My preparations were complete. I would not be easily found.

Now it was time for some payback.

My father had punished me when I was young because I beat Li Chu – he had been right at the time. When I assailed him, it was just because of some wounded pride, his insults, and the general state of my mind in that period – I was also drunk. In other words, my reaction was disproportionate compared to the offense.

Now things were different, though. Not only was I already assailed without provocation, but he would also come back. This will be self-defense.

Should I call it proactive self-defense?

Still, I could not face him head-on. He had been here for years, and while he might still be in the early Qi Gathering Realm, he was still better than me.

He also has friends. The thought made me slightly dejected – I hadn't had someone to call a friend in years. It was my fault, of course, since I never tried to reach out to anyone, but still.

Anyway, Elder Wong's words opened my eyes. I didn't need to wait for him to face me, and neither did I need to duel him fairly. I should just ambush him when he was alone. Not the most honorable of options, but I wasn't in a place where I could choose to be fair.

It should have been somewhat easy to see these options, seeing as I also trained to be a hunter, but the thought of hunting humans as I did beasts hadn’t crossed my mind. Besides, the tactics would be obviously different.

Elder Wong suggested to me a few courses I to take, aside from his, that could help.

Among them, the one I could take soon enough was called Basic Assassinations Techniques. It was an ominous name, but he suggested it to me, and until now, I hadn’t seen a reason to doubt his judgment.

When I got there, I was surprised.

First, there were only three other students. And second, they weren't doing anything interesting.

One was just sitting cross-legged on the ground, with his eyes closed. Almost like he was cultivating. Feeling the surrounding qi didn't give me that impression, though.

The other two were doing something strange. A girl was touching a guy in the heart, neck, temples, and other few places. She did it randomly, but not too fast. It was strange to watch – especially since the guy was sweating buckets.

The Elder was also different from what I imagined someone giving assassination training would look like.

Said it in a word, he was plain.

He wasn't ugly – no normal cultivator was – but he also wasn't good-looking. Just plain.

Forgettable.

I also didn't feel any sense of oppression, nor did I fail to notice him. He was normal. Like every other guy, I met in the city's streets. If it wasn't for the ring, I'd have mistaken him for another Disciple.

"Oh! Hello there, do you need something?" he asked, jovially.

It was surprisingly informal, coming from an Elder.

“Greetings, Elder Liu,” I said with a bow when I was in front of him. “I am Disciple Gongsun Xuanyuan, and I am here to attend the course.”

“Oh, wonderful! There aren’t many attendees usually. It’s nice to have more people joining,” he said, looking delighted.

Then he looked at the others and said, “guys, stop your training for a moment, and come greet a new comrade!”

They all stopped whatever they were doing and came to greet me.

“Good morning, Junior Brother, my name is Huang Shin,” said the one that had been sitting. “Finally, someone new. I was tired of being the weakest.”

He looked really happy about that. It kind of makes me uneasy.

“Morning, I am Liu Lan," said the girl curtly.

“Greetings, Junior Brother," said the other guy tiredly. "Don't mind him. Junior Brother Huang just likes to complain. Oh, and my name is Fu Xiaolong."

“Greetings Senior Brothers and Senior Sister, my name is Gongsun Xuanyuan.” They didn’t really seem guys who’d want to learn assassination.

“Good! Now that everyone is acquainted, who wants to show Disciple Gongsun what this course is all about?” asked Elder Liu.

Senior Brother Huang raised his hand up right away. "Me, Elder Liu."

The Elder laughed. "Fine, go ahead."

He turned towards me excitedly.

"Come here, Junior Brother," he said, waving at me.

He turned around, looking back at me inquisitively when he saw I didn't go right away. I hurried to reach him.

“So, Junior Brother,” he said excitedly, grabbing me by the shoulders and bringing me towards a tree in the courtyard, “the first thing you have to do is to recall everything you know about me, and don’t forget it. The more you’ll be able to remember later, the better.”

I had been a bit uncomfortable when he grabbed me, but I didn't want to push him away – it would make things more awkward. Still, I followed what he said and thought back. There wasn't much since I just met him.

"Done," I said a few seconds later.

“Perfect! See you later!” he said, confusing me.

I didn’t understand, but I didn’t need to. My vision quickly got dark.

I slowly came back to my senses sometime later.

Groggily opening my eyes, I looked around. I didn't understand right away. I felt the bark of a tree pressing on my back. The sun was fairly high, telling me it was around mid-morning.

In front of me, there were some people. It took a moment to realize I was at the course and that they were the people I met this morning.

“Welcome back to the living,” said the Elder with a smile.

“What?” I said stupidly.

He laughed. “You have just died – this is your first lesson. Dying is easy. Never let a stranger so close to you.”

I thought back at what happened before I lost consciousness. Senior Brother Huang somehow knocked me out. I didn't even see him doing anything. If he wanted to, I would have been dead.

“I see you understand,” said the Elder.

“Now that we got that cleared, you have your first task," he said, still jovial as always. "You have to punch the one that attacked you.”

“He will not retaliate in any way, just for that punch. But, well, don’t hit the others, or they’ll hit back.”

Why the hell would I hit anyone? Especially if they hadn’t hit me before.

As I was about to say that, he gave me an ultimatum. "You have thirty seconds to make your move. If you refuse, you can go home. No need to come back."

Urgh… why?

I didn’t see the point.

With no other choice, I went to Senior Brother Huang. They were all doing the same things as when I saw them first, so he was sitting with his eyes closed.

“Senior Brother Huang, Elder Liu instructed me to hit you. He told me you shouldn’t retaliate. Forgive my rudeness," I said before I punched.

I had a time limit, so I didn't wait for his answer or, if he wasted time, I would fail. I did hold back my punch, though. Even though he had been excited to do it, it had been the Elder who told him to hit me, so I didn't bear any grudge. My punch was more for show than anything – it would probably not even leave a bruise.

He didn't seem inclined to be hit, though, since he caught my fist before I could hit his face.

"Senior Brother, the Elder…" I said before trailing off. I was being stared at by two brown eyes, like those of Senior Sister Liu.

Senior Brother Huang had black eyes.

After that moment of confusion, I remembered what he told me before he knocked me out.

Oh, shi-

It was too late, though. His… no, her hand touched my stomach, and I felt a stab.

I knelt down on the spot, paralyzed by the pain. I tried to breathe since I felt like I didn't have enough air in my lungs. My stomach soon started to burn, then a few moments later, I threw up. There was blood in my bile.

Now I was feeling panic on top of a slew of awful sensations. What did she do?

Before I could go totally out of it, the elder voice sounded in front of me. “Open your mouth.”

I unconsciously did as I was told, and a pill was thrown in my mouth. I swallowed and started circulating right away, frantically trying to absorb all the medicinal properties that I could.

"Calm down, she went easy on you," he said, still smiling. "You just have a tiny hole in your stomach."

That wasn’t reassuring at all.

“So, this should have made you learn a few lessons, am I right?” he asked.

It didn't seem rhetoric, so I tried to answer. "M-maybe."

"Well, normally I would ask you to list what you learned, but since it's your first lesson, I will give you the answers. Don't get used to it, though.

“The first is that regardless of circumstances, you should never make a hasty choice. Unless you are in a situation where you have absolutely no time, you should think – even if you only have a second to spare.

"The second. Pay attention to the details. You should have noticed right away the difference in build between the two. You had even been warned before. Often, what gets you killed on a mission is missing small details.

"The third is that the eyes can deceive you. Don't rely only on them. Sound, smell, touch, taste, qi. Various situations may require different senses, but rarely only one could be used.

"And lastly, disguise. After you hit, disappear. The best way to do that is to change your appearance and mannerism. Remember this well, because an assassin discovered is a dead assassin."

The tall and imposing gray-haired man in front of me sternly said, "have you understood, Disciple Gongsun?"

Who?

It took me a moment to get a grip and understand who was in front of me. The difference from the Elder Liu of before was impossible. I would never have been able to link the two appearances together. Build, mannerism, appearance, speech, feeling. Nothing was the same. It was like seeing a completely different person.

“Yes… Elder,” I said hesitantly. The contrast compared to his earlier persona was too big – it left me unsettled. I wasn't even sure he was, in fact, the same Elder Liu.

I still hadn't finished healing, and the Elder noticed.

“Why haven’t you healed?” he asked.

I gave him the usual response. I also told him what I had asked Elder Wong, and what he told me – he seemed to agree. It was a bit hard to talk to him while he was using this appearance. Like I had to stand straight and still while he examined me.

"I see. I understand why he'd point you to this course then," said Elder Liu after I finished my explanation.

“You have to understand a few things, Disciple,” he continued. “Cultivators face dangers. Many times those dangers can not be survived with conventional means.”

He looked at me with a profound gaze. "Many consider assassination something despicable. But regardless of its moral standing, it is something that will be, should be, and had been used since time immemorial. Honor can only be preserved by the strong. Honorable death does not exist. What will you do once you face someone you can't beat fairly? What if that someone will threaten your life? Or the lives of those you care about?”

I lowered my gaze to the ground.

Assassination was something despicable – that had indeed been my thought. It was hard not to think so.

“But still!” shouted the unassuming man from before, making me recoil.

He looked at me smiling.

"Not everything should be solved lethally." He winked at me, then threw me two other pills. "On the house, just for today."

Someone teaching assassination telling me that was a bit unexpected.

It was nice knowing he was not a murder maniac, though.

After that, he taught me a few tricks of modifying my appearance, another few courses I could take, and a few books on tactics and Martial Techniques.

He also told me to practice a particular Technique before I came for the next lesson.

I could not take more courses or go into the Martial Repository in the short term due to time and financial problems, though. I could only study in the library.

That would have to suffice for the time being.

As the lesson finished, the others came to congratulate me, for some reason. It was a bit strange, since two of them attacked me not long before.

Still, they seemed nice guys.