Reverting to that afternoon in the capital city.

Amidst the crowded streets, Liana found a suitable spot by the roadside after some searching. She instructed Cain to bring the backpack over, and together, they set up a small stall to sell Liana's old clothes. Cain grumbled:

* Why do we have to sell this stuff here? Why didn't you sell it all in our world?

* Oh, my goodness! What do you know about economics!! Just get on with it.

Then Liana made Cain put on a bunny costume and go out to attract customers. Of course, he didn't like it.

After a long day of trading, Cain was exhausted, while Liana was excited about the decent amount of money she had made.

While they were packing up, Liana tapped Cain on the shoulder:

* Hey, look over there.

Cain looked in the direction Liana was pointing. It was Nea. The kid looked healthy and was shopping with the princess. Liana exclaimed excitedly:

* It's all in a day's work!

So, that evening, Cain and Liana would investigate what had been interfering with the drones in the valley. Meanwhile, Selene would keep an eye on Nea.

Selene sat quietly under the moonlight, observing Nea's every move while slurping on a bowl of noodle soup she stole from the kitchen. As Nea finished dinner with everyone else on the estate, Selene noticed an unusual aura from a nearby village. Sensing it could threaten Nea's safety, she immediately went to investigate. The closer she got to the village, the darker the atmosphere became. Just as Selene reached the village gate, she saw corpses scattered everywhere. Suddenly, four figures dressed in black from head to toe appeared out of nowhere, exuding an ominous aura as they surrounded Selene. A booming voice spoke out:

* What's this? Is there still a survivor? Or did this one arrive from elsewhere? Well, either way is fine!

After speaking, the assassin closed in on Selene from behind in the blink of an eye. His icy cold sword pierced through Selene's chest. But as soon as he realized that what he had stabbed wasn't a human, it was too late. The assassin collapsed into his pool of blood before the astonishment of his comrades, while the image of the person he had just attacked dissolved into thin air. The remaining three immediately went on high alert, with one of them whistling to call for backup.

After over half an hour, Selene finally managed to deal with all nine assassins.

****

Back to the present, on the roof of Giong's estate.

"I may have been too lucky, or perhaps he was too careless, which allowed me to lock him down. Unfortunately, I forgot that he still had another arm, so he managed to throw a strange head containing some kind of gas inside. I don't understand why I felt dizzy when I inhaled it while he became much stronger. And I can't comprehend why he missed stabbing me back then; it was a distance too short to miss, even if he was dazed after taking my blows. It's really strange. Then, his arm suddenly froze. Why?"

Nea continued to ponder, reaching down to his neck. Instantly, he realized he was still wearing the necklace his father had left. Finally, Nea figured it out.

"So, it turns out that anyone other than me who touches it will immediately freeze, but..."

Suddenly, another detail came to Nea's mind—his mother. She had also worn this necklace without consequences, and Kuro and Aizu also touched it.

"How peculiar! But anyway..."

Nea fell silent, observing what was unfolding before him.

The body of the murderer began to emit a sinister aura, making Nea feel a chill down his spine. It was clear that this person had not yet revealed their full power. However, Nea's attention quickly shifted to the figure standing before him. The sword in the person's hand seemed to emit a radiant glow, gently enveloping the blade as if it were the moonlight of the night. Suddenly, the person extended their arm towards Nea, and with just a finger pointed downwards, it seemed as though they were commanding him to stay still. Nea found himself unable to move, likely due to the ominous aura emanating from the murderer. It felt like a single finger movement could lead to his demise.

On the other side of the roof, the murderer was truly furious. After years of killing, this was perhaps the first time he had spent so much time without successfully killing his prey. It had been a long time since he last felt such rage:

"That damn brat! He doesn't emit any murderous aura, so I let my guard down. And that cold aura he just unleashed is completely abnormal. I'm already using all of my internal forces but still can't restore my left arm."

Arggggg...

* Killllll...

He screamed, full of hatred. His murderous aura surged, his eyes wild and fixed on the two prey before him.

* Fucking dogs...

"Two?? Huh? Where's the other one???" - He froze for half a second.

While this murderer was still absorbed in gathering his murderous aura, Selene seized the opportunity to act.

The murderer's eyes darted around to search for his opponent, and suddenly, he felt something behind him. He immediately spun around, and his adversary was right behind him, poised to strike with a sword. But the murderer, fueled by his tenfold inner strength, was much faster than Selene. He swiftly wielded his blade, cutting Selene in half before she could react.

"Off to the afterlife, shithead... Huh? What's this feeling??"

He knew the sensation of striking human flesh well as a professional assassin. But this time, something felt off. Despite seeing his opponent being cleaved into two pieces, his senses rejected that reality. He knew that what he had just struck was neither flesh nor skin. The answer soon became apparent: before him, the image of his opponent began to crack and shatter into pieces. This was the second time he was in disbelief on the same day.

"I, having lived a life full of storms and trials, have encountered nearly everything imaginable. Yet today, I find myself witnessing things even I struggle to explain. Firstly, that kid with no trace of killing intent in his techniques yet possesses a chillingly profound cold energy. And then this swordsman, what are his techniques exactly? It's been quite some time since I've felt this way!" The assassin suddenly felt his body brimming with excitement.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Just under a second later, images of Selene flooded around the assassin. He grinned wildly before slashing madly. Selene's forms shattered under his blade.

"An illusion? No. Holograms? Not even close. Can this guy split himself? But how? These shattering sounds are so strange, like breaking porcelain. Is he creating pottery while fighting? Absurd! These seem more like reflections but in the air?"

The murderer, though unaware and unable to blame himself—since "glasses" or "mirrors" were still unfamiliar concepts to him, with the only things used to reflect images of himself being ponds or metallic surfaces capable of reflecting—gradually deduced it with his extensive experience. This realization heightened his excitement.

"If my guess is correct, then these are indeed mirrored images. Although I don't know how dealing with them should be easy."

He tensed his body, mobilized his internal force again, and unleashed a charging strike with internal energy. This wave of attack radiated outward around him, shattering all the glass-like mirrored images of Selene's forms, leaving only the original.

* Here you are!!

The murderer exclaimed excitedly, swinging his deadly blade towards Selene. At that moment, Selene was still somewhat dazed by the recent impact, raising her sword defensively, but it was late. As the murderer's blade nearly reached Selene's neck, something suddenly flew up from behind. Though it wasn't yet identifiable, thanks to it, Selene narrowly avoided the killer's lethal strike. However, her hat was split in two, revealing her platinum hair. The murderer stepped back a few paces, glaring at Selene:

"A woman?"

Then he glared fiercely at Nea, "You little brat, I'll definitely take your head today!"

At that moment, when Nea realized his saviour was in trouble, he decided to intervene. His body had begun to regain mobility, and the murderous intent of the assassin seemed to be solely focused on the other person, no longer spreading out, so Nea regained some composure. Just as the assassin was about to strike with the fatal blow, Nea quickly seized four pieces of broken roof tiles scattered around him and hurled them with all his strength at the assassin. Three of the four pieces he threw hit their target: the wrist and the knee, and the last one grazed the forehead, diverting from the initial target of the solar plexus. That's why the assassin missed Selene and was forced to retract his offensive stance.

Nea fell silent, staring at his father's teammate. He couldn't believe it.

"Is that a girl?!"

But there was no time for astonishment. The assassin immediately launched a counterattack; he kicked up some broken tiles underfoot and hurled them toward Selene to obscure her vision. Seizing the moment while Selene was on the defensive, uncertain if the assassin would follow up by attacking her blind spot, the assassin charged wildly toward Nea. He couldn't contain his murderous intent towards Nea any longer. Nea shuddered at the sight of him charging, but the boy still couldn't move flexibly, clearly resigned to his fate. However, nothing is ever easy; once again, the assassin had to jerk back before he could touch Nea because just one more step forward would mean certain death. As he recoiled, the section of roof tiles in front of him was torn in half.

"Hmph! She can unleash sword energy! Such a young girl has already reached such a high level of swordsmanship!"

He retreated to his previous position and assumed his stance again. Now, he couldn't afford to underestimate the woman in front of him for another second. Meanwhile, Selene advanced towards Nea. Nea, by now, had managed to prop himself up on one leg. He looked up at Selene for the first time and saw her face. Besides being impressed by her hair and dressing style, which initially led him to mistake her for a boy, the next thing that struck Nea was the massive scar across her neck, which seemed to be an old wound. Before he could even thank her, he received a swift kick from Selene right on his shoulder.

"Huh? Why does this feeling seem so familiar?"

That's what Nea could utter.

As he fell from the roof, Nea glanced at Selene, and both she and the assassin didn't miss a beat, engaging in combat without hesitation.

Nea landed with a splash in the shallow water below, sitting up and then looking back at the roof, attentively observing the battle. Suddenly, Nea seemed to realize something—that the girl who had just saved him hadn't even begun to fight with her full potential.

As soon as Nea was removed from the roof, Selene seemed to be unleashed, charging forward and unleashing a barrage of attacks on the assassin. And he was equally relentless, continuously retaliating and counterattacking.

"Indeed, this brat hasn't unleashed all her strength yet. With one arm disabled like this, I hardly have any chance. The only thing I can do is buy time and wait for backup... Hmm... Why am I here?"

Suddenly, he noticed something peculiar in his memory, causing him to be momentarily distracted. When he snapped back to his senses, he realized something unusual was happening. Before him, Selene seemed to be swirling in the air at an incredible speed; then, she unleashed a terrifying technique that he could feel was unstoppable.

From below the roof, Nea observed Selene's battle closely, but like the assassin, he had barely blinked when everything changed. Selene's technique created a second moon on the rooftop in a fleeting moment. A portion of the roof and the assassin had obliviated, or at least it seemed that way.

He had narrowly avoided instant death, but in exchange, his right arm and leg were gone. He floated in mid-air with a shattered sword, memories flooding his mind. From a feral child, he had lived in the coldness of his family and those around him; his father didn't trust him and callously killed his mother. Then, before he could realize what was happening, he killed his father. From that moment, he knew nothing but killing.

"Why am I here? Where are those wretched pests? Why haven't they arrived yet? And my disciples? But never mind..."

He clenched the hilt of his sword with his mouth, the blade still intact, and then planted his remaining foot firmly on the ground, turning his head straight towards Nea. Nea also noticed the assassin aiming at him again, causing him to startle and step back, but this time, he lowered his stance, preparing himself.

The assassin's eyes seemed glued to Nea, as if nothing else mattered to him anymore, no memories, no questions, no physical pain. All he wanted now was to kill his prey. Channeling all the remaining internal energy into his intact right leg, he sprinted towards Nea at full speed for one last attack.

In that moment of suspense, time seemed to stand still. Nea held his breath as the torrent of murderous intent surged toward him.

"Perhaps this time is truly the end for me!"

*Spurt*

Suddenly, blood spurted out violently, a fatal wound stretching from the left shoulder down to the right hip, appearing out of nowhere on the assassin's body. The unexpected wound surprised him but wasn't enough to deter him. Determined to take Nea's life at any cost, the assassin pressed on.

Although the wound wasn't enough to deter the assassin, it gave Nea a moment to know what to do. Just as the shattered blade of the assassin's sword was about to reach him, Nea decided to leap into the air to evade the strike, and it was the right choice. While Nea could have bent down to dodge, there was a high chance of getting caught by the reinforced kick powered by the assassin's internal energy, leading to inevitable death. Dodging to either side was equally ineffective, as the assassin's other mouth-held blade was charged with an immense amount of internal energy. Nea's judgment was correct; even with a dull blade around his neck, the assassin could unleash a wave of sword energy that sliced through almost everything within a radius of over 180 degrees, leaving a deep cut on the nearby wall.

Nea's instinct was right when he chose to jump up in that split second. Nea spun in mid-air and delivered a powerful punch to the back of the assassin, causing the cut on his body to split open, with blood and organs spraying out like rain. That cut had almost severed the assassin's body in two, but due to his terrifying determination, he continued to charge forward. In the end, Nea's punch, which would normally not cause much damage, became the final blow for the assassin, given his current condition. He couldn't contain the wound any longer, and that was the end for him.

Nea was thrown forcefully against the nearby wall due to the tremendous inner force of the assassin, rebounding back to Nea through his punch. Crawling up, he looked at the assassin's body, now split in two, lying beside the water, the assassin's eyes still open, glaring at Nea, but the murderer no longer breathed. Nea sat leaning against the wall, breathing heavily and remaining vigilant. His eyes dared not leave the blood-soaked corpse, fearing that the assassin might rise again.