Volume 3 – The Place Where My Heart Feels At Peace, Chapter 29: Returning to the Battlefield
At this moment, the surrounding had suddenly fallen into a deathly silence. Time seemed to have become frozen, and everyone’s faces were riddled in shock. It was as if their very thoughts had come to a pause, and they were unable to comprehend at all what was about to happen.
The ancient and graceful patterns on “Twin Flowers” lit up, drawing the outline of a demonically beautiful double petal flower. Its inner layer was as clean white as snow, and its outer layer was as scarlet red as blood. A misty light of origin power appeared from the muzzle, followed by the slow exit of an origin bullet flying towards Lu Shenjiang’s forehead. It caused the inconsolable terror on his face to become frozen forever.
A red and white flower bloomed before everyone’s eyes just like that.
“Now we really should be going.” Qianye withdrew his gun and beckoned Ji Yuanjia casually. Then, he turned around and left.
Even Ji Yuanjia was exclaiming in slight disbelief, “You, you really killed him?”
Qianye said indifferently, “He should’ve died twice. I never joke around when it comes to something like this.”
Ji Yuanjia sucked in a deep breath and nodded. As he followed Qianye and began to walk towards outside, he maintained half a shoulder’s distance behind Qianye intentionally or otherwise. The small sword that was only one sixth of a meter sang softly as it flowed with a misty green color.
When he walked out of the doorstep, Ji Yuanjia turned around and met Ye Mulan’s gaze with extreme calmness. The latter was standing high above the stairs and had regained her cool and proud appearance. However, her beautiful and unblemished face seemed to have turned into a slightly dull and lifeless mask. Immediately after, Ji Yuanjia strode away with wide steps, while Qianye never looked back even a single time.
The youths who had just ran over were all as frozen as ice as they stared at Qianye and Ji Yuanjia’s departing figure. It was only when the jeep the duo rode on had completely vanished from view that someone screamed loudly.
Ye Mulan said in a cold voice, “How dare a peasant kill a landowning household noble in public! I must get justice for this murder!”
The group of landowning household youths all echoed in agreement, but the majority of them could not control the pale look on their faces. Ji Yuanjia had put on an unexpected firm display of force, and a stance that suggested that he would participate in battle if necessary. In reality, his actions had already foretold this incident’s outcome.
Similar conflicts were happening at every corner of the city, and the most forceful and most effective method was to kill the other party on the spot. You say you plan to get “justice” through the official procedures? This thing could take up to several years and not necessarily produce a result. In the end, in the eyes of the important figures, landowning households, humble families or commoners were not all that different from each other. Exceptions had always been far and few.
On the way back, Ji Yuanjia suddenly said on the car, “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t say that.”
Ji Yuanjia sighed, “No, I have to say this! At the time, I really did not have the courage to stand up.” If he hadn’t felt wariness and tolerance towards Ye Mulan from the beginning, Qianye would not have been forced up the fighting ring. The enemy had come at them with careful consideration over their ranks, martial arts, and equipment. If Qianye’s combat strength hadn’t exceeded everyone’s situation, then the person who might’ve been hurt grievously or even killed on the fighting ring would be Qianye.
Qianye patted his shoulder and smiled, “I have courage, because I have nothing at all. You are different. You still have your family.”
Ji Yuanjia let out a long sigh and said hatefully, “Those damnable landowning households!”
Qianye smiled faintly and said, “That’s all there is to them.”
Ji Yuanjia recalled something and asked, “What’s that about a Marquis?”
“Oh nothing, it’s just the vampire marquis Ross. I killed one of his descendants and robbed him off the guns that was said to belong to him when he became famous. There’s no way this news can be concealed, so I know that he would send someone to come after me. I just didn’t think that it would be so soon, and through the hands of these landowning nobles no less.”
Ji Yuanjia immediately sucked in a cold breath, “Marquis Ross! Curse it, that’s an old monster that has lived almost a thousand years! Still, his main territory is at Darkblood City, and he is some distance away from this place. What do you plan to do now? Will you think of a way to sell those two guns?”
Qianye said leisurely, “No, I plan to use this pair of guns for myself. It felt pretty good when I used them just now. They may be a little old, but they are still very serviceable.”
Ji Yuanjia said in shock, “You’ve gone crazy! This is a public taunt! A public taunt against a vampire marquis!”
“I’ve never been as clear-headed as I am now.” Qianye answered.
Ji Yuanjia was dumbfounded. If Qianye were to do this in a different battlefield then it was nothing big, since no matter how strong that vampire marquis was he would not dare to charge into the human’s faction to kill Qianye. Plus, at Marquis Ross’s level, something like this was but a small matter.
However, this was the Evernight Continent. This was the place where the human race and dark races permeated into one another and become entangled in countless strings. No one could say exactly how many deals existed between the expeditionary forces and the dark races, and how deep the waters were. As long as Marquis Ross issued a high enough bounty, then there would be people who would want to cut off Qianye’s head just like that Lu Shenjiang.
“What do you plan to do now?”
I’m going to go to the frontline and familiarise with 131. Then I would start fighting against the dark races. It’s about time Miss Qiqi gather some points for her exam, isn’t it?”
Ji Yuanjia frowned and said, “The war here is more frequent than over at the Boulderstone Region, and the dark races’ combat strength is stronger as well.”
“It is better to face a powerful enemy upfront than watching out for a knife behind my back at every moment.”
Ji Yuanjia smiled bitterly and said, “Your thinking is still too… naive. It’s not like you’d be immune to entrapment just because you are at the frontlines.” he paused for a moment before saying directly, “Your rank is still too low, and you will be facing many powerful dark races at a company level battlefront. They will not meet you in a fair duel or something either. Originally, Miss Qiqi was planning to send you to the frontline after you’ve reached rank five.”
Qianye suddenly smiled and said, “Actually, killing is different from dueling. An enemy you can’t beat may not necessarily be unkillable.”
Ji Yuanjia gave it a moment’s thought before exhaling and said, “Alright. Just watch out for yourself whatever you do. Scout more before you act and prepare a retreat route. Also, it will be best if you contact me before you conduct any big operations. I may be able to get you some reinforcements.”
“Didn’t Miss Qiqi bring over a corp of regular troops only? Now that you’ve passed even an elite company to me, what else do you have to support me?”
“The seventeenth corps is just the regular force the Yin Family set up for a uniform arrangement. I am responsible for the recruitment of Miss Qiqi’s private troops, and now they number almost a thousand people. Their training has never stopped either. Their foundations are good, and they can be sent to the battlefield after a bit more training in cooperation.”
Qianye nodded, “Alright, I will remember this. If there really is a need, I will definitely come and look for you.
When he returned to the Yin Family’s courtyard, Qianye began tidying his luggage and equipment. The 131 elite company’s camp was at a small town several hundreds of kilometers away. That area was the true frontline of the resistance against the dark races.
While Qianye was busying himself inside the room, Qiqi had entered right into his bedroom without even bothering to notify him. She looked at Qianye’s half tidied equipment and said, “Going out to the battlefield so soon?”
“The sooner I’m there, the sooner I can get familiarize myself with the environment.”
While picking up the vampire pistols and playing with them, Qiqi said, “I’ve heard about today’s matter. You did well. It is very much to my liking! If there is one thing I have to criticize about, it will be that you failed to kill Ye Mulan.” She raised the twin guns and made an aiming posture at a vampire in a war painting before saying, “That woman is even more disgusting than that treacherous and deceitful bastard Song Zining!”
Qianye choked as he began to recall if the Song Zining at Yellow Spring had anything to do with those two adjectives. Then he realized that he had become absent-minded and said immediately, “Wouldn’t killing her bring you trouble?”
Qiqi said carelessly, “It is only a bit of trouble. In actuality, my troubles cannot get worse than it already is now. If you kill her, grand household Song would naturally get a new fiance for Song Zining. They just have to pursue the matter for the sake of their own reputation.”
Qianye said honestly, “Ye Mulan’s secret arts is very useful. Although I won, I may not necessarily be able to kill her.”
Qiqi glared at him from the corner of her eyes, obviously amused by Qianye’s overly honest answer, “These two guns are pretty good. Why don’t you gift them to me?”
Qianye shook his head and said, “No, I going to use them myself.”
“Tsk tsk! You are openly taunting a marquis, you know! He may it beneath him to deal with you himself, but his descendants will definitely come after you!”
“Then let them come!”
Qiqi put down the twin pistols and said, “You are even crazier than I imagine. Alright, do not die. Otherwise, where am I to find such a beautiful little lover?”
The next day, Qiqi sent out her private airship directly to take Qianye to his destination. Ji Yuanjia accompanied him.
On board the airship, Qianye finally asked the question that had been plaguing him for two days, “Why would grand household aristocratic families like the Yin Family and Song Family attempt to connect by marriage with landowning households?”
“It’s like this…”
In order to absorb talents and preserve the vitality of the family’s bloodline, grand households would select a specific group from every generation of youths to marry with the landowning households. Be it man or woman, the outcome of this marriage was the merging of a landowning household into a grand household aristocratic family. This also meant that Gu Liyu and Ye Mulan would become a member of the Yin Family and Song Family in the future.
Only the most excellent group of young talents of the landowning households would obtain such an opportunity. Just by entering the gate of an aristocratic family alone, their families would be taken care as well. This was also a landowning household’s opportunity to advance. For a grand household aristocratic family, this was a chance to absorb the most talented youths of the landowning households into their own families and maintain their overall status. It was also a latent method to suppress the growth of the landowning households.
Yin Qiqi and Song Zining had been chosen to marry with nobles of landowning households by their families since a very young age. Normally speaking, the age between six to eight was the period where the children of aristocratic families began to cultivate their origin power. They would go through a series of potential tests, background check and kin relation filtering before the selection was confirmed. Naturally, the targets chosen as marriage partners were people at the fringe of the direct line of descent.
However, Yin Qiqi and Song Zining were the few exceptions to the rule. Not only did their individual strength grow stronger and stronger after they became an adult, their status within the family also grew more important with each passing day. That was why both Gu Liyu and Ye Mulan paid so much importance to the engagement and was willing to pay any price to ensure that the engagement would go through.
Suddenly, a problem popped into Qianye’s head. The result of the potential tests of the aristocratic family members—especially those at the top level—should be pretty conclusive, so why had such a huge deviation occurred? Plus, there should be plenty of chances to correct this between the period of children to adulthood. He had just asked this question when he saw Ji Yuanjia’s expression. He understood immediately what it meant.
There were probably many people within the Song and Yin Family who wished to see through this engagement due to a variety of reasons. Yin Qiqi might be extremely dissatisfied with her family’s arrangement, but she could not force the Yin Family to withdraw the engagement either. Therefore, she could only force Gu Liyun to give up on his own. It was just that her methods were truly a little dumbfounding.
It was only now Qianye finally understood the entire ins and outs. However, it didn’t matter whether he knew this earlier or later. From the moment he participated in this mission, he was fated to offend Gu Liyu to the death. It was just that Qianye’s style of doing his best in every task caused the effects of certain matters to exceed the expectations of the originator of the problem, Yin Qiqi, and her aides.
Several hours later, the airship slowly descended at Zhongying Town. This was a small town with several thousand people of population, and their main livelihood depended on a nearby black stone mine. Most of the townspeople worked at the mines.