Chapter 109

Godly Realm, Supreme Demon Realm.

In the Murim world, storytellers and street warriors vaguely believe these realms represent the pinnacle of realistic martial arts levels.

Becoming immune to ten thousand poisons, gaining the strength comparable to a hundred horses, and performing massacres without lifting a finger—seeing such superhuman martial prowess, it’s understandable why ordinary people or second-rate martial artists might feel as they do.

But the masters of the Supreme Realm and Supreme Demon, apart from me, say that as soon as they reach the realm, they feel like a child suddenly dropped into the vast ocean.

For them, the path of a human transcending humanity to approach divinity is so vague and vast that, when contemplating alone, they occasionally shiver with an inexplicable fear.

This is true for any study.

There is no end to learning, and when you think you’ve reached the peak, another wall appears.

However, if the wall confined to the human dimension is a high and solid obstacle, the path beyond the final wall is like a vast ocean or an expansive desert.

It’s like completing 12 years of public education, surpassing college entrance exams, graduating from university, and somehow crash-landing in graduate school, only to find yourself studying again. From then on, the place you go becomes the path and the destination, leading to panic.

The one difference is that if a graduate student panics, they just become a typical graduate student.

But if a warrior of the Supreme Realm panics, it results in an unprecedented backlash, with small nuclear bombs flying everywhere.

“Let’s try to prevent such a disaster. That’s what I’m saying.”

“So… will there be no chance of me going berserk with my energy or any side effects?”

“That’s right.”

The fire in Hestia’s dining hall flickered.

Hercules and I sat across from each other for the first time in a while, tearing bread into warm barley porridge.

As always, the meals in the Forest of Heroes were abundant.

Today’s menu was porridge and bread made from savory barley blessed by Demeter, accompanied by a fresh sauce salad and yogurt.

When I split the bread in half and made a sandwich with salad and yogurt, I noticed young boys and girls around mimicking my actions.

Those who wouldn’t come within a 10-meter radius.

“Why’s the area around us so empty? We didn’t even do the morning hunt—uh, I mean run—today, after the ruckus at the beach yesterday.”

“It’s rare to see such a packed morning gathering, isn’t it?”

The area closer to Hestia’s fire was considered the so-called VIP section.

Initially, they had been occupied by Orion and his gang, before Neri crushed them and left them to Nemesis’s punishment.

Hercules and his generation of golden heroes had since taken over the space, but today, the entire area was ours.

Typically, this area should be mostly empty in the morning, aside from a few non-combat personnel, but it was as crowded as a military breakfast line.

“Did we have too much fun yesterday? It’s understandable they’d be surprised.”

I noticed the wide-eyed stares of young men and women glancing at us, clearly curious but too afraid to approach.

I made a comment about it, and for once, the mythical boar next to me made a reasonable observation.

But that only made it seem stranger to me.

“Isn’t this the same place where people turn into bugs or beasts every day, and if you blink, lightning beams or solar beams fall from the sky? And yet they’re this rattled over yesterday?”

Were the nerves of Greek heroes within the range of normal people more than I thought?

Even the palace members of the Heavenly Demon Palace, where I resided in my previous life, accepted the appearance of the Four Heavenly Kings getting hit by death beams and flying away as a routine within a week when they came to me for final approval.

“…Well, I’m not in my right mind either, but you have something a bit more extreme.”

“Did I put in too much salt? It’s ridiculously salty.”

-Slurrrp!

Hercules, who made a sandwich similar to mine and stuffed it into his mouth, then downed a bowl of barley porridge in one shot before putting the bowl down.

“Anyway, the point is that you want me to teach you how to handle this power, right?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“That’s right. Remember how Atalanta wiped them all out in the last test? It’s not a loss, is it?”

At present, Atalanta had officially left Artemis’s hunting group.

It seemed that her fan club of crazed worshippers had collectively erased their memories or something.

They had tried to gang up on her during the battle tests but ended up getting trounced by her, becoming part of her legend instead.

Now, impressed by her overwhelming power, the warrior women affiliated with Ares’s children had taken her on as their leader.

“But one question. Take a look at this.”

-Sizzle!

Pure lightning gathered on Hercules’s log-sized arm.

It was the lightning of Zeus, awakened during our previous duel.

“It’s a bit of self-praise, but this is clearly the lightning of Zeus. Even if all the other gods of Olympus combine their powers, they cannot match it, and it is the power of the main god that knocked the mighty Titan king off his throne.”

“Oh…?”

This was somewhat unexpected.

Hercules’s manifestation of divine power or tangible qi had been triggered by his bloodline, awakened through battle.

He was more like a divine beast or demonic beast in this sense rather than a martial artist.

If a martial artist hones and wields energy as both their sword and shield, divine and demonic beasts merely swing it instinctively.

No matter how much a beast wields energy and rampages, it’s merely an extension of instinctual attacks, such as striking with forepaws or biting with teeth, and they cannot control or use it at will.

I thought Hercules would also have difficulties controlling it, as it was not something trained through Martial Spirit Cultivation but naturally manifested energy.

To think he’s already controlling the lightning energy, which is said to be the most difficult and tricky among natural energies…

‘…Ah, damn divine spoon.’

Moreover, it’s such a pure and powerful lightning energy, incomparable to the static electricity that the robust warriors of the Hubei Peng family would manifest on their swords.

As I found myself slipping into a moment of existential dread, I wondered whether I should just quit everything, including giving martial arts lectures.

Amazing Greece, amazing mythology.

To make the pinnacle of anguish feel anguish.

Numerous supreme warriors had gone to extremes, trying to manifest something similar to sword energy on their swords and fists.

Anyone would feel disheartened seeing a steadfast one playing around with fist energy right in front of them.

“Congratulations on your achievement. How did you manage to manifest aura so directly?”

In this world, they use the term “aura” to refer to what I know as energy.

Generally, it refers to the powers and divine strength used by gods, but occasionally, there are those among mortals, like Chiron or Hercules, who can wield it.

However, in Hercules’s case, it is a mystery that he can manifest and control energy without going through spiritual cultivation.

“You see, I always knew there was something stirring inside me.”

Hercules looked at the lightning crackling around his arm with fascination, just like everyone else gathered around the hearth.

“But no matter what I did, I couldn’t bring it out. It was like… a fishbone stuck in my throat.”

In an instant, the overlord of Hubei, the Peng Family, and the Shaolin Sect of the Podalap Palace became fools who couldn’t even find the fishbone in their own throats.

Namu Amitabha.

Or is it Great Zeus?

“Hey, when a person speaks seriously, at least pretend to listen. You seem normal, then keep blinking?”

“Sorry. Go on.”

“Ahem, anyway, Dianes, it wasn’t until I fought you—when you knocked me out—that something changed.”

“What? Since then?”

The first morning run when Hercules and I first clashed.

Orpheus later turned it into an epic ballad, calling it the “Glorious End of the Colosseum.”

“Yeah, and it’s also why I’ve left these scars untouched.”

Hercules proudly pointed to the five marks left on his solar plexus with his thumb, scars from a direct hit by my Five Element Arts.

“Yeah, it was really terrible. It felt like all my guts were bursting out, and the blood in my body turned into boiling oil.”

Just thinking about it made Hercules shiver, but soon, he grinned widely.

“But you know, even in that pain, my spine tingled, and I felt good. Just like the day after getting hit hard by you!”

“…No way.”

“Since then, every time I sparred with you, my body would itch and tingle. Then yesterday, after being thrown into the sea by you, this energy suddenly surged from my heart. That’s how it happened.”

A hypothesis flashed through my mind.

The theory of explosive enlightenment involves my demonic qi rampaging through the five senses: color, temperature, sound, action, and taste.

It affects blood vessels, qi and blood, nerves, muscles, and even cognition.

It stimulates the anguish and impurities that humans naturally possess, causing an explosion within.

For an average martial artist, the greater their internal qi, the greater their anguish, thus the power increases, but Hercules was the exact opposite.

Setting aside his innate strength and solid body, he had no internal qi to speak of.

Therefore, the only energy that the Explosive Heaven Art could provoke and rampage was Hercules’s latent innate true qi.

And even after detonating it, his monstrous body endured such an explosion, and as a result, the impurities in his body were expelled, and his blocked meridians were all opened.

“Haha… this is insane.”

I thought I was merely assisting with blood circulation, but I was unwittingly providing the great Greek hero with a foundation as a rising martial artist.

“Hehehe….”

“Uh… why are you acting like that all of a sudden?”

The mystery was solved.

As I chuckled to myself, head down, Hercules stared at me, bewildered.

But just then, the sound of footsteps approached our VIP section.

“Dianes.”

“What is it, Theseus?”

Theseus, the most handsome and brilliant general in the Forest of Heroes.

However, he had been sharpening his attitude towards me lately.

I let it go since he wasn’t crossing any lines, but today, his voice had an edge to it.

“Hey~ These. You seem busy these days. What’s going on…?”

“Dianes, I challenge you to a duel. If I win, release Atalanta immediately!”

…Oh, for crying out loud.

Do these guys not know the concept of TPO?1

ED/N: Time, Place, and Occasion.