The Course of History

He had already been in the illusion for nearly two months.

During that time, Proud Sword had never left the island. It was not that he did not want to leave, but that he simply could not.

All he could do was labor day after day in the pitch-black mine.

Such a life left Proud Sword deeply frustrated, but his longing for Law Sword Intent kept him from giving up.

Over those two months, Proud Sword had also begun contemplating why this illusion existed.

By then, countless conjectures had formed in his mind.

The one Proud Sword considered most likely was that he was now walking the path Yellow Springs Sword Saint had once walked.

He still clearly remembered the old man pointing into the distance with trembling fingers while shouting:

"Sea... A Mu... sea..."

Proud Sword's interpretation was that the old man had intended to take him to find the sea.

But in the end, the old man had exhausted all his strength and could no longer hold on. Though his dying eyes had been filled with yearning for the sea, he had ultimately been buried beneath the yellow sand.

Thinking of how his current thirteen- or fourteen-year-old body had clearly grown compared to before,

did that mean that after the old man died, the boy had set out alone once more and, relying on his tenacious will and highly adaptable body, eventually reached the seaside?

Then, for some unknown reason, he had been captured and taken to this island, becoming a laborer...

Proud Sword had no way of knowing whether that was true, but if his guess was correct, then this journey through the illusion would certainly be far from ordinary.

With that in mind, Proud Sword grew expectant, working every day while constantly speculating and piecing things