Chapter 712

I didn’t want it to be true.

I hoped this sudden thought—the guess that had come to mind—would turn out to be nothing.

But the next moment, I heard the Guardian Spirit’s Telepathy, and I realized it was all true.

-Someone has to do it. Maybe this is Heaven’s Will given to me.

Just as I had instinctively grasped his intent, he had done the same.

My face was reflected in his clear, transparent blue-white eyes, as though he could see through everything.

-That darkness… Unless you eliminate what you call the Gate, nothing will end. No, it will be the beginning of another disaster.

It was an undeniable fact. After a fierce, grueling struggle, the Southern Demon Empress and her subordinates had been defeated, but the Gate they opened still remained, gnawing at the space.

Even now.

Swish.

The darkness was already moving beyond the Inner Palace and spreading toward the Outer Palace.

The Demonic Energy seeping through it would corrupt living things, mutate them into irrational beings, and bring about another disaster.

‘In fact, it’s no different from a monster army.’

There was no telling how far the Gate’s power would reach.

If the Demonic Energy pouring out of it swallowed the Southern Barbarian Region—no, if this darkness kept spreading—it would continue without end.

Beyond the Southern Barbarian Region, until it engulfed the entire world.

-Human. As you may have guessed, only the energy of the Divine Stone can withstand that darkness. Someone must enter the center of that Gate and endure the darkness with the Divine Stone.

I knew.

Just a few months ago, the Water God Dragon had sacrificed himself to block the Gate, and I knew what the price of that sacrifice had been.

“…What if you become something different from what you are now?”

The Guardian Spirit smiled faintly at me, even though I couldn’t bring myself to say the word “Mutant.”

-Kill me. Without a moment’s hesitation.

“…”

-With your strength and that of the old human, it won’t be too difficult, even if I become a corrupted being.

I stared at the Guardian Spirit in silence, then forced my mouth open.

It was a thought I’d held from the moment I realized his intent, a question that came only after long deliberation.

“What if… what if I block the Gate myself?”

And the answer came from someone other than the Guardian Spirit.

“That’s ridiculous!”

It was Jeok Cheon-Gang, treating the Beast Miao King’s internal injuries.

His face was sterner than ever as he looked at me and continued.

“Impossible. No matter what nonsense you spout, this old man cannot allow it.”

“But Old Master…”

“I don’t want to hear it. No matter how great your achievements may be, we don’t know what will happen, so how can I allow it?”

“I promise I’ll come back unscathed.”

“Unscathed?”

Jeok Cheon-Gang stared at me in silence as I nodded, then spoke.

“If that’s what you really want. Fine.”

“Then…”

“You stay here. This old man will go.”

“If someone can come back unharmed, it’s more certain for this old man to go. Am I wrong?”

For a moment, I was left speechless by how accurate he was.

Then the Guardian Spirit’s Telepathy echoed.

-Old human, if that young human becomes a different being because of the darkness, what will you do?

“I will kill that child. So that he can find rest.”

Jeok Cheon-Gang answered without a moment’s hesitation, then continued in a low voice.

“And this old man will choose death as well.”

-Young human, what will you do in the opposite case?

I didn’t answer.

The Guardian Spirit, seeing through the meaning of my silence, smiled.

-Yes. That is why I must go.

-The humans of this land have already shed much blood. There is no reason for you and that old human to sacrifice yourselves in my place. You still have many destinies left, and I have already passed through many.

The Guardian Spirit raised his blue-white eyes and looked at Jeok Cheon-Gang.

-Even if the situation becomes irreversible, do not hesitate to kill me.

Jeok Cheon-Gang nodded slightly.

“I will do my best.”

-Thank you.

Breathing heavily, the Guardian Spirit turned his mouth toward me.

-Jin Taekyung. Now is the time.

What more could I say?

I put my hand to my chest and muttered inside my heart.

‘[Inventory open. Summon.]’

And the next moment, resting on my outstretched palm, there was something emitting a warm, faint light.

Jeok Cheon-Gang sensed the strange energy and murmured, almost like a groan.

“This is… could it be…”

-This Divine Stone, which you humans call the Beast King Stone, was my only remaining mission and reason for existence. And now, we will be together until the very end.

Swoosh.

The Divine Stone floated slowly into the air, then was drawn into the Guardian Spirit’s mouth.

Warmth spread out with a soft glow.

At the same time, the Guardian Spirit’s ragged breathing steadied, and his limp body began to regain strength, little by little.

Rustle. Thud.

At last, the huge White Tiger rose to his feet and stepped forward with a blood-soaked forepaw.

Step. Step.

Each step was heavier than ever before, and yet it was a step no one could stop.

The same was true of the darkness, thicker and stickier than ever.

Kwaaa.

Blood puddles filled the area, and countless corpses lay scattered everywhere. The darkness that surged like a wave collided with the light surrounding the Guardian Spirit and recoiled.

If the darkness flowing from the Gate contaminated everything, then the light within the Divine Stone was the power of purification.

-Kuaaa!

A fierce roar shook heaven and earth. The silver mane, dyed red, whipped violently.

Before I knew it, the Guardian Spirit had become a gust of wind and dashed out.

Swaaaaa!

I watched his back as he cut through the darkness.

Until that faint light—clearer than anything—sliced through corpses and debris.

Until he crossed the wide space and reached the cliff submerged in pitch-black darkness.

And then I realized.

In the final moment, the Guardian Spirit had called my name for the first time.

—

Breath wouldn’t come.

My body, soaked in blood, felt heavy, and the darkness filling the surroundings constricted the Guardian Spirit’s entire body.

‘Imoogi. Is this how you felt?’

With a question no one would ever hear, the Guardian Spirit forced one step at a time toward the gap in the cliff that had been torn open.

Even if it was difficult, he had to go.

He hadn’t known in the past, but now he did.

This had been the only mission given to him from the beginning. What the Guardian Spirit had to protect wasn’t the Divine Stone, but everything in this land.

Crunch.

A step heavier than ever sank deep into the ground. The closer he drew to the center of the Gate, the more the darkness and Demonic Energy intensified, pressing down on his entire body.

In his hazy consciousness, distant memories flickered through his blue-white eyes.

‘When I think about it, I was always alone.’

He had no father, no mother, no siblings.

No—at first, he didn’t even know whether such things existed in the world.

For a small, pure white White Tiger, this space he had seen since opening his eyes was the world itself, and there had always been a friend beside him.

A friend he couldn’t run and play with, and couldn’t communicate with, but who was always there.

Thud.

Something brushed his soft, pure white forepaw, like a cotton ball.

It was a stone so transparent it would be more fitting to call it a crystal, always warm and comforting.

Grrr.

Lulled by the pleasant sensation, the young White Tiger soon fell asleep.

And on a hill where a warm light—neither sunlight nor moonlight—poured down, a green sprout suddenly pushed its head out near the sleeping White Tiger’s feet.

Rustle. Thud.

The sprout, no larger than a fingernail, straightened its bent waist. Colorful buds appeared, branches stretched, and—

Before he knew it, a giant tree had rooted deep into the ground where the sprout had been, standing tall. Leaves hung from countless branches, casting wide, cool shade.

Swaaaaa.

A gust of wind blew from somewhere, and the giant tree shook its lush crown.

One leaf, stubbornly clinging on, finally broke free and drifted down into the shade.

Thud.

A being who had been napping opened his eyes.

-Creung.

The one who rose with a low cry was a White Tiger.

No longer a cub, and far beyond an ordinary tiger, he looked around with his blue-white eyes.

No one knew exactly how much time had passed.

They could only guess it had been a long time, because this place where he had been born and raised was always bright and peaceful.

But even so, there were changes.

Just as the sprout had become a giant tree, and the small, soft cub had been reborn as a huge, powerful being, change was undeniable.

‘Yes, that guy.’

It was three hundred years ago that he first met him.

It was three hundred years ago that he first met him. He was the chief of a tribe who led humans, and he possessed a mysterious power that made beasts follow him.

Perhaps that was why. The beasts of the Sacred Land accepted him without the Guardian Spirit’s permission.

‘Oh, this is the first time I’ve seen such a big White Tiger. What’s your name?’

At first, the Guardian Spirit was shocked that a human had stepped into the Sacred Land without permission, and then he was dumbfounded when that human dared to stroke his neck without fear.

So he asked.

‘What is your name?’

The impudent human’s expression was still vivid. He stared at the Guardian Spirit with his mouth hanging open and answered in a dazed voice.

‘It’s Yulcheon…’

‘I don’t know how you got in here, but if I see you again, I will tear you limb from limb. Do you understand?’

And the next day, the Guardian Spirit realized.

That the young human named Yulcheon was more fearless than any living being he had ever seen.

‘I told you not to be seen.’

‘So I was hiding.’

‘…Are you kidding me?’

‘You knew because of the smell, you’re not looking at me. I’m lying in the grass right now.’

‘No, that’s not what I meant… But what is this smell?’

‘It’s grilled meat. I brought it in case you were hungry. Would you like some?’

‘Meat? Did you hunt the beasts?’

He didn’t know how the human got close to him.

But just as their bodies were soaked together in a drizzle, they gradually came to know each other, and time passed quickly in the process.

Ten years. Twenty years. And until the day they faced each other for the last time.

‘It’s been a while.’

When he came to visit after several years, he was no longer young.

His black hair had already turned half gray, and his eyes looked weary.

‘I need your help. Only with your strength and the power of the Divine Stone can we win this war and restore peace to the Southern Barbarian Region.’

The Guardian Spirit knew.

He knew what kind of fight the man was fighting, and how evil their enemies were.

But he refused.

The Divine Stone was his, and he was only an observer. That was what he believed at the time.

At least, back then.

And regret always came too late.

‘If I had helped you then, would the fate of this land have changed?’

The deeply sunken blue-white eyes returned from their reverie.

Before him, turbid darkness swirled and writhed, spewing Demonic Energy as if it would devour everything.

In the distorted space, the Guardian Spirit took his last step with difficulty and stared at the center of the Gate.

Then, with everything he had left, he moved his faintly glowing body and rushed in.

-Kuaaa!

With a single roar, a massive wave erupted.