Max stared at him. "Then I will fight him."
The middle-aged man looked at Max for a long moment, then sighed softly.
"That is exactly what I said back then."
Max did not look away.
The middle-aged man’s voice became heavier. "Understand this, Max. I am not telling you this to make you afraid. I am telling you because you must know what waits at the end of this road. The danger of Emotion Severing Path is not only the path itself. It is also the one who guards the boundary before it bees a true Cosmic Path."
Max’s eyes became cold and steady.
"If he es to stop me, then he bees part of the path I need to sever."
For a moment, the middle-aged man said nothing.
Then a faint smile appeared on his face.
"You truly are arrogant."
Max replied calmly, "I have reasons to be."
The middle-aged man looked at him, and the regret in his eyes slowly faded, replaced by a sharper expression.
"Good. Then before the Sword Saint es, you need to bee strong enough to survive one sword from him."
He raised his blade again.
"Because I could not."
As he said those words, the silent severing aura around his sword began to fade.
Max’s eyes narrowed slightly.
The middle-aged man looked down at his own hand and saw it turning into golden particles. His fingers were disappearing first, then his wrist, then the edge of his sleeve. The process was slow and quiet, without pain or resistance, as if the final piece of consciousness he had left behind in this chamber had already pleted its purpose.
Max frowned. "You are disappearing."
The middle-aged man looked back at him and smiled faintly. "Of course. I am not truly alive. What stands before you is only a remnant of my will, left behind in this reward chamber through the Genesis Trial. I existed here to test the one who chose the Emotion Severing Path Chamber, to warn him, and to see whether he was worthy of carrying this forbidden blade further."
His body continued dissolving into golden light.
Max tightened his grip on Dragonheart. "You said you would teach me."
"I did," the middle-aged man said calmly. "And I already have."
Max’s expression did not change, but his gaze became sharper.
The man looked at him with calm eyes. "You have already learned everything from our few exchanges of swords, so there is not much I can teach you here. Your prehension is terrifying, Max. Each clash between us revealed a flaw in your path, and each time, you corrected it faster than I expected. By the time my true body was revealed, the chamber had already acknowledged that my sword could no longer guide you in the ordinary way."
Max remained silent.
The middle-aged man’s chest had already begun scattering into golden particles, but his presence did not weaken immediately. Instead, his gaze became even deeper.
"What remains for you now is not something I can hand over with words. You must walk forward yourself. You must experience the danger of the path, control its volatility, resist the madness hidden within it, and face the Sword Saint when he es. No one can do that in your place."
The golden particles drifted upward like fireflies in the darkness.
The man looked at Max and said softly, "I just want you to see through the end of this path for me."
Those words made the chamber even quieter.
For a brief moment, Max did not answer. He simply looked at the man whose life had ended before he could truly plete the Cosmic Path of Emotion Severing. This man had been arrogant, talented, and brave enough to stand before the Sword Saint, but he had still fallen before reaching the end. Now, the last trace of his will was placing that unfinished path into Max’s hands.
Max slowly raised Dragonheart and gave a slight nod.
"I will."
The middle-aged man’s smile became clearer.
"Good."
His body finally dissolved pletely.
The last thing to disappear was his face, and even as it faded, his eyes remained calm, regretful, and faintly hopeful. Then the golden particles scattered into the endless darkness, leaving behind only a silent sword mark in the air where he had stood.
Max remained in place for a long time.
The chamber did not immediately react.
There was no prompt.
No reward notification.
No congratulations.
There was only silence.
Max looked at the fading sword mark, then slowly lowered his gaze to Dragonheart. The Emotion Severing Path inside him had bee quieter than before, but that quietness was not emptiness. It was control. It was a sharper boundary between emotion and madness, between severing and being severed, between wielding the blade and being the blade.
The middle-aged man was gone.
But his warning remained.
The Sword Saint would e.
And when that day arrived, Max would need to be strong enough to survive the sword that had killed the first owner of the Emotion Severing Path.
Max closed his eyes for a moment.
Then he opened them again.
His gaze was calm.
"I will see the end of this path," he said softly.
With that Max’s time in the chamber ended and his body too disappeared from the scene.
In no moment, Max found himself standing outside the ruined castle he had destroyed himself.
"I came back to this place?" Max was surprised. He thought he would join the others and they would be teleported out together but it was clearly not the case.
"Anyway, I should have been rewarded some good Killing Points." Max smiled and checked his Killing Points.
[Killing Points: 70 Million Killing Points]
[Rank: 4]
"I am rank 4 even with 70 Million Killing Points?" Max was shocked for the first time. This made him wondered just who were the top three.
With 70 million points, he should have at least reached top 3 but it was clear that he had underestimated the other top geniuses.
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