Chapter 91
Translator: MJK
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Between Giving Up and Awakening (1)
Riu narrowed her eyes in disbelief, staring up at the rooftop.
There stood a chicken, its red comb held high, balancing perfectly on one leg.
The wind swept past, ruffling its feathers, but the bird didn't so much as twitch.
It was like a monk lost in deep meditation.
'What... what the hell is that?'
Riu's eyes—the gaze of an S-rank healer.
Her ability, [Eyes of Life].
Raw healing power alone wasn't enough to call her a genius.
The true reason she was revered as a world-class healer, beyond even China, was this unique power of hers.
It pierced straight to the essence of living beings, spotting the tiniest flaws in their mana circuits.
The deepest roots hidden within.
'Yeah, just like Gorani-man said... it's a chicken.'
The genetic info reflected in her eyes was crystal clear.
A distant descendant of the tyrannosaurus that once ruled the earth... but ultimately destined for the human dinner table.
A perfectly ordinary, fragile domestic fowl.
No special bloodline, no mana circuits. Just your run-of-the-mill native chicken.
'But its energy... it's off.'
Yet the chicken before her stood tall on the rooftop, armored in steel-hard muscles.
A rigid aura swirled fiercely within its frail frame.
Pure fighting spirit, forged a hundred percent from bone-grinding training and a desperate will to shatter its limits.
It was defying its genetic fate head-on!
'No way... is this chicken on the verge of shedding its mortal shell?'
She couldn't believe her eyes, no matter how long she stared.
"What the heck is that chicken?"
"Just one I raise. Name's Kkokko."
"Kkokko...?"
Riu parroted Kang-hyun's words awkwardly.
"I get why you're shocked. Your eyes can see it, after all."
Kang-hyun gazed fondly at Kkokko on the roof as he explained.
"It started out as a weakling, always getting chased by wild beasts. But it never gave up. Every dawn, it'd kick trees, leap off cliffs, training itself nonstop."
"A chicken... can even do that kind of training?"
"Sure would've been tough alone. But it had a great teacher."
He pointed to the massive gorani casually munching grass in the yard.
"It copied everything that guy did. Taking a mutant beast way stronger than your average monster as its role model? That's a sky-high bar. That reckless dedication is cracking its limit shell wide open."
Riu blankly alternated her gaze between the gorani and the chicken.
The gorani's overwhelming physique... and next to it, the chicken striking a heroic one-legged pose.
Her eyes naturally shifted to the 'teacher,' the gorani.
'No... that's impossible.'
At a glance, it looked like some mutant monster.
But [Eyes of Life] never lied.
Just like the rooftop chicken, this gorani's essence was that of a perfectly ordinary wild water deer.
No mana circuits, no blessed bloodline. Just a plain old field beast.
'How, though?'
Yet the power packed into that ordinary vessel was beyond even an S-rank healer like her.
Vast and immense.
Life force and destructive might like it'd swallowed a whole mountain range.
If the chicken was just hatching from its egg, this gorani had already transcended limits, becoming a legendary spirit beast in the flesh.
"...To think such a being actually exists in this world."
She couldn't even fathom what kind of place this was.
Riu slowly took in her surroundings.
The soil underfoot, the breeze brushing past, even the nameless weeds.
Everything brimmed with primordial life force, untouched by the world's filth.
Like a space severed from the polluted reality outside.
'Stay here long enough, and even someone on death's door would heal on their own.'
As she marveled at it all...
"Um... hello?"
Someone timidly tugged at Riu's hem.
Turning, she saw a doll-like little girl.
"Oh, hi?"
"I drew this for you, sis."
The girl shyly pulled out a sketchbook she'd hidden behind her back.
It was covered in colorful crayon scribbles.
A picture of who had to be Riu, surrounded by smiling animal friends dancing around her.
Scrawled crookedly across the top: [Welcome to our home, sis!]
"I heard you were feeling a bit sick, sis. Right?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah."
"Now that you're here, you'll be better in no time!"
Such sincere comfort from her tiny, fern-like hand.
Riu's chest tightened as she took the sketchbook.
"Thank you... it's so pretty..."
Riu gently stroked So-ye's head with heartfelt gratitude.
But in that instant...
Zzt!
A faint but unmistakable ripple pulsed through her fingertips.
'Huh?'
The energy emanating from the little girl...
It wasn't half-human.
'Not a hunter's rough mana, either.'
Fresh as a newborn sprout, yet purer and more pristine than anything.
Perfectly refined mana, free of any taint, enveloped the child's body.
'This kid... isn't ordinary either.'
Not a single being here was normal.
Riu glanced once more at the house's owner, Kang-hyun.
What kind of miracles was this man working?
"Riu, you're looking pale. You need to lie down."
Xiao Lin hurried over, supporting her with worry.
With the tension easing, Riu's body swayed.
"Yes, rest would be best for now."
Kang-hyun opened the door to the annex he'd prepared.
"This is the countryside, far from Seoul. As you can see, it's just us here. Forget about China or treatment worries for a bit."
Kindness seeped through the mask.
"Don't think about a thing. Just rest up. I'll handle all the headaches."
"...Thank you."
Riu let go of her burdens at Kang-hyun's steady voice.
A wave of relief washed over her—this place really would be okay.
Beijing, China—Zhongnanhai, 50 floors underground.
The top-secret situation room overseeing national security.
Normally silent, not even a keyboard click... now it was pure chaos.
Weeeeng!
A ear-splitting red alarm blared nonstop.
The massive central screen showed vital graphs going haywire.
[Internal Energy Levels Surging!]
[Seal Breaking Imminent!]
"Report what the hell's happening—now!"
The white-haired elder, the Chairman overseeing China's Hunter Management Bureau, slammed his desk with a roar.
Before him stood a middle-aged man drenched in cold sweat: Zhu Lun, power player in the Princelings and Mei-ling's father.
"Chairman Zhu! Didn't you swear that wench was on her last legs?!"
"Y-yes! My daughter Mei-ling reported her life force was nearly gone... she wouldn't last a month..."
Zhu Lun wiped his brow with a trembling hand and a handkerchief.
The smug confidence of just days ago, sure of his promotion? Vanished.
"Then what's that graph?! Far from dying, she's more vibrant than in her prime!"
The Chairman jabbed at the screen.
Riu's vitals were exploding with energy.
"That damn seed... the cursed seed is reacting!"
Riu's life force wouldn't spike like that overnight.
It was a sign that the thing suppressed inside her was waking up too.
"!"
The other top officials' faces drained of color.
They knew.
What lurked in Riu wasn't just mana.
Three years ago, found on Tower floor 70—a forbidden taboo.
A seed birthing a monster from ancient myths, enough to devour a whole continent.
If it hatched, half of China could vanish from the map.
That's why they'd turned Riu into a vegetable instead of saving her, forcing the seed into dormancy.
"We have to stop it! Whatever it takes!"
"If that thing sprouts out of control... we're all finished!"
The Chairman grabbed Zhu Lun by the collar.
"Did your daughter fake the report? Or did you slack on surveillance?!"
"N-no! Mei-ling would never! There must be... some mistake!"
"Mistake?! With the nation's fate on the line?!"
Zhu Lun choked out excuses desperately.
"I'll confirm right now! Track her location, send in the special forces! If there's any rampage sign... we'll take her out on the spot and destroy the seed!"
"Do it! Every second counts!"
The Chairman shoved Zhu Lun away.
Zhu Lun scrambled out of the room.
The blaring alarm chased his back.
[Location Tracking in Progress...]
[Coordinate Lock Failed. Target Location Unknown.]
[Retrying... Retrying...]
"I'll head to Seoul for a bit then. Got some urgent business."
Once Riu had stabilized somewhat, Xiao Lin said that and stepped out.
Woooong!
The space around Xiao Lin warped strangely under gravitational pull.
"Don't worry, no one'll spot me. Might take a few days."
Her face blurred by an artifact, she used gravitational repulsion to shoot silently into the sky.
Like folding space and leaping across it in one go.
She vanished into the night sky in an instant.
S-rank hunter stealth—flawless, undetectable.
Left alone, Riu sat on the porch, gazing up at the stars.
Far more twinkled here than in Beijing, spilling across the sky.
The country night air was crisp, but strangely, not cold.
Thump.
Then it came.
A heavy pulse from deep in her chest.
Thump. Thump.
Her heartbeat?
No.
A far vaster, deeper throb, slightly off-rhythm from her heart.
'That's not my heartbeat.'
Riu pressed her hand to her chest.
Through her palm came a wriggling stir, like something deep underground awakening.
Thump—
The seed inside her.
It was resonating, reacting to something out there.
Shhhhaaa—
No wind at all, yet the garden crops all bowed in unison toward one direction, rippling like waves.
Branches quivering, leaves bowing toward Riu.
As if lowly creatures instinctively paying homage to the source of life.
Flutter...
The ripple even stirred the Disaster Flower.
Its usually haughty red bud pulsed faintly in sync with Riu's heart.
The whole yard held its breath in reverent silence, all eyes on her.
"......"
Kang-hyun, watching it all, stepped up beside Riu.
He alternated between the garden's reaction and her state, eyes gleaming with certainty.
'Knew it wasn't ordinary.'
Focusing his internal energy into his eyes, he peered into the seed's aura.
What had once looked like a massive blob of chaos...
Now resonating with the [Absolute's Herb Garden], it briefly revealed its true nature.
Flash!
A vision flashed before Kang-hyun's eyes.
A colossal root piercing dimensions, clutching and supporting a planet's core.
Countless branches stretching into the cosmos, bearing stars as fruit, birthing life.
'The seed of a world-tree that upholds dimensions themselves.'
There lay its primordial origin.
"Riu."
"Yes?"
"I think I get why that seed chose you."