Chapter 149: The Death of Little Blood

"The Grim Reaper is nothing much after all," Dalian sneered.

Facing his opponent's taunt, Ye Fei remained completely unmoved. In the mercenary world, only the ultimate victor earned the right to speak. No matter what methods you used to eliminate your rival, as long as you won, no one would ever dare to mock you.

Ye Fei always acted with the utmost caution. He was never arrogant enough to play with his own life. Individually, the skills of Dalian and Xiaoxue were on par with international second-tier assassins. There was always a chance they could graze him, and if he were to be clipped by their poisoned daggers, regret would come too late.

"Rule number one of the assassin's code: achieving the target's assassination is the absolute priority," Ye Fei said, the casual expression fading from his face.

In a split second, Ye Fei's demeanor underwent a drastic transformation. His gaze turned icy cold, and the dagger in his hand flashed with a frigid brilliance. A murderous aura radiated from him like a dormant beast waking up to devour someone. Twirling the dagger, he swiftly slashed toward the two assassins.

*Swish!*

The sound of a razor-sharp blade tearing through the air. As high-level assassins, all three of them were intimately familiar with this sound, even in the dimness where visibility was nearly zero.

*Clang!*

The daggers collided, and Ye Fei's blade immediately sliced several fractions of an inch deeper.

Dalian was horrified. From the tactile feedback in his hands, he could feel that the opponent's blade was cutting directly into his own, coming dangerously close to cleaving his fine-steel dagger in two.

"Where on earth did this Ye Fei get such a razor-sharp weapon?!" Dalian's eyes burned with envy. With such a divine weapon in his possession, future assassinations would be assisted by the gods themselves. He could simply slice right through the opponent's defensive weapon, and while the rival stood there in stunned, defenseless disbelief, he could instantly end their life.

However, with such a divine weapon currently in Ye Fei's hands, the assassin duo had become the ones suffering its devastating effects.

Ye Fei's assault was as fierce as a gale, relentless and violent. Although Dalian desperately tried to avoid colliding with Ye Fei's divine weapon, Ye Fei's attacks were simply too fast. As the miraculous blade swept down stroke after stroke, Dalian had no choice but to raise his own dagger in parry.

*Clang! Clang!*

*Clang!*

The sound of clashing blades rang out continuously. In the blink of an eye, they had collided seven or eight times.

When Ye Fei's divine weapon descended once more, it encountered only the slightest resistance before meeting no opposition at all, gliding through with absolute smoothness.

*Clang—*

A shock rippled through Dalian's heart. When Ye Fei's divine weapon had swept in just then, he was already incapable of dodging and could only thrust out his dagger to block. Yet, in the previous seven or eight clashes, his blade had already been worn down to the verge of snapping by Ye Fei's weapon. This time, it failed completely to hold, severing the very last remnant of steel. The moment he felt the weight in his hand suddenly lighten, he knew disaster had struck, but it was already too late to evade Ye Fei's blade.

The broken blade hit the ground with a crisp sound—a sound that felt as though it had struck directly against Dalian's heart.

*Thud!*

Ye Fei's divine weapon pierced into Dalian's shoulder, instantly carving out a massive wound as blood gushed forth like a fountain.

"Are you alright?!" Xiaoxue cried out, brandishing his dagger to attack. Ye Fei spun his wrist to retract his divine weapon, twisting his body to dodge away.

Dalian raised his hand and hurled the remaining fragment of his dagger at Ye Fei, then clutched his wound and staggered back two steps, gritting his teeth.

This single blow was like a bucket of icy water poured over his head, instantly extinguishing the wild fire of ambition in Dalian's heart. Struck with terror, Dalian no longer dared to harbor any thoughts of killing Ye Fei. It seemed the title of the King of Assassins was out of reach. To escape alive from the Grim Reaper today would already be a remarkable feat, enough to be proud of. Even if word got out, it would undoubtedly elevate his market value considerably.

Dalian no longer dared to hope for Ye Fei's death; a profound desire to retreat had taken root in his mind.

"Xiaoxue, fall back!" Dalian ordered.

Fear had already gripped Xiaoxue's heart, and he had long wanted to abandon the mission and flee. However, because Dalian had previously refused, they had remained deadlocked until now. Hearing the command, he hurriedly prepared to retreat alongside Dalian.

Yet Ye Fei clung to them like a shadow, chasing the pair relentlessly. If they continued to run like this, shaking off Ye Fei's pursuit was utterly impossible.

Overwhelmed by panic and fury, Dalian's eyes darted rapidly. He suddenly glanced at Xiaoxue beside him, a flash of sinister ruthlessness crossing the depths of his eyes.

"Xiaoxue, forgive me. If I get the chance in the future, I will surely kill Ye Fei to avenge you," Dalian thought to himself as he suddenly launched a vicious attack against Xiaoxue.

Caught completely off guard by the sudden assault, Xiaoxue instinctively raised his arms to block. While he was still frozen in shock, Dalian bolted away without a word, abandoning Xiaoxue behind.

"Why?" Complex emotions surged through Xiaoxue. He wanted to chase after him and demand an explanation, but the brief moment of hesitation gave Ye Fei enough time to close the distance.

*Whoosh!*

A fierce wind whistled as an attack targeted Xiaoxue's lower body.

With nowhere to dodge, and currently positioned with his back turned to Ye Fei leaving him unable to block, Xiaoxue could only push forward and run a couple of steps.

Seeing Xiaoxue lunge forward out of reach of his lower-body sweep, Ye Fei charged ahead and lashed out with a flying kick, striking squarely in the middle of Xiaoxue's back and sending him crashing to the ground.

Xiaoxue possessed swift reflexes. Although knocked tumbling, he smoothly rolled across the floor to evade Ye Fei's follow-up strike, then sprang back to his feet in a flash, turning to assume a defensive posture.

Glancing briefly toward the end of the corridor, Ye Fei withdrew his gaze. With his divine weapon gripped in hand, he stared indifferently at Xiaoxue. At this moment, Xiaoxue posed zero threat to Ye Fei. Not only had he lost his fatal poisoned dagger, but his remaining blade had also been notched by Ye Fei's divine weapon and was on the verge of breaking. Moreover, Xiaoxue's mental fortitude had been shattered by Ye Fei, causing his combat standards to plummet drastically. Ye Fei could kill him with effortless ease.

"It seems your companion has abandoned you and fled, treating you as a pawn, a disposable tool to buy himself a sliver of a chance at survival. That must taste rather bitter in your heart, doesn't it?" Ye Fei sneered coldly. His words acted like the final straw, completely crushing Xiaoxue's psychological defenses. Dalian's betrayal, being exploited and thrust into mortal peril—this blow dealt a devastating shock to Xiaoxue, especially while his state of mind was unstable and his mental barricades had already been breached by Ye Fei.

With a cold laugh, Ye Fei strode forward.

Panic surged in Xiaoxue's chest as he brandished his battered blade. Regrettably, his combat proficiency had plummeted, and his reactions were a beat slower than before—a fatal delay.

Now, Ye Fei could easily evade all of Xiaoxue's attacks before lashing out with a kick.

*Bang!*

The kick struck Xiaoxue's hand, hitting the hilt of the dagger and knocking the weapon flying.

Having disarmed his opponent, Ye Fei pivoted forward, his right hand darting toward Xiaoxue's neck as a cold glint flashed abruptly. Only then did Xiaoxue react, but as always, it was too late.

*Slash—*

*Rip!*

That fleeting glint was the blade in Ye Fei's hand. Like a knife slicing through tofu, without the slightest resistance and with effortless ease, it cleaved straight through Xiaoxue's neck.

It was too fast, and the cut made by the dagger was so razor-thin that when Ye Fei withdrew his hand, blood had not even begun to spurt from Xiaoxue's neck yet!

Yet Ye Fei knew Xiaoxue was a dead man; nearly half his neck had been severed, leaving zero possibility of survival.

Without lingering for a single second, the moment his divine weapon swept past Xiaoxue's neck, Ye Fei pressed forward to chase down the other assassin.

*Spurt—*

Only then did blood erupt from Xiaoxue's neck as he collapsed to the ground. Although life had not completely left him, it was merely the final, fleeting flash of a dying ember.

As the blood continued to gush from his throat, Xiaoxue's mind drifted back to his past life: the day he first became an assassin, the first time he took a life, the moment he received his first commission fee...

His experiences and Dalian's were remarkably similar. Both were frustrated, down-on-their-luck assassins who, sharing a kindred misery, had eventually joined forces to form the assassin duo. Afterward, they signed with the same agent and completed their very first assassination contract together. No matter what, Xiaoxue could never have imagined that a day like this would come, when Dalian would shove him out to face certain death.

"Heh, perhaps I killed too many people; this is just retribution," Xiaoxue thought with a heavy heart. Yet too much blood had already drained away. Lying amidst a pool of crimson, his breathing grew steadily fainter.

As his final heartbeat faded away, Xiaoxue passed away.