Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Salvador was elated. He instructed the people behind him to be careful, afraid that he would alarm Yang Ling, who should have been resting nearby.

Even though the night was getting darker, he, being a Heaven-ranked Assassin, could still see the Germite Vultures circling overhead. The vultures’ night vision were the best in the kingdom of birds. Wherever they circled, it would mean that their prey was below.

“Split up and find him. I’ll head forward to block the target’s path of retreat. Remember, don’t attack unless you are very confident!”

Having said this, Salvador disappeared silently into the forest. The dozen black-clad elite killers formed groups of two and split up.

In order to kill Yang Ling, the association had mobilized many of their elite forces, and the main team would arrive soon. Even if he and his group were unable to kill Yang Ling on the spot, being able to stop him and trap him in a battle would mean that they had succeeded in their mission.

The night was intensely cold, and the snow lay thick and heavy on the landscape. It was deafeningly silent. The only sound was an occasional rustling leaf.

Could this be a trap? Salvador could feel that something was off, his sense of danger tingling. He quickly cast a wind element Acceleration Spell on himself and hurried away from where he’d been standing.

Ever since he had split from the group, he had frequently felt as though he had become the target of a fierce beast, but he could not find anything when he looked. This feeling was strange. It was as if he had encountered a Cloud Leopard that loved to suck on human brains, or maybe a venomous snake that would strike at the opportune moment.

Salvador climbed a nearby tree, and located the Germite Vultures, still circling above the forest canopy. Then Salvador looked down again. After a few minutes he continued walking in the direction the vultures had indicated. They were well-trained birds with excellent eyesight. They would not miss any trace of their prey. This made Salvador confident that Yang Ling was hiding there somewhere.

Even though he was confident in his abilities, he still unsheathed his Blood Elf Dagger as a precaution. The dagger was a spoil of war that he had unintentionally obtained after he killed a great noble ten years before. It was equipped with a weakening, slowing and numbing spell. It could even absorb the blood of its enemies like a bottomless hole. As long as he struck a blood vessel or the heart, even a Ground Dwelling Dragon would be sucked dry, much less a human. All these years, he had used this divine weapon from the fallen Blood Elves to make miracles, killing with one strike and successfully completing his missions time and time again.

Legend had it that the Blood Elf Dagger was only a portion of the Blood Elf’s set of weapons. Besides the dagger, there were also treasures such as the Blood Elf Battle Boots, Blood Elf Cloak, Blood Elf Armor and Blood Elf Crown. According to the historical records, assembling the Blood Elf’s set of weapons would mean that they had assembled a divine weapon of immense power. They would also be able to learn the secret of the Blood Elves that had vanished thousands of years ago.

Over his many years, other than the restricted areas like the Church and the Association of Darkness, Salvador had searched all of the historical sites on the continent. But he had been unable to find any of the remaining pieces of the Blood Elf’s set of weapons, nor any clues about them.

“Ah, save me…”

Just as Salvador was lost in thought, a pathetic cry came from behind him. It was cut short abruptly. But as a Heaven-ranked Assassin with sensitive hearing, he could hear a metallic clash followed by a wave of strange, raspy sounds. It sounded like someone strolling on soft sand, or a little like a bunch of bugs tearing apart their prey.

Worried for the safety of his companions, Salavdor moved toward the sound swiftly. He did not notice the tarantula that emerged from a shrub very near the place he had just been standing.

“Hmph, you sure are lucky!” Yang Ling whispered, watching Salvador disappear. He descended from the top of the tree where he had been hidden, observing, and recalled the spiders hidden in the area. Then he stalked after Salvador, intent on changing the battlefield.

As soon as he knew that there were only a dozen assassins chasing him, Yang Ling had set up a heavy ambush within the forest. Other than closely observing Salvador, who was the strongest of the group, he had instructed the Magical Beast army to attack the black robed men after they split up. With the massive numbers in his Magical beast army, he had dispatched of the assassins easily with his Magical Beasts.

Salvador was fast, but not fast enough. It was too late when he arrived at the scene, following the scent of blood. Other than a pool of blood, there was not even a sleeve left on the scene, much less a corpse.

Could it be that these unlucky fellows stumbled upon Man-eating Ants?

It was said that there were countless Man-eating Ants in the Kanda Mountain Valley, and that they were able to devour the flesh from their prey clean off the bone in a matter of moments. But Salvador could not find any traces of the creatures anywhere nearby! If there was indeed a colony of Man-eating Ants around, there was no way that they would not leave any traces behind.

“Ah, my eyes, save me…”

Just as Salvador was preparing to widen his search radius, a cry came from another direction. He rushed toward it quickly. He could not help but feel his skin crawl when he came upon the scene, despite having seen countless bloody battlefields.

All he saw were two black-robed men lying motionless on the ground, their eye sockets empty. Their bodies were covered with many small holes, the blood in their bodies completely drained, their muscles shriveled. They were like two pieces of sun-dried firewood, or two ancient corpses dried by the wind. What was even weirder was that there were no traces of blood on the ground, making the scene extremely eerie.

It looked like Yang Ling’s abilities were far more powerful than he had imagined!

Salvador raised his hand and conjured a flare, gathering the black robed men together again. People getting hurt once could be chalked up to accident. Two incidents so closely together was a strong indication that they had already stepped into the trap that Yang Ling had set up!

Salvador acted decisively and quickly, but other than the panicked cries that rang out around him, he could not see any trace of the other black robed men.

He could not spot any trace of the enemy every time he followed the scent of blood to investigate. Some of the unfortunate men had been picked clean, some were sucked dry, and some resembled beehives, felled by some strange attack. There were even some who had been crushed flat, as if they had been squashed by a giant rock.

Was he not going to make it out alive either?

After ascertaining that all of the black robed men that followed him had met with misfortune, Salvador felt fearful. He was covered in sweat despite the freezing weather. The night had enveloped the forest, and it looked like a bottomless hole, threatening to devour him.

In all these years, he was the one that appreciated the frustration and fear of the people before they died. To think that such a day would befall him. No matter what, he did not expect to be unable to complete the mission the first time he was leading a team of experts. But he had become the prey!

Salvador was nervous, creeping forward slowly, brandishing his Blood Elf Dagger. At the same time, Yang Ling, who was hiding in the shadows, remained motionless in wait. Even though the other party had sent out a signal for reinforcement, Yang Ling was confident that he would be able to kill the last black robed men before reinforcements arrived. He would be able to kill the top-notch killer before him that gave him the sense of danger.

Before that, through his powerful mental energy and control, Yang Ling had been able to instruct his Magical Beast army to kill off lone black robed men one at a time.

In the eyes of an average person, these elite killers might be hard to defend against, because they were so powerful. But they were completely powerless to retaliate in the face of the Magical Beasts and their combined attacks in the air and on the ground. The surprise Horned Bee Beasts attacks and powerful offense of the Withered Tree Warriors rounded out Yang Ling’s attack. More often than not, they would be killed by the hordes of the Magical Beast army before they even reacted.

Out of caution, Salvador retreated out of the forest, still gripping his dagger. Even though he did not know where the other party was hiding, he could still feel an unprecedented sense of danger.

Neigh…

At the height of his tension, a weird sound came from behind him. But he could not see anything when he turned around to look. He had taken a few more steps before he heard another strange sound, which was exceptionally frightening in the pitch dark forest.

After calming himself down and ascertaining that there was no movement around him, Salvador heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that he was being overly suspicious. But just as he was about to leave, a bolt of lightning descended from the sky. Following that, a black mass of flying Magical Beasts charged toward him.

“Not good, there’s an ambush!”

After tilting his body to avoid the lightning, Salvador made a hasty retreat. Against a strong enemy, the principle of an assassin was to retreat. This was much more relevant when faced with intricate ambushes set up by the enemy.

Assassins were scary because they could deal a fatal blow from the shadows. An assassin that was in an ambush and heavily surrounded had already turned from the hunter to the hunted. It was taboo in the world of assassins!

After quickly changing his direction several times and avoiding the concentrated rain of the Horned Bee Beasts’ poisonous stingers, Salvador did not dare get himself entangled in a battle. He again cast a wind element Acceleration Spell on himself, prepared to leave the forest as quickly as possible. What he did not expect was that his enemy had set up waves of ambushes. He soon fell into an embattlement, his life threatened time and time again.

Sometimes, just after he avoided the poisonous stingers of the Horned Bee Beasts, a group of tarantulas would emerge from under the ground and spit foul-smelling poison; At other times, he had just avoided the Unicorn’s arc of lightning when the hulking tree right next to him would suddenly turn into a Withered Tree Warrior, its sharp thorns pressing down toward him.

What was even more terrifying was that a horde of Vampire Bats would charge toward him, unafraid of death. They would pierce their stingers into him and consume his blood.

Even though he had a way to quickly deal with the Withered Tree Warriors, Horned Bee Beasts and Vampire Bats around him, Salvador did not dare stay in one place. He chose to quickly retreat at the expense of suffering from a few light injuries. As an experienced assassin, he could feel an ice-cold gaze locked tightly onto him. If he hesitated for a moment too long, he might find himself on the receiving end of the fatal blow that his enemy had prepared for him!