Let One Live

Lu Nian's brow furrowed hard.

He had actually been considering waiting until Lu Zhenghe arrived before making his move, but impatience had gotten the better of him and he'd given the order too soon.

In his eyes, these were nothing more than students who had never experienced real slaughter, real war — the kind who, faced with a massacre like this, would simply go blank and stand there waiting to die.

Who could have known the kid called Mo Fan would react so quickly, actually thinking to take Lu Zhenghe as a hostage?

And that idiot Lu Zhenghe — if he'd just stayed back, none of this would have happened.

"B-big brother, save me!" Lu Zhenghe wailed, his voice cracking with sobs.

Lu Nian killed without hesitation, without a shred of mercy. And this Mo Fan was vicious in his own right — those Rose Flames could lunge at Lu Zhenghe at any moment. Lu Zhenghe was certain that Mo Fan was exactly the type who would kill without batting an eye.

"Interesting." Lu Nian drew on his pipe, then waved a hand, signaling the mob of mages behind him to stand down for now.

He couldn't let his brother die. Lu Nian had served in the military for years — no wife, no children — and Lu Zhenghe, considerably younger than him, was effectively the only continuation of their family line. Lu Nian knew he himself would be standing before a tribunal before long; whether he lived or died was of little consequence. But Lu Zhenghe could not die.

And yet, he couldn't let it show that he actually cared about his brother's worthless life.

The truth was, weighed against the mission at hand, if there were truly no other choice, he would still let his brother be sacrificed. What he was doing was vast — magnificent beyond measure. If it succeeded, he would become someone who reshaped the order of the world itself.

Every sacrifice would be worth it.

"Who the hell do you think you are?! Listen carefully — I am Liao Mingxuan, son of Liao Feng of the Imperial Capital Magic Association! Kill me, and I'll see your entire family destroyed!!" Liao Mingxuan shrieked, completely unhinged.

"Oh?" Lu Nian raised an eyebrow. A flash of muddy brown light kindled in his eyes.

The moment that brown gaze fell on him, Liao Mingxuan — who had been screaming just seconds before — went completely still.

No sound escaped him. His body turned rigid; he couldn't move so much as a finger.

A layer of grayish-white substance crept across him, beginning at his toes and spreading steadily upward.

It moved faster and faster, like cement baking dry under a scorching sun — except it was spreading across Liao Mingxuan's own flesh. Every part of him that the gray-white touched solidified into stone.

Liao Mingxuan fought to struggle, but within seconds his entire body had become a gray-white statue.

"A man like that," Lu Nian said, taking another long draw from his pipe, "can't be left alive." He spoke with the casual contempt of someone brushing away a handful of garbage.

The mildly narcotic tobacco filled his lungs, and the deep ache that had ridden his back for god knows how many years eased just slightly. His head cleared a fraction.

He fixed his gaze on Mo Fan, who stood there gripping his brother as a shield. The man had the look of a bloodstained demon blade — unreadable and lethal in equal measure.

"Talk," Lu Nian said flatly. "What do you want?"

"The question is what *you* want," Mu Nujiao shot back, her face flushed crimson with fury. "We have no grudge with you. Why are you trying to kill us?"

Even as the words left her mouth, her body trembled faintly. She was clearly terrified — but she was forcing herself to stay composed. The sheer unpredictability of this man's killing was what made him so impossible to stand against. Thank god Mo Fan had seized on his weakness instantly, getting Lu Zhenghe — that traitor — in his grip.

"You're Mu Zhanxing's granddaughter, aren't you? You've got some spine." Lu Nian let out a strange, cackling laugh. "What if I told you that your grandfather himself approved of all this? I wonder what you'd make of that."

He was in no hurry. His men had already encircled them completely.

If Lu Zhenghe could be saved, all the better — he was his only brother, after all. If not... kill them all. Better to leave no loose ends.

Students they might be, but none of them came from ordinary backgrounds. Best to frame it as a Field Expedition gone wrong — a total party wipe, no survivors. As for the questions their powerful families would ask afterward: dead men tell no tales. No witnesses, no case.

"Here's the deal," Lu Nian said. "One life for one life. You choose, kid — pick who gets to walk."

Not a trace of genuine negotiation in his voice. He was speaking from a position of total dominance.

Mo Fan's brow furrowed too. He couldn't get a read on this devil's temper, and more critically, he still had no idea why this man wanted them dead. Had their group stumbled onto something that needed to be buried? Why else silence them like this?

"That girl beside you is something," Lu Nian said, pulling back his lips to reveal a mouthful of yellowed teeth. "You two have something going on, I can tell. Let go of that idiot Lu Zhenghe, and I'll guarantee she walks."

"Five," Mo Fan said flatly. "Me, him, her, her, and her. Do whatever you want with the rest."

The moment Mo Fan started pointing, Luo Song and Shen Mingxiao damn near dropped to their knees in relief.

But Peng Liang and Song Xia stared at him, stunned. They were his teammates — and he hadn't consulted them for even a second before writing them off without a second thought.

"I said *one*!" Lu Nian's voice went cold as iron. "One!"

"Then let me go," Mo Fan said, without missing a beat.

"Ha! Ha ha ha ha! What a fascinating little bastard." Lu Nian burst out laughing.

Bai Tingting, Zhao Manyan, and Mu Nujiao all stared at Mo Fan with expressions of pure disbelief.

None of them had imagined that when it truly came down to it, Mo Fan would give up on them too.

"I did my best," he said, offering them an apologetic look.

"It doesn't matter." Bai Tingting let out a quiet, hollow laugh — the kind anyone could tell was forced. "Without you, I'd already be dead anyway."

Mu Nujiao bit her lip. Her head told her Mo Fan was making the rational choice — anyone in his position would do the same. But something ached in her chest, something she couldn't push down. When that devil of a Military Commander had said only one could live, she'd let herself wonder, just for one fleeting, ridiculous moment, whether Mo Fan might choose her.

"Mo Fan, you've completely disappointed me." Zhao Manyan smiled — an ugly, twisted thing. "But if I really die here, I want you to kill this bastard for me."

"I was going to kill him anyway," Mo Fan replied.

Lu Nian tapped the clogged ash from his pipe and slanted his eyes at this pack of wet-behind-the-ears mage students.

"Made up your minds? Said your last words?" the devil commander drawled. "Let go of Lu Zhenghe. Otherwise not one of you gets a single chance to walk out of here."

"I already told you," Mo Fan repeated. "Let me go."

"Sorry to disappoint you." Lu Nian grinned, lips peeling back. "Everyone here can leave. Everyone except you."

Mo Fan went still, staring at this High-Level Mage who had slaughtered without mercy.

*Could they be from the Black Church?*

No — they were ruthless enough, but they bore no resemblance to the Black Church. Every one of them wore the same hollow, vacant look, like people who already knew that what they were doing would damn them beyond all redemption...

*Then what in the world are they trying to do?*

These people were deeply, deeply wrong.