The Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong (1)
The message that appeared the instant Jang Lee-hyun climbed onto the altar and offered the ceremonial wine cup.
You have successfully solved every riddle!
The ritual has been completed.
And then,
The owner of the king's tomb prepares for resurrection.
The hidden form of the king's tomb is revealed!
⏳ Time remaining until revelation: 15:00
“It’s done!”
“Wow!”
The hunters’ faces brightened with relief.
At last, the life-threatening crisis seemed to be over.
They felt overwhelming gratitude toward Jang Lee-hyun, the man who had pulled them back from the brink.
‘We were supposed to be first-rate hunters ourselves…’
‘We really showed off in front of a damn swan.’
‘How has someone like him stayed completely unknown until now?’
Now that the tension had eased, the true weight of his performance finally sank in.
His exceptional crisis judgment.
The charisma that bent an entire raid team to his will with a single sentence.
The intellect to solve every riddle instantly, and the martial dominance that crushed monsters despite his crippled body.
The phrase “equally skilled in both civil and military affairs” came to mind.
‘How the hell do we recruit him into our guild?’
While the other hunters’ eyes sparkled with the same ambition as Lim Won-young’s as they stared at Lee-hyun,
Lim Won-young herself could not smile so easily.
‘Is this really the end…?’
Something about the situation felt wrong. The shift from before was simply too extreme.
And sure enough.
It happened at that exact moment.
Rumble!
With a violent tremor, the ground beneath their feet began to split open.
“W-what the hell is this!”
“The ground is cracking apart!”
“Careful! Those holes are way too deep!”
The forest collapsed. Stone monuments toppled like dominoes. Hills rose and eroded all across the terrain.
The dungeon itself was reshaping.
In that instant—
Crack!
The altar beneath Jang Lee-hyun shot skyward in one piece.
Crackle.
“……!?”
“Order…?”
Suddenly, Lee-hyun’s voice rang out from the hunters’ brooches.
Lim Won-young snatched the brooch from the hunter beside her and shouted desperately. She wanted to run straight to him, but the earthquake made it nearly impossible to move.
Yet Lee-hyun’s voice remained perfectly calm.
The hunters’ faces stiffened. Self-destructing dungeons were real, after all.
“……!”
Lim Won-young was speechless. She wanted to demand why he had to be the sacrifice, but—
“……!”
Just as he warned, the earthquake grew even more violent. The boss room’s floor had completely collapsed, forcing the hunters to retreat all the way to the outer perimeter.
“Team Leader, we have to leave now.”
“We can’t let Hunter Jang’s sacrifice be meaningless. Come on!”
The other hunters rushed over and grabbed Lim Won-young’s shoulders.
Lim Won-young’s lips moved silently. Then, with a hardened expression, she suddenly hurled something toward Lee-hyun.
He caught it on reflex and froze.
It was a heavy red jade ring brimming with powerful energy.
‘A holy relic…!’
Lee-hyun nodded heavily.
Holy relics were not something shared lightly, even among family. The fact that she had entrusted him with one showed the depth of her respect.
He was truly grateful for Lim Won-young’s heart.
She gave him a small smile and turned away. The moment her back was to him, her expression changed—now resolute and steely.
00:11:47
There wasn’t much time left.
“Everyone sprint for the exit. Full assault formation.”
“Confirmed.”
“Confirmed.”
The hunters began running in the direction Lee-hyun had indicated. The injured rode on the back of the Jangsan Tiger Lim Won-young had summoned.
She intended to return with a rescue team the moment she reached the surface. She was the raid leader, after all. She had only left the clear to Lee-hyun because she had no choice if she wanted her people to survive. She refused to dump every last burden onto an outsider from start to finish.
“……”
Lee-hyun kept his eyes on them until they vanished completely. The red jade ring now sat on his left index finger.
“……They’ve all left.”
From his high vantage point, he could see the dungeon’s terrain shifting nonstop. Only now could he finally relax and focus on the finale.
This moment was one he had no desire to share with anyone else.
It was the chance his brother had given him.
‘There might still be unknown dangers ahead, too.’
If he felt any guilt toward White Burn, it was only a little. After all, he was about to claim every reward from a dungeon that technically belonged to them.
Still, without the Hwaan Geumjeong—the key to the boss room—the Monkey’s Den had always been an impossible dungeon to clear. He planned to repay them later with far more than what he took here.
He had no intention of answering their kindness, or Lim Won-young’s, with betrayal.
Countdown ended.
The king's tomb is revealed!
Beneath the completely collapsed floor of the boss room lay another hidden area.
A massive glass tube of incredible width.
Inside slept a giant golden monkey dozens of meters tall.
Goooooo—!
“……!”
Simply looking at it made his heart sink. The sheer presence was overwhelming. Instinct screamed at him to lower his head, to drop to his knees.
Such a being could never be ordinary.
Only those who had reached the heavens could emit such pressure.
People called them gods.
“Sun… Wukong.”
The moment Jang Lee-hyun whispered the tomb owner’s name—
Flash!
The golden monkey trapped inside the glass tube opened its eyes.
It felt like pillars of light were shooting into the sky.
Then—
Shhhk…!
The giant monkey’s body dissolved into tiny particles that swirled through the air before gathering at the altar where Lee-hyun stood.
The particles fused together, forming a long staff.
A brilliant golden staff that looked as if it had been carved from the sun itself.
—Heaven and Earth Suppressing Divine Iron.
—Ruyi Jingu Bang.
Lee-hyun read the ancient characters engraved on the staff and clenched his fist tightly.
After spending so many years chasing Sun Wukong, there was no way he wouldn’t recognize it.
The symbol of Sun Wukong.
It was the Yeouibong.
Lee-hyun swallowed dryly.
At last, the past four years of effort had borne fruit.
At the same time, a question he had set aside earlier resurfaced.
This place was clearly a “tomb.” A grave built to honor a dead king.
Then why was Sun Wukong buried here?
And more importantly, why was the name “Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong” broken in the item description?
‘Was there more to the story behind the Hwaan Geumjeong that I don’t know?’
The moment that doubt crossed his mind—
Flash!
A small cluster of light burst above the Yeouibong, and a tiny baby monkey appeared.
It was an adorable monkey with pure white fur like an albino.
Yet for some strange reason, Lee-hyun found him terrifying.
The baby monkey had been grinning at Lee-hyun, but suddenly tilted his head.
Then he narrowed his eyes.
* * *
Goooooo—!
Despite his cute appearance, an overwhelming pressure crushed the surroundings.
It was the exact same presence he had felt from the giant golden monkey—only far more savage and violent.
It felt as if the monkey would devour him at any second.
The baby monkey—Sun Wukong—growled.
The fangs visible between his small lips gleamed with cruel hunger.
Had he assumed Lee-hyun killed the qualified person and stole the Hwaan Geumjeong?
Lee-hyun bowed his head before the pressure could intensify further.
“I greet the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong. My name is Jang Lee-hyun.”
“I came here in the original owner’s place, following his last wish to find the Great Sage.”
A faint wrinkle appeared on Sun Wukong’s cute brow.
The crushing pressure that had been weighing on Lee-hyun vanished.
Lee-hyun let out a quiet internal sigh and calmly explained everything he had gone through.
How hard he had worked for the past four years to find any trace of the Great Sage.
The wrinkle on Sun Wukong’s brow deepened.
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
Sun Wukong remained silent for a long time.
The shock of learning that the person he had waited for was dead and someone else had come instead was that great.
Sun Wukong’s Fiery Golden Eyes flashed once before dimming. He had checked whether Lee-hyun was lying.
“I do not. I only know that the monkey immortals who gave me the Hwaan Geumjeong had some kind of purpose.”
Sun Wukong let out a hollow laugh.
“……”
He scratched the back of his head in irritation.
At that moment, one of Lee-hyun’s eyebrows twitched. It sounded like he was mocking Mun Su-chan’s death.
A laugh that could have been admiration or ridicule.
Suddenly, Sun Wukong’s golden eyes filled with utter emptiness.
Resurrection?
In that instant, all the scattered questions that had piled up in Lee-hyun’s mind finally clicked together.
“This may be rude to ask so suddenly,”
Lee-hyun somehow felt that Sun Wukong’s circumstances might be similar to his own.
“Were you perhaps killed by someone?”