NOVPUB"We drag the body somewhere quiet. Make it look like a disappearance again," Tarkos voiced while reaching into a small pouch and pulling out a few talismans.
"People saw him enter here," Victor said. "If we just vanish him, suspicion will rise."
"We'll vanish everyone who saw him enter then," Tarkos said casually before walking toward the exit.
Victor frowned. "You're kidding, right?"
Tarkos smiled without turning around. "Do I look like I joke?"
Victor followed, albeit reluctantly. They had to cover their tracks, but there had to be limits. Then again… this was war.
The disciples outside never got the chance to blink.
Tarkos moved with immense speed, slicing their necks open before screams could escape. Victor finished off the rest with bursts of speed and deadly strikes, cutting down three with one swing.
They piled the bodies in an alley and ignited them using a spirit flame scroll Tarkos kept tucked in his robes. It wasn't flashy. It was clinical.
Victor stared at the embers. Another name crossed off the scrolls Tarkos had shown him. One step closer to peace.
Tarkos handed him a small cloth. "Wipe your face. You've got some venom on your cheek."
Victor did so in silence.
"Who's next?"
Tarkos pulled the scroll back out and let his finger hover over the next name.
"Xu Jian."
Victor nodded slowly. He remembered Xu Jian vividly—a broad-shouldered brute who wielded a thick, rune-engraved staff and had a scar running from his elbow to his wrist.
Xu Jian didn't talk much, but he had been the one Victor was fighting with when he got kicked into the pond.
"According to the elder you tortured," Victor voiced while resting against a wooden beam, "he barely leaves the Emerald Coil Pavilion. We could be stuck waiting weeks if we want to catch him outside."
"Then we go in," Tarkos said calmly. "Smooth and silent. Infiltrate. Eliminate. Escape."
Victor grimaced. "Sounds easy when you say it like that."
By the following day, their plan was in motion. They ambushed two disciples at the edge of a local marketplace—one Core Formation and one late Foundation Establishment.
They cleaned their robes, and wore them like a second skin.
Blending in with a caravan of disciples returning from an outer mission, Victor and Tarkos moved past the guards posted at the Emerald Coil Pavilion's entrance. No one batted an eye.
They headed toward the Pavilion inner sanctum.
Victor finally saw the infamous Emerald Coil Pavilion from the inside. It was a serpentine architectural marvel. Columns carved in the shape of spiraling jade serpents rose from gleaming emerald floors.
Lanterns swayed gently with mystical flames of pale green, casting shifting shadows along the walls. Curtains made of multicoloured scales veiled private rooms, and coiling waterways crisscrossed beneath glass walkways, filled with gliding serpentine fish that shimmered with qi.
The entire place was structured with eerie elegance and power.
Finding Xu Jian wasn't easy. His personal quarters were empty, and several servants claimed he had gone to the Pavilion's library to study a new ancient scroll. Victor and Tarkos exchanged a glance. A public space meant complications, but they had come too far to back down.
They made their way into the Pavilion's library, a silent grand hall that smelled of incense and old knowledge. Scrolls floated in glowing green shelves. Disciples sat at different corners with noses buried in ancient text.
Victor adjusted his scarf which masked half his face and sat across from Xu Jian, who was deeply engrossed in a thick scroll.
They couldn't strike with so many eyes around. So they waited. After two hours passed. Tarkos stood and exited casually to avoid suspicion.
Victor remained.
Almost an hour later, Xu Jian rolled up his scroll and stood. To Victor's surprise, instead of leaving, he walked directly toward him.
Victor held his breath.
"I noticed you've been staring at me since you got here," Xu Jian said as he took the seat next to him.
His voice was deep, laced with amusement and something else Victor couldn't place. "But your face isn't familiar."
Victor felt sweat bead along his neck. Was he compromised?
Xu Jian leaned closer and placed a hand gently on Victor's lap.
He began tracing subtle circles with his fingers across Victor's skin. "You must be one of the new disciples smitten by me. What do you say we head back to my quarters... alone."
Victor blinked. Of all things he had expected, seduction wasn't one of them.
Xu Jian's lips curled slightly, confident and hungry.
'I never knew NPCs could swing this way...'
Victor leaned back slightly. "Erm... perhaps you observed wrong?"
Xu Jian leaned in closer. "No, yu've been watching me... like a lover." He chuckled. "I
Victor forced a smile behind his mask. "Okay you got me... I just admire strength."
"Hm," Xu Jian eyes glinted as he smirked. "You've got interesting eyes for someone hiding half his face. Come on—my quarters are quieter."
Victor's mind raced. He couldn't say no, couldn't act too defensive, or the whole infiltration would collapse.
He decided no to question it...
Perhaps this was a way to get the work done.
He nodded once. "Lead the way."
Victor followed Xu Jian down the dimly lit corridors of the Emerald Coil Pavilion, still reeling from the unexpected turn of events.
Of all the things he had expected during this infiltration, Xu Jian's predatory flirtation was nowhere on the list.
The heavy door creaked open, revealing a surprisingly lavish chamber. Jade-sculpted lanterns bathed the room in a soft green hue.
Satin drapes swayed gently from the ceiling, and a delicate incense burned in the corner. The moment the door closed, Xu Jian turned toward Victor with a look of mischief.
"You're tense," he purred while walking closer. "I'll do things to you you've never experienced before."
He suddenly grabbed the upper portion of his robe and tore it open, revealing a chiseled chest rippling with muscle.
His long and curvy scar caught the greenish light as he took a step forward.
"Take off the scarf," he demanded.
Victor tilted his head while feigning hesitation. "I don't think that's a good idea." 𝑛𝘰𝘷𝑝𝘶𝑏.𝑐𝘰𝘮
Xu Jian frowned. "I insist."
"I'm not..."
"Enough talk pretty boy..."
Xu Jian reached out suddenly and swiftly yanked the scarf away.
The moment the fabric dropped, his expression shifted from sultry to stunned.
"Fang Chen?!" he gasped. "It was you this whole time? When did you change your hair color?"
Victor didn't wait even another second before unsheathing his blade.
<[ Shadow Crescent Strike Has Been Activated ]>
His sword flashed in a horizontal arc, discharging a crescent of shadow-infused qi which sliced through the room powerfully.
Xu Jian's reflexes were fast, but not fast enough. The strike hit him dead center, blasting him into the wall.
Cracks spiderwebbed through the stone as blood dripped from his side.
"You... bastard!"
He coughed while raising his trembling hand.
His staff which was leaning against the far wall, quivered before flying into his grasp.
The moment he touched it, the staff transformed into a massive serpent whose head blasted straight through the roof of his quarters.
Its scales emitted
a faint green glow as its body easily stretched across the room.
Before Victor could react, the serpent's head swept downwards with its massive mouth wide agape.
Gobble~
It swallowed Victor whole in one horrifying snap.
Xu Jian staggered to his feet while clutching his bleeding side.
He turned to flee the premises while yelling for help down the corridor.
He didn't get far before a flash of ink streaked past him.
Tarkos had emerged like a phantom with his tattoos flowing down his arm and extending into a curved blade.
With a single swing, Xu Jian's head rolled off his shoulders.
Silence~
The massive serpent burst through the quarters and charged at Tarkos but before it could get to him...
A grotesque flesh ripping sound echoed through the surroundings.
The belly of the enormous serpent bulged and then split apart. A drenched and blood-soaked Victor exploded out of it with his blade dripping with the creature innards.
"Ugh... it's in my mouth," Victor groaned while retching.
"We have to go now!" Tarkos barked.
Victor swallowed hard and followed after Tarkos.
Together, they fled through a side corridor.
Behind them, shouts and panicked yells rose through the Pavilion. Disciples were already converging on the scene.
The death of two senior disciples and an elder in quick succession had pushed the sect into a frenzy. Now, with the Pavilion walls echoing with alarm bells, it was clear: the entire sect was on high alert.
Victor and Tarkos burst out from the side exit, using a rarely-traveled servant tunnel to emerge into the outer courtyards. They didn't stop.
Over fifteen cultivators gave chase with some already forming talismans and seals while others soared on flight artifacts or leapt between buildings.
"We can't lead them back to the hideout," Victor muttered.
"Then we keep running."
Tarkos threw a smoke talisman behind them, and a cloud of violet mist erupted, obscuring their path. The two ducked into the frozen stream tunnel beneath the pavilion, letting the water carry them downstream toward a forgotten exit.
