The Story of Endings and Continuations

"Today, I was going to kill someone."

In the pitch-black devil's lair, devoid of even a sliver of light, Chu Liuxiang spoke words that shattered the silence.

Because everyone knew that this Marshal among bandits, this refined gentleman among rogues, had always refused to kill.

Hidden in the darkness and surrounded by countless "bats," the master of the devil's lair seemed to have heard a joke.

"You? Even counting Hu Tiehua, you only have one helper."

Zhang San was not considered a helper, and Dong Sanniang was not considered human.

Under his scheme, Hua Zhenzhen should have regarded Chu Liuxiang as a mortal enemy.

Gao Yanan would not act, under her master Master Ku Mei's orders.

Jin Lingzhi belonged to him.

"Enough." Chu Liuxiang took out a snuff bottle.

It was an utterly ordinary snuff bottle, carved with the commonest landscapes.

It had been the only solace of a blind orphan girl.

She did not smoke.

Nor could she see.

Yet she could feel it beneath her fingers. She knew it bore mountains and rivers, like those near her hometown. Whenever she touched it, it was as though she had returned home, as though she had changed from one of the dead back into one of the living.

Yet even this final solace, this last shred of dignity, had been taken from her. All she received was a sharp slap and words that trampled her into the dirt.

The blind girl who longed for home was dead.

Only this snuff bottle remained.

A snuff bottle of no real value.

Was it worth exposing himself before the "bats" and the master of the devil's lair for it?

Was it worth it for a dead, blind girl?

Were not the lives of those heroes of the martial world—and his own life as