After Maxing out all Classes - Chapter 990:

Amidst a sky full of swirling sand, dunes had been continually changing shape, driven forward by the wind.

In this harsh world enveloped in golden sand, a caravan had been struggling to make its way. The caravan consisted of fifty camels, each carrying two large wooden barrels filled with black oil.

This was an oil caravan. They had purchased the oil from a newly constructed oil well and were transporting it to the northern kingdom of Norma. There, it would be sold to an “alchemy factory,” where experts in alchemy would break down the oil into various products such as diesel, gasoline, and asphalt. These would then be sold for fueling cars and powering various machinery.

The impoverished desert kingdom had recently begun to prosper. A few had made fortunes by trading in oil, transforming this impoverished nation that had been poor for over a thousand years.

Despite the harsh conditions, smiles graced the faces of the merchants within the caravan. The journey was tough, but the moment this oil reached beyond the desert, it would fetch a hefty sum. Everyone in the caravan stood to make a fortune.

As they looked at the barrels of oil on the camels’ backs, they could almost see the abundance of food and water that awaited them, as well as the smiling faces of their wives and children.

However, at that moment, a mysterious howling noise echoed through the desert. Upon hearing this, everyone’s faces in the caravan instantly changed color. Several guards unsheathed their curved swords with a “clang.”

Out of the yellow sands rushed a cavalry unit of camel-riding bandits. These knights wore ragged clothes with no uniform or discipline, yelling peculiar war cries as they approached. One even loudly exclaimed, “Ah, a flock of fat sheep!”

The merchants screamed, “My God! It’s the sand thieves! Guards, prepare for battle!”

“Circle the camels.”

What the merchants feared the most had been encountering these sand thieves—bandits who, instead of conducting legitimate business, robbed honest merchants. They were ruthless and bloodthirsty.

Everyone, regardless of their combat abilities, drew their curved swords. All formed a circle, their eyes filled with terror as they watched the approaching bandits.

They had all prepared themselves for a desperate fight, mentally readying for the possibility of dying right there and then.

Just at that moment, from the sands to their side, a lone traveler riding a camel through the desert appeared. He had hurried over upon hearing the horn calls of the sand thieves.

On the back of this camel sat a slender, athletic woman. However, her face was covered, and nobody could make out her features. She quickly closed the distance, meeting the oncoming band of sand thieves, and then, in a flash, she disappeared into thin air.

Everyone: “Huh?”

A moment later, she had abruptly appeared on the back of one of the bandits’ camels, seated right behind the hump, hidden from the bandit. The bandit was completely unaware that an extra person had suddenly appeared behind him. He felt a chill on his back as a cold dagger had been thrust into his heart. The woman then kicked the bandit off the camel.

The merchants finally understood: “Ah! She’s on our side!”

“She’s here to help us deal with the sand thieves.”

After toppling one bandit, the woman didn’t stop. She vanished again in the blink of an eye, only to reappear the next moment on the back of another camel ridden by a bandit who was far more alert than the previous one. The moment the woman appeared behind him, he swung his sword back at her.

However, his movements were clearly slower than the woman’s. Her dagger had beaten his curved sword, stabbing into the critical point on his back, and then she kicked this bandit off the camel as well.

The merchants cheered, but the bandits were yelling in surprise: “Who is this woman? Where did she come from?”

“Watch your back!”

“Don’t let her backstab you!”

The bandits were in total chaos. Many simply dismounted from their camels, standing back to back in a circle. This way, they reasoned, they couldn’t be backstabbed, right? The woman, having already killed several bandits, noticed that the remaining ones had dismounted and formed a circle, back to back. It seemed that backstabbing was off the table.

She too gracefully dismounted her camel and faced the bandits.

The bandits were visibly tense. They scrutinized the woman before them; her face was veiled, hiding her features, but they could see her beautiful eyes, filled with a piercing sharpness.

“Damn female assassin,” the bandit leader shouted. “We won’t give you the chance to ambush or backstab us anymore. You’re left with only one path: death.”

The female assassin responded calmly: “Oh? You think all I can do is backstab?”

“Isn’t it?” the bandit leader retorted angrily.

The female assassin coolly replied: “Over the years, I’ve learned something while staying beside a certain man: an assassin who can’t engage in direct combat is not a good assassin.”

With those words, she swiftly drew two daggers, holding one in each hand, and charged straight at the bandits.

“Kill her!”

The bandits roared as they rushed to meet her.

Then began a beautiful and deadly dance of unparalleled skill.

Her twin daggers transformed into streaks of cold light, darting through the crowd, each slash taking a life.

There was no room for mercy in the assassin’s code. She never held back when dealing with scoundrels.

Such was the creed of an assassin!

Minutes later, the bodies of the bandits had littered the ground. The female assassin had shown no intention of burying them. These corpses would serve as a feast for the vultures, scorpions, centipedes, and various other creatures that inhabited the desert. Perhaps this was the only way these villains could give back to the virtuous and honest people they had wronged.

The female assassin had turned, intending to leave.

One of the merchants had leapt up, exclaiming, “May I ask your name? We wish to know the name of the one who saved us.”

The female assassin had softly responded, “Suofa.” In the language of the Desert Kingdom, “Suofa” had carried meanings of clarity, purity, and tranquility.

She had continued, “Spread the word. The good days for any scoundrel seeking to disrupt the prosperity of the Desert Kingdom are over. I will use these two daggers in my hands to help all diligent, kind, and honest people live better lives. And those who think they can cheat their way through life will find my daggers piercing their throats.”

“Not their backs?” One merchant had sarcastically commented, only to be immediately shoved to the ground by other merchants.

Suofa had chuckled and shaken her head, turning again to leave.

Just then, the distant sound of war horns had echoed through the air. The real main force had arrived. Hundreds of camels, bearing hundreds of bandits, had come charging, full of arrogance. The merchants had been terrified. They had all known that even a warrior as strong as Suofa couldn’t stand against so many bandits. The bandits themselves had been fully aware of this as well.

The bandits had quickly closed in, forming inner and outer circles around Suofa, and then they had started to jeer. Some had mocked, “Playing the hero? You’re about to taste hell!”

“Kill her.”

“Rip her to shreds.”

“Let’s toy with her before killing her, hahaha!”

“I bet she’s beautiful under that veil.”

“Underestimating the largest bandit group in the Northern Desert, you’re really asking for it.”

“Kneel and surrender now, woman. Maybe we won’t kill you, just take you back as our bandit queen.”

The jeers from the bandits had circled around Suofa.

But there had been no trace of fear in Suofa’s eyes. She had sighed and said, “Relying on numbers? You’re just looking for a death wish. Had you fled at the sight of me, you might have had a chance to reform. Now, not even that chance remains. None of you will get away.”

“Talking nonsense, are you?”

“Hahaha, have you gone mad?”

“None of us will get away? We’d like to see how you’ll manage that.”

Suofa had looked up, scanning the bandits atop their camels, and shaken her head, “Do you truly believe that I’m the only one protecting the desert?”

“Besides you, who else?” a sneering bandit had questioned.

“And me!” This voice had startled all the bandits, making them look left and right, forward and backward, yet they had unexpectedly seen no one.

A bandit had looked up and shouted, “Who’s speaking? Trying to spook us?”

“It is I who is speaking.”

The bandit leader had snapped, “Witch, are you bewitching us with some sort of illusion?”

“Illusion?” Suofa had shaken her head. “You’re on the brink of death and still clueless. Hey, Lion-Dog, it’s your turn to perform.”

A gust of desert wind had blown through, and the drifting sands had suddenly rushed towards one specific point. Even the wind itself had abruptly swirled towards that area. Then, all the sand had coalesced, forming a massive figure.

The guardian beast of the desert, a sphinx with the body of a lion and the face of a human, had appeared before the bandits.

The bandits had exclaimed, “F***! Oh my God!”

With a single swipe of its paw, the sphinx had turned them all to dust. A loud sound echoed, and the dust had flown into the air.

The merchants who had been watching had been utterly stunned. They had fallen to their knees and bowed down to the sphinx. The sphinx had turned to Suofa, bemused, “I thought you were going to call your husband for help, but you actually summoned me, depriving me of my entertainment.”

Suofa had smiled, “My husband is too busy romancing, how would he have time to manage the desert? Managing this place is your job, so of course I called you.”

The sphinx had shaken its head, “You’re a peculiar couple. Never mind, I won’t fuss over such trivial matters with you. But I do want to formally protest that I am not a ‘Lion-Dog.’”

Suofa had laughed, “Is that really so important?”

She had mounted her camel, gently tugged on the reins, and the camel had carried her into the distance. In the midst of the desert wind, her enchanting song had resonated…

“I’ve fallen into this magical land, the camel bells accompanying me on the road to the sanctuary. Forgive me for once being lost and confused…”

—

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