Volume 4 – Perpetual Conflict, Chapter 39: Flight
They had indeed met before. It was at the little bar in Lighthouse Town named Red Spider Lily.
Qianye had a deep impression of this young lady who had come and gone so hurriedly that day. It wasn’t merely because of her elegance, purity, and captivating beauty, nor was it because that Uncle Wang who was with her had seen through his secret and left him a box of Mithril Bullets of Exorcism...
That kind of sensation was indescribable. There was a certain familiarity about her. It was as if an unseen attractive force was urging him to approach her and engrave her in his memories.
However, the otherworldly peace was broken in the blink of an eye as an evil and cold killing intent rushed toward them.
Qianye rapidly turned back to see Zalen’s figure appear on a peak to one side of the valley.
At this moment, the vampire viscount’s movements were quite miserable. One could hardly recognize the grace and calm of a high ranking vampire noble in him. His aura had never been so weak before. It was obvious that the long chase right after he was badly wounded by the “bullet” had caused quite a lot of damage to his vitality.
Qianye began to run instinctively but he had only rushed out a couple of steps when he suddenly paused and glanced back toward the top of the valley.
Zalen was still standing rooted to his previous position, and his attention wasn’t even on Qianye. The viscount's eyes were on the young lady near the river as a cruel and unbridled grin appeared at the corner of his mouth, revealing an expression of undisguised bloodlust, thirst, and craving.
The young lady stood up and seemed all the more fragile and petite as she did so. She wasn’t the least afraid as she blinked her large eyes with intangible childishness and naivety. She gazed at the vampire viscount with great fascination as if she had found an interesting new toy.
Qianye’s heart sank.
He knew what Zalen’s expression signified. The vampires and humans from the two different camps shared deep enmity toward each other, but their sense of aesthetics was quite similar. Additionally, the dark races were known for being unrestrained in their desires. If this young lady were to land in Zalen’s hands, her fate would definitely be miserable.
Zalen rose into the air and slowly glided down from the top of the valley toward the young lady. His voice was low and raspy as he said, “I would have never expected to see such an exquisite item in such a place. If only I can obtain her as a forever-obedient offspring… Ah, but now, but now, we only have a few short moments. How regretful!”
Zhao Ruoxi was still looking at Zalen with great curiosity as if she had no idea what was happening. The intrigue in her eyes seemed to grow even more intense.
“Run!” Qianye shouted loudly.
His voice had yet to reach its destination when he immediately started rushing over toward the young girl.
The young girl wore a puzzled expression and asked, “Why must I run?” Her voice was just as clear and limpid as it was that night. It was as gentle and pleasing to the ears as a bell under the windy eaves.
Qianye ferociously spat out an obscene word. How could he have the time to explain things to Zhao Ruoxi? Did he have to tell her that this vampire viscount wanted to defile her first and then kill her before draining her blood to replenish his energy? And that he would, afterwards, continue to hunt Qianye? Even if he wanted to say all these things, Zalen wouldn’t have given him the time.
Without waiting for the young girl to say anything else, Qianye immediately pounced toward her and rather impolitely picked her up by the waist before frantically running away.
There wasn’t the slightest bit of origin power fluctuation on the little girl—Qianye couldn’t even sense a single ignited origin node. Instead of pulling such an ordinary person along, it was better to just pick her up and run.
Suddenly losing her balance and having her upper body swaying fiercely due to the high speed, the little girl subconsciously reached out and held Qianye tightly.
As her wide sleeves slid down toward her elbow, the young lady’s exposed skin was pressed tightly against Qianye’s neck. She could clearly feel his burning body temperature, his powerful pulsating arteries, and each strand of muscle, as hard as steel, contracting then erupting with vast amounts of energy like a volcano as he performed the high-speed run.
Qianye’s every step was exceedingly powerful—the immense shock as he soared upwards kept the young girl tightly pressed against his body, but he would become extremely relaxed while gliding through the air as if he was wandering through the clouds.
It was apparently a novel experience for the young girl. Her eyes gazing at Qianye were full of excitement and delight. The sadness gathered on her countenance seemed to have been swept away completely. Presently, she began to move her body, trying hard to look backwards and see if anyone was catching up to them.
Qianye was furious after seeing her reckless naivety and proceeded to slap her buttocks ruthlessly. “Behave! Stop moving around!”
The little girl let out a soft cry. Much like a frightened kitten, she immediately curled up into a ball and buried herself in Qianye’s chest. Before long, she raised her head quietly and stole a glance at Qianye from under her long lashes. She felt an extremely intense aura of vitality seeping out from under Qianye’s skin. It was precisely this exuberant life force which made her want to draw closer and closer to him.
Qianye had no way to deal with this young lady who was as pure as a white sheet of paper. He would just let her be as long as she didn’t squirm around.
Qianye suddenly performed a sidestep while running. This shifted him several meters to one side and effectively evaded a whistling origin bullet.
Zalen’s face was completely ashen. He let out a deep snort, holstered his origin handgun, and continued chasing after his prey. He had long since known that snipers were also expert anti-snipers—he had already attempted and missed two shots on the way, but he didn’t expect Qianye to actually be able to make such an accurate evasive judgement in his near-exhausted state.
The young girl turned around to look after hearing the gunfire as if she didn’t feel any danger at all. Her large eyes swept over the vampire viscount’s body and even revealed a simple smile. She then unconsciously shot a meaningful glance toward the sky.
At this moment, there were two pairs of eyes silently watching them from the sky.
One of them belonged to Uncle Wang whom Qianye had met before at the Red Spider Lily Bar. The other belonged to a tall, thin, and angry-looking man.
His long white beard was moving on its own despite the calm winds. “Stop blocking me! This old man will definitely chop that little pervert to death! No, a single death isn’t enough. I have to revive him and then kill him again!”
The old man was enshrouded in flickering lightning. Countless arcs of electricity seeped out from his body and condensed into blades and weapons in quick succession. He was able to control the intangible lightning with such perfection. It was truly shocking.
The thunderous old man was spewing flames from his eyes as he stared fixedly at Qianye and his hands.
It was precisely this hand which had unceremoniously slapped the young girl’s buttocks and made her a tiny bit more well-behaved. However, she was already beginning to glance left and right, seemingly discontent with staying still.
Uncle Wang’s face was full of helplessness. He extended his hands and formed a semi-translucent barrier which trapped the thunderous old man inside. Hundreds of lightning weapons formed in rapid succession and bombarded the barrier. The weapons were annihilated one after another, and the barrier was also flickering unstably. However, this barrier so thin that it looked like a cicada’s wing was actually abnormally firm and didn’t shatter until the end.
“Ole Zhao, my boy, don’t be impatient! Look, the young miss isn’t injured at all. With us here, that vampire cannot touch her at all…”
The thunderous old man surnamed Zhao replied with a glare, “You call that unharmed? It’s not that dark race bastard I’m talking about here, but that brat! Did you not see what that little bastard did just now? He actually dared… actually dared to… humph!”
The thunderous old man simply couldn’t say it out loud. Uncle wang said with a laugh, “That slap can’t even kill a mosquito. It’s nothing serious.”
The old man surnamed Zhao glared so hard that his eyes were turning round. “Of course that slap isn’t serious. But… but the location isn’t appropriate! This is clearly a slap in our Zhao clan’s face!”
Uncle Wang replied, “How is that part of the young miss’s body related to our Zhao clan’s face?”
“Why isn’t it related?! Just how important is the young miss’s identity? Even the Imperial Prince wouldn’t dare to do something like this! Compared to slapping our Zhao clan’s face, beating the young miss’s butt is even more…”
While the two old men argued up in the sky, the intense game of cat and mouse on the ground continued.
Zalen was, of course, hot on Qianye’s heels and had shortened the distance to a few hundred meters. However, he slowed down his steps after crossing over a hill filled with rocks and, while keeping his consciousness locked onto Qianye in front of him, began to sweep his eyes all around him.
Although the vampire viscount was seriously exhausted, his still-intact sharp senses sensed danger. It was as if a vicious beast was waiting for him in the dark despite not yet releasing its killing intent. Although at this moment, Zalen’s urges were raging within him, he hadn’t yet lost his intelligence. It was absolutely abnormal for a little girl without any origin power fluctuations to appear in the middle of the wilderness. Of course, he wasn’t afraid, but he was always guarded against other potential enemies.
In front of him, the figures of Qianye and the little girl suddenly disappeared from his line of sight. Zalen stared blankly and then rushed over swiftly. He could hear the deafening sounds of flowing water even before he arrived. There was actually a steep cliff with a hanging waterfall where the meandering stream flew off its precipice. Its water surface wasn’t wide at all, but the drop was quite significant. The waterfall produced splashing water akin to pieces of shattered jade and was enshrouded in a watery mist.
The viscount sneered. Did this brat think he could erase his traces with water and escape? The former had already memorized the scent of Qianye’s blood energy from the previous trap. Unless the other party was fast enough to throw him off, finding the target was only a matter of increasing the search radius.
But right now, Zalen was prepared to catch the bastard probing from the shadows. He suddenly let out a shrill cry. Soon, his whole body seemed to bulge up and was surrounded by a mist-like bloody glow.
Blood energy ignition!
Zalen had already lost all patience regarding this chase and was aiming to finish this business quickly. Since that little girl had entered his eyes, he was determined to obtain her. As such, he would kill anyone who dared enter his field of vision whether the one spying in the dark was one of the girl’s guards, Qianye’s accomplice, or just an unfortunate passer-by.
The vampire viscount almost seemed to have recovered to his peak state. He rose into the air, flitted over the rocky hill like a wisp of smoke, and pounced toward an overgrown bush. Following which, a shrill scream rang out.
Zalen’s raised right hand was holding a distorted human body, dripping with fresh blood. His left hand pulled out a chained metallic tablet which he glanced at casually before tossing onto the ground. “Lone Ghosts? Interesting. Aren’t those the gray-rat-like assassins?”
Chaos ensued in the sky after seeing Qianye jump into the waterfall while hugging the little girl.
The thunderous old man’s roars reverberated through the skies. “Stop blocking me. Let me go down! I have to hack that blood-sucking bat to death. Ah, and also that little bastard. Ole Wang, can’t you see the young miss is in danger?”
“The young miss isn’t in danger. I only saw her gesture for you not to act recklessly.”
“Even a scratch on her skin isn’t acceptable!”
“Her skin cannot be scratched either. Ah, I have not seen such an interesting thing in many years. Ole Zhao, my boy, stay still! My barrier won’t hold much longer. At that time, you’ll suffer if you ruin the young miss’s happy occasion.”
The thunderous old man glared. “What young miss’s happy occasion… eh?!”
The tone of this last sentence was quite odd. The rolling thunderbolts assaulting the barrier also weakened all of a sudden.
“Lone Ghost? What are those grey rats doing in Zhao clan territory? Move out of the way. I’m going to hack them into pieces!”
“This isn’t the Zhao clan territory just yet…”