Midnight had already come and gone, but the training hall behind the Koryu main building was still blazing with light.

The little sprite Eve tiptoed to the front doors and eased them open, only to find the vast hall empty—except for Rhythm Nolan, kneeling alone with her eyes closed.

“Since you’re already here, why won’t you come in?”

Rhythm spoke without opening her eyes.

Eve stuck her tongue out a little, then slid through the crack of the door.

It was her first time inside the training hall. Calling this thing a “building” felt wrong—it was more like a full-on basketball gym. The ceiling was as high as a four‑story block, and the open space went on and on. Basic weapons were lined up on both sides.

“Teacher’s still not back?” she asked, staring at the kneeling Rhythm Nolan.

“He said he was eating out with a colleague. I’m sure he’s got his own plan. No need to worry about him.”

Rhythm answered evenly. Her tightly shut eyes leaked a faint aura, a subtle pressure that wasn’t intentional but still weighed on the air.

A year ago, Rhythm Nolan had realized the golden Chi in her body was growing faint.

From that moment, she’d discovered that the flow of energy inside her had simply vanished without a trace. In the whole year since, her strength hadn’t advanced at all. Only her spiritual sense had grown by leaps and bounds, letting her perceive things across a wide area.

For a warrior, that inner flow was basically a lifeline. No matter how she turned it over in her head, Rhythm couldn’t figure out how hers had disappeared.

“He’s awful. I still haven’t made any progress with the training Teacher gave me. Every time I ask, he just plays dumb with me. I’m gonna fail this week’s task again.”

Eve sagged in frustration.

“So that’s why you came to me?” Rhythm cut straight to it.

“You’re so smart, Shiniang.” Eve didn’t care at all about being seen through; she marched right up to Rhythm. “Your strength should be higher than Teacher’s, right? It’s my first time feeling such a weird pressure from a human. Please, Shiniang, you have to help me!”

“You’ve never felt any pressure from Koryu?” Rhythm asked curiously.

Normally, pressure wasn’t hard to release. It was like a fluctuation of one’s own energy, sometimes faint, sometimes strong. Even if you tried to hide it, you couldn’t always cover it up completely.

“Nope…” Eve thought seriously, then shook her head. “I always feel like Teacher’s state is just… that. Always the same. Deader than dead water. You throw in a rock and you probably won’t even get a ripple.”

Rhythm Nolan pondered for a moment, then smiled at the little sprite.

“Eve, right? You don’t have to call me Shiniang. I’m not that much older than you. Just call me Sister Rhythm. Can you tell me what kind of assignments Koryu usually gives you, and how he has you train?”

The moment Eve heard Rhythm Nolan was willing to help, joy lit up her face. She immediately sold her own master out, laying into Koryu’s “perverted” methods with plenty of embellishment.

She not only described his training drills and the way he explained things, she even spilled the whole punishment system for failing the weekly tasks.

“He’s a bit much. If you don’t finish, he’s really gonna make you wear a cat costume to school for a whole week?” Rhythm smiled lightly.

“Exactly! Teacher’s way too stiff. Sister Rhythm, you have to help me.” Eve whined, full-on spoiled‑brat mode.

Rhythm nodded slightly, then slowly opened her eyes.

They were like deep starry skies, beautiful and unfathomable, holding a boundless cosmos within. It felt like they could just pull you in. Eve stared so hard she almost forgot to breathe.

“Wow… Sister Rhythm, your eyes are so pretty.”

The little sprite’s praise came truly from the heart.

Rhythm only gave a small nod. A woman like her had never lacked for compliments.

“In general, the purest form of energy is extremely unstable and hard to grasp, so we don’t use it directly. We convert it first into Chi or magic. And the mechanism and process of that conversion is us—humans, or sprites, ourselves. But conversion means energy loss, and it’s not as direct as using pure energy.”

Rhythm Nolan took Eve’s dagger. Pale golden Chi surged to her fingertips, and in her other hand, a second dagger—identical to the first—took shape out of Chi.

Eve’s eyes almost popped out.

What kind of top‑tier Chi control was this? She was literally shaping Chi into a weapon! Then a thought struck her—wasn’t her own training also one kind of energy shaping?

“So what counts as the purest energy?”

“Energy has a lot of forms—water, electricity, fire, nuclear force, Chi, magic, and so on. Those are all expressions of energy. True pure energy is completely different from all of these. It’s a purely destructive power, something that can collapse the order of all matter.” Rhythm paused, hesitated a little. “I don’t really understand Koryu’s cultivation method. But I think he’s trying to make you use your spiritual power directly as your energy source.”

No one could directly drive pure energy. That seemed to be a law of this world—

Of course, the almighty Supreme God didn’t count.

“Then why not just use magic elements or Chi like everyone else?”

“Every type of energy has its own nature. Electricity and fire are two totally different expressions of energy. Maybe Koryu thinks the nature of spiritual power is better suited to a thief’s elastic bursts of strength. So he wants you to re‑learn a new rule set for using energy, instead of just recycling the magic power you used before.”

If you couldn’t use magic or Chi, then aside from raw physical strength, the only power humans could control was spiritual power. But that power was incredibly unstable, easily disturbed by outside forces and hard to pin down.

“But controlling spiritual power is way too hard. I’ve got no clue where to even start.”

The little sprite squeezed her dagger hard, still completely stuck.

Rhythm only smiled. She laid the Chi‑dagger in her right hand gently atop the metal dagger in her left. Pale golden Chi seeped into the metal.

With a crunch, the dagger shattered instantly, collapsing into black powder that spilled all over the floor—yet the shape of the Chi blade remained.

“A dagger has its shape because of the forces between the particles inside it. When Chi enters those particles, even down into the atoms, as a new kind of power, it disrupts the original order. The dagger can’t maintain its form and breaks apart. There’s no real shortcut for something like this. But the way you draw out that power can be improved. For example…”

As she spoke, Rhythm Nolan grabbed Eve’s small hand and drew a simple pattern on her palm.

“Sister Rhythm, what’s this?”

“It’s a little trick. It makes it easier for any kind of energy to stay on your hand. You can use it to feel your way around.”

Eve tried it a few times right away. Sure enough, the light in her hand flared brighter than usual.

She tried shaping a few more daggers. At this rate, she could crush one in under a minute on average. With almost three days left, the task of a thousand daggers was finally within reach.

“Thank you so much, Sister Rhythm!”

The little sprite was instantly energized. She dashed off like a shot to go be a grind‑god and keep crushing daggers.

Rhythm Nolan wasn’t sure if what she’d done was right or wrong. There were no real shortcuts in cultivation. Her method just made it easier for the little sprite to grasp spiritual power a bit earlier, that was all.

——————————————My‑Style Sealcraft Cut——————————————

In an old courtyard in the western district, a man suddenly shoved the door open and barged in.

“Is it done?”

“No. I screwed up. At that range in the booth, Number Two fired and still didn’t kill the target. We had to blow the place, and we still didn’t get a single one.”

“The target suddenly changed his hairstyle tonight. All the women had that same Bohemian look going on. You can’t blame me entirely for missing.”

Number Two dropped onto the couch with a thud, his face dark.

“Excuses. We finally had a few minutes where Nagakawa wasn’t at the target’s side.”

Number One’s voice was icy. “And you, Number Three, didn’t you say the bombs were packed with oil from a toad‑beast? Even a master‑class warrior should burn. How did Nagakawa just walk out through the flames with four people on him?”

Number Three was the man sitting at the computer. He’d been monitoring the KTV’s hallway feeds all night. Now he pulled up the recordings and tapped the screen hard.

“Take a look right here…”

One and Two leaned in. On the monitor, a man was forcing his way out of the KTV corridor, four men and one woman behind him, all of them pushing through a tunnel carved by black energy.

“There are experts everywhere. What’s the point of showing me this?”

“Look closer at his energy.” Number Three switched angles, cycling through different camera views. “When he uses that black Chi, the flames around him get sucked in. The important part is…”

He tapped again. On the screen, a dragon of fire from the explosion raced down the corridor, then suddenly veered off at the corner—turning in midair and lunging straight into the black energy.

“It actually absorbed the toad‑beast bombs?”

Number One was stunned. “It swallowed even the flames. So why did the building still collapse?”

“His energy is too weird. It not only absorbs fire and the blast shockwave, it eats away at the building’s structure. And it sticks to whatever it touches for a short time.”

Number Three’s voice held a faint chill of unease. “Good thing you two didn’t run into him face to face. I don’t think he’s any weaker than Nagakawa.”

“Tch. So there’s another expert besides Nagakawa. That old man set us up on purpose, didn’t he?”

“I don’t think our client knew either. This job’s way too dangerous. We should drop it.”

Number Two hurried to persuade him.

Just then, a calm voice drifted out of the dark corner of the room.

“You three are actually pretty smart. Makes it worth my time, following you halfway across the city.”

All three men jolted and spun around.

A young man was leaning lazily against the wall, watching them stare at the monitor with utter boredom on his face.

“Who are you?! How did you—”

“Don’t ask dumb questions.” Koryu cut him off, impatient. “You’ve only got so much life. Can you at least ask something with a little IQ to it? Every time something like this happens, it’s the same crap—who are you, how’d you get in, what do you want. What are you, scared schoolgirls?”

The three of them froze, faces a little stiff. Number One stepped forward at once.

“Since you came creeping in here, you obviously know what we do. What do you want?”

As he spoke, his right hand made a small, secret gesture toward Number Three behind him.

“To be honest, I don’t care who hired you or who you’re trying to kill, but—”

Before he could finish, Number Three yanked a pistol from under the desk and fired several shots at Koryu. At the same time, Number One drew a short blade and charged.

Muzzle flashes flared in the dark room, turning the little space blindingly bright for an instant.

But when Number One burst forward, Chi flaring, his slash hit nothing. A muffled groan sounded behind him. He and Number Two whipped around—

Number Three’s head was already rolling cleanly across the floor.

“We’re just talking here. Why do you guys love using your hands so much? We’re all civilized people. Can’t you try showing a little basic decency?”

Koryu dropped into the computer chair and casually planted one foot on Number Three’s torn‑off head.

Too fast.

Number One and Number Two both felt a chill run through their bones. The man was like a movie with missing frames; they hadn’t even caught the path of his movement before Number Three was dead on the floor.

“Hey, hey, you guys are supposed to be top-tier assassins. Don’t you know how to talk?”

Koryu stepped on Third’s corpse, right on the wide-open, bulging eyes, then twisted down hard with his toe.

“You… what the hell do you want?”

“Me? I don’t want anything. I’m just teasing you two into a little chat.”

Koryu’s words almost made the two of them spit blood, but the situation was crushing them. They didn’t dare move an inch.

“Who’re you here to kill? Who hired you? I wasn’t that interested at first. The main thing is, I’m worried you got your hands on footage of my little performance. Since you planted bombs, there’s a good chance you hacked into their security system.

“If you grabbed the data on my ability score, or got a clear look at my face or something, that’d be a pain. So I worked so hard to come see you personally.”

Koryu paused, then casually pressed a fist down on the computer tower.

Black Chi surged out, and the whole thing shattered apart on the spot.

“But since I’m here anyway, I don’t mind hearing about your plan while I’m at it. After all, your client almost got me killed in that KTV.

“First time in my life I go out to have fun with coworkers, and you guys scare me half to death. If I walk away with a trauma and don’t dare go to KTV anymore, how are you gonna compensate me for the emotional damage?”

The two finally understood.

“How much do you want? We’ll pay!”

Koryu just gave a faint smile. His hand flashed.

A dagger stabbed straight through Number Two’s throat.

“Didn’t you say you wanted money!? Why’d you kill him?!”

Watching his partner drop dead beside him again, the boss couldn’t help but roar.

“Shh…” Koryu made a weird little gesture for silence. “Don’t be so loud. It’d be bad if you woke the neighbors. Even if you don’t, scaring the flowers and plants wouldn’t be very moral either, right?”

The boss was furious, but the gun he’d fired earlier had a suppressor. He didn’t want to draw the police, or worse, a Knight Squad.

“See? Talking about money is so tacky. Really hurts the relationship.”

Koryu walked up, bent down in front of the trembling Number One, yanked the dagger out of Number Two’s throat, then wiped the blood off on the boss’s clothes, rubbing hard.

“You destroyed the data, you killed my people. Since you don’t want money, please, show some mercy and let me walk away alive.”

The boss’s body shook a few times, then he forced himself to speak, voice quivering.

The man in front of him moved without warning, killed without blinking, like he’d erase him on a whim.

“I told you, I don’t blame you. I’m not even interested in who hired you.

“But your client made my night hell. Don’t you think I should return the favor?”

The boss’s face instantly darkened. He gave a bitter smile.

“So in the end, you still want to know who hired us. But you can’t pretend you don’t know how assassins work. If I tell you who the client is, I’m dead anyway.”

“So you’re not planning to talk, huh?”

Koryu blinked at him with a dumb, innocent look.

“It’s not that I don’t want to talk. Either way, if I don’t talk, you’ll kill me. If I do talk, my colleagues will kill me. I can’t break the rules.”

The boss steeled himself and refused.

“Good.”

Koryu stood up in one smooth motion and slipped the dagger back into his jacket.

“Got backbone. Got principles. I like that.”

The boss stared at him, totally clueless what this guy was thinking.

“But what I like most…”

Koryu’s tone turned lazy.

“…is making people with backbone and principles do things with no backbone and no principles.”

As he spoke, both his fists flashed. He dislocated the boss’s arms in an instant, then swept his leg out and snapped both of the man’s shins.

The speed, the force—within half a second, the man’s four limbs were basically ruined.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The boss let out a gut‑ripping scream. He’d still been clinging to a sliver of hope, waiting for a chance to move. He’d never expected Koryu to strike so fast, so hard, leaving him zero time to react.

Koryu glanced at his phone and checked the time.

“Quit screaming. The cops will be here in five minutes. Let’s enjoy a nice little Q&A game before that.”

He dragged over a computer chair and sat down in it like a king.

“I’m not bragging, but my interrogation skills? Straight-up mythical tier.”

Ten minutes later, Koryu slipped out under the chorus of sirens and shouting.

No one knew whose clothes he’d swiped on the way out, but his whole outfit had been swapped from head to toe.

He even grabbed a bottle of body spray from somewhere and misted himself all over, hard, until the scent covered him.

Then he flagged down a taxi and left the old residential block in West First City behind.