Ma Rong heard the cry to not kill, but her sword didn’t stop. It directly fell on Black Venom’s neck.

A bright white light appeared from her neck as the amulet sprung forth to stop Ma Rong’s attack. But even that was unable to stop Ma Rong.

The white light dimmed and the barrier shattered. The amulet itself cracked into pieces, unable to block Ma Rong’s attack at all. However, what it did manage to do was deviate Ma Rong’s sword just slightly that it changed direction.

Ma Rong’s sword slanted upward and cut through Black Venom’s cheeks while cutting her left eye, leaving a massive wound on the left side of her face.

Black Venom groaned in pain as she wasn’t even able to move her mouth to speak with Ma Rong’s aura freezing her in place. The pain was too much for her to handle.

Not only had she just lost an eye, she had also lost one of the objects that she used to remember her father with. Both the physical and the emotional hurt was bearing down on her as she lost all hope for life

Ma Rong was slightly surprised to see that her attack was blocked by the amulet. But now that it was destroyed, she would be able to kill her.

Ma Rong brought back her sword and slashed it again.

Just then, Alex appeared right in front of Ma Rong. “Master, stop!” he shouted.

Ma Rong’s heart skipped a beat as the sword stopped mere inches away from his throat.

Alex breathed heavily, both from the fear of nearly dying and the aura Ma Rong was giving off at the moment.

“What the hell are you doing?” Ma Rong shouted. She asked with fury in her eyes. Alex could feel the fury and be even somewhat scared deep inside.

“Don’t kill her master,” Alex said.

Ma Rong frowned when she heard that. “Why are you protecting a bandit?” Ma Rong asked. She angrily looked at Alex, wondering if he was a fake, but the complete lack of aura he gave off was impossible to hide.

She was just wondering why he was doing that when she saw his left arm. Her eyes went wide as she gasped in shock.

“Where is your arm?” she shouted.

Alex held his left arm and sighed. “She cut it off,” Alex said, pointing behind him.

Ma Rong’s fury burned hotter than the sun itself. “You dare hurt my disciple!!” she shouted. “Move away, I will kill this bitch.”

“No, master. We need her,” Alex said. “She’s no ordinary bandit. She’s a leader of one of the groups. She’s Black Venom.”

Ma Rong’s anger was still high, but she also felt surprised. “She’s… the one that killed off Wan Li’s parents?” Ma Rong asked.

“I’m afraid so,” Alex said. “But let’s not talk about that for now, master. We don’t know why the bandits are attacking the city, and since she is a leader, I thought she might have some answers.”

“Trust me, master. I wouldn’t have suggested this if I didn’t see you handle her so easily,” Alex said.

Ma Rong heaved heavily and tried to calm down. She was still angry about her disciple’s cut arm, but the information was more important right now.

Ma Rong suddenly looked to the side and a green snake flew up to her. “You’re back, little green,” she said as the snake disappeared onto her beast space in her neck.

Wen Cheng flew up close to her, following the green snake that came to its master.

“Thanks for sending the snake to me. I probably couldn’t have killed the Silver bandit if not for that,” Wen Cheng said.

Black Venom’s eyes went wide when she heard that. The Silver bandit was stronger than her, and even he was dead.

“What are you doing here with this bandit?” Wen Cheng asked.

“Trying to find out the reason behind this whole thing,” Ma Rong said. She reached into her bag and pulled out a pill.

Alex looked at it and recognized it. It had been a long time since he had seen it again.

“The Truth-Seeking pill?” he asked.

“Yes,” Ma Rong said. “Only then will we know she is truly speaking the truth.” Ma Rong got close and fed Black Venom the pill.

Black Venom couldn’t resist getting fed and had to eat it despite not wanting to.

Alex turned towards Wen Cheng and said, “You should leave master. Once she starts speaking, we will start falling out the air like flies.”

“No you won’t,” Ma Rong said, chilly white mist appearing from her arms around Black Venom’s face. “Her mental attacks won’t land on you now.”

“Let’s start.”

* * * * * *

Hei Dan came from a small family in the town of Lionspring. It was a small town that barely ever appeared on the official maps of the Crimson Empire.

It was located in the northwest region of the empire, never close enough to any of the big cities.

COUGH! COUGH!

A man violently coughed from a room filled with metals and leather and other various materials. There was a furnace in front of him, one that forever burned with very hot fire.

The man seemed to be in his 40s but was somewhat ill. He coughed for a while and only stopped when the blood in his lungs was coughed out.

He watched the blood on his hand, sighed, and got back to work.

“Father?” Hei Dan was barely 14 years old at that moment. She walked into the workshop, as always wearing a simple black mask on her face.

“What are you doing father?” she asked with worry in her amber eyes. “I told you, you are sick. Please don’t work on these useless artifacts, you can’t even sell them,” she said.

In front of her, her father was in the midst of making some sort of necklace.

The man coughed once again and looked back at his daughter’s face with a small smile.

“I’m not making these to sell, my gem. I’m making these for you,” he said. He brought out bronze-colored bracers and handed them to her.

“How is it? It’s not my best work, but definitely high above,” he said as he started to cough once more.

“It’s good, father. But you need to stop,” Hei Dan said with tears forming in her eyes. Her father coughed once more and blood pooled in his hands again.

Hei Dan felt a chill go down her spine when she saw that. “Father, please stop!” she said. “If you won’t, I will go ahead and accept his offer.”

“NO YOU WON’T!” her father violently turned around. “I will not let that bastard lay a single hand on my daughter. I would rather kill him myself before he can have you.”

“Then please, stop working on these, and take care of your health father,” Hei Dan begged.

The Hei family was a long lineage of artifact crafters. They weren’t the best at it, but they could get by fine with the artifacts they learned to make.

Hei Dan’s father was the most genius artifact crafter that had yet been born to the family. However, due to the lack of resources, as well as just being in a poor town, he could never learn much in his early years.

So, throughout his life, he had to struggle by himself to even get by daily. Fortunately, what he made sold well in the town, and he had a good business going.

He fell in love with a girl and had a child. However, not long after Hei Dan was born, her mother passed away.

It didn’t take long for her father to know that she was special. Every time she cried as an infant, her father would have a headache.

As she got bigger, the headaches became more potent. So, her father used what resources he had left to try and refine something that could help her.

It took him a few years, but he managed to come up with a blueprint for a mask-type artifact that blocked mental attacks on his own.

He crafted multiple of those artifacts and made Hei Dan wear them since then. As such, almost no one in the town had ever seen Hei Dan’s face.

She and her father had lied about the mask, saying she was disfigured behind the mask due to an accident, and while many accepted that reasoning, there were a few that didn’t.

The town lord’s son, who was in his early 20s, could see her every day in her shop, and despite the mask, he was attracted to her.

He believed, based on her body and her eyes, that the father-daughter duo was spreading lies and telling them she was ugly, when in fact, she was really pretty.

The son proposed to her right away in her shop one day, and when she refused him using the excuse that she was ugly and not fit to be married to him, he had left saying, “Your lies won’t work on me. I know you are very beautiful behind the mask. I will wait for you to accept my offer.”

When her father learned about this, he himself went to the town lord’s manor to refuse the proposal. Not only did he not want her daughter to marry this bastard whose reputation was one of the worst, but there also had an age gap of nearly 10 years.

When the son heard all of this, he had made the guards beat him up, resulting in his current illness.

The town lord had then made the town not interact with them, and forced the Hei family to have no income. They also were made to not help them at all.

Fearing the town lord’s fury, the town had started to shun the father and daughter since that day.

The town lord had also told the guards to not let them leave the city. Unless they accepted the marriage proposal, her father would likely die from his injuries.

Hei Dan was worried about her father’s injuries. Every day, it was getting worse, and he was getting no medicine.

Despite being in the True realms, her father was getting closer and closer to dying.

“Leave me be, my gem. Go tend to the shop for now. Maybe someone will come,” her father said.

Seeing her stubborn father, Hei Dan sighed. “Please don’t overexert yourself, father,” she said and left the workspace.

She walked to the front of the house where the shop was and went in, waiting for people to come to buy something, knowing on the inside that no one would.

As if to betray her expectations, someone finally arrived at her shop, after nearly 2 months.

“Welc—” her words stopped when she saw the customer.

“Since you refuse to come to me by yourself, I decided to come to you.” The town lord’s son had arrived in front of her once again.