After a thousand years of cultivation, he returns at the pinnacle!

That night, Night Owl didn't even know how he got home.

The moonlight was as dark as ink, and the abandoned building on the outskirts of the capital resembled a tombstone, radiating a sinister, cold light.

He dragged his broken leg and crawled for two whole hours through the darkness of Jiangzhou before finally finding an abandoned bread cart by a stinking ditch. He pressed the accelerator with his remaining right leg, gripped the steering wheel with his left hand, his right hand was gone, and his eyes were filled with endless fear.

Throughout the journey, that scene kept replaying in his mind.

That was the moment his eyes met Jiang Chen's. His whole being felt as if he had fallen into an abyss. It was a feeling that Night Owl never wanted to experience again in his life.

Night Owl jerked the steering wheel, nearly sending the van plunging off the road. He bit his lip so hard it bled, and blood dripped down his chin, but he was oblivious.

"I can't think about it... I can't think about it..."

He muttered to himself, his voice hoarse and unlike his own.

Three hours later, he finally returned to the capital.

The entrance to the abandoned building was faintly visible in the night. Night Owl pushed open the car door, tumbled off the driver's seat, and fell to the ground, the broken bone fragments scraping against the ground with a teeth-grinding sound.

He gritted his teeth, supported himself with his left hand, and slowly climbed into the building.

A long trail of blood was left behind him.

Eighteen underground floors.

The leader of the Night was still sitting behind the obsidian conference table, the shadow under his hood obscuring most of his face.

A cup of tea sat before him, but it had gone cold.

He is waiting.

I waited for four hours.

The communication channel had been cut off two hours ago. It wasn't a signal interruption; Night Owl had deliberately shut down the communication. This had never happened before in the history of Dark Night—a peak A-rank Awakened actively shutting down communication while on a mission?

Either the mission failed, or...

The leader did not continue thinking about it.

Just then, a faint sound came from the end of the corridor. It wasn't footsteps, but more like something being dragged on the ground.

The leader raised his head.

The iron gate slid open silently.

His gaze also lingered on the other person. As the leader of the Dark Night, he knew everyone in the organization inside and out—their strength, their background, and of course, their appearance.

It was a man with only one arm and one leg. His right arm was gone, and his left leg was severed below the knee, revealing the white bone fragments. He was covered in blood and dirt, his clothes were tattered like rags, his hair was disheveled, and his face was so dirty that his features were unrecognizable.

But the leader recognized him.

Night owl.

The third-ranked ace assassin of the Dark Night Organization, a peak A-rank Awakened, and the holder of the abilities "Eagle Eye" and "Penetration". He has killed an S-rank monster alone and once sniped the leader of a rival organization from a thousand meters away, making countless targets tremble with fear.

At that moment, he lay on the ground like a dog with a broken back.

"leader..."

The man was slightly taken aback by the sight of the man in such a wretched state. Only one person had returned, and in such a terrible condition, so the fate of the other two must have been sealed.

He sighed softly and said gently, "Tell me, what happened?"

He stood up, walked around the conference table, and stood in front of Night Owl, looking down at his once most trusted subordinate.

"Where's the praying mantis? Where's the cicada?"

The owl's body trembled violently.

"Dead...dead..."

His voice was broken, like shattered glass.

"The praying mantis... was chopped into a human stump... its limbs severed at the root... its head still held in the hand... still alive... its eyes still moving... its mouth still moving..."

His speech became faster and faster, and increasingly incoherent.

"Then...then Jiang Chen pointed his finger...and the mantis was gone...not dead...it was gone...not even ashes were left...as if it had never existed..."

The leader frowned.

"Where's Higurashi?"

"I don't know!" Night Owl's voice suddenly rose. "I heard Cold Cicada shout 'Watch out!' on the channel, and then... then there was no more sound! I don't know what happened to him! I don't know!"

He grabbed the leader's trouser leg as if it were his last straw.

"Chief, that person... Jiang Chen... he's not human! He's not human! Humans couldn't possibly have those kinds of eyes! Impossible!"

"What kind of eyes?"

The owl froze.

His mouth was open, and a gurgling sound came from his throat, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't. His eyes were wide open, his pupils contracted violently, and his whole body began to convulse.

"No... I can't think about it... I can't think about it..."

He abruptly loosened the leader's trouser leg, covered his head with his hands, and curled up on the ground like a frightened hedgehog.

"I can't think about it! I can't think about it! Please don't make me think about it!"

The leader looked at him silently, speaking incoherently. Mentioning Jiang Chen was like mentioning a nightmare, plunging him into endless fear.

What kind of mental torment did he go through to cause this to happen?

After a long while, he turned around, walked back to the conference table, and pressed a button on the table.

"Take Night Owl away and treat him."

Two men in black robes emerged from the end of the corridor, silently approached Night Owl, and lifted him up. Night Owl did not resist, but simply curled up, muttering repeatedly that he shouldn't think about it.

The two men in black robes exchanged a glance, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.

They had never seen a night owl like this before.

After the owl was carried away, the leader sat down again.

On the table in front of him, Jiang Chen's file was still spread out. The boy in the photo had handsome features and gentle eyes, no different from any other seventeen-year-old high school student.

But this seemingly ordinary high school student has been constantly appearing on the dark web's trending topics lately.

From a powerless individual known to everyone in the world, to a monster who seems to have slaughtered the entire Liu family, to now leaving even the powerful members of the Dark Night Organization with a lifelong psychological trauma.

This is definitely not an ordinary person. Perhaps... Dark Night shouldn't be an enemy of such a young man.

The man already had this thought in his mind.

They work in the dark, nominally accepting any kind of order, but they know in their hearts which orders they cannot accept.

That night, an order was issued within the Dark Night organization.

If there are any more orders to assassinate Jiang Chen, do not accept them. Jiang Chen's strength level is assessed as X, which means force majeure and uncertainty. His threat level is comparable to the top figures in the Dragon Kingdom.

The next morning.

Liu Mingxia's hiding place was an inconspicuous rented room in the suburbs of the capital.

She didn't sleep all night.

A cell phone sat on the table, its screen displaying a message from the Dark Night Organization: "Reply today."

She was waiting. Waiting for the good news—Jiang Chen was dead, and the Liu family's great revenge was achieved.

She had even planned it out: after receiving the news, she would return to Jiangzhou, kowtow three times in front of the ruins of the Liu family, and tell her brother and Ruyan that their enemy had gone to hell.

The phone lit up.

Liu Mingxia grabbed her phone abruptly, her fingers trembling as she opened the message.

Then, her smile froze on her face.

"Mission cancelled. Deposit has been refunded to your account. The Dark Night Organization will no longer accept any missions related to the target Jiang Chen. This decision is final and no objections will be accepted."

Liu Mingxia stared at the screen, reading each word three times.

You read that right.

It's not that the mission is complete, nor that the target has been killed.

The mission has been cancelled!

"Cancel?"

Her voice was shrill, like fingernails scraping against glass.

"What do you mean by canceled?! I paid ten million! Ten million!"

She frantically dialed Dark Night's contact number.

"Hello, the number you dialed is no longer in service."

"Hello, the number you dialed is no longer in service."

"Hello……"

Dozens of times, dozens of times, each time it was the same prompt sound.

Dark Night blocked her.

Liu Mingxia slumped to the ground, her phone slipped from her hand and fell to the ground, the screen cracking.

She stared at the crack, her mind blank.

Ten million.

She sold everything she could to raise a ten million yuan deposit. That was her last trump card, her last hope.

Now, Dark Night tells her: I won't answer.

"No, impossible!!"

She muttered to herself, then suddenly stood up.

"Impossible! Dark Night has never failed! Never canceled a mission! There must be a mistake! There must be!"

She rushed out of the rented room and hailed a taxi.

"Go to the north of the city, to the abandoned building."

The driver glanced at her, said nothing, and stepped on the gas.