Chapter 2
Boom-!
With a loud noise echoing in his ears and a strong suction force, Sung-jun who had traversed space and time, slowly opened his eyes.
'Did they separate my soul from my body while moving through space, and then reverse time?'
His once powerful body and vast inner energy were gone. Everything he had achieved as a Demon God had disappeared.
He felt a bit regretful.
If even a little of his power had remained, his future life would have been much more comfortable.
But there was no need to dwell on it.
'I probably couldn't have returned to Earth this peacefully otherwise.'
If he had tried to send his physical body to the past, instead of just his soul traversing space and time as he did now, it would have been a completely different level of problem.
If such a thing had been possible in the first place, the three gods wouldn't have offered him peace.
If they could freely go back to the past and rewrite history and mythology as they pleased, they would have eliminated Lee Sung-jun before he became a Demon God.
'I'll have to build everything up again from the beginning...'
His head was throbbing as if it was about to split, and an indescribable feeling of powerlessness weighed down his entire body.
It was a sensation he hadn't felt in a very long time.
After ascending to the position of Blood Demon, no, after surpassing the pinnacle realm, he had been estranged from the feeling of fatigue.
Sung-jun quickly assumed a cross-legged position and checked his body's condition.
"It's the worst."
Not only were his blood vessels clogged with waste, but even his muscles, the foundation of external martial arts, were at a pitiful level.
There was nothing he could say was good, but what was even worse was something else.
"What's going on here?"
He hurriedly turned his head to look around, seeing abandoned buildings and lifeless trees and weeds scattered in a desolate park.
"This place is, at least, not a safe zone. Sigh..."
Sung-jun let out a short, uncomfortable sigh.
He couldn't help it because the scene unfolding before his eyes was not the peaceful park one might typically imagine.
The park equipment and nearby buildings were broken beyond recognition, and there was no trace of green weeds or trees.
He was a bit surprised, but there was no need to be flustered.
The modern world had changed.
On Earth in 2038, dungeons commonly called "Gates" opened, and numerous awakened ones were born.
By 2048, cultural exchanges began not only with Elves and Beast-kin, but also with friendly Orcs and Goblins.
In 2055, people who had disappeared when the Gates first opened in 2038 returned as Returnees.
All of this happened before 2059, the year Sung-jun was born.
Growing up, Sung-jun had heard many stories of Returnees who suddenly came back to Earth.
Among them were stories of Returnees who fell into Gates rather than urban areas upon their return.
"Did I fall into a Gate too...?"
He couldn't be certain.
This landscape wasn't familiar, but it wasn't completely absent from his memories either.
To be precise, it was a scene he couldn't forget.
It was similar to the place he was forcibly transported to the continent after running away from home.
Frowning, Sung-jun calmly organized his thoughts.
'I'll know if this is really Earth once I start moving.'
The probability that the gods had lied was extremely low, given that they had staked their origins on it.
However, it could also be a trap set with their lives on the line.
Nothing could be certain in this situation.
With cold eyes, Sung-jun calmly assessed the situation.
'As the gods said, all my power is gone.'
Instead, he had returned to what seemed to be the park before he was forcibly transported to the Thousand Continents.
Although nothing about the situation was pleasing, fortunately, all he had lost was his power as a Demon God.
The memories and experiences stored in his soul remained intact.
This allowed him to maintain composure despite the somewhat confusing situation.
'No need to jump to conclusions.'
In times like these, it's crucial to exclude hypotheses that come to mind and only believe and accept what you see with your own eyes.
Sung-jun slowly scanned the topography of the area, turning his head.
His gaze and movements were full of caution.
While gathering accurate information through direct observation and experience was important, the top priorities were 'safety' and 'survival'.
'The good thing is that I don't seem to sense any special presence nearby...'
But he couldn't let his guard down.
Having lost all his power, he couldn't trust his senses.
Even when he first regained consciousness, there was a loud noise in his ears.
The buildings nearby could have been abandoned and collapsed due to neglect and aging like the park, but there could also have been third-party intervention.
If there was third-party intervention and that entity wasn't friendly towards him?
If he had the power of a Demon God it might be different, but with his current weak body, he could die.
Naturally, he had no intention of dying pathetically in a place like this.
If this wasn't Earth, he had too much he still wanted to do - from getting revenge on the three gods who had humiliated him with lies, to living a happy life with his family.
Having assessed the situation, Sung-jun quickly decided on his next course of action.
'I should recover at least a little strength to prepare for any situation.'
Fortunately, aside from feeling very heavy and tired, his legs were moving as he willed.
Thud-
Sung-jun looked around and hid his body in what appeared to be the ruins of a convenience store that had collapsed to form a sort of shelter.
Although it looked somewhat unstable, it wasn't bad for temporary use as it was made of fairly sturdy debris that could block enemy sight.
With this, he had secured minimal safety.
Now, what remained was to recover his strength.
'It shouldn't be difficult.'
This wasn't arrogance.
In Sung-jun's mind, there was knowledge about 'martial arts' accumulated over decades.
Although he couldn't recover to the level of when he was called a Demon God right away, he was confident he could build enough strength to protect himself.
'Moreover, there's quite a lot of qi flowing around.'
Perhaps because civilization had collapsed and people no longer lived here, he could feel a considerable amount of qi flow, no less than in the past continent.
'I should be able to use the Blood Spirit Asura Divine Technique right away.'
The Blood Spirit Asura Divine Technique is an internal martial arts method that draws out the energy of an Asura with the power of blood.
It's a divine technique that can only be learned by those who have reached the position of Blood Demon, the pinnacle of the Blood Sect and called the ruler of all things.
Of course, being as great as to be called a divine technique, it couldn't be easily used even with the abundance of qi in the atmosphere.
It was too fierce and powerful for an ordinary adult male body like his current one to handle.
However, for someone like him who had been praised as a Demon God beyond a Blood Demon, it was a different story.
He had acquired vast knowledge by mastering all martial and demonic arts of the continent.
In fact, Sung-jun had not only reached great completion in the Blood Spirit Asura Divine Technique but had even advanced it one step further.
Therefore, he could proudly say that he knew about the Blood Spirit Asura Divine Technique better than anyone else.
He was confident that he could mold this lowly body into a vessel capable of receiving the Blood Spirit Asura Divine Technique.
With a relaxed smile, Sung-jun immediately moved his body to assume a cross-legged position.
This is the essential posture when starting internal energy cultivation.
Normally, such a posture wouldn't have been necessary, but with his current lowly body, it was nonsense to think otherwise.
Still, thanks to the memories and experiences stored in his soul, less than 10 minutes after assuming the cross-legged position and concentrating his consciousness, the world he perceived began to change.
"Heuup..."
As he slowly inhaled, he could feel the energy permeating the world being sucked in through his nose and mouth.
Because he had closed his eyes and concentrated his consciousness, the sensory aspects that he couldn't see through his vision were conveying more than sight could.
Feeling the energies leisurely swimming through his body, Sung-jun carefully opened his mouth and began to recite the incantation of the Blood Spirit Asura Divine Technique.
'All things are creatures made of blood, so the power of blood is no different from the power and will of god.'
The energy that had been flowing stably suddenly began to rage wildly.
Powers too great to be contained in his weak body try to break free from his bodily control.
A pain that feels like it could tear his entire body apart surges through him, with such violent and explosive energy that it wouldn't be strange if his body burst open right now.
Amidst this dizzying sensation, Sung-jun gritted his teeth, clinging to his sanity.
He had to endure.
This is a method that contains a violent power like an Asura, true to its name.
Therefore, if one couldn't properly handle the Blood Spirit Asura Divine Technique, what Sung-jun was doing now would inevitably be extremely dangerous.
Not only the inflowing qi, but even the blood within his body was going out of control and rampaging.
If he couldn't control it, it meant death.
He would face death with the terrible pain of qi deviation.
'Heuup...!'
Therefore, Sung-jun swallowed his groans and heightened his concentration to never lose consciousness even in the midst of this dizzying sensation.
The beginning was the most important in the Blood Spirit Asura Divine Technique.
This strange internal martial arts method, created by the first Blood Demon who proclaimed himself the master and ruler of all things, was like a living organism.
If it judged that one was unqualified, the power of the Blood Spirit Asura Divine Technique would become a truly dangerous internal method that tried to dominate and subjugate even its master.
It becomes a tyrant that endlessly rampages at will, like an Asura.
However, if one could subjugate it, the internal energy created by the Blood Spirit Asura Divine Technique would become the power of an Asura wielding the most violent force.
So, one must not show even the slightest weakness.
One must dominate and subjugate it with an unwavering mind that absolutely will not fall.
The energy that seems about to go berserk instantly rotates endlessly inside his body.
The blood flowing through his veins swells as if about to burst, causing terrible pain that makes his entire body burn hot, even dominating his mind.
From the start, this wasn't pain that such a lowly body could endure.
However, Sung-jun hadn't started this without knowing these facts.
He believed in the efforts and endurance he had built up.
Although it felt arduous and painful right now, compared to the memories of his past where his entire life was stained with blood and he had to struggle to survive, it wasn't that painful.
Those days were truly like hell.
But in the end, he survived.
That's why he could be confident this time too.
'I can endure this.'
No, he will subjugate it spectacularly.
The fierce determination that had allowed him to rise from an ordinary young man to the Blood Demon, the ruler of the Blood Sect, and even to the position praised as a Demon God, burned within him.
With an immovable heart, without letting out even the slightest groan, as he was enduring this hellish pain...