Hell of Scorching Heat

It was hard to tell whether this place was on the ground or up in the sky.

Master Subhuti had brought them to a place filled with heat intense enough to melt one’s skin down and burn one’s soul merely by coming in contact with anything.

Su-hyeun furrowed his brow, then shielded his eyes from the intense piercing light.

There seemed to be more flowing lava than solid ground offering stable footing in this place. It all kind of felt like he was standing in the middle of a volcano going off.

“It’s boiling in here.”

He wouldn’t have felt this hot from some regular lava, though. The thing was, he had the divine Flame, which granted him a high level of tolerance toward most types of fire so that an absolute majority would feel lukewarm to him at this stage.

Even Hellfire—the fire that originally burned in the netherworld—felt lukewarm to him, so it was safe to say that Su-hyeun’s Godhood of Fire was a higher class than what your average gods possessed.

“These flames are hotter than even Hellfire. Forget about physical bodies; they might even burn one’s soul to ashes.”

He bent down a little and dipped his hand into the lava. It felt like he had just dropped his hand inside a pot of boiling water.

As he pulled his hand out, Master Subhuti asked him from behind him, “Wasn’t that dangerously hot for you?”

“If it weren’t, I wouldn’t have pulled my hand out, sir,” Su-hyeun wiped off the lava clinging on to his hand.

Sweat had soaked his whole body like a deluge by now.

Sun Wukong was not fairing any better as he was plopped on the ground, panting heavily with his tongue sticking out like a puppy stuck in a stifling summer day. “Uncle, just why are we even in this place?”

Master Subhuti shifted his gaze over to the sagging Sun Wukong, who was quite clearly defeated by the heat, and replied calmly, “For the time being, we’ll be living in this place.”

“Uh? Eeeeh?!”

“I’m sorry?”

Sun Wukong and Su-hyeun displayed a similar reaction at the same time. They couldn’t tell if it was even possible to eat or sleep in an insanely hot place.

“This is a prison of sorts where Predators and even gods are locked up.”

“Wait, not humans but actual gods?”

“Unless you’re not a god on the level of the Five Godly Sages… and a Predator on the level of the Three Destroyers, you will never escape from this place. The one guarding this place is none other than King Yama, after all, a true neutral, who doesn’t favor any sides.”

King Yama was the “gatekeeper” of Hell and served as the judge of the dead. The stories about him were easy enough to hear. Never mind those who got to meet the individual in question, it was tough to find someone who knew what King Yama even looked like in reality.

“As such, you two will have to stay in this place from now on. No, let me correct myself there. You must now try to escape from this Hell of Scorching Heat.”

“Can’t we just retrace our steps back in that case?” Su-hyeun looked behind him at the doorway leading into this Hell of Scorching Heat.

The opaque doorway was the same one they used to cross over into this place with Master Subhuti. It also happened to be the same sort of passageway used to hop over to different worlds.

But then…

Subhuti replied, “It’s impossible.”

“How come?”

“Didn’t I say it already? This place is a prison meant to lock up not humans but gods and Predators. Of course, there is no easy way to escape from here.”

He was right about that.

A prison would only be helpful if the prisoners couldn’t easily escape. Just about every god knew how to create doorways to travel to other worlds, so if left unchecked, they should be able to escape from this Hell of Scorching Heat relatively easily.

“He wasn’t lying,” Su-hyeun thought.

Su-hyeun tried to open a doorway himself but could only frown deeply when his gate seemed obscured by something and turned blurry before disappearing altogether.

The passage that led inside was open, but the path back was undoubtedly blocked.

This situation reminded him of a certain famous saying all of a sudden.

“If you wish to return, though, I can always speak to King Yama about it. You aren’t here to repent for your sins, after all, but even if that’s the case, you still won’t be able to leave with your powers.”

They wanted to escape from the stifling, choking heat as soon as possible. But even so, Su-hyeun and Sun Wukong were unable to say that was what they wanted immediately.

“There must be a reason why you brought us here, correct?” Su-hyeun asked.

Subhuti nodded slowly, “The most optimum way of training is to undertake harsh training akin to self-torture. I’ve been saying that for what feels like an eternity to Wukong. These days, I’m sure his ears hurt just by listening to it again.”