Return of the God of War - Chapter 34

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 34. What sort of fool was he?
Before Muk Yeojin fully unleashed his Lightness Skill beyond the sect’s grounds, he glanced over his shoulder.
‘They’re not following anymore.’
The warriors of the White Wolf Squad.
Muk Yeojin had sensed their surveillance weeks ago but had deliberately kept that knowledge hidden.
If he’d let on that he’d noticed, the next time they’d surely send masters so skilled that tracking them would be impossible.
Tap!
Muk Yeojin pushed off the ground and shot forward, cutting through the cool night air.
‘Why did the White Wolf Squad suddenly start watching me?’
The exact reason eluded him.
Yet Muk Yeojin judged that their attention would only serve him—never harm him.
The White Wolf Squad was an isolated island unto itself among the powers of Sadocheon.
Warriors who answered only to the Lord’s command.
That they had moved meant one thing: his father Muk Woomyeong’s will was at work.
As long as Muk Yeojin had not surrendered his claim to Great Power within Sadocheon, that interest would surely be a sign worth gaining.
Muk Yeojin accelerated toward the northeast.
His destination: Qinghai Lake, and somewhere within it—an Underwater Cave.
Inside lay an ancient tree that bore the Immortal Spirit Divine Fruit.
The one who had revealed this treasure’s location to him was none other than—
‘Cheon Hwarin.’
His sworn brother’s eldest sister.
The absolute ruler of the Demonic Martial World.
The Young Patriarch of the Heavenly Demon Divine Religion.
Whether she held the title of Young Patriarch now, he could not say.
In his past life, he’d first met her well into his twenties—over a decade from now.
In that previous life, it was Cheon Hwarin who obtained the Immortal Spirit Divine Fruit.
Yet she had not boasted of it like some proud fool.
Cheon Hwarin was never a talkative person by nature.
But at some point—
Looking back now, around the time when the war with the Woneum Religion had intensified, her words had grown noticeably more frequent.
And most of what she spoke of concerned Fortuitous Encounters she had herself experienced.
Where certain spirit medicines lay hidden, who possessed which secret arts, when great upheavals would shake Zhongyuan itself.
Back then, he hadn’t understood why she’d told him these things.
But now he knew.
He’d realized it precisely after the Regression.
‘It must have been from that point.’
At that juncture, Cheon Hwarin had resolved to send him back into the past.
Already then, she had accepted that her own strength alone could not hold back the Woneum Religion.
Yet Cheon Hwarin fought on with desperate ferocity until the final moment.
‘To show me.’
He’d thought they all fought together, but the truth was she bore the entire burden alone.
‘Damn her, damn that sister…….’
If she had only revealed the truth of her Regression to them then.
To Maeng Ak, to Jang Pyeong, to Baek Yeommin, to him.
Any one of them could have shared her burden.
……
Yet on the other hand, he understood Cheon Hwarin.
The mere knowledge that someone was a traveler of Regression could twist the future in unpredictable ways.
‘So if at all possible, until everything comes to an end…….’
Until the day the Woneum Religion was erased from the world entirely.
Keeping his nature as a regressor secret from everyone would be the soundest course.
Even if that meant hiding it from the sworn siblings he trusted more than life itself, or from the mother more precious to him than his own existence.
Boom.
Muk Yeojin shook off his brooding and drove his legs harder.
‘Set aside complicated matters for now. First things first—the immediate task at hand.’
* * *
After that, Muk Yeojin ran without pause.
He stopped only to take meals, giving no thought to rest, to the journey itself, considering nothing but the destination and the relentless forward march.
When night fell and a village appeared, he would lodge at an inn; if the terrain was mountainous, he simply slept under the stars.
Having grown hardened by sleeping rough before the Regression, he found nothing strange in that practice now.
A little over ten days had passed since Muk Yeojin departed from the main compound.
At last, he arrived at Qinghai Lake.
Qinghai Lake was Zhongyuan’s greatest saltwater lake and its foremost inland body of water.
It was said to be a colossal precious mirror bestowed upon the Qingzang Plateau by nature itself—a vista of such breathtaking beauty.
After taking in the landscape for a moment, Muk Yeojin headed toward an inn in a nearby village.
A young attendant who spotted him came scurrying over.
The attendant, observing Muk Yeojin’s appearance, asked with keen tact.
“Welcome, traveler. Will you be lodging with us?”
“Yes. A quiet room for about four days. I won’t need lunch or dinner, but breakfast—make it hearty, plenty of meat. Can you manage that?”
“Of course! Just so you know, we do require payment upfront. Is that alright?”
Muk Yeojin nodded and paid the sum.
As the hour was late, he retired early that night to shake off his weariness from the journey.
The next morning.
As he ate the meat dumplings and broth the attendant had brought, he asked a question.
“Do you happen to know of a place around Qinghai Lake where there’s a rock shaped like a dragon’s head?”
According to what Cheon Hwarin had told him, the location of the Immortal Spirit Divine Tree was beneath Dragon Head Rock, in an underwater cave.
The attendant tilted his head uncertainly.
“Well, you see, Qinghai Lake is so vast that there must be dozens of rocks with such appearances scattered around its shores.”
“I see.”
He wasn’t disappointed.
He’d never expected it would be that easy to find in the first place.
After finishing his meal, Muk Yeojin immediately began circling the perimeter of Qinghai Lake, examining the surrounding area.
Dragon Head Rock wasn’t a specific geographical designation—it was merely Cheon Hwarin’s arbitrary description.
As a result, each time he spotted what might have been a beast-shaped rock, he had no choice but to dive into the lake and check beneath it.
Though spring warmth already hung thick over Guangxi, where the Sadocheon main compound lay, Qinghai itself was cold enough that even at the height of summer one would wear a long robe—such was the chill of the region.
Naturally, Qinghai Lake held a cold that bit deep into the marrow.
“Damn it. If you’re going to tell me at all, at least be precise about it.”
Unless one possessed the Cold-Heat Immunity body, maintaining one’s temperature inevitably consumed Inner Energy.
But he had no way of knowing how many times he’d need to repeat this ordeal.
Moreover, he had to account for the possibility of unforeseen circumstances—instances where he might need to deploy his martial techniques—so he was forced to always preserve his reserves.
Which meant enduring this brutally frigid water with his bare body.
By the end of the first day, he returned to the inn looking like a drowned rat, having gained nothing.
Even on the way back, he remained vigilant, checking to see if he’d missed anything.
After four days of madly deploying his Lightness Skill and diving into the water hundreds of times over,
Muk Yeojin was finally able to discover a rock of unusual shape.
Yet it fell somewhat short of truly resembling a dragon’s head.
‘That’s more badger-headed than dragon-headed… Could it be?’
And as it always is, that “could it be” is what catches people.
With the badger-headed rock at his back, Muk Yeojin dove into the lake and saw, in that deep distance, the mouth of a cavern carved into the depths.
‘Dragon Head Rock indeed!’
If he’d become fixated on the literal words “dragon’s head,” he would have wasted away running along the lakeshore doing nothing but Divine Technique training, only to return empty-handed.
Could it be…
Were all the locations where Cheon Hwarin had told him Fortuitous Encounters awaited like this?
He’d trust it wasn’t. Sister.
“Pfft.”
Muk Yeojin briefly surfaced, breaking through the water.
Since the cave lay deeper than he’d anticipated, he needed to take a deep breath before proceeding.
“Haah!”
Splash.
Muk Yeojin headed straight toward the cave entrance using the Underwater Swimming Technique.
The entrance was barely narrow enough for a single man to slip through.
Muk Yeojin, now so powerfully built that his musculature was visible even beneath his clothes, had to squeeze and compress his frame to barely wedge himself through that gap.
After passing through quite a lengthy entrance, he could see above—the glimmering light of the surface filtering down.
“Gasp!”
The moment Muk Yeojin’s head broke above the water, he gasped for breath.
Had he not drawn a deep breath before diving, he would have suffered considerably.
“Hah.”
White mist poured from his mouth, and his face had gone ashen, drained of color.
It was a sign of how much his body temperature had dropped.
Muk Yeojin immediately began circulating his Inner Energy to restore his body’s condition.
A low rumble echoed through the cavern.
Color was slowly returning to his face.
Only then could he spare the attention to examine his surroundings.
‘It’s not as dark as I expected.’
Though far from bright, phosphorescent mosses underfoot cast a gentle glow that lit his way forward.
Muk Yeojin wasted no time pushing deeper into the cave.
Thump, thump.
How far had he walked?
Suddenly the passage widened, opening into a vast chamber.
The first thing to catch his eye was the colossal tree that dominated the center of the space.
‘So this is the Immortal Spirit Divine Tree.’
If so, then those fruits no larger than fingernails hanging among the verdant leaves could only be Immortal Spirit Divine Fruits.
But in that moment, rather than rush forward, Muk Yeojin stepped back and surveyed the area with care.
As he had heard, the Immortal Spirit Divine Tree was said to be protected by a Guardian Protection around it.
That protection was the Blood King Grass.
From leaf to stem to root, it was a flower red as blood, and if anyone ventured too close to the sacred tree, it would instantly release a venom so potent it was said to be catastrophic.
The venom of the Blood King Grass was known as the ultimate poison—deadly enough to claim any martial master who lacked Poison Immunity in the instant they breathed it in.
True enough, the Blood King Grass with its crimson petals crowded the ground on all sides of the tree.
Muk Yeojin had not achieved Poison Immunity, but he had something to rely on.
‘The Lotus Wheel.’
If the Lotus Wheel functioned as intended, it should be capable of shielding him from the Blood King Grass’s venom.
Yet he remained human, and a thread of apprehension he could not shake away persisted.
Turning his head slightly, he caught sight of bleached skulls half-buried in the earth between the stalks of grass.
These were likely those who had once sought the Immortal Spirit Divine Fruit, only to succumb to the poison and perish on the spot.
‘If the Lotus Wheel fails to work as it should…’
Gulp.
His throat tightened involuntarily.
But Muk Yeojin’s hesitation did not last long.
Step.
The moment he took a bold stride toward the Immortal Spirit Divine Tree, the Blood King Grass began releasing its venom as expected.
In an instant, the vast chamber filled with a suffocating haze of toxin.
Hiss-hiss-hiss-hiss-crack!
Simultaneously, the Lotus Wheel vibrated and began drawing in the venom that had entered his body, absorbing it in mere moments.
‘Excellent.’
Confirming that the Lotus Wheel was functioning normally, there was nothing left to fear.
Muk Yeojin quickened his pace and rushed toward the Immortal Spirit Divine Tree.
And at last, he stood before the fruits.
There were three fruits in total.
If the fruits bore only once every hundred years, this meant nearly three centuries had passed without anyone harvesting them.
He had intended to give the fruits to his mother, but with three fruits and only needing two for that purpose, he would have one left for himself.
‘A windfall indeed.’
With such joy in his heart, he reached out to pluck the fruits—
When a massive shadow suddenly fell across him.
Slowly turning his head, what he saw was a colossal stone.
But it was no mere boulder—it was a weapon. An axe, to be precise.
An enormous axe hewn from stone: the Great Stone Axe.
And beyond it, a girl with dark hair and dark eyes, her features still bearing the softness of youth, glared down at Muk Yeojin.
“Who are you? What are you doing?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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