The Hero Returns

Swoosh—

Whoooosh—

Su-hyeun's eyes accurately saw his Balmung and the Ruyi Jingu Bang being swung at the same time.

He wasn't planning to avoid the head-on collision, however.

This would be his first collision against the "real" Sun Wukong's Ruyi Jingu Bang, not his clone. For now, he needed to check out his opponent's strength.

Claaaaaang—!

Kwa-jajajajajak—!

The collision between Balmung and the Ruyi Jingu Bang caused the ground below to crack apart and rupture.

The power behind the swing was truly enormous.

Su-hyeun staggered for a moment there from the impact force. The sheer shock that ran up his arms was quite extraordinary.

"What kind of strength is this…?!"

He had never felt a physical strength of this magnitude before.

To make matters worse, besides that ridiculous strength, there was another problem to consider.

"The weight of the weapon itself is also incredible."

"Ruyi," as Sun Wukong often called it or, more correctly, Ruyi Jingu Bang, was originally a treasure of the Dragon King's palace meant to measure the depths of rivers and oceans.

Unsurprisingly, it boasted a ridiculous weight befitting its original intended purpose, which was to measure the accurate depths of oceans that sometimes exceeded ten thousand meters, not to be used as some kind of a weapon that one could just pick up and swing around.

Even then, Su-hyeun figured it couldn't have been all that heavy considering how Sun Wukong easily picked it up and wielded the thing, but now that he had felt the weight from the collision, it completely exceeded even his wildest imagination.

"Comparing our physical strengths isn't going to work," he thought to himself.

It was only one exchange, yet he felt sure about this.

Continuing with a competition of strength against Sun Wukong would be most unwise. Maybe it would work if he resorted to activating "Immortality" right away, but that skill wasn't something he should bring out so early in the engagement.

Especially when they were about to wage a war against the Heavenly World.

Su-hyeun's eyes now caught Sun Wukong's figure deftly swinging the Ruyi Jingu Bang.

His speed was so much slower compared to the Roc Demon King. However, considering the weight of that magical pole he held in his hands, his movement speed should still be seen as ridiculously fast.

Not to forget, Sun Wukong could increase or decrease Ruyi Jingu Bang's length and thickness at any time he wanted. If Su-hyeun tried to dodge, then who knew just when he would get sucked into one of those massively wide-area attacks?

This meant dodging wasn't the right answer.

"As for that strength…"

Swish—

Su-hyeun swung his sword toward the Ruyi Jingu Bang once more.

Creeeeeak—

Just before his blade came in contact, it tilted and brushed past the surface of Sun Wukong's magical pole.

With that, the Ruyi Jingu Bang's trajectory was altered. The weapon that was swinging down for Su-hyeun's shoulder ended up hitting empty air instead.

"I'll direct it away."

Pah—

Su-hyeun's sword redirected the power contained in the Ruyi Jingu Bang and caused the pole to slide past him. Right after that, his other free hand shot out toward Sun Wukong's open chest. The latter's eyes flew open wider as he urgently spun his body away.

Swoooosh—

Slam!

Su-hyeun's palm strike landed on Sun Wukong's shoulder. The attack was aimed at a vital spot, yet the latter used his shoulder to protect his body.

"Will you look at this kid?"

Sun Wukong was slightly stunned by how Su-hyeun easily redirected the Ruyi Jingu Bang and immediately counterattacked with his empty hand.

"He already figured out a way to redirect attacks?"

The Sage's Eye allowed one to peer at the truth of the world. What one could see through this "eye" wasn't simply limited to slowing down the flow of the world or the Gyeol, which represented the weaknesses of all existing objects.

No, it also showed the path where one could redirect the incoming attack's power. Su-hyeun only had to place his sword according to the angle of the Ruyi Jingu Bang's swing and ever so slightly alter the trajectory.

And the result of that was Sun Wukong being left wide open and his vital spots unprotected.

"In that case…"

Grit, griiiit—

Sun Wukong suddenly strengthened his grip even more.

"Get bigger…"

Su-hyeun's eyes opened wider. At the same time, his figure shot upward into the sky.

[Leap]

"…Ruyi."

Ka-boom—!

The "Ruyi" that Sun Wukong held in his hands shot out toward Su-hyeun.

Its width had ballooned to several meters, while its length now reached several hundreds of meters. The lengthened pole instantly pulverized a cliff in the distance.

Smirk—

A grin spread on Sun Wukong's lips that was meant to provoke his opponent.

"The atmosphere feels different from the other sparring sessions, doesn't it?" Su-hyeun thought to himself.

Squeeze—

He gripped the sword even tighter.

He could tell that the overall mood of this fight was different from the others, but even then, this was going somewhat overboard. Not to forget, they were planning to fight a war against the Heavenly World in a few days. They should avoid inflicting severe injuries as they fought, yet Sun Wukong had gone past that level now.

"But why?"

Despite the considerable distance between the two, Su-hyeun could still sense Sun Wukong's boiling competitive spirit. The latter didn't seem to be planning to hold himself back here. At this rate, they might end up going all the way.

"I don't know what his reason is, but…"

Grip—

Su-hyeun gripped the spear in his other hand.

"Well, 10 days is enough time, anyway."

A sword in one hand and a spear in the other—seeing that sight caused the light within Sun Wukong's eyes to sparkle brightly as he retracted the Ruyi Jingu Bang. "Oh, so you're finally getting serious, eh?"

"You started it, though."

"Very good. That's what I wanted to see."

Thwack, whir—

Sun Wukong started spinning the Ruyi Jingu Bang once more and then let it float into the sky.

"Get bigger, Ruyi."

Ka-booooom—!

The pole rapidly extended toward Su-hyeun. It was like watching a massive missile flying in his direction. He activated "Leap" in midair and then threw his spear powerfully.

Pooow—!

Clang—

Sun Wukong's hand easily caught the spear that flew toward him.

He neither dodged nor tried to defend himself. Su-hyeun was slightly stunned by how Sun Wukong easily snatched up the flying spear.

"He actually caught that?" he thought to himself.

Just how strong was his handgrip that he could nullify the frightening speed of the spear and catch it mid-flight?

Not to mention, his dynamic visual acuity and the reaction speed that allowed him to see through the spear's speed and catch it was almost miraculous.

Su-hyeun watched Sun Wukong discard the spear that he had caught somewhere behind him and abruptly remembered the latter's other nickname.

"The Victorious Fighting Buddha."

Originally, the title implied that he would fight Yogoes and evil demons and then subjugate them. He might have been battling gods instead of Yogoes nowadays, but regardless of that, that title still implied that he was a master at combat.

As if to prove this, Sun Wukong's physical strength and handgrip were both more than stupendous enough to nimbly wield the Ruyi Jingu Bang. Maybe he was even stronger than the hero from Greek mythology, Hercules.

"However…"

Giiiiiing—

Magical energy gathered in Su-hyeun's hands. At the same time, a thin but long thread of magical power was connected to the end of the spear that Sun Wukong had snatched up.

When more energy was added to it, the spear that he still gripped in his hand began rotating noisily.

Creak, creaaak—

The spear was writhing viciously as if to tear Sun Wukong's hand apart. He finally released the weapon, furrowing his brows. "Hey, you unexpectedly have a lot of 'sundry' techniques up your sleeve, don't you?"

"I haven't even shown you half of them yet."

Ruuumble—

Indigo-colored flames suddenly erupted on Su-hyeun's sword. Although the color remained the same as before, the intensity of the hue had become far stronger.

Su-hyeun took a powerful swing with the sword enveloped in the divine "Flame." Sun Wukong hurriedly raised his Ruyi Jingu Bang to block the incoming attack, but it was never meant for him in the first place.

[Flame - Land of Fire]

[All stats have increased slightly.]

[All stats of the target recognized as an enemy have decreased slightly.]

Sizzle—

Indigo-colored flames instantly spread out to their surroundings.

A newfound strength surged in Su-hyeun's body enveloped in the divine "Flame." On the other hand, his opponent's strength fell, albeit by only a slight amount. A regular person or weak animal would have found moving inside the boundaries of these flames almost impossible.

"For sure, it's become a lot more useful now," Su-hyeun thought.

The divine "Flame" was a skill Su-hyeun acquired back in the very early stages.

The skill's grade was a rather excellent "growth type," and both of its range and attack power were quite acceptable as well.

The sole issue with it was its high consumption of his magical energy reserve. Once his proficiency was high enough, he would be able to use a spatial-type skill that utilized the divine "Flame" as its base, but the magical energy efficiency would remain rather poor even then.

But now, he didn't need to worry too much about its magical energy consumption anymore.

"Thanks to the breathing technique, my magical energy consumption rate has significantly decreased," he said to himself.

The reason why Su-hyeun was able to perform this new skill during an actual combat situation was solely due to the breathing technique he continuously trained in the past half a year.

The breathing technique now decreased his magical energy consumption by as much as 40 percent, which had the same effect as increasing his overall magical power reserve.

That meant he didn't need to carefully apportion his magical energy and fight anymore.

"This is hotter than the eight-way trigram Crucible," Sun Wukong thought to himself.

The temperature was high enough to cook someone's body. Sun Wukong's eyes grew wider as he took in the sight of the land all around him as it turned into an oven.

He had become rather familiar with the heat of the eight-way trigram Crucible, but even then, he had never experienced a temperature of this magnitude before.

"Is the one using this ability not affected? It's not like he's planning to die with me or something, so…"

Sun Wukong's eyes suddenly became crimson in hue.

These were the "Fiery Golden Eyes," one of many powerful abilities the Great Sage Heaven's Equal boasted, which also rivaled the Sage's Eye in usefulness, allowing him to see through all things in existence. He acquired this wondrous ability after escaping from the eight-way trigram Crucible.

The moment the red irises of the "Fiery Golden Eyes" appeared, Sun Wukong spotted Su-hyeun's figure dashing straight toward him among the dancing flames.

"He's running straight at me?"

Swish—

The sword swung toward him from above. Rather unsurprisingly, Sun Wukong didn't dodge and simply swung his Ruyi Jingu Bang in the direction of the attack.

Craaaack—!

Crunch—

The ground beneath his feet caved in deeply. The shocks generated from the two men's collision was far too heavy for the surface to endure.

The strength behind the sword was different than it had been a second ago. Su-hyeun was pushing the Ruyi Jingu Bang down from above with his sword.

"Would you look at this?"

Smirk—

The grin on Sun Wukong's lips became wider.

Rather fitting for a man who loved fighting, he could decipher the intentions of his opponents through exchanges of moves, as if they were holding a civilized conversation.

And Su-hyeun's intention transmitted from this exchange was this one thing: "I won't back down."

He would fight head-on against the one and only Great Sage Heaven's Equal, also known as the Victorious Fighting Buddha.

That was Su-hyeun's will.

"Very good, my littlest brother."

CLANG—!

Sun Wukong deflected Su-hyeun's sword, which was grinding against his pole, and then roused up even more of his energy. "This is the final lesson your dear bigger brother will be teaching you. So you better engrave this deep in your heart!"

Pah-ahk—!

Sun Wukong dashed toward Su-hyeun once more. The latter didn't back away and dashed in as well. He chose not to resort to any other petty tricks.

Their collisions caused vicious storm winds to crash into their surroundings.

* * *

Smash, crunchhhhh—

CLAAAANG—!

The ground crumbled and caved in, and the cliffs were cleaved apart to become flat plains.

The Ruyi Jingu Bang, now several kilometers in length, blew apart a mountain in its entirety, while the indigo-hued divine Flames burned away at the scorched forest without any signs of dying out.

Bang!

A lightning bolt crashed down from the black clouds in the sky.

Flash—!

A streak of flames rising from below collided with the lightning bolt. Pure-white light flashed blindingly as the two forces clashed.

The Bull Demon King and the Roc Demon King were watching this battle from afar.

"Aren't we going to stop them?" the Roc Demon King asked.

He had been completely absorbed in the proceedings for a while, but even then, he could tell that the fight was getting more and more serious.

They were planning to go to war with the Heavenly World in five days. No matter how monstrous their powers of recovery were, he couldn't help but worry about these two ending up with serious injuries.

"Why should we?"

However, the Bull Demon King's response remained relaxed and calm.

The Roc Demon King felt this frustration well up in his chest until he was ready to explode, but he knew that there was nothing he could do here. The current Bull Demon King wouldn't even have a semblance of anxiety in him anymore, after all.

"But what will we do in five days if they end up getting hurt?"

"That fight level is still fine. They are still kids, after all."

The Roc Demon King could only shake his head at the chuckling Bull Demon King.

He wondered if his sworn big brother had a plan here, because, truth be told, he wasn't exactly confident enough to step in and stop the fight.

"How am I supposed to even stop them, anyway?" he thought.

Ka-blam—!

The Ruyi Jingu Bang extended again, piercing right into the skies above.

Su-hyeun's figure, which was seemingly riding on viciously whipping gusts of flames, rapidly closed in on Sun Wukong's position. He then jumped up on the Ruyi Jingu Bang and ran down on its surface to instantly enter an attacking range before slamming his sword down on Sun Wukong's shoulder.

Clang—!

Sun Wukong's punch collided with the blade. Blood seeped out from a small cut that opened up on his fist.

"I can't block that," the Roc Demon King thought to himself.

He didn't want to accept it, but he had no choice at the moment. Su-hyeun was stronger than him now. As far as he knew, the only other person who could fight the monster-like "former littlest sworn brother" known as Sun Wukong to this degree was the Bull Demon King.

"It seems that our third brother has made up his mind today," the Bull Demon King suddenly muttered.

"Pardon?" the Roc Demon King replied with a puzzled expression. "Made up his mind on what exactly?"

"Watch closely." The Bull Demon King kept his eyes fixed on Sun Wukong, who was still battling against Su-hyeun, and continued to mumble, "As our littlest sworn brother is about to inherit the most precious treasure of the one called the Victorious Fighting Buddha, the Great Sage Heaven's Equal."