The young man's first strike was horizontal, and the silver knife's response was to shift the head's center of gravity down and perform a backward somersault with the body, dodging it;

Immediately, before the silver knife touched the ground, controlling the dagger, locked onto the young man's legs, and thrust forward violently.

Clang!

The young man raised his foot, wearing combat boots, resolutely used the bottom of the boot to stop the dagger's momentum;

The silver knife recognized the sound and knew she was right, the structure inside the boot was made of metal.

Later, the young man sharply spun his right foot forward, making a false move as if preparing for a counterattack, forcing the silver knife, who had just landed on the ground, to immediately retreat to the corner of the wall.

Taking advantage of the momentum, the young man gripped the sword handle with both hands, took a step forward, instantly made a continuous false move, pretending to prepare to chop down on the target.

At the same moment, the silver knife leaned forward, just like a gecko, using her legs to stand on the corner of the back wall, between the two walls that separated;

As she stood vertically on the wall, her center of gravity was extremely stable, as if there were suction cups under her feet.

Due to her actions, the young man made the sword blade shift slightly, causing the sharp edge to miss slightly, leaving only a shallow mark on the ground.

The silver knife extended a short leg, while the young man's sword had not been retracted, stepping firmly on the sword handle, causing the connected blade to deeply bury into the gap in the floor.

At this moment, the young man was unable to withdraw the sword for a counterattack, his movement was sealed off.

With only one foot on the wall, the silver knife’s body remained steady, and she wouldn't miss this perfect opportunity.

As her upper body bent, the silver knife raised the dagger and stabbed forward;

At this moment, there was no way to avoid this posture, even the young man himself thought so, unless…

The young man stomped his heel to the ground, stepping back a few steps, narrowly avoiding the attack.

The silver knife was not ready to give up so easily, immediately flicking the handle with her ring and little finger, causing the dagger to shoot out, heading straight towards the young man's face.

Crack!

The young man's head slightly turned, opened his lips, catching the rapidly approaching dagger with his teeth;

The sound of cracking teeth confirmed this seemingly unbelievable act.

Then, the young man used his index and middle fingers to clamp the dagger and flicked it back again.

The silver knife raised one hand, alternating between tightening and loosening the palm, taking the dagger back, but did not continue the previous battle.

She couldn't understand why this target in front of her, who clearly knew she was the enemy, would return the weapon she had just taken?

Could it be that the other party didn't take her seriously at all?

With this thought in mind, the silver knife's face turned increasingly gloomy;

To the young man's eyes, this expression seemed to reflect a sense of disappointment even for not winning against him.

The young man understood that the girl in front of him was a true assassin, and he never thought he could make her completely surrender with a simple "Let's stop fighting."

The assassin profession valued each task received and had strict self-requirements;

Especially for top assassins with high fees, they could not tolerate their own failures.

Realizing this, the young man used a special way of encouragement to tell the silver knife:

"It's okay, don't worry about today's failure, just come back tomorrow; I will be staying in the hotel these days and won't go anywhere."

These words sounded more like something said to a professional killer who had targeted him.

Instead, it reminds one more of a young boy who nervously waits for a response after confessing to a girl.

Yin Dao increasingly felt underestimated, and the gaze she directed at the youth became much more determined than before.

She was determined to avenge this humiliation, but not today; in exchange for the other party returning the dagger, Yin Dao chose to retreat today. With her back to the door, she slowly raised herself and stepped back.

The youth couldn't let her leave just like that. At least, before the small figure disappeared, he had to say, "My name is Wang Xiaole, what's yours?"

Yin Dao had been trained as a professional assassin and did not like speaking. She usually used silence as her answer.

In the last second, the meaning of her silence was actually --- true silence!

In that wordless sentence, there was no deeper meaning. Yin Dao simply didn't want to deal with this "strange big brother."

Yin Dao swiftly left the room. After closing the door casually, she quickly disappeared along with the dark shadow, leaving no trace behind.

"Just like that? Shouldn't you say goodbye or perhaps leave a few words, like 'I will come back'? I wouldn't mind that," Wang Xiaole, returning to his "solo mode," suddenly felt tonight becoming dull again.

Having been disturbed in his sleep, he faced another boring period before sleepiness struck again.

During this time, he could only entertain himself. "Hmm, since the little girl didn't tell me her name, I'll decide on a nickname for her."

Naming doesn't have to be complicated. It's best to decide based on the person's characteristics.

Thinking of Yin Dao's appearance, Wang Xiaole found her very cute, like a white kitten. So, he decided to call her, "Bai," simply "Bai!"

Why didn't he add "xiao" or "mao" to the name? It's natural, after all, "Xiao Bai" or "Bai Mao" don't sound good at all, let alone combined into three words.

"Bai is a skilled assassin with her agility and her exotic identity, only possibly coming from the 'Disaster Reapers'; and the one who hired her might be..."

When Wang Xiaole thought about the assassin's employer, he recalled how he had previously intervened in a caravan transporting beastkin slaves...

In this era, human trafficking is illegal; the captors abduct beastkin and turn them into slaves, a practice recognized and protected by the kingdom's laws. Respected figures don't care about the beastkin's lives, while honest residents only intend to look after themselves.

In such a world, the only ones who can help these beastkin are freelancers like Wang Xiaole; these freelancers, rogues who do not mind confronting the kingdom's laws, though small and insignificant, are more uninhibited than anyone else.

With his free status, the moment he showed up openly in the town, the decision to step in and release the beastkin from their cages and defeat the guards was not as incomprehensible as one might think.

"Hmm, but to be honest... if there weren't so many beastkin girls in the carriage, I wouldn't have deliberately intervened once."

That move actually brought disaster upon Wang Xiaole himself.

Even though he didn't receive much intelligence, he now gradually realized:

Hiring Bai Lai to deal with his employer was highly likely to involve parties with significant interests related to that merchant caravan!

"Well, I'm almost sleepy thinking about this. Time for bed."

Yawning, Wang Xiaole walked back to the wardrobe, pursing his lips.

As he covered himself with the blanket, he closed the wardrobe door from the inside and then closed his eyes to drift off into a deep sleep.

...

The next time he opened his eyes, it was five hours later;

The sky was just getting light, but the innkeeper and someone Wang Xiaole was not used to dealing with had already started a new day.

Knock, knock, knock.

The sound of knocking at the door wasn’t loud, but enough to completely awaken someone who had been in a light sleep state for years.

"Who is it?"

"Xiaole, it’s me!"

What a charming girl's voice, indeed. It was quite effective in waking someone up, but sadly, it still couldn’t rouse the person pretending to sleep.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Xiaole, can you hear me? It’s me!"

Just because I know it’s you doesn’t mean I intend to open the door!

Wang Xiaole murmured to himself inwardly.

It's not that he was particularly indifferent, it was just that he couldn't stand the person outside the door bothering him.

In the past, he had lived alone for many years, a free ranger without family ties, free to roam the four corners of the continent.

However, starting from two years ago, for some reason, that girl appeared in his life;

After some self-introduction, the girl began to behave like a stalker.

Previously, apart from the enemies' residences, he could travel anywhere;

But unfortunately, ever since that girl appeared, an additional restriction was added to his travel route:

If the other person headed east, he went west; if the other person went south, he went north, always adhering to the principle of not meeting the girl along the way.

When he first arrived in this small town, he thought he had found a place where the girl wouldn’t pass by, but to his disappointment, she showed up at his door this morning.

Wang Xiaole didn’t mind being followed by a girl, he just rejected a suspicious person of unknown identity following him like a little tail.

In the past, when he hadn’t lost his patience, he had asked the other person:

Do we know each other?

Do we have an intimate relationship?

Who are you exactly? Why are you so kind to me?

Even if the girl made up some identity, saying she was his childhood sweetheart lost for over a decade;

or like Bai, directly appearing as an assassin, it would make Wang Xiaole feel better.

However, the girl just wouldn't do it, although she had no intention of deceiving, she just wouldn't say anything important to him.

After two years of being followed and counter-followed, the girl seemed to understand him more and more;

In contrast, his understanding of the girl remained at the level of just knowing her name.

He wasn’t even sure if this one known name was something the girl had casually made up.

As the time pretending to sleep in the wardrobe grew longer, the knocking at the door outside gradually weakened and the frequency of the knocking decreased.

Did she leave?

Wang Xiaole didn’t think so.

If a door could have stopped her, Wang Xiaole would have already been freed, how could their mental contest have lasted until today?

As expected, shortly after, strange noises sounded outside the door;

It was like a whip being raised high, gathering strength in midair, and then suddenly coming down with force.

Boom!

The door was smashed open.

Now, the only obstacle that stood between the girl and Wang Xiaole meeting had been manually removed by the former.