Sunlight could not pierce the gaps between the trees on the northern edge of Qinglong Academy. It was in that secluded place they gathered—young people not from cities, nor of noble blood. They came from remote villages, brought together in secret.
Mu Yi Fan Tu, one of them, sat cross-legged, his sharp eyes fixed on the ground. His body bore the marks of relentless training, yet his gaze showed no weakness. Beside him sat a youth from another village, uncertainty written all over his face.
"Mu Yi Fan Tu," the young man whispered. "You heard it too, right? They're turning us… into a secret force? Killers?"
Mu Yi Fan Tu didn't answer immediately.
The boy continued in a hushed voice, "Our training… it's too brutal. Every night someone collapses. Every day we're pushed to master lethal techniques. They say we're not ordinary students… but machines. Machines made to kill…"
The air grew heavy. Even the crickets seemed to fall silent.
Mu Yi Fan Tu slowly opened his eyes.
"Then what do you think we should do? Run away?"
"Do you think the world outside is any different? They arm us because the world itself is unjust."
The young man looked down.
"But… I don't want to kill anyone…"
Mu Yi Fan Tu rose to his feet, his back straight.
"You're too weak to say that. Only those strong enough not to fear death… can choose not to kill."
Not far away, Bei Zhang—one of the most gifted and deadly among them—sat beneath the pale moonlight. Blood still dripped from the tip of his training blade.
He didn't speak. But his thoughts surged violently.
"I've already killed…"
"But for what?"
"Who did I kill? Evil men? Innocents?"
"Or just fellow pawns in someone else's game…"
In silence, Bei Zhang stared at his hands.
"If I keep walking this path… I'll lose myself. But if I stop… I'll be killed."
He was no coward. But he wasn't stone either.
That night, some of the children wept quietly. Some slept from exhaustion. Others simply stared at the sky and wondered…
"Will I become someone I can no longer recognize?"
And from the darkness behind the trees… someone was watching them.
Elsewhere, Li Yuan sat in stillness. He didn't know that a force was being forged in the academy's shadows. That students from villages like his own were being shaped into secret blades.
But in time…
Their worlds would collide.
"If the world shapes someone into a killer… then the soul will ask: who am I living for?"