The Hero Returns

Chapter 394: Chapter 394

Act 9

Ruuumble, sizzle…

Hissss, sizzle…

The parasites were either burnt black or melted down.

The flames that were completely filling up the interior of the World Tree's trunk continued to rage on, but that's because the moment the flames were withdrawn, the "bug" would start spitting out the toxic smoke once more.

Sun Wukong and Luslec watched this scene in amazement. They had no idea that performing something like this was even possible.

"Just how big is the affected area?"

The divine Flame was one of Su-hyeun's main skills. As such, Luslec had witnessed the divine Flame's activation many times already while tagging along with Su-hyeun.

But even then, this was his first time seeing this sort of flame. It was not only bright but also warm. More than anything else, though, the skill's range was on a completely different dimension compared to before.

Rumble…

The moment flames that seemed to have filled up the World Tree activated and prana took over Su-hyeun's body, the light burning in his eyes changed.

Squeeeeze…

Su-hyeun clenched his fist tightly as he began walking toward the bug. The creature was stuck in the center of the blaze, writhing away in torment. It must've found the flames too hot to endure.

No matter what, a fire was the natural enemy of all insects.

"Despite becoming a monster, you still couldn't change your true nature, could you?"

Su-hyeun didn't know why, but he could clearly see the original appearance of the bug in front of his eyes.

It was a parasite that subsisted on the sweat and blood of other life forms. It was also a monster that, despite coming to possess more than enough power to completely change what it was, couldn't be satisfied and continued to harm others with its greed for even greater power.

However, the creature's true appearance was nothing more than some small and insignificant little bug as tiny as a strand of fabric.

"Go back to how you used to look."

Ki-ririririk…!

The bug's eyes gleamed sharply as if it actually understood what Su-hyeun had said just then, and then, it straightened its writhing body.

Chwa-aaaaaah—!

The creature suddenly flung itself toward him with movements so much more agile than ever before.

Craaaack—!

Black thorns extended out and flew in toward him from all sides as they scratched the walls, but Su-hyeun didn't even bother to dodge and simply took a large stride toward the incoming thorns.

And right at that moment…

Paht—

Su-hyeun's figure vanished from the spot.

"Where did he go?"

Luslec, who no longer had anything left to do after the parasites had all been burned to death, looked around him. He was trying to locate the "vanished" Su-hyeun.

But then…

KWA-DUDUDUDU—!

Splaaaat—!

Loud noises came to him a little bit later.

Luslec hurriedly spun his head around and discovered the black blood profusely pouring out from the bug, all of its black thorns broken and severed. It let out a bizarre-sounding screaming as if it was suffering from intense torment and even began shaking its tail all over the place as well.

"When did he cut that thing down?"

Luslec's gaze quickly shifted up after he sensed a presence up there.

[Immortality]

[Dragon Slaying Spear]

[Flame - Explosion Style]

Squeeze, grip…

Veins bulged on Su-hyeun's arm.

The flames on the tip of the spear burned viciously. Su-hyeun met Luslec's incredulous gaze and mouthed some words, "Please dodge on your own."

Luslec was instantly overcome with an ominous foreboding and quickly melted into the ground right where he stood. He traveled along the shadows and only reappeared again quite a distance away, and by the time he reappeared above the surface, the spear had already left Su-hyeun's hand.

Chwa-rarararak—!

The spear that left Su-hyeun's hands split into thousands of pieces. In response, the bug twisted its body and tried to dodge, but there were just too many of them.

Pow, bang, popopopopow—!

Ruuuuumble—

Kkyah-aaaaahk—!

The bug screamed again.

Its screams were unsurprisingly bizarre and monstrous. Back when it was still a parasite, it had no mouth, so it couldn't scream. After it acquired power and changed its appearance, it had no opportunity to scream like this, either.

The sound of a scream made through sheer pain cracked. The bug, with its body punctured straight through in several places and its flesh burning away, thrashed wildly about. In the meantime, Su-hyeun made another move.

Swhoooosh—

Splat, crack—!

Sliiice—

The creature's large body was deeply cut wide open, but it regenerated quickly.

Poooow—!

A thorn impaled Su-hyeun's body. At least that's what it outwardly looked like.

Squeeeeze…

Su-hyeun grabbed the thorn mid-air with his bare hand and then utterly crushed it using nothing but his grip alone.

Ruuuumble…

Flames traveled along the crushed thorn and the "vine" connecting it to the bug. The creature was set on even fiercer flames, and its horrifying screeches rang out even louder than before. Because of the flames, it couldn't even regenerate properly.

Su-hyeun seemed to be ready to wrap this up because he raised his sword high above his head, stepped on the thorn's vine, and dashed straight toward the bug's head.

[One Sword Cutting Through Everything - Great Mountain Splitter]

Gu-wuwuwuwu…

His sword densely permeating in prana now carried enough power to seemingly split the World Tree itself in half.

But just before his terrifying sword attack could come down…

Split—

Whoosh—!

The bug's mouth split wide open without warning and swallowed Su-hyeun in the blink of an eye. The scorched-black body of the creature, still burning in flames, twisted and wrapped around its head that had swallowed Su-hyeun up just now.

"Mister Su-hyeun!"

"Little bro?!"

Luslec and Sun Wukong cried out in shock, but their worries only lasted for a brief moment.

Split—

Not too long afterward, a long and thin "line" suddenly drew along the bug's coiled body.

Pu-haaaaaaahk—!

The severed flesh exploded. Sun Wukong's eyes widened as he took in the sights of the fountain of blood and torn flesh bits scattering in the air. "Gyeol?"

The singular "line" that acted as the fatal weak point existing in every single object in the universe was none other than "Gyeol."

Su-hyeun had definitely cut that Gyeol down. Even though he got devoured, he still accurately grasped the creature's weakness and took a swing with his sword.

Drip, tumble…

The bug's torn bits of flesh exploded upward before raining down on the floor. Su-hyeun's hand broke through the clamped-shut mouth of the bug and forcibly pried it open. Then, he walked out of his confinement, his whole body completely bathed in the black blood.

Step, step…

His eyes seemed to be glazed over for some reason, and Sun Wukong and Luslec wordlessly observed him for a moment.

But then…

Plop—

Su-hyeun's figure powerlessly collapsed on the ground.

<hr />

[You have cleared the third mission.]

[The World Tree has commenced with purification.]

[The World Tree has…]

…

[The purification has concluded.]

[The awarding of the clear reward is being deferred.]

System messages floated up.

He couldn't hear any sounds, however. Maybe losing consciousness was to blame here because the voices sounded faint and indistinct. Even his memories were faint and blurry.

Just what happened here?

Su-hyeun couldn't quite remember what happened from about the half-way mark of the battle.

Shu-wuwu…

While he remained collapsed on the floor, energy gradually returned to him, which started with his emptied prana pool recovering.

"What the hell happened here?"

His memories began connecting the dots again, and his head ached painfully. He recalled that his memories got cut off from the moment he began circulating prana.

A brand-new type of energy—one unlike anything else he used before—ruled over his body. At the same time, he moved as if instincts had taken over, and when he finally regained consciousness, he found himself utterly bathed in the blood heavily laced in poison.

"You are finally up?"

The first thing he saw after opening his eyes was Sun Wukong's face.

Su-hyeun was taken by surprise at the latter's mug filling up his view but soon calmed down. He pushed that face aside and sat up.

"Ah, you're awake?" Luslec asked while raising his ladle. He was in the middle of cooking.

If it wasn't for the burnt-black corpses of the parasites strewn about everywhere, Su-hyeun might have mistakenly thought that they were out camping somewhere.

He looked around their vicinity with a somewhat dazed face. "How long was I out for?"

"Around two days, maybe?"

"Two days?!" Su-hyeun jumped up in shock and asked back.

A lot more time than he expected had passed by. He thought he was taking a nap for a short while, but to learn that so much time had passed by already…

That was when Su-hyeun finally recalled the fact that he got bathed in the bug's blood right toward the end. That blood contained enough toxin to even melt down the World Tree's trunk.

"I guess that makes sense."

Su-hyeun took a look at the dried crusted blood still sticking to him. It seemed that most of the toxins seeped into his body and dissipated, but still, it was not that surprising for him to blackout after getting so much poison dumped on top of him.

Well, to be still breathing like this was a miracle in itself, and the only reason why he was still alive was all thanks to prana.

"Hey, little bro, you sense anything has changed about you?"

"Sorry?" Su-hyeun turned around to face Sun Wukong when the latter asked him a question.

Sun Wukong shifted his eyes around and scanned Su-hyeun from top to bottom. "I'm asking you if you noticed anything's different about you."

"Well, when you say different…" Only after being asked twice did Su-hyeun consciously began analyzing his body, and it finally dawned on him. "Huh?"

"Your prana—it's now spread throughout your body. Instead of staying in one place as a single lump, now it's circulating within you like blood using your blood vessels."

"I did get this feeling of power surging through my whole body, but…"

To think that was all because prana had spread throughout his body.

Prana really was roaming all over his body like blood flowing to heal his wounds. The reason why he recovered completely in two days was solely because prana was evenly circulating throughout his whole body.

"Well, we can take our time and discuss a bit later. For now, we—"

"Are you awake now?" a voice asked.

"We should eat." Luslec stopped pouring soup into a bowl with his ladle and slowly shook his head.

Su-hyeun raised his head when that voice echoed within the interior of the huge trunk. That was definitely the voice he was familiar with, but the direction it came from was different this time. "The World Tree?"

"I'm not the World Tree, though."

Wuuung…

A reply came to him—not just any reply but one made directly by the World Tree itself.

Su-hyeun's eyes widened in amazement. He was already aware of the World Tree possessing ego and being capable of human speech, but even then, he didn't expect it to directly address him like this.

"I guess it's feeling a bit better…?"

"Why aren't you saying anything, though? Are you still hurting?"

Su-hyeun heard the World Tree's next words and hurriedly suppressed a chuckle threatening to break free from his lips.

"Its childish manner of speech is still the same," he thought.

He couldn't help but laugh when something this humongous sounded and behaved like a kid.

The real World Tree was supposed to be large enough to connect several dimensions together, but such a thing was impossible to view with naked eyes, anyway. And even if he could somehow see it, it would still come across just too unreal to him.

As such, this World Tree Su-hyeun could see right now didn't feel like a little kid to him. "No, I'm not hurting anymore."

"Really? That's great. You mustn't die, you know."

It seemed that the Tree was really worried about Su-hyeun dying here.

He also asked a question himself, "What about you? Are you alright now?"

"Yeah! It doesn't hurt anymore. It's all thanks to you!"

The voice sounded like the Tree was grinning shyly away.

It used to scream in pain all the time earlier, but judging from its demeanor now, its condition must've been back to normal. Thanks to his divine Flame, a part of it should be healing the Tree's trunk to some degree, but the Tree's current condition mostly had to do with there being no more parasites sucking out its energy.

"Well, that's a relief," Su-hyeun confirmed the state of the World Tree first, and then, his thoughts shifted to something else. "Now that I think about it, what happened to the mission?" he thought.

He vaguely remembered that some system messages did pop up, but he couldn't recall even a single one as he was too busy blacking out back then.

"Since nothing seems to have happened in the past two days, I'm guessing all the stages have been cleared?"

According to what Luslec told him earlier, their group should be the very first people to clear the third mission, which meant that there was a possibility of this mission being the last one as well.

When Su-hyeun asked that question, both Luslec and Sun Wukong nodded away, but for some reason, their reactions seemed a bit strange.

Su-hyeun asked again in a puzzled voice, "What's wrong, you two?"

"Well, that's a bit…"

"You see, it's seriously crazy, that's why."

Luslec didn't seem to be able to explain, while Sun Wukong was wryly chuckling away.

What Su-hyeun required right now was an explanation, so he was about to ask again, only for the World Tree to cut in first, "My mom wants to speak to you first."