CHAPTER 163: THE GUARDIAN SPIRIT

Her feet lifted off the ground.

The elves gasped from afar, though none dared to interfere. The branch’s touch was warm, the texture smooth as silk despite its bark-like form. It carried her upward, through a curtain of glowing leaves that shimmered with emerald light, and as she rose higher, the world below grew distant, blurred into abstraction.

Then came the pull, gentle but absolute.

The light enveloped her fully, swallowing the forest, the sky, the air—everything. Her consciousness blurred for a heartbeat, and when her eyes opened again, she was no longer standing beneath the World Tree.

She was inside it.

—

It was a world of white.

Endless, blinding white.

The air shimmered faintly, and the ground under her feet was neither earth nor light; it was something in between, soft yet solid. Her footsteps echoed in the emptiness, carrying through the vast expanse where no horizon existed. It was like walking through the inside of a dream.

Ling Yu narrowed her eyes, scanning the space. The pulse of the World Tree still thrummed faintly in her chest, syncing with her heartbeat, guiding her forward. Each step she took seemed to draw her deeper into something sacred, ancient, and sorrowful.

Finally, after what felt like both moments and centuries, she saw it.

A figure.

Suspended in the center of the endless white, a figure sat cross-legged, surrounded by floating strands of green and gold energy.

It was the Guardian Spirit.

Ling Yu slowed her pace, her eyes reflecting the being before her. The spirit’s form was ethereal, neither male nor female, yet bearing the perfection of both. Long silver hair cascaded like molten moonlight, trailing down over shoulders that glowed faintly with translucent light. The robes they wore were woven from pure essence, flowing like liquid silk, glimmering faintly as if made from the very fabric of the world.

Once, Ling Yu knew, this being must have been breathtakingly beautiful, perhaps the most exquisite existence in this realm. But now...

The light that surrounded them flickered. The once-pure glow of their aura was dimmed, clouded by veins of darkness that crawled like ink through glass. A faint miasma, black and oily, seeped from their body, spreading into the void like veins of rot through marble.

When the spirit lifted its face, Ling Yu finally saw the eyes, one gold, one black.

And that blackness wasn’t natural. It was spreading.

The Guardian Spirit’s gaze met hers. Even through the darkness, there was grace in their voice, a sorrowful elegance that carried the weight of millennia.

"You came."

Ling Yu exhaled slowly, steadying herself. "You’re the Guardian Spirit, aren’t you?"

The being smiled faintly, an expression that was both sad and relieved. "Once, yes. The guardian of this world’s life root. The heart that sang with the Tree of Oath. But now..."

Their hand lifted, and the motion left a faint trail of black smoke behind.

"Now I am merely its shadow."

The tone was gentle but carried an undertone of pain. Ling Yu could sense it —the heaviness in their essence, the corruption that was eating away at their core.

"What happened to you?" she asked quietly. "Why does your aura look like that?"

The spirit’s smile faltered.

"The darkness seeped into this world long ago. It began as whispers beneath the roots, voices carried by the corrupted mana of forgotten lands. I tried to contain it, to shield the elves, my descendants... but the corruption was not something I could purify alone."

They paused, looking at their trembling hands as the black veins pulsed faintly under the skin of light.

"Every time the dark energy surges, I absorb it to protect the forest. To keep it from consuming my children. But as the centuries passed, it began consuming me instead."

Ling Yu’s fists clenched at her sides. "The elves don’t know?"

The spirit shook its head slowly. "They cannot sense it anymore. Their blood has grown distant from mine, thinner, mortal. The curse hides beneath the roots, where their reach cannot touch."

A faint chuckle escaped them, bitter and self-mocking. "Perhaps that is mercy. If they could see what I’ve become, they would not call me their guardian any longer."

Ling Yu’s expression softened.

"I can sense it," she murmured.

The spirit’s eyes lifted, faintly glowing gold through the black fog. "Yes. That is why I called for you."

Their voice became stronger, the air trembling faintly around them as their aura pulsed.

"You carry it within you, the same essence of the dark. Not by birth, but by fate. The curse that festers inside your soul resonates with the corruption that poisons me."

Ling Yu frowned, instinctively pressing her hand against her chest where her core throbbed faintly in answer.

"You can feel it, can’t you?"

"Yes," she admitted. "It’s the same... same cold, same weight."

The spirit nodded, a flicker of hope appearing in their dimming gaze.

"That is why you are the only one who can destroy it. The elves cannot sense what I sense. They cannot touch what is hidden beneath this purity. But you, human child, bearer of the cursed flame... your darkness can reach where their light cannot."

Ling Yu fell silent for a long moment.

She looked up at the spirit again, this once-pure being now eroded by a taint that didn’t belong to this world. Despite her calm face, there was something painful in her chest.

"What happens if I don’t?" she finally asked.

The Guardian Spirit’s expression turned grave.

"Then this forest will wither. The elves will lose their connection to the roots. And when the World Tree falls, the balance of life across this continent will collapse. Every dungeon will open at once."

Ling Yu’s breath stilled.

That was the apocalypse she had seen once before.

The spirit continued softly, "I cannot hold the corruption back for much longer. Already, it spreads beneath the soil, whispering to the beasts, infecting the spirits of nature. Soon, even the elves will turn on one another."