Chapter 124
Chapter 124
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 124
Chapter Title: Return
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The Dragon God Festival concluded successfully.
The believers returned home satisfied with the substantial event.
Church officials, looking relieved, hurried to clean up after the festival.
Seoran regained her freedom.
"It's finally over!"
This document was truly the last one.
Seoran carefully reviewed its contents.
Then she slammed down the approval seal.
With this, all Dragon God Festival-related tasks were completed.
Seoran left the office with a light heart.
The attendant boy waiting outside followed behind.
As Seoran walked briskly, she asked,
"Where is the Dragon God?"
The attendant boy replied politely.
"He is in the collection warehouse."
Seoran arrived at the collection warehouse via the shortest route.
She pressed the doorbell at the automatic door.
A clear chime rang out several times.
Seoran's senses detected movement beyond the wall.
A small figure nimbly navigated through the clutter.
Moments later, the automatic door slid open smoothly.
Damcheong said with a delighted face,
"Have you finished all the busy work?"
"Yes, I just wrapped it up."
"You've worked hard. Come on in."
Seoran and Damcheong entered the collection warehouse.
The attendant boy stayed outside without following.
The automatic door closed again.
The two detectives reached the area lined with bookshelves.
It looked very different from Seoran's last memory.
Somehow, it felt more lived-in.
Seoran pointed at a tent and asked,
"What's this? I don't remember seeing it before."
Damcheong said with a face full of pride,
"Let me introduce you. It's my personal hideout that I made myself."
"A hideout?"
"Yes, I'll let you in specially, Seoran."
With that, he slightly lifted the tent entrance.
The structure of Damcheong's hideout was extremely simple.
Three sides blocked by furniture, covered with blankets—that was it.
The inside had thick blankets laid out, looking plush.
Seoran couldn't hold back her admiration.
"What a cozy hideout!"
Damcheong visibly brightened.
"You really get it!"
"How could I not? Mind if I try going in?"
"Of course!"
Seoran and Damcheong crawled into the hideout on all fours.
The interior was quite cramped.
But it was a pleasant sense of enclosure.
The two lay side by side, gazing at the ceiling.
Damcheong's horn softly illuminated the dark tent interior.
They could feel each other's breathing from their touching arms.
Seoran closed her eyes and savored the comfort.
"It's nice... feels healing..."
"How is it? To your liking?"
"Yes, really good..."
A peaceful silence flowed for a moment.
Damcheong carefully chose his words.
He pondered how to broach the subject.
Various expressions came and went in his mind.
Finally, he spoke.
"Seoran, thank you."
Seoran, enjoying the feel of the blankets, asked,
"For what?"
Damcheong reflected on his life.
The days spent in the vertical cave's lake, the day he lost the Dragon Pearl and emerged into the world, the humans who sought his nobility.
He lacked the vocabulary to fully convey the sentiments pouring down like a meteor shower.
So he simply repeated his previous words.
"I just wanted to say thank you."
Seoran didn't pry insensitively.
Instead, she poked Damcheong's side with her elbow.
Damcheong burst into laughter.
The Dragon Eye saw the consideration mixed in Seoran's action.
*****
As Seoran boarded the coral carriage, she said,
"Why do you think the Dragon God stopped writing his diary?"
Seoran hadn't read the diary herself.
But she had heard a summary from Damcheong.
Thanks to that, she knew about its ending too.
'Is a dragon truly a complete being on its own?'
The diary ended with that short question.
The following pages were all blank.
It was extremely puzzling.
Damcheong was just as curious.
"Indeed. A record-keeper who documented his entire life in writing—why would he do that?"
"But there were quite a few books written after the diary, right?"
"Yes, he was still writing cookbooks like 'A Hundred Mushroom Dishes' right up until he disappeared."
The previous Dragon God recorded the writing dates on all his books.
When he started writing, when he finished, or when he revised content, and so on.
Thanks to that, Seoran and Damcheong could trace the previous Dragon God's activities down to the day.
The previous Dragon God had certainly stopped writing the diary.
But he hadn't stopped writing altogether.
He had written countless books even after the last diary entry.
Seoran stopped her pointless speculation.
"Well, we'll look into the details calmly once we're back. We have plenty of time to read books anyway."
"That sounds good. Thinking too hard has made me a bit dizzy."
"Damcheong, lie down and rest like me."
Seoran and Damcheong reclined on the luxurious seats.
Behind the coral carriage pulled by twelve one-horned sea horses trailed a long transport procession.
The cargo consisted of books authored by the previous Dragon God.
They planned to load them onto the Mount Provisions Great Peng and take them all the way to the Black Bamboo Sect.
The destination was drawing near.
The coral carriage emerged above the sea surface.
The coachman announced their arrival in a polite tone.
Seoran looked out the window and felt puzzled.
"What's this? Is this the right island?"
There was no sign of the Mount Provisions Great Peng anywhere on the uninhabited island.
*****
The first thing the awakened giant puppet saw was two human-faced birds squabbling on its own beak.
The two were bickering, kicking at each other with their feet.
The Mount Provisions Great Peng's mimicry organs reflexively began imitating the human-faced birds' movements.
Blink blink with its round eyes.
Tilt tilt of its snow-white head.
Wiggle wiggle of its hips and tail feathers.
The Mount Provisions Great Peng tried moving its body this way and that.
The two human-faced birds got startled and fled into the forest.
Naturally, the Mount Provisions Great Peng's gaze followed in that direction.
The giant owl-eyed creature waddled toward the forest.
From its perspective, it was just 'waddling.'
But each step made the entire island quake.
The two human-faced birds trembled, clinging to each other.
Fortunately, the fear didn't last long.
The Mount Provisions Great Peng quickly lost interest.
Its attention shifted to the mountain in the center of the uninhabited island.
It was a low height of about 50 zhang (roughly 150 meters).
But excluding the Mount Provisions Great Peng itself, it was the largest object nearby.
The giant owl-eyed creature felt strong curiosity.
So it rammed the mountaintop with its body.
How that curiosity led to a body slam is something only it knew.
No mere rocky mountain could withstand the breakthrough power of the giant puppet crafted by the world's foremost puppet master.
Naturally, the mountain collapsed with a roar.
The Mount Provisions Great Peng's curiosity was safely resolved.
The forest friends were utterly terrified.
Wild beasts dashed out, and birds took to the skies en masse.
The uninhabited island turned into pandemonium in an instant.
Some capable of long-distance flight headed west.
To the west lay the vast continent.
The two human-faced birds flapped their wings desperately too.
The Mount Provisions Great Peng's eyes followed the two human-faced birds.
Then it spotted the distant continent.
The giant owl-eyed creature couldn't contain its curiosity.
Wings spread wide, lightning-fast ascent, graceful flight.
The giant puppet shot toward the continent like an arrow.
Only animals that had lost their homes remained on the island.
That was why the Mount Provisions Great Peng had left the uninhabited island.
*****
Seoran surveyed the chaotic uninhabited island.
Huge footprints were stamped everywhere, and one rocky mountain had collapsed cleanly.
The path of movement was perfectly clear.
Seoran, tracing the Mount Provisions Great Peng's tracks, reached the end.
A deeply imprinted footprint, as if it had leaped with all its might.
The direction was west, toward the continent.
Seoran smacked her forehead.
"This is bad..."
Damcheong asked,
"What's the matter?"
"It seems the giant puppet has gained self-awareness."
"Didn't you say it was absolutely impossible?"
Seoran felt wronged.
"I didn't expect this either."
"But is it okay to be this leisurely? Isn't it dangerous for the Western Continent folks? I'm worried."
"It shouldn't be. I installed multiple layers of safety measures. Especially, it absolutely can't attack other targets without my command."
Damcheong pointed at the collapsed mountain and asked,
"You're saying that wasn't aggression?"
"Maybe it was trying to show friendliness in its own way?"
"Its way of showing affection is quite heavy. Let's hurry and find it."
And so the search for the runaway owl-eyed creature began.
The expedition members planned to load the previous Dragon God's tomes and return along the canal.
Seoran and Damcheong took to the skies on the Five-Colored Cloud.
As they flew through the sky, Damcheong asked,
"Do you know where the Mount Provisions Great Peng is?"
"I can sense the direction at least. It's west right now."
"Got it. Let's pick up the speed a bit."
Damcheong's horn flashed, and the Five-Colored Cloud accelerated sharply.
It was a flight speed far exceeding the sound barrier.
His mind was impatient.
At that moment, Seoran tapped Damcheong's shoulder and said,
"Damcheong, we passed it."
"What?"
"There, right there."
Damcheong headed to the spot Seoran pointed at.
He looked down at the vast ocean.
Beneath the surface sat a massive object.
It was the missing Mount Provisions Great Peng.