The air temperature plummeted so fast my breath crystallized into white plumes. Seo Kang-Hyun didn't yell. He didn't telegraph his strike with a battle cry or a shift in his shoulders. He simply vanished. One second he was standing ten paces away, the next, the tip of his icy blue longsword was inches from my throat. My instincts—honed by forty years of slaughter—screamed at me to drop low, draw a concealed dagger, and drag the edge across his femoral artery. It was a guaranteed kill. [Warning: Lethal counter-attack on an Orthodox disciple will result in Karma -200.][Result: Instant Existence Erasure.]I gritted my teeth, forcing my body to betray its own muscle memory. Instead of diving into his guard, I stepped back, bringing the heavy oak staff up in a panicked, two-handed block. The sound of steel meeting wood echoed like a cannon shot in the plaza. The impact didn't cut the staff, but the sheer, crushing weight of Kang-Hyun’s Qi slammed into me like a runaway carriage. The v

The arrow cut through the mist with the quiet hiss of a viper. Kang-Hyun didn't see it. The First Disciple of Mount Hua was entirely focused on the suffocating, pitch-black aura pouring out of my pores. His blue sword was raised against me, his senses blinded by the overwhelming malice leaking from my fractured core, leaving him completely exposed to the threat striking from his blind spot. My body reacted before my conscious mind could weigh the cost. [Choice Triggered: Intervene or Ignore.][Warning: Target Seo Kang-Hyun is a major figure. His death will alter destiny paths.]I threw my hand out. My fingers clamped around the vibrating shaft of the arrow just two inches from the back of Kang-Hyun's pale neck. The sudden stop snapped the tail off the wood. The iron tip, glistening with nightshade poison, hovered right next to his skin. Kang-Hyun flinched violently, his eyes darting to my fist. He saw the black fletching. He smelled the sweet, sickly scent of the lethal toxin. Hi

The air in the plaza instantly superheated, pulling the moisture from my throat and eyes. I couldn't dodge. I couldn't block. The pressure of Elder Nam’s aura had my boots glued to the cobblestones. I was a man standing on the tracks, watching a mountain barrel toward him.Forty years of assassination, a regression, and weeks of starving in the mud—all of it was about to be turned to white ash.Then, the system screamed in my skull.[Lethal Threat Detected.][Emergency Protocol Initiated: Karmic Shield.][Converting 200 Karma to Absolute Defense.][Current Balance: 75. Warning: Neutral Tier Reached. Buffs Disabled.]The blinding white light hit me. But it didn't burn. A dome of translucent, golden energy erupted around my body just a fraction of a second before the impact. The collision sounded like a massive iron bell cracking underwater. The deafening ring ruptured my left eardrum. Warm blood immediately trickled down my neck. The Karmic Shield held against the incinerating heat,

She stood casually between me and Elder Nam, her crimson silk robes untouched by the mud or the toxic ash coating the plaza. The ambient spiritual pressure she exerted didn't crush the air; it poisoned it, making every breath feel heavy and intoxicating.Elder Nam Do-Hyun’s hands, which had been glowing with a lethal, blinding white light, slowly dimmed. The deep wrinkles around his eyes tightened, turning his expression into a mask of restrained, venomous fury. He was an Elder of the Blue Sky Pavilion, a man used to absolute obedience. But he was also a politician who survived by calculating odds. Fighting a half-dead assassin and a junior disciple was an execution. Fighting the Crimson Princess of the Demonic Cult in a neutral city, without his sect’s vanguard backing him up, was suicide."You meddle in affairs that do not concern your cult, Princess," Elder Nam stated, his cultured voice dropping to a dangerous, vibrating baritone. "Everything concerns me if I find it entertainin

The mud of the Beggar District clung to my boots like wet cement. I didn't look back at the rotting bamboo shack where Im Hye-Won wept over her dying daughter. I couldn't afford the distraction. Pity was a luxury for the rich; I only had fourteen days and a fractured body.Every step sent a jagged spike of pain up my left side. The ruptured eardrum from Elder Nam’s blast had thrown off my equilibrium, making the narrow, twisting alleys tilt and sway. Dried blood crusted the side of my neck, pulling tight against my skin whenever I turned my head. My golden Qi, usually a warm furnace in my dantian, was a dim, flickering ember. I had seventy-five Karma points. Neutral tier. No buffs, no accelerated healing, no safety net.I was mortal again, walking through a world of monsters.I bypassed the main thoroughfare, sticking to the deep shadows behind the slaughterhouses. The stench of butchered pigs and rotting offal was strong enough to mask the metallic scent of my own bleeding wounds. I