Chapter 128: The Origins of the Langya Pavilion

"Surprised? In the end, I was the one who ate them all."

Hearing the words of Wolf-Head, Zhao Xiyan’s eyes trembled with shock, and the terror in their depths was impossible to conceal. She swallowed hard, her tense hands letting slip a concealed weapon.

Wolf-Head naturally noticed her small movement but paid it no mind, continuing his account.

"That was when I was sixteen. She tried to escape quietly while the tribe had lowered their guard, but she was caught by the Tidi tribesmen on night patrol and brought before my father, the chieftain. Finally, spurred on by the other clansmen, they demanded that I kill my own mother with my own hands."

"Then why did you eat her?" Zhao Xiyan frowned, questioning him with wary intensity.

She could understand killing one's mother for the sake of survival; as an assassin, she understood the necessity of fratricide during missions or dire circumstances. But cannibalism clearly crossed her moral threshold. Moreover, it was his own mother.

Wolf-Head stared back at Zhao Xiyan’s earnest gaze, his expression blank, and spoke in a low voice.

"Even if I hadn't eaten her, after she was executed, she would have ended up in the mouths of those Tidi warriors. Before she died, she begged me, saying she did not want to be defiled by their filthy saliva."

Having endured such humiliation, hoping only for a chance to return home, yet ultimately failing to escape—if she had become food for the Tidi people after death, that was a disgrace even Zhao Xiyan felt she could not bear.

"And what about your father’s clansmen?"

"After eating my mother, the tribe reluctantly accepted my existence. By the time I was eighteen and had broken through to the rank of Grandmaster, they became the offerings for my coming-of-age ceremony."

Wolf-Head still remembered that night. The surrounding flames were exceptionally brilliant. He had emerged from a pool of blood and sat alone by the bonfire, surrounded by severed limbs. He watched the dancing flames in silence, eating the roasted remains of his own kin. In that moment, he felt he had been reborn through fire.

Hearing his description, Zhao Xiyan felt a wave of nausea and could not help but interrupt the topic. "Then how did you discover that you were a 'Twin-Born'?"

Wolf-Head seemed immersed in the memories of that night. Startled by her question, he paused briefly before answering.

"I only heard of the existence of the Twin-Born later, after I followed the Prince of Pingyi and established the Langya Pavilion."

"The Langya Pavilion? Wasn't that founded by the Prince himself?"

Zhao Xiyan had always been curious about the true nature of the Langya Pavilion. Unfortunately, the information gathered by the Penglai Pavilion over the years was too scarce. The Langya Pavilion did not operate like a simple assassin organization; during early military campaigns, they charged at the forefront with terrifying ferocity. Yet they were not an army, as their numbers were few and their assassination techniques were exceptionally sophisticated.

"Hah, if not for me, he might never have been able to create the Langya Pavilion," Wolf-Head said with a sneer, a note of triumph in his voice.

"After slaughtering the branch of the tribe that my father belonged to, I wandered among the various Tidi tribes. Along the way, I gradually found more and more people of mixed Tidi and Ye Dynasty blood. In the end, there were hundreds of us. Because of our status, neither the Tidi nor the Ye Dynasty had any place for us, so we wandered like a pack of wolves."

Hearing that there were hundreds of them, Zhao Xiyan was stunned. After all, the Twin-Born she had encountered—Yang Guang and Wolf-Head—were both Grandmaster-level figures. She recalled the time she took the token given by Wang Changgeng to the ancient temple to meet the others; although few in number, they were all Grandmasters. She asked, "Are they all Twin-Born as well?"

"There aren't that many Twin-Born. I only meant that being of mixed descent is a prerequisite for a Twin-Born, not that everyone of mixed descent is one." Wolf-Head smiled slightly and shook his head helplessly. If there were really that many Twin-Born, he would have become an overlord long ago.

"When there are many people, there must be a leader. Most of them were former slaves, and few knew any martial arts. Since I was a Grandmaster, I became their leader. The title 'Wolf-Head' came from that time."

"And then?" Zhao Xiyan was more interested in how the Prince of Pingyi had managed to win them over, given that he had always been stationed in the eastern part of the Ye Dynasty, far from the Far North.

"Later, as the weather grew colder and our group became a larger target, and with the Tidi lands and the Far North of the Ye Dynasty approaching the season of snow-blocked mountains, we began to head south along the border of the Ye Dynasty to survive. Eventually, we arrived in the Prince of Pingyi’s fiefdom."

Wolf-Head had finally reached the point of their meeting with the Prince, but a new question formed in Zhao Xiyan’s mind.

"A group of hundreds—wouldn't such a long trek have been detected?"

Nowadays, even a movement of a few dozen people would likely be noticed by various factions.

"The Ye Dynasty back then was not as large as it is today, and it was surrounded by many small states. Furthermore, after our long journey, there weren't many of us left by the time we exited the Far North. Some died, some were eaten as food, and in the end, only seventy or eighty remained."

Cannibalism again! Zhao Xiyan frowned, clearly displeased with this practice.

"Senior, are you truly so fond of eating people? Do you really consider yourself a wolf?"

Her challenge drew a steady gaze from Wolf-Head. His eyes were full of tranquility, devoid of ripples. Under that calm stare, Zhao Xiyan felt at a loss.

"A wolf? Even a wolf wouldn't eat its own pack," Wolf-Head said softly, as if asking her, or perhaps mocking himself.

"Girl, have you ever been to the Far North?"

Faced with this sudden question, Zhao Xiyan was stunned and shook her head slightly. The origins of the Penglai Pavilion had always been in the east of the Ye Dynasty. According to records, long ago, there was a small nation between the Dongyi and the Ye Dynasty called the Penglai Kingdom. Its capital was on a mountain named Mount Penglai. Later, some said the last king became obsessed with immortality, leading to the destruction of his nation; others claimed the king succeeded in his cultivation and ascended to the immortal realm with the mountain.

Opinions varied, and the descendants of the Penglai Kingdom were the ones who established the Penglai Pavilion.

"In the Far North, death is sometimes a luxury. The winters there are long, and the coldest periods can last for half a year. To survive, people must eat frantically to ensure their bodies generate enough heat. The hunger brings a torture far more terrifying than death itself."

Wolf-Head spoke quietly, his brow furrowing slightly. Though many years had passed, he still felt a chill in his bones whenever he thought of it.