Chapter 718
“…Even though so many people died, the sorrow I felt for Baek Sang was the greatest in my heart.”
A soft voice burrowed into my ears. After a moment of silence, I opened my mouth.
“So you left because of that? Because you thought those feelings were wrong?”
“To become the Palace Lord of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace… means you must prioritize this land and its people above all else. But I was consumed by personal feelings.”
Before me was a back as immovable as a thousand-year boulder. Yet the back of the giant who had supported the Southern Barbarians for so long looked frail as a child in this moment.
“Do you know what I thought when I faced Baek Sang for the last time?”
I could guess well enough, but I didn’t say it.
Because the person who knew him best and suffered the most was right in front of me.
“I wanted to save him, no matter what.”
“Even in that horrific scene, I wanted to save Baek Sang—who betrayed everyone in this land, including me—and let him run away far away.”
Though they didn’t share blood, they were sworn brothers no different from true brothers.
Beast Miao King must have wanted to save Baek Sang at any cost.
He wanted to grant absolution to the man who had been taken hostage along with his son—whom he thought dead—and forced to live as Dark Heaven’s hound.
But Baek Sang himself refused it.
“Maybe he knew it too. That I was hesitating. So he must have made that choice.”
Beast Miao King’s mutter scattered into emptiness.
The emotion in his voice was a bitter mix—having to cut down the sworn brother he cherished more than his own life with his own hands, and the self-reproach of abandoning his duty as Palace Lord because of personal feelings.
“The forest died because of one sick tree. But the forest keeper, who should be caring for the forest, is lingering before the sick tree that has already fallen. Can you call such a person a forest keeper?”
I had been listening quietly, and I broke the long silence.
“Yal Daehyup, I’m asking this with genuine sincerity…”
My words trailed off before I realized it.
Honestly, even now, I wasn’t sure I should say this. But I had to get this forest keeper—who’d lost his footing—back on his feet somehow.
Even if I crossed the line a little. Or a lot.
“Are you, by any chance, an idiot?”
“……”
A clear agitation rippled through Beast Miao King’s back. But since I’d started, I kept going without hesitation.
“Is the Palace Lord some kind of god? Don’t you have emotions as a person?”
“You….”
“Let’s be frank. Someone who’s been with you like blood family your whole life just died. Who in this world could be fine after that? Do you only grieve more because other people died too?”
Beast Miao King stayed silent for a moment, then finally spoke.
“Jin Taekyung. Are you the same?”
I nodded.
“Isn’t that obvious? What am I, some great guy?”
“Even if people praise me as a hero or Daehyup, I’m still just a person. Would Yal Daehyup be any different?”
At my answer, without even a hint of hesitation, the broad back shifted.
Swish.
His head turned slowly.
For the first time since I stepped into this old shrine, I saw Beast Miao King’s face, and it was utterly haggard.
“They were also the people of the Southern Barbarians that I had to protect.”
“So you protected them. Even after being branded a traitor, you came back, risking danger. Thanks to that, you were able to save so many others.”
I continued quietly.
“The sick trees have already fallen, and the forest isn’t dead yet. If anything, it needs its forest keeper more than ever.”
Many were sacrificed in this incident. But ironically, the Southern Barbarians would become even stronger.
Because Baek Sang was not the only sick tree in this vast forest called the Southern Barbarians.
Other tribal chiefs—no, traitors. If Baek Sang joined hands with Dark Heaven for his son, they followed Baek Sang for nothing but their own safety and power.
Trees that should have been cut down long ago. Trees infected with the disease of greed.
More than twenty tribal chiefs, drunk on greed, shook the branches they clung to, and countless leaves rolled in blood, yet the forest did not die.
No, it would become more united and prosperous under the single banner of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.
And there was only one person who could raise that banner before all Southern Barbarians.
“Let’s go back now. That way, those father and son can rest in peace, right?”
The words were meant for Beast Miao King, but my eyes were elsewhere.
Beast Miao King noticed where I was looking and asked softly.
“Did you know?”
“I noticed the moment I came in. Everything in the shrine is covered in dust, but only that is untouched.”
I stepped forward slowly.
Between the faded murals and dozens of unidentified stone statues were two memorial tablets that hadn’t been here the last time.
Two memorial tablets with no names engraved.
But I already knew who they were for.
‘Baek Sang. Baek Hwi.’
I repeated the names in my heart—names even the one who made these tablets couldn’t bear to carve—and knelt.
Once. And again.
After the second bow, I turned around.
Beast Miao King was staring at me with a frozen expression.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“…Unexpected.”
“Did you think I was going to flip the memorial tablet over or something?”
“You could have. Considering the sins Baek Sang committed, even more so.”
Damn it. That’s right.
Considering everything that happened, even if I split Baek Sang’s memorial tablet in half and spat on it, no one could call it unjust.
But…
“No. I just wanted to do this. That’s all.”
What was this dirty, bitter feeling?
I looked back at the nameless memorial tablets, and I felt like I finally understood what it was.
It was something like pity. Or empathy.
It’s too late. I have walked a path of no return, and I will never stop.
The voice I’d heard in the dark prison echoed in my ears.
I stared at the memorial tablet with no name and asked a question that no one could hear.
‘If I were you, what path would I have taken?’
There was no answer.
Not from deep within my heart, not from the memorial tablet.
But a thought still came.
If there is such a thing as an afterlife, then I hope that bastard—who deserved to be torn apart—gets to live a different life this time. An ordinary, peaceful life where he doesn’t lose anyone or sacrifice anyone, and where he can stay with the son he missed so much.
‘Damn it. How many people died because of that bastard.’
I know. To some extent, there are no villains in this world without a story.
But the reason this felt so dirty was simple.
Maybe I would have walked the same path as Baek Sang.
Because I understood too well how hard he struggled in the situation he was given.
So all I could say was this much.
“…Don’t sin there. You son of a bitch.”
As I muttered, the reddish light seeping through the cracks in the shrine door illuminated the two memorial tablets.
As if it were answering in place of words.
And then a deep voice reached my ears.
“The sun is already setting.”
Creak.
The old floor screamed as the giant who had been sitting cross-legged finally rose and looked at me with calm eyes.
“If we head straight to the Inner Palace now, we can have dinner together.”
…
“Let’s go. We have to go back before it gets too late.”
Looking at Beast Miao King like that, I smiled and nodded.
The forest keeper of the Southern Barbarians had returned.
—
Two days passed.
When the Palace Lord, who had vanished without a word, returned, the executives who had been in chaos quickly regained stability. At everyone’s insistence, Miao King took a brief rest and summoned me the next day.
No—more precisely, he summoned Jeok Cheon-gang and me.
And Jeok Cheon-gang, who arrived at the hastily assembled conference room after seven days, said this the moment he saw Beast Miao King seated at the head.
“You’ve grown a lot. Our Miao King is sitting at the head seat now.”
“…Huk. I’m sorry. It was just a habit.”
“No. I understand enough. So understand the old man’s habit of using the Flame God Palm when he sees a rude guy.”
Whoosh!
Beast Miao King had already experienced that “habit” during the Great War of Justice and Evil.
He moved quickly despite the bandages, vacated the head seat, and politely gestured.
“Please sit, Elder Jeok.”
“Heh, it’s fine. Why are you doing all that for a guy you’re not even comfortable around?”
“That’s enough. Just sit down. I don’t like a guy who hasn’t even dried his blood telling me what to do, but first, say whatever you want.”
Beast Miao King looked confused by the gangster-style speech he hadn’t heard in a long time.
I spoke politely.
“Just tell him. That means he’s going to listen carefully.”
“…Then may this Hubae ask Elder Jeok a question?”
“He really hates being asked back. If you don’t want to get hurt while your body’s still not well, just say it.”
“…I understand.”
Beast Miao King glanced at Jeok Cheon-gang—who somehow looked much younger than he remembered—and carefully opened his mouth.
“The reason I invited even Elder Jeok is to ask about one important matter.”
“Important matter?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“I know the aftermath has been handled smoothly so far. Did you perhaps step on Dark Heaven’s tail?”
“I wish that were the case, but unfortunately, it’s not. But in another sense, it’s an even more headache-inducing problem…”
“The introduction is too long. Tell me the main point before your life gets shorter.”
This old man really hadn’t changed.
Beast Miao King gave Jeok Cheon-gang a look that said exactly that, then took something from his robe and placed it on the table.
Thud.
Something wrapped in thick cloth.
Yet everyone here—including me—could feel the ominous energy leaking from within.
In the heavy air, Jeok Cheon-gang muttered like a groan.
“…Demonic Energy?”
Beast Miao King nodded stiffly.
“That’s right. It’s also very pure and powerful Demonic Energy. I couldn’t entrust it to anyone else among the Southern Barbarians, so this Hubae has been holding it personally.”
Their voices sounded distant, like echoes.
I felt like I already knew where this Demonic Energy came from—and what was hidden inside that cloth.
At the same time, the last roar of a being that had echoed through the deep darkness rang in my ears.
“It’s the Divine Stone that the Guardian Spirit had.”
“It’s as you guessed. Although it’s no longer a Divine Stone.”
Beast Miao King answered in a complicated tone and removed the cloth.
A stone filled with turbid darkness, instead of warm, dazzling radiance, revealed itself.
It was no longer a Divine Stone. It had absorbed all the Demonic Energy flowing out of the Gate.
Now, it was something that could only be called a Demon Stone.
Beast Miao King’s eyes, fixed on it, were deeply sunken.
“I’m suppressing the Demonic Energy for now, but I can’t leave it like this forever. So I invited you and Elder Jeok to discuss how to deal with it.”
At that moment—
Tring.
A clear bell-like sound, the opposite of the turbid darkness before me, rang out as a hologram window floated in the air.
[Would you like to accept the quest “Corrupted Divine Object”? Y / N]