What disturbed Gaia even more than the corrupted humans themselves were the numbers appearing within her calculations. She was analyzing every recorded instance of someone entering and leaving a secret realm, and the results were far worse than she had hoped. The amount of suspicious activity was steadily increasing, revealing a pattern that could no longer be dismissed as a coincidence. Even for a planetary guardian who had received an enormous amount of history upon awaking, the scale of the infiltration was deeply unsettling.
After comparing every available record, she counted the number of corrupted humans who had entered the various secret realms scattered across the planet. The total was frighteningly high, especially once she plotted their movements on a global map. Nearly every infiltrated secret realm was located close to a major city in a different country, yet none of those cities were national capitals. Instead, they surrounded important third-rate cities that were isolated from national borders, ensuring that military reinforcements would require precious time to arrive if disaster struck.
The strategy behind those locations was terrifyingly efficient. A city of that size contained enough people to fuel a massive sacrifice while lacking the overwhelming defensive forces protecting the world's capitals. If even one of those cities were completely consumed before help could arrive, the consequences would be catastrophic. Gaia knew that better than anyone, as the inherited memories passed down to every planetary guardian contained countless records of worlds that had fallen after beings of the Void obtained enough living sacrifices. Not a single one of those histories had ended well.
"So, that is your objective," Gaia muttered to herself as the final pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Her expression grew colder as she realized just how close humanity had come to overlooking the threat. She could not allow those plans to progress any further, regardless of the effort required. Even one successful ritual would place the entire planet in unimaginable danger.
"Right. I'll send China the complete list of infiltrated secret realms. They should be able to convince the other nations to take this threat seriously," Gaia decided. The nation's influence and organizational strength made it the most suitable choice for distributing such critical intelligence without causing unnecessary panic. Once that task was complete, she intended to personally investigate every remaining connection left behind by the corrupted humans. Unlike ordinary investigators, she possessed information that no erased memory could conceal.
The corrupted human who had fallen because of the Sonnenberg family had managed to erase his own memories before dying, preventing anyone from extracting information directly from his mind. However, he had been unable to erase Gaia's own records concerning his existence. Every interaction, every family member, every close friend, and every meaningful relationship remained safely preserved inside her planetary database. By tracing those countless connections, she could identify every individual who had been exposed to the corruption.
Those investigations would leave no room for mercy. Anyone proven to have willingly embraced the corruption would be eliminated immediately before they could spread the infection further. Gaia took no pleasure in such decisions, but allowing them to continue living would only condemn countless innocent people in the future. Protecting humanity always came before protecting those who had willingly betrayed it.
Meanwhile, back in the Crimson Forest, Arin slowly began to regain consciousness after collapsing under the forest's overwhelming pressure. His eyelids fluttered open as he found himself lying on a simple cot beneath the vast night sky. Countless vines, branches, and soft leaves surrounded him, creating a surprisingly comfortable shelter that blended perfectly with the forest itself. The peaceful atmosphere stood in sharp contrast to the chaos he remembered before losing consciousness.
"Well, that was not a pleasant nap," Arin thought with a weary smile as he carefully sat up. Every muscle in his body protested the movement, leaving him feeling sore from head to toe despite having done nothing physically strenuous. The exhaustion felt strangely satisfying rather than painful, almost as if his body had endured an intense training session while his mind remained asleep. It was an unfamiliar sensation that immediately caught his attention.
"I suppose this is the forest's way of rewarding me for helping it survive the attack," he thought as he instinctively began practicing his breathing technique. As mana flowed into his body with each slow breath, he sensed something different mixed within the familiar current. The mysterious energy entered his body naturally without resisting his cultivation, so he chose not to interfere with it. Instead, he allowed it to circulate freely while his body trembled with a mixture of pleasure and aching discomfort.
Every breath caused that strange energy to spread deeper into his body. His muscles, bones, and mana pathways all reacted as though they were being tempered from the inside, producing an intense soreness that strangely felt beneficial rather than harmful. Although the sensation bordered on painful, his instincts told him not to interrupt the process. Trusting that feeling, Arin calmly continued his breathing technique.
With every inhale and exhale, the Crimson Forest itself seemed to move alongside him. The surrounding trees gently swayed despite the absence of any wind, while the ambient mana throughout the forest slowly became richer and purer. It was as though the entire forest had unconsciously synchronized its rhythm with Arin's cultivation. The phenomenon was so extraordinary that it immediately drew Gaia's attention despite her ongoing hunt for the corrupted humans.
By that point, Gaia's operation had already achieved remarkable success. The corrupted humans had never imagined their plans would be uncovered so quickly, especially after spending months carefully hiding their activities. Their confidence had been reinforced by the Envoy of the Void assigned to oversee their galaxy, who constantly reminded them that operations on other planets had progressed far more successfully. Pressured by those comparisons, they had rushed to accelerate their own plans, only to suffer a disastrous failure during their very first large-scale operation in Europe.
That failure proved far more costly than they had anticipated. Instead of quietly expanding their influence, they had attracted the full attention of Earth's planetary guardian before their preparations were complete. On other worlds, they had successfully stirred unrest from the shadows before opening stable passages directly into the Void, bypassing the natural barriers separating the universe from that endless darkness. Here, however, their ambitions had been exposed before they could reach that stage.
Driven by the Envoy's constant demands, the corrupted humans had shifted their focus toward the five great world powers. Those nations possessed the largest populations and the greatest concentrations of planetary fortune, making them the ideal sacrifices for establishing a permanent passage into the Void. If they succeeded in corrupting those countries, the resulting ritual would produce unimaginable consequences for Earth. Fortunately for humanity, their plans had unraveled before they could complete that objective.
Once Gaia uncovered the network surrounding the captured corrupted human, everything rapidly fell apart for the invaders. By tracing the countless relationships connecting family members, friends, and accomplices, she identified nearly every corrupted human hidden across the planet. Using the information gathered from those individuals, she located the Envoy of the Void himself and forcibly dragged him into the universe, where the universal laws immediately crushed him into nothingness. Eliminating such a parasitic existence earned Gaia a tremendous reward from the Universe itself, recognizing her for removing a threat that had sought to violate its very foundations.
After digesting the reward granted to her by the Universe, Gaia turned her attention back to the Crimson Forest. She expected everything to have returned to normal while she had been occupied processing the immense amount of energy she had received. Instead, the moment her gaze settled upon Arin, she froze in genuine surprise. The scene unfolding before her was unlike anything she had expected to witness from someone at his current stage of cultivation.
"To think I would encounter such a monster this soon," Gaia thought as she quietly observed him from afar. Arin was accomplishing something that should have been impossible for a cultivator of his level. His breathing technique had naturally synchronized with the surrounding environment, allowing the entire forest to resonate with his cultivation without any conscious effort on his part. It was a phenomenon that even many legendary cultivators failed to achieve after centuries of practice.
A faint smile spread across Gaia's face as she continued watching him. Rather than interfering, she decided it would be far wiser to allow his growth to continue naturally. Every moment he remained in that state would strengthen both himself and the forest around him. Seeing such extraordinary potential appear so early in humanity's development filled her with cautious optimism for the future.
"Still, this is good," Gaia murmured to herself before withdrawing into one of the secret realms under her control. Although she wanted to continue observing Arin, she had more pressing matters that demanded her attention. The reward she had received from the Universe still contained an enormous amount of refined void energy that needed to be carefully absorbed and converted. Wasting even a fraction of such a precious reward would have been irresponsible.
The secret realms were being purified at an astonishing pace as the remaining void energy was extracted from them. Gaia welcomed that change wholeheartedly, as every purified realm became safer for humanity to explore in the future. Rather than keeping the energy for herself, she continuously redirected it into the planet's mana network. Combined with the cultural energy generated by humanity's growing civilization, it gradually increased the overall mana concentration of Earth, allowing every person on the planet to cultivate more quickly than before.
Back in the Crimson Forest, Arin slowly opened his eyes, feeling considerably more refreshed than he had expected. The soreness throughout his body remained, but it carried a pleasant warmth that reminded him of muscles recovering after productive training rather than a serious injury. The vines and branches wrapped around him still radiated gentle life energy, continuing to aid his recovery even after he had regained consciousness. Before he could properly examine the changes to his body, a familiar voice called out to him.
"Did you sleep well, Arin?" Tilly asked as she hurried over to her brother's side. Although she smiled brightly, her attention repeatedly drifted toward the remarkable scene surrounding him. The forest itself still seemed unusually lively, and the concentration of mana around Arin remained noticeably higher than anywhere else nearby. Watching the plants practically compete to remain close to her brother made her more than a little jealous.
"Yes, I did, Tilly. How have you been? I hope I didn't make you worry," Arin replied with a gentle smile. As he spoke, he carefully untangled the countless vines and flexible branches that had wrapped themselves around his body while he slept. Instead of restraining him, they had acted like attentive nurses, supporting his body and accelerating its natural healing. He silently thanked the forest for its kindness before climbing to his feet.
"No, I wasn't worried for even a minute," Tilly replied proudly as she folded her arms across her chest. "Mom was worried enough for both of us, though." Her confident expression made it clear that she considered herself far too brave to panic over something like her brother fainting. Even so, she had rarely left his side while he was unconscious.
"I see. Very brave of you, Tilly," Arin said with a chuckle as he gently rubbed her head. In only a few seconds, her carefully arranged hair had become a complete mess, causing her cheeks to puff out in annoyance. Arin laughed softly, thoroughly enjoying his little sister's indignant expression. It was a familiar routine that always managed to lighten the mood.
"Don't do that, Brother! I still want to grow up," Tilly protested as she hurriedly fixed her hair with both hands. After calming down, her expression gradually became more subdued. "Dad didn't come home yesterday," she added quietly, unable to hide the disappointment in her voice. She had been looking forward to wishing him goodnight before going to bed, only to discover that he had never returned.
"Oh? He actually managed to get away with it? That's surprising," Arin said as the corners of his mouth curled upward in amusement. He had expected his father to receive an earful after everything that had happened, yet somehow he had escaped—for the moment, at least. Stretching his stiff body one final time, Arin began walking toward his mother, already certain she had worried herself sick while he was unconscious. Whatever teasing his father might deserve could wait until after he had reassured the person who had undoubtedly suffered the most during his unexpected collapse.