Volume 5 – A Distance Within Reach, Chapter 63: Pressure
Nighteye finally turned around and looked straight at the Young Man. “Fira, the answer is no regardless of how many times you ask.”
Fira’s expression froze and his cheek was twitching continuously—apparently, he was extremely angry. He tried to force out a smile in order to retain some elegance, but the distorted line on his lips only made him look inexplicably sinister.
Nighteye turned back and continued gazing out the window. Her eyes were detached, cold, and even contained a trace of disdain. She also moved her body as though by accident and distanced herself a little bit.
“You whore!” Firas cursed in anger. Nighteye’s small movement had ignited the last segment of his fuse, and he directly extended his large hands to grab her.
A cold gleam flashed in Nighteye’s eyes—the pair of daggers at her waist left their sheaths and fell into her hands. A bright red glow suffused the twin blades as she thrust at Fira’s chest, and at the same time, his image appeared in her eyes.
Only a “ding” was heard as the sound of clashing metal echoed through the room. Fira’s right arm moved across his chest and actually blocked Nighteye’s daggers. It seemed as though the two sharp blades, which had already cut apart countless enemies, had just slashed at a metallic sculpture. It was extremely difficult to push the blade further even slightly.
Nighteye let out a clear shout on the spot, and Fira’s image in her eyes shattered abruptly. Only a muffled groan was heard as the man’s face turned much paler. However, his blood energy only wavered for a moment before restabilizing. The bloody mist around his left hand rapidly intensified and immediately pressed upon Nighteye’s protective blood energy.
The dense blood energy gushing out wildly from the two was almost tangible and filled the entire room in the blink of an eye. Following which, the blood energies of different attributes materialized their own domains to launch fierce attacks.
Fira’s dark red blood energy took the form of numerous land beasts—lions, tigers, bears, and wolves appeared in great numbers and charged toward Nighteye amidst loud roars. This wasn’t just a simple illusion. Every pounce and every rend possessed the power to tear apart flesh and blood. So much that they were even more vicious than ordinary demonic beasts.
A peculiar cry rang out all of a sudden as a twin-headed beast emerged amidst the countless land animals, and an extremely powerful pressure emerged the moment it appeared. The ability to materialize terrifying entities within a domain to attack the opponent was recognized as a standard for geniuses, and the attack power of such a domain was much stronger than ordinary ones.
Fira’s anger subsided by a fair bit after releasing his domain to the fullest extent and converting it into calmness necessary for battle. Nighteye was a primo and so was he, but he received much less attention from the major characters of the upper continent.
Nighteye activated her blood energy; hers was bright red with specks of gold. At this moment, her entire body was enveloped in a dense, lingering blood-colored mist and was barely discernible. Suddenly, a giant bird rose into the sky! It was like a peacock with a line of gold extending from its beak toward its back and all the way to its last feather.
Fira’s pupils constricted precipitously—this was a golden peacock! A fierce beast with the ability to control darkness origin power. Comparatively, the twin-headed beast Fira had released from his domain immediately lost its color.
The golden peacock pounced directly toward the twin-headed beast as soon as it appeared, not even sparing a single glance at the other land beasts charging at Nighteye’s defenses. It pecked several times with great ferocity and excavated a bloody hole in the beast’s left head. The beast was in immense pain and struggled with all its might—the other head turned around and bit down on the golden peacock's body.
However, the peacock pressed the beast firmly and couldn’t be shaken off no matter what. After several vicious pecks, the beast’s other head burst into strands of spiralling black smoke which dispersed within the blood-colored domain.
The superiority in this battle had been decided.
But the victorious golden peacock was soon drowned out by all types of land beasts. Every flap of its wings sent demonic beasts flying and transforming into black origin power mid-air. However, there were simply too many of them, and the golden peacock continuously sustained more and more injuries.
Nighteye opened her eyes amidst the bloody mist, her cold pupils exceptionally bright and clear. Once again, a grey condor with snow-white wing tips rose into the air and pounced forward.
A snow-winged golden condor! Yet another vicious beast and, although it was somewhat inferior to the golden peacock, the difference was fairly limited.
Fira’s expression finally changed. Two vicious beasts had appeared in succession from Nighteye’s domain, and they were both high-ranking flying beasts. It seemed her talents in the field of domains had already far surpassed his own.
The ability to materialize vicious beasts in domains was ordinarily limited to experts above the level of marquis, but if he had remembered correctly, Nighteye had only just become a viscount.
No wonder the Monroes were still unwilling to negotiate and acting coy even under present circumstances, and no wonder the Evernight Council big shots would pay her so much attention. But drawing too much attention wasn’t always a good thing.
Fira revealed a sinister smile. The greater the talents Nighteye displayed, the more resolute he became.
Demonic beasts rushed out like a black tide within his domain and rushed toward the golden peacock and snow-winged golden condor. Even though the two avians would tear the land beasts into black smoke with every swipe of their claw and peck of their beaks, but the numbers were simply too great. Every dead beast would be replaced immediately by the one behind it.
Fira’s level was far above Nighteye—in the end, he was able to achieve victory by means of his blood energy capacity and forcefully suppressed Nighteye. The snow-winged golden condor was the first to falter and was torn to shreds.
Nighteyes countenance turned pale as she coughed out a mouthful of fresh blood. Her movements immediately turned somewhat slower, and she was almost struck by Fira. Within the blink of an eye, the golden peacock also disappeared—Nighteye coughed up yet another mouthful of fresh blood, and her movements became even more sluggish.
Fira finally found his opportunity. His left hand pierced through Nighteye’s protective blood energy with great ferocity and lifted her up by the neck.
After controlling Nighteye, Fira glanced at the surroundings and found that only a small number of vicious beasts remained within his domain, all of them injured. Fira’s expression turned gloomy because this indicated that he had won only by a narrow margin.
He was an entire three ranks higher than Nighteye, and yet, the fight had progressed to such a state. If they were at the same level, he probably wouldn’t last even ten minutes.
Fira stared fixedly at Nighteye with madness in his eyes and said through gritted teeth, “As expected of a primo capable of moving those old fellows. Your talents are indeed far above my own. But so what? Your talents will only push you into the abyss.”
Nighteye’s pale countenance was flushed due to the suffocation, but she only returned a cold gaze with exceptional calmness in her eyes. It was as though even the present situation couldn’t move her in the least.
Fira’s voice turned particularly deep. “I know you despise me, but this matter is beyond your control. Just be obedient and become my woman…” he paused suddenly and then continued with a dangerous tone, “perhaps I should have a taste of you right now. That’s not a bad idea at all!”
It was at this time that a cough echoed through the room.
Fira’s movements slowed down for a moment. He turned back abruptly and glared at the old man who had appeared at some point with fiery eyes.
There wasn’t a single hair out of place on this old man—even the jeweled ring on his finger was angled perfectly—his style was completely that of an ancient noble. He glanced at Fira and said slowly, “Your Excellency Fira, your actions at the moment are rather… inappropriate.”
“Inappropriate?” Fira sneered and moved the hand on Nighteye’s neck slightly. With an ear-piercing tear, her first button was torn away along with her collar.
The old man coughed once again. Fira’s movements froze as a bright red dot appeared on the side of his neck from which a drop of blood slowly trickled down.
“Are you determined to stop me?” Fira shouted in a sharp voice.
“If you’re referring to the present, then I am.”
Fira’s eyes almost seemed to be spouting flames. He snorted deeply and pushed Nighteye away.
Nighteye flew backward and crashed heavily into the wall, immediately coughing up a mouthful of fresh blood. The contest of domains had exhausted her blood energy completely, and now, she wasn’t much stronger than a newborn vampire.
The old man raised the corners of his brows but neither took action nor said anything. He watched Fira quietly without taking his eyes off him for even a moment.
Fira became violent and paced about in the room with large strides. He waved his arms with great force and spoke continuously, “Very good, Your Excellency Count Klaus, I shall remember your words today. I heard you have a fair number of descendants but all of them are trash. They should be careful hereafter—it would probably be best for them to not leave the castle or their coffins. Evernight had always been unsafe, and it will become even more dangerous from now on.”
The old man’s expression changed and then recovered immediately afterward.
Fira walked over to the old man, jabbed at his chest with a finger, and said word by word, “Listen, old thing, even if you can stop me today, you won’t be able to stop me tomorrow! She’s destined to be my woman, and it’s only a matter of time. But because of your actions today, I’ve decided to toy with her in front of all your descendants until she’s half-dead! And this is all because you’re too meddlesome, hear me? You old thing!”
This time, the old man retained his normal expression as though a breeze had just blown past his ears and said indifferently, “It’s getting late. You should go and rest.”
Fira’s chest rose and fell rapidly, and he only calmed down slightly with great effort. “Fine! I’m leaving! But I want to see how the current Monroes can reject me! I shall go back and tell Carl that the original conditions have been canceled. Negotiations will start anew!!!”
After roaring thus, Firas left in large strides and slammed the door with a loud bang.
The old man arrived before Nighteye, supported her up, and then passed her a piece of blood crystal. Color returned to Nighteyes countenance only after draining the blood crystal clean.
The old man watched Nighteye with eyes full of love and pity. “Although you’ve awoken the primogenitor’s bloodline, I still consider you my child.”
The iciness in Nighteye’s expression melted as she whispered, “You’ve always been my father. This has never changed.”
The creases on the old count’s face appeared even deeper as he sighed deeply. “Fira is unexpectedly so brazen. It seems they’re fiercely determined.”
An indiscernible flash of determination appeared in her eyes. “There’s nothing in this world that one can obtain for certain.”
The old count laughed wryly. “I’m a little bit worried that the people up there won’t be able to take the pressure.”
Nighteye lowered her gaze without replying.
The old count turned silent for a while and said, “You should go. Leave this place.”
Nighteye was startled and then shook her head. “But what about you? They’ll definitely take it out on you if I leave.”
“I’m already old, so old that the time for eternal sleep is nigh. So what if they take it out on me?”
Nighteye gently held the old count’s hands.
That was a definitely the hand of an old man—his skin had lost its elasticity, and it had become fairly thin, almost translucent, due to the erosion of time, revealing the craggy bones and tendons underneath.
She slowly pressed her face in his hands just like she had done many years before when she was but a child.
During these days, Dark Flame’s elites were stationed atop Black Ridge with the Wei clan champion overseeing them and taking full charge of logistics and the transport of the spoils of war. Qianye himself led the elites on a series of raids and struck two more mines. He seized everything that could be moved away and then burned the mine into ruins.
There was still no movement in the depths of the arachne count’s territory, but Qianye wasn’t worried whether or not there was any scheme behind the count’s passivity. The longer things dragged on, the more established the defensive construction on Black Ridge would become—given enough time, the place would become a fort. Qianye even transferred an airship over.
It wasn’t a bad thing even if the arachne count really had no intention to mobilize his forces. They could cut off the eastern region’s communication with the count completely so long as they maintained a firm grasp on Black Ridge. Then, he would mop up the viscounts in the eastern region one by one and accomplish his western expedition plans.
Zhao Yuying disappeared during this period, leaving a message saying she was going to survey the geography and that she would probably be back when there were actual battles to fight. With Zhao Yuying’s ability, no existence in the count’s territory could pose a threat to her as long as she acted with some care. Thus, Qianye just let her go since there wasn’t an urgent need for her anyway.
The guardians of the two other mines were only barons. Qianye was able to obtain victory without much effort, and there was even the added benefit of replenishing his essence blood.
After pulling back to Black Ridge, Qianye wanted to start cultivating immediately and convert the essence blood as quickly as possible. Unexpectedly, he was suddenly overcome by exhaustion—it was, once again, that familiar and irresistible sensation.