Volume 4 – Perpetual Conflict, Chapter 44: Friendly Reunion
At this time, Qianye had almost disappeared behind the sloping landscape. The person’s figure gradually turned indistinct—there was a barely noticeable distortion in the background scenery wherever he passed.
As it turned out, this person was already approaching near-invisibility with his movements. No wonder Qianye couldn’t grasp the movements of his surveillant.
An hour later, the spy’s indistinct figure appeared atop a certain mountain peak. As expected, Qianye was still within his field of vision. The man was still undecided whether or not to make his move because Qianye’s movements were still quite unnatural and he had already seen several openings for a long-range shot.
However, the intense sense of danger in his heart kept this temptation at bay.
That man was somewhat dissatisfied. What was there to fear about a mere rank-seven fighter, even if he’s a veteran soldier? But his companion would arrive that evening—perhaps he should wait a while longer?
In their line of work, one would die early without due caution and patience.
The surveillant was calculating the pros and cons in his heart when he discovered a change in Qianye’s route. He found that Qianye, after meandering around the rugged valley below, was actually walking toward the mountaintop he was on!
The man immediately became vigilant. Was it possible that he had been compromised? He rapidly observed the surrounding landscape and suddenly realized what had happened. No wonder Qianye was wandering around the valley for so long. As it turned out, he was using the barrier-abundant terrain to calculate the angle from which he was being observed. A rank nine assassin like him had actually been found out with such a clumsy method.
The assassin placed his hand on his weapon and subconsciously glanced at a somewhat suitable sniping position nearby. Should he take action now or escape for the moment?
A sound rang out near his ears while he was still hesitating. “You’ve been watching for so long. Is it so interesting to watch that man?”
The assassin was shocked out of his wits and almost slid off the slope.
He rapidly twisted his head to find that a tall and handsome youth had appeared beside him since god knows when. And he was even standing shoulder to shoulder with him and gazing at Qianye.
The blonde youth’s expression was harmless and leisurely. However, the assassin felt as if he had fallen into an icy cavern—his whole body became rigid within the blink of an eye. He had absolutely no idea how that person had arrived or how long he had been following him. Since this blonde young man had actually appeared in complete silence, naturally, he could also have slit the latter’s throat undetected.
The assassin, after his initial shock had passed, immediately flipped his hand and thrust his weapon so fast under the young man’s ribs that only a cold gleam was barely visible. Meanwhile, his figure warped as he leapt away in a different direction.
As if he didn’t see the wisp of cold and lethal light, the blonde young man shrugged and said, “Is that all there is to the Lone Ghosts? You guys really don’t amount to much!” With that, he reached out and grabbed the assassin by the throat with relative ease as if the attack from the rank nine fighter didn’t amount to anything at all.
He suddenly lifted his blue-grey eyes and revealed a smile as brilliant as the sun. “Hi, my dear friend. We meet again!” The blonde youth almost seemed to have forgotten the man in his grasp. With a wave of his hand, the assassin who was already on his last breath shattered into several pieces and fell to the ground.
On a half-slope hundreds of meters away, Qianye’s eyes opened wide as a chill ran down his spine, all the way to his feet. He was also an expert in concealment and tracking—he had finally utilized the limited vision within the special landscape and found the position of his surveillant.
Qianye reckoned the other party possessed a skill or equipment related to invisibility, the reason why he had come to perform a thorough observation despite seeing no one on the mountaintop. But he hadn’t expected to witness such a scene after the invisibility was dispelled at the right place!
He grasped the grade six origin gun he had obtained from the vampire viscount and instinctively aimed it at the blonde youth.
The other party had no intention to dodge and was still smiling radiantly. “Qianye, it’s me, William.”
Qianye had already fled like a bolt of lightning before he could even finish speaking.
William’s expression and movements all paused—his waving hand was still in the air, and his mouth was opened wide. “Ah? Why did he run away?” With that, he tossed away what remained of the assassin’s corpse.
A “pop” rang out behind a rock overgrown with flowers as a tall female werewolf with delicate curves tumbled out of invisibility. A pair of furry ears stood up amidst her dense maroon locks and then dropped back down, just like her current mood.
“Your Excellency, your friend…” the female werewolf said with some difficulty, “is a human.”
“So?”
“You just killed a human right in front of him!” the female werewolf said in her mind. He had even used such a bloody method as tearing the assassin to pieces.
“That bastard came to kill him.”
“But, he probably doesn’t know that…”
“Eh?!” William rose into the air and chased toward the direction in which Qianye had fled, leaving only an instruction, “Tidy up here.”
The female werewolf strongly shook her ears and tail but ultimately resigned herself to her fate. She walked toward the assassin’s corpse and began to check through his belongings. The scent of flesh and the origin power in it was still very fresh. It made the female werewolf want to pounce on it for a snack. But after remembering that she would have to appear before his excellency’s friend in a while, she could only wipe away her saliva and continue working.
After hurrying for a short distance, William found that something wasn’t quite right because Qianye’s speed had far surpassed his imagination. The latter had already reached the valley’s exit within a short conversation’s delay.
“Qianye, wait!” His loud cry swept through the whole valley.
Qianye, of course, ran even faster after hearing such an imposing voice. William was from the Summit of Peaks, the most powerful and mysterious werewolf tribe. Even its immature members possessed strength close to a champion’s.
That night, near Darkblood City, Qianye had personally witnessed William take action and knew that the latter could only be stronger than Viscount Brahms—that might not even be his strongest attack.
Before such overwhelming strength, how could Qianye give him even half an opportunity to catch up?
Battle wasn’t even an option. With Qianye’s near rank-eight strength, he would, at most, be able to leave a moderate wound on William even if he used all of his trump cards, including the grade-six gun and the black titanium bullet of annihilation. That was assuming he was fortunate enough to land the hit. One had to know that werewolves were the kings of mountainous regions, and their ability to make use of the landscape weren’t inferior to humans at all.
William began to frown after rushing out of the valley. Qianye had chosen to flee in a straight line toward a flatland. In that way, both the werewolf’s advantage in mountainous regions and his ability as a champion to fly over obstacles had been negated. Now, both parties could only compete in pure speed.
What was worse was that Qianye’s speed was actually not slower than a vampire viscount’s. He was showing no signs of slowing down even after running dozens of kilometers. Apparently, this wasn’t a short-term explosive sprint. Judging from the current situation, it was impossible for Qianye to shake off William, but it would also prove quite difficult for the latter to catch up to him. He could only rely on his endurance to wear Qianye down to exhaustion.
This definitely wasn’t a good idea.
Although the flatland Qianye had chosen was somewhat a detour, he could still run to the First Sun Highway within a day. There, the chances of encountering human experts would increase greatly. Even as a member of the Summit of Peaks, William wouldn’t dare to pass through Zhao clan territory so brazenly.
It seemed that running one day and night wasn’t a problem for Qianye. William was truly discomfited. He suddenly let out a long howl—the earth beneath his feet began to tremble slightly as the giant image of a golden wolf, several meters tall, appeared behind him, and powerful origin powerful fluctuations surged toward the sky.
William leapt upwards and merged with the illusory image. He had become a formidable giant wolf as he landed back on the ground, his hair as white as snow and his golden mane as dazzling as the sun.
William’s speed increased twofold after transforming into the giant wolf. A beam of golden lightning streaked across the land and caught up to Qianye within moments. The giant wolf leapt into the air, crossed over Qianye’s head and landed right in front of him.
At this time, Qianye’s newly upgraded body was yet to achieve perfect coordination. He was caught completely off-guard and almost crashed into the wolf. In the end, he reacted rapidly by coming to a sudden halt and stepping several meters toward the side.
However, even the giant wolf’s back was almost two meters tall. A pair of greyish blue eyes gazed at Qianye with the weight and solemnity of a mountain. The wolf’s naturally suppressive might spread outwards almost substantially and even caused the wild grass, half as tall as a man, to collapse flat on the ground.
Qianye’s sidestep didn’t bring him out of the suppression range. He immediately felt the force of a whole mountain peak rushing toward him—his arms dropped like heavy objects under the tremendous suppressive force, and even the origin power within his body became sluggish.
The giant wolf let out a menacing roar and then slowly retracted his suppressive might before complaining, “You scoundrel! You sure run fast…”
Qianye’s expression abruptly changed after the suppression on him receded. Was this William?
Usual werewolf transformations only involved the head and tail, and the body would remain in human form. Only some of those low-ranking cannon fodder who couldn’t take on human form would stay in full wolf form. He had never heard of a champion turning into a giant wolf.
The giant wolf shook his neck and stood up, his mane erupting with golden radiance akin to the sun. After the dazzling glow receded, William stood there with his perfectly proportioned and muscular body exposed. He then grabbed a pair of trousers and began to put them on, “Qianye, can you not…”
Before he could even finish speaking, Qianye had already taken a step forward and struck out with his fist.
At this moment, William was in an awkward position as the trousers in his hands had only been pulled up halfway. However, William didn’t mind—he only moved after observing the opponent—freeing one hand and reaching out to grab Qianye’s wrist. He was prepared to drag Qianye to the ground.
But, as the two fists came into contact, a sound akin to muffled thunder was emitted from their midst. William felt an inconceivably strong force transmitted from Qianye’s arm and actually failed to block the momentum of the latter’s fist.
This far exceeded William’s expectations. He immediately exerted more strength and raised his output to half his maximum before he was able to lock down Qianye’s wrist.
Qianye’s wrist sunk and twisted out of William’s hand. At the same time, his foot stomped hard on the ground as a sideways elbow lashed out along with the weight of his whole body. This stance was actually that of close-quarters combat.
William sensed the earth tremble under Qianye’s stomp and suddenly became more cautious as he raised his arm strength to 70%.
He knew that the human body was quite frail, which was especially true for snipers and assassins. For instance, that Lone Ghost assassin he had accidentally ripped to pieces. That was why he had refrained from using darkness origin power. But with his rank as a count and his physique that was much stronger than those from the average werewolf tribe, he should’ve been able to suppress a human fighter with pure strength.
At this moment, using 70% strength against a rank seven fighter could already be considered quite cautious.