Ascension Through Skills-Chapter 313: Fifth Return to Earth (9)

They had won.

People cheered in joy, embracing each other in celebration of their victory.

However, they couldn’t celebrate forever. Their triumph was not perfect, and there were mountains of things to be sorted out.

"...."

Kim Hwi-yeon scanned the area with a grim expression.

Corpses lay scattered around, forming small mounds here and there.

“...Let’s clean this up,” she said quietly. The people, setting aside their joy, began gathering the bodies.

Tae-san joined them in this solemn task.

Beyond handling the bodies, there was much more to do. They needed to account for the number of surviving players, categorizing them by their respective modes.

Players from various countries naturally began to communicate with one another.

“Um...”

“Hello.”

The Chinese players greeted hesitantly.

Though they’d seen each other’s faces numerous times and fought waves together, this was the first time they had spoken.

Kim Hwi-yeon greeted them with a smile.

“Yes, hello.”

The invisible wall between them began to crumble. Once the conversation started, they continued eagerly.

But not everyone was pleased with this development.

“How dare you!”

Jinryong’s loud voice broke the calm, and the players flinched in response.

“I told you! Do not talk to people from other countries! They will contaminate you!” Jinryong’s body trembled with rage.

A surge of power wrapped around him.

“Are you ignoring my words?”

“S-sir...”

“Lord Jinryong...”

“Just this once, I will mercifully forgive you! But if I catch you speaking to them again, I will kill you all!”

However, the players merely cast uneasy glances at Jinryong. They neither bowed to him nor paid him much heed, only looking at him with troubled expressions.

Jinryong’s face twisted in rage at their attitude.

“How dare you!”

They, as his subjects, had defied his authority!

Even as his power flared, the players’ faces paled, but they didn’t obey. They merely glanced at each other, exchanging uneasy looks.

"How dare you avert your gaze while I speak!"

Jinryong’s eyes followed theirs, settling on Tae-san, who was watching him calmly.

Jinryong, about to unleash his wrath, hesitated.

Fear flickered in his eyes as he looked at Tae-san.

"...Get out of my sight!"

In the end, he couldn’t unleash his power and spat the words out bitterly.

He withdrew, his presence retreating.

All eyes focused even more intently on Tae-san.

Jinryong, once the leader of the Chinese players, was no longer their leader.

He had been revered and ruled with his strength, but without it, he held no value.

Yet now, Tae-san—a much stronger figure—had appeared, and people no longer worshipped Jinryong.

Aware of his waning influence, Jinryong could only watch in silence as it slipped away.

And as for time, it continued to march forward.

Kim Hwi-yeon, organizing the players and survivors with the interim leader from the Chinese side, frowned.

“But why isn’t the quest over?”

“That’s right. We haven’t seen a portal back,” replied Geum Joong-geun. The wave had ended, and since no new quest had appeared, it implied that this was the final challenge.

But no window for returning to the dungeon had appeared.

"Could this really be the end?"

“We haven’t even cleared the dungeon yet; there’s no way it’s over.”

“Then why isn’t anything happening? It’s making everyone uneasy.”

Kim Hwi-yeon muttered. Tae-san emerged from the crowd.

“Take a break.”

“Oh, yes.”

Tae-san launched himself into the sky.

Seeing him soar, the Chinese players knelt with expressions of awe.

Having been under Jinryong’s control, their reverence was more intense and profound than that of the Korean and Japanese players.

Reaching the heavens, Tae-san opened his skill window.

[Divine Power]

[Proficiency: 72%]

[The power of a god. Initially meaningless, it has grown into divine power through the faith of many people. Their belief and worship have turned into divine power, now capable of impacting the world meaningfully.]

Since completing the quest, the proficiency of his Divine Power had risen sharply.

At this rate, he might even reach 100% before the end of this return.

However, upon reaching 70% proficiency, the rate of increase slowed significantly. Though it was normal for growth to decelerate with higher proficiency, the slowdown with Divine Power was unusual.

"Pure faith alone won’t be enough, it seems."

[Once it reaches 100%, you might obtain true divinity. But achieving that with mere millions of ordinary believers? Impossible. So, you wish to transcend mortality, do you?]

Closing the skill window, Tae-san gazed down below.

Countless lives registered in his senses, including Jinryong, who wielded the power of an immortal.

“What to do about him.”

Jinryong, a slave of an immortal and the former ruler of China.

Ever since the wave began, combat restrictions had vanished. Tae-san could kill Jinryong at any time.

But he hadn’t. Jinryong, despite his tyranny, still held power over the Chinese players. Killing him without warning could lead to even greater chaos, so Tae-san left him alone.

Of course, Jinryong had lost the trust and respect of the people. No one would protest if Tae-san killed him now.

Yet Tae-san refrained.

“If I touch him, they’ll come after me, won’t they?”

[They probably would.]

Jinryong was bound to an immortal.

That immortal had their own purpose, enslaving Jinryong to fulfill it. If Tae-san interfered, the immortal would likely turn hostile.

[The life-hungry beast is a unique type among immortals. It doesn’t seek transcendence or envy potential in mortals—it only wishes to satiate its hunger.]

The ghost continued.

[Thus, it’s unlikely it targets you specifically... but if anything disrupts its desire, it’s capable of lashing out at even transcendents.]

This beast, endlessly ravenous, cared for nothing beyond feeding its hunger.

This immortal likely held no interest in the rivalry between gods and demons.

Tae-san had no need to make an enemy of it. For this reason, he hadn’t killed Jinryong.

And the quest wasn’t over yet.

The god undoubtedly had something else planned.

All Tae-san could do now was wait for the god to make their next move.

Everyone chanted Tae-san’s name.

Jinryong’s presence had been completely forgotten by the people. Once worshipped by all of China, he was now forsaken.

Jinryong glared at the crowd with a hardened expression.

They paid him no attention, even though he stood right among them.

"How dare they."

He had been their savior, and now they treated him with such ingratitude!

Rage simmered within him. The people around him noticed, and they quickly backed away, only now acknowledging his presence.

“Oh...”

Their faces bore no trust or reverence—only a desire to distance themselves from him.

Filled with anger, Jinryong prepared to strike them down.

"...."

But he held back, forced to leave in silence.

He was afraid. Tae-san’s power made him feel like an insect. He knew what would happen if he dared harm them.

For the first time, he felt what others had felt upon seeing him.

In the end, Jinryong returned to his quarters in the sky, unable to do anything.

No one worshipped him anymore.

He wanted to kill them all, but Tae-san’s presence stopped him.

Frustrated, Jinryong clenched his fists.

This wasn’t how it should be. This was wrong.

He needed their worship. They should be following him.

“This... this isn’t right.”

His voice trembled with darkness.

A twisted force began to consume his mind.

Through his contract with the beast, Jinryong had gained the skill Life Devourer. Its effect allowed him to absorb the strength of the lives he took.

Even if that strength exceeded his own limits.

Jinryong’s power was not as great as it seemed. But with Life Devourer, he continually absorbed strength beyond his capacity.

This tangled force had been eroding his sanity for a long time.

This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

Until now, he had clung to his sanity, driven by the people’s worship alone.

But that worship had vanished.

Jinryong had gone completely mad.

A twisted smile crept across his face.

“It’s not over yet.”

He shot up to his feet and, stepping out of his tent, screamed to the sky.

“Oh, Great God! My master, you who devours all!”

With bloodshot eyes, he cried out.

“Grant me greater strength! Allow me to serve as your vessel!”

It was a summons.

A slave’s only allowed call to their master, a plea from a mortal who had abandoned humanity.

Jinryong spoke bitterly.

“In exchange, I offer all the Chinese players to you!”

They no longer worshipped him.

They were no longer his to protect.

So he would offer them up. After all, it was he who had saved their lives; who would dare oppose him if he chose to use them?

As his warped thoughts took hold, the sky began to crack open.

The presence of the Great One responded to its slave’s call. Even those below felt a chill and turned their gazes skyward.

“Ooooh!”

Jinryong shuddered, his eyes wide. The Great One was descending—a being so powerful that even Tae-san would appear like an insect by comparison.

The space around them distorted, and from beyond the shadows, a beast’s growl echoed.

“Oh, my god!”

Jinryong fell to his knees, crying out.

“Grant me power! Give me the strength to crush the vile one and dominate this world!”

The darkness beyond the shadows gazed at Jinryong quietly, and its power began to approach him, tendrils of energy reaching out.

“O-oh!”

Jinryong trembled with delight.

He was receiving power—power that even made Tae-san seem insignificant!

As he reveled in ecstasy, he felt a presence behind him.

Jinryong turned with a sneer, only to see Tae-san watching him with calm eyes.

“Hahaha! Look! You insignificant being! I will ascend to a higher plane!”

Jinryong’s mocking laughter filled the air.

But Tae-san’s gaze wasn’t on Jinryong; instead, it was fixed on the beast beyond.

And then... the beast laughed.

The energy meant for Jinryong began to consume him, overwhelming his senses. It wasn’t the power he had expected.

It was devouring him.

Tae-san observed impassively.

“As I thought.”

For an immortal to interfere directly with the mortal world required various constraints. The beast’s hunger was nearly impossible to satiate without using a mortal as a vessel.

So it enslaved mortals, granting them the power to consume life. Whether the slave was consumed by that power didn’t matter to the beast. Their role was simply to feast on lives and feed the beast’s insatiable hunger.

To the life-hungry beast, Jinryong was nothing more than a disposable tool.

“W-wait...”

Realizing the truth, Jinryong tried to pull back, but the beast’s energy held him firmly.

His face filled with terror.

“No! Don’t!”

The beast continued to devour Jinryong, absorbing all the life energy he had accumulated from countless battles within the dungeon.

“Aaaaah!”

Jinryong screamed. This couldn’t be happening.

Once a revered ruler of China, he was now being reduced to nothing.

Despair and fear overwhelmed him, fracturing his mind beyond the bounds of humanity.

At that moment, the darkness reached deep within him.

“Huh?”

Despite losing everything, Jinryong shuddered as pure darkness began to seep into his core.

The darkness asked if he desired power.

Jinryong hesitated, unable to answer.

Even in his broken state, a primal fear filled him. Accepting that darkness felt like it would erase his very existence.

But he was already broken beyond repair.

Without awareness or reason, Jinryong unconsciously answered the question.

BOOM!

At that instant, a massive force lashed out at the beast, sending it tumbling backward with an agonized roar. Its cries, powerful enough to shake the world, reverberated through the air.

CRUNCH.

Yet, the force crushed it effortlessly.

The life-hungry beast, rendered powerless, was banished with a final, despairing wail.

Seeing this, Tae-san stepped forward.

[Tae-san activated Acceleration.]

[Tae-san activated Skill Acceleration.]

With a flurry of skills, Tae-san lunged at Jinryong, his sword aimed at Jinryong’s throat.

CRUNCH.

But a shroud of dark energy intercepted his sword, forcing Tae-san to retreat with a click of his tongue.

“Looks like that won’t work.”

"G-gah...”

Jinryong’s body twisted and convulsed. Tae-san raised his sword.

Jinryong had become a slave to an immortal, twisted and corrupted.

Tae-san had anticipated that if the gods were planning something, Jinryong would be involved, and he was right.

He had hoped to kill Jinryong in the clash between the god and the immortal, but he hadn’t expected the god to overpower the immortal so swiftly.

“Ugh...”

Jinryong’s body continued to twist and distort, losing all semblance of humanity, his sense of self vanishing.

[Oooooh!]

A deafening roar echoed across the battlefield.

As Jinryong’s body collapsed, the system window appeared.

[Special Quest Initiated]

[Defeat the monster.]

[A twisted being that is no longer alive has emerged.]