The Hero Returns Chapter 398

Chapter 398: Chapter 398

Crunch—! Fafnir’s fangs stabbing deep into his body—that sensation remained with Su-hyeun. It stayed so vividly within his muscle mory.

This was also the exact mont that the Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation activated.

The ability that activated at the mont of his death—it activated right inside Fafnir’s mouth. Perhaps that was the reason for the errors of the reincarnation ability.

“If not, maybe it was because I hadn’t completely awakened my unique ability back then.”

Whatever the case might have been, one of the Six Paths, the Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation which ford a part of his unique ability, activated without fully being awoken.

Without a doubt, it was Su-hyeun’s unique ability, but it got unlocked only a millisecond ago. Kim Sung-in still had no idea what the Six Paths could do even as he died from Fafnir’s attack.

And just like that, Fafnir was also influenced by the Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation and returned to the past along with Su-hyeun.

“Well, that sure has beco troubleso, alright.”

“aning, it’s back to square one?”

The main point of Su-hyeun’s explanation until now was this: before he regressed or reincarnated, the world was destroyed, and he lost to the monster nad Fafnir.

And the reason that the “future” had changed so much until now was all down to Su-hyeun coming back to the past. But if he was indeed not the only one who ca back, then, in the end, it was practically the sa as nothing much had changed.

“No, wait.” However, Su-hyeun still shook his head. “We’re not back to square one, at least.”

“How so?”

“Sorry?”

Both Lee Ju-ho and Hak-joon ford puzzled expressions at how certain Su-hyeun sounded just then.

Su-hyeun didn’t give them a detailed explanation, but that was because even he didn’t know everything.

“There are still five other abilities left,” he thought.

The Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation was only one part of the Six Paths. aning, there were five more left yet to be explored, and those would prove to be the strongest cards Su-hyeun currently possessed. As long as those cards were still in his deck, he couldn’t say they were back to square one.

“No, it’s nothing major. Besides all that, I gotta ask you for a favor, brother Ju-ho,” said Su-hyeun. His explanation up until now was ant to explain that he ca from the future and knew what was supposed to happen. “Fafnir. That bastard might appear very soon.”

“Really?!”

“Man, it keeps getting worse, doesn’t it?” Lee Ju-ho grumbled while holding his head.

He was already getting a serious bout of headache after learning that a monster even Su-hyeun found hard to deal with existed sowhere out there, but now, he was also told that such a creature might show up soon?

Hak-joon, who had been checking his watch while listening to the explanation, urgently got up from his seat. “I have to be on my way now. Can you tell the rest of the explanation over the phone later?”

“Yeah, alright. See you later.”

Lee Ju-ho waved his hand at Hak-joon. The latter, who had been cutting it real close to stay and listen as much as he could, quickly jumped outside the open window and exited from the office, just like how Su-hyeun did earlier to enter.

“Really now? Jumping in and out of windows even though the door’s right over there?” Lee Ju-ho muttered softly before asking Su-hyeun, “Okay, so what is it? That favor you wanted to ask .”

“Bro, you’re still the association chairman, right?”

“Yeah. The Korean association.”

“And you’re also the Guild Master of the Paragon Guild.”

“That’s true, too. But what about it?”

“That ans you have so clout with other nations, right? I’m willing to let you borrow my na too if that helps.”

Now that was a suspicious-sounding question. Lee Jo-ho quietly nodded and waited for the next part of Su-hyeun’s request.

“Starting now, we must stop all the awakeners coming back from the tower from going back in.”

“Why?”

“The dungeon progression rate, it has gotten faster, hasn’t it?”

Su-hyeun’s question caused Lee Ju-ho’s eyes to sharpen.

Su-hyeun ended up ntioning that one thing Lee Ju-ho had found quite concerning lately, after all.

Lee Ju-ho asked, “Did sothing like this happen in the...past, too?”

“Before Fafnir made its entrance, dungeons suddenly stopped materializing. For around the period of five years or so, dungeons showed up infrequently, so much so that it beca hard to find even one.”

Five years, he said.

There was a noticeable difference in the ti fra, but things had already beco distorted and out of whack by a lot at this point. It wouldn’t be all that surprising to see that the period of five years greatly shortening to only one year or even to a matter of a few months instead.

“It’ll only accelerate even more from now on, even shooting past the level of impossible to handle.”

“When you say impossible to handle, just how impossible are we talking about here?”

“Several tis. Dozens. At worst, over one hundred tis.”

There was no real need to delve too deeply into his mories. After unlocking his unique ability, Su-hyeun got to see the events of the past through the effects of the already-used skill, the Heavenly Ways of Reincarnation.

He saw just how many monsters Kim Sung-in, who was himself, had to fight against in the previous tiline.

Considering the countless number of monsters seemingly blanketing every corner of the globe, it wouldn’t have mattered how many hands you had to help you with counting them.

“That’s why...no one must return to the tower. Absolutely no one.”

Crunch, crack, shatter...

Chew, grind, crunch...

Sharp fangs tore through the hide and began munching on the bones.

The huge “dragon” was emitting an ominous, evil aura from its black eyes. After it successfully transford a planet into a wasteland, it was currently ripping and munching into another dragon.

The victorious dragon’s appearance could only be described as bizarre. Even though it possessed a head of a dragon, the rest of its body belonged to a giant humanoid.

Krrrrr...

The dragon, Fafnir, growled softly.

Its victim was vomit-inducing vile in how it tasted, but Fafnir couldn’t stop eating it.

It was suffering from this endless gluttony and also its unquenchable thirst to obtain even more power.

“And you’ve finally devoured that fool, haven’t you?”

Fafnir turned its head at an unfamiliar voice.

It couldn’t see anything, but it could definitely sense this incredible presence crushing down on this vast planet.

A little after that, Fafnir finally discovered the existence that addressed him earlier.

It was also at that mont that the color of the sky had changed. It turned blackish, a little closer to grey, perhaps.

Fafnir asked, “And who you are supposed to be?”

“I’m the king of your kind.”

Ruuuumble...

The entirety of the heavens above was being rocked ominously. Rather, more precisely, the massive life form blanketing the heavens was shifting around.

Fafnir could only shiver from the sheer sense of presence this unknown life form emanated. It was true that the giant with the dragon’s head was deeply exhausted from fighting that dragon earlier, but even if that wasn’t the case, nothing would’ve changed in the outco.

And that was because that humongous existence blanketing the sky had far surpassed Fafnir’s current strength by an incalculable margin.

Fafnir muttered, “You do look delectable.”

“Oh, so you wish to devour as well?”

“Not right now. It’s not the right ti yet.”

“I see. It is indeed a talent to say that you’re too weak and scared in such a nice-sounding manner.”

That wasn’t a cheap provocation. That vast presence was being sincere here.

However, Fafnir didn’t get angry at those words. Its pride wasn’t wounded, either. No, it was actually feeling happy inside.

A tastier, far more enticing prey had shown up before its eyes, after all. However, it might take a long ti to be able to hunt a creature like that.

“Have you co to kill , then?”

“No. But I’m here to offer my congratulations for the birth of a new myth, a new legend.”

“A new myth?”

“Didn’t I tell you already? I’m the king of your kind.”

Fafnir smirked at that.

The “King,” huh?

At first, Fafnir ridiculed that notion, but now, it could understand just a little bit better why this vast creature openly called itself the king.

Still, Fafnir found it humorous regardless to hear the creature calling itself a king when Fafnir had sworn to devour it in the future.

“I see. So, one of the Three Destroyers has deigned to make his way here.”

The Three Destroyers were the three predators that possessed the strongest powers out of all the different realms out there combined—the strongest life forms in existence, after excluding the One Overlord.

If one thought of One Overlord as the deity of all predators, then the Three Destroyers would no doubt be the kings of predators, and according to what Fafnir knew, only one among the Three Destroyers boasted such a humongous physique.

“So, you’re Uranus.”

Uranus, the existence that boasted the biggest physique among all the predators, was the monstrosity that devoured other gods. The rumor even said that the number of gods it had devoured so far was in excess of four digits.

For so reason, Uranus never devoured another predator, so it was a fortunate thing, indeed, for Fafnir.

“That’s right. I’m one of the Three Destroyers, Uranus. And I shall...”

Wuuuunng...

Uranus’s voice reverberated throughout the vast expanse of outer space.

“Offer my congratulations for the birth of a new myth, a new legend—the birth of a new addition to the Ten Great Evils.”

Above a cloud cover sowhere...

In a place located high up in the sky with a perfect, unhindered view to the tallest mountain in the world far, far down below...

Sun Wukong stepped onto such a place after altering the Ruyi Jingu Bang into a thin but lengthened state. He sat down in a lotus position and closed his eyes.

Dao energy gently flowed like water inside of him. It transford from gentle waves to a massive tsunami. Circulating his Dao energy in that manner, Sun Wukong soon opened his eyes and fixed his gaze to his front.

The clouds were splitting apart.

Those thick clouds had been gathering in the sky as if they were about to start a massive storm, yet Sun Wukong could control them without even lifting a finger.

And his honest impression on that impressive spectacle was this one thing: “Not good enough.”

If the Bull Demon King heard that, he would have been greatly surprised. To think that Sun Wukong, who suffered from strong pride and was filled with arrogance and impudence, would willingly say that he was still not good enough.

Sun Wukong stood up from the lotus position and loosened his muscles, but then, he abruptly clutched the part in his torso that got stabbed by the monster’s thorn earlier.

He deeply furrowed his brows.

Although his physical injuries had quickly healed, the wound to his pride didn’t want to heal at all.

More than anything else...

“Seriously now, so damn embarrassing.” Sun Wukong’s face crumpled.

Tap, tap—

Sun Wukong lightly tapped the Ruyi Jing Bang with his foot and spoke up, “Get even longer, Ruyi.”

Sh-whooooooosh—

The Ruyi Jingu Bang lengthened even more.

Then, traveling with his polearm that pierced right through the sky, Sun Wukong soon reached sowhere even higher up.

After reaching this place where the ground below was nothing more than a faint and blurry speck, Sun Wukong opened his mouth to yell, “Heeey! Mister God!”

His voice echoed everywhere.

However, no reply ca his way for a long while. Sun Wukong and his short fuse couldn’t wait that long and he shouted again, “Hey, man! Are you gonna answer or what?!”

“I didn’t expect you to co and seek out first,” a reply belatedly ca to him.

Sun Wukong turned his head as if he was already familiar with that voice. It would only be normal for one to get surprised after hearing a voice from soone not giving off any presence whatsoever, but he was already too used to this sort of response by now.

When he turned around to look, he discovered an absolutely vast Buddhist statue with a bald head sitting in a lotus position. Sun Wukong had t this god several tis already, but even then, today was his first ti seeking the latter out on his own volition.

“It’s been a while, ‘Muni.’”

It was Sakyamuni, the Buddha himself, the highest-seated deity in Buddhism and also worshiped by the Heavenly World—a being whose existence was still being questioned even to this day.

However, Sun Wukong ended up running into Sakyamuni several tis after he began climbing the tower.

“Man, you’re still huge as heck,” Sun Wukong grunted in admiration at the sheer size of Sakyamuni, who was vast enough to place the entire planet in its two hands and still have so room left.

“For a reunion after a long while, you speak of so rude things.”

“Wait, you were expecting to be polite?”

“Not at all. How could the one and only Great Sage Heaven’s Equal be like that?” Sakyamuni ford a benevolent smile.

But Sun Wukong only distorted his expression at such a reply from the gigantic Buddha. That’s because Sakyamuni’s personality was polar opposite to his carefree and hot-blooded attitude.

“It seems that you still yearn to fight , Sun Wukong.”

“Yup. And it’s driving nuts.”

“But you already know what the result will be like, don’t you?”

Sun Wukong could only scratch his head in irritation after listening to Sakyamuni’s reply.

That baldie Buddha was right.

Sun Wukong wished to enjoy a good fight, but no matter what, fighting against Sakyamuni never yielded a nice result for him. The gigantic Buddha always avoided fighting Sun Wukong as if to say he didn’t want to kill or even harm the latter.

Sun Wukong could never reach Sakyamuni. The so-called fight against him always repeated itself within his palm.

“I an, really? Is it so bad to fight seriously at least once?!”

“Why don’t we discuss that after you find a way to escape from my palm first?”

“Dang it.”

“Why do you feel so pressed? Without a doubt, you should be able to escape from my palm not too long from now.”

Sun Wukong’s expression softened at what Sakyamuni said, and he stared at the gigantic god in the distance. “You know, there’s this one nice thing about talking to you, and that’s you perfectly seeing through what’s in my head. That makes our conversation so much smoother, you know what I an?”

“But that’s only because you’re a simpleton. Surely, no gods existing out there would be capable of actually seeing through your mind when you possess the qualification of godhood called Immortality.”

“Whatever, man. That just says you’re one smart du—”

“However, I’m not certain this ti,” Sakyamuni abruptly cut Sun Wukong off. “I can’t tell why you wish to speak to this ti.”

“Oh, really?” Sun Wukong smirked deeply. For so reason, when Sakyamuni said he couldn’t guess what the Monkey King was trying to do here, Sun Wukong began feeling like he had won in a fight against the massive Buddha today. “In that case, let clear up the air for you.”

Keh-hmph!

Sun Wukong softly coughed to clear his throat.

Sothing about what he was about to do felt weird and cringy as hell. However, he did co here to say these things out loud, so there was no turning back.

Sun Wukong collected his breathing for a bit and then valiantly opened his mouth, “I, the Great Sage Heaven’s Equal Sun Wukong, will beco the representative of the god, Sakyamuni.”