Shadow Blade

Rayne slowed his steps as he reached the riverbank and stopped ten paces away from Ramsey.

He looked around and realized that this stretch of riverbank was where he had crawled out of the river half a month ago. Now that he had returned, their positions had been completely reversed. It was rather dramatic.

Ramsey knelt there with both hands raised above his head, not daring to move at all.

He had witnessed the power of the gun in Rayne's hand firsthand. And since Rayne had caught up to him, he must have already killed Esberg.

Only a Transcendent could kill another Transcendent. This had to be a powerful Gunner!

He had no night vision and could see only a shadow approaching.

The Gunner stood there without speaking, yet he brought terrifying pressure. Ramsey's back was injured, and the double torment of pain and fear made cold sweat pour from his forehead. When the river wind blew, his entire body trembled uncontrollably.

"What secret do you know?" Rayne asked.

Ramsey relaxed slightly, seeing a glimmer of hope for survival. Then he suddenly found the Gunner's voice extremely familiar. The answer immediately came to him, and he cried out instinctively, "Rayne?"

He could not possibly have mistaken that voice. It was Rayne's.

They had been classmates at the Supernatural Academy for three years and had gotten along fairly well. Later, Rayne had died by his hand. Ramsey could never forget Rayne—the boy adored by many female students at the academy and envied by the male students.

One reason Ramsey had introduced Rayne to the Swordsmanship Hall as an assistant had been his secret jealousy of Rayne. He had dragged him into the mess as revenge.

In the darkness, the Gunner's figure looked increasingly familiar, further convincing Ramsey that this man was Rayne.

"You're Rayne?" Ramsey asked in stunned disbelief.

Bang!

A gunshot answered Ramsey. A flash of fire burst before his eyes, followed by excruciating pain in his hand. When he turned to look, he discovered that his right palm was gone, leaving only half his forearm as blood gushed from it.

"Ah..." Ramsey let out a heart-rending scream.

He pressed his left hand against the severed stump, trying to stop the bleeding, but it did little good. He hurriedly tore a strip from his clothes with his teeth and swiftly wrapped it tightly around the wound, easing the pain slightly.

Rayne did not fire again. He merely worked the fore-end and chambered another round.

Compared to what Ramsey had done to him half a month ago—beating him for hours, then killing him and dumping his body in the river—blowing off one of his hands was merely collecting a little interest.

"Can you talk now?" Rayne said unhurriedly.

Ramsey's face turned pale as he looked at Rayne. He did not dare ask why Rayne had survived and even become a Transcendent. He was nearly consumed by despair, knowing Rayne would not spare him, yet unwilling to die like this. His mind raced, searching for a way to survive.

In Rayne's eyes, the color of Ramsey's soul shifted back and forth between red, black, gray, and blue, mixed with fear, despair, anger, and the strongest emotion of all—hatred!

"My time is short, and my patience is limited." Rayne's gun muzzle moved slightly.

"No, don't shoot!"

Ramsey hurriedly raised his intact left hand and pleaded, "I'll talk."

"Esberg was a member of Shadow Blade, a Shadow Blade assassin. His real name wasn't Esberg either. It was Trifer, and he was on the Empire's wanted list. He only came to Longshande under the identity of Esberg last year, apparently to carry out a secret mission."

Rayne frowned, somewhat surprised.

He had suspected that Esberg had an organization behind him, but he had not expected it to be Shadow Blade.

He had heard of Shadow Blade before. It was the Empire's most notorious assassin organization, infamous for centuries and responsible for countless major crimes. Every Shadow Blade assassin was a Transcendent, though they were not limited to Shadow Dancers. Transcendents of many professions could be Shadow Blade assassins, lurking among ordinary people.

The Empire and the three major Churches had always tried to eradicate this assassin organization, but Shadow Blade assassins were like weeds. Kill one batch, and another sprang up. They could never be completely rooted out.

Rumor had it that Shadow Blade was so difficult to eradicate because an evil god supported the assassin organization from behind the scenes. Its members worshipped that evil god and had established an underground Church—a cult!

"What secret mission?" Rayne asked.

"I don't know."

Ramsey shook his head. Seeing the gun move in the darkness, he hurriedly explained in fright, "Don't shoot. I really don't know. I only guessed by accident that Esberg had come to Longshande on a mission."

"At the start of the year, he came to me and promised to pay for me to conduct the Soul Transformation Ritual. He also said he would help me obtain a Demon Soul afterward, but he wanted me to stay at the academy, gather information about it, and keep an eye on the movements of certain important people."

"Besides me, Esberg had planted other informants in the academy."

"Once, I caught him secretly meeting someone. They talked for a long time. That person was probably also a Shadow Blade assassin, and his position was higher than Esberg's. I didn't dare get close and only heard a few words. It seemed to be related to Silver Star Academy. That Shadow Blade assassin should be hiding inside Silver Star Academy."

Rayne's heart tightened when he heard this.

Longsand City had three Supernatural Academies, but the three academies differed greatly in both background and faculty strength.

Crayden Academy, where Ramsey and he had studied, had the most students but was also the weakest. Its students were mostly commoners, and anyone could enroll as long as they paid. It had the lowest chance of producing Transcendents.

However, Crayden Academy had a large student body. Even with the lowest success rate, it produced the most Transcendents every year, accounting for over sixty percent of Longsand City's total.

In fact, Crayden Academy was a public academy of the Empire. Besides training Transcendents, it offered more than a dozen professional courses, including grammar, art, languages, law, history, architecture, alchemy, mechanics, and more. As long as a student mastered one course and passed the examination, they could receive a graduation certificate from the academy.

Next came Stuhol Academy, founded jointly by Longsand City's nobility and wealthy merchants. It focused on elite education and was a noble academy. Its annual tuition exceeded one hundred Gold Shields, and it had only a tenth as many students as Crayden Academy, but every student came from either wealth or nobility.

However, Longsand City's best academy was Silver Star Academy.

That was because Silver Star Academy had been founded by Duke Silverstar, who served as its headmaster.

Silver Star Academy accepted only the most gifted students. Not only was there no tuition, but all expenses were covered. Every month, all students also received a stipend equal to three months' wages for an ordinary worker. Such generous conditions drew tens of thousands of applicants every year, but only a little over a hundred lucky people could enroll.

Rayne had applied to Silver Star Academy several years ago as well. Like the vast majority of people, he had been eliminated quickly.

As one of the Empire's only twelve Soul Saint Wizards, Duke Silverstar naturally focused on training wizards. Thus, people also called Silver Star Academy the Wizard Academy.

As long as one graduated from Silver Star Academy, one would qualify to enter a Wizard Tower for further study or join the duke's Secret Fire Guard.

In other words, Silver Star Academy was actually the duke's wizard training camp.

If Ramsey's words were true, then Shadow Blade had designs on Silver Star Academy, perhaps even on Duke Silverstar himself!

This was an event that could shake the entire Aurelian Empire.

Duke Silverstar's status was extraordinary. Not only was he one of the Empire's twelve Soul Saint Wizards, he was also a member of the Kemetis Supreme Council, the Empire's highest authority.

The Empire was called an Empire, but since the year 1355 of the New Era, it had gone more than a thousand years without an emperor. Only the "Consul," selected by the High Council every ten years, served as its nominal leader and exercised the power to govern the Empire.

Although every Soul Saint Wizard was a member of the High Council, Duke Silverstar had an even more important identity: he was the Chosen One of the Goddess of Magic!

In an Empire ruled by wizards and devoted to the Goddess of Magic, one could hardly find anyone more esteemed than Duke Silverstar.

Rayne shook his head slightly. Such an important figure was far too distant from him. It was not his place to interfere.

I don't want to live on a pauper's wages while worrying about the affairs of emperors.

Even if Duke Silverstar were assassinated, what would that have to do with me?

Whether it was a Soul Saint Wizard above Level 20 or Shadow Blade secretly serving an evil god, if their conflict touched him even slightly, they could crush him into ashes with ease.

This was indeed a great secret, but it had nothing to do with him.

Rayne did not wish to ask any more about the academy. He said flatly, "Do you have any last words?"

Ramsey's expression changed drastically. He trembled in terror and shouted, "Rayne, don't kill me! Please!"

"We've always been the best of friends. You fell out with your family and had no tuition money, so I introduced you to Esberg at the Swordsmanship Hall as an assistant. I really only wanted to help you."

"If you hadn't gone to the Church of Justice back then, how could I possibly have laid a hand on you?"

"I didn't want to kill you either. Esberg forced me to do it!"

"Rayne, I wronged you. For the sake of the years we spent as classmates, spare my life! I had no choice. My mother had been seriously ill in bed for years, and my father owed huge gambling debts outside, so I followed Esberg and did many bad things. But none of it was my intention..."

Ramsey repented tearfully, looking utterly miserable, but his only intact left hand scooped up a handful of mud and sand from the riverbank. He crawled forward on his knees, trying to get closer while Rayne was not paying attention.

Rayne saw every one of those small movements clearly.

So he pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Bang! The gunshot rang out beside the river. Ramsey's pleas abruptly stopped, and his head exploded like a watermelon, leaving behind a headless corpse.

A soul flew out and was absorbed by Rayne.

Rayne felt the pleasure of his charge rising and looked toward the river. The night breeze brushed his face. He took a deep breath, then slowly let it out, as an indescribable emotion echoed in his chest.

That emotion was relief and exhilaration. It was as though his soul had been elevated!

At last, he understood that saying: "Revenge tastes as sweet as honey."