Night’s Nomenclature

Inside Gate 3's unit 301 of Building 7 in Luoyin Residence, four men were sitting at the mahjong table while a woman carrying a one-year-old child stood by the window.

This was a crowded gambling den that had been hidden for several years, run by a pair of husband and wife who cheated the bettors' money on top of personally participating in the gamble.

During the games, the man would sit down and play as the woman stood by the window to keep watch.

The house was bustling, filled with the endless noise of people playing mahjong.

However, right at this moment, the woman suddenly yelled in panic, "Stop playing, stop playing, I just saw two police cars drive into the yard, go and run now!"

As soon as her voice fell, all the lights in the room went out.

Someone cut off the switch from outside!

The four men immediately got up in the dark. Qing Guozhong cursed under his breath as he opened the door and ran out to the corridor.

But the corridor was also dark.

One of the men said, "We'll run separate ways after going downstairs. There are four gates in this area, it's impossible for them to catch everyone. Whether you get caught or not depends on your luck."

Just as he finished speaking, he heard the sound of wind blowing from the staircase.

In an instant, he felt a heavy punch on his stomach, causing him to fall and shrivel up like a shrimp on the stairs.

The person who attacked him didn't even halt, taking advantage of the darkness to go straight to the three fellow gamblers behind him.

The black figure knocked down all four of them in just over ten seconds, movements as smooth as flowing water.

They couldn't make out the figure; they only felt as though the person had already put everything in his calculation, including their reactions.

Such that from the moment the attack began, every second that followed was like an enactment of that person's script.

Let alone extras, they were at most treated like four pieces of props.

"Fuck, urgh!" A gambler vomited out all the contents in his stomach from the beating. "Who is it!? Who is it!?"

But the figure never stopped. He disappeared before the police managed to reach Building 7.

Soon after, Qing Chen stood in the greenery of the community, silently watching the police herding four men into the cars.

He had already promised the policewoman who answered his call that none of these gamblers would get away.

So, there was no way he would let them escape.

Qing Chen was a person who took commitments seriously. Just like that night in Laojun Mountain, he promised Hu Xiaoniu to kill the leader of the thug, and thus, the leader would definitely die.

Countdown 00:00:00.

Time to transmigrate.

…

When the darkness of the world dissipated, Qing Chen was still sitting by the bonfire, with only Li Shutong beside him.

He looked at Qing Chen, "You're back? Spread your palms and let me take a look."

Qing Chen obediently opened his palms.

Li Shutong nodded. "Your hands are full of wounds. Seems like you've kept up the training after returning to the Outside World. How's the result?"

"I can climb a vertical cliff of more than 20 meters by myself," Qing Chen replied honestly, "but I've only succeeded three times."

Li Shutong let out an emotional sigh, this student of his always made him feel so reassured.

Without needing his teacher's supervision or scolding, the boy would bind himself with the strictest set of self-discipline.

Compared to the playfulness and laziness he and his senior brother Chen Jiazhang had when they were young, this student was far more determined.

If back then they had worked as hard as him, their teacher wouldn't always be so angry.

Only someone who has truly experienced that kind of training could understand, what kind of feeling it was to put all of your weight on your fingers when you climb despite the multitudes of wounds riddling every surface of your hands.

The heart-piercing pain would keep you awake at all times, to the point of making you regret taking on this thorny road.

Li Shutong stared at Qing Chen. "You don't seem very happy, why is that so? You're a young man, don't always be so lifeless, you should be happy with your training results!"

Qing Chen said in a low voice, "Teacher, I've cut ties with my parents, the kind of cutting ties that's as clean as can be."

Li Shutong was stunned. "Seeing how hard you're living, bottling up, and holding back all your temperaments, I thought you didn't have any parents."

Qing Chen, "…"

"Just kidding." Li Shutong asked softly, "How do you feel?"

"I was a little lost and sad at first," Qing Chen thought for a while and answered, "Then I reported my dad to the police, and it made me feel liberated. Now that I've come back to the Inner World, I feel somehow at a loss, as if none of it was real."

When he was a child, during winter, his father would buy him roasted sweet potatoes every day when he came home. It was the favorite snack of the two of them.

Mom would remind him to put on thermal underwear and put milk on top of the heater for him to take to school when it was warmed.

The whole family would go to the mountain to escape the summer heat. Dad would scoop up the clear spring water with his huge palms and show off the tadpoles he caught to his son.

Because his memory was too good, all of those things remained clear and vivid in Qing Chen's mind.

He didn't know why his life suddenly changed into what it was now.

No one could go back to the past.

There was no need to wait for anyone.

Li Shutong fell silent for a moment, then smiled and patted his shoulder, "Silly boy, you still have your teacher."

"Yes," Qing Chen lightly replied.

Li Shutong looked at the starry sky and said, "Sometimes I'll feel as if you are my son. When I see you training so hard, I have to steel my heart and look away, otherwise, I will feel distressed for you. When you came back that night with your whole body covered with injuries and your feet full of blood, I was thinking about what exactly you had been through. You see, your teacher is actually not that cruel, but I know that this is a path you must walk on by yourself. Only then will it be your own life."

Qing Chen suddenly asked, "Teacher, part of the reason you brought me out this time was for Qing Huai from the Fourth Branch of the Qing Family, right?"

Li Shutong smiled and said, "That's right, we're going after him. I know his mission is to enter Forbidden Land 002 and get a forbidden item, similar to how your mission is to come to Prison 18 and get ACE-005."

"Why are you looking for him?" Qing Chen asked.

"Of course, it's to help you create an opportunity to kill him." Li Shutong's expression gradually turned colder, "The Fourth Branch violated the rules of the Fight for the Shadow by having the elders secretly send a suicide squad to assassinate you. As a teacher, how can I not help you vent about this injustice? Why was my student only given a thug from the nursing home when all the other Shadow candidates had people to help behind them? If Qing Huai isn't dead, that would make me an incompetent teacher."

Li Shutong gently patted Qing Chen on the shoulder. "Don't worry, whatever other people have, my student must also have them."

"Thank you, teacher," said Qing Chen while looking at the night sky.

A few days ago, when Li Shutong said he would give him the fourth lesson and teach him how to hunt, Qing Chen had a premonition in his heart.

What Li Shutong took him to hunt was not a beast, but Qing Huai.

Since the Fourth Branch wanted to kill his apprentice, he would kill off their Shadow candidate to vent his anger toward his apprentice.

Translator: Zee