A week after Isa’s visit, Leon still hadn’t seen the so-called legendary grandmother.

Leon wondered if the old Dragon King had gotten lost and couldn’t find her granddaughter’s home?

Roswitha assured him that dragons sharing the same bloodline and power could vaguely sense each other’s locations, so getting lost was an impossibility.

Then the queen teased him, "Why are you always bringing up my grandmother these days? Are you that eager to meet the family?"

General Leon waved a hand and bluntly denied it in his usual manner, saying he was just curious to meet the kind of dragon that could raise a peculiar dragoness like her.

Roswitha couldn’t even be bothered to argue with him.

And so the couple waited day after day for the grandmother’s visit.

Meanwhile, they continuously sent spies and scouts to gather intel within the Redflame Dragon Clan’s territory. If things there stabilized even a little, they would immediately set out to find Constantine’s trusted aide.

Of course, Leon wasn’t idle while waiting.

He had started studying a "martial arts manual" gifted to him by his master during their last information exchange days prior.

**"Nine Hells Gate"**

Leon sat cross-legged in the backyard training field, next to him a plate of pastries that Muen had just brought over.

The little dragon daughter originally wanted to pester her dad to play with her for a while, but seeing him engrossed in a book she couldn’t understand, she left the pastries behind and obediently ran off to play with the maids.

Watching his daughter grow up day by day, becoming more sensible and understanding, General Leon felt deeply gratified.

He lowered his head and opened the first page of **Nine Hells Gate**. The preface described the inspirations and historical background behind the author’s development of this combat technique.

*"It is said that hell is divided into nine layers, with each layer representing a different sin of humanity. To deal with these sins, the agents of hell administer corresponding physical punishments."*

*"Only those who endure the trials of the nine layers of hell and achieve redemption may have a chance to pass through the deepest layer and return to the mortal world or even… ascend to heaven."*

*"By then, those who successfully transcend the nine layers of hell will be reborn with the flames of nirvana, able to conquer all challenges and remain undefeated, relying on their physical bodies alone."*

Reading through the preface, Leon smirked and muttered, "The title’s flashy, and the background’s even flashier. So, in short, this technique lets you surpass human physical limits even without magic, huh?"

Ancestors who created magic, illusions, or physical techniques often liked to embellish the prefaces of ancient texts with myths and legends, rambling on to emphasize how extraordinary their invented skills were.

What’s worse, this melodramatic style of writing remained popular even to this day.

People loved to analyze the ancestors’ fabricated myths, often leading to the creation of religions or spiritual beliefs. At Dragon Slayer Academy, they even carved out an entire department just to study these myths and legends found in magical texts.

Leon had minored in this field during his studies and graduated with a perfect score

The senior professor thought Leon was a genius in this field. Upon his graduation, the professor repeatedly begged Leon to stay at the academy, to help them decode more myths and legends, to explore humanity’s hidden past, and to recover treasures lost in the river of history, and so on.

Leon’s blunt response? "Mister, are you kidding me? I only took this elective to learn different types of magic. As for those so-called symbols and myths… I’m just casually jotting down some thoughts while reviewing the material."

*“Casually jotting down some thoughts,” full marks graduate.*

If Rebecca had been in the same class as her captain back in the day, she would’ve realized much earlier that he’s a master of subtle flexing.

Finishing the preface, Leon flipped to the table of contents.

Just as he had taught Noa, he scanned the contents first to categorize the knowledge: green highlights for familiar concepts, yellow for less certain ones, and red for completely unknown areas.

This study method might not work for everyone, but for Leon and Noa—two natural geniuses who delighted in outcompeting others—it was insanely effective.

After quickly glancing through the contents, Leon flipped to a section near the middle.

At the end of a page in this section, he read:

*"At this point, your body’s strength should meet at least one of the following criteria:*

*- Be able to maintain steady breathing for 12 hours even when gravely injured and near death;*

*- Match the speed of a Dragon King in their humanoid form;*

*- Display significantly enhanced self-regeneration compared to the period before practicing this technique;*

*- Be capable of prolonged combat lasting more than five hours."*

Leon stared at the benchmarks, clicked his tongue, and shook his head. "Only need to meet one, huh? Pretty sure I check all the boxes."

Three years ago, when Victor pierced his heart and he was imprisoned by the Silver Dragon Clan, he had endured far more than 12 hours.

Even in his weakened state, he had sparred against Roswitha, catching up to her famed speed of the Silver Dragon Clan in his half-dead condition.

As for self-healing, it was practically second nature to him. Back during those days when they would clash (or get intimate) at the drop of a hat with Roswitha, whenever they clashed, she’d only have to give him a few days’ rest before he’d come back stronger on the next *turning in homework* session, testing her limits in battle.

And for the last condition—five hours of continuous combat?

General Leon had countless testimonies to back him up.

Be it slaying dragons or *riding* them, he was more than capable of lasting five hours.

The former was thanks to his excellent tutelage at Dragon Slayer Academy; the latter, credit to his mentor Melkevi.

All in all, Leon had always been the model student.

*"Meeting these standards qualifies you to begin practicing the **Nine Hells Gate** technique."*

Leon turned to the next page, which detailed an introduction to the physical technique.

*"The martial art ‘Nine Hells Gate’ divides the human body into nine stages, represented by different ‘gates.’*

*"The first gate, the Steel Gate (a pun on ‘anus’ in Chinese)—hold on… what Gate?!"*

Leon thought he’d misread. He set the book down and rubbed his eyes hard before returning to check it again.

Sure enough, he hadn’t misread.

...

...

*"Caw~~ caw~~"*

Two crows flew overhead, their cries perfectly encapsulating Leon’s current mental state.

"Seriously? The preface was waxing poetic about hell and heaven, all high and mighty. And now the actual content opens with… this?"

While it wasn’t *exactly* the body part Leon had first imagined, the sudden pun had caught him completely off guard.

*"Classic Master. Even risking his life to find these manuals, he still picks the most offbeat ones."*

Leon took two deep breaths to center himself, adjusted his mood, and continued reading.

Fortunately, the names of the subsequent gates were all relatively normal. Leon let out a breath of relief.

But when he arrived at the final gate, his flipping fingers froze for a moment. His eyes fixated on the two simple characters, and he murmured aloud:

*"The Death Gate."*

Leon’s pupils quivered. "Sounds like one of those moves where you kill your enemy but harm yourself in the process…"

He shook his head to clear it and reined in his wandering thoughts.

He couldn’t worry about the final gate just yet. He had to master the first eight gates first.

"Alright, let’s see… how does one open the first gate…"

He continued flipping through the book until he found the relevant method.

*"To unlock the first gate, external assistance is required—ideally a trusted individual with Dragon King-level strength…*

*"A Dragon King… A Dragon King…"*

Muttering to himself, a name naturally slipped from Leon’s lips:

*"Ros… witha?!"*