On this silent night

The three assassins turned their gaze to their attacker.

He was a rather good-looking youth with long black hair. Fluttering wildly as it did, whilst his fierce attempts to create distance. A pair of deep obsidian eyes glistened with a unique sort of insidiousness.

In his right hand was a long silver sword, and in his other was a short sword— a rather peculiar weapons combination.

"W-what the....?!"

Even the dying Han, gasping as life ebbed from him, shared the same horrified thought as his comrades.

Where did this seemingly unassuming youth come from?

It was an uncontestable, chilling question. After all, three of them represented the pinnacle of skill, the most elite members of Zhao Mo Chuan's personal squad. Each had honed their bodies to the Fourth or Fifth Realm of the Body Tempering Stage—their Captain even on the precipice of a breakthrough.

This wasn't merely a band of mercenaries; they were blades forged in the fires of the Patriarch's training.

Yet, here they stood, unprepared and dumbfounded, as one of their own lay on the ground, blood soaking into the earth—mortally wounded by this very intruder.

An eerie silence enveloped them as Captain stood frozen, utterly dazed, while the lone female companion frantically tried to revive the fading Han. Her efforts were in vain; Ying's merciless strike had targeted a critical point, and though Han's fortitude kept him alive slightly longer than a mere mortal, the end was inevitable.

Ying watched them, a smile curving his lips—cold and unsettling.

"What's the matter?" he taunted, his voice smooth yet dripping with malicious delight. "Never seen a reverse assassination before?"

His cheerfulness contrasted starkly with the danger that radiated from him—a palpable malevolence that permeated the air like an ominous storm cloud.

The mercenaries flinched at the mischievous confidence he displayed. It screamed of something wicked but powerful....

In all, Ying appeared quite in control, but the truth—unknown to his latest victims—was that it wasn't always so.

In fact, merely a few hours prior to this point. When Ying had fully deciphered the plot behind the Xians' betrayal, he was first overcome with head-splitting rage...

Bang!

"Why...?" he had screamed, fists pounding against the nearest wall, destroying everything in his path—not from anger directed at the Xians, but from a deep-seated fury at himself.

Honestly, he didn't blame the Xians for betraying him. Considering what he had done, it was honestly only natural for such to happen.

Betrayal was something that Ying had been a victim of several times in the past. In some instances, he had even been the perpetrator of the act.... But that's why he was so furious at himself.

'How could I have missed it, it was so damn obvious?!'

He berated himself, 'I should have been able to read between the lines. I should have anticipated.... faster, sooner! I got conceited... because of the peace.... I never should have dropped my guard goddamit!'

For most of his life, Ying had always been the victim. From his family to his old mentor, to his friends, even the one he now regards as his greatest enemy. He'd always ended up being the one who lost.

It became such a fundamental part of his existence that he unknowingly adopted an ill-tempered persona as a sort of defensive mechanism. A truly cowardly tactic, devised to protect his inner weakling from both outsiders and his own self!

So far, it had worked. He became a foul-mouthed narcissistic coward with self-indulgent tendencies, a pitiful exemplification of nonexistent strength.

But now…

Now Ying realized how utterly foolish he had been. Perhaps it was due to the enlightenment he had achieved earlier today? But now, Ying understood that he'd simply been delaying the inevitable.

The day where he would incur a loss which he'd never return from....

All it would take was one slip-up. One moment of err set by the heavens, and his pent-up insecurities would surge forth. Ruining his self-reliance as well as devouring the rest of his falsified self.

He understood that the only way to prevent such a despicable outcome was change..... He had to evolve.

He had to obtain true strength, both physically and mentally.

Of course, there was always the option of simply running away from his failures. Even now, he could have just logged out. The system didn't issue him any quests, so there was no reason for it to bar him from leaving.... He should have just hightailed it on out of here. After all, it would all be much easier that way. He was a coward. A shameless, spineless coward, wasn't he?

Yes, very much so...

But Ying knew, perhaps he always did but refused to accept it. There was a fine line between cowardliness and just being plain pathetic.

That was why he chose to stay. That was why he chose to fight, to struggle, to atone for his sin of being the loser the only way he knew how....

Honestly, it was quite childish and idiotic. No matter how you looked at it, what he was doing was simply stupid and irrational. Why would he risk dying and facing a death penalty? Didn't he want to soar in this world?

Vincent Carter had his own goals.

Didn't he still want to destroy 'that' person, by climbing to the summit of this world? What happened to exacting revenge, for his mother… for Lily….?

Was he seriously about to gamble everything, because of something as meagre as this?!

The answer, again, was yes. As for the reason…

'I refuse!'

He grit his teeth,

'Even if I die, and lose all my progress, I'll just start over. If my account is barred, I'll just save money and create another one. But the one thing..... the only thing I absolutely will NOT do is lose. In not one, but two worlds!'

'It doesn't matter if I fail here. I can always try again. As many times as I need to, progress can always be recovered! But for a person's pride, it's not as simple.'

For the sake of all his loved ones, those he still loves, as well as those he once held dear, he could not lose a second time.

He had to obtain real power. Even if it meant ripping apart his singular source of closure, accepting the challenge, and confronting his meek inner self.

Ying grinned.

He could not help but feel grateful to the game, for giving him such a chance. It was a chance of a lifetime, and failure was not an option. Although the stakes were not as high or as overbearing as the 'fate of the world' and whatnot, such things didn't matter to Ying.

To the truly strong, concepts like 'stakes' and the like were irrelevant. Only those with a powerful sense of self could push out their all without relying on such things. To them, those were merely crutches that the weak of mind used as excuses to do what had to be done.

On this night, silent and starry as it was, Ying made a resolve.

He vowed to change.

"Doesn't matter if I win, or I lose," he stopped, locking eyes with Captain. "I will drag not just the two of you, but this entire family, down with me.... Straight into the very depths of hell."

It was fuzzy and misty before, but now, he could finally see it—The path to 'him'.

"You bastard! How dare you! First, you murder the son of the patriarch, then you kill one of his elite guards, and now, you threaten us? US?! You are courting death!"

Captain yelled viciously, pointing his sword at a newfound opponent.

He was still confused in regards to how he managed to escape their perception, but that question would have to wait for now.

Ying, on the other hand, didn't respond immediately. Simply smiled and stared at Captain. Then, as though he possessed the ability to read minds, he went ahead and answered the question that hung at the back of Captain's mind…

…Albeit in quite the roundabout way.

"Hey, have you noticed that the air in this place is a bit… How do I say it, strange?" Ying asked, the smile never leaving his face.

"W-What the hell are you talking about?!" Captain bellowed confusedly.

Something had been off from the moment they set foot in here. Ying sneered at the deliberate show of ignorance.

'Fool. Denial gets you nowhere.'

He pulled out a transparent bag— wherin a bunch of damp, crimson leaves lay— from his robes, and showed it to them, saying:

"Oi, you're the leader of this ragtag bunch right...? Well, if so, have you ever heard of the herb known as the Red Cyst leaf?"