Hello, is this a letter addressed to Demon Fortress?

Outside the mine, the rebel soldiers guarding the mine spoke in hushed tones, their voices filled with confusion.

A man carrying an old musket, his rough fingers clearly indicating he was a shoemaker, muttered something.

"What's wrong with the leader this time? He arrested three people, did he really have to drag us all into this?"

A woman next to him, heavily made up and still vaguely recognizable as having once been beautiful, tightened her thin clothes and spat.

"Who knows! I came here without even doing any business. If I don't make any money, I'll be at a huge loss!"

A high-ranking adventurer, dressed in worn leather armor, stood with his arms crossed and his brow furrowed.

"The target is too strange."

"A princess, a mage, and... a saintess? This combination just doesn't seem right."

"Besides, the mage's scouts said there's no ambush inside, so what are we waiting for?"

The mage in charge of reconnaissance happened to walk by and whispered upon hearing this.

"It would be strange if there wasn't an ambush!"

"Where are the guards who accompanied the saintess? This doesn't make sense!"

One of the warriors sighed, clutching the sword in his arms.

"If I had known I was going to deal with that messenger monk, I wouldn't have come."

"If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have known that Karan's wife was still alive, even though she had remarried."

And in the innermost layer of the encirclement.

A man dressed in tight black clothes, whose presence almost blends into the environment.

He was leaning against a rock, looking at a crumpled piece of paper in his hand with a complicated expression.

He is an exceptionally skilled assassin and one of the key figures in this "Assassination of the Saint" mission.

Just before the operation, he received a letter from his companion.

It was his companion who signed for it when the black-haired monk called out his name on stage.

The letter was written by his long-lost younger brother.

He had assumed his younger brother had died during the evacuation many years ago.

Surprisingly, my younger brother survived!

The letter said that although the younger brother had been captured by the devil, he had managed to escape.

They wandered all the way to the city of Karan.

He settled there, married a virtuous wife, and had a lovely child.

The handwriting in the letter was crooked and messy, but it was full of hope for life:

"...Brother, life used to be so hard. The noble lords would raise taxes all the time, and the city guards were even more ruthless than bandits."

[But then things got better! Kalan was besieged, and those damned nobles ran away first!]

[Later, Princess Elvia arrived. She "invited" those bloodsucking wealthy merchants to the capital and enacted many policies that were good for us commoners...]

[My child ate soft, white bread for the first time, not the kind of dark bread mixed with sawdust!]

Brother, I believe things will get better...

I truly wish you were still alive, and I hope that one day we can be reunited...

Looking at the simple yet vibrant words on the letter.

The assassin, whose hands were stained with blood and whose heart was as hard as stone, instantly had tears welling up in his eyes.

He stroked the letter with trembling hands, tears silently streaming down his face.

A drop of ink fell onto the letter paper, spreading into a small patch.

He joined the rebels and participated in this one-way assassination because he had already lost everything.

His beloved wife was forcibly taken away by a nobleman's son, and his young child was run over and killed by a nobleman's carriage in the street.

He went to seek justice, but was expelled from the Adventurers' Guild.

Instead, he was falsely accused of attacking nobles and became a wanted, red-named adventurer.

He thought he had no more attachments in the world, only hatred.

He was willing to trade his worthless life for a mere whiff of pain from those high and mighty people.

But now... this letter is like a ray of light, piercing through the cold darkness in his heart.

He believed his younger brother, who he thought was already dead, was still alive.

Moreover, he now lives a stable life that he once dreamed of but dared not hope for.

Upon receiving the letter, he wished he could sprout wings and fly across the withered chasm.

Go to Karan to see my brother in person, and to see the nephew I've never met before.

Crossing the rift valley is an impossible task for ordinary people.

But for a highly experienced and exceptional assassin like him, it was not a difficult task.

He also participated in the development of the Golden Passage and knew how to avoid those terrifying legendary demons.

He gripped the letter tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force.

His original determination to die wavered at this moment.

His fellow assassin, standing beside him, took in his reaction.

Looking at his wavering expression, and even the faint hint that he wanted to give up the mission.

A barely perceptible hint of jealousy flashed in Black Scorpion's eyes.

Why? Why does this guy still have family to care about, and why can he still see hope?

His own family members died completely, leaving not a trace behind!

He leaned closer and warned him in a chilling voice that only the two of them could hear.

"Hey, 'Viper,' don't forget how you got to where you are today!"

"Have you forgotten how that beast dragged your wife into your mansion?"

"Have you forgotten how your little son's body was run over by the carriage?"

"Have you forgotten how those high and mighty guys mocked you and put you on the wanted list?"

He constantly provokes the other party with his past painful experiences.

They attempted to completely extinguish the tiny flame of "hope" that had just been ignited.

This reignited the flames of revenge within him.

Sure enough, these words were like a poisoned dagger, piercing the assassin's most vulnerable spot.

The wife's sorrowful eyes, the child's cold body...

One painful memory after another came flooding back like a tide.

In an instant, the nascent longing for family affection vanished.

My hopes for the future have been shattered.

The assassin knew his companion's actions were ill-intentioned.

But he knew even better that some hatreds were already etched into his bones and could not be easily let go.

As a man, as a husband and father.

He must make those enemies who trampled on his dignity and took away his beloved pay a bloody price!

"And don't forget the poison that Caesar planted in us."

The venomous snake remained silent.

To prevent anyone from escaping or being tempted by nobles to betray them.

After joining this insane plan, he and 10 other extraordinary assassins were all poisoned.

Poisoning is an assassin's specialty.

The poison Caesar administered to them was a deadly poison that Caesar could control remotely.

The exact formula and antidote remain a mystery even to a high-ranking assassin like Viper.

Suddenly.

A figure appeared before the two of them without warning, like a ghost.

The two men were startled and instantly composed themselves, kneeling respectfully on one knee: "My lord, you have arrived."

The newcomer was shrouded in a large black robe, and wore a mask, revealing only a pair of emotionless eyes.

He nodded slightly, his voice low and husky: "Where is Caesar?"

The two immediately pointed out the direction.

When the man in black found Caesar.

The latter was facing a rudimentary mine map hand-drawn by a rebel mage.

They repeatedly confirmed that every possible vent or crack had been sealed off.

Seeing the man in black finally appear, Caesar greeted him with a smile.

"You've finally arrived! We..."

The man in black robes raised his hand to interrupt his pleasantries.

He opened his palm, revealing a few strands of long hair with a faint ginkgo gold hue.

It was the saint's hair.

"That mage named Lin Gui," the black-robed man's voice was flat, "don't hurt him."

Caesar's smile froze, and he asked in confusion, "Why?"

"Just do as instructed." The man in black robes spoke with an unquestionable coldness.

"Capturing a mid-level high-ranking mage alive shouldn't be difficult for you, right?"

Caesar stared at the eyes beneath the black-robed man's mask for a few seconds, his facial muscles twitching slightly before he forced a smile.

"Fine, since it's your request, I won't touch a single hair on his head."

He changed the subject, asking with a probing tone.

"But...may I ask why it's taken so long compared to the planned timeline?"

"You promised to give me 'this' last night, didn't you?"

The man in black responded calmly.

"I had something important to take care of, so I was delayed."

"What could be more important than assassinating the saintess?" Caesar pressed.

"That's not something you should be asking."

The man in black robes coldly uttered these words before his figure blurred.

Like blending into the shadows, it disappeared once more.

Caesar stood there, his expression shifting between light and shadow, his grip on the few strands of hair tightening slightly.

He remained silent for a moment, then finally took a deep breath.

He picked up the cold wooden box containing the [Soul-Slaying Blade].

He gave a deep, resonant order to the four extraordinary high-ranking assassins who had been waiting outside:

"Alright, the time has come."

"Let us go in and kill the saintess."