"The Gate of Trial" can be said to symbolize the Zoldyck Family's belief in "absolute strength."
In the future original work, the trio of Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio struggled mightily and only barely managed to push open one gate after special training with Zebro's help, illustrating its difficulty.
"Whoosh~" The palm wind grazed Illumi's cheek as it flew past, the boy standing alone with his back to the wide open gate...
Roy withdrew his hand and casually slipped it into his pocket, walking straight inside past him...
"Follow me." Butler Wutong respectfully bowed to the boy with vacant eyes, unsure of what he was thinking, and pulled Kurajing along, leading her to the butler villa nearby.
"Boom~" The Gate of Trial, without the force to hold it open, closed heavily.
Directly separating the brothers on either side into two worlds...
Zebro watched from the side, shaking his head quietly... In the morning, he heard some idle chatter on the radio about family matters, saying that having a powerful elder or brother in the family is certainly a good thing, but it also means that the later generations or sisters would naturally be "dwarfed."
'How does that saying go again?' Zebro touched his receding hairline, remembering...
"Benefiting from the shade of the elders, yet inevitably destined to live under their shadow..."
"Whoosh~" The early spring mountain wind was still somewhat chilly...
Illumi's empty eyes seemed to finally find focus as he turned around to push open the Gate of Trial again and went in, this time only opening one gate... no longer forcing himself...
"Young master... young master..."
At the stone steps leading straight to the mountaintop... Haseki Dorou, with his shoulder-length white hair, noticed Roy and Illumi walking separately, distinctly one on each side...
He bowed to the two.
Having not seen him for some time, the boy had darkened and grown stronger, having weathered and endured the mountain, but Haseki Dorou appeared lively, with his eyes shining brightly, gazing at Roy with burning battle spirit!
"Young master, I have grown stronger," Haseki Dorou raised his chin slightly, seriously looking at Roy, "Please witness for me, today I will defeat Butler Wutong here!"
Illumi lagged a step behind Roy, raising his eyebrows to look... Roy, leaning on his Staff Blade, clearly stood a step lower than Haseki Dorou but was still a head taller, and even stepping down appeared taller... He didn't stop his steps, merely smiling and patting Haseki Dorou's shoulder, brushing past the boy's shoulder, heading towards the mountaintop...
"Step... step..." The sound of footsteps swept away by the wind, gradually fading...
Illumi glanced at the motionless Haseki Dorou, lifted his foot to follow,
The foolish Mamen Beans seemed to finally catch a "pain point" from Nissan, quickly walking two steps to walk by his side, saying, "I've told you, don't bring people back so casually, and you didn't listen."
Roy remained silent.
Illumi glanced at him, "Now internal conflict arises, you brought it upon yourself."
Roy didn't look at him, seemingly not hearing.
Illumi: "Father once said, killers must act alone, taking another person raises the risk... In such situations, the responsibility is yours."
"Step..." Ascending the final stone step, what came into view was the ancient castle passed down by the Zoldyck Family for centuries.
Roy finally paused, took the time to tilt his head to glance at Illumi, calmly pointing to the large willow tree in the garden, "I'll give you two choices... hang up by yourself, or..."
The boy, leaning his Staff Blade lightly against the ground, as if tapping it directly into Illumi's heart, squinting his eyes said, "I'll hang you up there!"
Illumi: "...."
Stiffening his neck,
Staring at Roy... they just looked at each other for a while, raising his leg to walk toward the willow tree.
He walked past Luke, past Killua, past Silva, past... Milluki, who was lying on the ground, exposing his belly having just been electrically shocked, catching his breath, he kicked him over and flew up the tree, hooking his toes, and simply hung upside down under the willow tree.
The little butler responsible for massaging and healing Milluki shouted out in panic, "Master Milluki!"
In the quiet garden, chaos immediately erupted...
Luke buried his head like an ostrich... Killua stroked his belly, his eyes only for the child inside, seemingly oblivious... only Silva met Roy's gaze through a piece of "chaos"...
Father and son quietly watched for a moment, each moving away.
"Tomorrow morning at eight, I'll wait for you in the training room."
Silva guiding Killua as they walked, said.
Roy, expressionless, said nothing, headed straight for his bedroom...
Entering the door, rounding the corner, stepping into the corridor, he paused, lifting his eyes to see a skinny figure, dry and small, quietly basking in the sun adjacent to the window...
The boy took a deep breath, hastened his steps, drew near, politely greeted, "Great-grandfather."
"Hmm... back?"
"Back."
"Show me your hand."
Roy obediently showed the back of his hand...
Counting down the seconds of "life" the "curse" emerged, directly grabbed by Maha!
Then... Roy, in a daze, seemed to see a giant surrounded by black lightning, wielding a cloak hammer, wearing cloud stepping boots, with a green face and tusks, opening and closing his mouth to inhale and exhale cloud mist, striking the "curse," carrying boundless lightning with a hammer blow!
"Shatter for me!"
"Clang——"
The world shattered...
Roy felt the world spinning, and when he regained his senses, he looked at Maha... the old man was holding his hand, frowning at the still counting down mark, deep in thought...
"Are you afraid?" After a while, the old man asked quietly.
Roy honestly said, "Afraid."
It's like there's a ticking time bomb overhead, knowing it will definitely explode... the fear grows as the end nears...
But, joy shared is joy doubled... the young man smiled and said relievedly, "I'm afraid, and It should be too, otherwise..."
"Wouldn't I be afraid for nothing?"
Roy looked boldly at Maha and said, "I don't care if Grandpa laughs, I think Its biggest mistake was not killing me immediately, and I..."
"Will definitely not give It any 'time' or 'chance', if I can stab It once, I'll stab it a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times... until..."
"I chop It into minced meat!"
"By then, It should be afraid."
"Hmm...." Maha listened quietly, surprisingly didn't refute Roy, let go of his hand, looked out the window where the sun was shining, and said softly, "Your grandfather says you have a big heart, if you're going to be a [God-slaying Hunter], the old man thinks... that's a good title!"
He squinted his old eyes and snickered, "Why should It be allowed to bully my grandson, and my grandson can't cut off Its head?"
"No way!"
"So does Grandpa agree I can go to the Dark Continent?"
"When did I agree?" Maha turned back and glared, "If you dare go, the old man will go up and break Its leg before coming back to break yours!"
Roy: "...."
For a moment, he didn't know what to say,
shrugged and looked out the window, the man walking with Killua sometimes glancing this way, self-deprecatingly smiled, "Maybe Grandpa won't even need to act."
"Don't blame your dad, he's just a blockhead. His actions are out of love for you." Maha carried his hands behind his back and said, "Back in the day, I hit your Grandpa Jager way harder...."
True, almost beat Jager to death under a tree....
"Hitting is affection, scolding is love, our family doesn't play around with 'words', actions are simpler...."
Like Illumi inserting Nen Nail in Killua's head and Milluki hanging him up to whip, right?
If the upper beam isn't straight, the lower beam is crooked, the family customs are like this, need to find the 'root'... Roy looked speechlessly at Maha, jokingly said, "Grandpa's lesson is right, in fact..."
"I love Father too. Since you said it, I'll beat him to death tomorrow!"
Maha glanced skeptically, "You can beat him?"
Roy held the Staff Blade, and honestly said, "I can't... but,"
The young man squinted, "If he wants to knock me down like last time with three lashes, it won't be so easy!"
"Gao!" The Golden Crow spread its wings to cheer for Roy!
Maha seemed to finally notice it, chuckled, and turned his head to Silva, "Did you hear that? Give him a good whipping tomorrow!"
The old man spoke softly, but with Nen attached, it spread far... Silva's calm gaze fell on Roy, nodded silently.
Roy: "...."
He walked away,
soon disappeared.
"Hehehe..." An old laughter echoed faintly, with a hint of comfort and reassurance...
The sunlight cast on the young man, forming a human-shaped halo...
Roy, "feigning anger", hastily returned to his bedroom, tossed the Staff Blade accurately and close to "Yubashiri", landing it on the sword rack.
Without even removing his clothes, he lay down on the soft big bed...
Relaxing his mind, he materialized information provided by Ubuyashiki Kagaya, reading it...
He searched for a few Evil Ghosts, and focused a moment longer on one of them, planning to take a nap before lunch, to remove the fatigue from traveling, and... to gather a wave of "Life Energy" before 8 AM tomorrow.
"Hiss~ ah..." Soon, faint snores started sounding....
Roy closed his eyes, covered his face with a scroll, and fell into a deep sleep, quickly passing through the colorful dream tunnel, reaching the familiar Sea of Cognition, without pausing, he directly pushed open the "Demon Slayer" door and went inside.
[Tip: "Life Energy" +3+4+2+5...]
One, two, three, four, with the information in hand, plus [En] capturing the Evil Ghost's location....
Two nights passed, Roy easily slew four Evil Ghosts, while there was still a bit of time left, before the night faded away, he came to a town about fifty miles northwest of Sagiri yama, where in the original story, Tanjiro encountered his first Evil Ghost after passing the selection——
The place where the "Duplicate Ghost" wreaked havoc!
The "Duplicate Ghost", also known as the "Swamp Ghost", can cross "space" through "swamp" to capture maidens as food... During battle, it splits into three to confront the enemy...
This is precisely Roy's most "focused" target for this trip.
"Duplication" coupled with "Space Swamp"... with the "Hand Ghost" revealing "Arm Regeneration" before, Roy alone, in the dead of night, strolled down the empty streets of the small town, at a certain moment, stopped,
caught a whiff of a nauseating "ghost" scent!