Severing Time & Space

Crimson Night

Night. An encompassing darkness barely illuminated by the moon helped to hide Tian Lin's passage as he made his way toward the Wu Clan compound. Despite the darkness, he could see perfectly fine. He had a skill called Luminate that allowed him to see in the dark by channeling chi into his eyes. It was a unique technique he had discovered at an auction one day that helped him with his assassinations.

It also helped him when he was tasked with kidnapping young boys for his sister.

He walked past the trees, ghosted over the gravel, and soon found himself standing beside the wall that surrounded the Wu Clan estate. Tian Lin didn't hesitate to channel chi into his legs and leap into the air. He easily ascended over the wall, which was barely ten meters tall, and landed on the curved roof in a low crouch.

The familiar sight of the Wu Clan compound soon came into view.

Tian Lin had been observing the Wu Clan every night for the past week, ever since his sister decided that she wanted to make Wu Jian her plaything. He thought his sister's taste was weird. Still, she was his sister and a talented alchemist despite what those old codgers of the Alchemist Association said. It was because of her that he could live the life he wanted.

Besides, it wasn't like he could judge.

Just like his elder sister had weird tastes, Tian Lin was also considered a weirdo by everyone who knew him, though if they knew the true depths of his depravity, they might have died from shock. While his sister enjoyed playing with little boys, he enjoyed killing people. Nothing brought him greater pleasure than chopping people up while they were still alive. And he was particularly fond of killing little girls.

That was another reason he had agreed to help his sister. Wu Jian had two girls by his side during the incident in the north market. Both had been beautiful, and Tian Lin had every intention of chopping them up at the first opportunity.

He didn't know when this fixation of his started. Maybe it was all the way back when he was a young boy pulling off the wings and legs of insects, or perhaps it was when he killed his first person.

Tian Lin still fondly remembered that first time. People often said killing someone for the first time induced revulsion so strong it made them vomit, but not him. No. His first time filled him with indescribable joy. The feeling of blood on his hands had been ecstasy far greater than any orgasm caused by sexual intercourse.

He eventually began expiramenting, killing different people to see who brought him the most pleasure. That was when he discovered his love for killing young girls. Even now, the thought of listening to the dying screams of those two girls caused him to shiver with pleasure.

But first he needed to kidnap Wu Jian.

With the stealth of a trained assassin, Tian Lin dropped from the roof and landed in a crouch on the gravel. He activated another technique to make his drop silent. Cushioning was the act of channeling chi into his feet and creating a cushion to silence his landings. It required a lot more control to activate than the typical technique, but he had always possessed an abnormal amount of Chi control for someone who was only at the Ninth Subrealm of the Hunger Realm.

He crept through the trees and bushes before eventually emerging near the edge. Tian Lin remained hidden behind a bush and activated his next technique. Shadow Masking. He cloaked his entire body in chi and used it to blend in with the shadows.

This was a skill that only worked at night and only if he was wearing dark clothes. All it did was make his body and the shadows blend together, adding an extra layer of protection, though all anyone would need to do to see him was look at the way the shadows moved.