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I didn’t tell Moon and Felita about this and only told them that I intended on going out for a stroll with Aleya tonight, so I would be going out in advance. Felita was clearly a little envious, but after hesitating again and again, she ended up not asking if I could take her along and obediently returned to the library to read by herself.

I changed into some casual clothes and walked over to the south of the city.

Even if Shiloh didn’t clearly state it on the note, I knew the place she was referring to. It was the first place she and I met——the granary in the south of the city. The soldiers responsible for standing sentinel in the surroundings of the granary were standing as straight as they usually did, but their deterrence is honestly quite limited. This time, there was no formation from Bai Huang to keep Shiloh busy, so it was completely possible for Shiloh to easily slip in unnoticed.

Having broken through the outer defensive line, the soldiers on patrol inside seemed sparse and unable to secure the area.

I walked quietly in the darkness, all the way to the door of the granary.

There was a ring of torches on the outer wall of the granary illuminating the ever-expanding darkness surrounding it. I suddenly discovered that today also happened to be a night filled with ominous clouds covering the sky. Without the light of the moon and stars, the world beneath the clouds was covered in a blanket of blackness. Apart from the radiance of the blazing torches, there were practically no other light sources. But even if there were the flames of the torches, they were incessantly flickering in the cold wind, maintaining an appearance of going out at any time.

Shiloh stood there.

Aleya lay on the floor unconscious while Shiloh stood there silently with a mask covering the lower half of her face, leaving only those pitch-black pupils of hers staring at me coldly as she said:

“You’ve come.”

In reply, I answered:

“Indeed I have. Though, coming as a ‘young master’ to come and protect my ‘bodyguard’ does sound a little overreaching of my status. But hey, it was my own knight’s fault for not having learned her skills well and got herself inexplicably tied up by you. Let’s leave the polite greetings to the side, shall we? Shiloh, your current status isn’t that of the little assassin who would enjoy gourmet food with me, but that of Hidden Guard’s young family head, am I right?”

Shiloh went silent for a moment, then responded:

“She is poisoned. As she sleeps, this poison will slowly corrode her nerves and cause her to never be able to wake up again. If you want to save her……”

Shiloh’s chest violently undulated. Then, she drew out the dagger from her waist, pointed it at me, and slowly finished:

“Then use your life in exchange.”

I moved away my gaze and took a glance at Aleya. Once I confirmed that she was safe, I responded to Shiloh:

“Before that, I still want to ask you why.”

Shiloh answered:

“There is no ‘why’ because I am Hidden Guard’s young family head! As for you, you are West-Resisting City’s City Lord and are one of the targets on our Hidden Guard’s list.”

I shook my head:

“You know that’s not the answer I’m here to listen to. This fact was already established the first time you came to West-Resisting City. But back then, you didn’t use such a radical approach like you are now. I want to know the reason for your present change.”

Shiloh went silent.

I raised an eyebrow and questioned:

“It is because of those so-called【Ten Temple Hell Kings】?”

Shiloh’s dagger-hand faintly trembled. When she heard this name being mentioned, her pupils trembled again as if she had heard of something extremely terrifying. She replied with fear and distress in her voice:

“You don’t understand.”

I scratched my head and remarked:

“Ah……I indeed don’t understand. But in the end, aren’t they merely ten assassins?”

Shiloh suddenly flung the dagger in her hand with aggravation and spoke hurriedly:

“Merely? That’s why I’m saying you don’t understand at all! The Ten Temple Hell Kings are only second to Major Command and each one of them are abnormal MONSTERS! They don’t need any reason to kill anyone, they are DEVILS……they have no compassion, they are DARKNESS INCARNATE! When they operate at night, the moon hides and the stars dim their lights. Once they’re sent to assassinate someone, that person will die an unspeakably MISERABLE DEATH, DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND! Such MONSTERS are already at Rivet City and are almost within reach of West-Resisting City!”

Shiloh’s eyes were covered in a layer of misty fog and as the dagger in her hand shook, she gasped for breath.

When her emotions had barely just calmed down, she abruptly told me:

“I promised you that I wouldn’t let anyone kill you except for me.”

She lifted up her arm, wiped her eyes, wiped the watery traces from the corners of her eyes, then pointed her dagger at me again and stated:

“I’ve seen my masters act to kill people. First, the fingers, then palms, then elbows, and then the shoulders. They’ll remove the joints one by one by one. Skin, flesh, muscles, veins, and bones will all be picked out using their knives, leaving blood to splatter around everywhere. When all four limbs have finally been broken down into small pieces, they’ll continue on with the ribs, internal organs, neck, facial features, and finally skull. After they finish dissect a person’s body, they piece back the corpse’s fragments and reassemble it all into a ‘person’ filled with cracks. Only then will they be happy. They’re always smiling, even when they’re killing people.”

Shiloh’s eyes were filled with despair:

“I’m unable to beat them and you also won’t be able to defeat them. They are true killing gods, they are the peak of the Assassin Path……”

All of the sudden, she waved the dagger in her hand and shouted aloud:

“In that case! Might as well……let me……”

Those eyes of hers stared at me coldly. Even though there was a faint cry in her voice, Shiloh didn’t hesitate to say these words.

I let out a sigh and promised:

“Fine. Give Aleya the antidote and I’ll give you a chance to kill me.”

Shiloh fixed her unwavering gaze on me and didn’t say a thing.

I chuckled and persuaded:

“Relax, when have I ever deceived you.”

She took out a pill from her bosom and fed it to Aleya. Afterwards, she began walking towards me with the dagger in hand.

I stretched out my arm at her as if to hug her.

Shiloh’s steps were slow at first, but when she was soon to approach me, she suddenly sped up.

In the span of an instant, a chilling killing intent blossomed in all its brilliant glory. A wintry wind spread out, sweeping the world around us and extinguishing all the torches in the surroundings. All that remained was a black wisp in the nighttime. This is a young genius of the Assassin Path, this is the power that a Level 7 at greater perfection realm should have. The murderous aura spread out in that instant sealed off all paths of retreat in every direction, acting just like a spider web to trap me in place.

Within the darkness, only the sounds of Shiloh’s footsteps could be heard as well as the sounds of our breathing due to how close we were.

When the dagger came stabbing over, I didn’t avoid it.

When my skin and flesh was pierced into, the resulting pain assaulted my mind. My body fell backwards and the blood mist I spat out blended into the darkness.

I suddenly felt like complaining a little.

Shouldn’t this scene have been one where she stops her dagger several centimeters away from my chest and then she throws herself into my arms crying?

Truly a miscalculation.

But, it’s also not a complete miscalculation.

……

The moment my body collapsed onto the floor, soft lips covered my own lips.

But unfortunately, the bloody scent coming from my mouth wasn’t fitting for this otherwise romantic atmosphere, to the point of even destroying it completely.

Within this darkness that nobody could see, I hugged her ice-cold petite body, coughed twice, and asked:

“I gave you an opportunity……but you didn’t make use of it. Cough cough, why is your stab a little off, your hands shaking?”

I wasn’t able to see her expression clearly. All I could sense was her lying on my body and silently letting out her tears.

That glacial dagger point was frightfully close to my heart.

So close that each time my heart beat, it would touch the cold surface of the dagger. The sensation was so clear that it created chills on my back.

Shiloh quietly argued:

“Not shaking. Just, just a little hungry.”

After an eternity passed by, Shiloh whispered into my ear:

“You should escape. Don’t stay in West-Resisting City any longer……really, the farther away you leave, the better. It would be best to go to Demon Race Territory and never return……I didn’t kill you tonight, but they’ll be arriving very soon and nobody’s able to stop them. Not even the Overlord of Yunyang is capable of it.”

I opened my eyes, but wasn’t able to see anything at all. Spitting out blood foam from my mouth, I slowly said:

“Just because my dad is incapable of doing it doesn’t mean I’m incapable of it as well. In terms of betting their entire family background, few people are able to keep off the Overlord of Lingwu.”

I shook my head and continued:

“West-Resisting City is something I spent all my ******* hard work on to obtain, so I don’t plan on leaving. Besides, I promised you that we would go fishing, grilling, and eating next year. If I were to escape to Demon Race Territory, where would I find myself a place to catch some fish? For those Demons, they act as if they’re looking at a fish when seeing me and all of them would be itching to seize me so that they can spit-roast me. Why on earth would I want to go to such a place? I won’t be going.”

Shiloh’s voice was full of hopelessness:

“……I’m begging you.”

I used one arm to hug her tighter as I used the other to fumble around and wipe off the tears from her face. With a calm voice, I said:

“You, mm, are already a big kid, so you should live with a bit more desire. You are not some tool, you are a living person. Go do whatever you want to do and if you’re unable to do them, wouldn’t it be fine to just find me for help? Lingwu, to be honest, is very strong, but this place is West-Resisting City, my domain. That’s why there’s no need to worry about some Overlord of Lingwu, some Hidden Guard, or Major Command and Ten Temple Hell Kings. As long as you wish to stay, I’ll go have a talk with them.”

Shiloh kept silent.

A while later, she clenched the shaft of the dagger and uttered:

“Let me first take it out.”

Wait a second, aren’t these lines of yours a little weird……can you not say such words while you’re riding on top of me??

Before I was able to tsukkomi, Shiloh took the dagger out of my body and caused me to spit out another mouthful of blood onto the ground.

She whispered:

“Let me think about it.”

I returned:

“How long?”

Shiloh answered:

“Tomorrow night. Under the bridge.”

The place where she met Evergreen during the time she was unconscious with a fever.

I nodded in concurrence. Tonight was indeed already an unsuitable time to discuss anything else. I had to wrap up my chest wound and Aleya was also going to wake up soon, so I needed to bring her back as soon as possible. Furthermore, I knew that there’s no way to force Shiloh to make a decision on the spot, so giving her a bit more time to decide was to be expected.

With my thoughts reaching this point, I replied:

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow night then.”

After returning, I pondered about how to convince Shiloh for the entire rest of the evening. I derived a whole slew of arguments and chose the most suitable one from it. During the afternoon of the next day, I specially bought two steaming meat buns, had them placed into a paper bag, and took them with me to search for her under the bridge.

But when I arrived under the bridge, I was met with a set of neatly folded up nightwalking clothes.

On top of the clothes was a small stone weighing down a note and the clothes. On the note, there were only two simple words:

“I’m sorry.”

For a while, I just stared at the note blankly. Unconsciously, I had squeezed the steamed bun bag in the hand a little too hard and caused all the meat juices to splash all over me, but I didn’t feel any of it.

What I did feel was a nameless fire burning up, which caused me to fling the buns at the wall and create a huge pit.

Oh-ho Shiloh, so you’ve learned to lie to me, haah? You talked about some meeting tonight, but it was just going to be you leaving behind a set of nightwalking clothes, eh?

******* hell, so you like running, eh? You like leaving without saying goodbye, eh?

You better watch out when you return, then, since your butt’s going to be really swollen.

As for you all, Hidden Guard, missions official, Ten Temple Hell Kings, peak of the Assassin Path, monsters that feel joy when killing people?

Tonight, I, Li De, shall teach you what the word ‘assassination’ truly means.