Return of the God of War - Chapter 9

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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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Chapter 9: Perhaps I Don’t Need to Be Who I Am Right Now
Muk Yeojin descended the stone steps slowly.
Though the interior was sealed as though refusing even a single ray of light, a subtle luminescence rippled beneath his feet, bright enough that the darkness posed no obstacle.
This, too, was the work of an Array Formation.
‘The entire chamber is woven from Array Formations. If there’s anyone in Sadogyugung capable of wielding such sophisticated formations, it could only be the Master of Gwihwan Palace.’
One pillar of the Sadogyugung.
Gwihwan Palace.
Gwihwan Palace housed an assembly of masters versed in Array Formations and all manner of Left-Path Forbidden Arts.
In particular, the Master’s mastery of Illusion Arts had reached a level that could rightly be called divine technique.
Even the masters of the Right Path, who scorned such sorcery, would not dare speak ill of the Master of Gwihwan Palace.
How long had he walked?
When he reached the end of the spiraling stone steps that seemed to stretch endlessly, a worn iron gate stood waiting for him.
Upon the gate were these words:
“Prove your worthiness.”
Muk Yeojin swallowed hard.
‘So it begins.’
Even Muk Iyeon had refused to tell him what awaited beyond this threshold.
She’d said it would be meaningless to explain—that he had to experience it himself.
And then came her pivotal words.
“I did not pass that trial.”
That confession had genuinely shocked him.
‘A trial that even Sister Iyeon failed to pass…’
When Muk Iyeon entered Biryeon Cave, she’d been around thirteen.
At that age, her cultivation must have been at least equal to his current level, if not higher.
Yet she had failed.
It was no ordinary trial, clearly.
But Muk Yeojin’s resolve was not so brittle as to crumble at such news.
‘Whatever emerges, I won’t go down easily.’
Whoosh.
Muk Yeojin took a steady breath before the iron gate.
He rolled his neck and shoulders, loosening the tension that had stiffened them, then pushed open the gate and stepped through.
Step. Step.
Boom!
The moment his body passed completely through the gateway, a deafening sound erupted and the ancient iron gate vanished without a trace.
But Muk Yeojin had no time to dwell on it.
“Hah!”
Before his eyes stretched a thousand-foot abyss, utterly beyond his expectation.
Yet that was merely the beginning.
Below the precipice, a scarlet inferno danced and writhed as though alive.
And what filled that void below was—
‘Are those… people?’
Within the flames, hundreds, thousands of figures shrieked in unending anguish.
If the Fire Demon’s hell existed, surely it was this.
The shrieks were so harrowing his face contorted involuntarily.
‘But this is an illusion.’
Muk Yeojin’s innate sensitivity confirmed it.
This, too, was a form of Array Formation.
Yet the intense heat that rushed up when he leaned forward felt devastatingly real.
‘I need to be careful not to fall into that chasm below.’
Coming to his senses, Muk Yeojin scanned his surroundings and spotted a bridge to his left that led across to the far side.
But it was no ordinary bridge—merely a wooden plank, narrow as a child’s palm.
‘Calling it a bridge would be generous.’
One misstep, and he would plummet into that inferno below.
He looked carefully in every direction but saw no alternative.
‘It can’t be helped.’
With no other choice, Muk Yeojin stepped onto the wooden plank.
Creeeeak!
The bridge groaned and swayed with each footfall, yet Muk Yeojin walked with surprising composure.
One step at a time, slow but unbroken, he advanced.
Halfway across, he drew his awareness even tighter.
‘Easier than I expected.’
Danger always creeps in the moment one lets their guard slip.
It was wisdom about life that Muk Yeojin had learned through his body before the Regression, moving back and forth across the threshold between death and survival.
And true to form.
Whiiiiiiish!!
The instant he passed the halfway point, razor-sharp winds began howling from all directions.
The wooden plank beneath his feet started thrashing wildly in all eight directions.
“Nngh!”
Muk Yeojin crouched low, dropping his center of gravity, and channeled his Internal Force through the soles of his feet, anchoring himself as firmly as possible to the wooden plank with True Energy.
But danger wasn’t limited to that alone.
The flames beneath him flickered with savage hunger, ready to devour Muk Yeojin at any moment as they leaped higher.
‘This is relentless.’
Sweat poured down as the heat intensified beyond comparison to before, while on both sides vicious winds cut through the air like blades in a perilous dance.
Then a voice echoed through Muk Yeojin’s mind.
[If you cry out and give up, you could escape this hell.]
Muk Yeojin let out a short laugh.
‘The path I walk ahead is hell itself compared to this. Don’t waste my time.’
Step. Step.
After a moment to acclimate, Muk Yeojin pressed forward with quiet determination.
The howling winds from all sides, the flames that scorched his skin, the wailing chorus that clouded his mind—none of it could stop his steps.
One step at a time, slow though they were, he moved ahead again.
How much time had passed?
When only fifty paces or so remained to the end, Muk Yeojin couldn’t help but feel doubt creeping in once more.
‘This trial is surely harsh for a child barely ten years old, but not impossible.’
There’s no way Muk Iyeon could have failed to pass something like this.
‘There must be something more.’
With that thought, he took his next step.
Whiiiiish!
Black smoke swirled directly before his eyes.
From within it, a dark figure emerged, walking deliberately forward.
The moment Muk Yeojin saw the face of the person fully revealed, he couldn’t help but let out a heavy sigh.
“Haa…… Whoever built this damn Array Formation—whether it’s the Master of Gwihwan Palace or anyone else—I swear I’ll hunt them down and give them a piece of my mind.”
The black smoke cleared, revealing the figure standing before Muk Yeojin in full presence.
Hair black as pitch, eyes dark with deep regret, and draped across the right shoulder—a massive stone axe, the Great Stone Axe.
In all the Central Plains, there was surely only one person who wielded such a crude weapon.
Her refined voice rang out.
“Long time no see, little brother. Or should I call you ‘older brother’ now?”
Muk Yeojin smirked and replied.
“‘Older brother’ sounds pretentious…… But even so, isn’t it cheating for you to show up here like this, sister?”
The figure that had appeared was none other than Muk Yeojin’s sworn sibling.
Cheon Hwarin, successor to the Cheonma Divine Sect.
* * *
Two figures face each other atop a plank no larger than a palm.
“Since you look exactly as you did just before the Regression, this isn’t a simple phantom, is it? You’ve projected my Psyche here?”
“Sharp as always. That’s right. Not just me, but this entire space is modeled on your inner world.”
“The whole place?”
Cheon Hwarin nodded.
“An endless chasm a thousand lengths deep, filled with vicious flames and countless screaming humans, winds that cut like blades across your body, and…… just one narrow path of life.”
In that moment, her eyes filled with deep compassion.
“Your world is truly desolate.”
“We’ve both lived in worlds like that. But never mind—let’s get to the main point. I’m getting hungry.”
Cheon Hwarin smiled faintly.
“Then here it is. Cut my neck, and you pass the trial.”
Just as expected.
Whoever designed this trial really does have wretched taste.
Thunk!
Cheon Hwarin lightly tossed the Great Stone Axe from her shoulder and leveled it at Muk Yeojin.
“The fact that I’m standing here means you hold me as the greatest presence in your inner world. What do I mean to you?”
Muk Yeojin clenched both fists and took a fighting stance.
“The strongest existence I know.”
Cheon Hwarin nodded and surged forward in the same motion.
“If that’s the case, you won’t be able to defeat me here, little brother!”
The Great Stone Axe in Cheon Hwarin’s hands tore through the air with a terrifying crack, splitting space itself.
Whoosh!
The instant her figure poured forward, Muk Yeojin ducked low, but even so a fistful of his hair was sheared away—he’d escaped by the thinnest of margins.
A bead of sweat traced his spine.
‘Did it actually cut me?’
One corner of Cheon Hwarin’s mouth curled up.
“One moment of carelessness and you’ll truly die, little brother.”
Muk Yeojin’s jaw clenched.
Raw power, blinding speed, and the precision to deploy even a measure of Internal Force exactly where it would bite hardest.
Cheon Hwarin was the closest thing to a perfect Martial Expert he could imagine.
Whoosh!
Muk Yeojin flinched as the Great Stone Axe descended vertically, as if to cleave his skull.
Crack!
“You dodge like a rat, don’t you, little brother!”
He threw himself backward to avoid the axe, barely catching his balance on the wooden platform.
“Wouldn’t you say you’ve grown slower, sister?”
“Such provocation will find no purchase!”
Crack!
The blade’s edge grazed his cheek, drawing a bead of blood.
A paper’s thickness stood between him and her attack—he’d dodged again by the narrowest margin.
In that instant.
Light flashed in Muk Yeojin’s eyes.
‘This Illusion Array isn’t fully capturing sister’s true strength after all.’
After observing her attacks several times over, Muk Yeojin arrived at that certainty.
If she’d unleashed the full might of her prime, he wouldn’t have merely escaped—he’d have plummeted into that inferno below without even realizing his neck had been cut.
A single blessing among a hundred calamities, one might say.
Of course.
‘But I haven’t the faintest idea how to bring down that monster.’
Crack! Crack!!
Cheon Hwarin’s axe came crashing down relentlessly, driving Muk Yeojin backward.
“So retreating the way you came is one method as well, little brother!”
“You talk too much, sister!”
Muk Yeojin, who had been giving ground, suddenly threw himself forward.
It was the opening stance of the Mountain King Dance—the fierce technique he’d trained these past month.
Mountain King Dance, first form.
Tiger Pounce Assault.
The stance evoked a crouched tiger launching itself at its prey in a single, explosive bound.
More than twice the speed at which he’d been retreating.
Even Cheon Hwarin, whose eyes had grown accustomed to his velocity, momentarily lost track of his form.
Closing the distance in an instant, Muk Yeojin struck the axe’s flank with his palm, knocking it aside.
Thud!
“That’s Sovereign’s technique!”
But she was not one to be shaken by such a thing.
Cheon Hwarin possessed both monstrous strength and exceptional bodily flexibility.
Before Muk Yeojin could execute his follow-up, she pivoted smoothly, using the recoil from the deflected axe to spin herself around.
And with seamless grace, she swept the axe toward his waist as if to bisect him.
“Ngh!”
Muk Yeojin’s teeth ground together.
‘There’s no time to dodge.’
Crash!
Unable to escape, Muk Yeojin steeled himself to lose an arm, pouring every ounce of True Energy he could muster into a fist hurled toward the incoming axe.
Then, in that moment.
Whoooosh!
Boom!
Stone axe met fist with a sound that transcended impact, detonating into a deafening roar.
Silence…
Driven back by the recoil, Muk Yeojin stared blankly at his right fist.
Against his expectation of shredded flesh, not a single wound marked his knuckles.
Moreover.
‘Is that… Gangqi?’
Muk Yeojin’s right fist was wrapped in a distinct fist-force aura.
Gangqi was a martial technique that even in his current Chunggi stage, he could only dream of.
‘Yet why does Gangqi cling to my fist? This would require reaching the realm I’d achieved before the Regression…’
Ah!
In that instant, lightning split through his mind.
He understood at last.
‘Cheon said it herself — this world is my Psyche made manifest.’
A world shaped from my own unconscious.
Then didn’t that mean ‘I’ didn’t have to be the ‘I’ of the present moment?
Such is the nature of all things.
Before awareness arrives, even imagination seems impossible — yet the moment understanding dawns, it becomes utterly inevitable.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
The instant he grasped it, the realm of the unconscious transformed into the realm of consciousness.
The thousand-fathom cliff and the inferno of hell vanished, replaced by a boundless grassland stretching wide.
The blade-sharp wind dissolved in a heartbeat, and a gentle mountain breeze tickled the tip of his nose.
The two figures who had stood precariously on that thread-thin bridge now found themselves upon a vast arena laid bare across emerald plains.
“”
For the first time, tension rippled across Cheon Hwarin’s face.
And Muk Yeojin’s face broke into a deep smile.
“Now then, Cheon. Let’s see what you’re truly made of.”
Snap!
A different form than before.
Before the Regression.
An Muk Yeojin in the shape of an adult now stood facing Cheon Hwarin.

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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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