"Since you two followed him here to find us, you must have considered the consequences. However, I’m a man who clearly distinguishes between reward and punishment! Now, I’ll give you a chance. Tell me the secret to Xu Tao not being harmed. Whoever speaks first, I won’t personally kill!"
Upon hearing this, the two immediately exchanged glances and then rushed to speak.
"It’s binding a teammate!"
They spoke in unison, almost simultaneously. But thanks to Chen Mo’s perception ability, he still identified who spoke first.
"The one on the right, you were a fraction of a second too slow. Too bad."
The moment Chen Mo finished speaking, the professional he’d singled out showed a terrified expression. "No..."
The next moment, a strong, scorching red light suddenly burst out beside him, accompanied by two loud BANG! BANG! noises.
The man didn’t even have time to scream before he was instantly blasted into a charred corpse, dead on the spot!
Seeing this familiar charred corpse, Yan Yingyue instantly recalled her encounter with Xiao Ru. A similar explosion had occurred in the woods back then. When she had turned back, she only saw the red light from the explosion dissipating among the trees. It seemed like something charred had fallen from the trees then, but she was too far away to see clearly, so she hadn’t mentioned it. At the time, she hadn’t known what happened. But now, she understood. No wonder Chen Mo had told her and Lady Wu not to go check. It turned out Chen Mo had caused that explosion.
In that instant, Yan Yingyue understood why Xiao Ru had been alone in that part of the woods. She had been bait to lure in passersby, while the real Assassin was hiding in the trees.
She couldn’t help but feel a wave of fear. What if Chen Mo hadn’t noticed? What if the three of them had just been two ordinary Priests and an ordinary Skeleton Mage? They would most likely have been killed!
Recalling Xiao Ru’s pitiful appearance and sensing the malevolence of human nature, Yan Yingyue couldn’t help but feel a chill run down her spine.
"Don’t... don’t kill me! I’ll tell you everything! Whatever you want to know, I’ll tell you!"
Seeing Chen Mo kill without batting an eye, instantly blasting his companion into a charred corpse, the surviving man was so terrified he dropped to his knees and begged for mercy repeatedly.
Chen Mo disliked killing, but people kept trying to kill him. This, he naturally couldn’t tolerate. Killing someone with his own hands still bothered him somewhat, but using Skeleton Monsters to kill remotely didn’t faze him psychologically.
Now, watching the man beg for mercy, Chen Mo looked at him and said, "Alright, then. Tell me everything. What’s this ’binding teammate’ business?"
While Chen Mo spoke, he had already ordered a horde of Skeleton Monsters to surround Xu Tao, whose attributes were now greatly reduced. Surrounded , Xu Tao had no chance of escape, even if he took no damage. But with his companion spilling the beans, Xu Tao had already sunk into despair, losing all will to resist.
Right now, only one thought filled his mind: regret. He regretted ever coming to cause trouble for these two. Even if their presence meant his ranking was lower and he scored fewer points, it was far better than senselessly throwing his life away now.
"Xu Tao possesses a special Skill called Assassin’s Heart. When this Skill is activated, he can choose a friendly stealth-type professional to bind with. As long as he operates within a 100-meter radius of this bound target. During the binding period, he becomes immune to all damage. The catch is, if the bound stealth-type professional teammate takes damage, Xu Tao suffers double that damage. The Cooldown is 5 minutes, the binding duration is 10 minutes, and he cannot bind the same target again within 5 minutes of the previous binding ending. That’s why he recruited two of us stealth-type professionals. This way, he can alternate binding between us indefinitely, making him effectively invincible."
Instantly, Chen Mo understood how their unusually specialized team of three stealth-type professionals had managed to grind so frantically until now. It turned out they only needed Xu Tao to deal insane amounts of damage to kill monsters without getting hurt himself, while the other two simply remained hidden at a distance.
"No wonder you’re so audacious, even daring to target me. You must have killed quite a few people before this!"
"Boss, it was all his terrible idea to come kill you two! It had nothing to do with me. He said that if you two died, the remaining members of aristocratic families and those twenty people clearly wouldn’t get along and would surely fight until both sides were crippled. Then, we could take advantage of the chaos and surge to the top of the leaderboard. We only followed him here in a moment of folly."
"That man is already dead, but Xu Tao isn’t. It seems he’s currently bound to you."
Hearing this, the man immediately trembled and stammered, "N-no... it’s fine! I just need to get 100 meters away from him! The effect will be nullified then! You promised you wouldn’t kill whoever told you Xu Tao’s secret first!"
"I did say that. And I always keep my promises."
Hearing Chen Mo’s words, Xu Tao knew this defector was doomed. Chen Mo had killed someone right in front of this guy; was he really going to let him go and report it? Moreover, Xu Tao had already recognized the loophole in Chen Mo’s words. Unfortunately, he was too late to warn him. Chen Mo had said that whoever spoke first, he wouldn’t *personally* kill him. The ’personally’ was the trap! He wouldn’t do it himself—he could just have the Skeleton Monsters do it!
Sure enough, just as a look of joyous relief spread across the man’s face at his apparent escape from death, the surrounding Skeleton Monsters swarmed and hacked him to pieces.
Before dying, his eyes were full of disbelief.
"You see? I didn’t kill him with my own hands," Chen Mo said to Xu Tao with a smile.
"I misjudged. I never expected that you, a mere two-star Skeleton Mage, would be the real monster on your team! Enough talk. I admit defeat."
"You’ve got some nerve. But I’m curious, where did you get that special Skill? I’ve never heard of your profession having such a Skill."
"What special Skill? I was just bluffing them. It’s merely a piece of special equipment. I was afraid they’d get greedy and kill me for it, so I told them it was a Skill. That way, they wouldn’t entertain such thoughts." Facing death, Xu Tao was surprisingly direct, holding nothing back.
"Then, thank you for your honesty."
"It doesn’t matter. If you kill me, my things will end up in your hands anyway. I’ve said all this because I just want you to give me a quick death."
"Alright. A quick death it is!"
With a mere thought from Chen Mo, all the Skeleton Monsters surrounding Xu Tao instantly self-destructed. Xu Tao didn’t even have a chance to feel pain before he was instantly killed on the spot.
Only then did Chen Mo step forward and search the backpacks dropped by the three. Apart from some equipment for stealth-type professions, some recovery potions, and a little money, there was nothing else of value. The only item among the three men’s belongings that piqued Chen Mo’s interest was the special equipment Xu Tao had mentioned.