Death Notice Book 6: Chapter 33: The Swordsman and the Assassin

Qin Lun crouched beside the one-eyed sniper and slowly pulled out the Dagger of Sin from his chest.

The one-eyed man died peacefully. Even when Qin Lun stabbed the dagger into his heart, his expression remained calm, and he accepted his fate with great composure.

“Grrr…” Cerberus nudged Qin Lun with its two large heads. The battle did not last long. After Qin Lun found an opening and summoned Cerberus, the fight quickly came to an end.

After that, the sniper tried everything to keep his distance from Qin Lun. However, with Cerberus around, he always failed at the last moment. He could not even aim his heavy sniper rifle at his enemy a second time.

After his strongest attack was neutralized, the sniper’s fate became clear. Finally, after a short while, Qin Lun closed in and killed him with the Dagger of Sin.

After the Apostle Soul Mark faded, the one-eyed man’s face visibly turned pale. His Domination War Invitation Letter materialized and began to spin slowly above his body.

As soon as Qin Lun’s finger touched the Invitation Letter, it merged into his body like a black light and stacked with another Invitation Letter in his Apostle Soul Mark.

Qin Lun stood up. With a single hand gesture, he sent Cerberus back to the Summoning Space. He took a flat flask of Walnut Wine from his robe and took a drink. He looked up at the night sky over the Parking Lot and slowly smiled.

“Come out, I know you’re here. And thank you for the help from that little guy beside you just now!” Qin Lun muttered to the empty Parking Lot. “If you don’t come out, I’ll leave!”

“We meet again!” Qin Lun smiled gently at the orphan from the Holy City. “What’s your name?”

The orphan stared at him with wide, clear eyes but did not speak. Qin Lun didn’t mind and started walking toward him. But after just two steps, he saw the orphan’s face fill with caution as he slowly backed away.

“Alright, we’ll keep to ourselves then!” Qin Lun stopped and helplessly raised his hands to show he meant no harm.

“However, we can’t stay here long. We must leave now. Someone must have heard the gunshots earlier!” Qin Lun explained with a smile. Without waiting to see if the orphan understood, he turned and walked away.

As he traveled, Qin Lun deliberately slowed his pace. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small shadow following him at a distance. It neither moved away nor chose to come closer.

Qin Lun smiled slightly. One large and one small shadow slowly moved into the night, disappearing at the end of the road.

…

The night Qin Lun defeated the one-eyed sniper marked a turning point. Over the next few days, the battles grew more intense and fierce.

The Apostles in this Domination War zone seemed to have truly lost their temper. They no longer prioritized self-preservation. Once a fight started, it often became a deadly struggle.

The number of Novice Apostles in this Domination War zone was decreasing at a frightening rate. These individuals were among the best of the Novice Apostles and might have had the potential to become High-Rank Apostles in the future. But now, they were forced to fight to the death against equally talented opponents in this small area.

Of course, in such battles, some more outstanding Apostles began to stand out. These individuals might not be the strongest in any single aspect among the Apostles, but they were certainly the most well-rounded and had the greatest endurance. Most importantly, their fighting styles relied very little on external forces, and they didn’t even depend much on recovery items.

Long Feng, the swordsman who had relentlessly chased Qin Lun together with the one-eyed sniper, was one such person. His sword energy attacks were powerful and effective at medium and short ranges. Plus, the swordsman profession itself had high dodge and block attributes, making it a well-rounded class.

What was even more fearsome was that, unlike some spellcasting classes that had high mana requirements, Long Feng’s mana system was transformed by the swordsman class into a sword energy system, similar to a Martial Artist’s fighting spirit.

This type of mana system had significant limitations in total mana capacity, but its recovery speed was linked to another attribute: stamina. In other words, when their stamina was full, swordsmen and Martial Artists recovered several times faster than other classes.

While others needed several days to recover their expended mana, they only needed half a day. Moreover, as they fought more and achieved more victories, their confidence would gradually increase, sometimes even reaching an epiphany state unique to these classes.

Once they entered this state, for them, there was no distinction between skills and ordinary combat techniques. Every move they made had the power of an Apostle Skill. They truly became like unkillable cockroaches, capable of challenging opponents above their level, steadily growing stronger through continuous battle.

At that moment, in a city ruins area that was originally a park, Long Feng sat firmly on the ground. However, upon closer look, one could see that he seemed to be sitting on top of a human body. There were also two other Apostle corpses nearby.

“Hehe, I remember your face. You were one of the thirty or so people that day too. Where’s the Treasure Map Fragment? Where did you hide it?” Long Feng said mockingly, poking his opponent’s head with his sword hilt. “Hand it over, and I’ll spare your life!”

The Apostle pinned under Long Feng had a changing expression. He truly hadn’t expected that even with two other Apostles teaming up, Long Feng would still turn the tables. Although part of it was because the three of them each had their own schemes and couldn’t cooperate fully, this outcome was still unexpected.

One of his companions had died, and the other had voluntarily dissolved his Apostle Invitation Letter, leaving behind an empty shell. As for him, he survived because he still had a Treasure Map Fragment as a bargaining chip.

“Fine, I’ll give you the Treasure Map coordinates. But you have to sign a Soul Contract with me. You can’t kill me after getting the coordinates!” The loser ultimately chose to compromise. As long as he could keep his Invitation Letter, he still had a chance in the following week.

“Deal!” Long Feng agreed without hesitation. He had already obtained two Invitation Letters; this last one was optional.

However, after the Apostle handed over the Treasure Map coordinates and left, a hint of mockery appeared on Long Feng’s face. He could feel the prying eyes in the vicinity slowly diminishing and eventually disappearing completely.

The intense battle between the four of them in this relatively open area had inevitably attracted the attention of other Apostles. If he had killed all three Apostles without leaving any alive, the watchers would have focused all their attention on him.

At this stage, four Invitation Letters were worth no less than seven or eight hundred thousand Shattered Crystals. No matter how strong he was, he probably wouldn’t be able to shake off the followers and ambushers. But by sparing the last enemy Apostle, he could completely divert the watchers’ attention.

On one side was a deeply mysterious victor, and on the other was a loser who had exhausted all his tricks. It was obvious who would be the target of opportunistic attacks.

“Qin Ba must be dead! With that guy’s pride, since he chose a one-on-one fight, he would surely stubbornly see it through to the end.” Long Feng looked up at the sky. “As for me, how far can I go on this path? When will the one destined to kill me appear?”

Long Feng sheathed his sword, which gleamed like autumn water. He straightened the front of his Hanfu, dusted it off, and walked away. But there was a hint of loneliness in his steps.

…

In a residential area filled with houses, three figures were leaping about. However, during their movements, these three would sometimes vanish strangely into thin air, only to reappear elsewhere.

Any Apostle who witnessed this scene could immediately tell that these were three Rogues or Assassins. Judging from their occasional clashes, it seemed like two were teaming up against one.

In a way, the Rogue class had the strongest survival abilities among all professions. If you disregarded logistical support, Rogues with low health and weak defense were even harder to kill than main tanks.

Just as the Apostles secretly watching this fight thought it would be a long, drawn-out battle, it ended in a very short time. Surprisingly, victory went not to the side with more people, but to the solitary Apostle.

“It seems the news about the Treasure Map is indeed true. That means I need to start cleaning up this Domination War zone ahead of schedule,” said the victorious Rogue, who was completely wrapped in a tattered black cloth cloak. The fork-like dagger in his hand, glowing with red bloody light, was particularly memorable.

“One day early means 300,000 Shattered Crystals. There are still four days left until the final stage. So, I need to prepare to pay a fine of over a million Shattered Crystals to the Shattered Starry Sky!” The Rogue hesitated briefly but soon regained his composure. “It doesn’t matter. It just means killing ten more Apostles… Oh, no, eight more!”

The Rogue glanced coolly at the two corpses in the distance. Upon closer inspection, the two dead Rogues were one short figure and one in white tight clothing. They were actually Black Rat and Silver Sail, whom Qin Lun had encountered at the military Fortress.

Individually, Black Rat and Silver Sail might not have been very strong. But unlike others, they belonged to a team with excellent coordination, making them a rare, well-synchronized duo in this area. Furthermore, the Rogue class itself was easy to defeat but hard to kill. Being able to single-handedly kill these two showed just how powerful this Rogue was.

Moreover, from the Rogue’s words, it seemed the Shattered Starry Sky had placed some restrictions on him, preventing him from going on a killing spree in this zone. For the Shattered Starry Sky to make such an exception, it was evident that his actual combat power had surpassed the Novice Apostle stage.