Chapter 1041: The Divine Tree and the Master.

‘What’s with all these?’

The presence I felt transcends imagination. That naturally includes the presence of insects or wild animals, but.

‘Even excluding that. Something feels off?’

If I grasp their presence or the powers they possess, they are strangely numerous.

If I were to give an example of that level.

‘More than Yawal.’

Yawal Palace. It doesn’t fall short even when compared to that place the Yusa fellow was talking about.

If you want to argue it, that might be the case. In the first place, Mareongsan just lacked too much presence; it might not be strange within the realm of common sense, but.

‘But to say that.’

What I saw while coming here is the problem.

‘The fact that I’m feeling this much presence.’

Means the distance isn’t that far.

While flying over, all that was visible when I looked was the forest.

I didn’t see any space or anything that could harbor such presence.

‘Where is it?’

From where could such presence be felt?

I raised my sense of presence further. The presence being felt becomes clearer. But.

‘……So many.’

There were many. And they were scattered in all directions.

Something felt strange.

‘Feeling them like this feels alien.’

Presence, even without it, is a problem, but conversely, even if there are many, it’s also a problem. Especially if they are scattered like this, many in number, yet there’s nothing there in reality.

‘It’s just a strange situation.’

I retrieved the sense of presence I had spread out.

And then, I was convinced.

‘This is it.’

This place. It’s correct. The location of Heukhwang Palace or whatever it is, is here. Otherwise, this situation made no sense.

So.

‘I’ll find it.’

Now, what remained was to get a solid grasp on Heukhwang Palace. Thinking about that, I immediately put in some power.

I didn’t widen my sense of presence. Anyway, since presence was being felt in all directions, this kind of method wouldn’t work.

Then, what should I do?

The method was simple.

‘Go check them all out.’

It was the thing to do – go check out every place the presence is felt. However.

‘Going to each one directly is a bit much.’

My body is only one, so I couldn’t visit all of them. Then.

‘I can just stretch my body.’

Gyi-yi-yi-ing—!!!

My power manifested.

Behind my back, a dimension was torn open, forming a Demon Gate. A black dimension cracked open, then.

Keureureureu–!!!

Keureureung……!!!

Agile-looking demonic beasts appeared in large numbers.

“Find them.”

Keureung-!

As soon as I gave the command, the beasts shot out and burrowed into the forest. Scattering them, I immediately closed my eyes.

At that moment.

Several visions appeared. They were the beasts’ vision. It swam around in all directions, making my eyes dizzy. Just looking at it was enough to make me nauseous, but I was somewhat used to it, so I could endure it.

‘Maybe it’s because I always keep my Mind’s Eye active. It’s fine.’

Maybe it’s because I always looked at and calculated the paths of movements shown by my Mind’s Eye. The beasts’ gazes were also tolerable.

I realized this during battles in the past. I could share the demonic beasts’ vision, and I used it.

The demonic beasts quickly scoured the forest. It was to find something according to my will, and.

After a short time passed like that.

Keureureureu–!!!

One demonic beast stopped near the forest. It was a place that was wide open in front.

‘Found it.’

Although it looked wide open, I could tell.

‘That’s the spot.’

Snap. I snapped my fingers. The demonic beasts scattered in all directions and faded away into energy.

Since I had found the location, there was no need to maintain them. I immediately leaped towards the location.

It was the wide-open plain the demonic beast had seen earlier. Upon arriving, it’s certain.

‘This is it.’

Presence is felt all around. Clearly, there’s nothing here, yet there’s this presence.

‘It’s not like there are any bugs or anything.’

I chuckled. Thinking about it, another strange point occurred to me.

‘Rather, there are no insects or beasts here.’

The presence of insects and wild animals that were felt in the other forests is nowhere to be felt.

This statement implies one thing.

Woong.

I focused my eyes and activated my Mind’s Eye. It was still invisible. I pushed more energy into it.

Woo-oong.

The energy from my heart poured into my eyes, illuminating the background.

Then.

‘I see it.’

A shimmer is visible. A shimmer appearing in an empty field. I didn’t miss it.

‘It’s a spell.’

That was also a spell. It was similar to the one deployed in Mareong Cave. The difference is,

‘This one doesn’t seem to have the power to suppress presence.’

The one deployed in Mareong Cave concealed space and suppressed the presence within, whereas the one deployed here seems to only deceive space.

‘Hmm.’

Seeing that, I reached out my hand. At the same time, power surged in my heart. A ring of the spell appeared and began to rotate.

Riding the energy wrapped around my fingertips, I touched the air.

Chiii-i-i-ik—!!!

My finger touched the spell in front of me. Immediately, the information within flowed into me.

It’s a complex and tightly sealed formation. The level of entanglement is unusual, but.

‘It’s not difficult.’

This level was simple. In fact, what the turtle showed me was several times harder.

I traced the flow with my fingers. Exactly four times.

My fingertips, moving four times, caused the air to ripple.

Hu-u-u-uk—!!!

It surged. The bound spell surged like a tsunami and writhed. Although the reaction was quite violent, I calmly moved my hand again.

I put my hand into the waves. Normally, water cannot be grasped, but.

Spells are different.

Many formulas and formations existed within it. If I could grasp this flow,

Kkwa-ak-!

Catching it wouldn’t be that difficult. Within the writhing flow, there was a common thread. Gathering it in one place and grasping it,

The moment I pulled it.

Hu-a-a-ak—!!!

The air scattered, causing a small change.

I shifted my gaze to my arm.

My hand was trembling slightly.

It was tiring, but I hadn’t fully released the spell, only creating an entrance. That was harder. Seeing the unstable space, I frowned.

If I faltered even slightly like this, the spell would break completely. That couldn’t happen.

‘I’ll be caught.’

Actually, I might have already been detected at this level. But I’m assuming they haven’t.

The entrance that appeared was quite peculiar.

‘What is this?’

The atmosphere is completely different. Outside, it was refreshing, full of lush forest, looking vibrant.

‘……What is this?’

The sight before me was completely different.

But all the presence is felt from over there. It was strange.

‘Hmm.’

After staring quietly, I let go of the hand that was maintaining the spell.

I didn’t have many options anyway. I couldn’t just turn back now.

‘Guess I have to go in.’

With my tension significantly heightened, I stepped through the entrance.

---

I entered through the entrance.

The first impression was stuffiness. The stale air made my face contort involuntarily.

Where did the fresh air I felt until just now go? Why is there only this unpleasant feeling?

‘Even worse, what is that?’

Not only the air, but the sight itself was also a problem.

‘Is this a forest……?’

It is a forest. Trees were lined up as if connecting to the outside, but their condition was strange.

‘They’re all dead trees.’

Trees blackened and scorched, already lifeless. Not a trace of life could be felt.

The world was no different. A sky of gray, not black. Dead land.

And.

‘Life.’

Yet, contradicting this, countless life forces were felt from up ahead.

‘How could this be?’

Unlike this space, which seemed devoid of even a shred of life, life force was felt from afar. I moved my body.

Suppressing my presence as much as possible, I calmly flew towards the direction where the life force was felt.

The place I approached was a cliff. Ahead, I saw the cliff. The life force was being felt from below it.

Reaching the edge, I looked down.

“Huh?”

My eyes widened. The sight spread out below the cliff made it impossible not to react.

“What is this?”

What I saw was a colossal castle.

It was a castle twice the size of the one in Yawal.

The castle, covered in black and soaring high, evoked a sense of unease and stuffiness just by looking at it.

And.

‘Below it was a village.’

Below the castle was a village. It was also black, but the life force was felt from there.

I carefully descended. I looked around to enter the village, but there were no guards.

‘No guards where life force is felt?’

There weren’t even guards at the gate. Feeling the strangeness, I entered the village. Even then, no people were visible.

People weren’t visible, but the life force remained. What is this?

“……”

I released the aura I had wrapped around myself. Slightly opening up my presence, I looked to the side.

I saw a house. I approached it. Life force could be felt inside the house.

When I found the door and placed my hand on the knob,

Pas-seus!

The doorknob my hand touched crumbled away. It seemed to be because the object hadn’t been handled by people for a long time.

Since the doorknob was gone, I just touched the door.

Pas-seus-seus-seus–!! This time was the same. The door also turned to dust and disappeared.

“Hmm……”

Awkwardly clasping my hands, I went inside the house.

The inside wasn’t as clean as I expected… It showed signs of age everywhere and was quite messy.

Chal-gak.

Stepping over the dust and debris scattered on the floor, I went inside.

I went searching for where the life force was felt, and.

Finally, I found the source of the life force.

“……Crazy.”

Seeing the situation that met my eyes, I couldn’t help but contort my face.

I wondered how life force could be felt in a house where none seemed present,

But something was embedded in the wall.

It was probably a living creature originally. And life force could still be felt from it, but.

“This isn’t alive.”

Something in human form, hardened like stone, was fixed to the wall.

No matter how I looked at it, it didn’t seem alive.

But.

Du-geun-! Du-geun-!

I heard a sound, narrowing my eyes.

It was a heartbeat.

A heartbeat could be heard from that stuffed human figure.

‘It’s alive?’

Even in that state, it was alive.

How is this possible?

While I was stunned by the miserable sight,

“You seem curious.”

A voice came from behind me. My body moved.

Hwa-reu-reu-reu—!!!

My arm, engulfed in flames, instinctively attacked, but.

Kkwa-k-!

It was blocked by something.

Looking closely, it was a black spear. The spear blocked my arm,

Peol-leok-!

Behind the spear’s owner, black wings were flapping.

“Nice to meet you.”

The man spoke, looking at me.

“So it’s you. The one trying to interfere with my plan. I am……”

“What is this idiot saying?”

Without listening further, I unleashed my Flame Prison.

Ku-u-u-ung—-!!!

The flames tore through the space.