The Extermination Army had arrived.
The trembling workers inside the factory slowly raised their heads and looked at Lin Qing, who stood at the front, quietly waiting for the Snow ninja to come at him.
If the Extermination Army had arrived, then could this person before them be—
A piercing whistling sound cut through the air, interrupting their thoughts.
The workers instinctively looked up and saw a pitch-black, narrow metal case as tall as a person falling from the sky and smashing down beside Lin Qing's feet.
With a hiss, the metal case opened on its own. Strands of cold air spilled out from within, forming an even icier white mist in the already frigid Land of Snow.
A blaze of golden fire appeared in Lin Qing's palm. He reached into the icy white mist, and when he pulled his hand back out, he held a straight, massive black blade.
A few workers who enjoyed tales of the Ninja World stared wide-eyed, their gazes fixed on the blade's edge.
"This is..."
"The Blade of Ruin!"
Anyone capable of wielding the Blade of Ruin needed no further introduction.
"Lin Qing."
At that moment, all the workers slowly rose to their feet.
Most of them were men in their twenties and thirties. Many had lived through the old king's rule in their youth and understood what it meant to truly live, what it meant to be treated as a "person."
Though Kazahana Dōtō's tyranny had driven their lives into the abyss time and again, the days of their youth remained their most precious memories.
Countless times, after finishing a day's work and lying in their cold, cramped dormitories, the workers had imagined returning to the lives they once had. Yet before long, the overseers would whip them awake with sticks, and another