds nesting on jagged peaks towering through the clouds watched us with curious eyes.
How long had we walked like that?
The ground below, swallowed in cloud-mist, was painfully distant.
‘It didn’t look this big at all.’
When I first opened my eyes, I’d thought it was just a forest with a small pond.
But now, in every direction, there were vast mountain ranges, valleys, and green pastures.
‘What the hell…’
I couldn’t even begin to grasp it. I forced my lips apart while staring at the world unfolding before me, surrounded by mysteries.
“Where… is this?”
-A land where life dwells. A place where everything lives in harmony.
‘What kind of nonsense is that?’
For some reason, I suddenly remembered a church deacon from my childhood—the one who used to feed me spicy rice cakes while shouting, “Believe in Jesus, go to Heaven. Disbelieve, go to Hell.”
“Even so, it can’t be Heaven.”
-The kingdom of Heaven? That is a plausible expression. But this is a place deep within the land where no one can enter without my permission. It is also very close to where you were.
“Then could it be… the Poison-Blooded Land?”
At my mutter, the great head a few steps ahead nodded slightly.
-That is correct.
“But this place is…”
I lost my words.
The Poison-Blooded Land.
Even if you told me this was Mt. Aino, I wouldn’t have believed it.
There were no raging flames here now, and none of the eerie energy that had clung to Mt. Aino.
-Stop it. This is a place you humans cannot invade or understand.
That was exactly right.
Murim was full of strange things, and the Mystic Gate Formation was among them, but what I was seeing now had shattered that limit entirely.
“Ha. The Poison-Blooded Land. This is the Poison-Blooded Land.”
I let out a hollow, self-mocking murmur and followed it higher.
With each step toward the summit, telepathy continued.
-The Poison-Blooded Land is its current name. As I have, humans have changed many things over time.
“Then what was it called before?”
-Sacred Land.
“What?”
-It is a story from a truly distant past, as old as the imoogi’s memory. In that era, the masters of this land were beasts, not humans, and they lived in groups within their territories. A small number of humans worshiped us.
“Huh…”
My words fell away on their own.
A forbidden land no one could approach had once been called Sacred Land.
And if that was a time when there were few Southern Barbarians…
I couldn’t even imagine how far back it went.
Five hundred years? A thousand?
‘I’m going crazy.’
Even if I’d dumped every point into intelligence from the start, I’d still be an idiot right now.
I shook my head and looked toward the Wraith of Mount Aino, which had come to a stop.
“Then you. What the hell are you?”
-Did you not say it with your own mouth before? A spirit.
“What I’m asking is your name from when this place was Sacred Land.”
Silence.
Then its massive body shifted. Something faint flashed in those blue-white eyes.
-Guardian Spirit.
“What?”
-In the distant past, people called me that. The mountain lord who protects Mt. Aino. The Guardian Spirit born with the Divine Stone.