Chapter 119
Chapter 119
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Two Birds, One Stone (4)
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The group pressed on relentlessly toward their destination.
The farther they got from the border, the less sand there was, giving way to a rocky desert of boulders and gravel.
Amid vast fields of cacti, a village came into view.
Seoran spoke up.
“A village. Should we go around it?”
Damcheong shook his head.
“A few desert giants have already spotted us. Acting unnaturally at this point won’t do us any favors. Let’s just fly over the village as we are.”
“Understood.”
The Shik Mountain Great Peng soared past the village at tremendous speed.
Even amid the rush, Seoran used her vision-sharing spell to observe the ground below.
Adults tended their farms, while children played.
Aside from their sheer size, the desert giants’ lives didn’t seem particularly different from humans’.
The only standout feature was the massive crops.
There were cacti that looked edible, as well as plants presumed to be sources of textiles or medicines.
Every single one was unfamiliar.
Seoran suddenly felt a craving for seeds.
She resolved to acquire some if the opportunity arose later.
For now, they were a bit too busy.
Soon after, the Shik Mountain Great Peng arrived safely at the source of the anomaly.
The Celestial Net Observatory’s prediction had been spot on.
The source of the anomaly was indeed a volcano.
It just wasn’t quite what they had imagined.
The volcanic zone was packed wall-to-wall with buildings.
Lava fountains erupted, and massive lava lakes bubbled.
Desert giant families gathered in small groups here and there.
Without realizing it, Seoran murmured.
“A hot spring?”
Except for bathing in lava instead of hot spring water, it was the picture-perfect scene of a hot spring resort.
Damcheong, surveying the surroundings, pointed to one spot.
“That volcano over there seems to be the source of the anomaly.”
Damcheong’s tiny hand pointed to the grandest bathhouse among the nearby buildings.
It occupied an entire massive crater.
It must have been famous, as it bustled with visitors.
To confirm, Seoran asked the research director.
“What’s the analysis saying? Is that the spot?”
The research director nodded.
“Yes, the source is right below the crater.”
A senior researcher voiced his concern.
“But what now? To resolve the anomaly, we need to go inside the crater, and there’s this huge bathhouse blocking the way.”
Damcheong offered an optimistic view.
“Why not just ride the giant puppet right in, bold as brass? Like when we crossed the border. Have the desert giants ever tried to stop us on the way here?”
True to form for someone who enjoyed frolicking with schools of carp in ponds, his ideas were utterly unconventional from the start.
Everyone exchanged glances but held their tongues.
They were at a loss for where even to begin explaining.
Seoran smoothed over the awkward atmosphere.
“Let’s try it your way first, Elder Damcheong. It’s not like we lose anything if it fails.”
She said that, but honestly, she had no expectations.
A child-sized bird flying in the sky was one thing; entering a bathhouse was entirely different.
No way the desert giants wouldn’t stop them unless they were crazy.
The Shik Mountain Great Peng folded its wings and landed on the ground.
It then strutted brazenly toward the bathhouse entrance.
Predictably, it didn’t work.
The desert giant sweeping the entrance swung his broom.
“What kind of bird gets this big? Shoo, get lost.”
The Shik Mountain Great Peng chirped in feigned surprise and fled.
Damcheong looked thoroughly disappointed.
“That desert giant has unusually strong vigilance. If we’d only made it inside...”
Seoran responded appropriately.
“Yeah, too bad.”
She then began pondering ways to sneak into the grand bathhouse.
The building itself had no roof, just walls, but a barrier was in place to contain the heat.
Entry was strictly through the main gate.
The Celestial Net Observatory staff were equally stumped.
They had already devised five or six plans to resolve the anomaly on the journey here.
Yet here they were, thwarted by a mere lava bathhouse—an utterly ridiculous setback.
Everyone racked their brains in frustration.
But no good ideas came to mind.
Sneaking in would get them caught; breaking the barrier would definitely get them caught.
Damcheong was especially enthusiastic today.
He proposed over a dozen ideas on his own.
Regrettably, none proved helpful.
Finally, at noon, Seoran said.
“Let’s take a break. Lunch first, then regroup.”
The group headed to the dining hall in small clusters, chatting about what was for lunch.
It was braised pork belly, for the record.
Her mouth was already watering at the scent of pork.
Seoran sat blankly in the meeting hall.
She wasn’t particularly hungry.
So she just took in the resort scenery.
Desert giants in simple hot spring robes.
Young children smiling happily while holding their parents’ hands.
A sign reading “Free admission for under 500 years old.”
A flash of inspiration licked through Seoran’s mind.
*****
Seoran approached the grand bathhouse entrance with bold confidence.
The desert giant who had been sweeping asked.
“Little one, where are your parents?”
“Calming my sibling! They told me to bathe first!”
“Oh, your sibling’s crying, so they’re soothing them? And you came to bathe ahead of them?”
“That’s right!”
“Good girl, so spirited. Go on in.”
“Yes!”
Seoran entered the grand bathhouse with enormous strides.
She encountered countless desert giants on the way to the counter, but none stopped her.
A desert giant child enjoying a lava bath was hardly unusual.
Seoran was disguised as a giant via a growth spell.
The growth spell—a gigantification technique learned from the labyrinth speakers.
She had picked it up ages ago and forgotten about it since it had no real use.
Her current height exceeded 400 meters slightly.
For reference, her original height was 137 cm.
That was about a 300-fold increase in height, and a staggering 27 million-fold in volume.
Maintaining the gigantification spell consumed astronomical amounts of spiritual power every moment.
But there were no issues.
After all, Seoran had a golden pellet far larger than her wish-fulfilling pearl.
Upon reaching the counter, Seoran declared.
“One child!”
The desert giant man asked.
“How old are you?”
Seoran shamelessly inflated her age tenfold.
“450 years old!”
A nearby elder gasped in shock.
“What?! Four hundred fifty? That tiny child?”
The man at the counter said.
“Father, why are you so surprised? For kids these days, that’s on the taller side.”
The elder muttered in a feeble voice.
“How far our desert giant race has fallen... once we looked down even on passing clouds... It’s all our fault... We elders have no face left to show our ancestors...”
“Father, why is it your fault?”
The elder was truly a giant among giants.
Even sitting on the ground, his head towered far above the border guards Seoran had seen.
She wasn’t sure of the details, but it seemed the desert giants’ average height was shrinking with each generation.
The man, who had been consoling his father, turned to Seoran.
“Oh, right! Four hundred fifty, you say? Under five hundred is free admission. Just write your name in the registry. What’s your name?”
“I’m Soso!”
“Soso, nice name. Head right for the women’s changing room. Put your clothes in the basket.”
“Yes!”
Seoran entered the changing room and stripped off her clothes with a flourish.
For reference, the clothes were borrowed briefly from the Shik Mountain Great Peng under her control.
She’d return them later, so it wasn’t stealing.
Leaving the changing room brought her straight to the women’s bath.
Crimson lava rippled everywhere.
It was truly an otherworldly sight.
She cautiously dipped one foot into the lava.
As a Yuan Spirit Realm cultivator, it wasn’t particularly hot.
Reassured, Seoran entered the bath.
She waded around, focusing on the soles of her feet.
As she stepped here and there on the floor, she found what she wanted.
A lava vent.
Seoran opened her left fist, which she had been clenching tightly.
Inside was a rice-grain-sized white object.
More precisely, a bundle wrapped in fire rat fur clothing.
Fire rat fur clothing—also called flame mantle—was made from the skins of fire rats that lived in volcanoes.
Thanks to the fire rats’ mystical properties, even ordinary people could supposedly roam freely through flames while wearing it.
It was quite rare; even the Black Bamboo Sect had only a few.
If asked where such a treasure had suddenly come from, Seoran could answer: her wardrobe.
It was a custom-made garment to celebrate her Foundation Establishment.
The owner herself had mistaken it for pajamas all this time due to its soft texture.
She learned the truth upon revisiting the Eastern Continent.
It was during that bank run fiasco over the merchant ship.
Yi Agum, who had been picking clothes from her wardrobe, informed her it was fire rat fur clothing, not pajamas.
Seoran’s protest about why fire rat fur was white instead of red fell on deaf ears.
What could she do when the raw material, the fire rat itself, was white?
She couldn’t very well say cartoons depicted it differently.
Seoran stood over the vent, glancing around cautiously.
Seeing no watchful eyes, she quietly submerged.
Then she released the gigantification spell.
Her massive body rapidly shrank.
Soon enough, it returned to her original size.
From within the bundle—now twice her body size at least—Seoran drew a small sword.
It was the obsidian shortsword gifted to her by Geum Gyo-wol, a Yuan Spirit Realm cultivator of the Golden Arm Sect.
Using her sword flight technique, the obsidian shortsword, a type of flying sword spiritual tool, began to fly on its own.
Naturally, Seoran, gripping the hilt, was carried along.
Seoran vanished into the massive lava vent.