As the seabird moved higher and higher, the crow jolted at great speed in the direction of the bamboo forest, flapping its wings and bouncing the sea sand into the air.

The black skin on Kai's left side—from his shoulder to his chest—stopped moving, turning back into a healed wound scar.

Salty wind splashed on Kai's body as the speeding waves stopped the moment they reached his foot.

There, a black glow seeped out of Kai's eyes as his eyes cracked open.

Seeing his friend's blue and red eyes turn and glow in an obsidian color, Jude kept on stumbling back, almost as if he'd seen a ghost.

He stopped the moment he bumped his back on a jagged rock that was as tall as his height.

"What's happening to him?" Jude's face tensed as he tilted his gaze from Kai to the entrance of the Bamboo Forest.

Not seeing anyone, his chest heaved so fast that thick sweat began to drip from him like blood.

He gagged the moment Kai rose and began walking toward him like a paralyzed person now learning to walk.

Jude panted, bent down, and shoved the sand beneath his boot into his hands and hurled it at Kai.

"No… No… No," he crossed his arms on his face and closed his eyes the moment Kai stopped one foot away from him.

Chills ran down his spine when warm skin touched his shoulder.

After minutes of feeling the skin not moving an inch, he cracked his eyes open at a slow pace.

And when he saw Kai's eyes returning to their normal blue and red, Jude threw himself forward, wrapping his arms around Kai and hugging him tight.

The two boys stood there for an hour, sobbing sounds echoing from around them.

…

"Why didn't he see him there?" Yung Mai's face tensed as he tilted his gaze at the open door of the Radiant Palm meditation chamber he was in.

"I'm sure they're on their way," the Radiant Palm leader's voice brushed some of the lines of tension drawn on Yung Mai's face out.

Yung Mai turned his gaze to Master Hu, smiled, and shook his head. "If you say so, Hu."

The two masters remained in their lotus posture, smiled at each other for a while, then closed their eyes.

As Hu calmed his heart and mind, Yung Mai's remained in the carcass of hell, thinking of all the possibilities that would have caused the delay.

Soft wind flew from the open door like flames, carrying dried leaves and making them drift until they landed at Yung Mai's front.

Yung Mai's eyes twitched for five seconds, then opened. The dried leaf that had landed at his front floated above the moment he raised his right arm and tried to grab it.

As if the wind was trickling him, it carried the leaf back to the gate.

Yung Mai smiled, then lowered his head, but at that instant saw two shadows stretching toward the opened gate as the sun's rays shone there.

He exhaled deeply, turned to the wooden humanoid structure, bowed once, twice, then thrice, and then stood up.

He flapped his palms on his black-and-white trousers, clearing the dust that had clung to them, then inhaled deeply.

Hu cracked his eyes open upon hearing the cloth-wiping sound and stood up as well.

"They are here," he said, turning toward the two boys entering through the gate, and scraping his long white beard with his left arm.

Yung Mai turned from the boys' direction, bowed twice to the wooden figure, and then to Hu.

"I think we've spent so many days here." He bowed for the third time and straightened himself.

Hu smiled, lowered his head, and shook it, then tilted his gaze to a six-foot black box that was resting on a table in the far distance on the right side.

"Before you leave," he tilted himself slightly toward the boy, squeezed his face, and then to Yung Mai, where he smiled.

"I have to give you something the lady ordered, we give to the boy." Hu raised the overlapping cloth from his waist and walked to where the box was.

Yung Mai gazed at Kai and Jude. He squeezed his eyes as he spotted sand on the outfits they were in and then moved toward the Radiant Palm leader.

As soon as Hu reached the box's side and placed his hand on its top, he coughed. The sound echoed in the room so loudly that it made debris fall from the bell hanging by the wall he stood at.

Yung Mai's eyes widened as he spotted blood on Hu's arm that he used to cover the cough.

"Hu!" Yung Mai's expression tensed. He moved forward in haste and placed a hand on Hu's shoulder. "Brother, you're getting old."

Hu turned a sharp gaze at Yung Mai and frowned. "I should be the one saying that." His frown changed to calmness as he saw the white hair on Yung Mai's head.

"Your only cure is the delay of time there. I know most people will think I'm the oldest in this temple. Yet there is someone who, on the normal scale, is ten times older than me."

Hu cracked into laughter the moment his words ended.

Hearing the joyous and undeniable truth, Yung Mai joined in the laughter.

At a distance from where the two masters stood, Jude turned a silly face at Kai and began laughing, almost as if he overheard the silent conversation that came before the laughter surged.

Jude tapped on Kai's shoulder, noticing the boy was smiling or laughing.

Feeling the impact through his bones, Kai only smirked.

…

"What's inside the box?" Yung Mai asked, cutting the laughter short.

Hu tilted his gaze to the wooden figure and closed his eyes briefly. "This is the last piece of Yung Chin 'G'."

Deep silence struck the room so hard that another set of debris and spiders fell from the bell and the ceiling and landed at their center.

"You mean the Junior Yung Chin?" Yung Mai's eyes opened wide as his mouth forgot how to breathe.

There, he tilted his gaze in Kai's direction, scanned the boy fully, and then turned toward Hu, shocked.

'Why do I feel like the boy could be related to the Yung Chin family?' he thought as his mind reeled with the eyes the Yung Chins had.

"Hu," Yung Mai moved two steps forward, closing in on Hu, then placed his hand on top of the box.

"If this sword is here," he turned a still face toward Hu, "then that means…"

"He's no more," Hu completed Yung Mai's statement before he could even finish.

Hu placed his hand on Yung Mai's palm. "We may be strong, but—" He paused and turned toward the two boys standing there, not knowing about the matter taking place.

"We will surely leave this world and join the next when our time is due." Hu turned his gaze to Yung Mai.

"It may be today, tomorrow, or even a second from now." He smiled. "No one knows what our destiny holds for us."

Without waiting for Yung Mai's words, Hu unlocked the box and inhaled as the silver sword gleamed while the rays of the sun fell on it through the window on their left side.

"It's an honor to hand this to you for the second time," Hu said, carefully raising the sword from the box and stretching it toward Yung Mai.

Yung Mai spread out his palms, received the sword, and sighed.

The two masters walked from the box's side and stopped in front of the two boys.

"Kai," Hu said, then paused and coughed.

Kai's face saddened when he spotted a tiny spill of blood splashing in the Radiant Palm leader's white beard.

"Master," Jude moved toward the jar of water that rested at the side of the gate, then raised one of the cups, filled it with water, and rushed back.

He handed the cup of water to the Radiant Palm leader, who took it and emptied the cup.

"Thank you, son," he said, placing his right arm on Jude's shoulder.

Hu turned back to Kai, smiled, and then tilted his gaze slightly to Yung Mai, making him step forward.

There, Kai's eyes widened as he saw the very sword that made Lieutenant Gray turn into ashes the day he pulled it from his wrist.

His knees loosened, forcing him to crash in front of Yung Mai. He cried and screamed heavily.

All the birds that flew above the meditation chamber froze for a while before continuing their journey.

Inside the chamber, Yung Mai knelt on one knee and stretched the sword to Kai.

"Kai," he said, tilting the boy's attention from the ground to the sword.

"From now onwards, this belongs to you."

The sky rumbled the moment Kai saw his reflection in the blade of the sword. Tears traced down his face as he lifted his gaze toward Yung Mai.

"Stand up, take it, and guard it with your soul." Yung Mai's jaw tightened the moment he stood up and gazed back at the boy.

Straightening up, Kai's right arm flew across his face, wiping the tears away. He inhaled, sucking the mucus inside, and exhaled.

A breeze flew from his mouth, danced in the air before landing at the very place he saw his reflection at on the blade of the sword.

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