Edward Morgan found him in a pile of corpses; James Walker was barely alive, poisoned by corpse toxins, half his body rotted beyond recognition. No one would have mistaken him for a living person, and even knowing he still breathed, no one would have saved him.

Yet Edward Morgan happened to pass by. His sensitivity to life and death was extraordinary, and he noticed James Walker, whose eyes were dull, quietly awaiting death.

At that time, Edward Morgan was still the head of a small demonic sect. He nudged the corpses off James Walker with the tip of his foot, looked down at the child from above, and said coldly, “I need a sword.”

The small James Walker, from who knows where, found the strength to lift his tiny arm and grab onto Edward Morgan’s shoe.

From that moment on, James Walker became an emotionless sword, wielded only for Edward Morgan.

He advanced in strength at a remarkable pace, reaching the Integration stage in just a few decades—several times faster than Edward Morgan had back then. But after reaching Integration, no matter how hard James Walker cultivated, he could not break through, his realm stagnating for a hundred years.

Edward Morgan had thought James Walker’s talent ended at the Integration stage, but the book clearly stated that the Ghost-faced Man’s power was at the peak of the Great Ascension stage.

This was also why the heroine never guessed that James Walker was the Ghost-faced Man: first, because James Walker had treated her so well in the early stages that she couldn’t suspect him; second, although James Walker gained some opportunities from protecting the heroine and reached Integration level nine, who would ever associate the Great Ascension stage Ghost-faced Man with James Walker?

In the later stages of the tragic romance plot, the Ghost-faced Man had already become the number one cultivator in the world. If not for his obsession with refining oil from Lily Harris, he could have shattered the void and ascended long ago.

Lily Harris was truly thrown into the furnace by the Ghost-faced Man to be roasted, but she was lucky—at the critical moment, she fused with a divine core and erupted with terrifying power, instantly killing James Walker.

James Walker was at the Integration stage, while the Ghost-faced Man was at the Great Ascension stage—a difference of two realms.

Edward Morgan looked at the profile of his most trusted subordinate and said, “Give me your hand.”

James Walker extended his hand. Edward Morgan gripped his pulse point, and a stream of true energy entered his body through the wrist and heart meridian. After a thorough check, he confirmed that James Walker was indeed at the first level of Integration, with not a trace of deception. Moreover, his dantian was filled with a vast amount of true essence that could not be converted, accumulated over a hundred years of cultivation. It must be that, in order to break through, he had forcibly contained more true essence than he could bear—this must be extremely painful.

If not for that book, Edward Morgan would never have understood James Walker’s situation and would have always thought he simply lacked talent.

It seemed that many of the book’s seemingly far-fetched plot points actually had reasonable explanations.

“How long has this been going on?” Edward Morgan asked.

James Walker avoided the question and instead said, “I will do my utmost to break through.”

Looking at him like this, Edward Morgan recalled some distant memories. After bringing James Walker back to the sect, he had been focused on eliminating rival sects, so he left James Walker to fend for himself, casually tossing him a set of cultivation techniques to practice on his own.

Ten years later, when he returned to the sect, James Walker had already grown into a tall, upright youth, practicing sword strikes again and again on the back mountain. The task Edward Morgan had given James Walker ten years prior was to cut through the waterfall behind the mountain, and he had spent ten years doing just that.

Persistence, determination, loyalty—these three words were enough to describe all of James Walker.

“Don’t push yourself too hard,” Edward Morgan said. “Take it slow. I am already strong enough.”

He thought this was a comfort, but unexpectedly, a trace of abandoned sorrow flashed in James Walker’s eyes as he hoarsely asked, “Does the Lord no longer need me?”

In truth, he didn’t need him much anymore. Back then, Edward Morgan had needed talent desperately to unify the demonic path. Now, with Xuanyuan Sect’s power flourishing and the entire demonic world under Edward Morgan’s control, with the sect’s left and right guardians and four altar masters all utterly loyal, Edward Morgan no longer needed a mere Integration-stage guardian to protect him.

James Walker, this sword, had no chance to be unsheathed.

Edward Morgan did not answer his question. Instead, he took out that book, thicker than a brick, from his sleeve and opened to a certain page.

It was the scene where James Walker protected Lily Harris from the Shangqing Sect’s pursuit, and Lily Harris gratefully said to James Walker, “Brother Yin, you’re so good to me.”

James Walker, holding his sword, his face faintly smiling in the firelight, replied, “You are the only one the Lord needs me to protect with my sword.”

At first glance, one would think James Walker was suppressing his feelings for Lily Harris, using loyalty as an excuse. But on a second reading, Edward Morgan noticed the word “sword.”

Edward Morgan had left James Walker, this sword, unused for too long, only picking it up again for Lily Harris’s safety. Why did James Walker smile? It wasn’t because he liked Lily Harris, but because he was needed by Edward Morgan.

Edward Morgan closed the book and looked at James Walker, an indescribable, slightly sour feeling rising in his heart.

“I no longer need a sword,” he said coldly.

The light in James Walker’s eyes gradually faded. He withdrew his hand from the table and gripped the sword at his waist tightly.

The book often described James Walker’s actions as “holding his sword.” Once a cultivator reached the Foundation Establishment stage, they could store their life-bound weapon inside their body; even at the Qi Refining stage, there were storage artifacts like spatial pouches, so there was no need to hold a weapon in hand. Yet James Walker was always holding his sword.