Chapter 127
Sparkling like starlight, shining brilliantly like streetlights, emitting light that seems blinding yet constantly changing shape to captivate the gaze. When moving the arms, the light spread as if shattering, resembling the shape of fleeting sparks, and the presence that disappeared without lingering as it passed by resembled ice rolling while scattering coldness.
It could be said to be truly sufficient to enchant people.
Then, what kind of person was it trying to enchant?
Jinseong went outside the mansion wearing golden armor on his body. Then he used teleportation to move to the mountain behind and continued to use teleportation to move mainly to secluded forests or ruins. Using teleportation in a short time made his body feel parched, and his legs supporting his body trembled.
Especially when he arrived at a place far from the mansion, the soles of his feet were dried and twisted like tree bark, with the red inner skin exposed underneath the dried and twisted skin of the soles. But as if even flowing blood was precious, not a single drop of blood came out, and only the terrible pain felt with every step remained.
This was the price of teleportation.
It was the price of excessively using the improved form of teleportation.
* * *
Teleportation changed several times over history.
According to historical records, the first created teleportation method used meridians to move.
In feng shui, mountains were not simply seen as topographical features but were equated to human elements.
The bedrock was the bones of the mountain range, and the soil covering it was like human flesh.
Naturally, they believed that mountains contained life energy, and like humans, they had blood vessels and acupoints where they gathered.
The blood vessels of mountain ranges.
That was the meridian.
Meridians are also called dragon veins.
People considered these dragon veins as channels for life energy to flow, strings connecting acupoints, and lifelines maintaining nature. Therefore, when doing construction, they avoided these dragon veins, and when disasters struck the country, they would investigate if there were any problems with the dragon veins.
Teleportation was a method of using the life energy flowing in these meridians like a river.
However, this original teleportation method had a clear disadvantage:
It could only be used where meridians existed.
There was no problem when moving around rugged mountains by riding the flow of the mountains.
But were humans beings that only lived in mountains?
Those who had the ability to use teleportation certainly lived in mountains for a long time, but it was rare for them to live without seeing people at all. Unless completely turning away from the secular world, wouldn't it be natural to visit villages to talk with people and buy necessities?
Moreover, in addition to this inconvenience, people's protests were added.
Dragon veins were sacred things that should never be damaged, so how could people step on them and defile them with their feet?
These protests grew stronger over time, reaching their peak during King Sejong's reign.
In 1433, Go Jung-an wrote a long petition.
『 Those who fold the earth and run have no moderation, unable to think of their own limits and only thinking of convenience. This is like those who burn forests thinking only of one year's harvest and farm on top of it, but unlike the ignorant who need to be enlightened, they know enough reason yet still do this, so their sin can be said to be clear. Such unparalleled rude behavior will surely cause problems in auspicious sites, so I humbly request that from now on, you punish those who take dragon veins lightly, and prohibit stepping on life energy and disturbing the clarity of acupoints. 』
Following this, those skilled in feng shui like Mok Hyo-ji submitted petitions to King Sejong to severely punish those trying to tamper with dragon veins and make it taboo. And King Sejong, receiving these petitions, prohibited traveling along dragon veins, and thus the first teleportation method was about to disappear into history, but...
Fortunately, it reappeared in an improved form by those who couldn't forget the convenience of teleportation.
But problems continued to arise as if cursed.
When they improved it to use earth energy and wood energy, war flames engulfed the country, burning everything and leaving only bare mountains and dead land, causing problems with usage. When they tried to just use natural energy, it became polluted with industrial development, making efficiency terrible.
Moreover, with the emergence of things like cars and trains, the reason to use teleportation disappeared.
In modern times, teleportation became half obsolete.
Moreover, as sorcery was shattered during national tragedies, it would have been natural for teleportation to disappear into history.
However, after World War III, teleportation underwent improvement once again.
A method of 'using the energy inside one's own body' was created by the hands of some unknown person.
To be precise, they improved the existing teleportation method by infinitely dividing and lowering it to use the energy stored in the human body as a driving force.
While the existing teleportation method had tremendous efficiency but required too much power, the improved teleportation method had poor efficiency and couldn't move long distances, but it was in a form that could barely be used by the human body.
The idea of viewing the human body as a microcosm and drawing earth and wood energy from it to use as energy was truly revolutionary. But unfortunately, not many people used it.
Sorcery touches a person's flesh, soul, and mind.
That was what a price was.
Just as wearing uncomfortable shoes for years changed the shape of the feet, and having bad eating habits inevitably brought disaster in the form of illness, no matter how weak it was, it accumulated and changed the form of a person from its original state.
The only difference was that general sorcery changed very weakly and slowly.
Things like rituals transformed a person in an instant.
So other ability users didn't try to touch sorcery.
Even if there was sorcery that used magic power, magicians didn't try to touch it, and even if there was sorcery that uses qi and vitality, martial artists didn't use it recklessly. It was clear that it would definitely cause problems even if it was convenient for a moment.
Because it would reverse the shape of where magic power was stored, and block or strangely change the channels where qi flowed.
It would become an irritation that hindered oneself when one should advance beyond the physical to the realm of the soul, and it would become a heart demon that started from a speck of dust and tried to tear apart one's mind.
For those who aspired to higher realms, even a grain of sand became a huge rock, and became a stumbling block like a weight of thousands of pounds that grabbed and stretched when trying to climb over a wall.
So even if teleportation was improved, there wasn't much reason for ordinary ability users to use it.
Even if they did use it, it was only when their lives were in danger.
If the skin is strained, it's enough to heal or regenerate it, and if the bones weaken, it's enough to block it with other sorcery.
But this didn't matter to Jinseong.
He could move by folding the earth at the cost of merely weakening his skin and bones.
It was hard to find sorcery as sweet as this.
Jinseong, disregarding the peeling skin of his soles, continued to use teleportation to move to a village in North Chungcheong Province.
Where Jinseong arrived, there were a few small houses and a well.
It was an utterly ordinary well.
I've arrived.
But Jinseong moved towards it with shining eyes.
The well placed beside a well-paved road was built with well-polished white stones, and the way the stones were stacked was in the shape of the character for well (井). The stones, slightly larger than a human head, were stacked in three tiers, and beside it was a small stone lantern.
The stone lantern was made on a square base, and near the very top, metal emitting a strange energy was shining, reflecting sunlight.
The metal sent very weak magic power to a small antenna behind the well, and the antenna changed the weak magic power into a faint form and sent it under the open space beside the well.
It was a sophisticated form of security magic barrier.
If a problem occurred, it would immediately activate and fire suppression magic at beings within its range.
Jinseong moved carefully so as not to enter the range of the barrier.
And he looked at the guide sign erected behind the well.
『 Well Announcing the End Times 』
The well announcing the end times.
In other words, the End Times Well.
It was a well with a legend that disasters strike every time the water rises, and when it overflows three times, the world will end.
Jinseong smiled as he looked at it.