Volume 4 – Perpetual Conflict, Chapter 36: Critical Speed
The region didn’t seem very big on the map. however, the map itself was a representation of the whole Blue Dream Mountain Belt. It encompassed the vast Silentflame Steppes and thousands of kilometers of the Forgotten Mountain Range. Not only the dark race territories, but a large chunk of the empire’s Zhao clan territories were also mapped.
After a while, Zalen put away the pendant and said, “Master Weber sacrificed dozens of years of his life to prophesize that clues regarding the Black-Winged Monarch’s treasure will be found here. So our mission is to find this clue, whatever it may be.”
The female knight’s eyes suddenly lit up. She hesitated slightly before asking cautiously, “What exactly is the Black-Winged Monarch’s treasure?”
Greed and longing were revealed in Zalen’s eyes as he said with a rueful laugh, “I don’t know either. Such secrets aren’t something people at our level can understand.”
The Black-Winged Monarch Andruil, one of the second generation primogenitors, was a highly regarded expert even throughout the whole of dark race history. That was why the Evernight Council made a big fuss about this and even paid a considerable price to have a master prophet perform a search. And due to the matter of bloodline inheritance, the fortune Andruil left behind greatly appealed to the vampires, much more so than the other dark races.
As time passed in silence, Zalen was suddenly alerted and said, “Why haven’t those two fellows returned?”
At this time, dozens of kilometers away, two blood esquires were running madly in pursuit of Qianye who was charging with his head lowered on the motorcycle.
Only at such a critical juncture was the senile Thunderous Tiger’s reliability truly revealed. This old fellow had obviously been remodeled by an expert. Not only did it maintain its original stability, but its acceleration was also fairly astonishing.
The two blood esquires, running at full speed, were somewhat faster than the Thunderous Tiger. However, the advantage wasn’t too great since the two parties were originally separated by several kilometers. They only arrived within a hundred meters after chasing for the greater half of an hour. Although endurance was one of the strengths of a vampire constitution, they had exhausted over half of their stamina during the rapid pursuit. Additionally, they couldn’t find the slightest opening to use long-range weaponry.
The Thunderous Tiger in front of them let out a deafening screech from its breaks and came to a halt after a few jolts.
Qianye jumped down from the motorcycle, turned around, and unsheathed the Radiant Edge halfway. All of his movements were executed smoothly—he had completed all attack preparations in the blink of an eye.
The two blood esquires didn’t pause their march at all and directly rushed toward Qianye. They were now within 50 meters.
One of them reached for his gun and let out a nasty laugh while gasping for breath. “How come you’re not running anymore? Are you prepared to die now?”
The other blood esquire said with a frown, “Be careful, this brat likely isn’t that simple!” He calculated the distance between the two parties and began to draw his sword.
Qianye suddenly moved without giving them any time to react. He pounced toward the blood esquires at a speed which far surpassed their expectations.
The first blood esquire to meet Qianye in combat was greatly astonished despite having made ample preparations. His sword thrust toward Qianye’s chest moments after leaving its sheath. The origin array in the blade wasn’t even half-activated.
However, Qianye arrived within melee range at lightning speed and directly swung his arm to smash the sword away. The blade’s edge drew a series of sparks on his arm but couldn’t chop through the arm guard modified from a grade three arachne armor. At the same moment, the Radiant Edge in Qianye’s right hand swept out in a reverse thrust.
The blood esquire was shocked after catching a glimpse of the dagger through the corner of his eye. It was definitely a powerful weapon that could cut through defenses. He raised his left hand and grasped Qianye’s wrist, hoping to grapple with the latter.
Qianye briefly gauged this blood esquire’s strength and abruptly exerted some force. The blood esquire’s body was completely pressed to the ground as the Radiant Edge penetrated deep into his heart.
Qianye suddenly released the Radiant Edge, flipped over, and flashed several meters away—a rumbling origin bullet narrowly missed him. After seeing his shot was fruitless, the other blood esquire immediately drew his sword and charged forth.
Qianye bounced up from the ground and forcefully wrung the incoming sword with a twist of his arms. Under the frightening energy, the blood esquire’s sword momentarily let out a creaking sound before it became thoroughly distorted. Qianye moved forward and crashed heavily into the blood esquire like a metallic fortress.
This simple and direct collision immediately caused the blood esquire to become dizzy. He swayed, staggered, and almost fell head-first onto the ground. Qianye drew the Twin Flowers, aimed it at the blood esquire, and pulled the trigger.
Qianye himself felt somewhat excited after efficiently dispatching two blood esquires of the same rank. But, he felt even more apprehension.
The equipment on these two blood esquires was abnormally superior. They were actually using grade three weapons and armor, a whole grade higher than the dark races in Evernight Continent. Qianye would probably have to spend more effort to deal with them if they hadn’t exhausted so much stamina during the chase.
Qianye walked toward the blood esquire’s corpse to perform a simple check and found a symbol depicting an inverted noose on the chest armor near the left arm. He couldn’t help but become somewhat shaken. It was actually the family crest of the Byrne clan, one of the 13 vampire clans.
Qianye didn’t waste any time on cleaning up the corpses. He immediately retrieved the Radiant Edge and prepared to flee immediately.
These two blood esquires were only members of that small unit. The leading viscount was presumably a person of esteemed status since he didn’t join the chase, but if these two subordinates failed to return after a while, he would definitely investigate in person. Qianye knew he didn’t have the skills to deal with a viscount at the moment.
As soon as Qianye grabbed the Radiant Edge, abundant and lively blood energy immediately flowed into his body through the hilt. Great delight swept through his consciousness like a tidal wave. It was as if he had received a shot of top-grade stimulant.
His whole body was trembling, and it seemed as if his blood energy was cheering happily, reaching a state of blood boil within an instant. Even the dark golden blood energy, usually unreceptive of low-grade origin power, was currently acting out of character. It swam around vivaciously and seized a large blob of blood energy without holding back. This blood esquire was merely rank seven and his blood energy capacity was rather limited, however, the quality far surpassed the vampires he had killed in the past.
A pure-blooded descendant of the 13 vampire clans was indeed extraordinary!
Qianye completely drew out the Radiant Edge only when the blood energy flow became indistinct. Its malevolent sawtooth-like edge was suffused with a faint glow. It was as brilliant as a brand new blade and not the slightest bit stained by blood.
Only then did Qianye truly understand why those vampires would go mad with excitement while sucking blood. After tasting the fresh blood of an esquire of the 13 vampire clans, the blood of the dark races and beasts of Evernight Continent became somewhat dull and insipid.
Qianye put away the Radiant Edge and forced himself not to look at the other blood esquire corpse. He then hopped onto the Thunderous Tiger and drove at full speed toward the border of the Silentflame Steppes.
The Thunderous Tiger was indeed a rare instrument in this boundless wasteland. Its stability, endurance, and speed were all quite good, allowing Qianye to conserve a lot of stamina. Unfortunately, the time to part ways with it was nigh. Qianye roughly calculated the vampire viscounts speed and prepared to abandon the Thunderous Tiger in another hour. He would only carry some necessities and travel light during the escape.
Zalen appeared at the scene of the battle not long after Qianye’s departure and naturally saw the two blood esquire’s corpses. His expression immediately turned quite ugly as he stood there silently. The female knight and the other esquires arrived minutes later.
The female knight checked the two corpses and said solemnly, “Sir, this fellow isn’t human. He’s from our race! He used a high-grade blood absorption weapon. The victim’s essence blood stores were almost sucked dry.”
Zalen spoke slowly, “A little bastard who isn’t even a viscount actually used a grade five blood absorption weapon. It seems this comrade of ours is someone of significant origins.”
The puzzled female knight asked, “Then why would he run away immediately after seeing us? Even if he recognized us…” She suddenly recalled a certain possibility. “Ah, could he be someone from the Dracula clan?”
A fierce killing intent flashed past Zalen’s countenance. “Those weaklings from the new party are the scum of us sacred blood descendants. Since one of them actually dares appear before our eyes this time, he can forget about returning alive.”
The enmity between the Byrne clan and the Dracula clan naturally ran deeper than just a conflict between the old and new factions as Zalen said. The first all-out clan war between the two could be traced back to 700 years ago.
The source of hostility between the two parties began from their primogenitors from the same era as the Black-Winged Monarch. The hatred originated between Dark Gospel Howard, the primogenitor of the Byrne clan, and the Lightless Monarch Medanzo, the primogenitor of the Dracula clan.
The female knight was astonished and said hurriedly, “But sir, we’re still on the Evernight Council’s mission.”
Zalen shrugged and replied coldly, “The council dispatched more than just our group. They’ll continue the investigation. Wait for me near the oasis at this time tomorrow. Hmph, do I even need one day to take care of this junior?”
With that, Zalen’s figure flickered and appeared a dozen meters away. He flashed again to cover the same distance as he followed the tire tracks in rapid pursuit.
Qianye’s whole body was crouching on the Thunderous Tiger. Under such extreme speeds, the winds striking his skin started to cause some pain. The Thunderous Tiger’s large metallic body below him seemingly contained boundless energy. It howled and shook as it left the monotonous wasteland far behind.
This old motorcycle’s reliability had far exceeded his expectations. Even the off-road vehicles from the empire would have long since broken down after running at such a speed for so long. The Thunderous Tiger, on the other hand, was showing no signs of malfunctioning after refueling twice—it was already worth the money spent just from this.
The scenery in the vicinity began to change after driving dozens of kilometers. It was no longer filled with unchanging red dust barrens and sporadic giant trees. There were now hills of various sizes with shrubbery growing upon them. Further ahead, the verdant and majestic mountain range was vaguely coming into view.
Here, Qianye reluctantly abandoned the Thunderous Tiger and began to run through the wilderness. The mountainous terrain ahead wasn’t suitable for motorcycles. Additionally, with his experience in wilderness combat, the chances of being caught up would be drastically reduced after entering the mountainous regions and dense forests.
At this moment, Qianye was rank seven. The strengthening process in his legs was nearly complete, and his speed had increased significantly. He had far surpassed ordinary blood esquires of the same rank. Presently, he could only make a bet, hoping that champion rank viscount was on an important mission and wouldn’t waste too much time trying to hunt him down.
After all, a dark race warrior from one of the 13 clans was already a major character. He likely wouldn’t come to a desolate place like the Silentflame Steppes just to lounge around.
A day and a night passed by. Qianye hadn’t stopped to rest this whole time.
That was because the sensation of being pursued was becoming more and more intense despite running at such extreme speeds.