Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Mark of Light!” The moment Lin Jie dashed into the forest, Heaven and Earth lifted his greatsword, and a cross appeared above Lin Jie’s head.

Mark of Light: You use 20% of your Health bar and Mana bar to cause your target to remain in battle mode for the next hour. As such, they are not able to use Stealth mode. The value of your Health bar and Mana bar would remain until the effect of the Mark of Light wears off.

Lin Jie’s heart flopped. The Mark of Light was a rare skill—he was surprised that Wei Lu’s subordinate would have such a skill!

His armor shone brightly due to the effects of the Mark of Light, and this made every one of his moves especially obvious within the dark forest. What’s worse was that as he could not leave battle mode, Lin Jie would not be able to drink or eat, use his mount or tear up the returning scroll!

“Damn it!” Lin Jie took out the Silent Killer. It was preloaded with 30 Dragon Breath bullets, which were the best weapons to use against this batch of Paladins. However, the number of Dragon Breath bullets available for use was still too little and unable to secure his escape out of this situation!

It was best to employ guerrilla warfare tactics within a forest!

Even though he was an honorable Warrior, Lin Jie decided to resort to this deplorable mode of battle. After all, it would be idiotic to uphold a Warrior’s chivalry spirit in this situation!

Meanwhile, around 200 plus Paladins and players of various jobs gathered outside the forest. One could see clearly that Baili Xuanyuan had not handed Wei Lu full authority to command his army—she was only fit to command the remaining former members from Kingdom of Glory.

Rustle—

Sounds of searching neared Lin Jie. He was now shining all over, and it was impossible for him to hide anywhere. Lin Jie lifted up Silent Killer in his hand, and with a “kazi” sound, he loaded the bullets into the gun barrel! The Ease of Familiarity buff would only be effective within the next hour, and he was left with 25 bullets. As such, he needed to be extremely careful about every move he made!

“What sound is that?” A Paladin’s ears twitched, and he caught sight of a faint golden light shining out from under a tree—this was the effect of the Mark of Light! Excited, the Paladin inched forward to that spot without bothering to inform his teammates.

As Eighteen Massacres had decided to rebel against the Three Alliances, many Kingdom of Glory’s members had decided to follow him. Most of the remaining former members were calculative people who craved for the benefits of following Baili Xuanyuan. As such, when they had seen that they had a chance to make gains for themselves, they had completely forgotten about whether their selfish behaviors were appropriate for working together as a team!

Putting on Strength Blessings and spells for himself, the Paladin neared the tree.

Screech—

The Silver-Feathered Eagle was flying around in mid-air. A cold light flashed across Lin Jie’s eyes as he hid behind the tree, and observed the surroundings with help from the Silver-Feathered Eagle

The Paladin was very near now!

Lin Jie positioned his finger on the gun’s trigger, and charged out from behind the tree, shooting five bullets consecutively at that Paladin’s direction! The bullets slit past the Paladin’s neck accurately, and shot towards a spot behind him!

“Hahaha, idiot! You’re definitely a rookie!” The Paladin laughed when he saw what happened, and wielding the Hammers of Discipline in his hands, he charged straight at Lin Jie!

At this moment, a cry of terror was heard. The Paladin turned, and saw that Heaven and Earth, who had cast the Mark of Light upon Lin Jie, was actually standing behind him!

The five bullets had shot right at Heaven and Earth’s chest. He had previously seen the damage caused by Silent Killer and hence thought that each bullet would only cause around 200 plus damage. This meant that even if all the bullets hit him, he would just at most suffer 1,000 plus damage. Although Heaven and Earth was a Retribution Paladin, his health bar was an incredible 1,500 points in total, so he wasn’t worried at all!

Dong—

Pain seared through his chest, and blood flowed out from the finger deep holes.

-584!

Heaven and Earth were shocked by this great damage figure—how could the damage figure he suffered be so high?

What Heaven and Earth did not know was that Lin Jie had initially shot out a Dragon Breath bullet at him, which could penetrate all types of armors Heaven and Earth used and rendered them useless, but at the sake of only causing 50% Damage Dealt upon the target (such was the effect of a Dragon Breath bullet). Following that, Lin Jie had changed to shoot out ordinary bullets—these bullets did not have the limitation of the Dragon Breath bullets, and as such, they would be able to exhibit the prowess of Lin Jie’s Damage Dealt completely!

Poof—poof—

Two bloody holes appeared on both of Heaven and Earth’s arms. Seeing that another bullet was coming straight at him and might very well kill him off, Heaven and Earth raised his hands, and activated the Divine Shield spell!

A beam of light surrounded Heaven and Earth’s figure like an eggshell. He was now Invincible for eight seconds—this was a Paladin’s signature skill!

Just when Heaven and Earth were about to make use of this opportunity to heal himself, a bullet like a giant dragon’s tooth penetrated his shield, and shot straight into his chest!

-214!

“How did my Invincible…” The light in Heaven and Earth’s eyes dimmed, and he died!

The Paladin who had witnessed all this was stunned. Just when he recovered from the shock of seeing Heaven and Earth being killed, Lin Jie appeared right before him. A familiar Broken Blade was held in his hands, and with a thrust, Army Obliteration was activated!

“Light Armor, Divine Shield!”

-345!

-368!

-754!

Immunity!

The terrible part about Army Obliteration was that even though the Light Armor had 25% Immunity, it could still empty up to almost half of the Paladin’s health bar! Though that Paladin had finally remembered to cast the Divine Shield spell to save his own neck, he was still too late—a Broken Blade enshrouded in golden light was right in front of his eyes, and with a hard slash, Lin Jie activated the Shield Cut skill!

-685!

The Paladin fell down dead to the ground!

With the death of the player who had cast the Mark of Light on him, the cross above Lin Jie’s head finally disappeared. He kept away all his equipment and armor, activated the Feather Drop spell and climbed on top of a big tree, observing his enemies below him while hiding in the midst of the leaves.

Like the moon which was being surrounded by a myriad of stars, Wei Lu was being surrounded and protected by five Paladins. Standing in the middle, she removed the facade of a powerless and innocent girl, which she always showed to Baili Xuanyuan. Instead, she now looked extremely domineering, and her hawk-like eyes were scanning the place for Lin Jie’s traces. As if she felt Lin Jie’s gaze from above, Wei Lu raised her head, and said calmly, “Gather all the hunters, and blast Fire Arrows towards the treetops!”

“Yes!”

A cold light flashed past Lin Jie’s eyes. He gripped tightly onto Silent Killer—the reason why it had earned this name was not only because it could “silence” anyone with its powerful 5 Consecutive Shots before its target had time to retaliate, but also because it had the effects of ‘Continuous Silence’. This meant that any target who was being shot by the Silent Killer would be silenced for 0.25 seconds, and within this time, he or she would not be able to use any skill.

It seemed like this half a second of control would not be able to change anything, but think further—what if the Silent Killer’s wielder decided to fire the 5 Consecutive Shots during this time?

A Warrior would need 3.6 seconds to load the bullets into a gun, and it seemed pretty long. One should not forget though, that guns were the more meant for Hunters—if a Hunter wielded the Silent Killer, they would just need one second to load the bullets! This literally meant that any Hunters who had this gun would be able to enforce limitless silence upon their opponents!

Yet it seemed like such a waste of resources, since Lin Jie, a Warrior, was the one who owned this gun.

Ding~

At this moment, Lin Jie received a message from a friend. The message was from a person who Lin Jie would never have expected: Heaven Plume! The Heaven Plume Chairman from Angel Descent guild!

“Brother Lone Wolf, the spies I arranged for within Kingdom of Glory had informed me that they are now secretly targeting a player with Sub-Legendary equipment. Will you be interested? We can cooperate to get it,” asked Heaven Plume in a merry tone.

To be honest, Lin Jie felt like taking his hat off to this person—even after he had humiliated Heaven Plume so severely, he had still managed to address him in such a tone. As the saying went, “A great achiever should not be bothered by the trivialities”. This didn’t mean that those who succeeded did not care about details, but rather because they cared so deeply about certain details, they chose to ignore the rest! Heaven Plume was indeed an ambitious, and ruthless person—even to himself.

“Heaven Plume Chairman, why don’t you go ahead with the Steel Alliance?”

“Hahaha, the name Steel Alliance was quite a mouthful, we go by the name of ‘Steel Allies’ now! The reason why I seek Brother Lone Wolf out now is very simple—both Dumb Fox and Ghost Eyes cannot bear to ask for your help, but only I am thick-skinned enough to do so! We are willing to cooperate with you and help you catch that fellow once we shoo away those from Kingdom of Glory. We will help you guard his corpse and willingly give you the Sub-Legendary equipment—on the premise that Brotherhood will collaborate with Steel Allies from time to time from now on. How’s that?” said Heaven Plume in an ungrudging tone. He seemed like he did not mind all the past incidents, and appeared as a big-hearted fellow.

Lin Jie chuckled and said, “Well, seems like you finally got it now. Brotherhood is just an ordinary organization which will never cause any real threat to the guilds.”

“Yes! In fact, I realized this from the start—but I was too hyped up with my own prestige for losing out to a weak fellow like you then, and thus for my past behaviors.” Heaven Plume decided to share his thoughts openly now.

“However, since Brotherhood is so powerful now, we recognize that it can recruit more followers. We are willing to work with Brotherhood, and even provide Brotherhood’s members with the necessary resources, so as to contribute to Brotherhood’s future successes. This is a win-win situation, isn’t it great?”

An idea came to Lin Jie. He said in a meaningful tone, “But, I think Heaven Plume Chairman the only worthy and capable person in Steel Allies. Now, how shall we resolve this?”

Heaven Plume’s eyes gleamed, and he laughed and said, “Brother Lone Wolf, if I didn’t interpret wrongly, are you saying that you are only willing to work with me on individual terms?”

“Correct! After all, Heaven Plume Chairman is the smartest and most street-wise person. I can’t find a better candidate for collaboration other than you!” commented Lin Jie.

“Haha, let’s discuss this later. We, the Steel Allies, will help to drive away those from Kingdom of Glory first! Brothers, let’s go!”

Lin Jie couldn’t help but chuckle softly to himself when he heard Heaven Plume avoiding this topic. After all, every man worked for benefits—how could he not guess Heaven Plume’s real intentions?

All the guild leaders in the Steel Allies had lost their dignity and reputation in front of their members with the advent of Brotherhood! Now with the imminent launch of the second Main Plot dungeon, how would they fare if they still could not get the first clear of the dungeon? Wouldn’t it be such a hard slap on their faces if they lost out to Brotherhood? Seeing this, the Steel Allies’ leaders had thus decided to request for collaboration with Brotherhood! They would then be able to enjoy common fame even if Brotherhood beat them and got the first clear—this was a smart way to resolve the issue of losing their reputation, and at the same time, they could also stay in the shadows and progress secretly.

However, this wasn’t a matter that Lin Jie should consider now, because—the members of the Steel Allies had arrived!

The majority of the Steel Allies’ players had been laying in ambush and watching from the sidelines for a long while. Refreshed and energetic, they were now forcing Wei Lu and her hundred-plus players’ team into the forest!

“Heaven Plume Chairman, I wonder why you are treating the Three Alliances and me as such now?” Wei Lu did not panic at this. Although she was not capable at all, she had strong support the likes of Baili Xuanyuan behind her. As such, she still kept her cool and haughty presence, like a dog counting on its master’s backing!

Heaven Plume chuckled, and said, “Well, I don’t mean to do any harm, but I will just ask for Miss All for Love to stand aside now and let us pass. One of our team leader’s girlfriend was lost in this forest, and I am worried about her. Thus, I have led these people here to help search for her. If I ‘accidentally kidnapped’ someone from Miss All for Love’s team and took her back, well, wouldn’t that be awful?”

Wei Lu’s expression turned grim, and she shot out deadly stares from her oddly innocent, but also seductive face. “Heaven Plume Chairman, are you trying to provoke us now?”

Lin Jie saw that Wei Lu was being forced to stand beneath the tree he was hiding on. He put on his Lone Wolf helmet silently and gripped onto the Silent Killer.

He noticed that four Paladins were secretly making hand gestures. This was the sign of casting the Divine Shield spell—and they were planning to cast it upon Wei Lu! He couldn’t understand it—how was this woman qualified to be protected by these Paladins, at the sake of losing their own lives?

Unless… she held some astonishing secrets?

‘Let me see what’s secret you are carrying with you.’ Lin Jie lifted up the Silent Killer, aimed at Wei Lu, and pressed upon the trigger slowly.

Bang—