"Old man, why are you talking like you might not live long enough?" Kai asked anxiously, latching onto his master's strange words.
"Boy, I'm already old… As regrettable as it is, I'm hardly going to break through to another realm," Mo replied calmly. "I'd say I've got about ten years left. I've lived a pretty remarkable life, and at the very end of it I found such an excellent disciple! I have nothing to regret. Heh-heh." The old man laughed loudly and cheerfully.
After a short silence, Kai looked him straight in the eyes and said seriously:
"Master… I may be too weak for these words right now, but just you wait. Ten years from now—no, even sooner—I'll be strong enough to find a way to extend your life. Don't you dare say things like that again—you're the only family I have!" Kai shouted with conviction, then quickly realized he'd said too much…
Feeling a bit awkward, he hurried to turn it into a joke:
"Don't count on dying peacefully. Until you see me surpass you, I won't let you go! Heh-heh," Kai said and laughed.
Staring at him intently, the old man took a deep breath and shook his head. But he did it mostly to hide how moved he was.
"Well then, brat, I'll be waiting for that day. First finish your Warrior tempering, and after that I'll teach you my movement technique—the Dance of Shadow Marks!"
"And after that?" Kai asked impatiently.
"After that… after that you have to go out into the world. You can't become the strongest if you sit here like a greenhouse sprout, cultivating in safety. You must see life for yourself and understand many things. There are countless people stronger than you. Only by stepping over them will you grow!" Mo said gravely. "As for me, I'll calmly wait for you in these mountains until you fulfill your promise. I'm not going back into the world… All that's left there for me is pointless fuss and boring old men just like myself," he added with a melancholy smile and a sigh.
"I understand, Master!" Kai replied, then got up and quickly ran toward the lake.
Time passed, but after several days Kai still couldn't form the last king. No matter how hard he tried, something seemed to be missing…
The fifth king was the King of Terror, the one meant to temper his brain and nerves. He was supposed to be the final torture, the one that would complete the tempering of his body.
While Kai was mulling over the reason, his gaze fell on the waterfall crashing down into the lake. He thought that since he couldn't form the last king yet, he might as well focus on strengthening his flesh even further.
Why haven't I used the waterfall before? Its impact should be great for tempering the body and improving balance. Being able to stand properly and keep posture under any conditions is important too! he thought, and began moving toward the falling stream.
Reaching it, he slowly stepped onto a stone that had been shaped over years by the waterfall. At that very second—
Boom! — The massive, icy water slammed onto his shoulders, driving him to his knees at once!
If I'd tried climbing up here half a year ago, before tempering my body, this would've just broken me in half, Kai thought with a chill.
He forced himself into the lotus position and adjusted his posture and spine, trying to balance under the flow. Tons of water hammered his shoulders and head, yet he kept sitting. Kai could feel his body and bones hardening even further beneath the constant blows.
After a few minutes, something strange began to happen… Under the constant pressure on his body and mind, the fifth king finally began to form—the King of Terror!
Beneath the waterfall, Kai had to keep his mind razor-sharp to maintain his balance and breathing. Most likely, that strain was what triggered the new torture.
When Kai looked at the forming shadow, he saw that the King of Terror seemed to have no body at all—just a single silhouette. It slowly floated up to him and placed its hand on Kai's head. His consciousness began to tremble…
Du-dum! — A strange pulse rang through his mind, and the entire world around him started to fade…
The next moment, he was back at the orphanage. Kai saw his brothers and sisters alive, and the headmistress walked up to scold him yet again. Yesterday, as usual, he'd snuck out of the orphanage. Kai had no idea what kind of madness this was…
Then he heard a whistle.
Whoosh! — With a sharp hiss, an arrow flew straight into Headmistress Frida's skull from behind and exited through her forehead. A drop of blood rolled slowly from the tip, falling onto Kai's face…
"Aaaaah!" he roared in fury and pulled out a dagger.
Wait… a dagger? Where did I get a dagger?! Kai thought in confusion.
But before he could think, warriors rushed him from all sides. Some wielded sabers, others swords, others spears. Kai instantly sharpened his senses, black smoke curling from his eyes!
Swish! — A whistling sound cut the air.
Kai immediately noticed the spearhead flying toward his head, and at the same time a sword swing coming from low on his left! Reacting instantly, he kicked the swordsman's wrist, knocking the weapon from his hand, and used his dagger to block and redirect the spear.
Bang! — The spearhead instantly took the swordsman's head off, and Kai drove his dagger under the spearman's ribs, ripping them out along with his pierced heart.
All of his senses were pushed to their limits. It was as if he were seeing straight through the warriors' armor and strikes, directly into their weak points. He dashed into the crowd.
"You're finished!" he shouted in rage.
Every strike he threw killed instantly, and every attack aimed at him was immediately blocked. Kai twisted his body in ways that minimized damage or avoided it entirely. The blood from every new wound stopped flowing in the shortest time as his energy rushed to heal him. Kai deliberately sought brief openings to patch himself up.
The slaughter lasted until evening. Only when the sun began to rise did Kai realize he was standing atop a mountain of corpses. His body was covered in blood, and there was almost nothing left of his clothes.
Panting heavily, he began to understand that none of this was real. Where was the old man? Why was Frida alive? Who were these warriors? What was happening at all?
A cool wind blew.
"Uuuuuu…"
In the blink of an eye, the surroundings changed again. He was back in the orphanage, except now it was evening and everyone was alive…
Kai looked down at a piece of stale bread and a bowl of oddly colored gruel.
What the… What am I doing? he thought in confusion.
"Run!" — Bam! The door burst open, and strange, inhuman creatures flooded into the orphanage. Kai gripped his dagger and rushed into the fray once more.
While all this was happening, the old man stood by the lake.
Master Mo watched, openly stunned, as Kai sat beneath the waterfall for an entire month. He hadn't moved at all and hadn't eaten that whole time!
Kai's clothes had long since been shredded, and he looked pitiful… But there was so much energy circulating in him that the old man wasn't worried. Even if something strange was happening, at least it wasn't fatal.
Kai seemed to be in a trance, and energy poured endlessly into the farthest corners of his body. Mo could even see the energy flowing into the boy's spine, then branching out in unbelievably fine threads through his body. He had never seen anything like it, so he simply continued watching…
Inside the trance, Kai had no sense of time. He fought nonstop, over and over, and every new cycle was more terrifying than the last.
Now he stood in lands made of countless mountains built from corpses. Bones of all sizes crunched underfoot, and blood ran down his body. He had just finished a battle with strange one-eyed demons. Though they were no bigger than monkeys, their strength was astounding.
Kai had finally killed the last of them. His face was completely serene, and in one hand he held the severed head of a demon.
He had long since realized this was an illusion, yet he continued fighting endlessly. It felt as if there were simply no way out of this strange world. The worst part was that the pain felt absolutely real. He had no idea how long he'd been fighting or how many times he'd brushed up against death…
Kai had killed an immeasurable number of people and all sorts of creatures. Sometimes he traded fatal blows, and just when he thought he would die—the cycle reset.
There were only two outcomes—either he killed every enemy, or they almost killed him. In each case, the world would shift, and he would find himself completely healed, as the slaughter began anew. A master without sufficient will and toughness would have gone mad from the pain and endless horror long ago. It felt like it would never end, but Kai kept pressing on!
He was like a Demon of Slaughter, constantly taking lives and sharpening his skills. This was exactly what he'd lacked the most—real combat experience on the brink of life and death.
During this time, he fought through endless hordes of different beings. The sheer variety of opponents amazed him; there was no way this came from his own imagination. He had never heard of most of these creatures, not even in legends. He simply couldn't have come up with them… It had to be the influence of the King of Terror and the Torture of Invisible Kings Technique.
At that moment, the bloody field vanished and was replaced by a pure white space. An enormous amount of energy began pouring into Kai's body.
First into his heart—spreading through his soft tissues and organs. Then it seeped into his bones, flowed on to his eyes and senses, and finally—into his brain.
But to his surprise, it didn't stop there.
Kai felt tiny threads spreading from his head and spine, reaching into every corner of his body. The energy traveled along them last of all.
He immediately sensed his thoughts becoming clearer, and his intellect and reflexes rising to a new level. The memories and knowledge of all those endless battles were absorbed into his mind. Every movement he had used in combat now felt completely natural, as if he'd been doing them since birth.
Suddenly, Kai opened his eyes and leapt, bursting out onto the shore through the raging waterfall! At that exact moment, Old Man Mo had come to check on him again.
"Good heavens! Boy, what on earth happened to you?! You sat there for four months like a damn statue, just sucking in energy! If I hadn't pushed the water aside with my power and forced food down your throat, you would've starved to death!" Mo shouted in shock.
When the old man looked into Kai's eyes, he felt something strange…
How can a child have eyes like that? Those are the eyes of someone who has seen death and taken lives countless times… Mo thought, studying Kai's aura.
"Master! Thank you, Master Mo! I want a spar—please!" Kai blurted out, his voice oddly rough.
"A spar?" the old man echoed stupidly, thrown off for a second. Then he smiled and said, "Alright then, come at me!"
Mo understood that in this strange state, Kai had multiplied his strength and now wanted to test it. For that, he needed a strong opponent.
In an instant Kai lunged at the old man and struck straight at his throat. He launched a flurry of countless attacks, black smoke pouring from his eyes. He could clearly see all of the old man's weak points!
But every time Kai's blows were about to land, Mo blocked them with little effort. The difference in their strength was still obvious…
The fight grew fiercer and fiercer, until—
Boom! — A dull sound rang out as a palm strike slammed into Kai's chest. He was sent flying several meters and crashed into a tree.
Lying on the ground, Kai grinned widely and said with a laugh:
"Master, thank you for the spar! I still have a lot to learn! Heh-heh!"