Chapter 163: The Sniper's Death

At the instant the gunshot rang, the Voice of All Things had already locked onto the gun's position.

The target was over three hundred meters away, on the fifth floor of a seven‑story building, hidden behind a window.

The building stood at the intersection of two streets, on the route from the dock to the western‑city airship landing field; anyone not wanting to detour would inevitably pass here.

Lei En leapt from the vehicle, rushed into a shop by the street, immediately exited through the side door, skirted the corner, and sprinted at high speed out of the gunman's sight.

With fourth‑rank swiftness plus third‑rank rapid sprint, his speed was hardly inferior to that of a high‑rank shadow warrior.

Pedestrians on the street felt a gust of wind sweep past; turning back they saw only a tall silhouette swiftly disappearing.

Lei En kept running while listening for the gunman's movements.

After the high‑rank gunner fired two shots, the gunfire ceased, as if he were searching for his own figure and did not leave immediately after missing.

Clearly, he had not at all expected the target to be closing in.

A dozen seconds later, Lei En had reached the base of the building, circled to its side and accelerated, then leapt up with a sudden bound.

His legs unleashed terrifying force, cracking the ground beneath his feet.

Lei En vaulted high; at the apex he activated the spell on his rune book, his figure flickered, spanning the air and landing lightly on the fourth‑floor balcony without a sound.

From the balcony, angled upward, was the window where the gunner was concealed.

Within the Voice of All Things, the gunner remained at his spot, unaware of Lei En's arrival.

Lei En swiftly flipped through the rune book, selected the Fireball Spell, flames gathered in his hand, and in a second or two he could hurl the fireball through the window, blasting the gunner out.

The gunner is a newly risen transcendent profession, its system still imperfect and riddled with flaws.

They attack strongly but defend weakly, are poor at melee, and have terrible defense; even a high‑rank gunner cannot withstand a three‑ring Fireball Spell explosion.

Halfway through casting, Lei En suddenly sensed a magical disturbance.

Four‑ring spell—Portal!

Another person appeared in the gunner's room, and immediately gunfire erupted, pistols cracking nonstop, interwoven with multicolored spell light streaming out the window.

Lei En halted the casting; in less than ten seconds, the battle abruptly ceased.

A figure burst through the window and fell onto the street.

Lei En instantly recognized him: this was the high‑rank gunner who had tried to assassinate him, his face covered with black cloth, only sharp eyes visible; his soul possessed a nine‑layer structure, making him a Level‑9 gunner!

But at this moment, the Level‑9 gunner was in disarray, wounded in many places and bleeding profusely.

"Escaping from a legendary mage, your strength is not bad."

Before Lei En's thought could settle, the Level‑9 gunner's silhouette vanished mid‑air, slipping into the shadows like a shadow warrior.

Shadow‑stepping might help others, but for him it was merely superfluous.

A prepared Rainbow Beam erupted from his fingertips.

Whoosh!

Pedestrians below the building looked up to see a straight, rainbow‑like beam crossing the air; it seemed to strike empty space, yet a figure fell down.

"Ah…"

The gunner let out a pained cry; having fled from the terrifying caster, he was gravely injured, his defense plummeted, and he could no longer withstand the spell.

To shorten casting time, Lei En did not use Sky‑Blue Song to raise the rings, so the Rainbow Beam remained three‑ring.

Even so, the beam pierced the gunner's body, sweeping across his waist and nearly cleaving him in two.

This time the beam triggered a petrification effect.

The gunner's whole body stiffened, crashing heavily to the ground with a muffled thud like a stone, cracks spreading across his surface, and his life force instantly faded.

"That's it, dead?"

Lei En withdrew the flames from his hand; he had originally intended to finish with a Fireball Spell.

He jumped down from the balcony, landing beside the gunner's corpse, where a soul rose, absorbing into electricity.

Beside the corpse lay a soul gun, the opponent's weapon in life.

This soul gun was considerably larger than ordinary ones, over half a meter long, its barrel twice the usual diameter, its shape odd, covered with runes and energy lines, still emitting a faint red glow.

Lei En picked up the soul gun; it felt heavy in his hand, weighing nearly twenty pounds.

The metallic feel immediately acted, identifying the gun as high‑quality, near‑perfect gear, valuable.

Obviously, it was custom‑made for that high‑rank gunner.

The gunner's waist bore two ammo chains, loaded with various specially enchanted bullets.

Lei En had learned soul‑gun forging from Zuo Er Tan, and now possessed ample rune knowledge; a quick glance let him recognize five or six bullet types: Armor Penetration bullet, Explosive Shell, tracking bullet, frost bullet, and so on.

Recalling the earlier shot, it must have been an Armor Penetration bullet.

When a gunner ascends to high rank, the core Element is called "Soul‑binding Power"; soul energy merges with the soul gun, attaches to the bullets, and a charged strike multiplies the bullet's power and greatly extends its range.

Soul‑bound gun attacks consume massive soul power and require a few seconds of charging before firing.

Such attacks may be less useful in front‑line combat, but as a long‑range assassination tool they are perfect.

Lei En touched the shallow wound on his forehead, feeling a pang of lingering fear.

High‑rank gunners are equivalent to snipers; no transcendent profession can easily guard against a black gun from hundreds of meters away, and a careless moment leads to a headshot.

"Good thing I have a steel body…"

He didn't know how many times he had counted his luck.

At that moment, a figure invisible to ordinary people flew out from the shattered window, hovering mid‑air above his head—it was Ao Xi Li Ya.

Lei En pretended not to see her, feeling no surprise at all.

Ao Xi Li Ya's strength far exceeded his expectations, and her combat sense was keen; within seconds she located the gunner, opened a Portal, teleported beside the enemy, and entered the fight.

A Level‑9 gunner was essentially dealt with in under ten seconds.

Lei En believed that even without his intervention, the gunner was certain to die.

"Legendary mages really are powerful!"

"No, an ordinary legendary mage or wizard certainly can't match her; this is a rainbow dragon…"

While they were lost in idle thoughts, the silver‑clad knights and the Secret Fire Guard rushed over. The knights kept Lei En and the wizards in the middle, forming a defensive formation.

The people on the street were frightened and stepped back, yet their curiosity couldn't be restrained, and they gathered at a distance to watch.

In less than half a minute, the street became blocked.

Panxi'er glanced at the gunman on the ground, surprise flashing in his eyes; the other wizards, who had been somewhat resentful toward Lei En, fell silent now.

In this ambush, they hardly contributed at all; it counts as dereliction of duty.

Panxi'er used his staff to lift the black cloth from the gunman's face, revealing a middle‑aged man's visage, ordinary in appearance, with a pale scar on his left cheek.

"Who is this person?" a Secret Fire Guard wizard couldn't help asking.

Lei En replied, "We should know soon enough."

As soon as his words ended, a series of fierce wingbeats rang out in the sky; people looked up to see several massive griffins descending from above.

The griffins descended lower, stirring the air currents on the ground, kicking up dust.

The onlookers were forced to retreat; someone whispered, "Viscount Stoind's griffin knights arrived so quickly."

Lei En and Panxi'er exchanged a glance, thinking the same.

The Viscount Stoind spoken of by everyone is a ruler of the Logos family, one of Mo Du's nobles, governing the Stoind Domain.

Among Mo Du's seven extant great families, the Stoind Domain is the smallest in area but occupies the prime location; the entire viscountcy comprises Mo Du's original old city district, and even though the city has expanded severalfold, it remains the most bustling central area, encompassing over half the city.

The Logos family is so wealthy they could rival a nation; they have cultivated a group of griffin knights, far from the size of a legion, yet numbering over two hundred!

The security of Mo Du's central district is handled by the griffin knights.

Yet from the start of the battle to its conclusion, in just a few minutes, the griffin knights arrived; even though griffins can fly, they far exceeded the reaction time.

Their arrival is hostile!

Lei En squinted, watching several griffins land before him.

The lead griffin measured nearly five meters in length, larger than the great griffin Lei En had seen at the Longshande Security Bureau, possibly three to four thousand pounds, evidently an advanced variant—a royal griffin.

On the back of this royal griffin sat a fully armed knight.

He wore no helmet, his brilliant short golden hair exposed, age indiscernible, features upright and imposing, bearing a heavy two‑handed sword on his back.

Lei En used his Soul Eye to glance quietly, and his eyelid twitched instantly.

This person turned out to be a twelfth‑level Legendary Great Swordsman!

The other griffin knights were also formidable, all Mid‑stage Iron Guards, ranked between levels four and six, clad in uniform fine armor, bearing two‑handed swords.

The Legendary Great Swordsman did not dismount from the griffin, staying aloft, looking at the silver‑clad knights forming a formation, a slight contemptuous smile curling his lips.

His gaze landed on Lei En at the center, and he said, "Earl of Glamorgan, the Stoind Domain does not welcome you; leave at once."

The words were blunt, issuing an expulsion order.

Lei En was taken aback; the other party had not pursued responsibility for the battle. Though the attitude seemed harsh, Lei En's Soul Eye saw that this person's hostility was not strong.

Such hostility fell far short of true enmity, resembling merely a desire to avoid trouble.

He knew the gunman's identity and had long been aware of the assassination, yet seemed unwilling to intervene.

Moreover, he directly called himself Earl of Glamorgan, which amounts to acknowledging his own earl title, being the lord of Glamorgan.

Lei En was puzzled; could the Viscount Stoind's stance have changed?

He quickly shifted his thoughts and asked, "May I ask who you are?"

"Rosa*Logos." the Great Swordsman stated his identity, a look of impatience on his face, and again in a deep voice said, "Leave the Stoind Domain; I give you one minute to decide, or I won't be polite."

Lei En's eyebrows twitched; indeed, he was of the Logos family.

Since the Empire's founding, this family has excelled at cultivating Iron Guards and knights; each generation produces a Legendary Great Swordsman, becoming the family's backbone.

The current Viscount Stoind, a top powerhouse among the seven great families, is a Legendary High‑rank Sword Saint named Vilién*Logos, whose fame has lasted over a hundred years.

Facing the threat of a Legendary Great Swordsman, Lei En was not fearful.

However, after some thought, he decided not to engage the opponent directly for now; the Stoind family's stance was odd. At least, Rosa*Logos's actions did not match his inner intentions, seeming more like a performance for someone's eyes.

"We'll go to the Earl of Glamorgan's airship landing field," Lei En decided, immediately leading his people away.

(End of Chapter)