The Hero Returns

"What did you say?"

"It's a plan only you conceived and acted on, so is there a reason for me to go along with it?"

Su-hyeun's flat but confident reply caused a flustered expression on Brahma's face.

Su-hyeun didn't reach out to grab Brahma's extended hand. However, this act alone threw a massive spanner in the plan Brahma had thought up of even before the current universe was born.

"What do you mean, I alone planned it? In the end, you are me, and I am'”"

"That's like, your opinion," Su-hyeun abruptly cut Brahma off. "I will be the one to make that decision. Besides that, you said you don't have any other powers other than the power of creation, didn't you? Meaning it doesn't sound like you'll be much of help, anyway."

"You wish to walk a different path from mine?"

"Just think of it as a person called Su-hyeun was created from you. You're Brahma, while I'm Kim Su-hyeun. Something like that."

"But how is that even'”?"

"It's my call. When I think about it, there's no reason why I should hold that hand of yours, you see?"

Reach out and hold Brahma's hand, then leave the fate of this universe to his discretion?

Su-hyeun had no reason to go along with it if that had been Brahma's plan all along. Not to forget, there was no guarantee of Su-hyeun's ego remaining once they combined back together.

"The odds of him making a different decision than me are uncomfortably high," Su-hyeun thought.

The current Su-hyeun was the combined lives of Kim Sung-in and Kim Su-hyeun. Thus, he held an even bigger attachment to life itself.

That wasn't so surprising, however.

Even if he could recall his past lives, they were still nothing more than his past. Those existences were different people from the current him.

All those events happened a long time ago, which meant the emotions he felt back then would have faded into obscurity by now. Therefore, it was only apparent that he would have a more significant attachment to the current life and decide based on that.

However, it was a different story for Brahma.

He would surely check all the lives and make an objective decision based on what he saw. He would take the emotions out of the equation and then think about whether this universe was worth saving or not.

This was what Su-hyeun felt.

"I'm not confident about it at all."

While living through so many disparate lives, Su-hyeun held similar beliefs as Shiva far too many times to count properly. He also had a view that a world as terrible as this should be destroyed'”just like Set or Cheon Mu-jin, who harbored rage in their hearts and hated the world and its people.

Would Brahma still think about protecting the universe after learning about their life stories? If he were to be asked about that very topic, then he wouldn't be able to answer with any certainty.

"This is deviating a bit from the plan, though," Brahma began scratching his head. However, a short while of deep pondering later, he nodded in acceptance, "Well, I guess it can't be helped. I should respect your opinion, too."

"I'm surprised that you accepted it so easily."

"It's not like I can subdue you with my strength, after all. Besides, we don't have a reason to fight, anyway."

"Aren't you unhappy about all the time you invested in your plan going down the drain?"

"Are you asking me that even though you know how long I've existed?"

Su-hyeun fell into a pool of thought at Brahma's question before nodding along.

Although he couldn't understand everything clearly, he could still instinctively figure it out. To Brahma, this universe was simply one of countless many that had repeated itself.

"However, I do have a condition."

"A condition?"

"You need to convince me, too." Brahma's expression quickly morphed into that of curiosity. "When you do that, I shall also tell you what is going on with this universe."

**

Shu-wuwuwu...

The scenery surrounding Su-hyeun reverted to the beginning'”the tomb's interior with murals painted on the walls.

The mural recorded the history of this universe and the ones that came before it. It even had records of Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu.

Su-hyeun took his time studying them, then turned around to leave the tomb.

That was when he saw two familiar faces waiting for him.

"Buddha's also here."

It felt like they were running into each other pretty often lately.

"'¦"

"'¦"

"Mm?"

However, the two gods didn't try to say anything.

Other than staring intently at Su-hyeun while making tense expressions, they didn't do anything particular or try to talk to him.

How strange.

"What's the matter with you two?"

"If you don't mind me asking, which one are you?"

"Sorry?" Su-hyeun was puzzled at Zeus's question.

But he figured it out one beat later.

"So, they already knew," Su-hyeun thought.

Was it because they were in the group called Five Godly Sages?

Su-hyeun wasn't sure how it came about, but it seemed that they knew about Brahma's plan all along.

"Even though they knew, they withheld that information from me, is that it?"

That certainly ticked Su-hyeun off a little.

It wasn't to the point of resenting them, but there was not much he could do about feeling somewhat upset over it.

The corners of Su-hyeun's lips curled up. Then, he put on the expression of a mischievous and carefree kid that Brahma was making not too long ago. "Hmm, who knows?"

Step, step'”

After making his reply, Su-hyeun walked past the two gods.

Zeus and Buddha, still deeply tense, began following Su-hyeun.

Zeus, who brought Su-hyeun here, asked while looking deeply worried, "Were you unable to come to a decision yet?"

"Yes."

That wasn't a lie. Brahma hadn't made a decision yet, after all.

Except that they didn't know the current Su-hyeun was not Brahma but still Kim Su-hyeun.

"Shiva stopped by not too long ago," Buddha suddenly said, rather than asking about Su-hyeun's opinion.

Su-hyeun had been thinking of fooling them for a bit longer, but what Buddha said forced his steps to come to a standstill. "Shiva was here?"

"Yes. And it's been around five minutes since he disappeared."

Five minutes? That more or less matched the length of time Su-hyeun spent checking out the tomb's murals.

It meant that he went away as soon as Su-hyeun's conversation with Brahma ended.

"How did he know when to come here, though?" he wondered.

It could very well be that he knew about the exact location of Brahma's whereabouts since the beginning. Without that explanation, it would be hard to figure out how to get the timing right.

"But why did he go away without doing anything?"

That question popped up in Su-hyeun's mind, so he asked both Zeus and Buddha, but they shook their heads in sync. "We are not sure, either."

If Shiva was aware of Brahma's plan, he was also most likely aware of Su-hyeun becoming his enemy.

Shiva's purpose was to destroy the universes Brahma created.

The only reason he began to act was that he judged that this universe was no longer worthy of existing.

"Even so, he went away without causing a scene?"

Questions after questions filled up Su-hyeun's head.

"It's weird to think that Shiva can't do anything to Brahma because that will mean that Brahma can't touch Shiva, either."

However, according to what Brahma implied, that didn't seem to be the case.

Su-hyeun stood there and thought about it for a good few minutes but couldn't come up with a plausible explanation.

His already complicated thoughts became even more tangled up now.

Just what did Shiva want?

**

Su-hyeun continued to have fun at Zeus and Buddha's expense before finally coming clean by telling them what happened during his chat with Brahma.

The two gods looked surprised to hear what happened, but their reactions were quite positive at the same time.

"Although it's not the best outcome, it certainly is the second-best result we could've hoped for."

"Is that something you should say in front of the party involved?"

"Ah, I see. That's how it is, isn't it? We can only apologize for that," Zeus laughed awkwardly at Su-hyeun's retort.

In any case, they seemed to be welcoming the current development. Even if they didn't get Brahma's help, they could still count on a dependable ally in Su-hyeun.

It wasn't as if they had no way to request Brahma's help.

"It's been a while, you two."

"Yes, indeed, it's been too long, oh Lord Brahma."

"Good to see you again, Lord Brahma."

Zeus and Buddha knelt politely toward a small ball of light floating above Su-hyeun's head.

The ball of light was Brahma's soul. He had divided his soul into a smaller piece and attached it to Su-hyeun.

He said he wanted to check out the universe he had created a long time ago through Su-hyeun's daily interactions.

Despite saying it had been a while, their greetings and the subsequent goodbyes were kept brief.

Su-hyeun returned home afterward.

"Just when did you even meet Zeus and Buddha?"

He asked that while taking his clothes off to get ready for a shower.

The ball of light replied to his question.

"Those two sought me out first."

"They did?"

"The creation and destruction of this universe are involved, after all. For those who thought that their lifespan would be infinite and the world they ruled would also exist for that long, it's only natural for them to fear the knowledge of an end existing for everything."

"To stop that eventuality, they sought you out?"

"Yup. I made sure they would'”both of them."

Su-hyeun, taking off his clothes, stopped moving for a second.

Brahma ensured they would?

That could only mean that Zeus and Buddha being born and then finding Brahma were all according to the Primordial God's plan.

"Are they also a part of the plan you told me about?"

"Yup. Only then would they have created the system, after all."

"Which means you're the architect of the system, then."

"About half of that claim is correct."

"Only half?"

"Master Subhuti wasn't a part of my plan, you see."

Su-hyeun, about to turn the tap on for hot water, got a fresh shock from that revelation.

It was already surprising to learn that Zeus and Buddha were a part of Brahma's plan, but unlike the two gods, Master Subhuti was outside the Primordial God's plan.

"Does that mean my brothers are also...?" he thought.

Since Master Subhuti was an existence beyond the scope of Brahma's plan, that would mean both Sun Wukong and the Bull Demon King, who practiced the Sage Arts, were in the same situation.

This would also mean that Su-hyeun learning the Sage Arts was also outside of the scope of Brahma's plan.

"Was this the real reason why they weren't happy about me learning the Sage Arts?"

The Tower of the trials and the system were a collaborative effort by Master Subhuti and the rest of the Five Godly Sages.

The current version of the system was Su-hyeun's handiwork. However, even if that was the case, he shouldn't forget that the Five Godly Sages wanted to strengthen him through the prior version of the system.

The architect of that plan was, of course, Brahma. The plan would've been pretty much on track until this point.

"However, things went wrong from the 60th floor."

More correctly, it had been when Su-hyeun began learning the Sage Arts from the Bull Demon King.

From Master Subhuti to the Bull Demon King and then from the Bull Demon King to Su-hyeun, the variable called the Sage Arts forced Brahma's plan to deviate significantly. Also, the other gods, including Zeus and Buddha, would've found it challenging to predict just where this deviation would have taken them.

Just how would their universe change from this deviation? Would Brahma's plan change to something good or something terrible?

"If Master Subhuti didn't butt in Brahma's plan, then..."

The more Su-hyeun learned about him, the more amazing Master Subhuti seemed to become.

His academic knowledge was expansive enough to base the construction of the Tower's system on it. Also, he managed to create the trials so incredibly varied that not even Su-hyeun could figure them out, despite the latter successfully repairing the system.

Even the term "genius" was inadequate to describe Master Subhuti.

"To think that a single human managed to disrupt a Primordial God's plan'¦"

Out of billions, trillions, quadrillion'”of countless humans existing throughout the universe's history that one couldn't possibly try to count, just one person among so many managed to create a school of cultivation that could exceed even the Primordial God responsible for constructing this vast universe.

Just what was Master Subhuti thinking of back then?

If only they could meet again, Su-hyeun would've rushed over there to ask, but he couldn't, and that disappointed him rather greatly.

"It's not like there's no other way, though."

Shwaaaa'”

Su-hyeun thought about what to do while letting the warm water hit him.

Then, he had a realization.

The existence from the future, the one he encountered through the eyes of clairvoyance, and the existence waiting for Su-hyeun's arrival at the top of the Tower created by Master Subhuti were the same being.

Something told Su-hyeun that this being would clarify what Master Subhuti was thinking of all along.

Now that the warm water managed to wash away a lot of his complicated thoughts, Su-hyeun's eyes regained their previous gleam once more.

"Wait for me."

I'll climb up there as soon as possible and speak to you myself.