Their new life in the Inner Sect was a quiet, prosperous, and deeply unsettling lie.
They were, on paper, a success story. They had a clean courtyard, a large stipend of
contribution points, and a fearsome reputation that kept them safe. Their cultivation, fueled by
their reward, had steadily climbed. They were both now at the peak of the third stage of Qi
Condensation, no longer "trash," but a respectable, mid-level power.
But Ren Wei, the "Head," was a strategist. He saw the long game. They were not safe. They
were trapped.
They had defeated Jin Tao by using the sect's own rules against him. This had worked once.
But it had also put them on the radar. Jin Tao's family was silent, but not gone. Young Master
Fang, their "witness," now viewed Ren Wei with cold suspicion, seeing him as a fellow
manipulator and threat. And the Elders saw them as useful pawns.
They were already being "volunteered" for difficult missions, sent to guard resource-gathering
parties in dangerous territories. They were the "lucky" ones, the "survivors," the perfect,
expendable shields.
"We've hit a ceiling," Ren Wei said one night, sitting in their garden. "We're still, fundamentally,
'average' talent. We're out of 'tricks.' We can't keep framing our way to the top. Eventually, we'll
be sent on a mission we can't 'fake' our way out of. We'll be eaten by a real monster, or killed by
an enemy we can't poison."
Li Mei, who was sharpening her small, black knife, looked up. "Who, then? Who is the next
'problem'? Fang? That Elder? Just give me a name, my love. I have a new toxin that mimics a
heart-burst."
Ren Wei looked at her, at his beautiful, brutal "Hands," and for the first time, he shook his head.
"That's the problem, Mei," he said softly. "The 'problem' isn't a person. It's the sect. It's the
system. We can't kill the entire mountain."
She frowned, not understanding. "So... what?"
"So... we leave," he said. "We disappear."
Her hands went still. "Leave? Leave this? Our... home?"
"This isn't a home, Mei. It's a gilded cage," he said, taking her hand. "A real home is one we
build. One where we don't have to watch our backs every second. One where we don't have to
kill just to survive."
The thought of it—a place with just him, with no rivals, no Elders, no threats—was a revelation
to her. Her expression softened. "...A quiet place?"
"A quiet place," he promised. "Just us."
The plan was simple, a perfected version of their greatest hits: Deception and Fear.
They used their points to buy a detailed map of the region outside the sect's territory, and one
last, high-risk, "C-Rank" mission: "Retrieval: 'Whispering Chasm.' An Elder's compass-artifact
was reportedly lost. Presumed unrecoverable."
It was a suicide mission, the perfect place to die.
They "left" two days later, leaving a trail. They spoke to a patrol, their faces grim and
"determined." They were the "brave" disciples taking on another impossible task.
At the chasm's edge, a vast, howling scar in the earth, they set the stage. Ren Wei tore a strip
from his robe, snagging it on a sharp rock. Li Mei snapped one of her 'Silken-Heart' infused
needles—her signature—and left it on the ground, as if dropped in a fight.
Finally, Ren Wei used his 'Presence Projection.' He projected a massive, terrifying, bestial aura
for just a second, a flare that seemed to plunge into the chasm with its "prey."
Any investigator would find the evidence: a struggle, a dropped weapon, and the lingering,
terrifying aura of an unknown beast.
They turned their backs on the chasm. Disguised as rogue cultivators, they just... walked away. They walked for two months, leaving the sect's territory, their old names, and their old lives all
behind in that screaming, misty grave.