How much time had passed?
Sensing a faint light, Seonwoo Hyun opened his eyes.
“Ugh…….”
The moment he sat up and clutched his throbbing head.
A cold voice came from behind him.
“You're awake?”
When he turned toward the voice, he saw the woman leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.
She still didn't show any emotion, but the aura she gave off was chilly.
“I passed out again…….”
Before Seonwoo Hyun could even finish speaking, the woman swiftly approached.
And in one motion, she grabbed him by the collar.
“Are you really that desperate to die?!”
An extremely agitated voice.
Her grip on his collar tightened even more.
“If I'd failed to suppress that energy, you'd be dead! Do you understand?!”
“Ack! L-let go of this… Ack, ack!”
When he barely managed to shout through the collar choking his throat, the woman only then roughly let go of him.
“Cough, cough!”
After coughing for a long while, Seonwoo Hyun said to the woman:
“Cough! I understand I almost died. And… that you saved me.”
“…….”
“But I don't understand something.”
Seonwoo Hyun looked straight at the woman.
“Lady, you said this energy isn't human. Right?”
“That's right.”
“Then what on earth is it? If you know anything, please tell me!”
“…….”
For a moment, silence flowed between the two.
When her eyes met those of Seonwoo Hyun, who was staring at her, the woman sighed as if she had no choice.
“Haah… Do you remember that your qi center was shattered once?”
At the woman's words, the memory of that time came back to him.
“Before I lost consciousness… my qi center was definitely shattered. That much is certain. But I don't know why it's intact again.”
“It isn't intact.”
The woman shook her head and said:
“When your original qi center shattered, another qi center that had been hidden inside it was revealed.”
“What?! Inside my qi center… there was another qi center?”
Seonwoo Hyun's eyes wavered greatly.
“It's unbelievable… but that's definitely what happened.”
“How could such a thing…….”
It was hard to believe, but he couldn't deny it either.
The sensation of his qi center shattering to pieces was still vivid, yet here it was, intact.
Also, as far as he knew, there was no way to restore a qi center once it had shattered.
‘Then that means what the Lady said is true…….’
When Seonwoo Hyun showed signs of being convinced, the woman opened her mouth again.
“That's not the end of it.”
The woman's gaze gradually cooled.
“Your hidden qi center was filled with power that isn't human.”
“……!”
“The energy of a beast. And not just any—a power called cursed energy.”
“…Cursed energy?”
When Seonwoo Hyun wore an expression as if hearing the word for the first time, the woman continued:
“Yes, cursed energy. Just as there are those among humans who wield qi, there are special beings among beasts too.”
Seonwoo Hyun listened even more closely to her words.
“They're called spirit beasts. And the power they wield is called spiritual energy.”
“…….”
“And among spirit beasts, the ones that have fallen into corruption…….”
The woman's voice sank low.
“Beings that gave up ascension and were consumed by instinct. Beasts that pursue nothing but slaughter and destruction.”
“…….”
“Those are called fiends. And… the power fiends wield is cursed energy.”
“……!”
In that instant, Seonwoo Hyun's eyes grew so wide they seemed about to pop out.
“Then what's in my body is the power of those corrupted beings?!”
“That's right.”
“…….”
Seonwoo Hyun was left speechless from the shock.
It was utterly unbelievable.
How could he, a human, harbor the power of a fiend?
But if he didn't believe it, there was also no way to explain the power that had tried to devour him.
‘So that's why the Lady pressed me like that when I woke up.’
A moment of silence passed.
At last, having barely accepted the situation, Seonwoo Hyun asked in a low voice:
“So even you don't know how such a power came to be inside me, Lady?”
The woman nodded.
“That's right. But one thing is certain.”
“What's that?”
“The cursed energy inside you can devour you and turn you into a fiend at any time.”
“……!”
The woman looked down at Seonwoo Hyun and spoke gravely:
“Honestly, I didn't know I'd be able to suppress your cursed energy either. I'd have to say I was lucky. But I'm not sure I could do it again. So you'd better avoid drawing on that energy as much as possible.”
“…….”
In that instant, her eyes sank coldly.
“Because if you're seized by the cursed energy and become a fiend… I'll have no choice but to kill you in the end.”
“……!”
Seonwoo Hyun raised his head and looked at the woman with his eyes wide open.
Suddenly, a chilly silence settled between the two.
“Do you really mean what you just said?”
“…It may be hard to believe, but the reason I brought you here isn't to help you.”
“…….”
“It's so I can kill you the moment you become a complete fiend.”
“…Kill me?”
“Yes.”
In that instant, Seonwoo Hyun's eyes sank deep.
It was truly absurd.
She had just saved his life moments ago, and now she said she had actually brought him here to kill him.
What kind of nonsense was this?
But in the woman's cold eyes, there was not a speck of falsehood.
“…You're serious.”
The woman simply nodded quietly, as if she had no intention of even denying it.
At the sight, a surge of anger rose in Seonwoo Hyun, and he asked in a sharp tone:
“Who on earth are you, Lady? Who are you to decide as you please whether to save me or kill me?!”
“I'm the master of this mountain.”
“The master of the mountain? What kind of nonsense is that now?”
“I know it's hard to believe. But it's true.”
“Ha…….”
Seonwoo Hyun clutched his throbbing head.
Not a single thing the woman said, from one to ten, was something he could simply accept.
He had already guessed she wasn't an ordinary person, but he had never imagined she'd claim to be the master of the mountain.
Was this woman even in her right mind?
Just then, as if she had read his thoughts, the woman said:
“If you want, I can show you proof.”
“Proof?”
“Mm.”
Nodding, the woman rose from her seat.
And slowly stepping back a few paces, she closed her eyes.
“Watch closely.”
In that instant, a soft light began to pour out of her whole body.
Sssss.
“……?”
As white light enveloped the woman, Seonwoo Hyun's eyes went wide.
“Wh-whoa!”
CLATTER-THUD!
Stepping back without realizing it, Seonwoo Hyun tripped over the bed and tumbled to the floor.
But he felt no pain.
He simply stared at the woman with his eyes wide open.
Shaaaaaaa.
Surrounded by light, she couldn't be seen clearly, but the woman's form was changing little by little.
As she gradually shrank, she transformed into the shape of some kind of beast.
And a very small beast, at that.
A truly unbelievable scene was unfolding before his eyes.
A little while later.
The light that had lit the stone chamber like broad daylight gradually faded, and the transformed woman's appearance was dimly revealed.
“A… A fox?”
What entered Seonwoo Hyun's eyes was undoubtedly the form of a fox.
And a fox with dazzlingly white fur, at that.
That alone was astounding enough, but there was more to be surprised by.
‘Th-this can't be. Its tails… three?’
In that instant, an old tale his father had told him as a child flashed through his mind.
“On Mount Tianzhu lives a Divine Spirit, a fox with silver fur. The reason the wild beasts of the mountain can't harm the villagers as they please is all because the Divine Spirit protects them.”
‘I thought it was just an old story… It was actually true?’
A silver fox floating gracefully, surrounded by white radiance.
As the fox's three-forked tail fluttered in the air, light flowed like ripples.
Watching that sight, Seonwoo Hyun couldn't even breathe properly.
Her appearance in his eyes was completely shattering every notion he had ever held.
As the light faded, the fox slowly landed on the floor.
And toward Seonwoo Hyun, who still had not moved an inch, she opened her tiny mouth.
“Satisfied now?”
Unbelievably, what flowed from the fox's mouth was human speech.
***
Some time passed.
The woman, back in human form, was quietly watching Seonwoo Hyun, who was still confused.
‘Was the shock too much?’
Just then, Seonwoo Hyun slowly raised his head.
“…Let me ask just one more thing.”
“Go ahead.”
“Lady—no, Divine Spirit, I understand that what you said is true. But just because something is a fiend, does it really have to die?”
He seemed to be asking calmly, but a slight tremor was mixed into his voice.
But the woman said firmly:
“Fiends are beings that bring harm to me, to the mountain, and to humans too. So they must be destroyed without fail.”
“…I understand. But what if I never turn into a fiend, right to the end? What happens then?”
In that instant, a flicker of bewilderment appeared in the woman's eyes.
He was holding out for now, but she had thought it was only a matter of time before he became a fiend.
So she had not considered the opposite case.
After pondering for a moment with her chin in her hand, the woman looked at Seonwoo Hyun and said:
“Then I'd have to watch you longer.”
“Longer… how long?”
“Your body could go berserk at any time. Even if it doesn't right away, if that energy never disappears and stays inside you…….”
The woman spoke in a firm tone:
“You can never leave this place.”
“……What?”
Seonwoo Hyun's eyes went wide yet again.
‘What on earth did I just hear? She's telling me to spend my whole life locked in here……?’
As his shock calmed somewhat, he came to accept the situation.
If he became a complete fiend, he thought it might be better to just die.
By then, he couldn't even be called human anymore.
But being unable to leave this place while still in his right mind was an entirely different matter.
Seonwoo Hyun shouted at the woman with a flushed face:
“No, I can't!”
“……?”
“I absolutely can't do that! There's something I have to do even if it costs me my life!”
“I have no reason to take your circumstances into account. Besides, once you become a fiend, you'll forget all your human affairs anyway, so what does it matter?”
“I'm in my right mind now! And we don't even know what'll happen yet! So I'm going down. I can't spend my whole life in a place like this!”
Seonwoo Hyun's cries poured out without pause.
However.
“Enough!”
Her eyes flashing with a blade-like edge, the woman cut him off in a single stroke.
“Don't make me say the same thing again. As long as the cursed energy is seething inside you, you can never leave this place!”
Hssss.
As blue light flashed in the woman's eyes, a skin-slicing chill rose from her whole body.
It was a terrifying chill that froze even the air of the stone chamber in an instant.
“Ugh!”
Overwhelmed by the woman's presence, Seonwoo Hyun covered his face without realizing it and stepped back.
Seonwoo Hyun struggled to open his mouth somehow.
He wanted to scream.
He wanted to demand answers from the woman.
Why was this happening to him?
What on earth had he done wrong that he had to spend his whole life locked away in a place like this?
It was unfair—unbearably so.
Even so, he couldn't say a word.
Her energy pressed down on him so hard that he could barely breathe, let alone speak.
“…….”
An intimidating pressure that told him he might die on the spot if he crossed the line.
In the end, as if realizing that resisting any further was useless, Seonwoo Hyun's shoulders slumped.
The woman stared at him for a while, then withdrew her energy and turned her back.
“It's fine for you to wander freely inside the cave. Trying to leave will be useless anyway.”
Leaving only those words, she left the stone chamber again.
And Seonwoo Hyun stared blankly at her back with the face of one who had lost everything in the world.