Chapter 77

Whether due to the densely interwoven plants beneath the earth at the Point of No Return Mountain Range, Cho Yoon’s swift retrieval of the Zhenniao bird’s corpse, or both, the toxic miasma noticeably thinned as they descended the mountain. Consequently, the riverside trees that had been drinking the water and withering also grew fewer as they ventured downstream.

It seemed that the Zhenniao’s corpse hadn’t directly touched the water, its toxins having been filtered once through the stomach of the Human-Faced Water Snake.

Still, one could never be too certain, so Cho Yoon sprinted downstream, occasionally scattering his medicinal pouches.

Passing through the dense fog dividing the Point of No Return Mountain Range from the Qinling Mountains, he didn’t halt until he neared the village situated at the mountain’s base. What constituted a trivial toxin for him could prove utterly lethal to ordinary commoners, leaving him deeply unsettled.

Keenly sharpening his qi sense, he scanned his surroundings just in case some unfortunate soul had quietly collapsed from poisoning deep within the woods.

Compared to the Point of No Return Mountain Range—where every single living creature possessed formidable energy—the mountains bordering the secular world were incredibly feeble, making the search far easier than when he had lost Cheon-oh.

Fortunately, he detected absolutely nothing amiss until his feet hit flat ground.

Though there were a few herb gatherers and hunters energetically traversing the mountain, he found no traces of children, which had been his greatest fear.

Furthermore, the water flowing past the mountain’s base was so remarkably pristine it made his previous anxieties seem completely unwarranted. Slowly coming to a halt, Cho Yoon let out a massive sigh of relief.

If you follow this river straight down, it leads directly to the heart of Shaanxi Province. It’s a bustling region nearly on par with Henan. If the Zhenniao’s poison had actually seeped into those rivers… it’s terrifying just imagining it.

Would it not have been a disaster resulting in an absolutely astronomical death toll? Whether a monster could be considered a ‘natural’ occurrence was debatable, but it was abundantly clear it would have triggered a colossal calamity humanity could not easily combat. In the worst-case scenario, the vast majority of Shaanxi Province’s population would have died…

Wait a second. Why am I getting a sense of déjà vu?

A creeping anxiety slithered up alongside the sudden realization.

A catastrophic event striking Shaanxi Province, a natural disaster, near-annihilating damages… this sequence of hypotheticals felt incredibly familiar.

However, no such tragedy had ever occurred during the modern era Jeong Hayoon had lived in, and he couldn’t recall anything specific from ‘Cho Yoon’s’ original memories either.

What was in Shaanxi Province again? The Mount Hua Sect is barely clinging on there, and the Zhuge Clan… the Zhuge Clan?

“Master?”

He felt as though the answer would come to him if he just thought a little harder.

He had definitely seen this somewhere before…

His vision abruptly blurred, and the world began to spin. Seizing the momentary lapse in his tension, the virulent poison surged through his bloodstream, fiercely circulating throughout his entire body.

For the first time since possessing the body of a supreme martial master, a sickening wave of nausea violently clawed its way up his throat.

Reflexively clamping a hand over his mouth, Cho Yoon gagged. He couldn’t even tell if his tilting vision was due to mere dizziness, or if his body was physically staggering.

“Master! Master!”

“I am fin—”

As expected, everyone would have died if it hadn’t been for me. I’m fine because any poison will naturally neutralize itself if I just endure it for a little while, but imagine if kids who don’t know a lick of martial arts had consumed this? It definitely would have gone down in history as an apocalyptic catastrophe.

Wait. A catastrophe?

“If I am wrong, you simply gain this many Purification Stones. If I am right, you avert a massive catastrophe about to strike Shaanxi Province. You have nothing to lose, Young Lady Zhuge.”

“Shaanxi… in Shaanxi Province.”

Goddammit!

It was only ever used as a plot device in the very beginning of the novel to orchestrate the first meeting between the protagonist and the first heroine, so I completely forgot about it! It was never mentioned again for the next several hundred chapters, and new incidents exploded every single day—of course I wouldn’t remember it!

Without even realizing he was grabbing Cheon-oh’s collar, Cho Yoon clenched his fist tightly.

Unable to properly control his body as the poison melted his strength, he completely failed to notice Cheon-oh’s face turning a deathly shade of pale.

Amidst the crushing realization that he had spectacularly ruined a crucial stepping stone in the protagonist’s triumphant journey, a faint pang of worry for the terrified Cheon-oh bloomed within him.

It’s okay. I’ll be perfectly fine after I sleep this off, he tried to say, but with the deafening ringing in his ears, he had no idea if the words even left his mouth.

He felt as dizzy as he had the very first time he drank too much with his seniors as a college freshman. Even when he closed his eyes, the world violently spun like a carnival ride.

Ah, so this is what it feels like to ingest a horrific animal poison. From now on, no matter how urgent the situation is, I shouldn’t just recklessly swallow things. What if the kid sees me and copies me?

That was Cho Yoon’s final thought before he lost consciousness.

***

The boy outside the window lightly tossed the object he had been clutching toward Zhuge Seol-rin. Clinking with a clear, resonant sound, the item—roughly the size of two finger joints—rolled across her desk before coming to a stop right in front of her. Shaped like a jagged pebble, it glowed transparently with a pale sky-blue hue, its brilliance rippling as though water was trapped inside.

Above all, the moment she drew a breath near it, the surrounding air felt refreshingly crisp and clean. Her lips trembling in disbelief, Zhuge Seol-rin spoke.

“Is this not… an incredibly precious Purification Stone?”

The object the boy had been casually tossing around like a simple marble was a legendary artifact known as a Purification Stone, said to neutralize any poison simply by being submerged in water.

Although it was a single-use item that lost its efficacy after neutralizing a certain volume and intensity of poison, for anyone at risk of assassination, it was practically equivalent to an extra life.

Having only read about them in books, Zhuge Seol-rin—who never dreamed she would see one in person—unconsciously stared at the boy with a dumbfounded expression.

The boy smirked slyly and reached his hand through the window.

Having lived her entire life like a sheltered bird in a cage, Seol-rin flinched.

However, the boy stopped just before touching her and shook his hand vigorously. A cascade of objects tumbled from his sleeve onto her desk.

Clatter, clatter.

The crystalline sound filled the previously silent room.

It was a pile of Purification Stones, easily numbering over twenty.

Lost for words, Seol-rin alternated her gaze between the boy and the stones. Gripping the window frame, the boy met her eyes with a radiant expression and spoke.

“Something terrible is going to happen in Shaanxi Province soon. If you don’t prepare now, you’ll regret it. I’ll give all of these to you, so put them exactly where I tell you to.”

“That’s…”

She couldn’t easily dismiss it as absurd nonsense.

Of course, there was a high probability these Purification Stones were fake, but the gaze of the brightly smiling boy was profoundly serious, entirely unsuited for his young age. Looking at the still-hesitant Zhuge Seol-rin, the boy added with a mischievous grin.

“If I am wrong, you simply gain this many Purification Stones. If I am right, you avert a massive catastrophe about to strike Shaanxi Province. You have nothing to lose, Young Lady Zhuge.”

+++

Yes, that was it. That was exactly it.

Because the protagonist retained the memories from before his regression, he knew a massive disaster was scheduled to strike Shaanxi Province during this period.

To prevent it, he utilized his future knowledge to amass a large quantity of Purification Stones and traveled to Shaanxi.

Half-doubting him but ultimately concluding she had nothing to lose, Zhuge Seol-rin accepted the young protagonist’s proposal.

Fifteen days later, when she discovered the Purification Stones she had placed exactly where he instructed had turned completely black, she began to trust his words absolutely.

Zhuge Seol-rin was a heroine in ‘The Returned Hero’ who embodied every single cliché trope imaginable: the overprotected only daughter of the Zhuge Clan, possessing an elegant and intellectual face, a quiet personality, a frail constitution, yet armed with a mind brilliant enough to master complex arrays.

Meeting the protagonist—who was the same age—during their childhood, she fell into the archetype of the ‘childhood friend who sighs heavily at his seemingly immature actions but always trusts, follows, and meticulously cares for him.’

However, from the mid-point of the novel onward, as female characters sprouted up like weeds to establish a harem dynamic, she was unceremoniously relegated to the role of ‘the character who explains new settings.’

Furthermore, since she practically never appeared during the all-out war against the Demonic Cult led by Joo Cheon-oh, there was no reason for Cho Yoon to suddenly remember her.

The only reason he could recall a minor episode from a novel he had casually skimmed a whopping eight years ago without missing a single word was entirely thanks to ‘Cho Yoon’s’ exceptional mental software.

Anyway, this incident was the exact catalyst that made Zhuge Seol-rin trust the protagonist… but I just recklessly went and neutralized the poison myself. That means fifteen days from now, when Seol-rin retrieves the Purification Stones, there will be absolutely no change, and she’ll undoubtedly assume the protagonist is just a braggart…

What do I do about this?

Because he found poison in the food his kid was about to eat, he frantically eliminated the source, only to inadvertently shatter the protagonist’s romance plotline. He truly couldn’t fathom why the consequences of his actions always spiraled out like this.

Even if bringing the future Final Boss under his wing and raising him well could technically be considered a ‘good thing’ that would ultimately aid the protagonist’s future, completely sabotaging the foundational trust he was supposed to build with his heroine was undeniably something to be sorry for.

No… no. Let’s look on the bright side. Even if she flirts with the protagonist starting now, Zhuge Seol-rin ultimately just gets shoved into the background anyway. Why should a girl who is brilliant, capable, heavily backed by a powerful clan, and deeply loved by her family end up like that? This might actually be a blessing in disguise for Zhuge Seol-rin. The protagonist has plenty of other heroines besides her, so he’ll be fine.

Besides, the novel never explicitly described the protagonist deeply loving or favoring Zhuge Seol-rin specifically…

In fact, there were no descriptions of him harboring special feelings for any of the heroines. Whether the author intentionally withheld those expressions to maintain the harem dynamic, or if they were simply waiting to gauge reader reactions before selecting a main heroine, Cho Yoon didn’t know. But at least up until the point he had read, that was the reality.

Though he was desperately trying to rationalize it, the undeniable truth remained: Cho Yoon had completely derailed not only the original story’s overarching plot but the protagonist’s entire life trajectory as well.

Ever since learning four years ago—via Hui’s letter—that the protagonist of this world was the exact same character who had already experienced one regression in the main storyline of ‘The Returned Hero’, the guilt he had deeply buried was slowly beginning to creep back up.

What’s more, there was another, even more absurd fact he had realized.