Reflections of Zhang SAN

Nighttime, in a dilapidated small hut, Zhang San, wearing night walker clothes, walked to the window and looked up at the moon, showing extreme beauty in his loneliness and aloofness.

Although he looked very ordinary, and wearing night walker clothes while holding a bloody knife and standing in the moonlight could not possibly have any sense of beauty.

But Zhang San still felt that he was living a sad life, even sadly beautiful, after all, his steady 20-year career as a killer, just because he had practiced his qinggong to the heavenly stage in the past few days, left an indelible stain.

I knew I shouldn't have practiced my qinggong so well.

Zhang San sighed to himself.

He began to reflect on his behavior during this assassination operation, and as he thought about it, Zhang San realized that he was a bit out of touch.

Because apart from talking to the target, he also made two fatal mistakes.

First, broad bean powder.

Since he was already able to put things in his drinking bowl, why would he, in order to save money, not use the 'Seven Steps Powder' which costs thirty taels per portion, but use such a cheap broad bean powder?

Was it to save money?

The answer was affirmative, it was to save money.

Zhang San looked up at the sky and shook his head, sighing to himself: "Ten years ago, I would not have been so frugal, even if I only earned fifty taels from this job."

Second, the night walker clothes.

First of all, the chivalrous people in the jianghu, or ordinary people, all have a very common perception that someone wearing night walker clothes and jumping and running on the roofs at night must not be a good person, either an assassin or a thief.

This perception was obviously very correct.

Zhang San looked at this night walker clothes that he didn't know how long he hadn't worn during an operation, and he frowned and said, "As an assassin, wearing such clothes, isn't this telling people clearly that I'm not a good person? Seeing this person must be careful?"

It was impossible for every target to be as confused as the scholar today, who was not afraid at all, but said a bunch of nonsense. Obviously, today's outfit was also a failure.

Zhang San believed that if it was his past self from ten years ago, today's operation, after using broad bean powder instead of Seven Steps Powder, should have changed into a more dilapidated scholar's clothes, and then came under the moon to chant a poem he had copied.

After all, those sour literati like empathy, don't they? When the scholar curiously walked out of the room and saw himself wearing even more tattered clothes, he would definitely come up and talk, and solve the target in an instant at that time!

Zhang San exclaimed, "Could I really be out of touch?"

Subsequently, Zhang San took a look at his feet and found another problem.

He affirmed, "I am indeed out of touch."

After all, after completing the mission in the past, he would have fled the scene as soon as possible. But now, he was actually standing in the target's house, looking at the moon, and reflecting on his career as a killer.

It turned out that the heavenly stage qinggong made people lose touch.

This was an era of dog-eat-dog.

Dying would be terrifying, but living took more courage.

In this era, assassins were sometimes even a legitimate profession, after all they could earn money.

Dawu Country, as the strongest country among the surrounding countries, its interior had long been rotten to the core. Corrupt officials, heavy miscellaneous taxes, merchants seeking profits, hoarding strange things, the law was like rotten meat that people were too lazy to even look at.

Even the jianghu had fallen into turmoil, due to more than 20 years ago the Black Sect leader, also the number one master of the Black Sect, with martial arts cultivation at the upper stage of the heavenly stage —— Yu Xian, died.

When Yu Xian died, known as the peerless master who claimed that even if the "immortals" from the legendary stories came, he could still kill them, he was discovered dead on the river beach next to a small village, and next to him was Bai Si, the then leader of the Star Sea Sect, the number one orthodox sect.

At that time, there were all kinds of speculation about Yu Xian's death in the jianghu. Because the autopsy revealed that the number one master of the Black Sect had died from his skull being smashed, such a vicious method was generally believed in the jianghu not to have been done by Bai Si, after all the Star Sea Sect had always been a sword sect.

But people in the Black Sect at that time believed that although the fatal injury was not inflicted by Bai Si, it must have been the despicable and shameless people in the orthodox sect who learned from them in the Black Sect, oh no, people in the orthodox sect were originally of this nature.

On the surface it was a fair duel between the leader and old villain Bai Si one on one, but in reality there were several hundred top masters from the orthodox sect lying in ambush on both sides of the river bank.

When the leader was at the critical moment of his battle with old villain Bai Si, the orthodox masters suddenly appeared, and even though the leader was unmatched in the world, he could only barely kill old villain Bai Si before he died, but ended up dying a horrible death himself.

Of course, this statement was met with a roar of condemnation from the orthodox side. Some even believed that the whole incident was retribution of the great demon Yu Xian, who knows he died after killing Bai the hero, having received punishment from the legendary immortals.

The argument about immortals was vague and ethereal, so this outrageous statement was of course not accepted by the Black Sect.

But the orthodox sect did not need to agree either, after all their sect leader was also dead. In short, in summary, people from both the Black and orthodox sects still shudder when recalling the great battle between black and white twenty years ago.

However, the result of the great battle still ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the Black Sect.

In the following twenty years, the hard-won victory of the Black Sect eventually did prevail. The Black Sect ushered in a heyday of development. Apart from the decline of the orthodox sect, the rotten system of Dawu Country itself and the corrupt officials were also very important reasons.

Zhang San's master's master had said this before: "Alas, my disciple, since the orthodox way can no longer get by, let's join the Black Sect!"

Zhang San's master had said: "Alas, my disciple, although it’s hard to get by in the Black Sect and being an assassin is undignified, at least we can make a living, so do a good job, in the future your master will have to rely on you for a living."

Zhang San had complained like this before: "Master, please eat less, the price has dropped recently, only fifty taels per order!"

Zhang San's master shed tears, never expecting to end up in such dire straits in his old age.

While shedding tears, Zhang San's master ate the chicken leg from Zhang San's bowl.

Then choked to death on it.

The Black Sect had developed for twenty years until today when it was at its peak, which could only be said to be the depravity of human nature and the sorrow of the world.

But no matter how glorious, the Black Sect was after all the Black Sect, doing all kinds of dirty deeds. Brothels, gambling dens, and Five Stones Powder were known as the three major industries of the Black Sect, providing huge amounts of funds to bribe the governments for the Black Sect leaders in Dawu Country, and even establish power in neighboring countries.

And the assassination business was known as the fourth largest industry of the Black Sect, with annual profits reaching tens of millions of taels of silver.

Every industry had its rules. The assassination business was dedicated to providing customers with the most precise and safe service. In order to achieve the goal of not letting customers spend an extra penny wrongfully, tasks were divided into three levels within the industry: Heaven, Earth and Human.

Assassins who completed corresponding tasks would also obtain the same level, for example a Human level assassin must be an assassin who had completed three Human level tasks.

Our story begins with the number one assassin on the assassin leaderboard, codenamed 'Black Eagle'.