Pei Ye's heart trembled faintly with tension, but his hand was steady. They stood on the same step. Pei Ye lowered his head and handed over his Wild Goose Inspector badge; Yue Muzhou looked up and reached to take it. Pei Ye's right hand was a foot from the sword hilt at his waist. Yue Muzhou's sword rested against his leg, his hand likewise a foot from its hilt.
Their gazes collided.
A razor-sharp sensation seemed to slice through his skin in an instant. The Unbound strike he had pursued a thousand times in his heart twisted along his muscle fibers into his wrist and burst from his breath... Pei Ye unleashed the fastest strike of his life. The distance between the steps and the bed seemed erased, and his blade was already thrusting toward the bed.
Yet in that fleeting instant, Pei Ye strangely sensed something moving alongside him. Everything around him became lines of different colors and shadows crumpled together in his rapidly sweeping vision, but the man's face and sword light remained clear, emerging from the left edge of his sight. He was as fast as Pei Ye... no, faster.
That sensation of death, of his heart exploding, seized him again. Killing intent and fury surged from the man's eyes, almost drowning Pei Ye whole.
An assassin this brazen, choosing to carry out the assassination right before his eyes-such an act, tantamount to humiliation, had utterly enraged him.
A chill touched Pei Ye's chest. The man had already pierced his heart. Then the sword gouged cruelly upward, splitting open his chest before severing his head.
"The first time."
Pei Ye counted silently. As the floor abruptly receded, his expressionless eyes fixed on Yue Muzhou's icy gaze below.
With each passing day, the signs of spring grew