Chapter 85: Half-Brother
Spoiler Title
Zhao Jundu glanced playfully at Qianye and bent over to pat his face lightly. “So this is your true appearance, huh, Qian Xiaoye?”
Qianye only felt that Zhao Jundu’s actions were inexplicably odd. But after hearing that depressing name, he suddenly thought of a certain possibility and felt speechless.
Could it be that this fourth young master of the Zhao clan was keeping an eye on him in order to get back at him for Zhao Junhong and had discovered the murder at Darkshore City in passing? If that was the reason he had caught up with Qianye, then it was really too much of a damn coincidence.
Qianye said while grinding his teeth, “My name is Qianye.”
A heavenly flame lit up in Zhao Jundu’s violet eyes. He unhurriedly brought out his glasses and put them on, concealing all emotion therein. “Why did you kill Zhao Youpin?”
Qianye sneered without replying.
“I really should’ve let you suffer a bit more!”
An abrupt change occurred as Zhao Jundu moved once again!
He suddenly felt as if the right hand he had on his gun was clamped by a red-hot vice, and he almost loosened his grip from the intense pain. He looked over and found nothing there, but a strip of his skin about two-fingers in breadth was red and swelling up at a visible pace.
At that same time, Qianye, who was being pressed down by the muzzle, suddenly moved. A great force traveled upward, causing the Blue Firmament to fly directly out of Zhao Jundu’s hands.
Zhao Jundu’s eyes behind his glasses flashed with cold austerity. He shifted the gun to his left hand, pulled it up, and casually stuck it into the ground on one side.
A mass of purple mist appeared in his right palm which extended toward his elbow within moments and ignited with a whoosh. The red swelling on his wrist was immediately contained and could spread no further—that invisible constrictive energy had been immediately dispersed by the violet mist.
Zhao Jundu then sent a palm slapping toward Qianye at lightning speed.
Qianye had just rolled away after extricating himself from the muzzle. He was jumping back to his feet when he suddenly let out a muffled groan as if he had suffered a powerful attack—a thin stream of blood flowed down the corner of his left eye.
Zhao Jundu’s furious palm strike had also arrived before him.
Qianye blocked with his arms—his entire body was shaken upon contact and flung away. Following which, an incomparably heavy object pressed down upon him and locked his body firmly in place.
A still-flaming fist fell right beside Qianye’s left ear and pierced deeply into the ground, the violet blaze singeing some of his hair until they were burnt and curled up.
Qianye lay on his back—his vision was dark, his chest was burning, and every breath felt laborious.
His body was already in an exhausted state when his origin power defenses were broken just a while ago, and now he had forcefully activated his eye ability and daybreak origin power again within a short time. Presently, the effects of the backlash from the eye ability and the overdraft of origin power had overlapped. This feeling of weakness was extremely uncomfortable—it felt as if a giant hole had appeared in the world, and even his soul was falling into it.
Zhao Jundu’s voice, overflowing with anger, was so close that it ruffled the broken hair near Qianye’s ears. “My dear brother, you’re really asking for a lesson!”
Qianye felt as if he were struck by heavenly lightning—all of his thoughts ceased working in the instant that he opened his eyes.
Zhao Jundu withdrew his right hand, grabbed onto Qianye’s collar, and pulled down. This immediately ripped apart the front of his clothes to reveal a giant scar stretching through his chest and abdomen.
In truth, the scar had already healed a fair bit after Qianye obtained his vampire constitution and was no longer uneven and sinister like an entrenched centipede.
Zhao Jundu’s hand trembled slightly, and his expression changed several times. His eyes on Qianye saw, in the latter’s limpid crystalline pupils, a mixture of doubt, emptiness, puzzlement, and some anger—but no joy.
Zhao Jundu said slowly, “It is… indeed you.”
“Qianye, we have the same father.”
Qianye stopped his struggling. He still couldn’t see very clearly at the moment—lines of black and white flitted across his vision from time to time, a lingering effect of the backlash from his eye ability. His state of extreme weakness was also still there.
But at this moment, Qianye’s thoughts were in even more chaos than his blurred vision.
He never had any expectations about his birth parents. A child from the dumpster had only himself to rely on. Even if he really had parents, there was little they could’ve done amidst the extreme hunger and the struggle to survive. Under the extremely adverse environment, it would be difficult for parents to ensure the survival of their children even if they traded away everything they had.
That was why there existed no age, gender, and family in the dumpster—only individuals seeking survival.
As such, he had never had such expectations or hopes.
In truth, when he sometimes looked back, Qianye felt that he was incomparably fortunate in that he had always found a tiny strand of light whenever he groped toward the future.
Marshal Lin who had dragged him out of the dumpster, Song Zining with whom he shared a close companionship since their days at the Yellow Springs training camp, Wei Potian whom he had met on the day of recruitment, all those he had met and left on Evernight Continent, and even those dark race descendants with ambiguous stances like Nighteye and William—all of them were so.
He cherished all friendship and goodwill because they weren’t things he could take for granted. In this chaotic era of war over this land of imminent peril, even protecting oneself was a difficult mission, to speak nothing of caring for others at the same time.
However, at this very moment, someone was suddenly telling him that his life could’ve been different?
Qianye suddenly felt that it was laughable and even wanted to break out in laughter. “You’ve got the wrong person.”
Zhao Jundu’s reaction after seeing his scar reminded Qianye of Song Zining’s warning. He wasn’t so naive as to believe he was merely a lost child of the Zhao clan.
At one point, he had desperately wanted an answer when failing to break through bottlenecks despite spending many times more effort than a normal person would in cultivating the Combatant Formula. But at this moment, Qianye suddenly had no wish to know any further.
“The identity Song Seven made for you is virtually impregnable. Since he interfered with the internal affairs of our Zhao clan, tell me, how much do you think he already knows?” Zhao Jundu’s tone of voice was suffused with an unmistakable chill.
Anger flashed across Qianye’s countenance. “What are you trying to say?”
“Go back with me.”
Qianye laughed, his voice suffused with unspoken ridicule. “You can bring my corpse back,” he added after some pause, “your brother has died over ten years ago. The one living now is a child who grew up in a dumpster on Evernight Continent. I have neither parents nor siblings!”
Zhao Jundu inhaled deeply—he raised his hand to strike but just couldn’t bear to swing it down after seeing those crystal clear eyes.
Qianye struggled to clamber up. Although he almost fell several times, he was able to stabilize himself in the end.
After seeing the bloody trail at the corner of Qianye’s eyes, Zhao Jundu coldly said, “My West Pole Purple Mist has already entered the ‘heavenly flame’ realm. You dare clash against it with that measly eye ability of yours. You would’ve been blinded already if I retaliated with full force.”
Qianye only laughed coldly without saying anything.
Vampire abilities all required blood energy to activate, and that Spatial Flash back then had already deprived Qianye of the greater half of his blood energy. This eye ability was just a risky all-in gambit. He was willing to accept defeat, he was willing to die, but he absolutely wouldn’t accept being humiliated. He was already indifferent to life and death during that last bout, so how could he care about being blinded?
If Zhao Jundu looked down on his eye ability because of this, he might be in for a surprise the next time they met again, that was if there was ever such an opportunity.
Zhao Jundu suddenly removed his glasses and glanced at his surroundings with flaming purple eyes before putting it back on. His somewhat thin lips formed a stern arc as he promptly withdrew his fury.
He picked up the Blue Firmament and strung it to his back. Then he tossed toward Qianye a tablet with a jade relief carving installed on a bronze base. “I’ll handle that incident at Darkshore City. Take this, it’s my personal token. With it, you can enter the Zhao clan residence at West Pole City or send me a message via the Zhao clan’s channels. You can also utilize the resources under my name.”
Qianye caught the palm-sized tablet and gave it a few glances. Carved on the jade relief was the same deviant beast as the one on Zhao Jundu’s heavy sniper rifle. He threw the jade bronze jade tablet and said indifferently, “I don’t feel that I have a father, much less a brother. If you want to kill me, then do it swiftly. Otherwise, I’m leaving.”
Zhao Jundu wasn’t angry this time. He only laughed as he walked toward Qianye and pressed the tablet back into his hand. “Whether you have a father or not, you’re still my little brother. Additionally, your mother left you a locked crystal disk back then, and your name Qianye came from it. That is the only thing she left behind, and it’s at the Zhao clan residence. Do you really not want to take a look?”
Qianye was startled. He clearly knew Zhao Jundu was enticing him, but even so, he revealed an expression of hesitation. He hesitated for a moment and finally asked, “Who’s my mother? What exactly happened back then?”
Zhao Jundu said with a smile, “I’ll tell you everything the day you return to the Zhao clan. Otherwise, you can only dream of knowing!”
“You!!!” Qianye’s eyes flickered with killing intent. He felt his hands start to itch and really wanted to smash his fist into Zhao Jundu’s face.
Zhao Jundu laughed out loud. “You’re indeed very strong, but you’ll need a few years if you really want to beat me. If you’re not convinced, we can fight another round when you’re recovered, but you’ll have to return to the Zhao clan if you lose. Do you dare?”
“Farewell!” How could Qianye fall for this trick? He turned to walk away, leaving a laughing Zhao Jundu behind.
The smile on Zhao Jundu’s face gradually disappeared as Qianye’s figure disappeared over the horizon, replaced by an indescribable coldness and arrogance.
He slowly turned around, aimed the Blue Firmament toward the front, and said coldly, “Haven’t you seen enough? Time to come out and die!”
A commotion ensued ahead as many figures appeared on a small hill hundreds of meters away. It was actually a group lead by two werewolf viscounts and hundreds of warriors. Among them, a small unit led by a baron chased toward the direction in which Qianye had left.
One of the werewolf barons stared fixedly at Zhao Jundu with eyes full of greed and roared with a sinister smile, “So you’re Zhao Jundu? Very good, we might even get to meet the prince if we capture you!”
Zhao Jundu aimed the Blue Firmament at the werewolf viscount and said coldly, “An audience with the prince? Wait till your next life!”
The Blue Firmament rumbled, turning the entire world a greenish blue! When the jade-like color faded away, that werewolf viscount and the entire guard squad behind him had vanished.
The werewolves had, in their enthusiasm to gain merit, forgotten one thing. The Blue Firmament was a grade-seven heavy sniper rifle, and most weapons of such grade were able to launch area of effect attacks, although, in theory, only count-level champions could completely utilize their full power.
Chaos descended upon the small hill as the remaining werewolves erupted with savagery after recovering from the momentary panic. They howled loudly, leaping and charging toward Zhao Jundu.
Zhao Jundu’s countenance was covered in a layer of iciness. With a clang, a sharp blade gleaming with a cold luster extended out of the Blue Firmament’s muzzle. Still holding the heavy sniper rifle as if it were as light as a feather, he swung it in an arc, whereupon a large crescent-shaped blade radiance flew out and hacked the pouncing werewolves through the waist.
At this moment, mechanical rumbles suddenly resounded in the air as a high-speed gunship approached from the distance. It so happened that they encountered that small unit chasing after Qianye. The cannons under the gunship spat out a continuous stream of flames, filling the vast wilderness with resounding explosions. Origin power lights of different colors erupted at set intervals on the ground, amidst which the unit of werewolves was immediately devastated.
Zhao Jundu frowned after seeing the insignia on the gunship. He leapt sideways and, like a bird, stepped over the heads of three werewolf knights. The blade extending from the muzzle of his heavy sniper rifle drew an arc of blue light resembling a water screen. When he landed back on the ground, only fresh blood and pieces of flesh were left behind him.
At this time, the small gunship in the distance had already concluded its battle and quickly approached this side. Several cables were dropped down, via which a number of agile guards slid to the ground. The battle ended moments later, leaving a ground full of strewn corpses.
Zhao Jundu climbed the highest lookout post on the small airship and saw Zhao Junhong standing there with his hands behind his back, gazing at the twilight over the Silentflame Steppes.
“Second Brother, how come you’re here?”
“Someone sold your movements to the Doncaster werewolf tribe.”
Zhao Jundu nodded and didn’t ask further. He was already used to such situations. Since he dared go into battle alone, he was naturally not afraid of such things.
His heart shook ever so slightly as he approached Zhao Junhong’s side and followed the latter’s gaze. From such a high vantage point and with his vision as a long-range sniping expert, he could see a small black dot walking alone through the red earth of the vast wilderness. That was Qianye who had not gotten very far.
It was an era where battles were present everywhere and at any given time, regardless of clan, nation, or race. Even proud sons of heaven like them could only protect those who were within reach.