The Hero Returns

Chapter 408: Chapter 408

Shu-wuwuwu…

The illusion soon disappeared.

The light gleaming in Su-hyeun's eyes deepened, but it wasn't because he was simply thinking about how to answer that question of whether he could win or not.

He was currently calculating what might happen if he battled against the version of Fafnir he saw just now.

He could wage a war of numbers using his Death Aura and use attacks that relied on the divine Flame, the Palm Leaf, amplification through the Explosion Style, as well as various magic circles. As for defense, he could rely on the Somersault cloud, as well as various skills that enhanced his magic resistance, and even the Immortality skill that gave him the cushion of regeneration.

If he relied on every single one of them, then…

"I'm not sure," Su-hyeun shook his head.

This was the conclusion he arrived at after thinking about it with a cool head all the while leaving out his emotions.

"Honestly speaking, I'm not confident of it."

It was as the Bull Demon King said.

He had no reason to feel that he had missed his chance just because the Yogoe decided to prevent Fafnir's invasion. On the contrary, Su-hyeun should bow his head to express his heartfelt thanks to the Bull Demon King for stepping in.

It's not that he saw himself losing. However, the odds of him emerging victorious didn't seem all that high, either.

Besides, even if he defeated the Predator, that would also present another problem on its own.

He recalled the battle between the Bull Demon King and Fafnir.

If Su-hyeun had to fight such a battle for one full day, then without a doubt, half of planet Earth would be laid to waste.

"It might end up as a situation where winning isn't a win at all," he thought.

Su-hyeun's quest for vengeance against Fafnir wasn't as simple as getting even. No, his quest was to ensure that the future he knew—the destroyed world—would not happen again.

But now, the potential battle against Fafnir had become a serious problem that could easily destroy the world Su-hyeun called home.

Even if he won, Earth would be destroyed. No, wait—maybe it wouldn't be complete destruction, but still, the planet would no doubt suffer a devastating impact close to utter annihilation nonetheless.

Having considered all of these, he was left with two choices now.

"Either I fight that bastard in a different realm or kill him most overwhelmingly."

It could very well be that the Bull Demon King foresaw this, and that was why he dragged Fafnir to another planet before the Predator had a chance to reach Earth.

"That creature is not something you can deal with right now. But paradoxically, he is also the one you must deal with by yourself."

Those words came across as hard to grasp; to do so was like trying to catch floating clouds. But Su-hyeun had no choice but to accept them.

The Bull Demon King's eyes could see through the "truth," allowing him to peek at the blurry visions of the future. According to such an individual's opinion, the role of killing Fafnir did belong to none other than Su-hyeun.

Squeeze…!

He tightly clenched his fists again, but the emotions that caused him to do this were different from the frustration and anger directed at the Bull Demon King earlier.

"I'm not strong enough."

The Ten Great Evils were the third-strongest rank for the most dangerous Predators in all of the realms out there. That indicated that a creature belonging to this rank would surely possess strength that easily surpassed the average highest-tier gods.

Indeed, it was as exactly as the Bull Demon King implied: Su-hyeun was simply not strong enough.

"How much time did you buy for me, First Brother?"

Only now did he fully realize the Bull Demon King's true intention.

The Yogoe prevented Fafnir from coming to Earth because Su-hyeun still didn't possess enough strength to kill Fafnir, but the Bull Demon King certainly did.

Maybe that was the reason why the Bull Demon King chose to stop Fafnir since he was fully aware of this situation.

"Do you believe it's doable simply because you now have extra time?"

"It's not? Then what?"

"Come with me, then. There is a place we should go to."

Right after he said that, the Bull Demon King seemingly vanished from the spot.

Su-hyeun also followed after him. Of course, to the eyes of Lee Ju-ho who had been cautiously observing the interaction of the two from the corner of the tea room, it did look like they had vanished into thin air.

"What on earth is going on here?" Lee Ju-ho muttered to himself with a confused face after he failed to understand those two's conversation.

He had been carefully preparing the boxes of tea bags to hand over to the Bull Demon King, but the two of them had finished their chat in that brief time and suddenly vanished from his view.

Not only that but while chatting loudly enough for Lee Ju-ho to eavesdrop on everything, too.

"B—but what about your interview?! And I've already got the tea ready, too…Hmm?" Lee Ju-ho looked at the gift of tea bags in his hand.

He was thinking that something felt rather empty for some reason, but when he took a look, the boxes of tea bags that should have been in his hand were all gone.

"Huh?"

<hr />

Swhooooosh—

Su-hyeun continued to chase after the Bull Demon King.

The Yogoe traveled hundreds of meters with every step. Even though he looked leisurely and unhurried as if he was out strolling, he remained far ahead of Su-hyeun who was quickly dashing forward.

"That's the famed Earth Shrink Technique?"

The "Earth Shrink Technique" was like a magic spell that "folded the land" to move rapidly forward, and it was quite similar to space-movement skills that Su-hyeun knew.

If there was one clear difference between them, then while the awakeners would need quite a lot of magical energy and preparation time to activate those skills, the Bull Demon King could freely move around on the folded space.

It was as if he was performing teleportation with every step he took.

Bang—

The Bull Demon King stepped on the air and went up. Su-hyeun used Leap to follow after him. And so, as they continued upward, they saw a small "heat haze" ahead of them.

Giii-iiing…

It was purple.

Su-hyeun froze up and came to a stop right there. However, the Bull Demon King stepped inside the haze without any hesitation whatsoever.

"Is that a dungeon?" Su-hyeun thought.

Although its size was small, it had to be a dungeon, a purple one at that. It was the same thing as the dungeon with the highest difficulty where Fafnir was supposed to show up from.

"Aren't you coming in?" the Bull Demon King said from the inside.

Su-hyeun hesitated slightly before also entering the purple haze. When he did, a completely different world to Earth revealed itself to him.

And it happened to be the same purple dungeon he had conquered not too long ago.

"Isn't this place…? But how…?"

"This way."

Su-hyeun turned his head toward the Bull Demon King's voice. That was when he discovered yet another purple-colored heat haze over there. The Bull Demon King stepped inside it, so Su-hyeun also went through it.

This time, he was taken to yet another familiar scenery. "Isn't this…?"

Lots of craters of varying sizes were pockmarking seemingly everywhere, the land was cracked and broken, and the skies above were pitch-black.

"Yes, it's the place where I fought that creature," the Bull Demon King began his explanation. "And also, this is a dead world. A world that lost its power…It will gradually lose its form and crumble to dust."

Pah-susu…

It was as the Bull Demon King said; dust blew off from the dead, barren land and drifted up in the air.

The "power" every planet possessed, gravity, was gradually getting weaker. Now normally, such a thing shouldn't have been noticeable, but now that he became aware of it, even Su-hyeun could faintly sense it happening.

It was indeed a world that lost its "power."

Su-hyeun, now finding himself standing on a destroyed, barren planet, turned around and stared at the purple heat haze shimmering away, which had newly materialized in front of the Bull Demon King.

He asked, "Just what is that thing, first brother?"

"Hmm…I wonder. Should I say, it's a 'doorway'?"

"A doorway…"

Su-hyeun knew of another type of "doorway" that held a similar meaning as used at this moment, and that would be the doorway to enter the Tower of Trials that any awakener could open up—the doorway that narrowed the distance between different realms.

"Both you and Wukong can do the same thing as I can, it seems. Of course, that's probably because you were receiving the aid of that 'System' thing."

The Bull Demon King knew about the doorway to the Tower, most likely because he had been observing Sun Wukong from close by.

"Its foundation isn't all that different from the Earth Shrink Technique, except that, while the latter simply narrows the distance to help you hop over space, this doorway breaks down the 'wall,' so to speak."

"But aren't those two completely different things?"

"You shouldn't think of space and dimensions as two different things. Just like how the spots where you and I are standing are 'physically' different, you should consider the different dimensions and realms as simply the difference in space. When you start thinking in that mindset, it shouldn't be hard for you to open the doorway by yourself."

"It shouldn't be hard…" Su-hyeun slowly nodded.

Just as the Bull Demon King said, Su-hyeun had already been opening one type of doorway. He used this doorway to enter or leave the Tower of Trials at will.

"I'll think more about it, first brother."

"Hmm…You'll gradually come to grasp it," said the Bull Demon King as he continued to open another doorway.

Su-hyeun followed after him. After the new doorway was opened up, they walked through a very long yet empty pathway.

Just how long did they walk like this?

Eventually, he could see the end of the path.

Fwhooosh—!

When they stepped outside the doorway, a world filled with the undulating pitch-black fog entered his view.

Su-hyeun ended up hugging himself at this chilly and eerie aura. He rubbed himself with one hand as he started shivering, only to realize that he was feeling cold right now.

"Just where are we?" he inwardly asked.

It felt similar to being trapped inside Thomas's skill, the "Dark World." If there was a difference between this place and that skill, then the current surroundings were filled to the brim with a far grimmer bone-chilling and foreboding aura than the Dark World.

More importantly, though, this was not a destroyed dead world. Even then, to think that so much black fog had filled this place up…

"We are now in the Land of the Dead Gods."

"The Land of the Dead Gods, you say?"

"Yes. It's the world where all the dead gods congregate—a world where the emotions of the dying gods such as anguish, desire, and despair continue to gather."

The moment the Bull Demon King's explanation ended, formless souls began surrounding them.

At first, there was just one and then two, ten, twenty, forty, and eventually a hundred.

Their number went past several hundred in no time at all.

However, these souls could approach neither Su-hyeun nor the Bull Demon King. Despite being called souls of gods, they were nothing more than some minor deities found in the distant outskirts of dimensions who only had barely crossed the threshold of godhood.

"These are the ones who got trapped in the prison of gods after their powers and even their godhood had been lost through death. They have failed to ascend to a true Taoist God, and now, they must repeatedly experience the unbroken fetters of their lingering attachments from back when they were still alive."

The fetters of their lingering attachments—just what could that even be for it to hold back the beings who had acquired the qualifications of godhood?

"Even after becoming a demigod, you still need to let go of all your lingering attachments if you wish to truly ascend to a Taoist God. You, my little brother, are currently in a state where only your physical body has reached the realm of the gods." The Bull Demon King lightly patted his own chest and said, "Just like me."

Su-hyeun nodded, "Yes, I'm aware of that."

"From this moment on, you must discover what your lingering attachment is."

When he heard what the Bull Demon King had to say, Su-hyeun couldn't help but make an uncertain face. "But my lingering attachment, it's…"

"Do you believe you know what it is?"

Su-hyeun couldn't answer.

Honestly speaking, he thought he knew what it was already.

His lingering attachment, his regret, was Fafnir. He believed that the moment he managed to kill that bastard, all of his attachments would be resolved.

However, the Bull Demon King's thoughts were different. "It took me over ten thousand years just to realize what my attachments were, but it sounds like you only needed less than half a century to figure it out."

"My apologies."

"No need to apologize. It's possible that what you think you know is the correct one, after all. However, finding out why you have developed that lingering attachment and then resolving it take precedence."

The Bull Demon King lightly waved his hand.

His action caused the souls of the gods surrounding them to recede and create a path. A seemingly endless dark pathway appeared beyond them.

"The Land of the Dead Gods shows the dead what their lingering attachments are and gifts them with a chance to recount their lives so that they may get to overcome their regrets. And it's up to them on how to use that chance, whether to use it to reincarnate or to remain dead in this place."

"Reincarnation…?"

"You don't have to be concerned. You still possess a physical body, so you won't end up reincarnating. However, the real problem lies with the length of time you may need to discover what your lingering attachments are."

Time, indeed, was what Su-hyeun needed the most at this moment.

"It may take only one day or one whole year, a decade, even ten thousand years. If not, it's also possible that you may never discover it. No one can tell how long you will need to realize what your attachments are."

"But I can't afford to stay here for that long."

"One year," the Bull Demon King spoke in a resolute tone. "If you fail to experience any substantial change during that period, I shall come and get you out of this place, but when that happens, it'll be the same as you wasting the valuable period of one year."

Su-hyeun fell silent once more.

"Are you still willing to go through with it?"

Su-hyeun had to contemplate for a little while after listening to the Bull Demon King, but in the end, he nodded, "Yes, I'll try."

Step—

After replying, Su-hyeun began walking ahead. On his own volition, he stepped into the Land of the Dead Gods, the hell of the gods where lingering attachments and regrets of the dead gods congregate.

"In that case, I shall pray for your fortunes in war," the Bull Demon King's voice grew farther and farther away.

The more Su-hyeun walked forward, the more he sensed that the world around him was getting blurrier.

The view before his eyes became completely black. It felt like his body had no strength left, and it was now floating weightlessly.

A complicated reel of images suddenly flooded his mind next.

"Is this…my life?"

Indeed, the images were from Su-hyeun's life—more correctly, from the memories he possessed. As they continued to flood in, the scenery before his eyes slowly transformed.

"Isn't this…?"

A familiar sight now greeted him. It was from quite a long time ago, no less.

"It's my old home."

It was none other than Kim Sung-in's home.