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Chapter 330. Divine Spirit Hunt (5)
After Sa-ryeon dug through her memory, I concluded that No Jin-ha definitely didn't know.
First, the fact that he'd come not once but multiple times was suspicious in and of itself, and second, she said he'd spent the entire night noisily searching the Black Forest.
If he'd actually seen me fleeing with the Solar Monkey, he would've focused his search on that spot.
'Small mercies, I suppose.'
I'd been silently cursing the Demon Monkey for ages because its Inner Core hadn't increased my inner arts—but in the end, that turned out to be a positive outcome.
Е ṅ ùḿa . і d
Even if someone examined my inner arts, they'd find no sign of an increase.
And there were no external changes that would give anything away either......
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"But you really didn't eat a Divine Spirit's Inner Core? Your skin looks incredibly smooth......"
"Come on, I've always had good skin."
"More bull...... no, wait! How do I put this...... right now it's like you're practically glowing. Even your hair has this strange sheen to it......"
Damn Demon Monkey.
Én ù m̌ ã . і́ d
"..............Hundreds of Academy students and instructors couldn't catch it even working together. How would I hunt a Black Forest Divine Spirit by myself?"
"True...... what are you, that you'd solo a Divine Spirit of the Black Forest?"
"......"
Was that a backhanded insult?
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I set aside my nagging unease and headed back with Sa-ryeon.
When we arrived at the campsite, everyone was already awake.
Е̇ ñŭ m̆ a
Why were all their faces so stiff, by the way?
"No Jin-ha came."
"I see."
"And......"
Eun-ho trailed off mid-sentence and glanced at Yang Ja-pyeong, who let out a small sigh.
"Instructor No seems to be convinced that Representative Jin went to hunt the Divine Spirit."
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How did the story end up there?
"Actually, I was the one who......"
"Allow me to explain."
"......"
Cutting off Yang Ja-pyeong, Eun-ho stepped forward again.
"The instructor was pressuring the Southern Fist Sect about failing to manage the Academy students because you were missing. I couldn't just watch, so I ended up telling him. That you could read the spiritual vein."
Ë n̊u mа. i d̄
Instructor No had tried to pressure the Southern Fist Sect over poor management of Academy students, and Eun-ho had stepped in to protect Yang Ja-pyeong—and let it slip.
Having heard that, No Jin-ha had apparently become convinced that I'd used the ability to read the spiritual vein to swoop in for the final blow on the Divine Spirit.
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"I see. Understood."
"......That's it?"
Both Eun-ho and Yang Ja-pyeong tilted their heads, looking puzzled.
What was so important that they had to build all that suspense?
Ẃ eb n_оv́е̂ l Е̄ n̄um_ӓ
"Just because I can read the spiritual vein doesn't mean I can hunt a Divine Spirit. And even if I could, how would they prove it?"
No Jin-ha and the instructors would probably lean on me, sure, but so what?
As the saying went, eat the chicken and show them the duck's feet—without evidence, not even the magistrate himself could do a thing.
What were they going to do about it?
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"Is breakfast ready? I'm starving."
All that tussling with the Demon Monkey through the night had left me ravenous.
Еn um̃ а
***
After morning came, our team continued the Demonic Reaches exploration without incident.
Seeking them out first would only pile on suspicion.
But even after the sun climbed to its zenith and then set again, No Jin-ha did not return.
'What's going on? I expected him to come storming over with bloodshot eyes.'
However, the Black Forest had begun rumbling once more.
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From the time the sun reached its peak until well after it set.
Even after dark, the racket continued—crashes and explosions echoing through the trees.
"Are they still hunting a Divine Spirit?"
"Right? They threw such a fit insisting Eldest Senior Brother had already caught the Divine Spirit, and now it looks like they found another one."
Geum-pyo and Eun-ho traded observations, gazing toward the direction of the latest blast. I could only tilt my head.
'The Demon Monkey was clearly driven this way by the Academy students.'
W ëb ńо v̀е̃ l Е̃ n̆ üm a
If that weren't the case, it wouldn't have been caught by me so easily.
Unless—had they discovered a different Divine Spirit?
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I looked toward Yang Ja-pyeong, who was quietly spooning porridge off to the side.
"About the Divine Spirits. Have they always lived in the Black Forest?"
"What do you mean? Of course they've always been here."
Yang Ja-pyeong said the Divine Spirits and the Black Forest were inseparable.
Е̂ nǔ m̈ ă
"Hmm...... then what happens if a Divine Spirit is hunted?"
"The Black Forest is a place cut off from the world, governed by its own independent laws and moving of its own accord. Therefore, if a Divine Spirit becomes absent, I'm told another Divine Spirit fills its place."
"......"
A question arose.
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Did that mean the Black Forest was self-aware of its own deficiencies and filled them? Like a person?
Sensing that my silence expressed puzzlement, Yang Ja-pyeong continued.
Е n u m̂.a
"If you scoop a bucketful of water from a small pond, the spot doesn't stay empty with a hole punched through it, does it?"
He then pointed at the forest.
"When you fell a tree, sunlight and nutrients reach that spot, and a new tree grows. That's simply the way of nature. You can think of the Black Forest as a place where this natural principle manifests far more vividly. That's why it's also regarded as sacred ground."
His explanation made things a bit clearer.
"About the Four Great Divine Spirits. How long have they been in the Black Forest?"
"As I just said, the Four Great Divine Spirits have always existed in the Black Forest......"
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"No. I mean the Solar Monkey, the Azure Snow Ice-White Serpent, the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear, and the Golden-Armored Roc specifically. Have these four been here for centuries?"
"......"
For the first time, Yang Ja-pyeong hesitated.
"......The Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear and the Azure Snow Ice-White Serpent were already in existence over One Cycle ago."
"Hmm, meaning the Solar Monkey and the Golden-Armored Roc weren't."
"......Why do you ask?"
W е̃ b nо̄ v̄е̇ l Е̂ ńǔm a
"What became of the Divine Spirits before the Solar Monkey and the Golden-Armored Roc?"
"......That's impossible to know. When a Divine Spirit's life force runs out from maintaining the Black Forest's balance, it meets its end of its own accord."
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That explanation felt far too contrived.
"In that case...... do you know when the Divine Spirits were first discovered?"
"Two hundred years ago. One of our ancestors first discovered the Blazing Yang Myriad-Bird."
"Around the time the Black Forest was designated a Forbidden Zone."
Е ǹu m а
"......The dangers of the Black Forest had been raised long before that. But why do you ask? Is something the matter?"
I looked at Yang Ja-pyeong and shook my head lightly with a smile.
"No. The Black Forest is just such a fascinating place."
"Isn't it?"
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"Yes."
The Divine Spirits of the Black Forest were fundamentally different from the Spiritual Creatures of the Central Plains.
Еňu ṁа́.і̀ d
Now, even the millet-sized Inner Core of the Solar Monkey made a degree of sense.
It meant the creature hadn't been a Divine Spirit of the Black Forest for even sixty years.
Since no Divine Spirit had ever been hunted, no one had ever consumed an Inner Core, and so the fact that the cores had unique properties was known to almost no one.
I brought up one more question.
"By any chance—has anyone ever found the remains of a Divine Spirit that died of natural causes?"
Yang Ja-pyeong shook his head as if he were tired of my questions.
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"You want to know if there was a Spiritual Pill inside, don't you?"
Well, that wasn't exactly the information I was after, but it would be good to know.
"Yes."
He sighed but explained in detail regardless.
"There are none. When a Divine Spirit's time comes, it retreats into a hidden graveyard within the Black Forest. That place has never been visited by anyone—not the Southern Fist Sect, not anyone else. It's an unknown space."
I reacted with fascination.
Е̄ ṅǔ m̌а
"Truly a wondrous tale."
"That's the kind of place the Black Forest is."
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Yang Ja-pyeong shrugged those broad shoulders.
But in stark contrast, a single hypothesis had been lodged in my mind throughout the conversation and refused to leave.
'It all fits too perfectly.'
The Black Forest being designated a Forbidden Zone.
E ṅ ü m̌ а
The Divine Spirits appearing and then vanishing.
Even the fact that their remains were never found.
'It matches so unnervingly well that it can't be a coincidence.'
One could dismiss it as chance, but I couldn't.
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A monkey had said "Heavenly Demon."
Was that supposed to be a coincidence? What, a divine revelation from the Demon God?
Énu m̀ а
Neither Mantongbu nor even Sim Hyeon-gak held a shred of information about the Black Forest.
Which meant the Murim Alliance had long since declared it a Forbidden Zone and turned its back entirely.
This was something I'd need to investigate through the Hao Gate.
Because with matters like this, truth always hid among the scattered fragments of rumor.
As I was lost in thought—
CLATTER, CLATTER, CLATTER.
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The sound of someone running in a desperate hurry.
A group crashed through the undergrowth, sprinting wildly.
'What now?'
Their voices reached me moments later.
"Th-there......! There! The smoke's coming from there!"
"Let's go!"
Е ńū mа̃ . і d́
The people cutting through the forest ran for a while in completely the wrong direction, then erupted in shouts again.
"Damn......! This isn't it! It's over there, look!"
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"Move! I'll find the way!"
"This goddamn forest!! Wretched forest!"
The cursing voices grew closer, then abruptly veered right and faded into the distance.
"Shit! This isn't it either!"
Ê ń u m а
"Somebody do something!"
......What the hell are you doing?
In the end, I had no choice but to walk toward them myself.
After passing through a couple of Natural Formations, they came into view.
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Academy students so drenched in sweat from head to toe that I couldn't tell how far they'd been running.
"Wh-who? J-Jin, Representative Jin!"
W e.b n.о̂vё ľ Е n ũm̂ ӑ
"Jin So-un! Why are you here?"
"Don't tell me...... you got lost too?"
What are they on about?
I didn't bother hiding my dumbfounded expression.
"You were following the smoke, weren't you? What possessed you to wander around without a guide?"
"Don't tell me...... you're the one who made that smoke? Th-then this place is?"
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"Yeah. The Demonic Reaches."
"......We didn't mean to come this far."
The six Academy students were among those who'd been moving with the instructors.
They'd been traveling with the external guides, yet here they were without instructor or guide—just themselves.
"......So you got lost."
"How?"
Е̂ń üm а.. і d
"Chasing after the Divine Spirit......"
"Shh!"
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One Academy student clapped his hand over the mouth of the one answering honestly.
"Hmm......"
I recalled that No Jin-ha had visited three times the previous night.
"Didn't they say the Divine Spirit already escaped?"
Еn̂ um ă
"......"
"......"
They exchanged furtive glances as if guarding some secret, hemming and hawing.
Come on, the game was already up. What was the point of hiding it now?
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"Seems like you don't need my help all that badly. See you after the Great Journey, then."
The moment I waved my hand and turned without hesitation, they panicked.
Ẁ е b n̄о̊v ѐl̆ Е̌ n̄um̆ а̊
"W-wait! T-take us to where the guides are......! We'll tell you everything!"
"Hey! If we say that, the instructors will......!"
Tsk. Still hadn't learned their lesson.
"Nah, I'm not that curious. Oh, and there are a lot of Demonic Beasts in the Demonic Reaches, so be careful."
I slipped into a Natural Formation, and desperate voices called out behind me.
"I-I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!!!"
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I poked just my head back out of the Natural Formation.
"HIIIK!"
They recoiled, tears and snot streaming down their faces, as though they'd seen a ghost.
"J-Jin So......"
"Representative!"
"......"
Е́ ṅú mа
Come on, no matter how desperate the situation, at least get the title right.
I shrugged, and the Academy students' faces scrunched up in distaste.
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"F-fine, Representative! Our supremely great and glorious Representative......! We'll tell you absolutely everything, so please, take us with you."
I'd intended to take them along from the start.
The instructors bore their share of blame, but I couldn't exactly leave these kids here to die.
It absolutely was not because the word "great" had moved me.
Ẅ е̊b̆ n̊ о̂ v̌ е l Е̂numа
No, indeed.
"Fine, talk. What is it?"
But what they revealed exceeded my expectations.
"A-another Divine Spirit appeared."
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"Another Divine Spirit?"
"Yeah......! The guide said it looks like the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear."
Wе̊ b́ n о v̄e_l Ӗ n̄ ú m̃ а̇
"Oh ho, is that so?"
It seemed the saying was true—good deeds were always rewarded.
I really was going to bring them along from the very start, I swear.
***
"......Is there really a need to go looking for them? They'll all gather at base camp eventually."
Yang Ja-pyeong offered a negative opinion, his face creased with worry.
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"These are people who abandoned their own Academy students and ran off. Do you really think other students haven't been left behind too? If stragglers wander into the Demonic Reaches and get hurt, what then?"
"......Is that really your purpose?"
"Ahem......"
Yang Ja-pyeong's suspicious gaze showed no signs of relenting.
Good grief, why so distrustful?
I delivered an impassioned plea, driven by nothing but concern for the Academy students.
Е̇ nũm_ã . і̃d̂.
"There's no time for this......! At this rate, we might not be able to rescue the bear!"
"......Didn't you just say 'bear'?"
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"Ahem......! One of the Academy students goes by the nickname 'Bear.' He and I are very close."
"......Righteous Path Association?"
"Yes."
Yang Ja-pyeong sighed, then ultimately nodded.
Е̄ nû m̃ ă .іd
"Fine. In any case, wandering the Black Forest without a guide is extremely dangerous."
We changed course and headed toward the instructors' position.
Following the direction of the explosions that had been ringing all day, we encountered stranded stragglers along the way, just as expected.
"S-save us!"
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"We're saved!"
"D-does anyone have water?!"
Е́.nŭ mа̌ ._і̃ d̀
But these Academy students were in significantly worse shape than the ones we'd rescued earlier.
They bore numerous wounds, and above all, the signs of exhaustion were starkly visible.
One student gulped down water and gasped out an answer between breaths.
"Th-the Divine Spirit attacked us midway."
"Attacked you?"
"It was clearly different from when they were hunting the Solar Monkey......! It definitely felt like something experienced at killing. We barely managed to escape."
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"......"
I gathered the stragglers and resumed the march.
When we arrived at the site of their nighttime battle, the scene was even more grim.
For the first time, there were dead.
I turned around and asked what had happened.
"What went on here?"
W ѐ bň о v̂ е l Еǹu m а
"Th-the Divine Spirit, the Divine Spirit went into a rage......"
A student muttered incoherently, his mind seemingly shattered.
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Beside the corpse—
"Ngh, nnngh......!"
—one of the hunter-clad guides was clutching his head and bowing low.
"......It's the Divine Spirit's curse! It has to be the Divine Spirit's curse!"
Е n̊um̌á . i d̃
The guide's mind appeared even more broken than the student's.
When I turned to look at Yang Ja-pyeong, he let out a quiet sigh.
"......It's a legend passed down through the Black Forest. When a Divine Spirit is enraged......"
He paused to draw a breath, then continued, eyes flashing.
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"......every living thing in the Black Forest meets its death."
I tended to the wounded first. We couldn't move with them in this condition.
E̊ n̂ ümа
Then I approached the corpse.
Just as I reached out to examine the wounds—
"......!"
TREMBLE, TREMBLE, TREMBLE.
The Red Phoenix Bracelet on my left hand began to quiver faintly.
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