The Villain Saint is my secondary account

He looked at his slightly dark palm, on which was a deep red bloodstain.

"pat"

This time, the vendor clearly realized that it was because liquid had fallen on his head.

He slowly raised his head and saw a woman's corpse with blood dripping from her toes, hanging on a clothesline overhead.

……

[The Saintess's Dog 2: Holy crap, Brother Ye, it looks like a murder happened on the street we passed on our way back last night.]

[Late-night snack: Speaking of murder cases, I happened to have a few lives on my hands in the wild last night]

【The Saintess's Dog 2: Something's not quite right, Brother Ye. I feel like something's not quite right here】

[“The Saintess’s Dog 2” forwarded a post to you]

[Warning: Graphic content ahead. What's going on in the western part of Valond Imperial City, on Beaufort Street?]

In the dormitory, Ye Xiao frowned as she looked at the post Li Cheng sent in the community system.

The poster first posted several warning posts, and then posted a picture taken by a crystal on the seventh floor.

A woman's corpse, her belly ripped out, hangs from a clothesline that runs across a building. Her limbs bear bloody marks from being separated into sections, but they have been sewn back together with needle and thread.

As the original poster repeatedly warned, this image would probably give most people nightmares for days.

But when Ye Xiao saw this scene, memories of his previous life instantly flooded back.

Has the serial killer finally arrived?

When Ye Xiao saw that shattered portrait in the inn in Stormport last time, he suddenly remembered that during the Royal Selection, a serial killer, or rather a group of killers, would appear in the Imperial City specifically targeting players.

The imperial selection happened ahead of schedule this time. Ye Xiao thought this event wouldn't happen so soon, but now it seems that this event will happen along with the imperial selection.

In his previous life in Stormport, Ye Xiao could only glean a glimpse of the whole incident from the community. The case ended in a murky way, with several major guilds joining forces to find a few strange criminal players and then hastily concluding the matter.

But in this life, based on the coincidence of the timelines, Ye Xiao is at least certain that this is likely related to the imperial selection.

Otherwise, there's no reason for something that should have happened a few months later to suddenly happen earlier.

[Midnight Snack: Could you also help investigate which guild this corpse belongs to?]

[Saintess's Dog 2: Ah!? Is this a player? You could tell that, Brother Ye?]

[Late-night snack: I'm just guessing, I'll have to trouble you again, another task for me]

【The Saintess's Dog 2: The bear brothers are still talking about these things, leave it to me】

[Late Night Snack: Oh, speaking of missions, find a room in a bit, Ella will teleport you over and give you a system mission, that way you can also get some system rewards]

[The Saintess's Dog 2: Holy crap, you can do that? Are you exploiting a bug, Brother Ye?]

[Late Night Snack: What nonsense! This is called a system.]

[The Saintess's Dog 2: Well then, thank you in advance, Saintess, hahaha]

After explaining things to Li Cheng, Ye Xiao opened the system arena. It wasn't that he wanted to play ranked matches so early in the morning; it was just that today was finally the day for the first season's rewards to be distributed.

He had Ella farm points on that thing when he had nothing else to do, all for today.

[System Announcement: Congratulations to player "Anonymous" for achieving the top ranking on the leaderboard in the first season of the Arena, earning the achievement title "Peak Legend"]

This title is a special buff that can be equipped. Under normal circumstances, a player can only equip one title at a time.

Since the title system and achievement system have not yet been officially launched, there are not many players with titles at present.

After equipping the item, Ye Xiao would always include the title "Night Snack (Peak Legend)" in his name when chatting with others or posting in the community.

In his previous life, he was quite envious of this thing, but now when he looks at it again, he feels a little strange.

Although it has a powerful effect that increases all his attributes by 15%, to be honest, there's no need to reveal his identity for this bonus at the moment.

Besides the title, he was even more looking forward to the item rewards in the arena.

Chapter Ninety-Eight: The Shadow Chaser and the Ring of All Things

[You are ranked first on the Arena leaderboard and have received the following rewards: 1 Limited-Type Epic Equipment Forger, 1 Limited-Type Class Mastery Skill Book, 1 Class Skill Development Scroll, 10000 Gold, and 10000 Universal Points]

[You are ranked number one on the Arena Mage leaderboard and have received the following rewards: Mage Epic Equipment Forging Tool*1, Mage Mastery Skill Book*1, Mage Skill Exploration Scroll*1, Gold*10000, Universal Points*10000]

There are two types of leaderboards in the arena: an overall ranking and a basic class ranking.

When logging into the arena, players can choose which class to use to match teammates and calculate points; of course, they can only choose the class they already own.

Ye Xiao can choose one of three classes: Warrior, Mage, or Assassin. This time, he chose Mage. All his classes, such as Hell Warlock, Miracle Warlock, and Elemental Mage, are classified as basic Mage classes.

Ye Xiao's eyes were almost dazzled by the two rows of system reward words. He had been grinding through that abstract arena all this time, all for this day.

Epic equipment—Ye Xiao had only ever heard this term mentioned by others in the community system in his previous life.

Just like a rich kid's Ferrari, the sound of it often echoes in his ears, but he has never actually held it in his hands.

Equipment is also divided into tiers and qualities. Tiers are simply +1 or +2 after forging, which are purely attribute upgrades, while quality is the key to the strength of the equipment.

The quality of equipment is ranked as follows: Common, Fine, Rare, Valuable, Epic, Legendary, Mythical.

Epic quality is already an incredibly high standard at this point in time.

In the previous life, the reason why those Saint-level players were so strong in the later stages was not only because of their skill proficiency, but also because of all sorts of random equipment and strange professions and bloodlines.

Just like in online games, level 80 players often fight level 120 bosses. The Saint rank only indicates their skill proficiency, but it's not a problem to pull out a few of them to team up and challenge the Myth rank natives of the other world.

The equipment also has a significant impact on this. Ye Xiao and his group are still in the early stages, and they can't get any good equipment. So the excellent standard equipment of the Imperial Army or the Knights is already top-notch, so they haven't bothered to get any.

However, epic equipment is not on the same level as ordinary equipment. At the very least, it can change the player's combat mechanism, just like the demon sword that Ye Xiao took from the patient at Samuel's clinic, instead of the current brute force basic combat.

In the mid-to-late game, a good piece of equipment can completely allow players to design their own combat system around it.

However, speaking of the demon sword, Ye Xiao has already given that thing to Ella.

I thought Ella would just hold it as a charm, but I didn't expect her to actually use it.

The moment Ella held it, she could feel the subtle will to submit emanating from the demon sword, a completely different feeling from Ye Xiao's grip, which felt like holding a fire poker.

It can only be said that this knife might be a bit of a snob. Ye Xiao was annoyed but helpless. However, the demon knife still needed to be appraised with the system appraisal scroll before it could be considered a system item. Therefore, Ella could not see the attributes and description of the demon knife yet.

But it might be of higher quality than epic, since there's a spirit in it who looks at Ye Xiao with prejudice.

Return to the rewards given by the system.

The "Limited Type Equipment Maker" means that you can select one type of equipment form for the system to forge. For example, selecting "Sword" will randomly forge a sword-type weapon, and selecting "Arm Armor" will randomly forge a pair of arm armors.

However, the specifics are currently only randomly assigned by the system, which is like a lottery. In version 3.0, the equipment given by the forge will become a choice of three, with some decision-making involved.

But that would probably be six months from now. The World Tree System would only be upgraded to version 2.0 after the Royal Selection, so Ye Xiao obviously didn't need to wait until then.

[You used a limited-type epic equipment forging tool, and the forging type is a longsword.]

Ella has acquired a demonic sword, but Ye Xiao still lacks a suitable one.

Each time a Grandmaster's sword strike imbued with black holy flames is unleashed, the sword is rendered useless, making it somewhat unreliable.

The randomly generated knife isn't expected to be particularly powerful in terms of mechanics, but at least it shouldn't make him constantly switch knives, as it significantly affects the feel of the game.

[Equipment: Shadow Chaser]

[Quality: Epic]

[Introduction: Even the nomads hidden in the darkness once chased the light; this is the inscription they carved.]

[Skills: Leaving a Mark, Falling Light]

The equipment descriptions in the World Tree system are usually concise and clear, without quantifiable values. They typically consist of descriptions of quality, duration, and skills that are often ambiguous.

The descriptions of the equipment were either very straightforward, such as "a knife that can cut vegetables," or they were obscure due to the lack of background information, such as this one, so Ye Xiao basically skipped them all.

Ye Xiao tried out the two skills here in a training room at the academy. One of them, "Leave a Mark," allows the user to conjure a sword skill clone at a designated location. It consumes the stamina of the corresponding sword skill, and the clone will remain in place like an afterimage. After a short period of time or when activated by the user, it will transform into sword energy and slash in the designated direction.

The power of this sword aura is about half that of the sword technique attached to the user's sword aura clone, and the part that is hit will leave a mark called "shadow mark".

When the sword is sheathed, "Falling Light" will be activated by default, detonating all the marks and treating them as the sword technique strikes corresponding to the marks left by the user.

It looks a little complicated, but after Ye Xiao tried it a few times with training dummies, he found that, disregarding its own mechanism, this thing is equivalent to getting half a sword skill's power for free. It's basically a handy skill that you can use if you don't want to.

The sword itself, though named Shadow Chaser, has a silvery-white, somewhat translucent blade that resembles a thin crystal. Only near the scabbard are there a few jet-black inscriptions, but it's impossible to decipher what the characters are.

Having gotten a decent sword, Ye Xiao then used the mage equipment crafting tool to activate it.

I thought I would get a staff, but a ring suddenly appeared in my palm.

[Equipment: Ring of All Things]

[Quality: Epic]

[Introduction: If we become so engrossed in illusions, will we one day forget the reality?]

[Skills: Mimicry, Deception Magic]

The Mimicry feature can record up to three objects touched by a user and allow the user to transform into the appearance of the recorded object.

The Deception Magic can transform an object touched by the user into another object of similar size as imagined by the user. The larger the size, the longer the transformation lasts, and the more mental energy the user consumes. It will change the appearance and feel, but will not change the quality. When transformed into a prop or equipment, it will not have a corresponding effect.

Ye Xiao pinched the ring with an "OK" gesture, his gaze passing through it as if he were staring intently at the ring.

No, what is this thing? What does it have to do with my three mage classes?

A player can only wear two rings at most. Others can summon a bolt of lightning with their rings, while I can only play Sichuan opera face-changing.

If it doesn't increase combat power at all, then it's just for performing acrobatics...

Wait a minute, Ye Xiao slapped his forehead. Putting the battle aside, he realized he actually needed this thing.

Chapter Ninety-Nine Family Conflicts

But it wasn't Ye Xiao who needed this, it was Ella.

Previously, Ella had to hide her identity because the arena was easy to expose, but now that she has this thing, she is no longer afraid.

The only requirement is to choose an unlucky guy to become his lookalike, and then see whose appearance you can borrow.

Ye Xiao put away the ring, and used one of the remaining two professional skill development scrolls on the Miracle Mage, and passed the other to Ella.

This scroll can be used to forcibly learn branch skills in the job skill tree that meet the prerequisite skill proficiency requirements.

Having a corresponding profession doesn't mean you'll automatically master all the skills of that profession. You often need to find skill books to add new skills, or the profession inheritance may include some locked skills that require certain conditions to be met to unlock.

Many advanced skills require certain prerequisite skills to reach a certain level of proficiency before they can be unlocked. For example, mastering the basic Dragon Breath skill requires reaching the expert level in Fireball.

Sword skills are a given; mastering multiple sword skills without reaching the extraordinary level is not very meaningful. The skill books for elemental mages are all available in the academy. Hell Warlock is not for the time being. Only Miracle Warlock has many skills on its skill tree, but they are all locked. The unlocking conditions, apart from the prerequisite skill proficiency, are all described with question marks, making them completely incomprehensible.

Ye Xiao glanced at the skills that a proficient Miracle Mage could unlock, and in comparison, he unlocked a spell called "Delay Domain".

The skill description is simple: at the beginner level, it can summon a spherical barrier with a radius of ten centimeters, and the passage of time inside the barrier will be slowed down to half the speed outside.

It's incredibly useful for slowing down attacks or the opponent's actions. The only downside is that the spell's cast time is still a bit long. Once it can be cast instantly, its power will increase significantly.

After getting up early in the morning, Ye Xiao finished counting and fiddling with the rewards in the closed training room, and the sun gradually moved towards the midline of the sky.

He picked up the cat, who was sleeping in a small bed and under a parasol in the corner with its belly exposed, and headed to the academy gate after leaving the training room.

I had arranged to visit Duke Hevil with Skadi this morning, and it's almost time for them to meet at the academy gate.

As soon as Ye Xiao arrived at the entrance, he saw Skadi and a group of guards standing by the luxurious royal carriage, ready to wait.

"Good morning, Your Highness. Good morning, everyone." Ye Xiao greeted them, then scratched his head. "Um... I'm not late, am I?"

The tall, blonde girl, who had been standing expressionless by the carriage, turned around and smiled when she saw Ye Xiao. "Good morning, Ye Xiao. You're not late at all; in fact, you're a little early."

"Ha, that's good."

"But your complexion... you still look a bit bad." Skadi grabbed Ye Xiao's sleeve and pulled him onto the carriage. "Don't you really need to rest? Actually, I can go by myself today."

"It's alright, Your Highness," Ye Xiao said softly. "We encountered some rather unusual assassins last night, and it felt safer to have you protected."

Unfortunately, the zombie debuff that Ella had given Ye Xiao hadn't worn off yet, so he still had two dark circles under his eyes.

"Alright, let's set off then. Location: Duke Heville's residence."

……

Let's set aside Ye Xiao's leisurely journey for now.

At the Duke of Havil's residence, several royal carriages were already parked outside the gate.