The Hero Returns

[You have cleared the 219th floor's trial.]

[Strength has risen by one.]

[Agility has risen by one.]

[Stamina has risen by one.]

[Reflex has risen by one.]

Flaaaaash—

Rays of bright light flashed from within Su-hyeun's figure.

The light was faint but still bright enough to see with naked eyes.

Excluding the stats referring to magical energy that could no longer be upgraded, all his other stats saw one point increase across the board.

Numerically, it was only a single point increase, but the difference he felt was indescribably large.

"Up until this floor, my stats that increased at the same time was three at most."

He conquered nine floors, starting from the 211th floor to the 219th, and each floor increased one or two stats. Each improvement in his stats felt like he had overcome a steep staircase.

But now, four of his stats improved simultaneously?

[Name: Kim Su-hyeun]

[Magic Count: ?]

[Magic Level: ?]

[Strength: 114(+5)]

[Agility: 112(+5)]

[Stamina: 112(+5)]

[Reflex: 111(+5)]

[Death Aura: ?]

[Demonic Aura: ?]

[Skill: Leap * advanced]

[…]

[Fatigue: 41]

[Title: Hero]

[Title: Taoist God]

[God Title: Combat, Hero]

His status window had become somewhat simplified.

He hadn't opened this window in quite a while. His stats, which hadn't seen any notable changes since breaking past 100 points, had all improved significantly since the last time.

"So? Are you satisfied?"

"Oh. Yeah, sure," Su-hyeun replied to Shiva's question while lightly dusting his hands. "More or less."

"You feel confident now?"

Su-hyeun pondered for a bit at Shiva's follow-up question before nodding. That question regarding his confidence was about whether he felt confident about defeating Shiva or not.

"Probably."

"Oh, really?"

"What's wrong? Wanna find out right now?"

Giii-iiing—

Pazzzik, bzzzzzik...

Arcs of azure electricity buzzed around Su-hyeun's hand. With the spot he stood on as the center, the atmosphere around him was being heated up by the electrical energy, causing the dust on the ground to float.

Shiva quickly waved his hands, "Now isn't the time for us to mess around. Hurry up and get some rest, prepare your mind, and so on."

"And just who started it first?"

"Should I go ahead and humor you, then?"

"Forget it. Let's get going already."

Su-hyeun wasn't serious about fighting Shiva for the time being, but without a doubt, he was still planning to fight later.

However, he felt a certain strangeness from their exchange just now.

For the past couple of months, which couldn't be described as short, the two of them had been traveling together.

"Did I get too friendly with him?" Su-hyeun thought.

Even though they both had the same face, Su-hyeun initially found Shiva unfamiliar and alien. The latter's beliefs were not to Su-hyeun's liking either, so he remained hostile despite traveling around together for a while.

Still, he got used to Shiva over time. And after learning that the Primordial God's beliefs didn't come from an evil place, Su-hyeun's hostility also gradually diminished.

However, they were destined to fight sooner or later.

"Right, some level of hostility is necessary." Su-hyeun admonished himself for the earlier banter, "Must not get too close to him."

Su-hyeun regulated his breathing and opened the doorway leading to the next floor.

When he did...

[Transferring to the 220th floor.]

[You have reached the last floor.]

[Will you challenge the final trial?]

The last floor, and the final trial, it said.

He had been expecting, more or less, that the next hurdle called the 220th floor could very well be the last.

"And once this trial is over..."

He should get to encounter Vishnu.

"I'm challenging it."

The scenery within the doorway transformed at Su-hyeun's declaration. His figure, along with Shiva tied to him under the party system, instantly transferred to another realm.

The new scenery didn't seem particularly remarkable. Not a speck of clouds could be seen up in the sky while the ground was blanketed in pure-white snow. Meanwhile, winds cold enough to cut into skin blew around.

"Isn't this...?"

Su-hyeun scanned his surroundings as warm breaths escaped from his lips.

He used Insight to peer beyond the clouds below his eye line. This allowed him to see a city teeming with people living their lives.

He made sure to search even farther away, but this was far too familiar to him as expected.

"Why did it have to be here?"

"What is it?" Shiva asked after noticing Su-hyeun's grave expression.

The reason for that was simple enough.

"This is my homeworld."

He certainly did suspect that something like this could happen.

For instance, Earth was the trial's backdrop during his battle against Fafnir. Back then, things were exceptionally grave. However, even that wasn't as grave as this time.

"Forget about winning or losing... This planet will definitely be destroyed," he told himself.

The battle against Vishnu should undoubtedly be on another scale compared to everything before it.

Shiva could destroy Earth in less than one hour if he got serious about it. Yet someone like that determined that he couldn't deal with Vishnu alone.

As such, even Su-hyeun couldn't estimate the severity of the ripples from the battle against Vishnu.

"Uh? What's this?"

He abruptly sensed a presence and voice coming from behind him. Su-hyeun quickly turned around to look.

"You are here as well?"

"Mister Hercules?" Su-hyeun smiled at an unexpected but welcome face's arrival and walked up to Hercules.

The last time they saw each other was back in Olympus. When Su-hyeun got near, he confirmed that Hercules was still at least one and a half times bigger.

If someone saw Hercules's footprint on the snow, they would mistakenly think it must've been a bear's or something.

"What brings you here, Mister Hercules?"

"What about you, fella?"

"This is my homeworld, actually."

Hercules heard the reply and scanned his surroundings in surprise, "You were actually from land this cold? Now that's surprising."

"No, it's not exactly this very spot, but—"

"Little bro!"

Su-hyeun was about to explain, only to turn his head urgently at the even more welcoming voice.

A face popped up in his mind the moment he heard that voice, "Third Brother!"

Indeed, that voice belonged to Sun Wukong.

Sun Wukong lightly ran on the snow before landing in front of Su-hyeun. Somewhat surprisingly, the snow underfoot wasn't disturbed at all, even though the surface was fragile enough to break apart at the slightest pressure.

"When did you arrive here, Fourth Brother?"

Unlike Sun Wukong, who rushed in while raising a fuss, the Bull Demon King silently reached Su-hyeun's position before anyone noticed it. He was even carrying Lang Mei with him, too. He had used the Earth Shrink Technique.

"Just now, actually. However, how did you guys know...?" Su-hyeun asked in puzzlement.

Lang Mei raised her hand and replied, "It was me. I told them."

"You did, sister-in-law?"

"Yes. I heard a voice, you see."

"A voice? What kind of voice was it?"

"You know, the usual voice I hear. But this time, it was not just one or two voices."

Lang Mei possessed the ability to listen to the voice of the world. However, even though she was a Shamaness chosen by the world itself, it had been a long time since she last heard the direct voice of the world.

"The voice said that Buddha has died."

"Is that so?"

"You don't seem surprised?"

"I expected it, yes."

Shiva had already informed him before he started climbing the Tower again. Buddha began making preparations in ancient times to delay Vishnu, and he managed to stop the Primordial God.

This was a promise he made with Master Subhuti—a foundation laid in preparation for a particular moment in the future.

"By the way, sister-in-law..."

"Yes?"

"Is it alright for you to be here? I mean, you're currently..."

Su-hyeun couldn't finish the rest of his sentence as he was mindful of the Bull Demon King's mood.

The truth was, she had died at her husband's hands a long time ago.

The Path to Reincarnation was, technically speaking, still a part of the netherworld. There was a law prohibiting the dead from interfering in the matters of the living world.

That was the only reason why the Bull Demon King stayed in the Path to Reincarnation all this time. He might be able to travel to and from the netherworld any time he wanted, but Lang Mei could not.

"I'm sure he'll show up soon."

"Speaking of the devil."

Split—

As soon as Lang Mei finished replying, a massive doorway materialized in the sky above.

The doorway was as pitch-black as it could be. It looked like a dungeon entrance at a casual glance, but no black dungeons had materialized until now, so that thing couldn't be it.

Su-hyeun confirmed where that doorway connected to and muttered to himself, "Yama..."

It was King Yama, the existence ruling over nine thousand hells. The Path to Reincarnation, a part of the netherworld, was also his territory.

Having experienced countless universes as Brahma and Shiva, he had grown somewhat prickly about protecting his territory, as well as overseeing the laws governing the dead and the living.

As one might have expected, the reason why Lang Mei wasn't allowed to leave the Path to Reincarnation was to avoid King Yama's wrath.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

Rumble...

The heaven and earth rumbled at his booming voice.

The ground trembled like an earthquake, causing the snow covering Mount Everest to crumble and tumble down.

Thick, gloomy clouds blanketed the skies above as if lightning bolts would start crashing down at any second now. However, not one person in this place got shocked or frightened by King Yama's entrance.

They were all powerful enough not to get affected, after all.

Boom—!

Even if Hercules's physique was impressively large, it was still nothing compared to King Yama. Sporting the distinctive reddish skin, Yama was far closer to a giant than a regular person.

He swept his gaze over everyone present, including the reason for his trip this time, Lang Mei. Then, he chuckled slightly, his teeth bared, "What a sight this is, indeed. Hercules, the Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven and his little brother, Heaven's Equal, even the halfling Primordial God, too. And finally..."

King Yama's gaze landed on Shiva next.

"Even the real Primordial God is here."

Shiva, who had his back turned around while everyone was enjoying their reunion, turned his head when King Yama mentioned him.

That was when everyone else got a surprise after seeing his face.

"Huh?"

"There are two last brothers?"

That face was exactly the same as Su-hyeun's.

The puzzled Sun Wukong alternated his gaze between Su-hyeun and Shiva.

Shiva, now the focus of everyone's attention, shrugged his shoulders and greeted King Yama, "Been a while, Yama."

"If this was any other time, I might have been glad to see you."

"Of course, you would be. I mean, just who was responsible for giving you nine thousand hells in the first place?"

This brief exchange was enough for Su-hyeun to uncover one of this universe's secrets.

He had been wondering why there were so many hells numbering nine thousand, to begin with, and here was the reason.

"That must be the number of destroyed universes so far," he guessed.

All nine thousand hells were destroyed universes.

Brahma created a universe, Shiva destroyed it, and King Yama turned it into a new hell.

After all, a world where no living being could survive presented the ideal condition to use as a new hell.

"Are you somehow involved in this matter, Shiva?"

"When you say this matter, you mean that woman over there?" Shiva asked while pointing at Lang Mei, prompting King Yama to nod.

"A dead being is forbidden from interfering in the world of the living. As far as I know, this is the system you lot have created, isn't it?"

"No, more correctly, Vishnu created it."

"Doesn't matter."

"Well, in a way, you can say I kind of have something to do with this. For one, I knew things would turn out this way."

"You knew?"

"Correct," Shiva looked around as he replied.

Sun Wukong, Lang Mei, the Bull Demon King, Hercules, and King Yama were on this snowy field.

All of them were some of the strongest individuals in this universe. The Bull Demon King and his sworn brothers getting together happened relatively often, but Hercules, King Yama, and Shiva also showed up simultaneously? Now that was exceedingly rare.

"Is this Master Subhuti's handiwork?"

"Uncle?" Sun Wukong reacted sensitively more than anyone else when Master Subhuti was brought up.

This was understandable since he held the most affection toward Subhuti among them all and even witnessed his mentor's final moments.

Sun Wukong's eyes involuntarily shook after hearing about how Subhuti was related to what was about to happen. "What did uncle do? Yama, you know something?"

"I see."

King Yama raised his head.

He saw the white snowy field and the sky bright enough to be blinding.

King Yama had been waiting for this moment—and for a very long time, too.

"So, today is that day…."