Volume 3 – The Place Where My Heart Feels At Peace, Chapter 63: No Longer Alone (1)
Qianye let out a dull grunt as a trace of blood flowed down the corner of his lips. He quickened the circulation of Combatant Formula, ignored the tiny wounds that were starting to appear on his internal organs and pushed the fierce tides over thirty cycles again in the blink of an eye!
Ye Mulan, with her rank six origin power and her ‘Deep Frost’ ability that enabled her to penetrate her enemy’s blood, was completely suppressed. In fact, her origin powers were barely holding out against the violent charges of Qianye’s origin power.
Qianye continued to gather strength in his left arm. All that was left was the final step.
It was at this moment a figure charged out of the forest like lightning and slammed into Qianye’s side, sending them both flying for a short distance.
It was a Song Family bodyguard who heard the gunshot over this direction and finally arrived at a critical moment, saving Ye Mulan’s life. But although he could save Ye Mulan, he couldn’t save himself.
Qianye suddenly grabbed the hand he used to hold his gun with both arms, exerted strength and slowly twisted the origin handgun around to face the bodyguard’s glabella instead.
The rank seven bodyguard almost couldn’t believe his eyes! Although Qianye was just a rank five Fighter, the origin power surging from his body was unbelievably powerful and as fierce as violent tides. His origin barrier wavered under the tides’ impact before they ultimately shattered in a boom. Qianye’s origin power instantly rushed into his body and charged wantonly towards all direction, grievously wounding him.
The bodyguard was shocked beyond belief. He cried out, “A Fighter King! No, not just a…”
His screams came to an abrupt stop. Qianye’s physical strength far exceeded the bodyguard’s, and the bodyguard had just lost the support of his origin power. The handgun was finally turned around completely. Then, he pulled the trigger with his finger pressed against the bodyguard’s!
At such a close range, the explosion of the origin power knocked both parties away from the center of the impact. The bodyguard’s neck was nearly shot off his torso, and there was no chance that he was surviving the wound.
Qianye struggled to his feet, but noticed that Ye Mulan had ran at least a hundred meters away from him before she vanished into the forest in the blink of an eye. This bodyguard had saved her life, but not only did she not work together with him to attack him, she didn’t even dare to look back and check out the battle situation. She had actually ran away immediately and allowed even a golden opportunity to escape her grasp. It would appear that she truly had been scared out of her wits completely.
Qianye shook his head and felt a little regret for not being able to kill Ye Mulan. He picked up Twin Flowers and Eagleshot before he walked staggeringly into the thick forest. He saw two other Song Family bodyguards running over a certain direction, but for some reason they didn’t charge him and simply stood at the sides far, far away. One of them had even shifted his position imperceptibly and opened the way for him.
But Qianye couldn’t afford the concentration to mull over this right now. He had pushed the Combatant Formula over thirty cycles many times in a very short amount of time, and tiny cracks were appearing all over his internal organs. He himself couldn’t remember how he survived the next hour.
Qianye’s consciousness was a little fuzzy during this period. He only remembered fighting, running away, fighting again, and running away again. The cycle felt like it would go on forever.
He couldn’t remember how many people were wounded or killed by his hands either. There were landowning household soldiers, and there were aristocratic bodyguards. The only regret he had at this moment was that none of the masters of the aristocratic families had shown up to face him. Song Zining himself hadn’t shown up all this time.
Qianye tossed his body beneath a large tree and panted heavily. Every time he breathed, he felt as if a ball of flames were rolling up and down his trachea. His body fared even worse, making him feel like he had submerged his entire body into lava. There wasn’t a single place that didn’t burn with pain.
He no longer looked at his wounds. His power of regeneration was still there, and his wounds never bled out too much. However, he had completely exhausted every bit of Daybreak origin power inside his body, and Concealed Bloodline could no longer conceal the presence of the blood energies. However, it was still displaying its effects through another form by evaporating all of the blood energy from the blood dripping out of his wound before they fell on the ground.
Qianye smiled wryly. What was the point? It was true that the gold blood energy’s concealment ability was unbelievably powerful, but he was also about to die soon. What was the point then in wasting energy to hide the fact that he was a half vampire at this stage?
The gold blood energy suddenly fell silent as if it could sense Qianye’s very thoughts. Then, the purple blood energy and all other blood energies inside Qianye’s body fell silent too and flowed motionless inside his veins like normal blood.
Without the support of blood boil, Qianye abruptly collapsed on the ground as if every bit of his strength had been sapped clean from his body. He was so tired that all he wanted to do was to fall into a deep slumber.
“Where’s Zining? Why hasn’t he shown up yet? Isn’t this the best chance he got to kill me? Oh right, he doesn’t need to act himself. I am soon… about to die,” Qianye’s consciousness had already started to turn fuzzy. White light flashed before his eyes again and again.
A sudden wave of unspeakable loneliness suddenly assaulted him during his final moments. For so many years, he had spent his life alone with no other. Even if he couldn’t deny that there were a few people who approached him in the past, they were always gone in the blink of an eye.
The figure who had protected him from the rain back when he was young at the refuse never returned after he turned away and left. He remembered Marshal Lin, the person who held his hand and gave him. He remembered the Red Scorpion officers, Young Master Zhao of the forgotten lands, Yu Renyan and more. They were tiny glimmers in his life that weren’t all that brilliant, but they illuminated his futureless world all the same.
And now, everything was finally coming to an end.
“If there is a next life waiting beyond the Nether River, I should try not to be alone again…”
In his daze, he felt as if something was approaching near him. Then, a sharp object suddenly plunged into his thighs, followed by a pain that seemed to tear at his body.
Qianye turned around and wrestled against that thing above him. His consciousness was still fuzzy, and his reactions were completely a product of his instinct. His body wouldn’t stop hurting, and he wouldn’t stop retaliating against his assailant too. He used his nails, his teeth, his head; he used everything that was available to him.
An unknown amount of time passed, and suddenly Qianye felt that his mouth was filled with a sweet and refreshing taste. It was blood! He immediately started inhaling and swallowing the blood as greedily as a man who had just returned from the desert.
Hot blood entered his stomach, injecting vigor back into his spirit immediately. Slowly his consciousness returned, and his eyes became clear once more. He then noticed that he was lying on top of an adult Horned Wolf, biting its throat and sucking blood fiercely from the wound. However, the wound beneath his teeth was dry, and all the blood in the beast’s body was sucked dry already.
Qianye couldn’t quite believe what had happened as he stared at the rank six Horned Wolf beneath him. He had apparently fought against this beast while he was about to die just now. When he looked down at his body and saw the various wounds left behind by the Horned Wolf’s teeth and claws, he finally believed that he had taken out this fierce beast completely out of instinct.
But a long time had passed. Where were his pursuers and the aristocratic family bodyguards? They should’ve caught up to him by now.
Footsteps rang from inside the forest. A man dressed as an aristocratic family bodyguard walked out into the open.
Qianye’s pupils shrank immediately when he saw this person. Although this man was wearing an aristocratic family bodyguard uniform, he hadn’t worn any makeup at all. His pale white face, green eye shadows and blood red pupils were all clear signs that he was a vampire. Moreover, this man didn’t do anything to conceal his presence. Qianye could feel as extremely rich and pure power of blood emanating from his body!
Only a higher vampire with an aristocratic rank could possess such pure blood energy.
Qianye stared at him and asked, “Why has a Blood Knight appeared during this spring hunt?”
The man was obviously surprised by the first sentence that came out of Qianye’s mouth. However, he immediately followed up with a completely careless shrug and answered, “There is always a surprise, isn’t there? If the surprise from one thousand and two hundred years ago hadn’t happened, the Great Qin Empire wouldn’t have existed today.”
He approached Qianye as he spoke. He was now close enough for Qianye to see that he was dragging a corpse each with both hands. Judging from the color of their uniforms, they were likely the Kong Family’s bodyguards.
The Blood Knight tossed the two bodyguards to Qianye’s feet, “They’re the ones you’re waiting for, aren’t they? Unfortunately, they’ve all turned into corpses now.”
Right now, Qianye didn’t even have the strength to stand up. He cast a simple glance at the two corpses before asking, “There were more than two people who were chasing after me, weren’t there?”
The Blood Knight smiled, “Of course. I don’t know why, but they suddenly started fighting amongst themselves.”
“They’re fighting amongst themselves?” This surprised Qianye a little. The vampire was telling the truth though; he could hear the vague, distant sounds of gunshots if he were to pay attention to listening. The extremely rapid gunshots didn’t sound like a hunt at all. It sounded like a small scale warfare had erupted.
But Qianye was hardly in a position to care about other matters, much less something that was happening so far away from him. He stared at the vampire and asked, “You couldn’t possibly have shown up to save me, can you?”
The male vampire’s smile was incredibly sincere. He bent his body towards Qianye in a greeting salute before saying, “My name is Danny Hatton. At first, the reason I came here was to assassinate a woman in this spring hunt field and fulfill a mission with a very lucrative reward. This woman is named Yin Qiqi. But guess what I saw while I was exploring this place? The Twin Flowers!”
He raised both arms and singsonged in an exaggerated tone, “Twin Flowers, the weapon that made the venerable Marquis Ross famous and the sacred object that was passed down among his descendants generation after generation! If they are in your possession, then I can imagine even with my no-so-intelligent mind that you are the human Marquis Ross had ordered to kill, aren’t you?”
“It is I.”
“Then I am right. I am forever respectful towards a person who can bring me the noble blood of Marquis Ross.”
Qianye asked curiously, “But you’re a pure blooded vampire. Don’t tell me you can accept the Embrace a second time?”
Danny shook a finger and answered, “No, of course not! It would appear that you don’t understand the nobility of Evernight too well. Although Marquis Ross cannot give me the Embrace, he can grant me his sacred blood. The Marquis’ blood is strong. If I am able to endure during the adaptation period, then the Marquis’ blood shall overcome my original bloodline and turn me into a half descendant. Do you understand now?”
Qianye nodded, “Thank you for your explanation. So, are you going to kill me now?”
“Kill you? Of course not!” Danny raised his eyebrows and shook his finger yet again, “You are far more useful alive than dead. The reward I could get from my mission isn’t too far behind Marquis Ross’ bloodline, you know, so of course I cannot abandon it just like that. As long as you’re alive, I will be able to lure Yin Qiqi out into the open.”
Qianye looked thoughtful, “Who on earth is trying to kill Qiqi?”
Danny sighed exaggeratedly, “Who else? Who else but her own brothers and sisters would hate her so much? In this regard, the nobility of Evernight and the aristocratic families of the Empire are very similar to each other. Perhaps this is what civilization and progress means?”
Qianye slowly carved a few symbols at the root of the tree trunk with his hands behind his back. It was a code used by the Yin Family. If Yin Qiqi or Ji Yuanjia were to find these symbols, they would know what Danny Hatton had spoken to him earlier.
Danny finally arrived in front of Qianye as he picked up Qianye’s Eagleshot and gave it a brief look. He then tossed the weapon on the ground before bending downwards to pull Qianye. Then, he walked towards a hilltop not far away from them. He dragged Qianye across the ground all the way, and made no attempts to hide their tracks whatsoever. Any hunter with even a bit of experience would be able to find the tracks he left behind.