Before he turned eight, his home had always been filled with laughter and joy. Now, it was as silent as a ghostly realm.
Lei Bin's small body curled up in the corner of the bed as he looked at his father, whose eyes had lost their light.
His father could no longer walk. His legs were crippled, and his body was covered in wounds. Lei Bin's father did not understand why such a disaster had befallen him.
Lei Bin's mother looked despondent, yet she still resolutely cared for his father.
Lei Bin thought everything would pass. Life would slowly get better.
His father and mother would return to how they had been before.
But on the third day after Lei Bin's father returned home, everything was destroyed.
That morning, a heavy fog shrouded the world. One could not see even ten feet ahead.
Lei Bin remembered it clearly. The weather that day was cold, cold enough to seep into one's bones, as though the blood itself would freeze.
His father's body was cold as well, as cold as ice, without the slightest trace of warmth.
His mother's body was even colder. Her face was deathly pale, as frightening as a ghost's.
Lei Bin held them both, thinking that he should warm his parents up a little.
For three whole days, Lei Bin did everything he could to warm his parents, but they remained cold, cold as ice. His own heart gradually froze with them.
He was eight years old, not three.
He had accompanied his father to funerals for elderly villagers before.
He knew everything, but he refused to believe it.
Until that evening, when villagers came to his house and saw his dead father and mother, crying out in shock...
The villagers buried Lei Bin's parents together. Lei Bin sold everything valuable in the house and barely managed to scrape together enough for a coffin to bury them in.
On the night the funeral ended, the villagers discovered that Lei Bin had vanished.
They all went looking for him, but they could not find him.
The villagers lived like dogs. In these troubled times, they could barely survive themselves.
After searching all night without success, they gave up.
No one could neglect their own family for Lei Bin's sake.
Lei Bin gripped a knife and went to the landlord's house. Unfortunately, he was only an eight-year-old child. Revenge was nothing more than a fantasy.
The landlord's guards nearly beat him to death. Fortunately, King Runner happened to pass by and saved him at the last moment.
However, King Runner did not kill the landlord's family. He merely took Lei Bin away.
He trained Lei Bin and invited assassins from Black Stone to teach him martial arts.
Lei Bin displayed extraordinary talent. Driven by hatred, he trained with exceptional diligence. Like a lone wolf, he ran desperately through the dark night for the sake of his final slaughter!
When he was ten, Black Stone found the landlord's family.
After Lei Bin had been rescued that year, the landlord immediately sold off his property and moved away.
He was no fool. Lei Bin had been saved by such a powerful expert, so he would certainly return for revenge someday.
How could the landlord possibly have remained where he was?
Unfortunately, the landlord would never understand Black Stone's terror and power.
No matter where he moved, Black Stone could find him.
That night, King Runner stood outside the landlord's house.
"You go yourself. If you succeed in taking revenge, you will join Black Stone from this day forward and do as you please."
"If you fail, I will turn and leave. This family can live happily ever after."
Lei Bin said nothing. Alone, he infiltrated the landlord's house. Before long, screams rang through the night sky.
Lei Bin slaughtered everyone in the landlord's household, leaving only the landlord alive. He carved him to pieces, and the man howled through the night before finally dying in unbearable agony.
From then on, Lei Bin became one of Black Stone's top assassins, his status within Black Stone second only to King Runner's.
Originally, this would have continued until Lei Bin was killed by a target during one of his missions.
Until Lei Bin met that woman—Tian Qingtong. The heart that had frozen when he was eight began to beat fiercely once more.
Thus, an assassin who should never have married got married.
He even had a child.
Strangely, King Runner did not stop Lei Bin. Just as he had said when he allowed Lei Bin to take revenge himself: join Black Stone and do as you please.
But an assassin's fate was destined.
Once an assassin, always an assassin.
Assassins never met a good end.
Lei Bin was no exception. Before following King Runner to find Zeng Jing, he had been preparing noodles for his wife, drying them after making them.
He had intended to cook them for his wife after returning, but unfortunately, he would never return.
His life's flashback froze at the moment Wen Qingkong's Vigorous Eagle Claw Skill tore open his chest. Regret and resentment lingered, impossible to dispel.
The host has obtained the *Flying Needle Technique* and *Short Spike Combat Skill*.
As Lei Bin's inner power fused into his body, Wen Qingkong's expression turned complicated. Lei Bin's past was sorrowful, but it also made him understand the cruelty of this world more deeply.
Oppression by the imperial court, heroic figures of the martial world, the union of personal might and governmental power—common people without martial arts or authority could only suffer even more misery and sorrow.
Wen Qingkong carried Lei Bin's corpse down.
Then he placed the corpse of the Magician, Lian Sheng, onto the cold couch.
After washing and applying makeup, Wen Qingkong was somewhat surprised. The Magician Lian Sheng's body had rotted in several places. This man was clearly not long for this world.
As usual, Wen Qingkong lit Three Incense Sticks and began stitching.
The Magician Lian Sheng had been killed when Wen Qingkong tore open his throat with the Vigorous Eagle Claw Skill, so the stitching was relatively simple.
Before long, the stitching was finished.
Corpse Seamstress, life's flashback, witness the mortal world, obtain a supreme treasure. The host has stitched one corpse. Life's flashback has appeared.
The Magician Lian Sheng's life's flashback appeared in his mind.
The Magician Lian Sheng had been born into a family of performers. His father and mother both traveled the martial world earning a living through performances. He studied diligently from childhood and was deeply fascinated by all manner of magic tricks, especially the legendary Immortal Rope.
He searched everywhere for clues, hoping to find a way to train in the Immortal Rope.
The Magician's obsession drew ridicule from everyone. Even his parents believed their son had gone mad.
The Immortal Rope was only a legend. No one had ever seen it.
Who would become so obsessed with a mere legend that they could not pull themselves free?
The Magician Lian Sheng paid no heed to them. He only pondered it, working from the legends and the clues he had gathered.
He pondered while eating, while drinking, while traveling, and even while performing.
Because of this, his performances failed several times.
This angered the Magician's father. He took up a whip and lashed the Magician's body.
He believed his son had been possessed. He had to beat him hard, beat him mercilessly, to drive out the madness, wake his son up, and make him focus on performing magic tricks.
Yet even while the whip struck him, Lian Sheng still pondered the Immortal Rope.
He was obsessed, bewitched. Yet even after traveling throughout the land, he never managed to figure out a method for cultivating the Immortal Rope.
By chance, King Runner saw this obsessive determination. He admired the Magician's obsession and used Black Stone's power to find a method for practicing the Immortal Rope.
He wanted to give the Immortal Rope to the Magician Lian Sheng, but he had a condition.
Lian Sheng said he could agree to any condition.
Thus, King Runner gave him a packet of poison and told him to put it in his parents' food.
Lian Sheng did not hesitate. That very night, he poisoned his parents to death.
He wanted the Immortal Rope, and for it, he would pay any price.
At last, the Immortal Rope was in his hands.
The Magician possessed great talent. After only three days of practice, he mastered the Immortal Rope, becoming the only magician to master it.
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