Two days later.
Lu Mo returned to the garden as agreed upon with the old man.
Odenari and Selina were already there, waiting.
“Lady Mo, come with me,” Odenari said with a kind smile as he watched her approach. “We are going to the final place.”
“Alright,” Lu Mo nodded.
“…”
Selina glanced at Lu Mo, appearing as if she wanted to say something, but she ultimately lowered her head in silence.
***
The three of them walked along a mountain path.
Along the way, Selina tried to speak to Lu Mo several times, but the words never left her lips.
Lu Mo noticed Selina’s strange behavior.
‘What does she want to say?’
‘Could it be some melodramatic development where Master thinks the vessel is complete and wants to discard me, leaving Sister Selina torn between family and her sect?’
—But that was just Lu Mo’s internal teasing.
She knew Odenari was not that kind of person. He was completely sincere toward her. He wanted to lead her onto that path of swordsmanship and pass on his life’s insights to her without reservation.
They continued their journey.
Soon, they reached the summit of the mountain.
*Whoosh—*
A wind blew from the mountain stream, shaking the grass and rustling the leaves.
At that moment, Lu Mo felt a slight sense of astonishment.
“This place is…”
She felt an aura emanating from the summit.
It was the presence of sword intent.
Seeing this, Odenari simply smiled.
When they reached the peak, Lu Mo finally saw the sight before her. She saw mountains, lakes, and forests. She also saw…
A monument standing atop the mountain.
It was massive and towering.
The monument was crafted from translucent Time Amber. Complex patterns and sword scars were etched upon it. Streaks of sword intent radiated in all directions, originating from within the monument itself.
The sword intents were all different, yet they rose and fell in harmony, as if they had transformed into a musical movement of blades.
“Time Amber.”
Lu Mo recognized the material of the monument. It was a type of crystal used to seal combat techniques. Because of its unique properties, the power of a technique could be preserved within Time Amber for a long time, lasting hundreds of years without fully dissipating.
The fact that this entire monument was made of Time Amber meant the cost must have been astronomical.
“I asked an old friend to make it,” Odenari said as he pushed his wheelchair to Lu Mo’s side.
“It was one day after I had narrowly defeated a Grand Duke-level demon and my cultivation realm was destroyed. I sat alone on the mountain, looking at the sky. I thought to myself—that is the eternally existing sky. Life is born and dies, civilizations rise and fall… too many things cannot escape time. But only the sky above remains eternal. In comparison, my existence is so small, so fleeting, that it cannot even be considered a single moment between heaven and earth.”
The old man smiled and continued, “I am but a speck of dust in the mortal world, yet I also wanted to leave a small piece of proof belonging to me in this world. So, I erected a monument here, struck it once with my blade, and left my sword intent within. That is the proof of my existence, and it will be my epitaph after my life ends.”
“Later, I thought to myself: would it be too lonely for a single sword intent to remain in such a massive monument? So, I began asking my disciples to come here before they left, to leave their deepest insights and their strongest strike. This represents the path of swordsmanship they chose to walk and serves as proof that they existed. Gradually, coming here to leave proof before departure became a tradition of our sect.”
“Lady Mo, will you leave something behind?”
The old man looked up at Lu Mo. His clouded eyes became clear once more, ignited by a flickering, fiery passion. He looked forward with great anticipation to Lu Mo striking that massive monument and leaving her own mark.
“Leave a mark?” Lu Mo murmured.
‘All of this is just a Simulated Reincarnation.’
‘What is the point of leaving anything or not?’ she asked herself.
Once the second Simulated Reincarnation ended, everything would cease to exist.
But then—
Lu Mo suddenly smiled at the old man and nodded. She then walked step by step toward the giant monument at the edge of the summit.
‘So what if it’s virtual?’
‘I’ll just consider myself infected by that idiot.’
Sometimes, acting like an idiot who fights desperately in a virtual world and searches for reality within it wasn’t so bad.
That was why she had run forward all this way for the sake of that promise. That was why she was finally standing here, gripping the sword in her hand.
Whether it was virtual or real did not matter anymore. Compared to that, what she hated more were the things that “have always been this way.”
It has always been this way—mortals cannot defeat those in the heavens.
It has always been this way—the Saintess will sacrifice herself for the Hero and for this world.
It has always been this way—most of the time, fate is already decided.
‘I really want to… cut down all these things that have always been this way.’
‘Make them cease to exist.’
Lu Mo slowly closed her eyes.
Her will had never been as clear or as strong as it was now. Her body and her soul were resonating with her will. The three seemed to overlap in this moment.
She seemed to see those countless instances of “how things have always been.” And those instances were gathering and narrowing down at this moment.
Finally… they transformed into a single line before her.
Just like on that cloudy day, when sunlight fell through the gaps in the clouds onto Cecilia, and from behind Cecilia…
The golden thread that extended outward!
She drew her sword. In that moment, she struck toward that golden thread.
Then, she cut through it—
*Swoosh—*
A sword shadow flashed.
The sword intent passed through in an instant.
“!”
The old man’s breath hitched.
He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but he actually saw that when Lu Mo struck, the techniques and sword intents etched upon the monument actually trembled and then vanished!
“Hmm?”
But in the next second, when he regained his senses, everything had returned to normal.
The monument was not broken. It was undamaged. Those sword techniques and sword intents still existed, perfectly intact.
The only difference was a new horizontal sword scar across the top of the monument.
“Eh?”
Selina looked at Lu Mo, then at the new sword scar on the monument. She did not have the old man’s sharp perception; she only felt that for a fleeting moment, the aura Lu Mo exploded with was terrifying.
But in the next second, her aura completely vanished.
And a sword scar appeared on the monument.
“Will this suffice?” Lu Mo asked, coming back to her senses and looking at the old man.
“…It will.” After a brief daze, the old man smiled and answered.
At this time, the old man did not yet understand the meaning of the sword scar Lu Mo had left. He only instinctively felt that this scar was definitely not as simple as it looked on the surface.
Later, after Lu Mo bid him farewell and disappeared from his and Selina’s lives, he would occasionally come to the summit to carefully study the mark the girl had left all those years ago.
Sometimes, he would look for a long time without any clue. At those times, he could only temporarily give up and look at the distant scenery to clear his mind.
When his gaze accidentally swept across that translucent monument, he would suddenly freeze.
Through the translucent monument, he saw the sky, the mountains, the lakes, and the trees—he saw the entire world before him.
And when he looked at that world from the position of the sword scar Lu Mo had left, he would see that the entire world seemed to have shifted in front of that calm sword scar.
It was almost as if…
Lu Mo’s single strike had cut open the entire world!
‘Is this Lu Mo’s limit?’
‘Does she intend to cut down the world before her?’
‘Or rather…’
‘Does she want to cut down something that even I dare not imagine, something I have never even touched?’
He would come to know what this strike represented many years later.
***
The discussion of swords had ended, and she had left her mark. Now, it was time for Lu Mo to leave.
“Master Odenari, Sister Selina, actually, there is one thing I have been keeping from you…”
Lu Mo explained her true identity to the two of them. Her real name was Lu Mo.
“Mo…”
Lu Mo Kalliss, from the eight great families of the Holy Sanctuary.
“Lu Mo… well, that definitely sounds better than Mo,” Selina smiled.
“Actually, I had already suspected Lady Lu Mo’s identity. After all, that Madman came from the Holy Sanctuary. Aside from me and some old seniors there, perhaps no one else has ever come into contact with his theories,” the old man said.
“The reason I hid my identity…” Lu Mo felt a bit guilty. After all, she had kept it from them for so long.
“I understand. This was your choice—to hone your sword and find your own path without relying on your family or any external help.”
The old man signaled that Lu Mo didn’t need to apologize. He wasn’t angry; on the contrary, he quite admired Lu Mo’s approach.
“And now, have you found your path?” the old man asked.
“Probably,” Lu Mo replied.
“In any case, it isn’t here,” the old man added.
Lu Mo was taken aback, and after realizing what he meant, she burst into laughter along with the old man.
“Thank you for your guidance over the past two years, Master,” Lu Mo bid him farewell. “I will not forget these two years, nor will I forget you. I will come back to see you.”
“It’s fine if you don’t. I hope you can go even further on that path,” the old man smiled. “You are destined to go far, and you are destined to be stronger than both me and that Madman…”
Lu Mo bowed deeply to the old man.
She turned and began walking down the mountain. She had come alone, and she was leaving the same way.
“…” Selina watched the girl’s silhouette gradually disappear, and the sense of loss in her heart grew heavier and heavier.
“Go.”
At that moment, she heard her father speak to her again.
“You still have things to say to her, don’t you?”
The old man was smiling at Selina. It was impossible for him not to notice the abnormalities in Selina over the past two years and the emotional changes when she was with Lu Mo. Now that they were parting, he had to let the two of them say a proper goodbye, didn’t he?
“Don’t do anything you’ll regret…” he said to Selina.
“…”
After a brief silence, Selina’s face turned slightly red. After giving her father a slight nod, she suddenly ran down the mountain to catch up with Lu Mo.
“Mo… no, Sister Lu Mo—”
Lu Mo heard Selina’s call and immediately stopped. When she turned around, she saw Selina running toward her. She looked a bit flustered and nervous, completely lacking her previous maturity and the pride of a senior sister.
“Sister Lu Mo, you forgot something,” Selina panted as she spoke.
“Forgot something… I don’t think so?” Lu Mo thought about it.
Identification, phone, portable charger…
Wait, was she here on a vacation?
“This,” Selina said in her usual senior sister tone, handing over a small sachet.
“Eh?”
“Take it. I heard from another Great Domain that this can protect you.”
Selina answered, and after thinking for a moment, she added, “Of course, I’ve made quite a few and given them to other junior brothers and sisters. You shouldn’t be left out.”
‘Is that true?’
Lu Mo took the sachet and suddenly noticed quite a few small puncture wounds on Selina’s hands. It seemed she wasn’t skilled at making these small items at all, so how could she have given them to others before?
‘Ah!’
‘Will saying that make it seem like I didn’t sincerely want to give Lu Mo a gift?’
Selina suddenly became a bit nervous. This sachet was something she had finally decided to make after flipping through many books. For this reason, she hadn’t slept for two days to finish it in time. If Lu Mo didn’t like it, she would really cry.
She suddenly lowered her head and bit her lip.
“Don’t just practice with your sword all day and night. You should rest occasionally, okay? If you can beat someone, then we fight. If you can’t, don’t force it. You can run away, you know? Um… Sister, if you ever miss me, come back and visit. Don’t listen to that old man.”
Selina said a lot to Lu Mo. There were traces of reluctance and choking in her voice, but she tried her best to act as if nothing were wrong. She was that tsundere senior sister. Although she wasn’t very direct, she was caring for Lu Mo in her own way.
“Goodbye, Little Sister,” Selina finally said, giving a cool, flashy smile.
“Goodbye, Sister,” Lu Mo replied, carefully putting away the sachet. She then turned and walked into the distance.
Until her figure disappeared, Selina remained standing in the same spot, staring at the place where the girl had vanished for a long time.
“Good luck, Little Sister.”
“Whether your sword eventually falls for yourself or for that idiot you mentioned.”
She spoke in a low voice, audible only to herself.