Somewhere outside Cloud City, the vast pins stretched endlessly under the dim moonlight.

  A man was running.

  Running as if his life depended on it.

  His breath was ragged, his robes torn, and his face was filled with absolute terror.

  “I… I want to live…!”

  He kept repeating those words again and again while sprinting forward.

  “I want to live… I want to live…!”

  His mind was filled with desperate thoughts.

  If I survive this… I’ll quit…

  I’ll abandon the life of an assassin…

  I’ll live somewhere far away…

  Hope slowly formed inside his mind.

  But the moment he remembered what happened earlier…

  His stomach churned violently.

  He nearly vomited while running.

  My subordinates…

  They were all killed…

  Not simply killed.

  They were sughtered in such a brutal way that even recalling it made his body tremble uncontrolbly.

  It was not imagination.

  He saw it with his own eyes.

  “Where… where did that monster come from…?”

  His voice shook violently.

  “That woman… she’s terrifying…”

  A Few Hours Earlier

  Earlier that night, the group of bck-cloaked men who had been following Lin Xuan and Su Qingyun were retreating across the pins.

  The captain led the group at the front.

  Suddenly—

  A figure appeared in their path.

  “Stop.”

  The captain waved his hand.

  The entire group halted immediately.

  The captain stepped forward and shouted into the darkness.

  “Who’s there?”

  His voice echoed across the empty pins.

  “If you don’t come out, don’t bme me for being ruthless!”

  For a moment, the wind blew silently.

  Then—

  A figure slowly emerged from the shadows.

  Bck dress. Long bck hair. Bck eyes.

  Her skin looked delicate and soft.

  Her face was beautiful.

  Yet strangely cold.

  The woman lowered her head slightly and spoke in a soft voice, almost like a timid kitten.

  “I’m sorry… did I scare you, sir?”

  The men immediately realized something.

  “That voice…”

  One of the cloaked men blinked.

  “A woman?”

  Another man ughed.

  “Captain, it’s just a woman.”

  His eyes immediately became filled with lust.

  “Should we kill her… or should we…”

  His smile turned perverted.

  The remaining members also began grinning as they stared at the woman in front of them.

  Because standing before them was an exceptional beauty.

  One of the men stepped forward eagerly.

  “Captain, let me have her first.”

  Another man immediately protested.

  “No! I want her too!”

  The group began ughing greedily.

  The captain waved his hand dismissively.

  “Do as you please.”

  The men cheered quietly.

  Tonight had suddenly become entertaining.

  They began walking toward the woman.

  The woman took a small step backward.

  Her voice trembled slightly.

  “W-What are you going to do…?”

  “Don’t come closer…”

  “Kyaaa—!”

  She screamed in fear as the men approached.

  But while the captain casually scanned the surroundings…

  His gaze returned to the woman. Because he saw something.

  The woman was smiling.

  A faint smile.

  A cold smile.

  Why… is she smiling? Does she went crazy because she was soon humiliated.

  And another thought quickly appeared in his mind.

  Wait why is a woman alone in this deserted pce… in the middle of the night?

  No one comes here…

  Something… is wrong.

  A sense of danger suddenly rose in his heart.

  Then—

  “AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

  A horrifying scream echoed across the pins.

  The captain’s head snapped toward the sound.

  One of the men was screaming in agony.

  His face twisted in horror.

  His hand…

  Was falling apart.

  The flesh split open like rotten meat.

  The bones cracked.

  His fingers crumbled and dropped to the ground as if his arm had been infected by a deadly poison.

  The man colpsed while shrieking.

  “My arm—!!”

  “My arm!!!”

  The others froze in shock.

  The woman slowly lifted her head.

  Her smile became slightly wider.

  Her bck eyes glowed faintly in the darkness.

  And her soft voice echoed once again.

  “You shouldn’t have come closer.”

  “You bitch!”

  One of the bck-cloaked men roared in fury after seeing his companion’s arm crumble apart.

  Without hesitation, he lunged forward and unched an attack toward the woman.

  His bde fshed through the darkness.

  But the woman moved lightly.

  Like a drifting shadow.

  She dodged effortlessly.

  Before the man could even react—

  Her delicate hand moved.

  A single strike.

  Boom!

  The man’s body suddenly exploded in mid-air.

  Blood and flesh spttered everywhere, raining down onto his comrades.

  Warm blood covered their faces.

  For a moment…

  No one moved.

  The remaining men stared in horror at the pce where their companion once stood.

  Fear instantly spread among the group.

  Their morale colpsed.

  The captain clenched his teeth when he saw their terrified expressions.

  “We outnumber her!” he shouted.

  His voice carried urgency.

  “We will win! Follow my command!”

  Hearing their captain’s order, the frightened men forced themselves to calm down.

  Their morale rose slightly.

  They gripped their weapons tightly.

  “Attack together!” the captain ordered.

  The group rushed forward at the same time.

  But suddenly—

  A chilling wind swept across the pins.

  It wasn’t an ordinary wind.

  It felt like death itself had passed by.

  Their feet turned cold.

  Their bodies turned cold.

  Even their blood seemed to freeze.

  One by one—

  The charging assassins suddenly stopped moving.

  Their bodies froze in pce like statues.

  Ice began spreading across their bodies.

  First their legs.

  Then their waists.

  Then their chests.

  Half of their bodies slowly crystallized into ice.

  Their eyes widened with absolute terror.

  They could still think.

  But they could not move.

  The woman quietly watched them.

  Her expression remained calm.

  Her soft, delicate hand slowly clenched into a fist.

  And then—

  CRACK.

  Like fragile sculptures…

  The frozen bodies shattered.

  BOOM!

  Dozens of bodies exploded at the same time.

  Blood burst into the air like a crimson mist, spreading across the dark pins.

  Fragments of flesh scattered across the dark pins.

  In the blink of an eye—

  Nothing remained.

  No bodies.

  No bones.

  Only blood staining the ground.

  Silence returned.

  The only person left alive was the captain.

  His face had turned completely pale.

  His body trembled uncontrolbly.

  Without saying another word—

  He turned and fled.

  Running with absolute terror.

  Running as if a demon was chasing him.

  Because behind him…

  The woman was still standing quietly in the darkness.

  Back in the present.

  The man was still running across the pins like a madman.

  His breath was ragged, his legs trembling, but he did not dare stop.

  “I want to live… I want to live…”

  He kept repeating those words like a prayer.

  “I’ll quit being an assassin… I swear… I’ll live peacefully…”

  Hope filled his mind as he imagined a life far away from killing.

  But suddenly—

  A soft voice echoed behind him.

  Gentle.

  Yet extremely cold.

  “Who are you running from?”

  The man’s body froze.

  Before he could even turn around—

  Spsh!

  A violent explosion erupted below him.

  “AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

  His scream tore through the night.

  His feet were gone.

  They had exploded into pieces of flesh and blood.

  The man colpsed onto the ground, writhing in unbearable pain.

  “Spare me!!”

  “Please spare me!!”

  “I beg you!!”

  He cried again and again, his voice shaking with terror.

  “Please spare me… please spare me…”

  The woman slowly approached him.

  Her footsteps were calm.

  Graceful.

  She looked down at the crawling captain like he was nothing more than an insect.

  After hearing his begging repeatedly, she finally spoke.

  “Tell me.”

  Her voice was quiet.

  “Who sent you?”

  The captain trembled violently.

  “What… what do you mean…?”

  The woman’s eyes turned colder.

  “You were following Su Qingyun did you?”

  Hearing that name, the captain’s st hope shattered.

  He realized immediately—

  There was no escape.

  So he confessed everything he knew.

  “I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you everything!”

  He revealed the organization he belonged to.

  The orders they received.

  And the reason they were secretly watching Su Qingyun.

  After he finished expining, the woman nodded slightly.

  “I see.”

  “Bck Society sent you.”

  “They suspected her because of the mountain bandit incident a few years ago.”

  “The bandit leader died, and they suspect she might be connected.”

  The captain nodded frantically.

  “Yes! Yes! That’s all I know!”

  “That’s everything!”

  “Please spare me!”

  He looked at her desperately.

  But the woman simply looked down at him with calm, graceful indifference.

  Then she said in a completely nonchant tone—

  “Nope.”

  “Just die.”

  BOOM.

  The captain’s body exploded instantly.

  Blood burst into the air like a red mist.

  Silence returned to the pins.

  Not a single survivor remained.

  Then—

  Another voice suddenly appeared from the darkness.

  “Master… you really wiped them all out.”

  “Also… why is your appearance a woman?”

  A figure slowly emerged nearby.

  The woman standing in the blood-stained field casually brushed her sleeve.

  Her appearance shimmered slightly.

  This woman…

  Was Lin Xuan.

  He replied calmly.

  “Nothing.”

  “I was just killing time.”

  “And pying with them a little.”

  Akinosen