Volume 3 – The Place Where My Heart Feels At Peace, Chapter 103: Reinforcements
The expressions of the two Far East Heavy Industries guard captains turned rather ugly as they observed the dense mass of expeditionary army troops in the distance. However, they were still able to laugh.
The guard captain surnamed He swore, “Damn it! They’re really investing quite a lot! This daddy’s never experienced such a large battle!”
The guard captain surnamed Wei spoke solemnly, “Young Master Qian, we’ll hold them down here. You should find a way to break through the siege and escape! Tell the heir what transpired here, and the main family will surely avenge us.”
Qianye gazed outwards for a moment before saying, “Rest assured, they can’t stop me!”
The two guard captains immediately replied, “That’s great! Now our brethren can let loose!”
The battle was especially arduous and lasted from noon until before dusk. It even made Qianye feel as if he had returned to Earth Castle. However, the expeditionary army’s combat strength was greater than the dark race cannon fodder while Qianye’s subordinates this time, though greater in number, weren’t more powerful than the reinforced company back then.
The only difference this time was Qianye and his Eagleshot.
A lieutenant would fall every time the Eagleshot rumbled. This scared the expeditionary army officers witless. The two lieutenant colonels didn’t dare enter the village at all. With the officers hesitant to do battle, troop morale also began to decline. Not only was the battle long and unfavorable, but they were also being made to fight a civil war of unclear reasons. The expeditionary army’s offensive as a whole was overcome by an inexplicable sluggishness.
As the fierce battle raged on until nightfall, even Qianye, with his advanced vampire constitution and recovery, was feeling similarly exhausted, and his origin power had virtually dried up.
A soldier suddenly ran out from within an alley. His whole body was soaked in blood with terror written all over his young face. His footsteps were unsteady and his expression distracted. He didn’t seem to know that his innards had already spilled out.
The soldier collapsed before Qianye. This unfortunate young man had just recently escaped the fate of becoming a seedling or livestock. He had only experienced freedom for a few short days before reaching the end of his life here.
A few expeditionary army warriors rushed out from the alley in pursuit and, after seeing Qianye, pounced upon him amidst loud cries.
Qianye took two steps forward and, like a ghost, passed through them largely unhindered.
The few expeditionary army soldiers suddenly came to a halt mid-charge. They looked down to see the baffling new wounds on their body before gradually collapsing.
A few more strands of bloodstained Qianye’s Radiant Edge. Afterwards, these rolling blood drops accumulated toward the edge of the blade and dripped off, restoring the blade’s spotless luster.
Qianye then leapt onto a broken part of the village wall. At this moment, his heart felt extremely heavy—the stifling sensation increased slightly with every young seedling who fell before him.
Qianye’s body suffused with cold murderous intent. He didn’t bother to hide himself—he stood straight and tall on high ground and gazed at the battlefield outside of the village. The two expeditionary army lieutenant colonels, on the other hand, were both hiding at the back, not daring to reveal themselves at all. It seemed even they were scared silly by Qinaye’s killing methods.
Up until now, three lieutenant colonels from the coalition of two regiments and one battalion had already died in Qianye’s hand. The two fortunate lieutenant colonels had long since realized that the Eagleshot in Qianye’s hands was exceptionally powerful—they simply couldn’t block that one shot. Hence, they weren’t willing to throw their lives away.
Qianye suddenly sensed a gust of wind from behind him! He instinctively drew the Radiant Edge and calmly turned around.
A combat hatchet brushed past Qianye’s left shoulder and struck the ground. It was a burly man with a full beard. His designation number had been torn off, but the flower on his collar indicating his position as a major was particularly eye-catching. He stared fixedly at Qianye and opened his mouth as if to say something. However, a red line had already been drawn across his neck from which fresh blood gushed out like a waterfall and splashed onto Qianye’s face.
Qianye didn’t dodge at all. Only the boiling fresh blood of his enemies could extinguish the flames in his chest!
The hot blood, abundant in origin power, was a great enticement to the current weakened Qianye. He had to do his utmost to prevent himself from swallowing the blood near the corner of his mouth.
All of Qianye’s blood energy began to roll and rage as the fresh scent of boiling blood rushed into his nose. He had involuntarily entered a state of blood-boil but his blood energy wasn’t being replenished with fresh blood. This caused the churning to grow increasingly violent—even the usually lazy golden blood energy from around his heart was starting to become restless.
A light golden radiance suddenly erupted from Qianye’s body with a hint of purple within. This was due to an involuntary outflow of his gold and purple blood energies. They began to absorb the blood energy and origin power immediately after coming into contact with fresh blood, ultimately channeling them back into the body.
This kind of minimal replenishment, while not as fast as directly ingesting blood, was still a form of replenishment. Fortunately, no one noticed the faint blood energy leaking from Qianye’s body since the scent of gunpowder and blood could be found everywhere on the battlefield.
Qianye naturally realized the minute changes in his body. He smiled ruefully before charging toward a nearby enemy squad with the Radiant Edge in hand.
The Eagleshot rumbled once again moments later, felling a violent second lieutenant. The two lieutenant colonels outside the village were secretly rejoicing. They thought the other party had run out of origin power since they hadn’t heard the Eagleshot for some time. But now, it seemed fortunate that they hadn’t charged out hastily. Just how many times has the enemy fired the Eagleshot?
As dusk fell, the expeditionary army forces were forced to pull back from the village once more due to the heavy losses and low morale.
Qianye sat alone within a half-collapsed house, surrounded by over a dozen expeditionary army corpses. He closed his eyes, undisguised exhaustion was written all over his face. The purple gold glow on his body was covered up by bloodstains.
The blood energy within Qianye’s body was still feasting on the fresh blood. The countless drops of blood in the vicinity converged on him as if they were alive and gradually disappeared.
“Sir! The enemy is retreating!” Wu Shiqing shouted as he rushed in.
Qianye calmly replied without opening his eyes, “I know.”
Only then did Wu Shiqing notice the corpses scattered throughout the house. His voice immediately stopped and hesitated for a moment before saying, “We… eh… how long do we have to hold out, sir? We might not be able to overcome the next wave.”
“Those who can’t hold on will die. Only those who can will survive.”
“But…” Wu Shiqing wanted to say something but was hesitating.
Qianye said calmly, “They will definitely come.”
After saying this, Qianye realized he wasn’t actually comforting Wu Shiqing—he actually firmly believed that Wei Potian would arrive—the latter’s eventual arrival was a certainty, but when did he start having so much confidence in him? Such confidence certainly wouldn’t be misplaced if the appointment was with Song Zining. As for this Wei clan young master...
Qianye broke into laughter. He slowly stood up and flexed his body. His limbs felt heavy and there wasn’t a single place on his body that wasn’t hurting. The burning sensation of pain was being transmitted from his many wounds and his movements had turned sluggish like an old man. His blood energy had cleared out most of the external destructive origin power from the wounds. His regenerative abilities were starting to circulate anew, but the sequelae of his previous blood boil made him clumsy and awkward.
Qianye’s daybreak origin power was on the brink of exhaustion and only began to accumulate gradually after the blood boil ended. Qianye tried using the Nurturing Rain Art after he had regained some origin power. He hadn’t cultivated this secret art since obtaining it because he simply didn’t need healing with the blood energy protecting his organs.
But the moment Qianye circulated the Nurturing Rain Art, he felt the origin tides wash over him. It was comparable to the mist rising from the lake’s surface on a sunny day. He felt his surroundings become moist as if a fine drizzle of rain was showering down upon him. The foreign origin powers stubbornly clinging to his wounds were dissolved in quick succession. Its effectiveness was not at all inferior to that of the blood energy.
The wounds had become much cleaner by the time Qianye had used up what little origin power he had recovered. It seemed another circulation of the Nurturing Rain Art would clear them completely, leaving only simple flesh wounds.
Qianye’s spirits rose as he walked out of the room. It was then that he suddenly heard a faint rumbling in the distance. It wasn’t thunder—it was the sound of engines!
The sound wasn’t unfamiliar at all. It seemed another airship had arrived. His heart tensed up as he jumped onto what remained of a roof and retrieved his Eagleshot. Qianye certainly didn’t have enough remaining power to fire the Eagleshot. However, if it really was an airship carrying enemy reinforcements, he would have no choice but to ingest blood to recover origin power and see if he could shoot it down.
The atmosphere of the village abruptly became stifled. Many of them who had heard the sound raised their heads and gazed toward the flickering lights on the distant horizon. Judging from its direction, the airship had obviously arrived from the direction of Broken River City.
The airship was still far away but the assault on the ground was already imminent. The expeditionary army was ready to launch another assault after an hour or reorganization. Dozens of high output origin lights were installed onto the roof of the cargo trucks and aimed at the village. Over a thousand expeditionary army soldiers, arranged in a loose formation, began to push into the village from all directions.
Sniper shots rumbled from atop the tall framework which used be the village tower, extinguishing the searchlights with every shot. Qianye raised his brows; Wu Shiqing had surprised him yet again. With the battle going on until now, a rank one fighter like him should’ve been completely exhausted long ago. Unexpectedly, he can still perform with such stability.
But the dense crowd of charging expeditionary army soldiers invoked a persistent heaviness in Qianye’s heart. Over half of his men had already died and they likely wouldn’t be able to push the enemy back this time. The village likely wouldn’t even survive the first wave if he broke through the encirclement to escape.
It was at this time that the whirl of engines in the air became especially prominent. Flames rushed out from the rear of that distant airship as it abruptly raised its speed and arrived over the battlefield within moments.
This was an especially fierce-looking airship. Under the illumination of the flames from the ground, one could see that the ship was actually armored. This wasn’t the average military airships commonly seen in the Evernight Continent—it was an imperial army battle airship!
The battle airship opened its hull armor to reveal numerous large pitch-black cannons. The artillery spewed out dazzling flames amidst a rumble which almost drowned out the whole battlefield. Following which, several giant fireballs surged up from the ground.
Numerous expeditionary army cargo trucks were struck by the aerial cannon fire and exploded violently, sending all the nearby troops flying!
A Far East Heavy Industries guardsman suddenly roared, “Look! It’s the Wei clan insignia! Reinforcements! Our reinforcements have arrived!”
The expeditionary army forces on the ground were thrown into confusion. The lucky survivors of the initial explosion began to flee in panic. It was unknown whether they were brave or had broken down from the pressure, some soldiers began to fire madly at the airship with their rifles and machine guns. However, it was impossible to hit such a distant target without using a sniper rifle at grade three or above. The only managed to produce a shower of stray bullets.
After seeing the Wei clan insignia on the airship, the two lieutenant colonels immediately disappeared into the night.