73 I Swear by My Love for Donkeys
The Nine Gates of Hell isn’t something you just whip up in the kitchen!
Though it’s called “martial arts,” mastering it requires an absurd level of control over magical powers during the initial stages. One slip-up, and you might end up tasting dirt—literally.
In the best-case scenario, you’d just lose a limb; in the worst-case? Well, let’s not even joke about it.
Back when Leon opened the first gate, he had to rely on Roswiser, a whole Dragon King, to help him out!
And as you progress through the Nine Gates, it only gets tougher. The book even mentions that after the fifth gate, breakthroughs can take years—like, “we’re talking a snail’s pace here.”
That’s why General Leon shot through the first five gates at the speed of light with his talent and hard work, yet suddenly hit a brick wall after that.
But then there’s his little daughter, who somehow flung herself right into the eighth gate at the tender age of twenty!
Unless she started training with the Nine Gates while other little girls were busy playing with dolls, there’s no way she could hit such a level at that age!
“So… Little Light, how old were you when you started practicing the Nine Gates?” Leon asked, scratching his head.
Practicing martial arts is nothing like magic.
With normal magic, once your magical circuits are developed, you’re good to go. Regular young dragons usually step into the magical realm around five or six years old—while Noia was practically reading spell books at just over one!
But for the Nine Gates, you needed to meet all sorts of crazy physical standards first.
Leon still remembered those benchmarks, like how you had to keep breathing for twelve hours while on the brink of d*ath.
If Aurora really started practicing the Nine Gates as a child, there’s no way she could have met those outrageous standards!
Aurora thought for a moment and replied, “Probably around… eight?”
“EIGHT?!” Leon nearly choked.
This was EIGHT years old?!
“What’s wrong with eight?” the pink-haired girl chimed in.
Leon waved his hands frantically, “N-nothing… but did you really meet all those pre-requisites for the Nine Gates at eight?!”
The scientist chuckled, “Well, maybe not exactly, but I had a great teacher.”
“A great teacher?”
Leon immediately thought of that old coot, Master. Because in this timeline without him, the daughters had found out his true identity and all the crazy stuff from his past.
So it’s highly likely that Roswiser shared something about Master with them.
After all, it was Master who gifted Leon the Nine Gates. So, in eight years, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched for the little rascals to have contacted Master through various means.
“Yeah!” Aurora confirmed. “Someone your dad would never expect.”
Leon blinked, guessing, “Is it an old geezer named Taige Lawrence?”
“Nope! Not the grandpa Taige!”
Grandpa Taige.
That cute term laid all cards on the table. At least Leon could be sure the daughters had met Master.
But this led to another serious question:
What happened to Master, Rebecca, and Martin?
After twenty years, had they left the empire?
Or… had something terrible happened?
At this point, Leon’s expression turned serious.
Aurora, noticing her dad’s worry, quickly added, “The last time I saw Grandpa Taige was a few years ago. He’s getting old and can’t be active in the empire anymore; Grandma Charlotte took him back to her hometown.”
Charlotte was the name of Leon’s master’s wife.
So, for the past twenty years, had Master and Rebecca been causing havoc in the empire behind the scenes?
The old guy knowing that his beloved apprentice was sucked into a spatial rift and not going all guns blazing against that dog of an emperor? Wow, he must be mellowing with age.
Had it been his younger self, he would have kicked up a storm, leaving the empire in chaos!
“Then if he’s not my Master, who is this great teacher of yours?”
Anna? Isar? Roswiser’s grandmother?
But none of them really seemed to be the martial arts type…
“Claudia Poseidon.”
Upon hearing that, Leon was thrown back into the past.
He had a vivid memory of that unusual last name.
Roswiser once told him that Poseidon was the royal surname of the Sea Dragon Race.
Plus, Claudia was also the author of the Nine Gates of Hell!
Wait a minute!
The author herself came to teach?
While people usually call in gods for good fortune or mental support before battles, here you were calling in the real deal!
“During the long stretch after Mom fell unconscious, us sisters were taken care of by Anna and Sister Sherry, and of course after dispersing the Silver Dragon Race, Mom still had plenty of subordinates willing to stick around.”
Aurora crossed her arms on the stone table and continued, “But the empire never stopped hunting us Silver Dragons. At first, we thought it was just to eliminate witnesses, but when they kept pressing after learning Mom was in a coma—it was clear there was something more here that we just didn’t know.”
“Anna, Sister Sherry, and Sister Milan sacrificed themselves protecting Mom and us.”
“Our great-grandmother wasn’t a combat type of dragon either; she could barely hold back the empire’s onslaught.”
“And Aunt Isar’s Red Dragon Race got dragged into the chaotic war, wanting to help but being all bark and no bite.”
“So, us sisters and our great-grandmother ultimately found ourselves on the run, but we couldn’t escape the empire’s joint onslaught with the dragon tribe.”
“At the last moment of despair, the Sea Dragon Claudia appeared, saved us, and brought us to this secret underground space.”
“After some time here, once we ensured this place wouldn’t be discovered, our great-grandmother set off alone on a quest to find a way to wake Mom. Claudia took care of us and taught us all sorts of survival skills.”
“It was during that time that she taught me how to practice the Nine Gates.”
After hearing Aurora’s tale, Leon stroked his chin, pondering deeply.
“Does your great-grandmother know this Claudia?”
“Nope.”
“Then how could she trust you guys with her…”
“By that time, we had been around each other for a while. If Claudia had wanted to turn on us, she could’ve done it long ago without waiting for our great-grandmother to leave.”
Aurora said, “Plus everything she did later showed she truly wanted what was best for us sisters. My Nine Gates training was taught directly by her. Big Sister’s illusion magic and Second Sister’s twin awakening were also taught and guided by her.”
“Wow, so this kind Sea Dragon is quite the multi-talented one,” Leon couldn’t help but exclaim.
Martial arts, illusion magic, and regular magic— she could do it all!
And she taught it so well!
Noia’s illusion magic was already at a pretty skilled level; the giant rock illusion at the cave entrance was the best proof.
“So why did Claudia step in to help? Did you ask her?”
Leon had always been curious about this Sea Dragon.
Roswiser said they had been out of touch with the world for over thirty years.
Yet when Master found out his apprentice couldn’t gather magic powers, he whipped out a book on the Nine Gates created by the Sea Dragon Race for him to practice;
And after Leon vanished, Claudia jumped in to help the wandering daughters, playing both rescuer and teacher!
What was up with this Sea Dragon? What was her story?
“Oh, we did ask, but Claudia just said she was tasked with helping us,” Aurora explained.
Leon pondered, “Do you have a photo of this Claudia?”
“Umm… Oh! I do! It’s one that Moon secretly snapped ages ago.”
With that, the pink-haired girl dove into a nearby storage box, rummaging around.
After a bit, Aurora emerged with a yellowed photo and handed it to Leon.
Leon took the photo, looking over the person in it.
It was a side-profile shot.
A mesmerizing beauty still holding her charm!
Leon squinted, mumbling, “I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before…”
Aurora patted her dad’s shoulder, deadpanning, “Dad, I’ve already told you, your flirting skills are terrible. Starting with ‘I feel like I’ve met you before’ makes you look like a clown!”
Leon shook his head, “No, I really do know this Claudia—her face is definitely familiar… but I just can’t place it—ugh, this is frustrating!”
That feeling was indeed maddening.
It was like suddenly being inspired by a lyric and yet completely blanking on the next line.
Ayy—so annoying!
“If you can’t remember, just stop trying for now.”
Aurora said, “You just said you only opened five gates? Come on, I’ll help you open the rest so that when you get back to your previous timeline, you can wreak havoc on that bunch of dragons who hurt Mom!”
Those words truly resonated with Leon’s heart.
I swear by my love for donkeys, every dragon that harmed Roswiser Melkway— is destined to d*e!
