Dharma Name: Fahai!

Two days later, at dawn.

Kai arrived alone at the foot of a mountain.

He stopped and looked up.

Before him, verdant peaks rose one behind another. A stone stairway wound its way upward, disappearing into the clouds.

At the mountaintop, an ancient yet magnificent temple appeared and vanished amid the mist.

Faintly, the distant, peaceful sound of chanting drifted over on the mountain breeze.

It carried a serenity that seemed to cleanse the soul.

He had arrived at the Fire Temple.

As he looked at the Fire Temple on the mountain, Kai could not help recalling the night he had bid Might Duy farewell.

After Might Duy had made that bold declaration about "spreading branches and leaves,"

Kai had keenly noticed that the women rescued from the Land of Rain

had actually been somewhat moved!

And not just them.

Even Ghost Mother and Yakushi Nonō had worn rather strange expressions.

At that moment, Kai had given up on explaining.

Perhaps... letting his old man answer Minato Namikaze's call and enjoy a "second spring"

would not be so bad?

As for who it would be with...

Kai shook his head and stopped dwelling on such family matters.

He took a deep breath of the crisp mountain air and strode up the stone steps toward the Fire Temple.

Along the way, he saw quite a few people who had risen early to offer incense.

There were men and women, young and old.

Most were plainly but neatly dressed, their expressions devout.

They had come from all across the Land of Fire.

The Fire Temple was renowned throughout the Land of Fire.

Its incense offerings never waned.

It was said that even the Daimyo of the Land of Fire often came here to worship Buddha.

It was by no means some obscure