Realms In The Firmament

”Now I am telling you. One hundred and eight silver label assassins are all dead. Five hundred iron label, dead! Golden label assassins, there were twenty-one before we went for the reward this time! Now these men you see here are all!”

”There are only fourteen people left in Boundless Lake, including me!”

”Boundless Lake, less than ten percent are alive. Boundless Lake is gone in this world! Do you understand?” Boundless Saint talked louder and louder. There even seemed to be tears shining in his eyes.

”Ning Biluo, answer me. Why do we live as assassins?” Boundless Saint looked at Ning Biluo.

Ning Biluo sighed.

[What for?]

[What else could it be?]

Boundless Saint didn’t wait till he answered. He kept talking, ”We take money and we kill for it! It is a regressive and unethical profession! It is something people all hate! But we do it for our family, for people we love, for ourselves! For a better life!”

”We don’t have anything else to make our life better, except the martial arts. If we go to be somebody’s guards, we will get paid even less than dogs! We won’t even be able to feed our family! If we serve our kingdom, we only get that slight amount of money! How many people can you feed with that money? Can it afford you a better life for your next generation?”

”What kind of world it is now? Do you know that? It’s the world of the rich! No matter how capable you are, if you don’t have money, you don’t get to eat! You want to eat, you have to rob! You have to break the law! Do you want a life like that? A poor man who is an invincible martial artist?”

”You will have to kneel, to bow, to flatter, to kiss some asses, just to get yourself fed well!”

”I am vile! My actions were vile! I hurt many innocents. What did I do that for? You have your responsibility to take, but I have mine too! Why don’t you ask my brothers there, if they have their own responsibilities to take? Why don’t you ask my dead brothers whether they have their responsibility too? There are things we have to do no matter whether we like it or not in the world. If I can help the ones I love by hurting someone I don’t, I will do it, and I won’t regret!”

”I did frame you. I hurt you. But… why? We are in opposite positions! We both do things for money! There are so many rich men in this world, but how many of them would give us money to kill somebody?”

”This is a small market!”

”Fame decides value! You are the No. 1 assassin in the world, so I will never be able to get the best offer!”

”I can’t get the best offer, so I have to get as many offers as I can!”

”You are a big rock on my way to a better life. Of course I will kill you! Who else should I kill, if not you?”

”You think I am dirty and outrageous. Even though it is outrageous to say this, I will still say it. I don’t regret!”

”I know I will go to hell after I die! So what? One should take the responsibility no matter what! If I can’t make it up when I am alive, I shall do it after I die! Who knows?”

”You occupied the highest position as an assassin, leading a bunch of useless guys. You are not capable of killing all the targets, but you still held them all. You are exactly a dog in the manger…”

”You are known as the No. 1 assassin, and everybody believes it. They would rather wait for you than come to me!”

”What should I do?”

”I have to kill you! I have to make the No. 1 go!”

”You took so many jobs that you can’t finish for your living! I tried to kill you for my own living! What’s the difference?”

”Now that I am going to take the reward here, my life is settled well. I can get rid of my terrible name. I can change my name even my face to live on… I can go live the life I dreamt of!”

”So we come. I knew it could be dangerous for us, but we still came. I am here to speak to you. I want to tell you that we should close things between us.”

”Do you know, I have put all I have in Boundless Lake in risk for the reward today! Those small targets are all chopped off.”

”Those valuable ones are so well guarded by superior cultivators! They are all in high social positions! You know how much it can take to chop off the head of one man of that kind! We couldn’t even imagine how difficult it was before we really did it!”

The thirteen golden label assassins all lowered their heads. There seemed to be tears in their eyes.

”Before we started, hundreds of my men stared at me and said, ’Saint, are we going to quit the martial world after this mission? Are we going to have enough money to live good lives that we always want?’”

”They asked me. Hundreds of my brothers asked me at the same time. They longed for it. They wanted it. They dreamed for it. The comfortable lives!”

”After we got to it, one after another, they died there…”

”We killed for money and we put our lives in danger. That is the rule. But… losing one brother after another…”

”Our brothers covered us with their own bodies and their lives, so that we could make it out. They killed the targets in a suicidal way. They chopped off the heads, but they were smashed into flesh themselves…”

”Over five hundred brothers died these days for the rewards!”

”Over two hundred of them didn’t even have the chance to say something before they died.”

”Ning Biluo, do you know what the rest of them said before they died?”

Boundless Saint’s face turned red. His eyes were like filled by flames. He spoke in a deep voice, ”Some of them said, ‘Brothers, spend the money for me’… These were mostly orphans who didn’t have families… The rest of them said, ‘Please take care of my families… Brothers… Please…’”

…