The Hero Returns

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Chirp, chirp—

The sun and the moon weren't the only things that differentiated mornings and nights.

The types of birds that chirped during the day and night were also different. Su-hyeun woke up from a rare deep night's rest because of a noisy bird that was chirping away outside.

"How long did I sleep for?"

It really had been a long time since he felt this refreshed after a night's sleep.

Su-hyeun never fell into a deep slumber when he was in a trial. He had built up a habit of consciously keeping his eyes on his surroundings and preparing himself for any and all sudden events.

However, things were different this time.

He had fallen into a slumber so deep that he couldn't even tell how many hours he had slept for. He felt quite refreshed despite hitting the bed fairly late last night.

Duruck—

Su-hyeun pushed open the wooden sliding door and stepped outside.

As the residence was located within a forest, the refreshing air was, unsurprisingly, the first thing that greeted him, rushing into his lungs. Along with the clear blue skies above, dense foliage filled his view.

What a refreshing sight it was.

And also…

"You're finally awake?"

"You're finally awake?"

"You're finally…"

"You…"

The same voice and the same words resounded from just about every direction.

Su-hyeun scanned his surroundings, slightly dumbfounded. "What are you doing?"

"Uh? You aren't surprised?"

"Uh? You aren't…"

"Uh? You…"

The voices repeated like echoes.

Su-hyeun let out a groan and started walking forward.

There were many wooden spikes with sharp tips protruding on the spacious front yard. Sun Wukong was maintaining his balance on a wooden plank perched on a spike.

The thing was, though, multiple Sun Wukongs were doing the exact same thing all over the place. Dozens and dozens of Sun Wukongs were performing the same action and saying the same thing in the vast front yard.

"Cloning technique, huh?" Su-hyeun thought.

Everyone probably knew about this technique.

If Sun Wukong aka the Great Sage Heaven's Equal was characterized by the Ruyi Jingu Bang and the Somersault Cloud, then the technique that best represented him was this cloning technique.

It was an ability to create another "me" that possessed an actual physical body.

Su-hyeun's own skill, the "Doppelganger," couldn't even come close to the mightiness of this technique.

"From the very beginning, our statuses are not even in the same realm," he thought.

The "Doppelganger" skill was actually a quite useful ability on its own.

Not only could he fool his opponent's vision, but he could even create a version of himself that possessed a physical body now, despite it being so much weaker than him.

However, the number he could create would always be limited, and the clone's strength would only be about one-tenth of his power.

Of course, that one-tenth would still come across as rather substantial to a regular awakener.

"It's called the cloning technique."

A voice came from behind him.

Rather unsurprisingly, the Bull Demon King had appeared there without any hint whatsoever of his presence. Su-hyeun must have later felt the Yogoe's presence to be familiar because he didn't feel threatened by the latter's sudden entrance.

Besides, there was no reason to feel threatened in the first place. If the Bull Demon King wanted to, he could have wiped out someone like Su-hyeun in a blink. The latter now understood that.

"You've woken up as well?"

"Did you rest well during the night?"

"Ah, yes. Big, uh…brother."

"I see that you're still unaccustomed to using that term. Well, it's fine. You'll get used to it soon enough."

The Bull Demon King allowed his lips to curve slightly into a little smile as he said that. It was so faint that you wouldn't spot it unless you looked really close.

Seeing that expression, though, gave Su-hyeun a strange feeling.

"Wasn't he supposed to not have any emotions?" he thought.

The final quandary to solve before ascending to godhood was to erase all human-like emotions and get rid of lingering attachments and leftovers of the life from his heart.

Sun Wukong said that it took the Bull Demon King tens of thousands of years to achieve this state, and it proved to be the biggest hurdle for the Yogoe.

And he apparently had let go of all vestiges of life itself from him. That's what Sun Wukong said.

But the current Bull Demon King?

"Did he really get rid of them all?"

The expression made Su-hyeun question that automatically. That was how warm and affable that subtle smile on the Yogoe's face was.

"Now, let's see. Since it has come down to this, why don't we start from the theory first?"

"Pardon?"

"The Sage Arts as a field of study began from the desire of humans, Yogoes, and even the quasi-gods of the Heavenly World to extract the powers already hidden deep within themselves. And this power, once extracted, can give any living creature enough strength to rival the status of a deity."

Without any warning, the Bull Demon King started his lecture.

"However, not all living beings possess the exact same thought process and physique, do they? It's the same story for their innate talent. You master the Sage Arts to unleash that sleeping potential in you."

"In that case, Wukong's ability is…"

"The cloning technique is his own ability that he realized by studying the Sage Arts. It truly is a stunning ability, isn't it? It allows him to create tens, hundreds, and even thousands of his clones capable of fighting against the vast army of the Heavenly World."

"…"

Listening to the explanation made understanding the skill a lot easier. An army of individuals capable of dealing with another army by themselves? Would there be an army more terrifying than that anywhere?

This cloning technique made that scenario possible.

"Is this ability a Sage Art?"

"No, it's difficult to classify this as a Sage Art, actually. This cloning technique is my younger brother's unique skill. However, if you manage to obtain the qualifications to get closer to godhood, even by a little bit, and grasp your own innate unique power, then…"

The Bull Demon King didn't say anything else.

There was no reason to. He judged that a smart person would be able to figure out the meaning behind his words quickly enough without any help.

Ba-dump, ba-dump—

Of course, Su-hyeun did figure out what the Yogoe was trying to say.

"I too can become one," he told himself.

His heart was pounding wildly.

One day, he could grasp power as incredible as the Bull Demon King's. Just that thought alone made him deeply excited.

If he could become like that, then defeating Fafnir would not be a difficult task.

"Nothing will end well when you start with too much anticipation."

The Bull Demon King's voice suddenly trampled on Su-hyeun's expectation.

"The time my younger brother took to reach this stage has been so long that a normal person would find it hard to even imagine. The one thing that is more important than talent is time. If you're already this excited due to what you are anticipating, then you will not be able to endure the required time."

"How long will I need to learn the Sage Arts?"

"I wonder. Maybe around one hundred years of constant studying and training will be enough to say that you've cleared the foundational stage."

"One…hundred years?"

That was an absurdly long time, and the current Su-hyeun simply didn't have that long to spare. No, wait—no human alive would be able to afford that either.

"No need to make that kind of face. That figure is based on the standard of a regular human being, after all."

"Does that mean I'm not a regular human?"

"Indeed, you aren't. A man capable of beating up the Heavenly World's gods to death cannot be a normal human at all. The 'current you' is actually stronger than Wukong when he mastered the Sage Arts after ten thousand years."

It felt like the more he heard, the more his consciousness wanted to abandon him.

Honestly, none of this came across as real to him even as he listened on. These two threw around figures like hundreds and tens of thousands of years as if they were nothing, but Su-hyeun had lived a far shorter life than they did, and he just couldn't comprehend those lengths of time at all.

"Would you be willing to show me the energies you possess?"

At the Bull Demon King's urging, Su-hyeun gathered a sizeable amount of magical energy on one hand and Death Aura on the other.

This would be the first time he emitted both of these powers at once like this.

"As expected," said the Bull Demon King while nodding his head as if he expected this after checking out the two displayed powers. "Other than their differing natures, the powers you utilize are not all that different from our version of the Sage Arts."

"Really?"

"The reason why it takes so long to master the Sage Arts is simply that you need time to absorb the necessary strength from the surrounding nature and accumulate it within you. Not only do you already possess this great power, but the nature of the power itself is also not that disparate from ours, which means a good deal of time can be saved."

That was great news.

If the nature of the energies were not disparate, then Su-hyeun could potentially skip past the stage of strength accumulation and go straight into learning various techniques.

When the Bull Demon King had finally confirmed this to Su-hyeun, he stood up straight with his arms resting behind his back and began to leisurely stride forward.

"Follow me. As for you, younger brother, focus on your breathing technique here until sunset."

"Got it, big brother," replied Sun Wukong who was barely maintaining his balance as he rhythmically breathed in and out.

Su-hyeun followed after the Bull Demon King. The latter's walking pace was so slow that he couldn't help but feel somewhat frustrated.

"The Sage Arts by nature are a leisurely persuasion. This field of study that originated from the Taoist practitioners was meant to bring humans and Yogoes alike closer toward godhood."

The Bull Demon King walked for a long while before coming to a stop in front of the bamboo forest to the side of the footpath.

Fairly wide open space could be seen in the middle of the forest. The Bull Demon King started walking again and eventually stopped in front of the thickest bamboo tree among them.

"Now normally, you should be starting off with learning to maintain balance, mastering the breathing technique, and accumulating energy within you. But since your case is different, I shall try another way," he said. The Bull Demon King grinned and pointed at the bamboo. "For now, try sitting on this."

"On that?"

Su-hyeun alternated his gaze between the bamboo that had been cut and sharpened like a spear and the Bull Demon King who was pointing at it.

Rather than a verbal answer, the Yogoe maintained his affable smile.

Take a sit already, his expression said.

Act 5

"The breathing technique is the basic of basics for the Sage Arts. Its original purpose is to accumulate energy in your body, but it also has another function. And that is to extract the built-up toxins in your body that could be referred to as impurities and enhance the purity of your energy at the same time."

The Bull Demon King circled around Su-hyeun who was sitting down.

"I shall omit all the complicated stages. You don't need to accumulate energy within you since you already possess enough, so you shall focus on extracting toxins instead. Keep your senses focused on the process, and try to inhale as briefly as possible while exhaling as slowly and deeply as you possibly can," he continued.

Su-hyeun couldn't properly listen to what the Bull Demon King was saying to him.

Not only was the latter repeating himself, but as it turned out, maintaining his balance and regulating his breathing at the same time was also so much harder than he expected.

"Concentrate. Concentrate…" he kept saying in his head.

At first, the breathing technique seemed easy, but he later realized that it was harder than he thought. As he continued to inhale briefly and exhale deeply, for a certain moment, it felt like he couldn't breathe at all.

At first, he couldn't figure out why he needed to sit on the sharpened tip of a bamboo tree while trying to master the breathing technique.

To make matters worse, the bamboo tree was not ordinary either. It was several times tougher than regular bamboos, and its sharpness alone was more than enough to easily slice through Su-hyeun's skin.

"Concentrate on both the breathing technique and using my strength," he thought once more.

In the end, it all depended on his concentration. He needed to focus his strength so that the sharp tip wouldn't pierce his skin as he maintained the breathing technique.

"This does feel weird, though," he quietly contemplated.

There was nothing particularly special about this method, but simply breathing in and out in an uncomfortable manner made him feel like renewed energy was circulating within him.

"The Sage Arts let a human become nature and, eventually, even a god. The energy you possess isn't all that different either. And the act of breathing is the most basic of all basics to become one with nature."

Words—these were seemingly too complicated and difficult to understand. However, these words were actually the Bull Demon King's attempts to simplify and distill the essence only. It would have been far more complicated and incomprehensible otherwise.

"Also, the act of breathing will allow you to accumulate more of the energy you already possess and suppress any unnecessary wastage."

Thanks to him, Su-hyeun was able to understand more intimately just what the Sage Arts were and exactly what the energy within him was.

In all honesty, though, he didn't really require the Bull Demon King and his complicated explanations.

[You've acquired the "Basic Breathing Technique."]

[Its proficiency will rise quickly depending on the degree of your concentration.]

[Its effectiveness will be enhanced when you use magical energy.]

[Maintaining the "Basic Breathing Technique" reduces your magic energy consumption by 10%.]

In came the messages he had been waiting for.

"It's done," Su-hyeun thought.

He smirked and opened his eyes.

It was also right then that he lost his balance and fell down on his side.