The Killing Blow, Li Wei's Obsession

Chapter 29: Fatal Strike, Li Wei's Persistence

Beside the dried-up well where a fierce battle had nearly cost Sand his life a few days prior, several skeletons lay shattered, their bones and remains scattered across the ground. Nearby, a dark shadow over two meters tall was diligently clearing obstacles from within the well.

After the assassination attempt, the Undead Necromancer had ordered this passage sealed and dispatched a squad of skeleton soldiers to guard it. Yet, he never imagined how naive his assumption was that the enemy would not return by the same route.

Had he understood Li Wei's character, he would never have sent only low-level undead to hold this position.

Once the sturdy shadow had cleared away the final hundred-kilogram boulder, Li Wei climbed out of the well, accompanied, of course, by the Dread Knight Mordel.

Li Wei had not abandoned his goal after the previous failure. He was an incredibly persistent man; throughout his upbringing, he had been a notorious problem child who insisted on doing exactly what he was told not to. Whenever he encountered failure, he would invariably pick himself up from the very spot he fell. That was Li Wei's nature.

"Mordel, I've told you before: sometimes the people you look down upon will help you at the critical moment, or even become the ones who turn the tide of battle. So, never underestimate anyone!"

Li Wei gestured toward the shadow clearing the path, his tone admonishing. This drew a mournful wail from Mordel; after several days together, he had grown weary of his master's "nagging." Even an undead creature devoid of emotion could not endure Li Wei's "force-feeding" style of education.

Yet this time, Mordel was filled with absolute admiration for his master. Who could have guessed that during the previous assassination attempt, Li Wei had already prepared a contingency plan?

That plan was the seemingly unremarkable Orc!

The shadow clearing the path for them was the very same Orc, upon which Li Wei had applied the Art of Stacking nine times. Thanks to the stacking effect, its current strength was equivalent to a Tier 3 unit; dealing with a few skeleton soldiers was child's play.

Back when the first assassination plan was implemented, Li Wei had already mapped out his retreat in case of failure. Leaving Dawn City safely was only the first step; his true trump card was the Orc he had stacked, which had set the fire and then vanished.

Li Wei's order to it had been simple: regardless of whether the assassination succeeded or failed, it must remain in hiding and open this well passage five days later, when the human kingdom launched its assault.

Now, it had completed its mission.

"Mordel, although we failed last time, it wasn't without gain... At the very least, we learned the Undead Necromancer's magic, his health pool, and his weaknesses. Trust me, this time, Sand is a dead man!"

When he spoke the word "dead," the aura Li Wei exuded left even Mordel feeling a chill. Over these past five days, he had witnessed his master's terrifying side firsthand.

It was an endless, relentless expansion. Li Wei had not let a single place that might contain gold or treasure go unexplored. For five days, he had fought day and night alongside Li Wei, and even as an undead who never knew fatigue, Mordel felt a sense of dread.

Mordel knew full well that Li Wei was merely a mortal!

However, Mordel could not discern Li Wei's ultimate goal. He only knew that Li Wei kept collecting gold coins, yet instead of recruiting creatures, he went to neutral merchants to purchase hundreds of "Thief's Blades."

Thief's Blade: Attack +3, White quality. A favorite weapon among wandering women and thieves; short, sharp, and agile.

It was essentially a piece of junk. Mordel was certain that even a powerful barbarian could never pierce his armor with such a pathetic dagger, let alone harm him.

The price of a Thief's Blade at a neutral merchant was 50 gold coins—very cheap—but buying a hundred was no small sum. When he saw Li Wei spend 5,000 gold coins to acquire 100 Thief's Blades, Mordel felt a pang of heartache and concluded that his master had lost his mind.

But he had no way of knowing Li Wei's true intentions.

In truth, Li Wei's considerations were far more meticulous. During the last ambush on Sand, Li Wei had discovered that ranged attacks dealt negligible damage to that formidable Undead Necromancer; even bullets that had been stacked could only shave off a tiny fraction of his health.

However, the Dread Knight's Fatal Strike and his own Cloud-Piercing Palm dealt significant damage. Thus, Li Wei concluded that the Undead Necromancer Sand must possess the ability or an item to resist ranged weapon attacks—most likely the black and red robe he wore.

Therefore, the best way to kill him was through melee combat. While the Cloud-Piercing Palm was decent, its damage was too low and its speed insufficient. The same went for the Centaur Battle Axe; without significant strength, one could not wield it effectively.

So, Li Wei thought of the weapon with the fastest attack speed: the dagger!

When he saw the stats of the Thief's Blade, he knew it was exactly what he had been searching for. He spent five days collecting gold to buy 100 of them, and last night, he performed the "Art of Stacking" on all 100 blades.

Stacking 100 daggers was no easy feat. It took Li Wei over an hour, and just as his stamina was reaching its limit, he finally completed the Art of Stacking.

[Thunderous Berserk Dagger] Attack 59-113, adds 37-49 lightning damage, Purple quality, Agility +15, Strength +10, Durability 30/30 (non-repairable), can be exchanged for 20,000 points, cannot be taken out of the plot world.

At first, when Li Wei saw the item's stats, he was stunned, then overcome with wild joy. But when he read the final line—"cannot be taken out of the plot world"—his spirits plummeted.

Still, it made sense. If such "heaven-defying" items could be taken out, perhaps even someone with average base stats could take down veteran powerhouses.

Moreover, with only 30 durability and no way to repair it, the dagger's lifespan was extremely short.

Through continuous use of the stacking technique, Li Wei had gained some insights. Generally, the higher the quality of the item, the more difficult it was to stack, and there was a success rate involved; Li Wei had wasted quite a few daggers due to failed attempts.

Furthermore, to stack an item that could be taken out of the plot world, the number of stacks could not exceed five. Just like his Centaur Battle Axe, which was currently at its fifth stack, possessing 75 attack power and having upgraded from green to blue quality—that was the limit. Continuing to stack it would make it impossible to take out of the plot world. This was likely a measure to suppress a god-tier skill like the "Art of Stacking."

Even so, Li Wei was thrilled. Even if the purple-quality [Thunderous Berserk Dagger] couldn't be taken out, it would serve to kill the Undead Sand.

With 59-113 attack power, plus 37-49 lightning damage, combined with the attack speed of a dagger and the bonuses to agility and strength, Li Wei was confident that, in coordination with the Dread Knight, he could finish off Sand within 10 seconds.

He wouldn't even let him cast a spell!

Because he had equipped this dagger, Li Wei's base stats had become: Strength 19, Agility 25, Spirit 15, Stamina 5, with an overall rating of D2!

At that very moment, the war between humans and the undead began. Almost all the undead in the city were gathering at the gates. Li Wei, draped in a black cloak, mingled among a large group of zombies. The cloak had long been smeared with the scent of zombies, so the slow-witted, mindless creatures never noticed that an "outsider" had joined their ranks.

Zombies were among the most repulsive of all units; even other undead species didn't want to travel with these fly-covered, rotting corpses. Thus, Li Wei successfully followed the main undead force to the front lines.

"Lord Sand orders all skeleton soldiers and zombies to leave the city and meet the enemy! Damn it, move faster!" A zombie leader covered in toxic sores kicked one of his kin, sending the tall zombie stumbling out of the city gate.

By now, Li Wei had already hidden in a secluded corner, shrouded in darkness, while the Dread Knight had abandoned his horse to hide alongside him.

Scanning the city walls, he found no sign of the Undead Necromancer Sand. That fellow likely hadn't appeared yet. Li Wei could only continue to wait in the corner; the moment Sand appeared, Li Wei would launch his decapitation strike.

War had always been a slaughterhouse that devoured countless lives, but this time, the human kingdom's army clearly held the upper hand. The low-tier undead—skeletons and zombies—had no ability to resist the high-tier Griffins and Knights, and were quickly beaten into piles of dry bone and rotting flesh.

Zheng Yutong sat on horseback, watching the battle from afar. She had done everything she could; whether the mission would be completed depended on this battle.

The 300-plus elite knights she had recruited were the strongest units in the entire human legion. Their white armor stood in neat rows like a wall of steel, and their 300 long, sharp lances looked like a vast forest of steel—dense, chilling, and terrifying.

Zheng Yutong had completed such strategic missions before, but never had she pushed a mission to this extent. She believed that from start to finish, the completion of the entire mission had been near-perfect. With no accidents, the final rating would surely be B-rank or higher, perhaps even A-rank.

Compared to previous missions where she had only achieved C, D, or even E-rank evaluations, the rewards for this one would certainly be substantial.

"If it weren't for that guy, this probably wouldn't have been possible, right?" Staring at the towering walls of Dawn City across the field, Zheng Yutong drew her weapon, preparing to join the fray. How could she miss such an opportunity to harvest points?

"The Undead Necromancer has yet to show himself. Everyone, stay alert! You must know that those despicable undead love to play tricks, and the high-level undead haven't even appeared yet. Do not let your guard down for a single second!"

The commander of the human army shouted at the top of his lungs, his words immediately drawing everyone's attention. Indeed, it was not yet time to celebrate victory; that evil Undead Necromancer must still have some conspiracy up his sleeve, otherwise, he would not have remained in hiding.

In truth, Sand had no conspiracy at all.

At this moment, surrounded by a large group of vampires, Sand was walking toward the city gate. The assassination attempt a few days ago had nearly scared the soul out of him; one must realize that even the undead fear death.

Now, having recovered his health, he had decided to enslave the dozen Bone Dragons he had discovered a few days prior to teach that group of ignorant humans a lesson and vent the pent-up rage in his heart.

As he reached the city wall, the undead creatures guarding the area saluted their supreme commander, which greatly satisfied Sand's vanity. He nodded with satisfaction and was just about to ascend the wall when he suddenly heard a familiar "loud bang."

Still lost in his thoughts, he was struck in the chest by a spark. With a sound of cracking bone, a hole was blasted right through Sand's chest.

It wasn't until the flames began to burn at his chest that he remembered where that familiar "loud bang" had come from!

"Damn it, it's that human!" Following the direction of the sound, Sand saw a scene that made his soul tremble: the human and the Dread Knight who had tried to assassinate him days ago were currently smashing the vampires blocking their path into burning fragments. It looked like their target this time was still him.

In that instant, Sand turned cowardly. He didn't even want to fight these two fellows; instead, he retreated frantically, hoping to get as far away from these two gods of slaughter as possible.

However, hope is never the same as reality. In less than two seconds, those two gods of slaughter had already charged right in front of him.

The Thunderous Berserk Dagger gripped in Li Wei's hand was truly a weapon of mass destruction in the mortal world. Ordinary vampires would turn into a pile of burning ash after being stabbed twice in succession, while skeletons and zombies couldn't even withstand a single blow. The terrifying lethality of 100 stacked daggers was now fully revealed.

"Want to run? No way!"

Seeing the Undead Necromancer trying to flee, Li Wei sneered. The stacked bullet he had just fired from his UPS Pistol had already drained 50 points of Sand's health; now, the Undead Necromancer only had 1,950 health points remaining.

Closing the distance, he delivered a fierce backhanded stab, driving the Thunderous Berserk Dagger deep into Sand's back.

-150

A very strong hit, four times the damage of the Cloud Piercing Palm.

Before Sand could even feel the pain, the dagger in Li Wei's hand moved again!

(Regarding the fact that the magic 'Blindness' cannot be used on the undead, that was an oversight on my part. I would like to thank all the readers who discovered this bug. Furthermore, I continue to thank 'Sanqian Shijie. Yibu Dengtian', Aristocratic Scholar, Wanxiang Xingchen, Ning Shang, Transparent Shadow, and Eight Cats for their tips. Thank you all for your support, truly, thank you very much! Finally, as usual, I am asking for recommendation votes and bookmarks. PS: I hope to blow past the ranking above today, let's go!!)