The Hero Returns

"You mean King Yama?"

King Yama was a name Su-hyeun was well aware of.

That famous being appeared not only in the Journey to the West but also in many other well-known mythical tales. He was known as the chief gatekeeper of the netherworld, as well as its resident judge.

He was also an absolute being who compiled the registry of death.

"Do you know him personally, Third Brother?"

"Nah, I only ran into him once. He's a dude who judges dead people and records them and stuff... After running into him, I ripped up my registry, and that somehow turned me into an immortal."

That was indeed a famous tale, the one about Sun Wukong becoming invincible and unkillable after erasing his name off the death registry during his run-in with King Yama.

He became an immortal in that manner, so rather unsurprisingly, he "knew" about King Yama in reality, indeed.

Guuu-wuuuong—

The massive presence at the far-off distance was rapidly approaching.

As the distance narrowed, the sheer presence felt from that man's footsteps also grew more prominent and more stifling. It felt like someone had reached out, grabbed their hearts with bare hands, and then began squeezing tighter and tighter.

Su-hyeun gulped back his saliva, then asked a question, "What kind of an existence is he?"

"Back then, he was kinda like a next-door uncle with a big physique." Sun Wukong's explanation sounded rather far removed from the atmosphere emanating from far away. "But, uh, for some reason, he seems pissed off today."

"You can't tell why?" Su-hyeun scanned their surroundings. "I think I know, though."

"Mm? How can you possibly know that?"

"Third Brother, how will you react if some random punk enters your house and sets it on fire?"

"What do you mean, how?! Imma break all of that punk's limbs and yank out his eyeballs, and then—" Sun Wukong's expression crumpled in anger from just a simple hypothesis, but then, he immediately went, "Ah! H—hey?"

"Yes, that's our current situation."

Just like Su-hyeun did a second ago, Sun Wukong also scanned their surroundings.

They were in the Hell of Scorching Heat, a higher-tier prison meant to lock away gods and Predators.

It was also King Yama's domain that he gatekept himself, acting as its judge. To an individual like him, each hell in existence was basically like a house where he was standing guard as the sentinel.

Unfortunately, Su-hyeun was the culprit responsible for turning one of those hells into a charred piece of craggy land.

"Well, this is seriously bad," Sun Wukong muttered, prompting Su-hyeun to nod in agreement.

This was indeed bad.

That ball of incredible rage that was closing in on them quite rapidly right now was all caused by Su-hyeun's handiwork.

Since this was the Hell of Scorching Heat, there was no such thing as escaping from King Yama. Either they had to endure his rage somehow or find a way to resolve it.

"At least," Su-hyeun rose from his spot and took a deep breath once more, "We should go and say hello."

However, he didn't unsheathe his sword. He was thinking that talking came first before fighting.

Sun Wukong also rose to go along with Su-hyeun.

Su-hyeun's fatigue level had barely recovered by then and was at 48 at the moment.

* * *

He dragged his slightly lethargic body forward and eventually spotted a large figure so far away that it resembled a small dot.

The distance, as seen through the naked eyes, was quite considerable. However, that large figure rapidly closed the distance, eventually growing larger and more prominent in their view.

Su-hyeun stood still and stared back at that being. The giant, with slightly reddish skin and a voluminous formal suit, had a somewhat crumpled expression.

As expected, King Yama was angry. It was so evident that using Insight was unnecessary. He seemed to be trying hard to control himself, but even so, the anger he felt must've been truly difficult to contain.

"That uncle... Yeah, he's definitely pissed," Sun Wukong muttered in a slightly nervous voice as if he too was thinking that way.

Seeing Sun Wukong getting this scared would be a first for Su-hyeun.

"Is he that scary, Third Brother?"

"You will see what a totally insane old man that dude is," Sun Wukong replied with a haunted face.

Su-hyeun kept silent at that.

King Yama's nearly five-meter-tall frame was now fully identifiable to their naked eyes.

He was smaller than Fafnir that showed up not too long ago. Therefore, at the very least, Sun Wukong wasn't intimidated by King Yama's size.

Bang, bang!

King Yama continued to walk forward with heavy steps and approached the duo while making a stern face.

Now that Su-hyeun took a look at him up close, Yama was unexpectedly agile-looking despite his tall height. The latter's glare was locked firmly on only Sun Wukong at the moment.

He said, "So, it was you, the monkey I saw back then."

King Yama's voice was as expected, thick, deep, and rather coarse. He bent down slightly. Then, while looking at them both, he asked Sun Wukong a question, "Have you been well?"

"Yeah, sure, I'm doing okay. It's been a while, Yama."

"You're still as insolent as ever," Yama said before he began chuckling.

He must've been happy about this unexpected reunion because both his voice and his expression during the chat with Sun Wukong revealed that his rage had cooled down to some extent.

He came here trying to find the culprit responsible for wrecking his hell, but it seemed that Sun Wukong's presence was the cause of this subtle change.

"However, I'm not in such a good mood right now."

"Could it be because of this place?"

"At least you noticed. That's good," King Yama nodded as he replied. "Some punk dared to wreak havoc in a territory under my rule. That individual stole away over half of all the heat existing in Hell of Scorching Heat."

"Well, uh, that is—"

"I'm the one responsible," Su-hyeun cut Sun Wukong off and stepped forward.

Yama's gaze slightly shifted over to him. He looked down from above initially before bending his knees to match Su-hyeun's eye line as much as possible. "You're a god with considerably high status, aren't you? Does that mean I need to bow down to offer my greetings or something?"

His attitude took a noticeable turn from when he was chatting to Sun Wukong.

His voice contained apparent hostility and even mockery, too. Since Su-hyeun expected something like this—no, maybe something even worse—he didn't panic at this development.

Now was the time to have a dialogue first.

"Even if I sincerely apologize, you can't graciously gloss over it, yes?"

"You are asking something so obvious," Yama snorted derisively during his reply.

The exhaled air from his nostril emitted an incredible heat. Su-hyeun, whose divine Flame's status had risen so much that not even the heat of this hell could faze him, couldn't help but notice how intensely hot that snort was.

At this moment, Su-hyeun erased his last resort—battling King Yama and escaping from here—entirely out of his mind.

That was because King Yama had softened his animosity toward them, all thanks to Sun Wukong's presence next to Su-hyeun.

"Even so, please allow me to apologize to you. It is our fault for entering your land without permission and messing with it as we pleased."

"Hmph. At least you have some manners," King Yama, his arms crossed, nodded at Su-hyeun's submissive attitude.

It seemed that his anger had been appeased just a bit more.

His personality didn't seem to be as complicated as Su-hyeun initially suspected. Since Yama must've been alive for a long time, his nature could have been as complex as the Bull Demon King or even Master Subhuti. Still, somewhat surprisingly, he leaned much closer to being straightforward and simple like Sun Wukong.

Even so, words weren't going to be enough to brush aside the matter of one of his hells being messed up. Su-hyeun quickly brought up the next part of the conversation he had prepared beforehand, "I'd like to make a couple of offers to you, if I may."

"Offers, you say?"

"Yes. First, I promise to restore this hell to how it was within one year. I will even make it hotter than before as well."

King Yama's eyes sparkled a little at what Su-hyeun said. That wasn't such a bad offer.

He pondered something for a little bit, then, with a faint grin, asked, "You said it's the first one, so there's surely a second offer, right?"

Su-hyeun nodded and replied, "I shall gift you with another hell."

"Another hell, you say?"

"How about a hell Osiris is currently lording over?"

A brief bout of silence descended in the area.

After hearing Osiris' name, King Yama pointed at Su-hyeun with a finger as large as the latter's head, "You punk, are you saying that while knowing what kind of creature Osiris really is?"

"One of the Three Destroyers and the king of the underworld. Does he not occupy the same position as you among the Predators?"

"So you do know. In that case, do you also know that the bastard 'took away' a portion of the hells under my rule?"

Su-hyeun's brows rose at that revelation.

Osiris took them away from King Yama?

Now that was a statement that was quite hard to believe.

To think that King Yama, who possessed a nature as unbendable as a thick strip of bamboo and was capable of exerting this much pressure on Su-hyeun, ended up losing the realms under his rule.

"It sounds like you mouthed off a promise you can't even keep. Kekeke. You see, I've lost nearly 1,000 realms to that bastard, Osiris. I still have 8,000 remaining, but you two decided to wreck one of them."

"I'm really sorry about that."

"Well, then, let me ask you again. Are you saying that you'll return all one thousand hells Osiris has taken from me? Is that it?"

Su-hyeun contemplated his answer to Yama's question before nodding his head, "Yes, result-wise, that what will happen."

"Result-wise?"

"That's because I'm bound to fight Osiris sooner or later."

Su-hyeun understood that instinctively.

Osiris was an existence at the top of the Predator ladder. If he wished for the end of this universe just like Shiva, then it was inevitable that he'd clash against Su-hyeun sooner or later.

And when Osiris was dead, it was rather apparent that all the thousand hells under the Predator's rule would end up returning to King Yama's hands.

Therefore, result-wise, it wasn't that far removed from Su-hyeun's goal.

"Hmm..." King Yama pondered something, then asked once more, "Do you have another offer?"

It seemed that regardless of what the offer was, he was thinking of listening to every single one on the table.

"The last one is..." And in the end, Su-hyeun was forced to say one thing he didn't want to say to King Yama. "If you're not happy with either of those offers, then we will have to defeat you in this place."

"... "

Quite some time ticked by. The heavy silence extended for a while. Since King Yama didn't say anything, Su-hyeun also couldn't say anything.

Sun Wukong, not wanting to butt in during the two's negotiation, simply chose to plop his butt down on the ground nearby. Wondering what was going on now, he alternated his gaze between Su-hyeun and King Yama dozens of times, and eventually...

"Uhaha, uhahahaha, uwhahahahaha!"

Yama exploded into a fit of booming laughter.

Gu-wuwuwu...

His laughter overturned the sky, and the ground with hardened lava cracked open everywhere. As if to reflect the change in King Yama's mood, this large hell seemed to be rocking unstably as well.

Su-hyeun thought, "Did I say something I shouldn't have said?"

He immediately made a troubled expression, wondering if he had run his mouth unnecessarily here. The same applied to Sun Wukong nearby.

King Yama was an existence beyond the understanding of both Su-hyeun and Sun Wukong.

If his laughter alone were enough to rock an entire realm to this degree, then they couldn't even guess what might happen if he decided to flick his hand or some such.

King Yama guffawed while holding his belly for a long while and barely managing to wipe away a trickle of tears on his face, "I thought you were joking, but you were dead serious, I see. Uhahahaha! S—serious... you were serious! Ahahahaha!"

"What's so funny?"

Yama laughed even louder like a madman at the new question and eventually plopped down on the ground. His abdominal muscles must've been hurting from all that sustained laughter.

"Your first offer was the most realistic one, yet you still came up with two more offers. Should I tell you why you did that? The second offer is something you'll have to do eventually, while the third one is something you've been secretly wishing for."

"It's what I wish for?" Su-hyeun's eyes went round from something he hadn't been aware of.

However, he found himself unable to deny that. Even he had to admit that he would probably think that way, too.

And that realization sent a chill down his spine. Because it meant that Su-hyeun's personality of avoiding fighting if possible had developed a crack somewhere.

When he thought about it some more, it became even more apparent, too.

"Even if it was not brought up, this problem still could've been resolved peacefully," Su-hyeun inwardly said.

The third offer was based on his decision to fight back while putting his life on the line. If King Yama did not wish to resolve this matter peacefully, it was only inevitable that they would end up battling.

However, there was no need to say that out aloud here. Su-hyeun understood this.

Even so, he still brought up the fact that he had considered fighting King Yama in this place—all because he unconsciously desired it.

"As expected, I'm reluctant to choose the first offer. The second one is the most profitable, but honestly, I'm also interested in the third one."

It seemed that King Yama was also interested in fighting Su-hyeun.

He pondered something and then opened his mouth once more, "However, what about doing this for me instead?"