The Hero Returns - Chapter 398

* * *

Crunch—!​

Fafnir’s fangs stabbing deep into his body—that sensation remained with Su-hyeun. It stayed so vividly within his muscle memory.

This was also the exact moment that the Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation activated.

The ability that activated at the moment of his death—it activated right inside Fafnir’s mouth. Perhaps that was the reason for the errors of the reincarnation ability.

“If not, maybe it was because I hadn’t completely awakened my unique ability back then.”

Whatever the case might have been, one of the Six Paths, the Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation which formed a part of his unique ability, activated without fully being awoken.

Without a doubt, it was Su-hyeun’s unique ability, but it got unlocked only a millisecond ago. Kim Sung-in still had no idea what the Six Paths could do even as he died from Fafnir’s attack.

And just like that, Fafnir was also influenced by the Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation and returned to the past along with Su-hyeun.

“Well, that sure has become troublesome, alright.”

“Meaning, it’s back to square one?”

The main point of Su-hyeun’s explanation until now was this: before he regressed or reincarnated, the world was destroyed, and he lost to the monster named Fafnir.

And the reason that the “future” had changed so much until now was all down to Su-hyeun coming back to the past. But if he was indeed not the only one who came back, then, in the end, it was practically the same as nothing much had changed.

“No, wait.” However, Su-hyeun still shook his head. “We’re not back to square one, at least.”

“How so?”

“Sorry?”

Both Lee Ju-ho and Hak-joon formed puzzled expressions at how certain Su-hyeun sounded just then.

Su-hyeun didn’t give them a detailed explanation, but that was because even he didn’t know everything.

“There are still five other abilities left,” he thought.

The Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation was only one part of the Six Paths. Meaning, there were five more left yet to be explored, and those would prove to be the strongest cards Su-hyeun currently possessed. As long as those cards were still in his deck, he couldn’t say they were back to square one.

“No, it’s nothing major. Besides all that, I gotta ask you for a favor, brother Ju-ho,” said Su-hyeun. His explanation up until now was meant to explain that he came from the future and knew what was supposed to happen. “Fafnir. That bastard might appear very soon.”

“Really?!”

“Man, it keeps getting worse, doesn’t it?” Lee Ju-ho grumbled while holding his head.

He was already getting a serious bout of headache after learning that a monster even Su-hyeun found hard to deal with existed somewhere out there, but now, he was also told that such a creature might show up soon?

Hak-joon, who had been checking his watch while listening to the explanation, urgently got up from his seat. “I have to be on my way now. Can you tell me the rest of the explanation over the phone later?”

“Yeah, alright. See you later.”

Lee Ju-ho waved his hand at Hak-joon. The latter, who had been cutting it real close to stay and listen as much as he could, quickly jumped outside the open window and exited from the office, just like how Su-hyeun did earlier to enter.

“Really now? Jumping in and out of windows even though the door’s right over there?” Lee Ju-ho muttered softly before asking Su-hyeun, “Okay, so what is it? That favor you wanted to ask me.”

“Bro, you’re still the association chairman, right?”

“Yeah. The Korean association.”

“And you’re also the Guild Master of the Paragon Guild.”

“That’s true, too. But what about it?”

“That means you have some clout with other nations, right? I’m willing to let you borrow my name too if that helps.”

Now that was a suspicious-sounding question. Lee Jo-ho quietly nodded and waited for the next part of Su-hyeun’s request.

“Starting now, we must stop all the awakeners coming back from the tower from going back in.”

“Why?”

“The dungeon progression rate, it has gotten faster, hasn’t it?”

Su-hyeun’s question caused Lee Ju-ho’s eyes to sharpen.

Su-hyeun ended up mentioning that one thing Lee Ju-ho had found quite concerning lately, after all.

Lee Ju-ho asked, “Did something like this happen in the…past, too?”

“Before Fafnir made its entrance, dungeons suddenly stopped materializing. For around the period of five years or so, dungeons showed up infrequently, so much so that it became hard to find even one.”

Five years, he said.

There was a noticeable difference in the time frame, but things had already become distorted and out of whack by a lot at this point. It wouldn’t be all that surprising to see that the period of five years greatly shortening to only one year or even to a matter of a few months instead.

“It’ll only accelerate even more from now on, even shooting past the level of impossible to handle.”

“When you say impossible to handle, just how impossible are we talking about here?”

“Several times. Dozens. At worst, over one hundred times.”

There was no real need to delve too deeply into his memories. After unlocking his unique ability, Su-hyeun got to see the events of the past through the effects of the already-used skill, the Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation.

He saw just how many monsters Kim Sung-in, who was himself, had to fight against in the previous timeline.

Considering the countless number of monsters seemingly blanketing every corner of the globe, it wouldn’t have mattered how many hands you had to help you with counting them.

“That’s why…no one must return to the tower. Absolutely no one.”

* * *

Crunch, crack, shatter…

Chew, grind, crunch…

Sharp fangs tore through the hide and began munching on the bones.

The huge “dragon” was emitting an ominous, evil aura from its black eyes. After it successfully transformed a planet into a wasteland, it was currently ripping and munching into another dragon.

The victorious dragon’s appearance could only be described as bizarre. Even though it possessed a head of a dragon, the rest of its body belonged to a giant humanoid.

Krrrrr…

The dragon, Fafnir, growled softly.

Its victim was vomit-inducing vile in how it tasted, but Fafnir couldn’t stop eating it.

It was suffering from this endless gluttony and also its unquenchable thirst to obtain even more power.

“And you’ve finally devoured that fool, haven’t you?”

Fafnir turned its head at an unfamiliar voice.

It couldn’t see anything, but it could definitely sense this incredible presence crushing down on this vast planet.

A little after that, Fafnir finally discovered the existence that addressed him earlier.

It was also at that moment that the color of the sky had changed. It turned blackish, a little closer to grey, perhaps.

Fafnir asked, “And who you are supposed to be?”

“I’m the king of your kind.”

Ruuuumble…

The entirety of the heavens above was being rocked ominously. Rather, more precisely, the massive life form blanketing the heavens was shifting around.

Fafnir could only shiver from the sheer sense of presence this unknown life form emanated. It was true that the giant with the dragon’s head was deeply exhausted from fighting that dragon earlier, but even if that wasn’t the case, nothing would’ve changed in the outcome.

And that was because that humongous existence blanketing the sky had far surpassed Fafnir’s current strength by an incalculable margin.

Fafnir muttered, “You do look delectable.”

“Oh, so you wish to devour me as well?”

“Not right now. It’s not the right time yet.”

“I see. It is indeed a talent to say that you’re too weak and scared in such a nice-sounding manner.”

That wasn’t a cheap provocation. That vast presence was being sincere here.

However, Fafnir didn’t get angry at those words. Its pride wasn’t wounded, either. No, it was actually feeling happy inside.

A tastier, far more enticing prey had shown up before its eyes, after all. However, it might take a long time to be able to hunt a creature like that.

“Have you come to kill me, then?”

“No. But I’m here to offer my congratulations for the birth of a new myth, a new legend.”

“A new myth?”

“Didn’t I tell you already? I’m the king of your kind.”

Fafnir smirked at that.

The “King,” huh?

At first, Fafnir ridiculed that notion, but now, it could understand just a little bit better why this vast creature openly called itself the king.

Still, Fafnir found it humorous regardless to hear the creature calling itself a king when Fafnir had sworn to devour it in the future.

“I see. So, one of the Three Destroyers has deigned to make his way here.”

The Three Destroyers were the three predators that possessed the strongest powers out of all the different realms out there combined—the strongest life forms in existence, after excluding the One Overlord.

If one thought of One Overlord as the supreme-ruler of all predators, then the Three Destroyers would no doubt be the kings of predators, and according to what Fafnir knew, only one among the Three Destroyers boasted such a humongous physique.

“So, you’re Uranus.”

Uranus, the existence that boasted the biggest physique among all the predators, was the monstrosity that devoured other supreme-rulers. The rumor even said that the number of supreme-rulers it had devoured so far was in excess of four digits.

For some reason, Uranus never devoured another predator, so it was a fortunate thing, indeed, for Fafnir.

“That’s right. I’m one of the Three Destroyers, Uranus. And I shall…”

Wuuuunng…

Uranus’s voice reverberated throughout the vast expanse of outer space.

“Offer my congratulations for the birth of a new myth, a new legend—the birth of a new addition to the Ten Great Evils.”

* * *

Above a cloud cover somewhere…

In a place located high up in the sky with a perfect, unhindered view to the tallest mountain in the world far, far down below…

Sun Wukong stepped onto such a place after altering the Ruyi Jingu Bang into a thin but lengthened state. He sat down in a lotus position and closed his eyes.

Dao energy gently flowed like water inside of him. It transformed from gentle waves to a massive tsunami. Circulating his Dao energy in that manner, Sun Wukong soon opened his eyes and fixed his gaze to his front.

The clouds were splitting apart.

Those thick clouds had been gathering in the sky as if they were about to start a massive storm, yet Sun Wukong could control them without even lifting a finger.

And his honest impression on that impressive spectacle was this one thing: “Not good enough.”

If the Bull Demon King heard that, he would have been greatly surprised. To think that Sun Wukong, who suffered from strong pride and was filled with arrogance and impudence, would willingly say that he was still not good enough.

Sun Wukong stood up from the lotus position and loosened his muscles, but then, he abruptly clutched the part in his torso that got stabbed by the monster’s thorn earlier.

He deeply furrowed his brows.

Although his physical injuries had quickly healed, the wound to his pride didn’t want to heal at all.

More than anything else…

“Seriously now, so damn embarrassing.” Sun Wukong’s face crumpled.

Tap, tap—

Sun Wukong lightly tapped the Ruyi Jing Bang with his foot and spoke up, “Get even longer, Ruyi.”

Sh-whooooooosh—

The Ruyi Jingu Bang lengthened even more.

Then, traveling with his polearm that pierced right through the sky, Sun Wukong soon reached somewhere even higher up.

After reaching this place where the ground below was nothing more than a faint and blurry speck, Sun Wukong opened his mouth to yell, “Heeey! Mister supreme-ruler!”

His voice echoed everywhere.

However, no reply came his way for a long while. Sun Wukong and his short fuse couldn’t wait that long and he shouted again, “Hey, man! Are you gonna answer me or what?!”

“I didn’t expect you to come and seek me out first,” a reply belatedly came to him.

Sun Wukong turned his head as if he was already familiar with that voice. It would only be normal for one to get surprised after hearing a voice from someone not giving off any presence whatsoever, but he was already too used to this sort of response by now.

When he turned around to look, he discovered an absolutely vast Buddhist statue with a bald head sitting in a lotus position. Sun Wukong had met this supreme-ruler several times already, but even then, today was his first time seeking the latter out on his own volition.

“It’s been a while, ‘Muni.’”

It was Sakyamuni, the Buha himself, the highest-seated supreme-ruler in Buuhism and also worshiped by the Heavenly World—a being whose existence was still being questioned even to this day.

However, Sun Wukong ended up running into Sakyamuni several times after he began climbing the tower.

“Man, you’re still huge as heck,” Sun Wukong grunted in admiration at the sheer size of Sakyamuni, who was vast enough to place the entire planet in its two hands and still have some room left.

“For a reunion after a long while, you speak of some rude things.”

“Wait, you were expecting me to be polite?”

“Not at all. How could the one and only Great Sage Heaven’s Equal be like that?” Sakyamuni formed a benevolent smile.

But Sun Wukong only distorted his expression at such a reply from the gigantic Buha. That’s because Sakyamuni’s personality was polar opposite to his carefree and hot-blooded attitude.

“It seems that you still yearn to fight me, Sun Wukong.”

“Yup. And it’s driving me nuts.”

“But you already know what the result will be like, don’t you?”

Sun Wukong could only scratch his head in irritation after listening to Sakyamuni’s reply.

That baldie Buha was right.

Sun Wukong wished to enjoy a good fight, but no matter what, fighting against Sakyamuni never yielded a nice result for him. The gigantic Buha always avoided fighting Sun Wukong as if to say he didn’t want to kill or even harm the latter.

Sun Wukong could never reach Sakyamuni. The so-called fight against him always repeated itself within his palm.

“I mean, really? Is it so bad to fight me seriously at least once?!”

“Why don’t we discuss that after you find a way to escape from my palm first?”

“Dang it.”

“Why do you feel so pressed? Without a doubt, you should be able to escape from my palm not too long from now.”

Sun Wukong’s expression softened at what Sakyamuni said, and he stared at the gigantic supreme-ruler in the distance. “You know, there’s this one nice thing about talking to you, and that’s you perfectly seeing through what’s in my head. That makes our conversation so much smoother, you know what I mean?”

“But that’s only because you’re a simpleton. Surely, no supreme-rulers existing out there would be capable of actually seeing through your mind when you possess the qualification of supreme-rulerhood called Immortality.”

“Whatever, man. That just says you’re one smart du—”

“However, I’m not certain this time,” Sakyamuni abruptly cut Sun Wukong off. “I can’t tell why you wish to speak to me this time.”

“Oh, really?” Sun Wukong smirked deeply. For some reason, when Sakyamuni said he couldn’t guess what the Monkey King was trying to do here, Sun Wukong began feeling like he had won in a fight against the massive Buha today. “In that case, let me clear up the air for you.”

Keh-hmph!

Sun Wukong softly coughed to clear his throat.

Something about what he was about to do felt weird and cringy as hell. However, he did come here to say these things out loud, so there was no turning back.

Sun Wukong collected his breathing for a bit and then valiantly opened his mouth, “I, the Great Sage Heaven’s Equal Sun Wukong, will become the representative of the supreme-ruler, Sakyamuni.”