{"id":834,"date":"2025-10-10T18:22:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T18:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sakuratranslation.com\/?p=834"},"modified":"2025-10-23T20:18:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:18:42","slug":"the-gate-of-heaven-26","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/www.velvetink.xyz\/de\/chapter\/the-gate-of-heaven-26\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gate of Heaven 26"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter 26 Advancement

“I won…”

Loran sensed that Rodney could no longer hold on, and a boyish smile appeared on his face as he stood amid the mists of frost and flame, as if he had just bested a playmate in a contest of strength.

After that, he endured for another full half hour; Loran had truly been in the furnace for three hours. It was then that the twin-headed wolf’s vitality finally dissipated\u2014most of it drawn into and absorbed by Loran’s body. Every inch of his skin seemed to pulse with the two elemental forces of ice and fire, speckled and strangely wondrous.

“Instructor Mikaela.”

Loran in the furnace slowly pushed open the glass door, far from as disheveled as Rodney had been when he came out, even with a faint confident smile at the corner of his mouth, and said, “I’ve finished the trial.”

“Okay!”

Mikaela drew a mark on the handbook she held, wrote down the words ‘three hours,’ and said, “Come on, I’ll take you to Beast Valley. How do you feel, Loran?”

“Very good.”

Loran quickly slipped into his trainee clothes, his muscular body gleaming; Mikayla cocked her head to one side to look him over and laughed, “Little guy, your physique has been trained quite well!”

Instantly, Loran’s face flushed bright red, and he hurriedly pulled on his trainee overcoat.

“Oh, shy now?”

Mikayla teased with a smile, “Loran, in a year or two, with your cultivation and looks, those pretty female trainees in the Crimson Castle will probably pay special attention to you~~~ Oh right, Aivelle seems to be very close to you\u2014maybe she likes you…”

Loran had never experienced anything like this before and instantly didn\u2019t know how to respond; his face flushed as he quickly grabbed his longsword, swung himself onto his horse, and said, \u201cInstructor, let\u2019s hurry to the Beast Valley.\u201d

\u201cGood!\u201d

The two riders galloped out of the city under the moonlight, heading straight for the Beast Valley.

…

As soon as they reached the Beast Valley, Loran slid off his horse and dashed forward. With three consecutive gusts of air rippling around him\u2014\u201cpuff, puff, puff\u201d\u2014he accelerated three times, and as he streaked by he sent layers of autumn leaves from the ground swirling up before they spun down to the earth.

On the second-floor observation deck outside the entrance to Beast Valley.

Haimu, clad in armor and holding a steel sword, stood by the window watching Loran sprint away. He couldn’t help but nod and said to Mikayla beside him, “At top running speed, Loran has completely surpassed Rodney.”

“I’m afraid it’s more than that.”

Mikayla smiled slightly: “In terms of maintaining sustained speed, Loran has left Rodney far behind. Perhaps because Loran hasn’t had his star vein awakened, he has devoted more of his energy to physical training, and his corporeal strength has already far surpassed Rodney’s. Among this year’s students in the Blood Prison, no one can compare to him.”

“Yes.”

Just then, the small door “creaked” open, and an officer wearing the Bright Knights’ insignia stepped in, saying, “Lord Haimu, that kid named Loran single-handedly killed a Storm Wolf earlier, so much so that we no longer dare release second-tier beasts into Beast Valley. That boy is truly a freak\u2014he actually managed to pierce a Storm Wolf’s hide with a steel sword, tsk tsk~~~”

“Absolute power is, in itself, an unstoppable force.”

Haimu said, “The purpose of Beast Valley is ultimately to temper the students, not to kill them, so… we don’t need to consider releasing third-tier beasts, right?”

“Of course not.”

The officer of Beast Valley nodded with a smile, “If we let a single Red Armored Beast or a Water-Fire Fiend into Beast Valley, I’m afraid none of this year’s new students would come out alive. Even that prodigy called Rodney would meet his end at a beast’s maw.”

“Hmph, I doubt it…”

Haimu frowned slightly, his gaze lofty, as if he simply didn’t think much of it.

…

Beast Valley.

“Whoom\u2014”

A wisp of flame and frost wound and bloomed, trailing a long streak of light behind Loran. At this moment the power in his body burst forth completely, not only consuming the elemental fire and frost between his muscles but also tempering the strength of his flesh bit by bit. With his speed increasing in increments, his right hand hung low, the steel sword nearly brushing the ground, slicing through blade after blade of wild grass with a hissing sound. He sped through Beast Valley like that, leaving the returning students wide-eyed\u2014no one could match Loran in speed.

“Ch!”

In the jungle, suddenly a stag-horn rabbit came barreling through\u2014an ordinary-tier beast, naturally ferocious; even a herbivore like the stag-horn rabbit still took pleasure in slaughter. It charged at extreme speed straight for Loran’s legs. But in Loran’s eyes by then, the rabbit’s speed was no longer impressive, as if in slow motion. He didn’t even slow down. He lifted his right hand and the sword’s edge carved a fiery arc through the air. With a fiery slash\u2014”pung”\u2014the charging stag-horn rabbit was cut cleanly in two.

Flames and blood danced wildly as the stag-horn rabbit’s corpse was split in two, yet it still slammed into a nearby tree; with a “thud” leaves burst into the air, an indescribable wail of agony.

\u201cLorand!\u201d

Ahead, Rodney appeared, moving extremely fast, steel sword in hand, his center of gravity lowered as he swept by, murmuring, “You’re fast!”

As they brushed past, Loran replied, “You’re not slow either.”

“See you at the finish!”

“Good!”

Further ahead, there was a rustling, and packs of wolves burst out into the clearing, saliva glistening between their sharp fangs as they lunged forward. This time Loran handled them with resolute decisiveness. He suddenly dropped his stance; the steel sword became a streak of cold light. “Puk, puk, puk”\u2014three blows split from the blade in three directions with such speed that even the lunging, starving wolves couldn’t react in time. Three wolves were severed in successive strikes, while the fourth turned and fled.

But there was nowhere left to run. Loran surged forward; with a “phong” he spread his arms\u2014one limb pulsing with raging flame, the other awash in icy frost. His speed skyrocketed. In a single stride he closed on the starving wolf, leapt into the air, and brought his foot down on the wolf’s spine. With a cracking sound, one kick killed the wolf, which must have weighed at least fifty kilograms.

With the tips of his toes digging into the damp earth, he unleashed a brutal burst of power and shot forward with a “pof,” already at the far end of the Beast Valley in an instant. He then turned back, his speed rising by degrees, his whole body streaking through the forest road like a shadow of ice and fire. By now Loran was drenched in sweat; from his skin’s pores two elemental forces kept rising and burning themselves out. With this super-intense training, his flesh and blood were continually reinforced, forged ever harder.

Additionally, the trials in Beast Valley likewise greatly boosted Loran’s combat strength. After all, every confrontation with a beast was a fight for life and death: if you couldn’t kill the beast, you would become its prey. For Loran, he had to survive \u2014 only by living could he have a chance for revenge. That was the greatest driving force behind his will to live.

Moreover, his mother’s body had not yet been buried, which weighed on Loran day and night, filling him with unbearable guilt. All of this was the result of his own incompetence; in a sense, he had disappointed his mother and had disappointed Teacher Aierke as well.

…

A breath seethed in his chest as Loran ran faster and faster, continually accelerating\u2014as if speed could help him forget the pain in his heart, erase the image of his mother’s brutal death, and let him become himself again. So, as he kept accelerating, visible wisps of frost and fire elements streamed from his mouth and nose, sometimes expelled and sometimes drawn back in, creating a strange, wondrous sight in the night.

Just like that, when Loran returned to the finish point, he was drenched in sweat as if fished out of water, his internal energy completely exhausted. Holding his steel sword, he staggered over to where Haimu, Mikayla, and Rodney stood, then collapsed with a thud, gasping heavily, almost without the strength to stand.

“Give him some water,” Haimu said.

“Mm.”

Mikaela took out a water skin, bent down and helped Loran up, pouring a large mouthful of water into his mouth. “Are you okay? Loran, don’t push yourself too hard.”

“Instructor, I’m fine.”

Loran reached for the water skin and gulped it down. Only then did he feel his parched body being refreshed. “Thank you, Instructor Mikayla…”

“Mm, get on. It’s time to head back.”

“Yes!”

Rodney cast a glance at Loran from afar, then they returned together to the Blood City castle. Inside Rodney, however, feelings churned. He had calculated the distance and time of their encounter\u2014by his reckoning, it should have taken him about 100 minutes to run the entire route, but Loran had done it in under 70. His speed was becoming increasingly absurd.

\u2026

Back at his lodgings, after a short rest, Mikayla brought him a hearty meal. After eating, he took a cold shower, then dressed and sat on the windowsill, pushing the pane all the way open. Instantly the biting wind rushed into the room, making him feel as if every pore had opened at once.

The piercing northern wind carried within it an ice-frost elemental power, like a priceless treasure.

Loran cautiously absorbed the lesson, lifting his fingertips as strands upon strands of frost shimmered and flowed between them. The sensation was familiar yet strange, making him feel as if he were reuniting with an old friend after many years apart. He realized that this feeling had first come to him three or four years ago, during the countless lessons Master Aierke had taught. Back then, however, Loran had been utterly confused\u2014he had no idea what these powers were, nor did he understand Aierke\u2019s intent.

Now, Loran had grasped part of it, and he fully understood Teacher Aierke’s painstaking intentions.

“Teacher, where are you?”

The youth looked up at the starry sky and sighed silently. Teacher Aierke was the closest person to Loran besides his mother, but now he did not know where he was. He probably had no idea that Loran was trapped in this merciless cage.
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