Departure

After a while, Shadow stood up and looked at Bai in the eye. Upon seeing Shadow's appearance, Bai was startled at first but he quickly regained his composure and looked back at Shadow.

Slowly, Shadow spoke, "Bai...what should I do now? I..." His tone contained traces of sorrow and regret.

After thinking for a while, Bai replied solemnly, "Let's give them a proper burial if you really can't get over it."

Silently, Shadow nodded.

The duo then found 2 shovels from a hut and immediately began the digging process.

Once the burial pit was deep and wide enough, both of them carried the bloodied bodies and placed them into the pit.

As Shadow was placing one of the corpses into the pit, he glanced at the ears. However, he gave a soft sigh and continued placing the corpse into the pit.

The overall process lasted nearly 2 hours. The last one to be placed in was the leader himself.

At this moment, Bai suggested, "You can take his head. Otherwise, you really gain nothing this time round. Furthermore, this guy went to several small villages and raped the women there while sentencing their husbands to death."

Hearing that, Shadow nodded and cleanly sliced off the leader's head using the dagger. Shadow then kept the head inside a cloth bag that he prepared in advance.

Soon, the duo left the bloody ground, leaving behind a pile of soil with a tombstone on top. 2 words were carved on it 'Laughing Knives'.

***

Assassins Guild. Main hall.

Shadow passed the head over to the receptionist while presenting the mission paper. The receptionist was still the woman from before

After checking the details and accomplishment of the mission, she exclaimed, "So fast! It's a pity that the extra reward could not be presented." Shadow remained silent.

Seeing that Shadow did not reply, the receptionist moved on to the next question, "Do you want to your payment to be spirit stones or gold?"

"Spirit stones," Shadow curtly replied.

The receptionist proficiently took out 10 spirit stones and presented it to Shadow. She spoke up once again, "You are now available to choose your life weapon. Do you want to choose now?"

If it was before, Shadow would have immediately said yes. However, he wasn't in the mood to choose right now, in fact, he doesn't want to do anything.

"No. Goodbye," Shadow stored the 10 spirit stones and walked out with Bai.

"What a weird guy..." The receptionist stared at the back of Shadow before shaking her head and attended to other assassins.

***

Regarding Shadow's decision of not choosing the life weapon, Bai did not question it. He knew that what Shadow needed right now was some time to be alone.

"Shadow, do you have any place to stay? You can come to my house," Bai immediately thought of it and asked.

"It's okay. I have a place to stay. Can I ask you something Bai?" Shadow lowered his head and softened his voice.

"Go ahead."

"Am I...am I evil?" Shadow asked in a tone of uncertainty.

"I do not know where you come from nor who you are. But there's one thing I know for sure, you are not evil. I believe in you," Bai seriously said.

Shadow's shoulder rose up and slowly dropped back down. A small 'thank you' could be heard under his breath.

Shadow then turned to leave while waving his hand.

Suddenly, Bai felt that this was the last time he was going to see him. Bai immediately said, "Here take this!" A coin pouch could be seen flying towards Shadow in a beautiful arc.

Without turning around, Shadow caught it. He then continued to walk forward while waving his hand at Bai.

"Goodbye Shadow," Bai hoarsely murmured. His eyes were red with warm tears, his fist so tightly clenched such that the knuckles turned white.

When Shadow disappeared into the darkness, tears once again streamed down his face. He could not hold it back anymore, the ache in his heart was too painful to bear.

When Shadow reached the city wall, his whole body dissolved into a cloud of black mist and phased through the wall.

He then materialized and walked in a straight line towards a particular direction. He had no direction.

For the next few days, Shadow continued walking non-stop. When he was tired, he would use Dark Qi to support himself. When the amount of Dark Qi left in his body became minuscule, he would consume Dark Qi pills to replenish the Dark Qi in his body.

Unknowingly, Shadow walked into a dense forest and soon enough he could hear the sound of water flowing.

At this time, the Dark Qi in his body was almost depleted and he opened his cosmic ring to take out a few Dark Qi pills. However, the small amount of pills could not stand up to his profligate behavior and was thus, completely depleted by Shadow.

Without any Dark Qi supporting his body, the scene in front of Shadow blurred and soon, he collapsed on the ground with a loud thud.