The Sunset Arrow – Arrival - Chapter 2

From the first breath, Aiya defied the norm.
She did not cry aloud, but slowly opened her eyes, as if simply rousing from a brief sleep. No one knew that Aiya had been born onto the Divine Cherry Continent carrying the indelible memories of her past life.
In that life, she was Shangguan Yixue, a girl abandoned at an orphanage gate, a soul starved of kindness. Yet, fate’s cruelty was relentless. At the age of twelve, she was snatched by traffickers and sold to the killer organization known as ‘Shadow’.
The organization offered no human solace; the air was a chilling compound of ice and slaughter. The daily training defied imagination. Countless children perished on that bloody path, their dead bodies feeding the survivors.
On the very first day, she was taken into a grey, soundproof room containing only herself and a defenseless woman. The single rule was brutal:
“Kill her, and you get to live.”
As her trembling hands ended the woman’s life, her spirit teetered on the brink of ruin. She retched violently, but there was no comfort—only the cold trainer and the bl00d-stained floor.
Legend holds that some new trainees, unable to strike, were cruelly killed by the women instead, while others who succeeded were later driven mad and took their own lives.
No one understood the depths of emotion that allowed her to face the second day’s training with such an unnerving calm.
On the second day, she was thrown back into the same room. Yesterday’s bloodstains were smeared across the walls like violent art. This time, she faced not a person, but three vicious wild dogs. Her sole weapon was a rusty dagger—she had to kill them to survive and walk out.
From that day on, she began to shed her old self, evolving from a fragile orphan into a cold-blooded killing machine.
The cruel regimen stripped her of virtually all emotion. She was Shangguan Yixue, code-named ‘Original Sin’, the symbol of the first, most fundamental, most extreme transgression.
Shangguan Yixue ascended the hierarchy of Shadow with terrifying speed, treading over a sea of bl00d and corpses. “Strongest Killer,” “Second only to the Leader,” “Bl00d-Bath Assassin”… her name became a whispered legend in the dark underworld.
Yet, this woman, seemingly devoid of heart, had once held a precious slice of genuine affection.
Ren Yuhen, code-named ‘Ripple’, was a fellow member of Shadow. They had partnered for four years, sharing life and death, trusting each other completely. She had believed that although the world was unforgiving, he was the single, beautiful exception.
—Until that fateful night.
She was bandaging a wound after a successful mission when Ren Yuhen entered the office. She glanced up.
“Xiaoxue, could I take you somewhere?” Ren Yuhen kept his head bowed, the inner conflict in his eyes hidden from her view.
“Where to?” Shangguan Yixue asked, expertly securing the dressing on her arm.
“It’s a secret… a surprise just for you,” he murmured. His lips curved, but the gesture was cold, failing to reach his eyes.
“So mysterious. Fine, let’s go!”
Shangguan Yixue sensed a strange tension in him but trusted him nonetheless.
Half an hour later, they stood together at the edge of a desolate canyon.
The cold wind howled, rattling the sparse weeds. Above them, the night sky was brilliant with stars, quiet and beautiful. Yet, she felt an inexplicable dread creep into her heart.
They stood side-by-side, silent, taking in the view, until Ren Yuhen’s voice sliced the stillness—
“Yixue. Original Sin.” He drew out her names slowly, as if savouring a bitter taste.
“Finally, my plan… today is the day it all comes to fruition.” He turned to face her, his eyes, calm yet threaded with madness, seemed somehow… shattered?
Before Shangguan Yixue could register his expression, his words stunned her into a momentary blankness.
“Surprised? If I just kill you, I’ll earn the Leader’s recognition and take your place!” Ren Yuhen said, slowly advancing.
Her heart plummeted. Her face registered profound confusion, and the sudden drop in temperature starting at her fingertips consumed her body.
“Yes, I never imagined you’d crave my position. My biggest wish is to leave this place; I would gladly hand the status you want over to you. We’ve been together for four years. Doesn’t that mean anything?” she challenged, her voice catching.
“Yixue, are you blind?” Ren Yuhen sneered. “You claim not to care, yet you’ve held that high position for four years, refusing to let it go. You’re utterly hypocritical.”
“And fortunately, I never loved a detestable woman like you—not for a single second of these four years.”
The naked disgust in his gaze was a blade straight to her heart.
“…So, this whole thing was a deception from the start?” she asked slowly, her tone dangerously calm.
Ren Yuhen paused, then chuckled softly: “Exactly.”
“I see.”
She raised her head, her gaze now icy and resolute.
“Then let’s abide by our rules.”
She drew her dagger, the tip pointed directly at the man before her—the one she had once trusted above all else.
In a flash, Shangguan Yixue vanished from her spot, darting behind Ren Yuhen like a shadow, thrusting the dagger forward.
Ren Yuhen reacted with equal speed, instantly twisting aside to evade the attack.
As Shangguan Yixue escalated her attack speed, Ren Yuhen struggled to keep up. Her dagger struck from relentless, unpredictable angles; the vast chasm in their skill was laid bare.
The whistling air near him sounded to Ren Yuhen like the whisper of the Grim Reaper.
It was then Shangguan Yixue glimpsed the weapon at Ren Yuhen’s waist, and a flicker of deep disappointment crossed her eyes. They had agreed long ago that if they ever faced each other as enemies, firearms were forbidden. The one who broke that oath was officially the foe.
“Ren Yuhen, I hate you!”
In the final, exhausted moment, Shangguan Yixue chose to yield. She was still bleeding from the gunshot wound in her abdomen; warm bl00d had long soaked the dressing, though her black clothes concealed the worst of it.
Her life flashed before her eyes. The fleeting shared moments with her eleven partners, the decades spent fighting and scraping for survival since childhood, all culminated in betrayal by the one she had loved.
She was truly exhausted, and all she wanted was to rest.
“Bang!” The shot, as she had anticipated, rang out.
Ren Yuhen, too, looked momentarily stunned by the outcome, his eyes widening slightly.
She stood on the canyon’s edge and fell backwards with the force of the blast. A heavy rain began just then, accompanied by thunder and lightning. Shangguan Yixue gently closed her eyes…
In her final instant, she did not see the hand that reached for her, too late—
When she awoke, she was in another world.
Recalling the past, her heart ached with familiar intensity. When she thought of Ren Yuhen’s treachery, Aiya clenched her five fingers tightly. Her fingertips dug into her delicate skin, and bright red bl00d beaded and dropped onto the cotton, blooming silently like an ominous Spider Lily.
“This life, I want to live my own way. Shangguan Yixue is gone; there is only Aiya now!” she whispered, her hands tightly fisted, proclaiming a challenge to fate itself.
“But in this life, who should I trust…?”