Compared to the blazing, all-out assault inside the Demon King Citadel, all Li Wei felt here was silence as he strolled through the lush green woods outside the city with his two girls.

Ever since he threw himself into the grand cause of saving the world, Li Wei could no longer remember how long it had been since he last enjoyed something this leisurely, almost like a picnic.

After following a winding stretch deeper into the forest, a vast secluded pool suddenly opened up before the family of three, its surface shimmering softly.

The pool looked like a flawless blue gem, set into this verdant wildland.

At the far end of the pool, pressed against a steep cliff face, a torrent of white water plunged straight down, stirring a little noisy mist over the otherwise quiet waters.

Tsukika walked to the edge of the pool. She looked at her reflection in the mirror-like blue, slowly crouched down, scooped up a handful of cool water, then turned her head. Her scarlet eyes curved with a half-smile as she looked at the man beside her, whose gaze was fixed on their daughter.

“So this is the place where you used to go on dates with your teammates?”

The corner of Li Wei’s eye twitched along with the ahoge on top of his daughter’s head. Faced with both mother and daughter staring at him, he said with a headache, “This was a training ground.”

“Oh~ a training ground. If you hadn’t said so, I would’ve thought it was some nice scenic spot where you and those people came to fool around and admire the dramatic views.”

“I wonder how the great Chosen Hero trained in a place like this.”

Tsukika tilted her head at Li Wei. At the same time, she sat down by the pool at an unhurried pace, then, right in front of him, slipped off one of her white stockings. Her tender bare foot sank into the clear water, and her fair skin seemed no less crystalline than the rippling light on the surface.

Beside her, Yue Lin immediately copied her mother. She pulled off her socks and started splashing in the water too. Her ruby-like eyes were full of distrust as she stared at that unreliable adult human male.

Hmph.

Even if this guy had used training as an excuse to bring her and Mom out to play, she still wasn’t going to forgive him.

Li Wei didn’t bother explaining further. He glanced at the mother and daughter huddled together in play, then stepped toward the pool.

Under Yue Lin’s slightly surprised gaze and Tsukika’s thoughtful one, Li Wei stepped onto the water as if he were standing on empty air. He walked more than ten paces into the pool, and not a single ripple spread across the surface.

Standing still atop the water, Li Wei turned back to look at them.

“Wasn’t this what you asked for? The power of will.”

“This power... a Miracle created by human will? Even after losing the panel’s favor, heaven and earth still answer your will.”

Tsukika murmured softly.

She could tell there wasn’t the slightest trace of magic on Li Wei. The only reason he could stand on the water was because this world itself was responding to him. Or to put it more precisely, because Li Wei’s will was controlling this patch of heaven and earth.

It was like a special kind of force, resting over him.

That night, Li Wei had spoken as if he were empty-handed, claiming he was physically weak and only had a tiny little trick or two to rely on. But Tsukika had clearly sensed danger from him.

Now she understood.

That faint sense of threat she had felt from Li Wei came from this very force.

She could also tell that the power Li Wei used to walk on water was probably only the crudest application of it. If this power truly erupted, what kind of Miracle could it create?

Even after losing the panel... you still managed to carve out a path like this?

As Tsukika thought that, she suddenly stood up. She stepped onto the water as well, leaving no trace behind, and walked to Li Wei’s side. With her pale hands tucked behind her back, she circled him as if inspecting him.

Li Wei raised a brow at her.

Seeing the look in his eyes that plainly said what are you trying to do, Tsukika smiled slightly.

“Chosen Hero, you’ve worked so hard day and night, touching me all over for your research. It’s only fair that I study you a little too, isn’t it?”

Before a question mark could even pop over Li Wei’s head, Tsukika suddenly reached out and poked his abdomen.

If they had been alone, Li Wei naturally wouldn’t have reacted to a touch like that. But their daughter was still watching from the shore, and that made it different.

Tsukika looked at the ripples that suddenly spread beneath Li Wei’s feet and showed a sly smile. She clapped her hands lightly.

“I see. Emotional fluctuations do affect this power to a certain extent.”

“I don’t know the essence of the power of will, but at the very least, we can confirm that emotional force is one of the prototypes that shape it.”

Just as Tsukika was lifting her pink lips in smug satisfaction, Li Wei suddenly reached out and patted her on the head.

Tsukika’s scarlet pupils shrank sharply. She looked at Li Wei in disbelief, and saw a look on his face that seemed almost contemptuous.

“By your logic just now, does emotional force also count as one of the things that constructs magic?” Li Wei said, looking at the ripples trembling beneath Tsukika’s feet as well.

“...”

Tsukika quickly suppressed the shift in her emotions. She pressed her lips together.

“Chosen Hero, do you really have to be this childish? Do you think my judgment would be shaken by something this simple?”

“I never said you’d be shaken. Why would you think that? And besides, weren’t you the one being childish first?”

Li Wei spoke leisurely.

The two looked each other in the eye, bickering atop the water.

Yue Lin, who had been left by the poolside: “?”

For some reason, she suddenly felt like she was the extra one here.

Mom and that annoying guy were both huge idiots!

She drew back her little feet with a huff, her small face drooping in displeasure.

Of course, that unreliable adult male quickly noticed something was off with his daughter. And since he didn’t want to keep trading blows with the Demon Lord anyway, he simply returned to Yue Lin’s side.

“Yue Lin, give me your hand.”

Li Wei openly tried to scam his daughter’s little hand.

“Why?”

Yue Lin looked at him warily.

“It’s a necessary preparation for training.”

“You said washing dishes was a necessary preparation too.” Yue Lin put on a stern little face. She wasn’t stupid. The same trick wasn’t going to work on her a second time.

Li Wei paused, then said, “If Yue Lin really has the resolve to train, she wouldn’t back down this easily, right?”

“...”

And very quickly, Li Wei successfully caught hold of his daughter’s soft little hand.

Under the amused gaze in her mother’s beautiful eyes, Yue Lin swiftly turned her head away. The ahoge on top of her head drooped limply as she muttered, “If it weren’t for Mom, I wouldn’t be doing this at all! So what do we do next?”

Li Wei took out a wooden carving and placed it in his daughter’s hand.

Yue Lin glanced at it, and her heart gave a slight jump. She could tell that this annoying man had carved her. Hmph. So he’d been secretly doing something like this when she wasn’t paying attention? Typical sly human.

But she immediately declared her resolve to her mother.

“Why are you giving me this? I don’t want it.”

“It’s not for you. You’re just holding onto it for now,” Li Wei said.

Looking at the ahoge on top of his daughter’s head springing up into a “?”, Li Wei continued, “Only after Yue Lin keeps it safe for long enough can this carving be given to you as a reward.”

“Hmph. That’s more like it.”

Yue Lin reluctantly nodded. The ahoge on top of her head perked up happily. Of course, under the gaze of that annoying man, there was no way she was going to smile, so she worked hard to keep her little face stern.

“By the way, I’ve already planted a guide in this carving with my own will. Next, Yue Lin can try using that will as a lead to catch the power of her own will.”

Li Wei spoke softly.

“The power of will?”

Yue Lin looked a little lost.

“Mm. The power of will begins, first of all, with your own conviction.”

As he said that, Li Wei suddenly paused. As if recalling something, he looked off toward the far side of the lush greenery.

His gaze passed over the rushing white waterfall and the steep cliff face. Beyond them stood an even grander mountain.

If one looked carefully, they would see that the shape of that mountain resembled a human figure.

A giant kneeling on one knee, standing in silence upon this vast land.

As if he had burned away his soul, leaving only his body behind to guard this human realm for all eternity.

“Yue Lin, do you see that mountain?”

“The mountain?”

Yue Lin looked toward where Li Wei was gazing. As for Tsukika, after one glance at the mountain, she turned back to stare at Li Wei in a daze.

Li Wei said, “That mountain is the mark left behind by a human Chosen Hero after he sublimated through the power of will.”

“After sublimating... he turned into a mountain?”

The ahoge on top of Yue Lin’s head trembled. For some reason, she suddenly didn’t feel like learning anymore.

“That was his conviction.”

“Even after dying, he wanted to remain in some form and protect what mattered to him.”

“He was also the one who first let me witness the power of will.”

Li Wei said it calmly.

Back when he still had the panel, he had already mastered the use of willpower. At the time, among some of the top Chosen Heroes, the power of will had another name as well: Limit Break—the power to break past the panel’s limits.

Only a very small number of gifted Chosen Heroes could master this power. Li Wei had grasped it early, but he never relied on it much, because his panel had been too powerful.

It was only after he lost the panel that he picked this power back up, and little by little worked out a usable training method for it.

Of course, one suited only to his own constitution.

What Vivian and the others practiced had been specially adjusted and tailored by Li Wei for them, but they didn’t seem able to accept it.

“That mountain was not the price he paid for using the power of will to achieve Limit Break. It was the final Miracle he wished to leave behind for this world.”

Li Wei spoke softly.

Yue Lin seemed to understand a little. She asked blankly,

“Then in the end... did he protect it? The thing that mattered?”

Hearing that, a trace of complexity flashed across Li Wei’s face. But in the end, he smiled and answered with certainty,

“Of course. The future humanity has now is the result of what he protected.”

At that, Tsukika merely let out a soft “heh,” neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

“To want something, to protect something, to become something... thoughts like those are what most easily gather a person’s conviction.”

“What is Yue Lin’s conviction?”

Li Wei asked.

Yue Lin’s mind instinctively flashed back to that battle, and to her mother protecting her with her life on the line.

Then she remembered the admiration and hope she used to hold for the man before her. After a moment of silence, she said softly,

“I want to protect Mom.”

“Only protect Mom?” Li Wei asked.

“And hate you too!” Yue Lin gave a light huff.

“I see.”

Li Wei didn’t seem to care about his daughter’s attack at all. He just smiled.

“Then Yue Lin needs to sort it out properly. In any case, if you can’t clearly define your conviction, it’ll be hard to complete the next steps.”

Yue Lin grew a little flustered, but quickly realized that as long as she understood her conviction in her heart, she didn’t actually need to say it out loud. She calmed down again.

“You don’t need to tell me that. I already know. I’m very clear on my conviction.”

Li Wei’s expression stayed calm.

“Mm. Then next, recall the emotion and desire you felt in the instant that conviction was born. Under that emotion, and under the guidance of the will I planted, meditate. Try to find the hidden power of your own will.”

“A verbal explanation might be hard to grasp. But once you truly settle down and begin meditating, you’ll gradually understand what I mean.”

After Li Wei finished, Yue Lin nodded, half understanding and half not.

But just as she was about to sit down and begin meditating, her gaze fell on the little hand still being held in his, and she sank into thought.

She looked up at Li Wei.

Li Wei calmly released his daughter’s hand and explained, “Part of the guidance for willpower has to be passed to you through the hand too. That part is already done.”

Yue Lin gave a light huff, closed her eyes, and sat down without arguing with him.

“The guidance of willpower sounds pretty interesting. Chosen Hero, when are you going to plant some in me too?”

As Yue Lin gradually sank into that special state of meditation, a soft, gentle voice suddenly drifted to Li Wei’s ear like a breeze.

Li Wei put on a calm front and touched his jaw, which felt like it'd been run over by a wheel. Then he turned to Tsukika.

“Aren’t you worried I might tamper with this power?”

Tsukika said indifferently, “If you were going to, you’ve already had plenty of chances these past few days. One more won’t make a difference.”

Li Wei met Tsukika’s scarlet eyes in silence. He really wanted to crack open this Demon Lord’s head and see if it was filled with nothing but dirty thoughts.

“Fine. Getting the Chosen Hero to completely open his heart to me right now might be a bit difficult.” Tsukika smiled, then suddenly asked, “But I’m curious. Did you really think that with this power alone, you could challenge Immovable without a status panel?”

“When did I ever say I was going after Immovable?” Li Wei glanced at Tsukika without changing expression.

“You never do meaningless things, do you?”

Tsukika spoke calmly. “You’ve stayed in Immovable’s territory for so long. If you tell me you weren’t planning anything at all, I won’t believe it.”

“Believe it or not, I have no intention of dealing with Immovable.”

“Having no intention before you’re sure of yourself, and never having that intention at all, are two different things.”

“Even if they are, they’re both in the past now.”

Li Wei said that and looked at his daughter.

Slaying the Demon Lord no longer belonged to his life.

“I see.”

Tsukika’s lips moved slightly. “Then I’ll have to say those words again.”

“What a shame~”

Li Wei’s eyelid twitched on instinct. From yesterday to today, every time this Demon Lord said what a shame, nothing good had followed.

“What does that mean this time?”

“If the Chosen Hero has already lost his obsession with pursuing power, then you must not be interested in how to complete this power of yours, right?”

Tsukika smiled slightly.

After Li Wei had shown the tiny trick he used to protect himself, she had already seen the flaw in his power.

Power sustained by will alone couldn’t last. And his body would become a massive weakness.

At last, emotion stirred in Li Wei’s black eyes, which had been still as ancient water.

Just as Tsukika had guessed, if the power of will could truly cover every flaw, then he would never have wasted away in this place all those years.

Without a way to strengthen his body, all he could do with sheer will was burst out for a short time.

A mortal body matching the gods for a single instant was not brilliance.

It was brutality.

After thinking for a moment, Li Wei asked softly, “You know how to complete it?”

Not having a sword in hand, and having one but not wanting to use it, were two different things.

Still, he found it hard to believe Tsukika really had a way to complete his power. He was more inclined to suspect... that after seeing this flaw, she wanted to use it as bait.

“Oh? So the Chosen Hero is still interested?”

Tsukika feigned surprise.

“I just want to expose your lie.” Li Wei said calmly.

Seeing him stubbornly keep up appearances, she didn’t mind. She only gave a light laugh.

“Come with me somewhere, and you’ll know.”

“But on the way, you’d better think carefully about how you’re going to thank me.”

Li Wei had wanted to argue a bit more, but when he saw Tsukika’s teasing gaze, he gave up. He turned to look at his daughter, who was meditating.

“What about Yue Lin?”

“Just let her cultivate here. She’s used to days without her dad by her side anyway,” Tsukika said casually.

Li Wei: “?”

Before Li Wei could choke out a retort, Tsukika casually raised a hand and drew a blood-red rune. It melted into the air. Its power quietly spread, covering Yue Lin and the entire pool.

“Don’t worry. You don’t need to worry about your daughter. I care about her safety even more than you do.”

Li Wei looked at Tsukika, who suddenly seemed a little excited, and his nerves tightened for no reason. He had a vague feeling she wasn’t bringing this up on a whim.

It felt more like something she had planned for a long time.

But what else did he even have on him that she could be plotting for?

Looking at Tsukika’s teasing smile, Li Wei knew full well this was the clumsiest kind of straight-hook bait from this slippery-footed Demon Lord.

And yet, he still couldn’t resist the temptation she had mentioned.

The temptation of completing his power.

“Then get on.”

But Tsukika’s next sentence immediately threw Li Wei into thought again.

He looked at Tsukika, who had spread her arms, paused, and said, “What do you mean?”

“The place we’re going is quite far from here.”

“The Chosen Hero isn’t planning to walk there at a snail’s pace, is he? I don’t mind, sure. But you don’t want your daughter waking up alone and worrying herself sick waiting for you, right?”

Tsukika urged him on, signaling for Li Wei to obediently let her carry him.

“I don’t believe that’s your only way of taking me there.”

The corner of Li Wei’s mouth twitched slightly. He had absolutely no desire to be princess-carried by this Demon Lord.

Tsukika saw his reluctance and thought for a moment. “Would the Chosen Hero be embarrassed if I carried you like that?”

“Then let’s change methods.”

“It’s fine if the Chosen Hero wants to ride on me instead.”

Tsukika’s scarlet eyes curved slightly. Wearing a mischievous expression, she tugged at her tied-up silver twin-tails.

“Perfect. I even prepared the rope for you.”

Li Wei: “???”