“Peaceful, indeed.”
Burumo perched on a rock, resting his chin on his hand as he watched the goats and yaks munching away.
The grasslands remained the same, but it wasn’t just nomads wandering the plateau—places that could be called “good pastures” were always changing.
Burumo had successfully secured a prime grazing spot.
There were no signs of particularly dangerous beast droppings around, nor traces of other nomads passing by.
Such a good spot usually had someone claiming it first, so he was lucky. If he had delayed even a day or two, others would have taken it.
With everything stable, there wasn’t much for Burumo to do.
“Yawn…”
He knew from long experience that a situation like this was ideal, but boring was still boring.
The condition of the grasslands changed day by day, so one couldn’t guarantee stability, but under circumstances this secure, there shouldn’t be any major problems for at least a few days. Even his shepherd dog lay next to him, lazily yawning.
Then, suddenly, the once-draped shepherd dog sat up straight.
“Grrr! Grrr!”
Burumo’s eyes went wide open. With the dog’s sickly growl causing him to survey the surroundings, he realized that two people had approached him without him noticing. His hand reflexively moved to grab his staff but then halted.
“Oh my, did we startle you?”
“N-no, not at all.”
Burumo quickly clasped his hands in front of him, bowing respectfully. The other party returned the gesture with equal respect. Burumo glanced back to see his dog huddled tight behind him, something that shouldn’t happen with a creature that was supposed to confront strangers.
Under normal circumstances, he would have given them a piece of his mind, but this time he decided to let it slide.
‘If they are the practitioners of Podalap Palace, it wouldn’t be unusual for the poor thing to be scared out of its wits.’
Curiosity sparkled in Burumo’s eyes.
For ordinary nomads, the practitioners of Podalap Palace were special beings.
Typically, the residents of the highlands lived a nomadic lifestyle, but they didn’t live solely as nomads. Large families wandered aimlessly, while those like Burumo, who were relatively smaller or fewer in number, moved around based on farming villages.
Meeting a practitioner from Podalap Palace was enough of an epic tale to garner attention in the village, so it was no wonder Burumo was filled with excitement.
“Do you happen to know about the terrain around here?”
“Of course. If you go three days north from here, you’ll come to a village called Kosal—that’s where I’m from.”
“Then, are there any caves or fissures nearby? I’d also like to know if anything suspicious has occurred around those places.”
“Hmm…”
Burumo’s face slightly crinkled in thought.
Nomadic life was always fraught with danger.
When confronted with nature’s fury or a beast’s vicious teeth, all nomads could depend on were their tents and staffs. To not have such misfortunes thrust upon them, they had to be extremely cautious, making them very sensitive to superstitions.
Burumo was no different. How many times had he been startled awake by the ghostly wails or monstrous roars while dozing off among the goats and yaks? He tried to reassure himself it was only the cries of wild animals or the wind, but the fear that some strange being lurked in the vast darkness was haunting.
Because of this, nomads often buried such experiences in silence. Speaking of phenomena or strange beings only gnawed at their spirits.
Burumo pondered for a moment.
If it were just any stranger asking, he would have flatly denied any knowledge, but these were practitioners. What if they were tracking down a malevolent entity? And if that entity was truly hiding somewhere he knew about?
The three didn’t press him and waited with joined palms, and as Burumo looked at them, his resolve hardened.
If these practitioners were this considerate, he figured they wouldn’t let any harm befall him even if there was indeed a malicious spirit nearby.
“There… there’s a small unnatural hill about a day’s trek from here, towards that mountain. The area is covered in soft soil and grass, but that hill is bare. It has a hole just big enough for a person to squeeze in.”
As memories flashed, Burumo shivered slightly before continuing.
“I thought I could take shelter from the cold if I managed to squeeze in… but strange sounds were coming from inside. It wasn’t just noises. I felt faint vibrations, as if something gigantic was lurking within…!”
“Indeed, that’s quite an unusual phenomenon. We’ll investigate it. Have you seen any other caves or fissures?”
“Goodness, every time I passed that area, I felt so uneasy…! Thank you very much!”
After sharing various bits of information, Burumo decided even by his own judgment that what he shared wasn’t particularly noteworthy.
“Well then, we’ll be on our way.”
Burumo bowed deeply with joy, raising his head only to see the three disappearing into the distance at a quick pace.
“Wow… they say practitioners are remarkable, but they’re faster than the goats!”
If they were like those, they could surely vanquish any demons lurking in that fissure.
“Hehehe…!”
Burumo let out a joyful chuckle. Even if it was just providing information, playing a part in demon-slaying! It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime tale!
Whether there really were demons or whether the practitioners could even handle them was uncertain, but in Burumo’s mind, imaginations unfolded wildly.
“I want to get back to the village quickly!”
Clenching his fist, Burumo looked around, but the pasture still brimmed with lush grass, and the movements of the yaks and goats remained tranquil.
“…Sigh.”
Realizing he had to stay here a few more days, Burumo plopped back down on the rock.
After the visitors passed, the pasture returned to its quietness.
Only the shepherd dog, having failed to perform its duty, observed Burumo for a lead.
—
“This time, my instincts aren’t bad.”
“Phew, I hope so.”
Nuru Buchi, Nima Galchen, and Sudalcha sighed as they displayed their light-body techniques. Practitioners from Podalap Palace were mobilized to find the materials to heal the Little Princess.
Numerous practitioners scattered across various places to gather materials.
These three were searching for a material requested by Ho Cheon-an under the special command of the Palace Lord.
“I wanted to explore the world after leaving Podalap Palace, but I didn’t want to suffer like this…”
Nima Galchen chuckled at Nuru Buchi’s grumbling.
When one reached the Peak Stage, the connection with the world and nature initiated, drastically enhancing both internal strength and the body’s natural recovery capabilities, providing far better endurance than the common folk; however, elite individuals, when their internal power and stamina dwindled, found themselves without a suitable means for recovery.
Thus, Nuru Buchi’s days since leaving Podalap Palace had felt like a trek through hardship. As the Little Princess’s safety depended on it, he couldn’t slack off and had to pursue the other two with everything he had.
‘This opportunity will surely teach him a lesson.’
After a month of tough struggle, Nuru Buchi probably wouldn’t want to even glance at the outside again.
“Looks like that’s the spot,”
Lost in thought, Nima Galchen lifted his head at Sudalcha’s voice.
“It really does feel like something’s there.”
The trio approached the fissure, their tension rising. After a month of searching for suspicious caves and fissures, they had become familiar with the terrains that created them.
But this fissure was definitely unnatural. At first glance, the rock layer appeared very solid—why was there a crevice in such fortified terrain?
“I’ll go in first. Signal when it’s clear for you to enter.”
“Understood.”
Sudalcha squeezed himself through the gap. Extracting the nightlight from his pack, he strapped it to his waist and crept deeper into the fissure.
‘Thankfully, it’s getting wider.’
The deeper he went, the more the crevice opened up. Stepping on the rugged rocks, Sudalcha halted.
Before him lay a cylindrical passage about one meter in diameter.
The entire passage was thoroughly compacted.
Sudalcha glanced at the walls of the passage. Markings were left by something sharp that had scraped past the hardened rocks.
‘It’s a remarkably tough layer, yet something has dug through it like it was nothing…’
Though he couldn’t discern what it was, it was clear something was here.
A dangerous scent wafted through, but he couldn’t turn back after coming this far.
It was the cave that matched the conditions Ho Cheon-an had mentioned.
Sudalcha recalled his conversation with Ho Cheon-an. Initially, he had found it absurd when mentioning the Qing Oil!
Yet, what Ho Cheon-an really needed wasn’t the Qing Oil itself.
‘A vessel that preserves the power of Qing Oil, which only falls like a drop a year… the Heipancheng Rock.’
What Ho Cheon-an truly sought was the Heipancheng Rock, needed to create an ideal environment for the Qing Oil to collect.
Confirming that the proportion of dark rocks increased among those visible in the passage, Sudalcha continued cautiously.
Though not every black rock was Heipancheng Rock, the circumstantial evidence warranted risk for a closer inspection.
Creeeak. Creeeak.
As Sudalcha advanced slowly, he began to hear something crunching in his ears. He pursued the sound until…
He reached its source.
‘…That’s huge.’
A vast chamber appeared, spacious enough to fit an entire lodge, housing something voraciously gnawing at the wall, and…
Sudalcha understood instantly how the passage he had walked through was created.
The passageway was marked by evidence of that creature’s insatiable appetite.
What to call such a creature?
‘A land dragon… perhaps?’
It resembled a worm, but was it truly right to compare it to a land dragon? Its body length exceeded ten meters, equipped with teeth packed tightly enough to gnaw through solid rock like it was merely soft ginseng.
But that wasn’t all.
It seemed to absorb the rock, gaining mass wrapped in a cloak of black stone. If it only had a head, it could rightly be described as the legendary Imugi.
‘In this chamber… there are certainly more black rocks.’
Earlier, Sudalcha couldn’t be sure, but after spotting chunks of black rock similar to gravel embedded in the chamber, he felt confident they were Heipancheng Rocks.
Just as Sudalcha observed the walls of the chamber and the creature’s form.
Suddenly!
The creature, previously gorging on the rock, halted its movements.
Immediately, its head pivoted toward Sudalcha’s direction.
‘Uh oh…’
Seeing the myriad of serrated teeth lurking within that creature’s mouth, Sudalcha bolted. It was a beast of such size that it could not be subdued through any means at the Peak Stage.
RUMBLE!!
The weight of the creature seemed to surpass a thousand pounds, thrashing wildly, causing the entire passageway to shudder fiercely. The tremors gave Sudalcha a visceral sense of the creature’s might, spurring his feet to move even faster.
His target was the natural rock connecting to the passage!
‘If I escape into there, this beast will have to dig through the earth to follow me, giving me a chance to flee!’
The martial artist at the Peak Stage unleashed his light-body technique and swiftly reached the fissure’s exit. Sudalcha didn’t lose momentum, saturating his body in protective Qi as he threw himself into the crag.
SMASH! CRACK!
As his body crashed through sharp rocks, just as he was about to exhale a sigh of relief…
BOOM!
The mouth of the creature crashed down where he had just been, mere inches away from him.
“Huff!”
Startled, Sudalcha hurriedly buried himself deeper into the rock, narrowly evading the creature’s razor-sharp teeth.
BAAM! BANG!!
The beast slammed its head again against the rock, but it was a tight fit for such a massive creature.
Realizing it had lost its prey, the creature banged its head against the rock a few more times in frustration before retreating.
“…Phew.”
Sudalcha confirmed the creature had moved on, yet he didn’t slow down until he reached the fissure’s mouth. Grabbing the hands extended toward him, he tumbled out onto the ground.
As the realization of survival washed over him, exhaustion swept over his entire body.
“Senior! Are you alright?!”
“What on earth just happened? What was in there?”
Sudalcha turned his wide-eyed gaze from the astonished faces of his companions to the sky.
“It seems we can finally head back.”
Having confirmed the whereabouts of the materials ordered by Ho Cheon-an, the trio began their journey back toward Podalap Palace.
