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

The capital city, an abandoned building.

Eighteen underground floors.

The leader of the Dark Night remained seated behind the obsidian conference table, his tea already changed three times. He rarely met the same guest twice in a short period, but today was an exception.

Liu Mingxia stood before him, her expression even more ferocious than three days ago. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her lips were chapped and peeling, clearly indicating that she had barely slept for the past few days.

"What do you mean?" Her voice was hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against glass. "I paid a ten million deposit, and you're telling me the mission is canceled?"

The leader raised his eyelids and glanced at her, but did not answer immediately. He extended his long, pale fingers, picked up the teacup, and slowly took a sip.

The tea was fine, a spiritual tea from Lingwu Mountain in southern Xinjiang, which had a slight nourishing effect on the spiritual power of the awakened. But at this moment, amidst the fragrant aroma of the tea, there was not tranquility, but rather a tense atmosphere.

"Guest." The leader set down his teacup, his voice low and steady. "Dark Night operates according to its own rules. A refund of the deposit means the mission cannot be completed. As for the reason, that's not within our scope of obligation to inform you."

"Can't complete it?" Liu Mingxia's voice suddenly rose, so sharp it almost pierced the silence of the underground space. "You're Dark Night! The strongest assassin organization in the Dragon Kingdom! You're telling me you can't kill someone without abilities?!"

Her body was trembling, whether from anger or fear, she couldn't tell. Three days ago, when she received the "mission canceled" message, she thought she had misread it. She checked it over and over again, dialed the number that was no longer in service countless times, and finally even went to this abandoned building herself.

The results of it?

Two men in black robes stopped her at the door and told her that the leader was not receiving guests.

She waited outside the building for a whole day and night, feeling dizzy from hunger and shivering from the cold, before finally hearing the words, "The leader lets you in."

Now that she's in, the answer she gets is that it can't be done.

"Do you know what this means?" Liu Mingxia stared intently at the leader, her eyes reddening. "Two hundred and sixty-nine members of the Liu family, just died like that? That murderer is just getting away with it?"

She lunged forward, placing her hands on the conference table and leaning forward, almost bringing her face close to the leader's.

"Didn't you Dark Night claim to never fail? Didn't you claim there was no one you wouldn't dare kill? How come a seventeen-year-old powerless person has scared you like this?"

The leader didn't move. He remained seated, the shadow under his hood obscuring most of his face, revealing only his chin. But Liu Mingxia noticed that his fingers, resting on the table, twitched slightly.

It was just a slight movement, but it made Liu Mingxia's heart clench suddenly, and a chill ran from her tailbone straight to the top of her head. She instinctively took half a step back, raising her hands from the table as if she had been burned.

"Guest," the leader's voice remained calm, but with a hint of barely perceptible coldness, "watch your words."

Liu Mingxia gritted her teeth, suppressing the fear in her heart. She took a deep breath, trying to make her voice steady again.

"Fine, I won't ask why. I'll just ask you one question—does the mission cancellation mean that Dark Night doesn't dare to touch Jiang Chen?"

The leader remained silent for three seconds.

"Yes."

A single word, spoken lightly, struck Liu Mingxia's heart like a massive boulder.

She was stunned.

She had imagined countless answers—"The mission is more difficult than expected," "The target is protected by a third party," "More time is needed for evaluation"... But she never expected that the leader of the Dark Night would admit so bluntly: He dared not.

dare not.

What does it mean when these two words come from the mouth of the leader of the strongest assassin organization in the Dragon Kingdom?

Liu Mingxia's mind went blank.

She remembered arriving at this place three days ago, full of excitement, thinking that as long as she spent enough money, Jiang Chen would surely die. She remembered that night when she stood on the rooftop and said to the night, "Seven days later, I will make that beast come down to apologize to you."

Looking back now, how ridiculous those words were.

"Then I..." Liu Mingxia's voice was hoarse, "Where's my money?"

"The deposit has been fully refunded," the leader said calmly. "As for the property deeds you sold earlier, Dark Night has converted them to market value and deposited them into your account."

Liu Mingxia opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but found herself speechless.

There are indeed rules governing things done in the dark. If the money is refunded but the task isn't completed, you can't find any fault with it.

She turned around and walked unsteadily toward the door.

As I reached the door, I heard the leader's voice behind me.

"Guest, I have a piece of advice for you."

Liu Mingxia stopped walking, but did not turn around.

"Leave the capital, find a place where no one knows you, live an anonymous life, and do well."

Liu Mingxia's body stiffened.

She slowly turned her head to look at the man sitting in the shadows. The shadow under the hood seemed even deeper, obscuring his expression, but his eyes shone through the darkness at that moment.

Those were deep gray eyes, cold and sharp, like two unsheathed swords. But at this moment, besides indifference, there was something else in those eyes that Liu Mingxia couldn't understand.

It's not pity, it's not sympathy, it's more like a reminder.

"What do you mean?" Liu Mingxia's voice was tense.

The leader did not answer.

He picked up his teacup again, lowered his eyes, as if he had never said those words.

Liu Mingxia stood there for more than ten seconds, and seeing that he had no intention of speaking again, she finally gritted her teeth, turned around and left.

Her footsteps echoed in the empty corridor, growing farther and farther away, lighter and lighter, until they finally disappeared into the darkness.

The leader put down his teacup and leaned back in his chair.

He closed his eyes, and another message he had received the previous night floated into his mind. It came from a channel he never expected—the Jiangzhou branch of the Dragon Kingdom Awakened Affairs Bureau, headed by Director Su Ze.

The message was simple, just a few sentences, but it kept him awake all night.

He opened his eyes and looked at the empty conference table, the message Su Ze had sent him flashing through his mind.

That was an order.

Client: Dragon Kingdom Awakeners Affairs Administration Bureau, Jiangzhou Branch.

Scope of the mandate: Protect the target "Jiang Chen" and his family for a period of one year. If the target or his family suffers any harm from external forces, Dark Night shall bear full responsibility and eliminate the source of the threat within 24 hours of receiving notification.

Commissioned funds: The symbolic one-dollar Dragon Kingdom coin.

After reading the order, the leader remained silent for a full quarter of an hour.

Symbolic monism feels like a humiliation, or a silent threat.

On the other side, Liu Mingxia had just stepped out of the building, her mind filled with the leader's gaze and reminder.

Should we hide our identities and leave this place?

What do these words mean?

Before she could get far, a figure landed not far from her, silently. The figure's clothing was recognizable; it was an assassin from the Dark Night organization.

Liu Mingxia frowned.

"You..." Liu Mingxia took a step back, her voice tense, "You're from Dark Night? Didn't the leader already tell me to leave?"

The man in black robes did not answer.

He slowly raised his right hand, palm facing up. A wisp of eerie blue light condensed at his fingertips, the light weak and strange, like a will-o'-the-wisp that might be extinguished at any moment, but the chill contained within it made Liu Mingxia's soul tremble.

"What...what are you trying to do?" Liu Mingxia's voice had trembled. She retreated desperately, her steps faltering, her high heels screeching on the stone pavement. "I'm your customer! I paid! You can't..."

Before he could finish speaking, the man in black robes moved.

His movements were so fast that they were almost impossible to catch with the naked eye; he was just a blur, and the next second, he was already in front of Liu Mingxia, no more than three feet away.

The pale blue light was now hovering in his palm, casting an inconspicuous glow on his face.

Liu Mingxia finally saw the face under the hood.

It was an extremely ordinary face, so ordinary that you wouldn't notice it in a crowd. But those eyes made all her words catch in her throat.

There was no murderous intent, no emotion, not even a ripple in those eyes.

It's like looking at an item that needs to be dealt with.

"Why...why..." Liu Mingxia's voice was hoarse, and tears had already welled up in her eyes.

The man in black finally spoke.

His voice was low and flat, like a blunt knife slowly gliding across glass.

"The chief said that your existence will cause us trouble."

Liu Mingxia's pupils suddenly contracted.

She recalled the leader's "advice" earlier—leave the capital, find a place where no one knows you, live in anonymity, and thrive.

That's not advice.

That was an ultimatum.

She refused, so now...

The deep blue light suddenly surged.

Before Liu Mingxia could even scream, the light pierced through her chest. There was no blood, no wound, only an indescribable chill that surged from the depths of her bones.

Her body froze on the spot, her eyes wide open, her lips slightly parted, but she couldn't make a sound.

She wanted to say something, to say that she was a daughter-in-law of the Wang family and that the Wang family was not someone they could mess with!

But it was all too late.

Her consciousness was rapidly fading, and the world before her eyes gradually turned gray and white. In her last moment, she seemed to see the ruins of the Liu family, the face of her brother Liu Mingxuan, and the image of her niece Liu Ruyan as a child, holding her hand and calling her "Auntie".

Then, everything disappeared.

Liu Mingxia's body went limp and collapsed to the ground, showing no signs of life.

The man in black robes glanced down at her, then flipped his palm, and the pale blue light entered her body. The next second, Liu Mingxia's body began to slowly dissipate from the edges, like a piece of paper being burned, turning to ashes inch by inch from her limbs to her torso, and from her torso to her head.

The whole process took less than ten seconds.

In the square, nothing was left except for a few wisps of ashes scattered by the wind.

The man in black turned around and disappeared silently into the night.