The black market stronghold mission was flawlessly completed. Rin and Ye Xue, carrying the target's intelligence, silently withdrew. On the way back, the night was deep, and the cold wind howled, but Rin's heart was far from calm. Everything that had happened in Orga's room, and Ye Xue's stark declaration, "You can't be weak anymore," had ripped through the fog in his mind like a lightning bolt.
He recalled countless missions from his past life as the "Blade of Demise." He always charged to the front, attracting fire, taking risks, while his partner, the sniper codenamed "Cold Moon," would always, at crucial moments, use her incredibly precise arrows to clear obstacles for him.
A long-sealed memory, like a movie, slowly unfolded in his mind.
It was an exceptionally difficult jungle encirclement battle. He was surrounded by dozens of enemies, severely wounded, pushed to a desperate situation. Enemy swords and gun muzzles were all pointed at him; the shadow of death loomed. He had prepared himself to take them all down with him.
However, just then, several arrows, like reapers' scythes from hell, precisely penetrated the encirclement. Those arrows didn't graze him in the slightest, yet they unerringly avoided all vital points around him, striking the non-fatal parts of the enemies' bodies—wrists, ankles, thighs, shoulders. Each arrow perfectly incapacitated the enemies, preventing them from posing any further threat to him.
Those were "Cold Moon's" arrows. Her arrows were never wasted; every single one had a purpose. She didn't kill for the sake of killing; she killed to ensure his survival. With her extreme precision, she carved a bloody path for him.
In the vision, "Cold Moon's" figure was hidden deep within the jungle, her face blurred, but in that instant, he felt her ruthlessness, and he also felt the… protection hidden beneath her lethal efficiency.
Now, the memory perfectly aligned with reality.
In Orga's room, Ye Xue's arrow had precisely struck Orga's pistol, and then his forehead, yet perfectly avoided the innocent child. That extreme precision, that uncanny synergy in saving him at a critical moment, was identical to "Cold Moon" from his past life!
Rin's heart pounded fiercely, and a voice echoed deep within him—"She, she really is her!"
He was certain. This seemingly cold Ye Xue, who always made the right choices at crucial moments, was indeed his past life partner who had faced life and death with him, and whom he had trusted—"Cold Moon." She had once tried to plead for him and was later forced to end his life with her own hands, but she had always been the one who understood him best and could protect him most effectively.
Rin turned to look at Ye Xue beside him. She walked in the night, her figure still light, her face cold as frost, as if everything that had just happened had nothing to do with her. She had no memory whatsoever, only those deeply ingrained instincts in her soul—her "protection" of him, her "precision" in killing.
A complex emotion surged in Rin's heart. He wanted to awaken her, to tell her everything. To tell her about their past, about the betrayal he experienced, about the efforts she had made for him. He wanted her to remember the lost tenderness, the bonds that had bloomed in blood.
But at the same time, he hesitated.
If she regained her memories, she would have to face the past pain, the struggle, and the despair of having personally killed him. What kind of impact would that have on her? How would she face her "resurrected" self? Would she choose to continue bearing the guilt of that "I'm sorry," or would she completely break down?
Perhaps letting her live in present tranquility, carefree, as a highly talented assassin, would be the best choice.
Or should he let her reclaim her own past, even if that past was bloody?
Rin felt an unprecedented sense of confusion. He could personally kill enemies, but he could not decide Ye Xue's fate. For the first time, he felt that as the "Blade of Demise," his choice was so difficult.
He looked at Ye Xue's cold profile; that lost tenderness lingered in his heart like a ghost. He didn't know what to do to do right by her, to honor the trust they once shared in the midst of bloodshed.
The mission continued, and the path ahead remained fraught with unknowns. But Rin's heart, because of Ye Xue's presence, was in turmoil.