The Assassins’ Failed Ambush

Leaving Xu Linglong’s troubles aside for a moment, Lin Shenyue was now facing her own predicament. Although Undying Dynasty couldn’t dispatch a massive force to eliminate them, they had sent numerous small squads to harass their every move. At this very moment, the group before them was an elite squad from the Undying Dynasty, led by an assassin. They belonged to the Undying Dynasty’s assassin corps, comprised entirely of assassins. Moreover, this wasn’t the only group; several other assassin corps lay hidden in the surrounding area.

Ye Jue subtly scanned his surroundings, a cold sneer forming in his heart. Compared to five years later, the assassins’ stealth techniques at this time were utterly pathetic. They didn’t even grasp the basic principle of using their environment to conceal themselves.

He effortlessly detected ten other assassins lurking nearby.

Their four-person formation had shifted slightly. Lin Shenyue stood at the very center, Divine Wind positioned at the rear, and Ye Jue at the forefront. As for Dark Demon, the instant he perceived the surrounding killing intent, he vanished into stealth.

Unlike the other assassins, Dark Demon already knew how to cleverly use the surrounding skeletal monsters to mask his movements. This was largely due to the fact that the assassins sent by the Undying Dynasty weren’t their top-tier experts, who had more critical missions.

The reason these assassins from the same guild lacked such basic techniques was simple: those who had mastered them hoarded their knowledge, fearing that widespread dissemination would diminish their own standing and influence.

However, with only four members in their team, Lin Shenyue, despite being in the middle, remained vulnerable to attack. As a healer, she was, of course, the assassins’ primary target.

Realizing she was the first target, Lin Shenyue felt a surge of tension. She wasn’t afraid of dying, trusting her teammates implicitly, but being stabbed by a dagger was an experience she dreaded.

As if reading her thoughts, Ye Jue gazed at the surroundings and calmly stated, “Don’t worry. These trash won’t even be able to touch you.”

The assassins near Ye Jue erupted in fury. One even carelessly bumped into a skeletal warrior, immediately revealing their position. Ye Jue scoffed; assassins who couldn’t even control their emotions were beneath his contempt.

One assassin, believing himself still hidden, attempted to slip past Ye Jue to attack Lin Shenyue. Ye Jue’s swift normal attack immediately struck them out of stealth. With a single horizontal sweep, he revealed two more, followed by another normal attack combined with a ‘Furious Slash’.

This combo instantly took half the health from the first revealed assassin. Divine Wind’s triple strike followed, instantly finishing them off.

Ye Jue’s decisive action stunned the others. They couldn’t fathom how they had been discovered while in stealth. Yet, as elite players, they quickly recovered. Aside from the two who had been revealed, the remaining assassins continued their charge toward Lin Shenyue.

Though Lin Shenyue couldn’t rely on experience to pinpoint her enemies, her formidable computational abilities allowed her to precisely calculate their positions. When an assassin finally reached her, intending to strike, she instantly conjured a barrier to protect herself.

The assassin, attempting to use ‘Sap’, slammed their skill against the barrier. The skill naturally failed, and they were revealed. Divine Wind, positioned behind Lin Shenyue, took a step back and fired an arrow. He then executed a rolling shot, reducing the assassin’s health by half, while simultaneously drawing his bow.

A Marksman’s ‘Precise Shot’ required 0.5 seconds to prepare and, like many assassin skills, had an attack judgment. A headshot dealt 300% damage, a body shot 200%. If blocked by a weapon, it only inflicted 100% of the base damage.

However, facing a stunned assassin, Divine Wind wouldn’t miss. His ‘Precise Shot’ struck the assassin’s head directly.

“-387” The explosive damage instantly annihilated the half-health assassin. As the squishiest class, few could boast 700 health at this stage. These assassins typically had no more than 600 health, some even as low as 500.

Witnessing Divine Wind’s devastating damage and Lin Shenyue’s protective barrier, all the assassins immediately switched targets, focusing on Divine Wind. Even someone of Divine Wind’s caliber couldn’t avoid being stunned by ‘Sap’ in such a confined space.

The assassin corps, having coordinated for a long time, were adept at using ‘Sap’. They had a rotation sequence that could keep a single target controlled for about ten seconds—more than enough time to kill someone a hundred times over.

However, to their utter surprise, the moment they stunned Divine Wind, Lin Shenyue’s ‘Purify’ skill landed. Since no other priest currently possessed ‘Purify’, they had completely overlooked it. This ‘Purify’ skill shattered the assassins’ rhythm.

Divine Wind, recovering instantly, rolled out of the assassins’ attack range. He then unleashed an ‘Arrow Rain’, revealing all nearby assassins. This ‘Arrow Rain’ also depleted a quarter of their health, causing the squad leaders’ expressions to darken considerably.

Revealed assassins were little more than common monsters with a few skills. As Ye Jue charged directly into their midst, it signaled the formal annihilation of the assassin groups.

The assassins initially hoped to drag Ye Jue down with them, but Lin Shenyue’s terrifying healing output utterly broke their morale. They scattered and fled. Even though the team managed to intercept a few, four still managed to escape.

Dark Demon returned, looking frustrated, after killing an assassin. He had remained stealthed, observing the situation, intending to intervene only when a teammate was in crisis. To his dismay, Ye Jue and his two companions had already routed the assassins, leaving Dark Demon with no choice but to chase down and kill a lone assassin before returning.

Lin Shenyue put away her staff, letting out a silent sigh of relief. She disliked conflict, but she would never back down if trouble came knocking. As a healer, Lin Shenyue hadn’t accumulated any ‘red name’ points. Ye Jue had killed four, Dark Demon one, and Divine Wind six.

Because they were the aggressors in this encounter, all three of them now bore ‘red names’.

Ye Jue sighed, “The real trouble is these red names. It seems we won’t be able to return to the city anytime soon.” Red names could be cleared by killing monsters in the wilderness, with one red name point decreasing every half hour.

Divine Wind, having killed the most, was even more exasperated. Yet, no one complained. They simply discussed it as usual before turning their attention back to a new round of monster hunting.