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Chapter 228 A Powerful Strike

Seeing that Richard had finished his work, Stephania looked at him apologetically and said, "Master, are you alright? I was a step too late."

"It's alright, just a minor injury. I'm so grateful to you this time, otherwise I would have been in real trouble." Richard gave a wry smile.

What just happened happened in the blink of an eye. Stephena was able to react quickly and, at the crucial moment, bring Richard into the shadow world. Richard was so grateful that he wouldn't complain that she was too slow.

Moreover, Richard could tell from Stephena's pale and bloodless face that the time she had spent hiding in the shadow world with him must have far exceeded her capacity, so she was showing signs of overdrawing her mental energy.

Richard still feels a lingering fear when he thinks back to that sudden battle.

"If it weren't for Stephanie following behind me this time, I would most likely have been severely injured!"

"Judging from the enemy's modus operandi, they do not seem to be from the Bihuo Cult."

"They flee after a failed attack, which is quite like a professional assassin organization or assassination group. I don't know much about the well-known assassination groups in the Gray Dwarf region because I don't pay much attention to them."

"However, the woman in black robes who asked for directions gave me a strange sense of familiarity. Although I had never heard her voice before when she asked the question."

"Huh! That's right, I know what this strange sense of familiarity is all about!"

After replaying the scene in Richard's mind several times, he was basically certain that the other person was a high-level spider woman, just like Stephena.

There are two details here. First, her figure. Although she was wearing a hood and a black robe, the wind made the tight-fitting wizard's robe outline her graceful and slender figure, a physique unique to high-ranking spider women.

They are distinctly different from the gray dwarves, fishmen, and even lizardmen.

Secondly, although the other party spoke fluent Grey Dwarf language, upon closer reflection, there were two unusual accents mixed in, suggesting that the other party probably did not live in the Grey Dwarf region for a long time.

Although neither of these points can be considered 100% conclusive evidence, I'm not solving a case and don't need to prove anything.

If one point is a coincidence, then two points are most likely not.

"Master, enemy attack!" Stephania cried out anxiously.

This shout immediately brought Richard back to his senses.

Richard quickly followed Stephanie's gaze and saw a black figure wielding a giant bow suddenly appear on the roof of a shop along the street behind them.

At this moment, the enemy had already begun to nock their arrows and aim them at the two of them.

Richard's pupils suddenly contracted. Wasn't this guy the archer among the three who attacked him earlier?

Unexpectedly, the other party had not retreated and had instead launched a counterattack!

Clearly, Stephania, pale-faced, had not yet recovered her mental strength and was no longer able to use Shadow Transformation with him to evade the opponent's impending attack.

The archer suddenly drew the bowstring of his giant bow to its full extent.

"Charge your attack!" the archer shouted.

A black dot of light suddenly appeared at the tip of her arrow, rapidly growing to the size of an apple at a speed visible to the naked eye, and continued to expand.

"Splash~"

From the black dot of light, violent energy fluctuations and tidal sounds continuously emanated.

Judging from the degree of energy fluctuation alone, this attack by the opponent is quite extraordinary.

Moreover, the more crucial issue is that the timing of the attack was perfect, occurring right after the previous sneak attack, when Richard and Stephanie had just relaxed their guard.

It's also when you're most tired and your reactions are slowest.

The black-robed archer suddenly loosened his grip on the arrow with his thumb.

"Whoosh!"

The arrow, topped with an energy ball the size of a black human head, hurtled straight towards the area where Richard and Stephanie were.

Propelled by the arrow, the black energy ball moved at incredible speed, like a ball of lightning with a "little tail".

After firing this powerful arrow, the black-robed archer didn't even check whether it hit its mark. Instead, he immediately pulled out a fist-sized glass bottle filled with green liquid from his robes, threw it into the street, and vanished in an instant.

The moment the other party revealed themselves, Richard pulled Stephanie behind him. At the same time, he silently chanted, and a huge inverted pentagram magic array appeared beneath his feet.

With a flash of dazzling green light, a colossal abomination over three and a half meters tall was summoned.

The summoned vengeful spirit, Abomination, noticed its master Richard standing in front of it. It narrowed its small eyes, grinned, and deliberately revealed a fawning smile, as if it intended to please Richard.

However, the next second, it realized something was wrong, because a violent energy fluctuation came from behind it.

When it turned around in confusion, it discovered a black arrow with a black energy ball the size of a human head on it, hurtling straight toward it.

It immediately understood why its master Richard had summoned it.

They're using it as a shield!

The vengeful spirit's face immediately displayed a bitter smile!

However, although the vengeful spirit had a bitter smile on its face, its hands moved quickly, and it crossed the giant iron axe and the heavy chain ball in front of its chest with its left and right hands.

Almost simultaneously, Richard, the master, placed his hands on the waist of the vengeful spirit, which was much thicker than a water bucket. Two dark, silvery-gray metallic films, like flowing water, quickly converged from the vengeful spirit's back to its chest.

Due to the insufficient amount of mimicry metal and the excessively large surface area of ​​the vengeful spirit's body, only a thin metal breastplate and a metal helmet could be formed.

But Richard's action warmed the heart of the vengeful spirit.

Instantly, the massive body adjusted its posture slightly, firmly protecting its master behind it and bracing for the impending attack.

"boom!!"

"Duo!"

The black orb struck the intersection of the two weapons of the vengeful spirit and caused a violent explosion!

The explosion was so powerful that even a creature as large as a vengeful spirit was forced back several steps before it could barely stand.

The two weapons the vengeful spirit used for parrying were now completely damaged. The iron axe had a huge nick on its blade, and the heavy chain ball had fallen to the ground.

Because the vengeful spirits acted like a wall, the shockwave from the explosion only forced Richard back two steps.

Meanwhile, Stephena behind Richard was completely safe; it seemed that only the wind had disturbed Stephena's veil.

After the smoke cleared, Richard, clad in black bone armor, quickly stepped forward to check on the wounds of the vengeful spirit, Hatred.

Protected by the mimicry metal, his overall injuries were much better than Richard had expected. However, the black feathered arrow still pierced through the mimicry metal's defenses, and more than half of it penetrated into the chest of the vengeful spirit.

"Hiss! What a vicious attack!" Richard's expression hardened. In this double attack, the second arrow was the fatal blow.

If he didn't have a massive summon like the Wraith of Hatred to defend himself, this arrow would probably have pierced through his body instantly.

No elemental shields or bone armor could completely protect against this attack.

At that moment, the green glass bottle, which shattered instantly upon hitting the ground, caused a large plume of pale green smoke to rise from the street.

As soon as you get close, you can smell a pungent odor, which clearly indicates that it is highly poisonous.

Richard quickly pulled Stephanie to safety.

-

Rescue always arrives late.

Although Hawkins was very fast, by the time he arrived with two of his men, the assassins had already vanished.

"Leevie, how are you? Are you hurt?" Hawkins casually cast a hurricane spell to dispel the poisonous fog and asked Richard with concern.

"Lord Hawkins, I'm fine." Richard waved his hand, indicating that Hawkins didn't need to worry.

After looking Richard up and down, Hawkins seemed to confirm that Richard was not seriously injured, and the anxious look on his face subsided considerably.

At this moment, a small squad of city guards arrived at the scene and began a preliminary investigation.

Aside from a series of explosions and traces of witchcraft at the scene, the assassin left no useful information.

Hawkins left one of the Grey Dwarf Brotherhood wizards behind to coordinate the situation before returning to the Grey Dwarf Brotherhood headquarters with Richard.

After all, there are many things that are inconvenient to say on the street.

On the second floor of the Grey Dwarf Brotherhood headquarters, in Hawkins's vice president's office.

Hawkins and Richard sat facing each other on a soft leather sofa.

"Li Wei, do you have any guesses about the assassin?" Hawkins asked, looking into Richard's eyes.

Hawkins was also quite puzzled by the assassination attempt on Richard.

The assassination that led to Dessall's death could be attributed to a personal vendetta, but Richard was implicated by Dessall.

After all, several years ago, during the incident with Nicol, the city lord of Baghdadi and Disol severely injured Nicol on the spot. If Nicol hadn't escaped by sheer luck, he would probably have been killed on the spot.

Therefore, it makes sense from all aspects that the other party came to retaliate last time.

Hawkins found the assassination attempt on Richard rather strange.

Although not many useful traces and information were left at the scene, his experience allowed him to see some clues.

It seems that the assassination attempt on Li Wei was carried out by the secret intelligence organization of the Night Elves, the arch-enemies of the Grey Dwarves' Third Military Intelligence Division.

Ordinary people would not know that the Night Elves had instigated spies to carry out the assassination.

"They must be Night Elf assassins. During my battle with the Night Elves at the Surface Necromancer Academy, I used alchemical bombs to kill several high-ranking Night Elf spideresses, so..."

Richard explained, half-truthfully.

Obviously, he absolutely could not reveal that he had obtained the mixed Black Dragon blood and seized the bloodline artifacts of the Night Elves.

If this gets out, even if Hawkins himself is trustworthy, the higher-ups of the Grey Dwarf Brotherhood might not share Hawkins's stance, let alone the Grey Dwarf officials.

Richard's hesitant expression perfectly conveyed his humble attitude of not wanting to take credit for something.

Hawkins stroked his beard, nodded, and had no doubts about what Richard said. In fact, he admired Richard's humble attitude.

"To have achieved so much at such a young age, yet remain humble and focused on continuing to study alchemy—this is the first time I've ever seen a young person like this. Sigh! Why haven't I seen such a young genius among the Grey Dwarves?"

"Livy's talent in alchemy is undeniable. It is entirely possible that if an opponent is careless and falls into a bomb or trap that Livy has planted beforehand, resulting in serious casualties, it is entirely possible."

but

Li Wei had already come to the Gray Dwarf territory, yet the other party could still find him. What does this mean?

This suggests that either there was a traitor within the Grey Dwarves, or they were infiltrated by Night Elf spies. Therefore, the Night Elf spies learned of Livy's secret identity as the provider of the alchemical combination bombs.

This is likely why the assassination attempt occurred!

Alas! The organization's work was inadequate, allowing this young alchemy master to narrowly escape misfortune twice!

After imagining the above information, Hawkins couldn't help but feel very guilty towards Richard.

From Richard's perspective...

Since the last assassination attempt, Richard had already listed out the possible questions he might be asked and carefully considered the answers to each one.

Therefore, Richard's answer now is almost flawless.

Unless, of course, the grey dwarves capture the assassin who tried to kill him and extract some crucial information from him.

But the possibility is extremely slim.

As for assassins who could defeat or even kill the Night Elves, Li sensed that the Grey Dwarves were capable of doing so.

However, extracting crucial information from a single night elf spy is far more difficult than killing one.

The reasons will not be elaborated further.

Because he didn't want Hawkins to continue monitoring the assassination attempt, Richard took the initiative to say:

"Lord Hawkins, I've come here with a formula improvement that I'd like to trouble you with your evaluation."

Richard slowly pulled a parchment from his pocket and handed it to Hawkins.

Hawkins took it with a curious look and opened it to examine it closely.

Before long, Hawkins' facial expressions became more varied. Although he tried his best to hide it, a hint of surprise and joy still showed in his eyes.

This made Richard smile to himself.

It seems that, in terms of facial micro-expression management, the Grey Dwarves, due to their bold and cheerful racial nature, are hard to match the "cunning and shrewd" humans.

Even a high-ranking second-level archmage like Hawkins in the Grey Dwarf region is no match for the average unscrupulous human merchant.

"Li Wei, your talent in alchemy is truly beyond the reach of ordinary people," Hawkins said, his bright eyes scanning Richard up and down once more.

"The improved recipe you made this time is very practical, and I think it's worth exchanging for 4,000 contribution points. Of course, if you have any other items you'd like to exchange for, you can also mention them, and even if you don't have the necessary permissions, I'll help you find a way."

Perhaps feeling guilty about Richard's two assassination attempts, Hawking deliberately added the last sentence.

Richard was waiting for Hawkins's last sentence.

(End of this chapter)