“It failed, huh.”

The next morning, Li Wei silently looked at his pale face in the mirror, and the heavy dark circles under his eyes.

It was a sharp contrast to Tsukika, who was still sleeping soundly in bed and looked radiant.

He'd known there would be consequences if he did this. He'd prepared himself for failure too. But even so, he hadn't expected Tsukika to be this ruthless.

He let out a light sigh.

At this rate, it felt like his body would give out before he even got the chance to properly enjoy life.

When he walked out of the bedroom, he ran into Yue Lin, still in her pajamas and rubbing her sleepy eyes.

The moment Yue Lin saw him, she perked right up. Then she noticed how pale his face was.

“Hmph.”

Yue Lin shot him a smug glance. Seeing how miserable Li Wei looked, she was extremely satisfied.

“Yue Lin, are you that happy to see me first thing in the morning?” Li Wei asked.

Yue Lin: “...”

She glared at him fiercely. “Not at all.”

Then, with her ahoge bobbing, she ran off to her mom’s room.

This awful human man only knew how to bully her.

Wasn’t he afraid she’d go complain to Mom again?

Still, she really was curious. Just how had Mom bullied this guy? Li Wei looked like he'd been completely drained dry.

Even if Mom was a vampire, she didn’t drink blood.

Li Wei made breakfast. Tsukika still hadn’t gotten up, and Yue Lin, who had run into the room, seemed to have been sealed inside with her. There wasn’t a sound from either of them.

He couldn’t even be bothered to call them out of bed... honestly, the peace was nice.

It was a little regrettable not having his daughter around, but at least for now, he could avoid the trouble that was Tsukika.

Taking advantage of the quiet, Li Wei silently sat down cross-legged, faced the morning sun, and began to meditate.

Humans in this world were blessed by the gods. Those blessings took the form of panel-like power, dwelling inside every talented human.

Through that panel, even ordinary people could steadily gain experience through killing monsters and fighting, then raise their level.

But Li Wei had been stripped of that convenient power at the end of the campaign against Annihilation.

Even so, after losing his panel, Li Wei hadn’t just sat around waiting to die.

What he had tempered on his journey against the demon race wasn’t only the power of the panel. It was also something called will.

That seemingly intangible power could unleash Miracles beyond the panel itself.

What Li Wei was doing now was training by combining with his own will, trying to draw some kind of response from heaven and earth.

As a transmigrator, he'd naturally been steeped in all kinds of novels. Whether fantasy or xianxia, there were always scenes of guiding energy from the world around you.

Li Wei was trying to use will as that guide, to create a primitive cultivation method of his own.

If his past training had been for the sake of completing his mission, then today’s training was purely for his own happiness.

He couldn’t keep getting squeezed dry by the Demon Lord without any recovery.

Maybe it was because he’d finally laid down his burden and relaxed, but today’s meditation felt unusually easy and refreshing. He sank into it almost at once.

It was just a pity that while his will had grown, his body still hadn’t drawn even a trace of power from heaven and earth.

He kept meditating like that, until a faint fragrance slowly filled his breath.

He withdrew from his meditative state, opened his eyes, and saw a beautiful face leaning in very close.

“Reliving how last night felt?” Tsukika’s crimson eyes watched Li Wei with playful amusement.

Li Wei answered calmly, “You ate a meal yesterday. Do you still remember what it tasted like?”

“If it was delicious enough?”

Tsukika smiled.

Li Wei thought for a moment. “I usually only remember bad food. If that’s the case, then yeah, it would be worth reliving.”

Tsukika: “?”

Li Wei sensed her anger and decisively added, “Don’t even think about it. I really don’t have a single drop left.”

Tsukika was so stunned by his honesty and shamelessness that she laughed instead.

“So now you dare provoke me.”

“You have to look for proper chances to strike back. That’s one of the bits of wisdom humans need when facing the demon race.”

“And besides, no matter what I do, I can’t escape anyway, right?” Li Wei said frankly.

Tsukika wasn’t actually angry. She glanced at him and smiled. “A Chosen Hero who’s given up trying is pretty cute too.”

After saying that, she didn’t look at his expression. Barefoot and cheerful, she walked toward the dining table.

Before long, both Tsukika and Yue Lin were seated at the table, and Li Wei brought over the food that had been kept warm on the stove.

Tsukika leisurely enjoyed this breakfast born from the strongest. Then she looked at Li Wei, who was calmly carving something nearby.

She quietly admired the serious profile of the young man for a while before suddenly asking, “Is this your training?”

“You can tell?” This time, Li Wei really did look at Tsukika in surprise.

Using wood carving to train his will was one of the methods he had figured out himself. Back when his burdens were heavy, it had also been one of his few forms of self-entertainment.

He enjoyed this feeling of immersing himself in carving and creation.

Before Tsukika could say anything, Li Wei added, “Then again, as my enemy, it makes sense that you’d have looked into it.”

“Of course. Not just looked into it. I got to know it very deeply. Wasn’t it the same for you, Chosen Hero? You don’t catch a tiger cub without entering the tiger’s den.”

Li Wei: “...”

He felt like that line had just run him over and mocked him on the way past, but he had no proof. He glanced at his confused daughter, and there was no way to argue with this Demon Lord who slipped into dirty jokes at every turn.

He lowered his eyes back to the statue in his hands, but Tsukika’s next sentence broke his focus again.

“Starting today, you’ll teach our daughter how to train.”

Li Wei froze for a moment.

“What do you mean?”

“The method you use to temper will. Let Yue Lin learn it too.”

Tsukika said it plainly.

“Why me?” Li Wei asked. Then, noticing his daughter staring at him, he added, “Wouldn’t it be easier for her to learn your power instead?”

Tsukika said flatly, “Because she can’t learn or use the power of the demon race.”

“Likewise, she can’t possess a human panel.”

“So the power of will you’re training right now is most likely the only thing she can learn.”

Li Wei’s heart trembled slightly.

To lose the blessing of both kinds of power at once... did that mean a union between human and demon was rejected by this world?

But Li Wei frowned.

“She’s still too young.”

He really didn’t want his daughter carrying anything like that at this age.

“But she’ll grow up eventually.”

Tsukika said that, and then her next words changed into a voice transmission heard only by Li Wei.

“If one day neither of us is by her side, how do you expect her to face this world? Don’t tell me that day will never come. You’ve already made her miss too many days.”

At the same time, out loud, Tsukika said, “You’ve taught so many other people. You’re not unwilling to teach your own daughter, are you?”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t teach her. But this path isn’t easy.” Li Wei said, “It’ll be painful. And it’ll be hard.”

Teaching his daughter wasn’t a burden to Li Wei. If anything, he was looking forward to spending more time with her. He just didn’t want her to bear all this.

Yue Lin finally found a chance to speak. “I’m not scared.”

Then she paused and said seriously, “I already made it through the pain of not having a dad.”

Li Wei: “...”

Do you two only know how to talk by stabbing at me first?

A little helpless, he corrected his daughter.

“It’s not that you didn’t have a dad. It’s that I never came to find you.”

Yue Lin: “???”

How could you say something that cruel so casually?

“Of course, the main reason is that I didn’t know,” Li Wei said, then glanced at Tsukika again.

At that moment, Tsukika gained a whole new understanding of the shamelessness of the man in front of her.

“If Yue Lin really wants to start training, then go wash the dishes first,” Li Wei said to his daughter after breakfast.

“Is that part of the training?” Yue Lin asked suspiciously.

“No. But if you finish washing them faster, we can start training sooner,” Li Wei said.

“?”

Yue Lin suddenly didn’t feel like training anymore.

But she’d already talked big just now, and she couldn’t back down that easily. Li Wei could be shameless, but she couldn’t be someone with no pride.

That was also how she drew a clear line between herself and him.

Of course, she wasn’t about to get turned into cheap child labor that easily either. Puffing out her cheeks, she looked at Li Wei warily.

“Then what are you doing? If we wash together, it’ll be faster.”

Li Wei said, “I’m going to prepare what we need for training.”

Yue Lin gave an “oh.” Since it was for something serious, she really couldn’t say much.

Then, after finally finishing the dishes while standing on a stool, she turned around and saw Li Wei sprawled out on the sofa.

“?”

Yue Lin immediately chose to question him, but before Li Wei even had to answer, Tsukika explained:

“He never said how long he’d be preparing.”

As she said that, Tsukika looked at her daughter and let out a light sigh.

Sure enough, leaving her daughter alone to bully this man was unrealistic.

“Then why didn’t you tell me, Mom?” Yue Lin asked, sounding a little wronged.

“Yue Lin has to learn to grow up on her own.” Tsukika patted her daughter’s head.

Mm. That was the main reason. It definitely wasn’t because seeing her daughter get bullied was actually kind of cute too.

Li Wei immediately stood up and acted as if nothing had happened. “Since everything’s ready, let’s go.”

He wanted to take Yue Lin’s hand, but she decisively ignored him. Yue Lin clung tightly to her mother’s arm and glared at Li Wei with open disgust.

“If the Chosen Hero wants to hold hands, I wouldn’t mind,” Tsukika said with a smiling gaze.

Li Wei: “I suddenly remembered there’s something else I need to grab.”

Tsukika let out a cold laugh.

In that “harmonious” atmosphere, the family of three quickly headed out, with Li Wei leading them to the place he usually used for training.

At the same time—

Vivian and Tiffany, both fully armed, arrived at the restricted zone of the Demon King Citadel.

It was the entrance to a dark underground dungeon. Deeper inside lay a tangled labyrinth, along with several layers of the Demon King Citadel’s defenses.

“One step further, and we enter the deep lockdown zone.”

“That’s also the area covered by the Authority of Immovable. From here on, every monster will be protected by the lower-order abilities of Immovable.”

“Vivian... are we really ready for this?”

Tiffany asked uneasily.

“We’ve already come this far. What’s the point of saying something so discouraging now?” Vivian’s heart trembled for a moment, and then she turned to Tiffany in irritation for hurting morale.

“I-I wasn’t saying anything discouraging. I just... asked.” Tiffany scratched her hair and said aggrievedly, “It’s just that your legs have been shaking this whole time, so I was worried you weren’t ready.”

Vivian: “????”

“Which eye of yours saw—” Vivian gritted out, but before she could finish, she noticed the trembling of her own legs beneath her skirt. She immediately said in annoyance, “This is trembling from excitement. Don’t get the wrong idea.”

“Oh.” Tiffany nodded.

Vivian clenched her fists. Much as she hated to admit it, she knew in her heart that this really was fear.

Before this, this place had already been the deepest limit she could reach in the Demon King Citadel.

Li Wei’s old words echoed through her mind like brainwashing.

You’re not ready yet.

The Demon King Citadel isn't as simple as you think...

Was all of this the influence that guy left in her mind? Vivian gritted her teeth, unwilling to accept it.

At that moment, from the other end of the passage, a group of people clad in pitch-black armor walked over.