Chapter 720
Hoo.
A cool breeze brushed against me. Taking a small, deep breath, I looked around.
Sacred Land.
Was there any other place that suited those two words better?
But the place I was standing in was only the outer body.
‘Even this Sacred Land has its heart elsewhere.’
A space overflowing with life and purifying energy.
The very place that once revived my body when it was already dying. I slowly headed toward the pond in the distance.
Even without the sun, the light pouring down from above was warm, and the flowers and grass blooming in every direction looked fresh.
Jeok Cheon-Gang and Beast Miao King stared around this bizarre space with dumbfounded faces. Their lips moved as if they wanted to say something, but they soon pressed them shut and followed behind me.
Still, their patience didn’t last long.
Splash.
The moment I stepped forward without hesitation, cold water surged up to my waist. Jeok Cheon-Gang blurted out in alarm.
“T-That guy…!”
They probably thought I was trying to kill myself.
Jeok Cheon-Gang was about to grab my collar and drag me out, but instead of explaining, I bit down on my pinky finger.
Crack.
A faint pain. The skin split, and blood welled up.
Jeok Cheon-Gang’s eyes widened, and I smiled at him. Then, without hesitation, I dipped my hand into the clear water.
‘One, two, three…’
I counted slowly in my head, pulled my hand out, and in less than thirty seconds, my pinky—completely healed—was right back to normal.
Jeok Cheon-Gang, who looked ready to jump in at any moment, and Beast Miao King, who was holding him back, both let out groans that sounded like sighs.
“What is this?”
“…Yohee’s words were true. All of it was true.”
“Did the people of old make up ‘seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times’ for fun?”
As expected, showing them was faster than explaining.
‘A little performance.’
And the results were immediate. On top of that, I was able to confirm one important fact.
‘The effect is still here.’
Honestly, I’d been worried.
Like a golem collapsing after its core is destroyed, I wondered if the Sacred Land might have vanished the moment the Divine Stone was corrupted by Demonic Energy.
But my worries disappeared as cleanly as the wound on my finger, and what filled that empty space was a conjecture bordering on certainty.
‘This is it. This is the answer.’
The system had never lied to me.
It always delivered facts as they were. Finding a path within that monotonous text was entirely on me.
Just like now.
‘The quest said “in any way,” didn’t it? Clearly.’
That was right. From the start, the quest wasn’t “destroy it.”
It was “dispose of” the [Corrupted Divine Object].
I’d realized it late, but I managed to dredge up one mysterious place from the memories tied to the Guardian Spirit.
A pond that healed my body when I was on the verge of death. A pond that purified the filth inside me.
‘Healing and purification.’
I didn’t know where this mysterious efficacy came from, but there wasn’t a better option than this.
I waded deeper toward the center of the pond.
Swish.
Gentle ripples spread out from my body. The pond wasn’t very deep, and on the surface—so clear it looked transparent—my own tense face trembled back at me.
Gulp.
I swallowed dryly and looked down at my clenched fist.
Along with the solid weight of the [Corrupted Divine Object], I could feel the powerful Demonic Energy surging between my fingers.
‘…But if this goes wrong and backfires, it’ll be a real disaster party.’
This wasn’t a joke. With this much Demonic Energy, it was more than enough to ruin not only the pond, but the Sacred Land itself.
Then it really would become Poison-Blooded Land, and the Guardian Spirit—who’d barely finished reporting in the afterlife—would show up in my dreams every night and hiss at me.
Hmph. But what else could I do?
‘What am I supposed to do? There’s no other choice.’
Screw it. I don’t know.
I squeezed my eyes shut and plunged the [Corrupted Divine Object] in my hand straight into the water.
Splash! Swish!
The calm surface exploded. Spray soaked my whole body.
And then… everything went quiet.
What is this? Why is it so quiet?
In a span that felt like an eternity, I hesitated, then opened my eyes.
Just a little. Very slightly.
And the moment I carefully squinted—
Bubble.
Bubbles rose to the surface.
And from the center of the pond, a whirl of water mixed with turbid darkness began to churn.
So, in other words…
‘Damn it. It’s reacting.’
At the same time as that realization, a massive pillar of water surged up beneath my feet.
Kyaaaaaa!
There was no time to react. Only water and darkness, swallowing my vision whole.
In the chaos that struck without warning, I moved to struggle—
Only to realize the truth the very next moment.
I saw it. I felt it.
The violently swirling water and darkness around me—and the fresh air and wind that absolutely shouldn’t exist underwater.
‘Air? Wind?’
I blinked hard and looked around.
There was no buoyancy. The water that had risen up to my chest was gone.
Solid ground pressed under my feet, while water and darkness spiraled endlessly on all sides.
‘It… wrapped around me?’
That was right. The pillar of water hadn’t swept me away—it had enclosed me, and beyond the darkness and waves blocking my view, an unbelievable sight was flashing past.
Swish!
‘This is…’
I understood at once.
This wasn’t a hallucination from confusion.
It was the history contained in this pond.
No—perhaps the memories of the Divine Object that had shared its birth and fate with this land.
“…Divine Stone.”
I muttered like a groan, staring blankly at the walls of water around me.
Within the ceaseless flow of waves, a distant era flowed together.
A sprout rose from desolation. It grew into a massive tree. Grass and flowers spread, and animals began to appear, one after another.
‘It’s fast.’
In a time that couldn’t even be called a moment, the scenery changed again and again.
Day and night flipped dozens of times in the blink of an eye.
One day, thunder and lightning filled the world. Another day, a mountain collapsed and erased a river.
Hundreds—no, thousands—of years.
Yet in that long, shifting flow of time, the Divine Stone remained where it was.
And there were beings who guarded it.
Horse. Monkey. Leopard. Bear…
Beasts of different species and shapes.
But they were not beasts that could be dismissed as mere animals.
They shone and faded countless times like stars in the night sky, until at last, a snow-white White Tiger began to guard the Divine Stone.
‘Guardian Spirit.’
And then darkness came.
Chilling darkness. Sticky, evil energy that surged through the waves.
After a long time, the memory of that day finally arrived.
The last Guardian Spirit charged in, its snow-white mane scattering, roaring as it bit and tore at the darkness—
Until Demonic Energy seeped into the wounds covering its body.
Until those blue-white eyes were dyed black.
And with that, the memories contained in the Divine Stone ended.
No.
Maybe it was the beginning of something new.
Swish.
The surface trembled again. The darkness vanished, and a face surfaced in the pillar of water surrounding me.
A young man with his eyes squeezed shut, plunging something deep into the pond.
A sight so familiar it couldn’t be mistaken.
The Divine Stone’s new memory. Its beginning was me.
And that meant only one thing.
Ding.
A clear bell rang, piercing my ears.
The darkness struggling within the pillar of water disappeared without a trace.
As I stared blankly, a semi-transparent hologram window appeared before my eyes.
[[Pond of Life] purifies all evil and impure energies.]
[The Demonic Energy that had permeated the [Corrupted Divine Object] completely disappears!]
[Mission: Dispose of the Corrupted Divine Object (Completed)]
[Quest: [Corrupted Divine Object] has been successfully completed!]
[You have acquired enormous experience and fame as a quest completion reward!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[You have achieved an incredible feat!]
Ding. Ding. Ding.
System alerts rang without end, and hologram windows filled the air.
But everything felt distant, because one thing alone was shining within the slowly scattering pillars of water.
Ssshh.
As if possessed, I reached out. The waves parted.
It was smaller and lighter than a child’s fist, yet unbelievably warm the moment my fingertips touched it.
Hwaaa!
A dazzling radiance swelled up.
At the same time, the pillars of water surrounding me shot into the sky and burst like an explosion.
Swish!
A force of life spread outward, beyond the hidden Sacred Land, to somewhere far away.
Holding the new Divine Stone in my hand, I instinctively lifted my head to the sky.
A clear bell rang again amid raindrops falling like scattered beads.
Ding.
[The energy contained in the [Pond of Life] becomes rain and permeates every corner of this land.]
[The land will become more fertile, the vegetation will always be 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.]
[[Divine Stone] will exist on this land as it has done so far. With a new Guardian Spirit?]
Before I could grasp the meaning, footsteps reached my ears.
Thud.
A large forepaw stepped onto the ground—ground that could no longer be called a pond.
Snow-white fur fluttered in a wind that seemed to come from nowhere, and the blue-white eyes growing clearer by the second resembled someone from my memory.
“…Yeah. It’s you.”
Grrr.
Muyaho.
No—the new Guardian Spirit lowered its head and rubbed against me.
I stroked the back of his neck without a word.
Jeok Cheon-Gang, staring at everything with a blank face, finally managed to part his lips.
“…That guy. Can this old man take him?”
Beast Miao King, wearing a serious expression for once, asked back.
“Would that be alright?”
They didn’t know yet.
That even now, in the raindrops falling onto their heads, green leaves were already sprouting—
And that this rain would soak the entire Southern Barbarian land for three full days.