Chapter 92: Return

Maeng Ye-ju regained consciousness only long after Wind-Passing Great Sage had vanished. As soon as she rose, she searched for Sa Do-woong’s whereabouts.

“You killed him? We won?”

“Yes.”

“Woo-hyun, you… caught him?”

Maeng Ye-ju asked with a startled face. Her last memory was of Wind-Passing Great Sage charging forward and getting sliced in half, so the only one who could have captured Sa Do-woong had to be Jang Woo-hyun.

“I didn’t do it alone.”

With help from Maeng Ye-ju and Wind-Passing Great Sage, Jang Woo-hyun had managed to strike Sa Do-woong, and eventually, he brought him down.

“……”

Maeng Ye-ju silently looked at Jang Woo-hyun.

‘Is that even possible?’

Sa Do-woong’s condition had been far from normal, which was why they had gambled on the confrontation. Frankly, they hadn’t been sure of success. With no viable way to turn the situation around, they had charged in with nothing to lose—and they had truly brought him down.

Before Maeng Ye-ju lost consciousness after exhausting all her strength, she had seen Wind-Passing Great Sage’s upper and lower body separate. In that moment, she had known instinctively. It was over.

She understood that Jang Woo-hyun had trained in a special martial art and could exert power beyond his cultivation level, but even so, Sa Do-woong was a cultivator of the Transcendence. She had thought it impossible to fight him without Wind-Passing Great Sage. Yet he had brought him down alone. A cultivator of the Boundless Realm, no less.

Moreover, seeing that all his limbs were intact, he hadn’t suffered any serious injuries like she had.

Maeng Ye-ju found the situation hard to believe and asked various questions. The more she heard, the stronger her desire for Jang Woo-hyun became.

‘I must take him with me, no matter what.’

Jang Woo-hyun was still unknown. If other sects found out about his abilities, they would surely try to take him. Maeng Ye-ju had no intention of letting such an outstanding martial artist be taken by another sect.

‘I’ll try to persuade him on the way back. There’s still time.’

After sorting her thoughts, Maeng Ye-ju quickly made a decision. Then she pulled out a small octagonal plate from her Inner Robe. Even without arms, she pulled out and handled the item effortlessly.

“What is that?”

“Half-Heaven Needle of the Middle Heavens. It lets us locate ourselves in the Central Heavens Martial Realm. What this needle points to is Okchu Mountain, where the Samcheong Grand Tai Chi Sect is—the center of the realm.”

“So it’s kind of like a compass?”

The octagonal plate floated in front of them using Void Telekinesis.

The red needle on it did not point in any single direction, instead swaying back and forth constantly.

“Why is it doing that?”

“Because we’re far away. Looks like this is the outskirts of Central Heavens Martial Realm. Well, if Bi Ik-ryeon and his crew were plotting something, they’d need a place like this. Once we head generally in the right direction and fly, it’ll stop swaying and point straight. Let’s go back for now.”

Maeng Ye-ju took out the Flying Apparatus, and the two began their journey.

“They didn’t know either?”

“Yeah, you… uh, because you got angry? In a rage, you stormed out, and while we were beating him, we asked—but the guy didn’t even know who exactly he was serving.”

As they flew on the Flying Apparatus, Maeng Ye-ju shared what she had learned from the cultivator in Sa Do-woong’s stronghold.

“He just knew it was some great being.”

“Is there any meaning in serving something without knowing what it is?”

“I don’t know either. But that being must be granting them power. That’s probably why they believe and follow. Those selfish cultivators wouldn’t serve anyone unless there was something in it for them. From their perspective, as long as there’s profit, they might not care who it is.”

Jang Woo-hyun couldn’t comprehend the idea of serving an unknown entity, but after hearing Maeng Ye-ju’s explanation, it seemed cultivators didn’t see it the same way.

“I don’t know exactly what kind of being it is, but it seems those guys planned this after hearing something from a True Immortal of the Upper Realm. We’ll probably find out later once we capture the leadership of the Ascension Cult and squeeze it out of them—who gave them help.”

At the mention of the Ascension Cult, murderous intent naturally radiated from Maeng Ye-ju’s body. To calm her down, Jang Woo-hyun changed the subject.

“But… that Suwang? That being? Who is he?”

“Ah, the Divine Suwang. A Martial God from the Suwang Sect. You know what a Martial God is, right?”

“I do not.”

Faced with a completely unfamiliar term, Jang Woo-hyun answered confidently. Maeng Ye-ju, staring at him blankly for a moment, then snapped out of it with an “Ah!” on her own.

“You said you only came up recently, right?”

Nodding to herself, she continued speaking.

“You know what a True Immortal is, don’t you?”

That much, Jang Woo-hyun did know.

A being called a true immortal.

Someone who ascended to that upper world—referred to as the Upper Realm or the Grand Realm.

“It’s a similar term. In the Cultivation Realm, they’re usually called True Immortals, but in the martial world, those who ascended to the Upper Realm are called Martial Gods.”

Martial God (武神).

It wasn’t some exaggerated alias like those used in the Central Plains.

They were beings who had transcended the Central Heavens Martial Realm and reached the next world.

Those said to have reached the end of martial arts and transformed into gods.

“He’s one of those people. The Divine Suwang, Cheonrang Yeolje. As you can tell from the name, he’s a Martial God of Beastkin origin.”

The moment he heard the name Cheonrang Yeolje, Jang Woo-hyun felt goosebumps rise across his body.

‘What is this?’

He hadn’t noticed before due to his rage, but now, just hearing the name made his body tense.

“Getting chills all of a sudden? Feeling nervous?”

Jang Woo-hyun silently nodded and gripped the sword hilt.

“That’s normal. Just hearing the name of someone from the Upper Realm exposes you to their energy. For those with weak martial arts, it could even cause serious injuries or death.”

“Death? Just from hearing a name?”

Could hearing a name really cause something that serious?

“Yes, it happens sometimes. In the case of an evil True Immortal, just knowing their name can drive someone mad. That’s the influence of the ones above. They’re not called gods for nothing. That’s why you mustn’t speak their names carelessly.”

“But you just said his name, Senior Maeng. Is that okay?”

To Jang Woo-hyun’s question, Maeng Ye-ju smiled.

“For Beastkin or members of the Suwang Sect, it’s okay to speak his name. Not so for other races or sects.”

“Ah…”

Thinking back after hearing this, he realized that the cultivator they had captured also mentioned the Divine Suwang or the wolf, but never directly spoke the name.

‘Unbelievable, seriously.’

As someone from Earth who had never seriously considered the concept of “gods,” Jang Woo-hyun found the story he had just heard difficult to accept.

To think that simply calling a name could cause death or insanity.

Even with martial arts, spell formations, monsters, and countless races and powers, understanding a being with overwhelming strength called a “god” was another matter.

‘Beings in the Upper Realm, a dimension even higher than the Central Heavens.’

They were truly divine entities that existed differently from Earth, even if one had never seen or met them.

Furthermore, some people could communicate with these beings called True Immortals or Martial Gods, and that power was affecting the Middle Realm below.

‘Senior Gwak definitely said the beings of the Upper Realm can’t exert much power on the Central Heavens…’

If that was true, then even just a fragment of their power was enough to cause this much influence.

They truly deserved to be called gods. There was a reason they were known as Martial Gods.

“Then… if what that guy said is true, it means they managed to draw power from such a great being. Isn’t that pretty serious?”

—By a stroke of luck, we learned that the Divine Suwang had disappeared, and we discovered a way to find his power within the blood of the Beastkin. Perhaps when he vanished, fragments of his power were passed on to the Beastkin.

The words of the cultivator they met in Sa Do-woong’s stronghold resurfaced.

They couldn’t believe everything he said, but Jang Woo-hyun and Maeng Ye-ju had seen the results with their own eyes.

Sa Do-woong’s unexpected rise in cultivation and martial artists who had crudely stepped into the Transcendence. Even if it had gone slightly off track, creating such cultivators was no small feat.

“It’s serious. That’s why I just reported it directly to the Division Leader.”

The two had been flying through the air for several days, and when the Telepathy Division became operable, Maeng Ye-ju descended onto a small Floating Stronghold to contact the Suwang Sect. Naturally, since it was internal affairs of another sect, Jang Woo-hyun hadn’t listened in.

“This isn’t something to take lightly. The sects of the Central Heavens Martial Realm will be summoned.”

“Which sects are coming?”

“The Three Clans do whatever they want, so they probably won’t come. Among the Ten Sects, a few like the House of Demon Horse might skip, but more than half should gather. We just need to head straight to the Samcheong Grand Tai Chi Sect’s main division. That’s where the meeting is. You know Samcheong Grand Tai Chi Sect, right?”

Even Jang Woo-hyun was well aware of the Samcheong Grand Tai Chi Sect.

Foremost among the Ten Sects and the central sect of the Central Heavens Martial Realm.

It was an Orthodox Sect, and many ascended cultivators and righteous martial artists belonged to it. Furthermore, the sect leader of the Samcheong Grand Tai Chi Sect was also the highest-ranked among the Seventeen Lords who led the Central Heavens Martial Realm.

“There are things we’ll need to report, too. Since we were the ones who experienced it directly. Let me thank you in advance. You’ve gone through a lot because of us.”

“It’s no problem.”

If it meant getting to see martial artists from other sects, Jang Woo-hyun didn’t feel the least bit bothered.

He continued flying for several more days, listening to Maeng Ye-ju talk about the Central Heavens Martial Realm.

And during that flight, a question came to mind.

‘But how is there day and night here?’

The Central Heavens was unimaginably vast. Judging by the number and size of its Floating Continents, if it were a planet, its scale would be beyond comprehension. If it rotated on its axis, the day that Jang Woo-hyun experienced should have been different.

He had no particular interest in celestial bodies, so he didn’t know whether a day should be shorter or longer based on a planet’s size, but with something this massive, it had to feel different from the 24-hour day he knew.

Yet, the 24-hour cycle—the day as he understood it—felt largely the same.

‘Is it not a spherical planet, but a flat plane?’

As he tilted his head, thinking that maybe the sun and moon moved across the sky while the world remained still, Jang Woo-hyun saw something for the first time and was stunned.

“Senior Maeng…”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Um… that. In the Central Heavens Realm, are there usually three suns?”

“No, nine. Looks like today it’s three.”

At Maeng Ye-ju’s nonchalant response, Jang Woo-hyun tightly closed his eyes.

“……”

Why was he only now noticing this?

No—that wasn’t it. He had looked up at the sky before. The last time he did, there had definitely been only one sun.

A world that defied understanding. A world that defied common sense.

That was the Central Heavens Realm.

“Why? Ah! Because the Lower Realm you were in had only one sun? Central Heavens is different from the Lower Realm. But even in the Suwang Sect, there’s someone who ascended. They say that story is passed down in the Lower Realm too, right? That there were ten suns and someone shot them down.”

“…Someone shot down the suns?”

“Yeah? There’s a myth like that. About shooting down nine of ten suns with arrows.”

“Hitting the sun with an arrow? That doesn’t even… huh? Wait…”

Now that he thought about it, Jang Woo-hyun did know a myth like that.

Hou Yi.

A heavenly figure from ancient times who descended to hear the prayers of humans, vanquished rampaging monsters, and shot down the ten suns that had suddenly appeared with his bow.

He had read about it not in the Central Plains, but back on Earth. It was a famous story.

“See? Looks like you know something too. Where do you think those nine suns went? They’re here.”

“…So you’re saying the suns from that story are connected to the suns in Central Heavens?”

“No, that part was a joke. I don’t know if they came here or not. Still, the stories from the Lower Realm often get passed on across worlds in similar form, and many are connected to the Central Heavens Realm. Some are jumbled up. Same with the story of the suns. It’s strange, but in the Lower Realm, there’s a legend about shooting down nine suns with arrows, and here in the Central Heavens, when all the suns rise, there are nine of them. Also, there’s another tale… yeah, some people even knew Wind-Passing Great Sage depending on their world.”

“Ah…”

Though he didn’t remember the name Wind-Passing Great Sage clearly, Jang Woo-hyun had understood right away when he first heard the term Seven Great Sages. One of the monsters among the Seven Great Sages was so famous it had been unforgettable.

It seemed that the stories passed down through worlds had some influence. Even if not passed down accurately. Then, Jang Woo-hyun realized something.

‘Wait? These are stories I learned on Earth.’

He hadn’t heard them in the Central Plains after crossing over. The tales of the Seven Great Sages and Hou Yi had all been from Earth.

‘If the stories passed down from the Lower Realm are passed on in similar forms and are connected to the Central Heavens… then is there some connection between Earth and this world?’

When he first heard about the Seven Great Sages, he hadn’t thought deeply. At the time, he had just arrived in the Central Heavens Realm and was too busy processing information. But now, hearing Maeng Ye-ju’s words, he felt he needed to look into it.

‘If it means the worlds are connected, there might be a way to return to Earth. Maybe I can even find out why I ended up here. What if Earth is just one of many Lower Realms? But if that’s the case, then people on Earth are way too ordinary. They can’t use any abilities at all…’

From an unexpected story, he had found a small clue. Thoughts and speculations continued to unfold in Jang Woo-hyun’s mind.

The chain of thoughts was cut off by Maeng Ye-ju’s words.

“We’re here.”

Maeng Ye-ju motioned with her chin toward the front. Jang Woo-hyun turned his head to look where she pointed.

“……”

As soon as the scene entered his vision, Jang Woo-hyun was speechless.

Even from a great distance, he could sense the scale. The closer they got, the wider his mouth opened.

“Incredible, right?”

At Maeng Ye-ju’s words, Jang Woo-hyun couldn’t even answer—he simply nodded. The sheer size of it gave him a headache.

‘How is this even possible?’

Since arriving in the Central Heavens, he had met Beastkin, seen armless races, automaton puppets, Flying Apparatuses, and floating ships and strongholds. But the tree before his eyes was on another level.

He was overwhelmed by its enormity. The tree’s height exceeded that of an average mountain. It had to be at least ten ri tall.

A world with three suns. A tree that seemed several kilometers tall. Once again, Jang Woo-hyun’s sense of common sense was crumbling.

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