I remember watching my sister train in our garden. That was one of the first things I remember. She swung her wooden sword rapidly from side to side. Her white hair was tied back, sweat was on her forehead, and she was devoting all her strength to proving herself. I never understood why she was so obsessed with proving herself to our father.
He could never be pleased with anyone. Maybe it was because of my mother's death. I never saw him smile. He was always frowning, frightening people.
I remember watching my sister train in our garden. That was one of the first things I remember. She swung her wooden sword rapidly from side to side. Her white hair was tied back, sweat was on her forehead, and she was devoting all her strength to proving herself. I never understood why she was so obsessed with proving herself to our father.
He could never be pleased with anyone. Maybe it was because of my mother's death. I never saw him smile. He was always frowning, frightening people.
At the same time, though, I understood my sister. I had the same desire to prove myself to him as he did. However, our goals weren't the same. I wanted to prove myself to my sister. I wanted to step out of her shadow and walk beside her. However, she was soaring so high and so fast that it was impossible to catch her.
Helping people ease the pain of failure wasn't something I did intentionally. I simply understood how they felt. When I saw a child being bullied for being weak, I couldn't just stand by and watch. My sister wouldn't make room for me. Or would she? Since my older sister was the Weapon School's Holy Princess, no one tried to bully me specifically. There were very few people powerful enough to bully me anyway.
After all this, I was called the Morality Sword. I didn't request the name. It might not have been intended as a compliment, but I realized that I wasn't a shadow anymore. I had a name of my own, and a face that people recognized. I was the Sword of Morality, not my sister's shadow.
This made me admired in my sister's eyes. She never told me, though. But her gaze had changed. We were already cold and shy enough. Wasn't a look enough to convey our feelings?
'Sister, would you be proud of me?' thought Nomier from where he lay. Blood spilled from his mouth to his chin, and his face was completely white. Strangely, he looked much more at ease now.
He closed his eyes.
'The battle is over.'
Nomier said goodbye to life with only his upper body on the ground. He had lost this battle.
Beyond that, Malehit was trying to crawl toward the third heritage site. His right leg had been severed from his body. Stone Heart was still there. This revealed something about the fat drunkard lurching behind him.
Wuma had reached the pinnacle of transformation.
"I don't understand how you still have enough energy! This damn transformation should have ended long ago!" Malehit cried bitterly, but Wuma had lost all sense of reason. At this point, asking him who he was would be absurd.
Malehit stopped trying to escape. There was no way he could reach the third gate anyway. He leaned back, propped his elbows on the ground, and lifted his torso slightly. He tried to appear unafraid of death, holding his head high.
"You once earned my respect as an elder. Now, you swing your sword without caring who you cut down. The Tao of Blood...it makes sense why it's forbidden."
The sword rose. Death wasn't far off for Malehit. But the next moment, it stopped. The target seemed to have suddenly changed, but Wuma felt no threat. So he didn't attack immediately.
Malehit, who had been expecting a pitiful death, was at a loss when he saw the figure suddenly leap in front of the sword. John's sword was still in his hand. Could he really stand up and swing it with one leg? Could he save his brother from death with one leg?
"Please... please don't kill my brother, Lord Wuma!!"
At that moment, Evra, pleading with the mindless man before him, slobbering and snotting, was well aware of his fear. Unlike Ulam, who was biting his lip from afar, Evra wasn't stupid. But this was the insistence of a child condemned to run against all hope in an attempt to save his brother.
He couldn't lose another family member. He didn't want to.
"He doesn't know what death means!" a voice rang out from beside Ulam. Ulam saw Gomez, who fled the moment the battle broke out. In fact, he didn't seem to have gone that far. Maybe he was looking for an opportunity to claim the inheritance. Maybe he thought that two great geniuses would be enough to defeat an old man.
But that didn't matter to Wuma. Had he been sober, he would have killed Evra.
"Run, Evra!" Malehit shouted, but it was all for naught. Evra was frozen. It was a miracle that he had managed to run this far. The moment he became Wuma's target, he was as good as dead.
Evra had difficulty grasping the value of life. In his short life, he had never experienced life-or-death situations. He had become stronger, but he had never been allowed into the forest. Now, on his first visit to the Red Road Forest, he was on the verge of death. And all this after Jalal had given his life for him.
Now he understood. He was alone with death and helpless. There was no time to accept death; death wasn't going to wait for him anyway.
Evra couldn't see anything. All he could see was Wuma's body moving. Then, his vision faded.
Ulam and Gomez watched in shock from afar. The sword had descended, but... Evra was still alive!
"Fourth gate has been activated!"
Their ears twitched in surprise, and once again, a sense of reverence coursed through them. At that moment, Malehit and Evra's astonished gazes reached the one who had stopped the sword: They saw his impressive, charismatic back and the power to stop the sword. They knew him.
"You don't have to worry anymore. Daddy is here to save you."
Another father had joined the fight for his children.
***
"Sounds of battle are coming from there. Shouldn't we go check it out?" Hang asked. His brother stood next to him, looking quite worried. Everyone could tell they were worried about their father, but they were already grown men in their thirties. Mais, standing on Mang's back, didn't know why he was considered the mature one. Yet he, too, knew what it meant to worry about their father's condition.
"Have we reached the gate?" he asked instead. Apparently, Mais didn't care about the battle at all. How could he? A blind child and two big men at the head of the Core Realm couldn't help, no matter what level of battle it was. Besides, Mais could sense that this wasn't a battle in the Core Realm.
"You told me Darius went left, didn't you?" Mais asked. After rescuing him, the twins continued their journey with Mais. At one point, Gate 2 appeared. After hearing the sounds, the three of them realized they belonged to the gates. Logically, they figured there were up to five gates. They entered the fifth gate. It must have been quite far from where they were. They had recently heard the first gate open, which must have been to their left. There seemed to be sufficient reason to believe that Darius had gone there.
"There might be others who have gone there, but Darius is definitely among them," said Mang. He led the way a few steps, cutting through the tall grass. Unlike the third gate, the path to the second gate wasn't across open ground.
"The fourth gate has been activated!"
At that moment, a loud noise rang through their ears. Mang stumbled for a moment, stunned by Mais's presence on his back. All three of them widened their eyes. This intense and powerful voice truly affected them. The power of a Meridian Realm expert was beyond their imagination.
At that point, Mais took a deep breath and held Mang tighter. Mang was breathing heavily, too. The sound seemed to be growing heavier. Mang also raised his head. Beads of sweat dripped from his forehead as he looked up at the mighty gate reaching toward the sky.
"I think it's our turn."
At that moment, the trio walked slowly toward the gate. It stood right in the forest, as if at one with nature. Looking to the right from the gate, the other end was hidden by trees and vegetation, but they didn't need to see it.
They just had to walk.
"You can let me down from now on," said Mais. Before Meng could respond, Mais jumped off his back and landed directly on the ground. Luckily, he landed on a flat, empty spot. However, Meng looked at him with concern.
"Are you sure about this? You know I can't carry you through the inheritance on my back. Perhaps you should stay here," he said. His brother agreed, but Meng simply smiled as he pulled his staff from his back and used it as a blinding weapon. He stepped forward. He could sense where the Tao was coming from.
"I didn't come here to admire nature, which I can't see," he said.
With that, he stepped toward the door. When the door was illuminated by a bright light and the power of the Tao, the twins knew they had no choice but to follow him.
"The fourth gate has been activated!