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Chapter 394 - 391: "For your sword, your will, your bonds, your homeland.

Chapter 394: Chapter 391: "For your sword, your will, your bonds, your homeland.

The darkening sky merged gradually with the snow-covered earth, becoming indistinguishable from one another.

Su Rin stretched out his hand.

The stagnant light scattered evenly across his face, like a deep blue celestial path.

His movements were slow, yet firm, just as steady as when he had held his pen to draw the blueprint of the airship.

Before Miguel’s trembling gaze, Su Rin pressed his palm against Miguel’s forehead.

The hot tears in Miguel’s eyes fell.

He felt that his teacher shouldn’t have such an ending.

In the warm breezes of spring, on the starlit land... he should have died amidst everyone’s admiration; he should have had the right to love, the right to continue living on this land he had saved, not here, in the cold winter, in this deserted alley, dying silently, unnoticed by anyone.

...He had just come down from Yun Shang City alone.

...He should’ve been welcomed by the residents lining the streets, there should’ve been a grand celebration in his honor, not this abrupt, lonely end, choosing death in front of a single individual.

He was a hero, after all.

Sobs could not be contained in Miguel’s throat as he gazed at the light in the young man’s eyes that seem to encompass all things.

"I’m no longer able to bear the malice of the sea monster’s soul," Su Rin’s hand paused on Miguel’s forehead, "—There’s no need to say more, kill me. If I don’t die, I will only be transformed into a dreadful ruler by the malice of the sea monster."

"..."

"I’m sorry, Miguel, I’m going to erase the you that you are now and reduce you to a vessel for ’eternity,’" Su Rin said, "I will imbue you with my earliest memories, you will become me at my youngest, my youngest self... Do you understand what you must do?"

"Yes, Teacher, I willingly... should I also not be able to bear this malice, I will find another person to kill me and take over everything from me."

Su Rin showed a smile.

His smile was weary, bloodshot in his eyes as he turned his head for another glance at his familiar homeland.

The blizzard obscured the sky, making the houses, Royal City, and distant mountains indistinct.

But he still remembered, looking out from here, to the left was the commercial district of Kale Street, with the best grass sugar in the Eastern District. To the right, a familiar barbecue shop where he used to dine with students of astronomy and engineering.

In the direction behind him, slightly elevated, stood the Royal City. Beyond its walls lived the young princess who had once said farewell to him, with loyal Royal City Knights often patrolling around that area.

Directly in front of him was a transverse canal, crossing it led to the cobblestone streets of the Southern District. A few days ago, a massive airship had been parked here, an airship that carried countless people’s hopes, starkly dividing the boundaries of life and death.

That cobblestone street once teemed with residents bidding farewell.

Among the crowd, there had been a girl with thick black braids, elfin in her beauty.

In the bustling throng of well-wishers, her beautiful eyes hooked onto his memories so tightly, never to be shifted away.

And in that river, flowing with relentless life,

there was once a bottle filled with daisies, sunken, with aged rice wine.

...

His gaze was so distant, so lucid.

The snowstorm in front of him hindered his view, but it was as if he had traversed the unreachable territories, seeing that far-off place that was so distant from him.

After boarding the airship, he had asked around.

In the Eastern District, on Thirteenth Street, a diligent young girl.

She would be by the river washing clothes in the early morning and hanging colorful laundry at her doorway under the fierce midday sun.

Salted fish and various sea products would be dried at her doorstep. She would stride over the puddle in front of her house in wooden clogs to buy sticky rice and salt from the next street.

In the evening, she would stand at the door, waiting for her seafaring parents to return, the blood-red sunset casting a beautiful glow on her shoulders.

Maybe afterward, she would meet someone she loved, and who loved her back. Perhaps a hardworking fisherman, or perhaps a valiant Soul Hunt.

Her love would be blessed by those around her, she would be surrounded by children and grandchildren, with industrious hands providing for her happy life.

Her tranquility and happiness throughout her life would be a microcosm of the countless residents of Pulaya.

No matter if they were young or old, impoverished or wealthy.

She could be each of the hardworking and peace-loving residents living on this land.

Disasters will spare them, Sea Monsters will detour around them, and with the resources saved, people’s lives will become stable and prosperous.

Above this vast land, suffering and scars need not exist.

Mountain winds will raise clouds and rain, moonlight will lead the tides, and everything in Pulaya will continue.

And that young girl... she will grow up safely, she will marry and have children, she will grow old with her beloved, happily spending the remainder of her life with him.

At every important moment in her life, she will be truly able to experience, either joy or concern.

Her youth will not be forcibly fixed in her youngest days, her vitality can gradually fade with the passing of time, she can fully enjoy the marks that the years leave on her.

Of course, there will be someone to kiss her, willing to take her hand, sincerely engraving their love for each other.

Of course, there will be someone who loves her body and soul, and of course, she will enjoy a splendid and stable rest of her life.

...And what he hoped to see, was just these things.

No one is born a sacrificer.

...But he was willing to make this acquired sacrifice.

Within the heavy snowstorm,

His palm finally lit up with a deep blue light.

The bright blue Sea Monster’s soul emerged on his body, passing through his arm, palm, fingers, like a stream of blue water, slowly merging into Miguel’s forehead.

The snowflakes no longer moved, the shadows of the trees were still without wind.

In a brilliant interplay of light and shadow, the colors surging in his eyes slowly revealed the same tranquil whiteness as the snow.

His face became aged, his hair gradually turned white, and the skin on his body began to crack and decay.

His bodily frame thinned and withered away, deformed by the illumination of the light.

The vigor of his body, like melting ice and snow, gradually retreated.

From the beginning to the end, Su Rin’s gaze never shifted, he just quietly, with an almost serene and gentle expression, stared at the land of the Eastern District.

The wind and snow fell on his eyelashes, which trembled slightly.

Burning tears slid down from the corners of his eyes, falling and vanishing in the fiercely burning blue flames.

Within the dazzling and grand flames, no one saw this tear.

"Well done."

He said.

The color drained from his face, revealing a pair of hollow eyes.

All moments of time were frozen within, and no longer could the people and things he loved move within them.

Miguel, filled with the Sea Monster’s soul, was already in tears.

The life within him was growing stronger and more intense. His blond hair slowly turned pitch black in color, his facial features gradually twisted and changed, his presence climbed bit by bit like rising flames.

After Su Rin became white-haired and his body completely decayed, Miguel had transformed into the spitting image of Su Rin at his youngest.

...He had become Su Rin.

The second generation Su Rin.

The deep blue, beautiful, Sea Monster, sculpted by gods, had entered his body, and Miguel opened his now dark golden eyes.

And before him, the original young man had turned into a pool of flesh and blood.

...

["Su Rin. To ensure the upcoming peace of Pulaya, important figures such as the leader of Soul Hunt, royal nobles, Captain of the Royal Knights, Leader of the Pulaya Guardians, including your brother and father... they cannot accompany you aboard the ship, have you already bid them farewell?"]

["I have said my goodbyes."]

["Under what pretense?"]

["A long journey."]

["...You still hold onto hope, huh."]

[...]

[The young, spirited captain revealed a smile in front of the princess.]

["Princess," he said with a light chuckle,]

...

["Without reaching the end of the journey, I wouldn’t consider death to be my conclusion."]

...

Miguel, who had transformed into Su Rin, wiped the tears from his face.

His gaze had become incomparably clear, reminiscent of his youngest days when, as a youthful and spirited captain, he sailed far on his boat.

He placed the flesh and blood of Su Rin from the ground into a small mahogany box, completing a very simple, lonely funeral without onlookers, before turning around and slowly walking away in the snowstorm.

The snowstorm grew fiercer.

Buildings were draped in pristine white, and the city walls, like a slumbering giant dragon, lay in the thick snow.

The cold wind carried a bustling market sound, mingled with people’s laughter. From afar, the harbor’s water shimmered like neon lights, the white sails of fishing boats appearing and disappearing.

The young man wearing a white mask, cradling the light mahogany box, stepped out of the desolate alley, one step at a time.

A deadly silence spread in the air, the snow pressing down on his slightly hunched back.

His slightly bent silhouette merged with the thickening twilight and the silent darkness.

The white light before his eyes gradually closed and vanished.

This scene ended.

...

Decades later, Miguel could no longer withstand the malice in his soul.

By then, he had completely assimilated into Su Rin, and the memories belonging to Miguel himself had become blurred.

Before his death, he wrote his last will in the dungeon of the Royal City.

...

["I lied to the Pope and Tulip Princess, saying I was going out to sea to find a way to break the Barrier."]

["But I just wanted to die alone."]

["That person... that kid who called himself Soul Hunt, when he struck at me, I didn’t resist."]

["He grievously wounded me and tore away the half of the map I held in my hands."]

["... Yet he probably never anticipated that I just wanted him to kill me."]

["I don’t wish to bear such a burden... it has almost crushed me. I can no longer distinguish whether I am the former Miguel or the current ’Su Rin.’"]

...

["Let the kid who killed me, who called himself Kaya, become the next ’Su Rin.’"]

...

Kaya, who later became Gerald’s husband, became the third generation Su Rin.

He seized the half map from the dying Miguel, and after Miguel’s death, his mind was flooded with Su Rin’s memories.

Unable to control the overwhelming memories and fluctuating emotions, he set out to sea as planned, boarding a ship to the Yate Empire.

Kaya’s timid emotions prevented him from returning to Pulaya, from facing the deceived Princess and Pope—he chose to settle in the Yate Empire and lived there for decades.

During the process of assimilation, Su Rin’s memories gradually took over, and he bewitched the Duke of the Yate Empire, obtaining a fake Viscount identity, but limited by Kaya’s timidity, he struggled between living incognito and returning to Pulaya.

... Finally, one day, he became Su Rin completely.

The part of him that was Kaya disappeared.

He orchestrated a ship hijacking plan, transformed an S-rank Soul Hunt and a host of nobles, boarded the undying pearl of the Empire, and with the help of Sea Monster souls, secured the Yate Stone, ensuring its safekeeping.

And his companion on this journey,

... was none other than the dignified and beautiful fallen lady, Saya, similar to a tulip.

In Pulaya, the young girl from the Eastern District, who should have lived happily ever after, couldn’t wait for her husband, couldn’t spend the rest of her life with her lover.

After Su Rin blessed her, his first heir inevitably, personally destroyed her happiness.

She took care of her bedridden daughter and her son who went to the front lines,

... until her teeth shook and her hair turned snowy white.

...

No matter what means were used, what sacrifices were made,

peace continued in this land worn by the vicissitudes of time.

"Su Rin" lived on in people’s legends, memorialized by monuments and epitaphs, becoming a glorious hero from the tales.

A symbol passed down, a name sung by people, a mark etched on stone tablets, he saw himself as a brick in the soil of this land.

He once walked into the sunset’s gold amid the raucous sea breeze filled with laughter, turning his back on the comrades and colleagues he had lived with day and night, heading towards the airship, never to look back.

Waves drummed, flutes thundered.

The setting sun bathed him, his shoulders once as red as flames.

He fulfilled generations of ideals, protected the peace of the land, and died midst the brilliant lights of countless homes.

For promises,

for order,

for love.

He was an epitome of the myriad sacrifices on this land.

Whether just,

whether kind,

whether indignant.

...

...

["My story is long, very long... I have many regrets."]

["—What exactly is the way to protect the people I love? Sacrifice, balance, or hatred?"]

["What exactly is the driving force for a tribe to survive? And those living in illusory dreams without faith, are they still the people I cherish?"]

["In this moment before my death, I cannot comprehend it."]

["My dear heir, I apologize for entrusting you with this task."]

["Inevitably, please become me, and then..."]

["—with your life, your flesh, your bones, your burning soul, and all you are, fearlessly, bravely, resolutely—love this land."]]

["Fight for the wailing, live for the laughing."]

["Because of your sword, your will, your bonds—"]

["...guard this soil of countless sufferers."]]

...

...

[Just like me,]

[...just like the myriads of ’us’.]]

...

[Perfect Completion Progress: 95%]