Mais moved among the wheat stalks in the light of the never-ending sunset. His fists pumped the air in a violent and threatening manner. It was a force of wisdom that did not belong to a Core expert. The old man sat back down at his table. He looked tired and pale. He had covered his wound, but he had already lost a significant amount of blood and felt weak. He sipped his coffee calmly as he listened to Mais's movements. In his short time here, Mais had realised that this coffee was endless. The distorted reality in which the old man was imprisoned seemed like a fragment of a memory.
"Why did they imprison you here?" he suddenly asked. His curiosity had suddenly been piqued, and he wanted to learn more about the Thenns. He continued his movements, spreading cold waves around him. He was trying to develop his Flowing Frozen Body technique. Still, the pieces of wheat didn't seem to be affected much. Mais also couldn't find the chunk of earth that he had been dragged into while fighting Thenns. Had the soil simply been renewed?
"Are you still practising your technique? You don't look like someone who trains at all to me.'
"What? Or do you think you can beat me if I get tired enough?' Mais replied jokingly. But they both knew. Thenns' struggle was already over.
Thenns shook his head. He changed the subject.
"This technique is called the 'Flowing Frozen Body'. If you practise it enough and achieve enlightenment, you will inevitably reach the stage of entering the Cold Tao."
"I don't care about reaching it through technique. I can't reach the other Taos in the same way. I need a different method."
The old man stood up. His body wasn't really suited to standing, but he did it anyway and raised his hand. The wind came alive in nature and a wall of fire painted the sky. Mais felt all of this. He stopped moving. Had he been able to see, he would have seen how the wind and fire moved in harmony. As if directed by a living being, they moved in unison, obeying the old man.
"I can tell you about my own experience with the Tao of Wind and Fire. I can make you feel it. But the paths of the other Taos will still be up to you."
Mais frowned, but the old man's willingness to help him this much was already more than he could have hoped for. So he listened. He listened to the lesson the old man was teaching him as he bent the fire and wind to his will. He felt the fire warming his skin and occasionally burning him lightly. He had seen it once before. Now, he tried to take another step and feel it. He listened to the wind. Its rustling was enough to convey how sharp it was. It pushed the young man. And it was growing stronger. For a moment, he even wondered if he should step aside. All these things were happening simultaneously, and Mais was learning.
After a while, the old man approached and took Mais's hands in his. Mais knew the man was coming and tensed up. When Thenns grabbed his hands, the hesitation he had previously felt took hold of his heart. He froze for a moment. He didn't know what to do. Should he fight again? More precisely, should he kill Thenns?
At this point, there was no battle. There was only a choice to be made.
"Stop worrying. I just want you to feel the movements. That way, when you start making progress, you'll be able to master some of the stances more quickly."
This was true. The stepping stage involved putting the Tao — which was grasped through stances — into motion. Without stances, the awe-inspiring power of the stepping stage and the techniques would be meaningless. Without stances, everything becomes much more difficult.
Mais's stance wasn't improving. But that didn't mean there wouldn't be progress tomorrow. No one else would notice the progress; it was enough that he would be able to see the path he had travelled when he looked back one day.
As long as he could remember the first step he had taken, it didn't matter if he couldn't see the progress. He would know it was there.
So Mais worked day after day. Unfortunately, as the legacies came to an end, so did the time he could stay. He still hadn't made any progress with the Tao. After all, unlike Kasuur and Maria, he wasn't training in a legacy that strengthened his understanding. Therefore, the progress he could achieve in just a few days was limited.
Still, he had gained experience. At this rate, he believed he would reap the rewards of his efforts soon.
"Hmm, what's this?"
At that moment, Mais stopped. He felt something wet stick to his foot. It was fluid and slightly warm; for a moment, Mais felt a tremor in his body. He couldn't immediately identify it because the smell completely filled the air.
Mais raised his head. He could hear the Thenns' laboured breathing.
"Did you lose that much blood?" he asked, but the blood on the ground already spoke for the old man. The blood flowed around him and continued to spread across the area. The chilling feeling inside Mais grew.
'When I'm in the Core Realm, my healing ability isn't that good,' said Thenns. His face had turned pale and his wrinkles had become much deeper. He had lost a lot of blood. The Core Realm's source energy and healing ability weren't enough to save him. The Sage Realm probably wouldn't work either at this point.
"Do you know how to reach the Sage Realm?"
At that moment, Mais didn't particularly care if he reached the Sage Realm or not, but he wanted Thenns to live longer. He could at least help the old man gain a little more strength by doing so.
However, the old man was barely able to speak.
"Connect the trace to the cores."
'Connect the trace to the cores.' Mais didn't think it was a bad idea to listen to the old man. Without thinking too much, he decided to bind the Trace of Alchemy Tao to one of the largest cores. He could have bound another Tao, but he thought he had grasped the basic logic of reaching the Realm of the Sage from what the old man had said. He had suspected as much before, but hadn't wanted to take such a risk without guidance from someone who had already reached the Sage Realm. This was his own cultivation. It was not an experiment.
The moment the Tao Trace appeared, it flowed into the body. This massive trace of the Tao of Alchemy instantly surrounded the core, slowly flowing into it before stopping shortly thereafter. An aura still covered a large area around the core. The Tao of Alchemy is a very powerful force. It could not simply be contained within a single core.
Mais's aura surged. He broke through the boundary violently. It was as if the boundary that so many people, like John, had been stuck with throughout their lives was simply ordinary. As if the realm of the lords was within easy reach.
Thenns's aura also increased. Having reached the first stage of cultivation in the Sage Realm, he raised his head and laughed at Mais.
"You just broke through as if there were no boundaries at all. Didn't you know how to reach the Sage Realm? I thought you were a genius from a great family. Ah, but you didn't have a surname, did you?"
Mais didn't want to tell him, but there was one.
"If you are truly an orphan, I advise you not to reveal this high-level understanding of the Tao. It's impossible for an orphan to demonstrate such knowledge. He must have a secret, and some people will go to great lengths to learn these secrets."
Mais frowned. Was this really the same man who had barely spoken a moment ago and who had seemed on the verge of death?
"I see your mouth is hanging open."
"That doesn't mean I'm not dead."
The old man was still bleeding. This wasn't a fight. He had rarely shown any interest in healing techniques in his life and, as he had already seen, he wasn't good at them. Considering he didn't know a single healing technique in the Origin Heart Realm, it all seemed pointless.
"If I leave, you'll be healed."
It was clear.
Thenns also said nothing about it. Even if Mais left, he would still be trapped here. Had he really been saved?
And Thenns wasn't the only one who knew this. Mais was only ten years old, but he could make such calculations.
"Why were you imprisoned here?"
The same question again. Thenns had often considered whether he would tell others what had happened if he were found, but he had always chosen not to in the end.
"The False Dragon thought I had killed his sister."
Even in his final moments, he longed for someone to hear his story. What if this young man, who carried part of his destiny, could also carry part of his story?
"Elia was my wife. I loved her. I couldn't fully show her that, but I loved her. I had children with her: Three little girls, born only a year apart. None of them were particularly talented. They're probably dead by now."
These words were spoken with difficulty. Thenns managed to say them without hesitating, but he couldn't stop his voice from trembling slightly as he spoke about his daughters' deaths.
Thenns remained silent for a moment. Hesitation gripped him again, but Mais reached out and touched his shoulder. He didn't have to say any more.
"Karsus, the False Dragon, was Elia's brother. When he saw her dead body right next to me, he thought I had killed her! But Lana was in that room too! He thought I had done it, not his own wife, who was also the Transcended Devil! No matter what, he couldn't believe that she would do it, and he sacrificed me to his faith!"
Lana, the Transcendent Demon. Even Mais had heard his brother mention her once. He'd heard that, a few centuries ago, a terrifying Transcendent Demon had existed: a woman who had committed acts even more horrific than those of a demon. To become more powerful. She'd been quite successful at it. However, the Transcendent Demon never surpassed the Meridian Realm. She had probably died of old age by now. No one believed she could truly surpass it.
"Why did she kill her?" Mais asked. Thenns remained silent, but after a moment, he looked at Mais with eyes filled with salty, blood-tinged tears.
'You must go now. At least claim your inheritance. Even if you didn't enter early, you'll receive some reward.'
'This is the end of him.'
Mais knew. This was the ending that Thenns had wanted. Even though he was leaving, the legacy had fulfilled its purpose. There was no need for it to continue existing. Moreover, Thenns was not full of life. He may not have directly caused his wife's death, but he was clearly guilty of something. He was feeling remorse. After everything he had done and the years of suffering he had endured, he wanted to be free.
This was his end. The ending Thenns wanted.
Mais turned to the old man one last time. He could hear his heavy breathing. He longed to see him.
"I wish you had survived."
The Thenns' melancholy grew stronger. He laughed.
'You're just a kid after all.'
Mais walked through the darkness, unaware that the path he was on was dark. The next legacy he faced was a bright tree, home to many Tao in the darkness. The fruit on its branches released rivers of tiny seeds that illuminated the twins and the little cat. This light reached out to Mais, but it was too late.
"Congratulations on reaching the tree that transmits my understanding of the Tao—"
The Legacy's words were cut short. They were cut short. And Mais opened his eyes. He felt the light breeze and the faint warmth of starlight on his skin, and heard the murmurs around him. Turbulent energy rose from his body. He understood everything instantly.
Legacy was over.