The next few days I started my training session—not just going through the simple motions but pushing my body and practicing sword forms until my muscles burned while also working on movement techniques.

  My cultivation level was locked but I could still get better at using what I had and slowly becoming a bit faster, smoother and more efficient.

  Little Feng also joined me sometimes following my moves and steps and with that five months passed like nothing—the time really moved so fast in here that I could actually feel it. I blinked and suddenly there were only two weeks left then one week then two days.

  The system gave me a notification when she entered the region.

  [CHOSEN ONE HAS ARRIVED]

  [Lin Yue - 17]

  [ Level: Foundation Establishment (Early Stage)]

  [Time until arrival at Crimson Blade Mountain: 48 hours]

  I was ready— or at least I thought I was.

  The plan was simple: Let her attack the camp then stage a convincing fight with my bandits and lastly take a fake fatal wound before escaping into the forest and "dying" where she couldn't confirm the body.

  Change my appearance, then approach her a few days later as a traveling cultivator who survived the bandit attack.

  Easy, I said to myself.

  I'd spent months preparing. Changing my appearance with longer hair, different posture and added a fake scar on my cheek which I will remove later. I practiced the mannerisms of my new identity until they felt natural and trained my bandits on exactly what to do. Everything was planned.

  But I should have known better...

  She arrived on a cold morning, just after dawn and I was in the main cave when Little Feng came running in. "Boss! Someone's coming up the mountain path!"

  "How many?"

  "Just one. A girl with a sword."

  Right on schedule. I walked outside and my twelve bandits were already getting into position trying to look like they were just going about normal business. Scarface Liu was near the weapons rack and old Chen by the fire while the others scattered around doing various tasks. We looked like a regular bandit camp—nothing suspicious.

  Then she came into view.

  Lin Yue was seventeen, like the system had informed me. Average height, thin body but not fragile. Her hair was tied back in a simple ponytail while wearing plain traveling robes and carrying a straight sword at her side.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  But what caught my attention was not her appearance but her eyes—they were hard and colder than I expected for someone of her age. She swept her gaze across the camp, taking in every detail, every person and every exit.

  This wasn't some naive kid playing hero.

  "You're the Crimson Blade Bandit Lord?" she called out—her voice steady.

  And I stepped forward playing my role. "That's what they call me…You lost, girl?"

  "No." She stepped forward."I'm exactly where I need to be."

  But suddenly before she had even drawn her sword my eyes widened—not from fear but surprise because the system, not mine but hers, I could see it—a golden screen floating just over her shoulder with a notification scrolling across its surface.

  [TUTORIAL QUEST ACTIVATED FOR CHOSEN ONE]

  [Objective: Defeat Zhao Yang, the Crimson Blade Bandit Lord]

  My blood went cold. Was this one of my skills that I could see their system now? I had seen the System once but it was just a reflection in the eyes of a chosen one.

  Thoughts raced through my mind at lightning speed and then the next second I smiled deeply. "Boys, we have a guest who doesn't know her place… Show her out."

  Instantly Scarface Liu and three others moved in. Not too fast—exactly like I had ordered them, just threatening her enough to make this real.

  And Lin Yue didn't hesitate as she moved like water—her sword flashed twice and two of my bandits went down, screaming and clutching wounds that looked worse than they were.

  They'd practiced falling dramatically.

  Scarface Liu came at her from the side but she parried without looking then kicked him in the chest sending him stumbling back.

  Good — this was going according to my plan and since she was supposed to win easily and feel confident.

  I drew my own sword. "Impressive. But this isn't over."

  I attacked—she blocked easily and countered which I dodged.

  We exchanged a few blows. Her technique was basic but clean and at the Foundation Establishment stage like me but her movements were of a snake's, a slippery one.

  The system was already giving her advantages which I could see now. In fact notifications popped continuously on her screen.

  I let her score a hit on my shoulder– a shallow cut, enough to draw some blood and so I stumbled back, clutching the wound.

  "You're better than I thought" I said, breathing hard. "But still not….enough."

  And that's when I was supposed to unleash one of my skills, " Silver Toung." Try to talk things out with her while Little Feng set off some explosives we'd prepared.

  And when the explosion happens, in that chaos, I'd escape into the forest.

  I raised my sword, channeled my qi into it as the blade started glowing red but Lin Yue's expression didn't change.

  She just... looked at me as if she was studying me.Then she spoke. "You're holding back."

  My breath caught."What?"

  "You're holding back," she repeated. "That shoulder wound—you positioned yourself for it and your stance right now it's wrong, too open. Like you want me to strike."

  Shit.

  "You're paranoid, I'm about to—"

  "You're planning something." Her eyes narrowed. "A trap? An escape? Maybe both?"

  She was actually reading me!

  None of the other chosen ones had done this before. They'd all just charged in believing their own strength and trusting that good would triumph but she didn't trust anything. Why?

  "I don't know what you're planning," Lin Yue said quietly. "But I'm not falling for it." And instantly she moved — not toward me but toward Little Feng who was crouched behind a rock with the explosives.

  "Wai—" It was too late.

  Her sword took him in the chest and he cried out with blood spraying.

  "NO!" Old Chen lunged at her, his eyes wide filled with anger.

  But she cut him down too, then another bandit then another.

  They weren't ready for this nor prepared for an actual fight. They were playing their roles and she'd just torn through the script.

  Now I had seconds to decide. Stick to the plan? Try to salvage it somehow? Or actually fight?

  I chose the wrong one.

  I tried to keep playing the role and tried to use the confusion to set up my escape then sprinted toward the forest path while she was distracted.

  Lin Yue's eyes tracked me.

  "Running?" —and then in an instant she was in front of me, I didn't even see her move, one moment she was across the camp and the next her sword was at my throat.

  "A man who runs in the middle of a fight," she said. "What reason do you have to run for your life?"

  I stared at her, at those calculating eyes.

  "Nothing to say?" She pressed the blade closer. "Then die."

  The sword went through my throat and again I felt the familiar cold spreading through my body. The sword tasting my blood and eating my vision.

  [Seventy-fifth death.]

  The words floated in my darkening vision and I died again… maybe this was my end now according to the warning.

  However I again found myself floating in the void and then I was back in my cave sitting on the chair.

  ***

  With shaky legs I stood up slowly and walked outside. My bandits were alive again, sitting around the fire like nothing happened. Little Feng was laughing at something while Old Chen was cooking and somewhere out there, Lin Yue was continuing her journey, her memory already adjusted so she'd remember killing me, completing her quest.

  Six months until the next one arrived.

  I looked down at my hands. They were still shaking…..

  ---------

  ( Don't you forget Lin Yue..) Take a Guess why?