With the passage of time, the two of them had turned the surrounding ground into a riddled mess of pits and hollows.
Li Xiuman gradually began to fall into a disadvantage.
“This is impossible! How could someone like me, who has gone through so many trials, lose to another's sword!” Li Xiuman spoke as he struggled to swing his blade.
With every heavy, powerful strike of Number Zero's sword, the soil beneath Li Xiuman's feet crumbled, and his hand holding the blade trembled.
Seizing the opportunity, Number Zero slammed forward with its shield, breaking through Li Xiuman's guard.
It thrust its sword directly toward Li Xiuman's abdomen.
At such a tricky angle, it was utterly impossible to dodge.
Li Xiuman's stomach was violently impaled.
He stared at his midsection and touched it, his hand coming away covered in blood.
As if in disbelief, he looked up at Number Zero, then violently coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Number Zero violently wrenched the sword out, splattering blood all over the ground.
No longer able to support his body, Li Xiuman collapsed onto one knee, propping himself up with Crystal Orchid against the ground to keep from falling completely.
“Huff... Huff...”
“To think... I'd die... here...”
“Those who live by the sword... die by the... sword...”
“Everything is karma... karmic... retribution... ah...”
After Li Xiuman finished speaking, he went completely still.
“Who sent you?” Number Zero wanted to ask, but there was no response.
Viscount Fantes, still visibly shaken, stepped out and walked toward the kneeling assassin.
“Miss Teri, what's wrong with him?” Fantes no longer affectionately called her “Teri” as he had before, but respectfully used a formal title.
If it hadn't been for Number Zero just now, he would have been finished in the very first instant.
“He took poison.”
“He committed suicide,” Number Zero replied, maintaining its cold, taciturn expression.
It sheathed its sword and remounted its horse immediately after speaking, without sparing the corpse another glance.
At this moment, Fantes didn't think Number Zero was cold at all. This was what you called reliable! This was what you called professional!
“Suicide?”
“Damned assassin!” Fantes kicked the corpse to the ground, and the face beneath the hood was revealed as the body fell over.
It was a face so ordinary it could be seen anywhere, now contorted in a grimace.
The ice sword supporting the corpse also shattered into a pile of ice shards as the body fell.
“Carry this corpse back with us! Once we're back in White Bear City, hunt down the mastermind behind this!”
“I want to see exactly who wants me dead!” After saying his piece, Fantes remounted his horse.
The remaining servants looked at each other before ultimately carrying the corpse back into the carriage.
After such an incident, Fantes lost all interest in heading to his country manor for a vacation and hunting. The convoy turned back, returning to White Bear City.
And what about the number one assassin of the M8 Nebula? Had he truly died just like that?
Of course not.
The number one assassin of the M8 Nebula, Li Xiuman, had n+1 ways to escape, one of which was called “shedding one's skin like a cicada”—pulling off a perfect bait-and-switch.
The corpse belonged to a real assassin.
As for Li Xiuman himself, he had already embarked on a leisurely trip home.
By now, Number Zero's trust level in Fantes's heart must have skyrocketed.
If he waited a bit longer, he might be able to get in touch with the conspiracy behind the sacrifices.
“But as for the identity of an assassin...” Initially, Li Xiuman had been quite excited. Becoming an assassin, walking in the shadows, and elegantly harvesting lives.
However, having thoroughly enjoyed putting on a grand show just now, Li Xiuman had no interest in continuing to take on assassin work.
It was way too tiring.
He was busy.
Suddenly, a spark of inspiration flashed through Li Xiuman's mind.
If he didn't want to do it himself, he could always pass the identity onto someone else!
Like that “Blood Bone” organization those vampires had set up.
It didn't sound like a respectable cult at all, and it totally clashed with his bright, sunny personality.
But looking at it now, a cult like that was a perfect match for assassins!
He could completely leave the assassin gig to those vampires to mess around with, while he just collected his cut on a regular basis.
How delightful!
“To think of yet another way to make money... I really am a genius, aren't I?”
“An assassin organization founded by a genius assassin who fake-died after falling from grace.”
“Now that is a pretty cool backstory.” Li Xiuman grew excited once more.
Furthermore, it wasn't just that. The vampires' current combat power hadn't fully developed yet.
He could mass-produce bone sniper rifles and bullets for the vampires to use for assassinations.
If used by the vampires, the guns' power would certainly decrease a bit.
But even with reduced power, blowing a target's head wide open would still be easily achievable.
Once the vampires were trained, they could go straight to work.
With their natural flight and nighttime stealth, they were practically tailor-made for the job.
Money, piles of money would come rolling in!
“However, if I make that many guns, I might run into a calcium deficiency...”
“Fortunately, I've collected quite a few compressed bones in my storage space. I can replenish myself whenever I lack calcium.”
Upon returning to White Bear City, the moment he entered the basement, Li Xiuman immediately began manufacturing the first batch of bone sniper rifles.
With money as his goal, his motivation was limitless.
Since they were to be used by others, their hardness and structural design had to be more rational.
However, no matter how he built them, there was no way to make them function without being driven by his own power.
Eventually, Li Xiuman realized he had backed himself into a logical dead end by stubbornly insisting on using only the materials of his own body.
Using Golem magic, he incorporated several other metals into the rifles.
The magic circle glowed, and the gun successfully fired.
The cost wasn't high, as the vast majority of the materials still came from his own bones.
The accuracy still needed tuning, and the power wasn't quite ideal either.
Still, now that the prototype was made, the subsequent fine-tuning would be much easier.
Before long, Li Xiuman successfully created the Vampire Armament No. 1.
Striking while the iron was hot, he made ten more.
[Status] Decay, Osteoporosis (Constitution -10, remaining time 24:00:00)
A new status condition had appeared...
Damn it, time to replenish his calcium.
Li Xiuman pulled a pile of clean white bones from his storage space and began fusing them into himself.
Once the fusion of all the bones was complete, Li Xiuman was fully revitalized, and his Osteoporosis status disappeared.
Then, he crafted another ten.
And he got Osteoporosis again.
Calcium replenishment!
Crafting!
Calcium replenishment!
Crafting!
...
A total of fifty finely crafted Vampire Armament No. 1s were neatly lined up on the ground.
Their skeletal frames gleamed with a beautiful white light.
This amount already exceeded the number of vampires.
The surplus would serve as reserve stock.
Afterward, he took some time to explain how to use the weapons to the vampires, as well as the founding of their assassin organization.
For some reason, the vampires seemed incredibly excited, their faces filled with anticipation.
Furthermore, that vampire named Jetis... had a very strange look in her eyes...
How did the spark of intelligence in her pupils seem to convey a sense of “I understand everything”?
Just what do you understand?!
Don't just make things up if you don't actually get it!
Whatever. As long as the assassin organization was established and made money, they could do whatever else they wanted.
Following Li Xiuman's departure, all the vampires turned their attention toward Jetis.
Jetis smiled nonchalantly.
“Such a simple and obvious truth this time, figure it out yourselves.”
“Don't rely on me for everything. Just follow Master's orders, and everything will become clear in the future.”
Jetis picked up a bone sniper rifle and left the basement.
It seemed she was going to find a place to practice her marksmanship.
Rate on N.U.
