Vol 10: Chapter 11-3.

Heng jumped off the clocktower. He grabbed the beams on the way to slow down the fall. He landed on the ground lightly. His body was lighter than the average person due to the air attunement of the archer enhancement. His running speed was also faster and he could move silently, almost catching up to Yinkong’s sneaking.

Heng was not in the mood to appreciate any of these. He felt as if a knife had pierced his heart.

He and Yanwei grew up together. The two families were neighbors and their parents were friends. His father was an Olympics gold medalist in archery and her father was the silver medalist. They were friends and rivals, neighbors and coworkers.

Heng and Yanwei met under this environment when they were still children. Their relationships were very close aside from one point. Heng inherited his father’s hobby of archery whereas Yanwei disliked it. She would ignore him for several days whenever she saw him practicing. Though this occurrence reduced as they grew older.

The happy family took a sudden drastic change. Heng’s parents got involved in a car accident. His mother died on site whereas his father’s arms broke and could no longer use a bow. He was nine at the time.

Afterward, Heng’s father would hit him until he fainted for every little thing. This lasted several years. As if it was fate’s mischief, he was separated from Yanwei when he was ten. His father lost his job, then sold their house and moved away. Year after year of domestic violence forged his personality. Every time he sensed he might get hit, or saw blood or any injury, the fear would cause him to run away instinctively. This personality was embedded deep within him, and made him hate himself and this world.

The turning point happened after a competition. He saw this girl that seemingly overlapped with his memory, yet he was scared to confirm because he had lost too many things already. His father died to liver cancer from overdrinking. The only things that he still had were his bow and the girl of his memory.

The thread of love that bound them together led to their reunion after ten years. They quickly lived together, took care of each other, and shared their unfortunate stories. They comforted each others’ wounds and headed for the future with each others’ support. Heng felt he had obtained happiness. He carved her into his heart. Then…

His body was running away uncontrollably. When he realized what he had done, he hated himself. Abandoning a girl, one that he loved so dearly to a group of mafias and a rapist, while he ran out of fear. It was like his body had a mind of its own.

By the time he finally regained control of himself and ran back, she and the mafias were gone. He could guess what she was going to suffer.

Perhaps the physical pain might be bearable but her heart must had been drowned in tears of despair. If only she never loved him or only a little, but he knew that she was also deeply in love.

Heng thought about killing himself, but he still hadn’t made the revenge. He thought about searching for her, but he didn’t have the courage to see her eyes, whether they were calm, or angry, or dead.

He decided to take revenge, kill the people he hated with his arrows. He would almost drop his bow from the fear every time. He would almost faint from vomiting afterward. But when he thought of her suffering and feelings, he continued onto the next person without regret. His despair then led him into this world after he killed all of them.

Who could have imagined that he would meet her again in this world? Furthermore, her original was in team China.

“I didn’t abandon you! When I entered this team, you were already…” Heng wanted to yell it out but when he imagined her teary yet expressionless face, he suddenly lost the courage to do so. Even though he wanted to explain, the reality was that he did abandon her and shattered their happy future. He was the origin of all the pain and sin. If only he wasn’t such a coward, if he could have opened his arms to protect her, everything would have been different.

Heng ran through the valleys. Blood was bleeding from all over his body. Those arrows weren’t powerful. They were more of punishments or tortures. Otherwise Yanwei could have killed him in one shot with the arrow she used on the bell. She was torturing him to ease her hatred and pain.

An arrow opened a hole on the wall next to Heng. A silver flame was melting the concrete.

“Why are you running? Just like how you ran before? You are such a coward. All you can do is run.” Yanwei’s voice was filled with rage and contempt. She shot another silver flame.

Heng clenched his teeth without saying a word. Blood flowed down the corner of his lips for biting too hard. He continued running as he swallowed his own blood. He would change direction every time an arrow came. Before he knew it, he had entered the unlocked mode.

“If you are so scared of dying, then why didn’t you shoot my head before? You wouldn’t have to run if you did. Just shoot my head. I had unlocked my genetic constraint. Don’t you want the rewards and points?” Yanwei said as her arrows shot at Heng, yet missing him by a hair every time. Her tears were blurring her eyes seeing that Heng wouldn’t answer.

She floated upward and looked down from ten meters high. “Heng, you remember about my sixth senses? It works with arrows. I can sense the path of the arrow and a lot of times I don’t even need to aim with my eyes.”

She closed her eyes and aimed at the direction where Heng was running. The moment Heng made his next turn, the silver arrow pierced through his leg. This arrow wasn’t enchanted with flame so it only tripped him and he continued running.

Heng clenched his teeth. It was near the streets. Yanwei frowned as she shot a flaming arrow at the front of him. The arrow hit his ankle when he ran at the position then the flame starting burning upward his leg.

Bang! Some distance away, a fire flared for an instant in this smoke followed by the sound of impact. Heng finally smiled in relief. Yanwei flew to several meters in front of him. (Correction: He was in a valley close to the building and shooting upward.)

She sneered. “Why aren’t you running? Why are you acting calm? If you were half as calm before, we…”

Heng smiled at her tenderly then suddenly pulled the string and aimed at her. The pressure of the charged shot enveloped him. Yanwei also smiled in relieve. She aimed a flaming arrow and said lightly. “Let us free ourselves, Heng.”

“I’m sorry. I love you. Live on.”

The arrow flew past her face and out of her sight. When she turned to look at Heng again, a silver light covered his heart but his smile remained.

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