The Hero Returns

Scribble, scratch...

Su-hyeun was drawing something on the ground using his sword.

He was currently on an uninhabited island, something he had deliberately sought out.

"Well, I can't inconvenience the public like the last time, so..."

The training space below the Jongno Tower was large enough to accommodate a magic circle. However, not too long ago, he almost caused the whole building to collapse while doing his thing down there.

He wanted to avoid repeating what happened back then, so he picked out an uninhabited island to draw the magic circle this time.

And it would be far more detailed this time around, too.

"Okay, this part is done, and if I want to strengthen the magic circle's defensive powers even more..."

Su-hyeun skimmed through the grimoire he got as a gift from Ellid.

He might have the memories of the Grand Wizard, but he was still a long way compared to Ellid in terms of magical abilities. As such, this grimoire was proving to be of great help to Su-hyeun.

Shu-wuk...

And so, he spent the next half a day inscribing the magic circle on the entire island.

"This should be enough."

Su-hyeun, who had spent half a day focused solely on the boring task of inscribing the magic circle, lightly dusted his hands off and walked into the center of his creation.

He then quietly stepped on the high-grade Ether stone installed there.

Right at that moment...

Giii-iiing—

Wuuong, wuuong...

The magic circle activated, and the surrounding scenery began changing.

The new background was a simple white space. Several scarecrows about twice Su-hyeun's height could be seen standing around here and there.

However, they were no ordinary scarecrows. This became evident when Su-hyeun lightly punched one of them.

Jiii-iiing—

Woooong,, wuuuong—

The scarecrow seemed to sway for a bit of bit before Su-hyeun's fist bounced back. This fairly sturdy sensation was transmitted through his fist.

A smirk was plastered on Su-hyeun's lips.

It was a success.

"Scarecrows made out of adamantium..."

Of course, they were not made out of real adamantium. Instead, they were nothing more than illusory items created through the magic circle. The sturdiness of these scarecrows was based on the level of adamantium's sturdiness that Su-hyeun had perceived.

"Are you planning to cut down these mere fakes?" the Palm Leaf suddenly said to him.

This was the first time in a long while that the Palm Leaf conversed with him.

The Palm Leaf's emotion was transmitted clearly to Su-hyeun through his hand gripping the sword's hilt.

It seemed that the weapon was pleased about the prospect of fighting with Su-hyeun after a long time.

"It probably won't be easy."

"Will it be, really?"

The Palm Leaf replied as if this whole thing was ridiculous.

It sure sounded confident. However, Su-hyeun didn't dislike this confident side of the Palm Leaf. In truth, he greatly welcomed it.

The blade felt so right in his hand.

The Palm Leaf's wind was the most compatible "ability" with Su-hyeun. The wind attribute enhanced the sword's cutting power automatically, and compared to his other abilities, the Palm Leaf's powers felt most familiar to Su-hyeun, who happened to be a swordsman.

The blade's hardness improved, and it became even sharper than before. On top of this, the power of the winds brought on through the Palm Leaf had gotten stronger by another realm, too.

Su-hyeun lightly kicked the ground and dashed forward while swinging down on the scarecrow.

Screeeech—

Clang—!

The scarecrow was not cut down. However, rather obviously, he didn't even expect that to happen in the first place.

Trying to cut adamantium down with a single strike? Not only that but not relying on any skills and using only the most basic stance, too?

By doing this, he learned something new.

"The recoil is weaker."

He took a relatively strong swing with the sword, but the scarecrow was not cut down. He should've felt the appropriate recoil in his hand, but the impact he felt was noticeably weaker than expected.

In other words, the adamantium blade now possessed the characteristic of absorbing the impact force.

Swish, whoosh—

Clang, claaang—!

Su-hyeun swung his sword around as if he was weaving a net.

Countless sword scars appeared on the scarecrow, but these scars were not deep at all. Instead, they resembled scratches left behind by some other object.

Of course, if other people had witnessed what was happening here, they would've been left deeply stunned. To think that adamantium, boasting the highest hardness and toughness, was left with distinct sword scars.

Su-hyeun continued to wield his sword at the scarecrows for around five minutes before finally enveloping the blade with the winds.

"Well, now then..."

The winds moved according to Su-hyeun's sword swing.

Whoosh, whoosh—

The highly compressed winds instantly became a humongous blade. Su-hyeun didn't even need to walk up closer to a scarecrow anymore.

"This time, I should be able to..."

Shu-susususut...

A dark red aura permeated Su-hyeun's sword next.

It was the final stance of the "Heavenly Demon's Divine Technique."

[Shattering the Sky, Absolute Destruction]

[Palm Leaf]

Whoosh—

Su-hyeun's blade sliced the empty air apart.

Right at that moment...

Split—!

The scarecrow's neck was sliced open.

Kwa-gagagagagah—

Woong, wuuuooong—

The terrain behind the scarecrow was chopped into pieces, causing the rocky debris to break apart and jut upward. His magic circle, constructed as sturdily as possible to prevent the impact force from spreading out, wavered as if it would shatter at any moment.

"I... did it?"

Creak—

No, wait—a little bit remained. The scarecrow's head tilted to the side, still attached to its torso. The little bit of the scarecrow's neck that hadn't been cleanly severed served as proof that he failed to cut through the obstacle perfectly.

He felt a bit rueful about that.

Even so...

"I really did it."

After swinging the sword around for a little while, he began thinking that he could cut his target down. However, this was nothing more than a feeling he got from his hand. His head was still filled with questions.

Was it really possible to chop the head off a scarecrow made out of adamantium?

The result was right before his eyes.

"It makes sense why the Palm Leaf was so confident earlier, then."

He recalled the Palm Leaf's voice as it mocked his doubts earlier.

It was true, after all.

Su-hyeun observed the sliced neck area of the scarecrow.

"The depth I can cut down to is around one hand span, huh?"

Meaning, if he were fighting against an opponent boasting a similar level of defense as to adamantium, he'd be able to cut their head off but not the entirety of their torso.

"For sure, this is compatible with me."

The narrower the wind area, the greater the cutting power would become. Now that the durability of the sword had improved, the strength of the wind pressure had naturally enhanced as well.

The sliced scarecrow was repaired soon afterward.

Su-hyeun raised his sword once more at three scarecrows within his view.

"I can cut them down."

Fire lit up within Su-hyeun's eyes.

For the rest of the day, he focused solely on wielding his sword.

* * *

The number of scarecrows gradually increased.

They kept growing in number one by one until this whole place was practically turned into a forest of scarecrows. Everyone found within Su-hyeun's magic circle was made out of adamantium.

While dashing among the scarecrows, Su-hyeun held his sword horizontally. Winds flowed along with the blade. He deftly swung the sword at the scarecrows.

s

Swiiiiish—!

Adamantium was getting sliced up—and relatively smoothly, too.

Through several trials and errors, he figured out this method and then improved with persistent practice. He got his answer by not firing the wind directly but enveloping his sword in them instead of hitting the target directly.

"I can't utilize all of the sword's cutting power by merely firing the winds."

The key point here was maintaining the winds. Continuously keeping the winds wrapped around the blade without any of them scattering away required quite a high level of concentration.

Thankfully, though, cutting down scarecrows for a whole day for practice did pay off, and he felt a little more familiar with the technique now.

Huff, pant...

Breathing heavily, Su-hyeun stopped moving for a moment.

He had been moving around with an empty mind, causing him to almost not breathe during the practice. When he checked his fatigue level, it had already shot past 70 points.

"I better take it easy for now."

Using the Palm Leaf continuously while maintaining the magic circle had almost drained his magical energy reserve to rock bottom.

Su-hyeun sheathed his sword.

Whoooosh—

The activation of the magic circle was canceled, and the surrounding white space vanished.

Plop—

Su-hyeun plopped down on the spot. He planned to take a short break and get going again as soon as his stamina had recovered a bit.

At this point, he abruptly got a hankering for some food, more specifically, kimchi stew.

"It's really been a while since I enjoyed a proper meal, hasn't it?"

After his physical body ascended to the realm of godhood, he no longer needed to eat something. There was no reason to go out of his way to absorb nutrients because his prana automatically recovered his body to its best possible state.

However, that didn't mean he had forgotten all about the delicious food he used to enjoy in the past. It wasn't to the degree of a voracious appetite. Still, the gourmet-related longing hadn't completely abandoned him even now.

"Should I head back home and get something to eat?"

"Oh hey, can I join you on that?"

A voice suddenly came from the necklace.

Su-hyeun raised his torso, then brought the necklace in front of his eyes. And so, after the necklace emitted rays of light for a little while...

"Tada!"

"Ah. So you came, then?"

When Luslec appeared before his eyes, Su-hyeun let out a long groan.

For some reason, meeting this man always caused a bout of migraine to assault Su-hyeun. Luslec's personality seemed carefree and unrestrained but differently from someone like Sun Wukong.

"It feels like I keep seeing you whenever I'm back on Earth," said Su-hyeun.

"Well, I like this place, you see. And I enjoy your company, too, Mister Su-hyeun," Luslec replied and laughed in good spirit.

Whenever Su-hyeun returned to Earth, Luslec showed up without fail. He got the latter's help numerous times, but despite knowing that Luslec was friendly toward him, Su-hyeun still felt a lingering unease about this man.

For one thing, Su-hyeun knew nothing about Luslec even now.

After pondering for a bit of a while, Su-hyeun made his decision regarding Luslec, "Please don't cause any trouble. Just have fun for a little while before heading back, okay?"

For the time being, Su-hyeun would let him be.

Whatever the case might be, Luslec wasn't someone who would harm Su-hyeun based on everything he had done so far. Therefore, it shouldn't be a big deal, even if he was left alone.

"By the way, I keep hearing a rather entertaining piece of rumor lately."

When Luslec said that, Su-hyeun, who turned around to leave this uninhabited island, had to stop and turn his head back instead.

Luslec smirked deeply after succeeding in his goal of drawing Su-hyeun's attention, "It looks like the system will break down soon."

Su-hyeun's brows twitched at that statement.

It seemed that Luslec knew all about who had created the system and maintained it up until now. He also knew about Master Subhuti's current state.

"You sure do know lots of things, don't you?"

That made Su-hyeun even more curious about Luslec's real identity.

In the beginning, he thought this guy was just another Apostle of some god.

Su-hyeun wasn't that interested in finding out who that god could be, but since he knew the details of the system's existence, the god backing Luslec couldn't have been some ordinary deity at all.

Luslec replied mischievously at Su-hyeun's meaningful words, "I know many people, you see."

"In that case, do you also know where Brahma is?" Su-hyeun asked back just in case.

"Mm..." Luslec formed a troubled expression at that question.

He didn't reply right away.

Since he seemed to know many things, Su-hyeun was silently crossing his fingers. But not even the other Five Godly Sages knew the whereabouts of the Primordial God, so Luslec somehow knew that seemed like too big of a stretch in the end.

Su-hyeun, feeling a bit deflated, lightly waved his hand, "It's fine if you don't know."

Luslec laughed, "I'm sorry about—"

Right at that moment...

RUMBLE—!

A lightning bolt crashed down from the clear blue sky without any warning.

For a moment there, the whole world was dyed in blinding whiteness. In response, Su-hyeun quickly flung himself back to dodge the sudden lightning strike. Luslec did the same.

The lightning accurately landed right in between Su-hyeun's and Luslec's position.

"What was that, out of the blue?" Su-hyeun inwardly asked as he yanked the sword out from its scabbard. He immediately shifted his gaze to the center of the island, currently flashing brightly from the electrical currents.

The currents were taking on the silhouette of a person. Some seconds ticked by, and the electrical currents rapidly took on various hues and solidified the silhouette.

They turned into a blonde-haired man draped in a white robe, who also happened to be someone Su-hyeun recognized.

"Lord Zeus?" Su-hyeun, greatly startled now, called out the Olympian God's name, but Zeus didn't even look at him.

Did he not hear Su-hyeun just now? Or perhaps Zeus heard him but chose not to answer back?

Either way, those questions were a secondary issue here. The priority should be given to figuring out why Zeus suddenly decided to appear in this place.

He should have been out there searching for Brahma, after all.