Chapter 2: Night of Blood and Fire

“My Lady, you…”

Lu Mo did not notice the teary-eyed little maid beside her.

At this moment, her entire attention was focused on the system.

Simulated Reincarnation — experiencing different lives to earn rewards?

As a webnovel writer, she understood exactly how this worked.

This system might be her only hope of turning the tables on her current situation.

“Yes!” Lu Mo said without hesitation.

*Vrmmm —*

In the next second, she felt the space around her suddenly warp, and the boundaries of time and space blurred in an instant.

More information flooded into her mind.

**[The first reincarnation has begun.]**

**[Time flow has been automatically adjusted.]**

**[You are Xue Yue, Sequence seven of the Shadow Moon Hall, the top assassin organization in this great domain.

This time, the Shadow Moon Hall has accepted a commission from the Frostwhisper Royal Family.

The old emperor has passed away, and the Frostwhisper Royal Family is embroiled in internal strife.

According to royal tradition, only those with the purest bloodline are qualified to knock on the Ancestors’ Gate and inherit the throne.

However, until his death, the old emperor was unable to find a successor who could be recognized by the Ancestors’ Gate.

The old emperor once secretly sought an oracle from the oldest astrologer in the domain.

The astrologer’s answer was that hope would descend upon the Seventh Royal Household.

This matter was a top secret, but the First Prince eventually found out.

Upon the old emperor’s death, the First Prince immediately approached the Shadow Moon Hall. He paid a great price to exterminate the line of the Seventh Prince, intending to reclaim their blood and refine the bloodline using forbidden arts.

The Seventh Royal Household has always been weak, and after losing the protection of the old emperor, they have become even more fragile.

Now is the perfect time to eliminate them.

The Shadow Moon Hall has dispatched experts for this mission, using it as a trial for their Sequences.

You and several other Sequences are participating in this slaughter.

There, you will meet the young girl, Elia Phylossein, and begin your story with her.]**

**[Tasks Updated:]**

**[Task 1 (Easy): Save Elia and ensure she successfully lives past age 18.]**

**[Task 2 (Normal): Raise Elia’s cultivation realm to High Grade.]**

**[Task 3 (Hard): Help Elia fully awaken the Frostwhisper Blood.]**

**[Rewards will be distributed during the settlement phase based on task completion and the host’s experiences within the reincarnation.]**

Lu Mo was stunned for a moment.

‘Making me an assassin? Are you for real?’

‘Shouldn’t the first Simulated Reincarnation be something on an easy difficulty?’

‘Like being a villainous noble daughter at an academy, trying to win over a country girl she used to bully?’

Before she could finish her silent complaint, she felt the world spin again.

Soon, she realized she was standing somewhere.

A thick smell of rust hit her in the face.

No, that wasn’t the smell of rust.

It was… the smell of blood!

“?!”

Lu Mo snapped her eyes open.

Everything in her sight was a deep crimson.

She saw massive amounts of blood splashed across walls and pillars, converging into small streams that stained the floor tiles red and soaked into the carpets, flowing down the stairs one step at a time.

She saw numerous corpses, severed limbs, and fragments of weapons and armor scattered everywhere.

‘Is it really starting this intensely?’

She immediately felt her stomach churn.

But soon, a strange power forced her to remain calm. Memories and powers belonging to a Sequence of the Shadow Moon Hall began to surge in her mind and body.

She became calm once more, her senses becoming several times sharper in an instant.

Taking a deep breath, she walked forward and soon saw a young man standing not far away, his back toward her.

The youth wore the same Shadow Moon Sequence attire as her.

She recognized his identity: Sequence Four, Xue Kuang.

At this moment, the youth was coldly staring down at a woman who had collapsed before him.

The woman lay in a pool of blood, her luxurious dress stained crimson. She had multiple puncture wounds all over her body, and she looked battered and miserable.

“The girl who was with you earlier… where did you hide her?” Xue Kuang asked in a cold voice.

“Cough… *cough*…” The woman spoke with great difficulty. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve always been alone… Ah!”

Her words were cut short by the youth’s sword.

Xue Kuang exerted force, plunging his longsword into the woman’s shoulder.

As he twisted the hilt, the flesh of the woman’s shoulder was mangled, and blood gushed out.

The woman instinctively screamed, but she quickly bit her lower lip to endure it. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.

She tried her best to endure everything, unwilling to make too much noise.

“Are you here?” Sensing Lu Mo’s arrival, Xue Kuang suddenly grinned.

He didn’t turn around. He simply continued to slowly rotate the sword hilt, listening to the sound of flesh being churned.

Then, he spoke with a hint of provocation toward his back, “Junior Sister, it seems you’re one step behind me again.

These are the last few survivors. I’ll be killing them shortly, leaving absolutely nothing for you.”

“…”

Lu Mo remained silent, merely staring coldly at Xue Kuang’s back.

She didn’t like Xue Kuang.

Not in her inherited memories, and certainly not now.

Competition between the Sequences of the Shadow Moon Hall was exceptionally fierce. This royal slaughter would determine their final rewards.

However, Lu Mo wasn’t focused on rewards; she was focused on the woman being tortured by Xue Kuang.

All those puncture wounds on the woman had been left by him.

Even though Lu Mo’s identity this time was that of an assassin, she still had her own bottom line.

Xue Kuang’s actions were going a bit too far.

Lu Mo unconsciously clenched her fists.

She wanted to do something to stop this, but in the end, she remained where she stood without moving.

She was Sequence Seven, while Xue Kuang was Sequence Four. There was a gap in their strength.

Furthermore, Sequences were allowed to compete, but they were strictly forbidden from killing one another.

If she acted now, she would undoubtedly be standing against the entire Shadow Moon Hall.

She couldn’t push herself into a desperate situation right at the start of this Simulated Reincarnation.

‘Everything before my eyes is just an illusion…’

‘The most important thing is to complete the tasks and get the rewards in the real world…’

Lu Mo kept telling herself this.

However, her grip did not loosen. Instead, her hand gradually moved toward the sword at her waist.

*Rip —*

“Guh…”

Xue Kuang suddenly pulled out his sword, causing the woman to groan again.

“Still unwilling to say anything?” Xue Kuang looked down, scrutinizing the woman in the pool of blood.

The woman stared back at him. Her hair was a mess, her face was covered in blood and scars, and she looked wretched to the extreme.

But those eyes remained firm, preferring death over submission.

Xue Kuang wanted to continue torturing the woman slowly, but Lu Mo’s arrival made him lose his patience.

“Then why don’t we try a different method?” he suggested.

*Swish —*

In the next second, the sword light flashed.

This time, what was torn was not the woman’s flesh, but a piece of her dress.

Her delicate skin was exposed to the air.

“Recently, I learned some new methods of torture in the Hall of Punishment. How about I turn you into a human probe?

As I pierce you and ravage you while dragging your body through the hall, will you feel pain, or will you feel pleasure?

Will the sounds you eventually can’t hold back be screams, or will they be moans?

And will your voice… attract the girl you’ve hidden away?”

For a rare moment, terror appeared in the woman’s eyes.

But soon, she became calm again, her gaze no longer wavering.

She seemed to have accepted this fate. She was prepared to fight until the very last moment.

Xue Kuang approached the woman.

Aware that Lu Mo was behind him and that the ensuing scene might disgust her, he gave a fake laugh and explained, “Forgive me, Junior Sister Xue Yue, but I’ve been left with no choice.”

Though his words held no trace of apology, they were filled with hypocrisy and joy.

“…”

Lu Mo remained silent.

Her hand was now fully gripped onto the hilt of her sword.

‘Am I really going to just watch this happen?’ she asked herself again.

The woman was not Elia.

Nothing happening here was related to her mission.

If she intervened, it would undoubtedly put her in the most disadvantageous position.

And if this caused her to fail the mission, she would lose everything and might even trigger some kind of punishment mechanism.

‘This is just a game…’

‘It’s all fake…’

Lu Mo kept telling herself this.

Yet, bloodlust and killing intent began to surge around her, flowing into her sword.

By now, Xue Kuang was prepared to completely tear away the woman’s clothes.

“Sister!!!”

At that moment, a sobbing voice rang out from nearby. The figure of a young girl suddenly appeared in the hall, stumbling as she ran toward them.

She could no longer bear the scene before her. “I’m here… Let go of my sister!”

Upon the girl’s appearance, Xue Kuang looked up with a face full of surprise and delight.

Believing the situation was settled, he completely relaxed his guard.

“Elia…” the woman spoke with a trembling voice, her tone filled with despair.

And at that very instant —

Chilling killing intent exploded from behind Xue Kuang.

A cold sword light cut through the air, reaching him in an instant and tearing through all his defenses.

“Seriously… that’s enough.”

Lu Mo’s cold voice rang out.

*Rip —*

Xue Kuang felt a sharp pain in his chest.

When he looked down, he saw it.

Shadow Moon Secret Arts: Void Piercer.

A sword flowing with a bloody hue had pierced through his chest.

It was the fastest strike among all the combat techniques Lu Mo possessed.

“Junior… Sister…”

Xue Kuang was shocked. He struggled to turn his head.

What he saw was the girl’s indifferent face.

Lu Mo’s expression was calm, but her eyes were filled with a bloody glow woven from rage and killing intent. In that blur of a moment, she made him feel a tremor that seeped deep into his marrow and soul!