The Hero Returns
chapter-399

Chapter 399: Chapter 399

Sakyamuni was rendered speechless for a little while at what Sun Wukong said. It was as if the giant Buddha couldn’t quite process what was being said here.

“Are you being serious?” Sakyamuni asked back to confirm the seriousness of what the other party had said. Such a response was unbecoming of Sakyamuni who was included in the upper echelons of the strongest gods out there. An even thicker grin appeared on Sun Wukong’s face at such a response. Indeed, this was the feeling of victory. “Yup, I’m being dead serious,” he answered.

“However, you have repeatedly rejected my continued offer in the past. You even stated that the power borrowed from me would be meaningless to you, too.”

“But didn’t you say it’s not borrowing?”

“Correct. My role is simply to awaken your true powers. That is all. And the power you acquire through such a method will solely belong to you and no one else.”

Up to this point was the tale Sun Wukong already knew because he had heard all of it before. Even then, he still refused it. His reason for that was simple enough.

“If I do that, I won’t get to fight you later, right?”

There was that rule that stated that a representative, an apostle, could never fight against the god they were affiliated with.

To Sun Wukong, Sakyamuni was quite literally the greatest opponent that ever in existence—a real, bona fide god, unlike those fake gods found in the Heavenly World.

This was an existence so vast and powerful that even the Bull Demon King had to look up, so not being able to fight someone like that would be the worst injustice of all for Sun Wukong.

“What made you change your mind, Great Sage Heaven’s Equal?”

“I can always find someone else to fight.”

Grit…

Sun Wukong gritted his teeth. His sharp fangs were exposed as a furious expression filled his face. “But I only have one little brother, you know?”

Sakyamuni nodded at what Sun Wukong said, indicating that he had finally understood it. “It’s for the sake of your sibling, then?”

Although it was difficult to figure out the details, he knew what Sun Wukong’s personality was like.

The Monkey King might be known as the “Victorious Fighting Buddha” who was addicted to battles, but the truth was, he valued his siblings even more than fighting itself.

His First Brother was the Bull Demon King, so he had nothing to worry about when it came to him. The latter possessed the godhood that easily exceeded your average gods and even rivaled Sakyamuni. Even though the Bull Demon King was technically stuck in the demigod realm right now, in reality, he was pretty much a real god at this point.

However, Sun Wukong’s other brothers weren’t like that, especially more so with the last brother, as he wasn’t even a Yogoe but a human.

Sakyamuni asked, “Is this to protect your little brother?”

“Well, it’s a bit weird to say it’s ‘to protect’ him.” Sun Wukong scratched his head at the question. Although not wrong, he got this bitter taste in his mouth when thinking that way. “I found out that my little bro has become incredibly powerful when I ran into him earlier. I mean, he’s already reached the realm of a demigod, just like the First Brother, too…”

“Not everyone can be like The Great Sage who Pacifies Heaven just because they became demigods. After all, he occupies a realm far higher than regular Taoist Gods now.”

“Well, you’re right about that. In any case…”

Sun Wukong recalled Su-hyeun’s figure fighting against the parasite predator, and then, he also thought about the conversation he had with the World Tree while Su-hyeun was unconscious.

“This person is under the burden of a truly cruel fate—a burden too heavy for one life form existing in a simple planet in a simple dimension to carry…The fate that the strength of one person could never overcome, it’s that kind of fate.”

The World Tree seemed to have seen through Su-hyeun’s fate.

Of course, beings who possessed the qualifications of godhood also possessed the qualifications and the ability to escape from the shackles of fate. However, it was never going to be that easy to break free from your fate just because you had the requisite qualifications.

“I shall return again once he wakes up. I’d like to provide him with small help that might allow him to control his own fate.”

A small help that allowed one to control their fate—that was none other than the seed of the World Tree.

After parting ways with Su-hyeun, Sun Wukong continued to mull over the words spoken by the World Tree.

“It’s not to protect him but to help him out.” Sun Wukong then began recalling his fight against the parasitic monster inside the false World Tree. “But I’m just too weak to do that.”

He was simply too strong to judge himself to be “weak.”

He was a being in possession of the godhood called “Immortality.” Even when scouring the entirety of all the dimensions out there, there would only be a handful of gods that possessed the same or similar godhood as him, yet Sun Wukong who was in possession of such incredible godhood judged himself to be too weak.

That meant that he was willingly discarding his confidence and pride.

None other than the one and only Great Sage Heaven’s Equal was willing to do that.

“That’s why I need your help, Muni.”

The World Tree said that Su-hyeun wouldn’t be able to alter his fate by himself. In that case, he shouldn’t have to do it alone.

Sun Wukong gritted his teeth, “Do this for me, please.”

<hr />

The number of dungeons increased exponentially, and with every passing day, that explosive increase relentlessly marched toward a point where the whole world would find it difficult to overcome.

“The SS-Rank Awakener of the United States, Gordon Rohan, has returned from the tower. While displaying a far greater strength than ever before, he has taken the lead in the dungeon raids, and the stocks of his company, the Gordon Company, continue to shoot up in value the more he accomplishes in the…”

Gordon Rohan had come back from the tower. His activities and performances were being reported in both the print and on-air news media.

“What about Kim Su-hyeun?” asked Gordon Rohan, keeping his eyes closed, as he sat in the back seat of this multi-million dollar vehicle, a large sedan coasted in diamond dust.

His secretary riding shotgun in the front passenger seat quickly replied, “Sir, he’s on his way to America.”

“When did you receive that update?”

“It’s been around one hour, sir.”

“That means he will arrive within two hours.”

“Two hours, sir?” the secretary asked back in a fluster, only to hurriedly cover his mouth.

Gordon Rohan was not a fan of people asking back on what he had already said. The secretary had been employed for over five years by now and thus knew what his boss did and didn’t like, but even then, it was rather difficult to accept that only two hours remained until Kim Su-hyeun’s arrival.

Reaching the USA from South Korea in around three hours total? Just what was that man even flying in to get here that quickly, anyway?

“No need to sweat it. I’m also aware that it’s quite hard to believe what I just said.”

“M—my apologies.”

“I’m also not much of a fan of people apologizing.”

“S—sir…”

The secretary didn’t know what to say here, and his eyes darted around in alarm. He was so sure of getting fired right here and now if he chose to say something that soured his boss’s mood any further.

But to his surprise…

“Well, I’m willing to overlook it this time.” Unlike his usual self, Gordon Rohan nonchalantly brushed the secretary’s slip-up, and the secretary soon figured out the reason why. “Because even I was wrong this time, too.”

Screeeech…

The vehicle came to an urgent stop.

Even though it braked suddenly, the car came to a smooth and controlled stop, which was yet another evidence of how top-notch this car was.

Of course, Gordon Rohan riding in the back seat wouldn’t even spare a moment of thought on such a subject. To him, the really important point wouldn’t have been about how smoothly the car came to a stop but how his chauffeur serving him ended up driving in this manner.

The chauffeur also nervously waited for Gordon Rohan’s ire.

But then…

Clunk…

Gordon wordlessly exited from the car. He then walked up to the cause of the car coming to an abrupt halt: Kim Su-hyeun standing right before his eyes.

He spoke up first, “What’s so urgent that you came to see me like this?”

“It is rather urgent, wouldn’t you agree?” Su-hyeun shrugged his shoulders and replied nonchalantly.

Gordon Rohan initially thought that Su-hyeun would need another two hours to get to America, so he couldn’t help but get surprised at how quickly the latter showed up here. “Did you really fly here in around one hour?”

“Yes. I heard that you’re really busy at the moment, so…”

“The number of indigo dungeons in America alone is three. Even if it’s me, it’s impossible to raid all three of them at the same time.”

It truly was a mess at the moment. To think that three indigo-colored dungeons suddenly materialized in the United States of America when finding even one around the world used to be quite difficult…

Once that news got out to the media, never mind the USA, the whole world was thrown into turmoil.

Gordon Rohan was returning from a three-day-long raid of a blue-colored dungeon, and raiding those three indigo-colored dungeons right after seemed rather unrealistic at the moment.

“Where are their locations?”

This was the reason why Su-hyeun came to meet Gordon Rohan.

The American awakener gestured to his secretary. The latter urgently switched a tablet PC on and brought up the map of America on its screen. Three red spots could be seen on this map.

“For now, you should head to the one in Washington. I’ll head to the one in LA. As for the one in Boston, whoever finishes their raid first should—”

“I’ll take care of that one as well,” Su-hyeun replied quickly.

Gordon Rohan furrowed his brows. “Are you trying to say that you’ll definitely finish your raid before I do?”

“No, that’s not it. I’ll be sending my summon to that dungeon.”

Shu-wuwu…

As soon as he finished saying that, the shadow below Su-hyeun’s feet rose and congealed into a solid shape. It soon morphed into the figure of the God of War, Prince Nezha.

Gordon Rohan narrowed his eyes when this creature carrying six different types of weapons on his back suddenly showed up. This was his first time seeing this summon, but even then, he could sense a rather powerful aura emanating from this being.

“So, you want this guy to deal with the remaining dungeon, is that it?”

“Yes. I think it won’t be that difficult for him.”

“But it’s your summon. Is it fine for this guy to get so far away from you?”

“It won’t be a problem, I believe.”

Unlike the other types of summoning skills where the user had to continuously supply their magical energy to maintain their summoned being, Su-hyeun’s Dead Summoning operated on the principle that the summon beings received Su-hyeun’s Death Aura at the beginning and remained active until its energy source was depleted.

Meaning, it didn’t matter how far the summoned being got from Su-hyeun until it completely depleted the energy it was charged up with at the beginning.

And Su-hyeun had injected most of his Death Aura in Prince Nezha as he summoned the latter.

Although the overall efficiency was worse than when summoning multiple creatures at the same time, as a trade-off, it was now basically the same as Prince Nezha possessing a pseudo-immortal body until he depletes all of his energy.

Shu-wuwuwu…

Prince Nezha’s figure disappeared from view. He was heading to Boston right away. His mind was connected to Su-hyeun, so he realized what his role this time was and immediately set out to fulfill it.

“Well, then, I’ll get going as well. It seems that I have another place to get to after I’m done here.” Now that the conversation here was over, Su-hyeun prepared to move out.

Even after he dealt with the three indigo dungeons in America, he still had a ton of places he needed to get to.

“Alright, do that. By the way, you…”

“Was there something else?”

When Gordon Rohan trailed off in his sentence, Su-hyeun found it strange and stopped walking away to ask back, just in case.

Gordon pondered what to say for a little while, took a good look at Su-hyeun once more, and then finally spoke up again, “You know, you feel…quite different from how you used to be.”

“Different? In what way?”

“In the past, you were like a tall mountain—a difficult mountain to overcome but still possible to overcome. That kind of feeling.”

That’s what Gordon Rohan felt when he met Su-hyeun for the first time—a stupidly tall mountain.

But now, the only thing that felt similar was how tall he felt. Everything else just seemed too different from the past.

“But now, you feel just…”

“Just?”

“Like the sky. Yeah, it’s like you’ve become the sky.”

Both were tall, yes, but one could at least attempt to climb up a mountain. However, no matter what a human tried with their natural strength, they could never climb up the sky. Didn’t matter how hard one worked, a human could never become a bird, after all.

“I’m not sure how to put it in words, but that’s the feeling you give off. It’s like at any moment now, you will suddenly become a god or something and ascend to the sky.”

Su-hyeun ended up smirking a little at Gordon Rohan’s observation. At the same time, he was inwardly surprised, just a little bit. Gordon Rohan was basically talking about “ascension” here.

“Who knows, that might come true one day,” said Su-hyeun.

“Wait a minute. For real?”

“Maybe,” Su-hyeun hesitated slightly, unsure of how he should go about answering Gordon here.

But then…

Bzzz, vrrrr…

Without any warning whatsoever, a yellow-hued heat haze shimmered from the middle of the road Su-hyeun and Gordon Rohan stood on.

That indicated the appearance of a new dungeon.

Su-hyeun stopped talking at this sudden event happening right before his nose and frowned deeply. That was the exact same reaction Gordon Rohan had.

“Now that’s kind of irritating,” said Gordon.

A dungeon just showed up right before his eyes. Even though it was irritating, Gordon Rohan still planned to deal with it and get a move on since the raid itself shouldn’t take too long.

But then, Su-hyeun suddenly lifted his hand to stop the American.

“What’s wrong?”

“Please wait and take a look.”

“Look? Look at what, exact—?” Gordon Rohan did as Su-hyeun asked and looked around them, only to end up utterly speechless next.

Vrrr, bzzzz…

Whirrrr…

Bzzz…

Accompanied by intense vibrations, shimmering hazes began rising seemingly from everywhere their eyes could see.

Dungeons began materializing one by one everywhere they could see. Even if the dungeon rate had accelerated greatly recently, this was simply too abnormal.

Su-hyeun, who remained frozen for a bit, spoke up, “For now, let’s go up and take a look.”