Deep within Sunset Forest.
An old crow's hoarse cry echoed through the valley.
It interrupted Niu Tian, who had been staring blankly by the shore.
"Damned old crow."
Niu Tian snorted.
"If I didn't have an important duty to attend to, I'd swallow you in one bite."
With that, he looked into the depths of the enormous pit.
The spring, once the size of a pond, had now shrunk considerably.
At the same time, its once sharply divided red and blue waters had vanished completely.
At a glance.
The entire spring had taken on an exceedingly eerie, blood-red hue.
Gurgle, gurgle-
Bubbles rose one after another from the bottom.
Despite its bloody appearance, it gave off no repulsive odor whatsoever.
Niu Tian folded his arms and watched the scene before him expressionlessly.
Two years...
For two whole years, he had stood guard here, scarcely taking a step away.
Ever since Tang San had told him to place that azure crystal into the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
The changes in the water had never truly stopped.
At first.
The red and blue waters had merely blended together, gradually turning purple.
Later, something unknown had happened at the bottom, and the water had turned blood-red instead.
And then...
Niu Tian lowered his head.
Through the constantly churning blood-red water.
He could vaguely make out a crystal glowing blood-red deep below.
Beneath that crystal, a blurred humanoid outline floated silently up and down.
At first, the thing had looked somewhat like a dragon.
But as time passed.
Its outline had now fully settled into a human shape.
"Is it finally almost over?"
Niu Tian, who already had his suspicions, murmured to himself.
Perhaps to his former self, a mere two years would have been nothing at all.
But now...
He had not