The Hero Returns

"Third Brother, your eyes..."

"Oh, this?" Sun Wukong pointed to his own eyes. "My eyes started getting itchier after coming here. Maybe I got an eye infection or something. Makes sense. Look how hot it is in here. It's not that surprising to get sick in a place like this."

He spoke unconcernedly, but to Su-hyeun, that didn't look anything like a simple eye infection.

Sun Wukong was suffering from not some mysterious illness but a common eye infection? There couldn't have been a more wrong-sounding illness.

"Other than itching, have you observed any other changes, Third Brother?"

"Other changes, you say?" Sun Wukong pondered for a bit, then while looking around their vicinity, he replied, "I guess my senses have gotten a little sharper?"

Stab'”

Kkiiiieeehk'”!

While replying, he slammed Ruyi Jingu Bang to the side, causing a shrill explosion. The head of a still-living centipede had been smashed to bits just then.

"No, wait'”they definitely have gotten sharper."

"I'm also..."

Rumble...

Su-hyeun lit up the divine Flame on the tip of his finger.

The flame burning in the purplish hue had gotten even deeper in coloration. Even the temperature raised through the divine Flame was far higher than ever before, making its destructive power that much stronger.

He couldn't tell the reason for this. For one thing, he had no memories of doing anything special to strengthen his divine Flame.

However, he could still make educated guesses.

"Does the heat of the Hell of Scorching Heat have something to do with this?"

Su-hyeun took another look at the lava that went up to his shoulders. The heat was still so intense that he hadn't gotten used to it yet.

It felt as if his skin would start burning away and his body, cooked from the outside at any second now. But what if this heat was gradually being accumulated inside, and it was slowly but surely transforming into some power? The story would drastically change.

"Maybe this..."

Su-hyeun contemplated for a little while, then pressed his palm on the surface of the lava. Shortly, he put to action the idea that had popped up in his head.

[Predation]

At the same time...

Shwa-aaaaah'”

The heat emanating from the massive lava lake flowing within the Hell of Scorching Heat traveled through Su-hyeun's hand and began seeping into him.

* * *

"I knew it."

Master Subhuti was faintly smiling at the scene currently being reflected on the surface of a calm lake.

The heat of the Hell of Scorching Heat was being concentrated in one spot. Having lost its heat, the lava rapidly hardened to become stone. Meanwhile, Su-hyeun's skin was getting super-heated, turning crimson after he sucked up all that heat into himself.

He was probably under intense pain akin to his whole body being burned. Sure enough, he was making a tormented, pained face right now.

Even then, he did not stop, which indicated that he was persistent and had enough determination and ability to withstand the pain.

It was the correct decision to send him to the Hell of Scorching Heat, indeed.

"I had no idea that he'd resort to such a barbaric method," said Buddha, who was also looking into the lake. He then shifted his gaze over to Subhuti with a somewhat mystified expression, "Did you predict this turn of events?"

Subhuti announced that he would train Su-hyeun and Sun Wukong before taking the pair to the Hell of Scorching Heat.

Buddha was initially puzzled by that decision. Why was hell chosen as the place to train their Sage Arts? But now, he had to change his opinion after witnessing not just Sun Wukong's Fiery Golden Eyes getting stronger but also Su-hyeun using Predation to suck up the heat of the Hell of Scorching Heat.

Currently seeing the far-off future that not even Buddha could see, Master Subhuti said, "It's only an incomplete vision like a corner of a painting, master."

"Even so, it is already an incredible feat to see a partial future of an existence as unfathomable as that individual."

Buddha turned and headed to the long bridge going across the pristine lake.

Sun Wukong anxiously stood next to Su-hyeun at the moment. It was unsurprising to see him panic like that since the Su-hyeun suddenly frowned deeply in pain, and his skin turned all crimson without warning.

What kind of impact would this moment have on their future?

"I wonder, what would Yama think while witnessing this scene?"

"I'm sure he's not going to sit still and do nothing, master."

Buddha furrowed one of his brows at what Subhuti said, "Despite knowing that, you still sent them that side?"

"It's a trial they must overcome by themselves."

King Yama, the Great King of countless hells, was simply called Yama by the Five Godly Sages.

In all of the dimensions, 9,000 hells existed, and Yama was the ruler of 8,000 of them. In a nutshell, Yama was the strongest "unknown" god in the entire universe, and he was given life back when the Primordial Gods created the first universe.

"And this will be the last trial I'll be giving him."

* * *

Su-hyeun felt like he had blacked out for a while there.

He thought his whole body was burning down. He blacked out from that and then regained his consciousness to arrive at this point.

"Looks like I didn't die."

Initially, he didn't think he would lose his life here. Still, it seemed that his instincts had determined that things were getting way too dangerous toward the end. He made this conclusion based on how Predation automatically ended without his input, even though he was planning to devour all the heat within the Hell of Scorching Heat.

Wiggle'”

Before he could crack his eyes open, he tried to lift a finger first.

Although still stiff, he was able to move that finger. Since he hadn't fully regained his wits just yet, he greatly welcomed the fact that he could move at least that little bit.

"I've already used up Immortality, so..."

He wanted to devour as much heat as possible, so despite needing to activate Immortality during the process, he still chose not to stop his Predation.

The thing was, though, Immortality was the kind of skill where your body would revert to the condition before its activation once its duration came to an end.

In other words, it was a skill designed to help you fight indiscriminately during the battle but not something to help you heal your injuries or recover your spent stamina.

"You're up?"

Tap, tap'”

He sensed his hand being tapped lightly by Sun Wukong with his palm.

That wasn't something one should do to a patient, though. Thankfully, that level of impact wouldn't cause pain to Su-hyeun.

Now that he regained his consciousness, all the skills he had learned and acquired up to now became of great help. His injuries healed quickly while his stamina gradually recovered.

Su-hyeun slowly regulated his breathing via the breathing technique, then cracked open his eyes, "How long... have I been asleep?"

"Whew..."

When Su-hyeun finally opened his mouth, he heard the sound of Sun Wukong sighing in relief.

His vision hadn't returned in full yet, and he could only see the blurry figure of Sun Wukong moving around through his half-open eyes.

Some strength gradually returned to him, allowing him to stagger back up somehow while letting out a grunt.

Sun Wukong replied only after watching Su-hyeun stand back up fully, "Around three days, I guess?"

Su-hyeun, carefully loosening his stiff muscles, froze still at that revelation and asked back, "Three days, you say?"

Rather than finding it hard to believe, he was simply perplexed by the truth. He had been thinking to himself that his blackout only lasted for a brief moment but to learn that it had been three days.

"It's not good to push myself too much," he thought to himself.

Forgetting about restoring his stamina for a moment, he recalled that this wasn't his first time losing his consciousness for this long. He couldn't help but wonder if similar things continued to happen to him, he would end up not waking forever.

"How does your body feel? Ng?"

"My body?" Su-hyeun instantly muttered while confirming his fatigue level.

[Fatigue: 51]

It was over 50. That was considerably high, although he had been out of action for three days. It could only mean that his injuries had been indeed quite serious.

"Still, it shouldn't be a big problem for me to move around."

Currently, there weren't that many monsters, corrupted gods, and Predators imprisoned in the Hell of Scorching Heat capable of posing a threat to Su-hyeun and Sun Wukong.

Su-hyeun's fatigue level might be past 50 points, but his regenerative ability was also quite excellent. As long as he pays attention to his breathing technique, he should return to being in tip-top shape in around half a day or so.

Not only that...

"It's not hot anymore."

The heat of the Hell of Scorching Heat came across as lukewarm to him now. Meaning his resistance toward heat had increased significantly.

Su-hyeun looked around and took in the sight of all the grayish exposed bedrock found seemingly everywhere. "Was I responsible for all this?"

"If it wasn't you, who else could it be? Although I still have no idea what you did in the first place," Sun Wukong replied.

At that moment, Su-hyeun noticed how much redder Sun Wukong's eyes had become compared to before, "Third Brother, your eyes..."

"Ah, this?" Sun Wukong scratched his head, not knowing how to explain it, before finally saying something, "Well, my five senses are getting sharper the more time I spend in here. It feels similar to back when I was stuck inside the Crucible, you know? But the progress in this place is so much faster."

"It seems that there is a good reason why uncle decided to send us here, after all."

"But it looks like you benefited even more than me, though."

Su-hyeun nodded at Sun Wukong's observation. Rather than sensing the heat on the outside, he felt heat boiling deep within his body now.

He then unleashed a tiny bit of that heat outside.

Rumble'”

"Huh?" Sun Wukong's eyes went round as he stared at a lick of flame that ignited on Su-hyeun's fingertip.

Its color had changed. The flame that used to burn in a dense purplish hue had completely changed to pure crimson.

Su-hyeun was also stunned to see this. He figured that something must've changed about him, but he never imagined that the flame would revert its hue to red.

"It started as red, then reached purple, then returned to red again..."

The changes of the hue had circled back to the beginning.

Forgetting about whether this was a good phenomenon or not, for now, there was no doubting the fact that he still welcomed this change.

Until now, the divine Flame's hue changed according to Su-hyeun's Magic Level.

But after it reached the purple hue, there was no discernible change to the coloring at all. Knowing how the power of the divine Flame greatly improved with every color change, he had no reason to be displeased by this latest change.

"Hey, this is a good thing, right?" Sun Wukong asked while staring at the flame burning on Su-hyeun's hand.

The latter deliberately made sure that the effect of the fire wouldn't reach his Third Brother, and that was why the Monkey King had no clue how hot this seemingly little flame was.

Su-hyeun nodded and then brought the flame closer to Sun Wukong. When he did that...

"Ah?! Hot, hot, hot, hot!" Sun Wukong, who placed his hand close to the flame, hurriedly yanked his hand back and vigorously shook it around.

It seemed that the crimson flame was far hotter than he thought.

Sun Wukong treated the lava found in the Hell of Scorching Heat as a nuisance that made him sweat a lot. With him reacting like this, there was no need to doubt the improved firepower now.

"What the heck? It wasn't this hot a second ago, so what gives?"

"Well, you did ask me if it's a good thing or not, so I thought you should check it out personally."

"Hey, are you trying to pick a fight with me? Heh, since it's too hot in here, might as well we'”"

Gu-wwwwuong'”

That was the sound of a heavy footstep.

No, wait'”rather than a "sound," it was more like the sense of presence. Su-hyeun and Sun Wukong turned their heads simultaneously.

A brief bout of silence later, Sun Wukong spoke up first, "You sensed that too, right?"

"Yes."

"Who the heck is that, though?"

They had sensed two things: one, the sheer distance and, two, the sense of presence.

An existence gave off that sense of presence, of course. And that sense of presence would inevitably feel far clearer the closer the existence was.

However, this sense of presence was not like that. It was coming from so far away that they couldn't estimate how far the individual in question was, yet the presence itself remained strikingly clear.

It was as if it could reach this place merely by extending its hand. That was how threatening and destructive it felt.

It had been a long time since he last felt emotions like this.

"On the sense of presence alone... It's even greater than Uranus."

The one with the highest status among all the creatures Su-hyeun had met so far was none other than Uranus, one of the Three Destroyers and an existence that required the combined strengths of Zeus, Ares, Hercules, and Su-hyeun to defeat.

Even if his status fell way below Shiva's, there was no doubting that Uranus did climb up to the rank of the Three Destroyers, the highest level open to the Predators.

However, Su-hyeun still didn't get to sense this level of presence with Uranus. For a moment there, the names of Osiris and Shiva popped up in his head.

After feeling threatened by the heavy sense of presence, the likes of which he had never experienced before, Su-hyeun was about to reach for his sword, but at that exact moment...

"This place is the Hell of Scorching Heat, right?" Sun Wukong brought up an unexpected name just then, "Could it be.... Yama?"