Cheon Do-Yoon gaped at Kwon Oh-Jin, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief. “What? You’re telling me you're the Leech Queen’s husband?”
“That’s right,” Kwon Oh-Jin replied.
Cheon Do-Yoon’s expression hardened as he recalled what his son had told him not long ago.
“The Leech Queen seems to have taken an interest in the Thunder Wolf.”
So she hadn’t been eyeing him as prey? That lunatic woman sees him as a man...?
Kwon Oh-Jin's gaze remained steady, his breathing was even, and his lips rested in a straight line.
Cheon Do-Yoon’s face twisted. He’s not lying.
As the King of Owls, who commanded thousands of people, he could tell from someone's expressions, gestures, and eyes if they were lying or not. The young man before him right now was speaking nothing but the truth.
He also knows who she really is.
The Leech Queen obsessively concealed her true identity even within the Black Star Society. Kwon Oh-Jin would need to have an intimate relationship with her to know about it.
“Hahaha! You’re that bloodthirsty witch’s man, huh...? Poor you.”
“Poor me? You have no idea how well Isabella treats me,” Kwon Oh-Jin truthfully replied.
“Hahaha! And how long do you think that’ll last? The moment she loses interest, you’ll be nothing more than her next meal.”
“You sure blabber a lot. Are you gonna kill me or not?”
Cheon Do-Yoon’s expression stiffened. He couldn't recklessly lay a hand on Kwon Oh-Jin if he was really the Leech Queen's husband.
“Hahaha, there’s no need for me to kill you myself. The witch will do it herself once she gets bored.”
“Stop with the fucking excuses. I know you’re just scared to do it.”
Cheon Do-Yoon, however, didn't respond.
“Whatever." Kwon Oh-Jin looked at the blue sphere in Cheon Do-Yoon's hand. "So, is that thing the dragon’s heart?”
The translucent orb, glowing like an enormous blue diamond, was about the size of an apple.
For something called the "dragon’s heart," it’s pretty damn small.
It was barely big enough to be a dragon’s booger. However, the sheer amount of mana radiating from it made Kwon Oh-Jin's skin tingle. It was more than enough to be a dragon's heart.
“You’re interested in the dragon’s heart?” Cheon Do-Yoon asked.
“Would I be here if I wasn’t?”
“Hahaha! Fair enough. But you see... I can’t hand it over.” Cheon Do-Yoon stroked the blue gemstone in his hand, his eyes gleaming with greed.
“Sure, you can have it.” Kwon Oh-Jin promptly turned away.
Cheon Do-Yoon was caught off guard by the Thunder Wolf's cold indifference. “Didn’t you come here for the dragon’s heart?”
“Then, why are you giving up so easily?”
Kwon Oh-Jin scoffed. “Why? Would you actually share a piece if I said I wanted it?”
It's frustrating to come all this way and leave without it, but taking it from him is out of the question. I can throw Isabella’s name around all I want, but he’s not stupid enough to just hand that thing over.
His chances of claiming the dragon’s heart were already gone. At this point, it was a miracle he was still alive. His one arm was still dysfunctional, and he didn't have Vega with him.
It sucks, but backing off is the right call here.
Cheon Do-Yoon stroked his beard as he chuckled. “You're not a fool, at least.”
Tucking the dragon’s heart safely into his robe, he turned around with a cold gaze. “Then, go back and deliver a message to the Leech Queen. If she keeps defying the will of the Black Stars, that person will tear her apart soon.”
Kwon Oh-Jin mulled it over. Is there someone above Cheon Do-Yoon pulling the strings?
The King of Owls then vanished behind a swarm of black feathers.
A blue message window appeared before Kwon Oh-Jin.
[The clear conditions for the dungeon ‘Where the Dragon has Fallen Asleep’ have been met.]
[The reward will be granted to the Awakener who met the clear conditions.]
[The gate will fully close in seventy-two hours.]
Since Cheon Do-Yoon had been the one to clear the dungeon, Kwon Oh-Jin wouldn’t receive any rewards.
“Seventy-two hours, huh?”
There was still plenty of time remaining. Kwon Oh-Jin leaned against the blue crystal wall and fell into thought.
There’s a definite link between the False Star Cult and the Black Star Society.
Lee Shin-Hyuk's memories indicated that the ones after the Baekdu Mountain's Astral Relic were the False Star Cult. Yet inside the dungeon, he had encountered the Black Star Society. There was too much correlation between the two groups to think that the future had changed.
If the Black Star Society changes its name to the False Star Cult later on... then the time frame has been thrown off.They’re already after the Astral Relic in this timeline.
He had no way of knowing exactly when the Black Star Society would rebrand itself.
Just when did things start to fall off course?
There were plenty of possibilities he could think of.
The deaths of Yoo-Jin and Ashad Khan, and the fact that I killed Cheon Woo-Seong, who should have lived at least two more years.
Kwon Oh-Jin had taken the Astral Relic that should have ended up in the Black Star Society’s hands, dealing with the monster beneath Seoul Station himself. Looking back, every single action of his had rippled into the future with a butterfly effect. It wouldn’t be surprising if entirely new events started occurring in the future.
Does this mean I can’t fully trust Lee Shin-Hyuk’s memories anymore?Though they can still serve as a rough guideline.
Of course, he could no longer move with the same certainty as before.
He had anticipated this ever since Lee Shin-Hyuk died and he took on the role of the Regressor, but now that he actually had to face it, it felt like being lost without a map. From now on, he would possibly have to play the role of a Regressor entirely on his own.
“Well, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
If the first timeline was destined to play out exactly the same, the concept of the Heaven-Defying Star would never have existed in the first place.
For now, I should check if Ha-Eun's safe. She's probably not badly injured since I saw Vega catch her.
“Alright then.” He pushed himself off the wall.
A thick, black cloud seemed to have seeped out from his back and clung to the cave wall, unbeknownst to him. It stretched between him and the wall like a cheese pull.
It was the first time the Black Heaven’s clouds had leaked out on their own. He faced the blue crystal cave wall and reached out with his hand.
Like a predator that had discovered its prey, more clouds slithered out from his palm and stuck to the blue crystals, moving as if licking the wall ravenously.
Kwon Oh-Jin’s eyes narrowed. “This is...”
He recalled a system message from earlier.
[It is said that before dragons return to nature, they approach the rapids of a Dragon Vein and seal all their mana in their heart, crystallizing it.]
“A place where the Dragon Vein flows strongest...”
He raised his head and scanned the massive cavern stretching hundreds of meters. Its walls were entirely lined with blue crystals.
His eyes widened. No way.
Pressing his hand against the cave wall, he focused as much as he could.
Like black ink spilled on white paper, the Black Heaven’s clouds spread against the crystal walls and started absorbing the mana within the crystals.
Kwon Oh-Jin’s jaw dropped. “Holy shit.”
He hadn’t imagined that the Black Heaven could absorb the Dragon Vein itself.
Like an overflowing river pouring out of a collapsing dam, a frightening amount of mana rushed into him, and a strangled groan escaped his lips.
This couldn’t be described simply as a "large amount" of mana. It was incomparable to what he'd absorbed from the captured Black Star Society members. Perhaps even more than the mana in the dragon heart Cheon Do-Yoon took with him.
Damn it...!Stop! Stop coming in—!
Kwon Oh-Jin bit his lip, desperately clinging to his fading consciousness. He felt like a balloon being inflated to its absolute limit, ready to explode. He began to dispel the mana little by little.
“Something that big... won’t fit inside!”
Wait. That sounds kinda fucked up.
He desperately tried to withdraw the Black Heaven, but it was like a starving beast tearing into raw flesh as it greedily devoured the Dragon Vein.
“Calm the fuck down, you bastard...!”
He gritted his teeth, glaring at the swirling black clouds. As if it somehow understood him, the frenzied absorption slowed ever so slightly.
His eyes flashed brightly, and he roared fiercely.
He fought desperately to pull back all the clouds.
The Black Heaven absorbed every last drop of mana it could before the clouds finally returned inside him.
[The conditions for Open Heaven have been partially met!]
[Ευχαριστώ που ψάχνατε, έγραψα οτιδήποτε]
A string of incomprehensible text twisted and distorted before his eyes.
[Ευχ𝌖𝌜𝌘τώ που ψάχ𝌵𝍑τε, έγραψα ο𝌜𝌘𝌱ποτε]
[𝌜𝌘αριστώ π𝌱𝌵υ ψάχνατε, έ𝌘𝌱𝌵α οτιδή𝌘𝌱𝌵ε]
[𝌜𝌘𝌱𝌵𝍑ώ π𝌖𝌜𝌘υ ψά𝌘𝌱𝌵𝍑𝌒τε, έ𝍑αψα οτι𝌖𝌜𝌘οτε]
The letters flickered and scattered like white noise. Slowly, as if solving a puzzle, the fragmented text rearranged itself.
[Αυτοί που με προσπερνούν στον κήπο των
He frowned, staring at the single phrase that appeared but was still incomprehensible.
[Kwon Oh-Jin has successfully absorbed the Dragon Vein's mana.]
[Warning! The absorbed mana is far too vast!]
[The Dragon Vein's mana will be restricted based on the Black Heaven’s current enlightenment stage.]
The overwhelming mana raging inside him suddenly vanished, as if tucked away somewhere.
He clutched his chest, gasping for breath.
Still dazed, he glanced around.
The crystals covering the massive cavern were no longer glowing, as if someone had flipped a switch.
He looked down at himself in disbelief. “I actually... devoured the entire Dragon Vein.”
[The clear conditions for the dungeon ‘Where the Dragon has Fallen Asleep’ have been met.]
[The reward will be granted to the Awakener who met the clear conditions.]
[The gate will fully close in seventy-two hours.]
A platinum-haired woman crossed her arms, looking at the messages floating before her indifferently.
“Hmm, it’s just as I expected.”
Isabella bent down and picked up a palm-sized round tablet from the dungeon floor. Etched on it was the symbol of a serpent.
“So... it's that person controlling the Owls.”
With a heavy killing intent, she glared at the tablet in her hand.