Volume 5 – A Distance Within Reach, Chapter 83: A Fatal Allure
The voice came from behind and sounded fairly close.
Qianye didn’t turn back immediately. Instead, a deep oceanic blue flickered within his eyes. As expected, his True Vision perceived countless strands of unusual darkness origin power interweaving in the air around him. The source was behind him, and its area of effect had enveloped him completely.
Qianye’s eyes recovered its normal clear darkness as he calmly and gradually turned around.
Hovering in the air in front of him was an indescribable woman. She was, without a doubt, beautiful, but her expression was as cold as ice. Although she was standing at the same height as Qianye, there was an inherent superiority in her eyes—it was as if she were looking down at him from high above.
However, there was one part of her that formed a stark contrast to her cold and arrogant demeanor. Her full, vermilion lips pursed ever so slightly and glistened with bright colors, adding a touch of liveliness to her painting-like countenance. Anyone who saw her would feel the urge to nip on them.
The lady’s figure at this moment was the polar opposite of that wild dancer inside his scope—one was ice and the other, fire. But such an intense contrast brought about a similarly powerful attraction.
Qianye gazed at her with a fairly calm but probing attitude and asked without any emotional fluctuation, “Who are you?”
She laughed suddenly. “That’s not important. Now answer this one question, was my dance enjoyable?”
“It was.” Qianye’s reply was sincere.
It seemed she only twisted her waist ever so slightly before her figure crossed over several meters and arrived near Qianye. There, she leaned forward and asked again, “Then, was it alluring?”
The deep ravine in her chest was clearly visible from this angle—it would appear the degree of fullness was not inferior to Nangong Xiaoniao’s.
Qianye nodded yet again.
The woman smiled in satisfaction as she gazed attentively at Qianye.
From a battle perspective, the two had already reached a dangerously close distance. However, Qianye’s hand on East Peak was fairly steady and showed not the slightest bit of restlessness. Moreover, he didn’t avoid the woman’s gaze, either. So much that he had no intentions to hide his admiration upon seeing this beautiful object.
The woman’s eyes turned progressively brighter. She smiled lightly and said, “I’m called Twilight, a woman who’s very much interested in you. I’m pleased—very pleased—with you. So, doing it isn’t out of the question! As long as you pass a small test.”
Her voice hadn’t even trailed off when two exquisite daggers suddenly appeared in her hands and, with a flash of cold light, pressed toward Qianye’s throat and heart.
The two blades arrived without the slightest warning and moved with the momentum of a thunderbolt. Qianye simply couldn’t react on time and seemed to be on the verge of being pierced through.
It was at this time that Twilight heard a sudden clap of thunder, and her heart actually skipped a beat—she saw that Qianye had made no effort to evade. Meanwhile, East Peak was shooting straight toward her chest amidst a thunderous gale.
Twilight was deeply astonished. She was able to feel the might of this strike with the greatest sensitivity because her blood energy domain had fully enveloped Qianye—it was no passing breeze, but instead a sweeping gale. She immediately determined that her two daggers were perfectly capable of piercing Qianye’s vitals, however, even with her speed, she wouldn’t be able to pull back afterward and would have to take this blow.
But how could this strike be so easy to endure? Twilight had a bad premonition. She was actually uncertain about coming out of this unscathed. And her combat instincts had already helped her conquer countless enemies who were even stronger than herself.
Qianye’s single move had forced Twilight to withdraw her blade; she swerved away and evaded the incoming edge with extreme alacrity. At the same time, she drew a snaking blade radiance which slashed toward Qianye’s throat.
Another peal of thunder rang out. Qianye was, just as before, stationary when yet another sword-strike slashed down on Twilight's head.
The power behind this slash was even more evident. Twilight felt the resonant darkness origin power in the vicinity turn chaotic, so much that there were even signs of a reverse suppression. Surprise flickered through her eyes, and she was once again forced to dodge sideways. The blade slashing at Qianye’s neck naturally missed its target.
Twilight’s supple figure formed several indistinct afterimages in the air as she reappeared behind Qianye almost immediately. Her dagger stabbed quietly at Qianye’s back as her figure flickered twice, almost like performing a teleportation. It was obviously an incomparably powerful combat technique.
Qianye didn’t panic after her figure disappeared from his vision, and he was in even less of a hurry to turn around in search of her. Instead, he used East Peak to draw a ring-shaped blade radiance which protected him within.
Twilight’s blade slashed against East Peak with a clang. Both of them staggered back from the severe impact as though they had been struck by lightning. This was the first time they had exchanged solid blows. Qianye came out a bit short—he jumped down from the tree with relative calmness and took a couple of steps back before stabilizing himself.
Twilight performed a backflip and landed on a horizontal branch of a big tree. She floated up and down as though she were completely weightless.
Qianye looked up at her. He had already put away the Twin Flowers, and his hands gripped East Peak tightly. This was the most powerful enemy he had encountered to date. This woman’s combat technique appeared to lean toward grace and agility, yet Qianye’s heavy sword and his strength comparable to that of a dark race champion had failed to form any kind of suppression.
The most important point was that her blood energy was faintly stirring the ambient darkness origin power. Qianye tried twice but failed to activate Nirvanic Rend successfully.
Twilight’s eyes lit up as she gazed at Qianye. Her figure suddenly flickered and drew out a long trail of afterimages. Within moments, she had arrived before him, her dagger almost pressing against his throat. Her speed was too fast—the afterimage standing on the branch hadn’t even disappeared completely when both man and blade had arrived in front of Qianye. Qianye was barely able to react despite his combat experience.
However, Twilight’s expression shifted ever so slightly. That dark, scrap-iron-like heavy sword appeared slow but was, in fact, extremely fast. Another blow was already aiming for her abdomen. In spite of everything, his methods were still aiming to injure both parties.
In truth, after several exchanges, both of them already had a clear understanding of the gap between them. But Twilight had never expected that this human youth would be so determined to go all-out. His ruthlessness was completely disproportionate to his elegant, almost frail, appearance. One had to know that this kind of technique would mean injury for Twilight, but death to Qianye.
Twilight’s figure flickered in and out of vision—only the sharp whistle in the air proved that she was attacking Qianye. Within moments, a dense web of interweaving origin power patterns emerged in Qianye’s True Sight. There was simply no way to judge her next attack. This was an attack of extreme speed and power forming a state of near-invulnerability.
Qianye exhaled and let out a roar. He hacked, slashed, and thrust out with East Peak—he was no longer searching for the other party’s weak point and only slashed at the area with the densest veined patterns with all his might. He suddenly felt the tip of his sword strike something, followed by a muffled groan.
The battlefield suddenly changed. The watery moonlight suddenly turned dark as though one were standing in the darkness between sundown and the moonrise. The sky turned gloomy, and a chill spread out boundlessly, cutting deep into the bones.
Qianye suddenly felt as though countless threads had entangled his body. His every movement became incomparably stagnant, and he could barely lift East Peak which was more or less an extension of his own limb.
His wrist turned numb. East Peak fell from his grasp and pierced into the ground in front of him. Twilight emerged behind Qianye with her entire body pressed tightly against his own, hugging him from behind and caressing his neck with great tenderness. If not for the killing intent in the air, their posture at this moment would look just like a pair of intimate lovers.
Twilight buried her face in Qianye’s neck and inhaled deeply, a faint moan escaping her lips. She praised, “What a nice scent. Why don’t I give you the embrace? What say you?”
Qianye remained silent.
“Then it’s settled!” Twilight let out a delighted laugh.
Qianye felt a faint stabbing pain to the side of his neck where Twilight had her fangs pressed against his skin. She needed only to bite down and inject her essence blood for Qianye to become her descendant.
Twilight’s hands slowly reached upward and gently stroked his cheeks and eyes. Qianye’s footing was stable although his vitals had been restricted, and he showed not the slightest signs of nervousness—not even his fingertips trembled.
He was waiting for an opportunity.
This woman who called herself Twilight was one of the strongest dark race members Qianye had ever encountered. From their exchange just now, Qianye understood that the pressure from her darkness domain was only second to William’s suppressive might. This wasn’t a gap between their bloodlines, but a pure contrast in their power levels.
But now that Twilight wanted to give Qianye the embrace, it happened to give him an opportunity.
Normally during the ceremony, the vampire giving the embrace would also take in some of the descendant’s blood in addition to bestowing her own. On one hand, this was a token of compensation, while on the other, most descendants were chosen because of their powerful and excellent bloodlines—even the most powerful of vampires could hardly resist the temptation of such sweet, fresh blood.
The purple blood energy in Qianye’s body was from the ancient Mammon clan, one of the top vampire bloodlines. The origins of the dark golden blood energy were unknown, but judging from their usual origin power distribution, it should be far more powerful than the purple one.
If the one receiving the embrace already possessed the power of blood, then the process would turn into a battle between two blood energies of different origins. The strong would survive, and the weak would die. There was no room for negotiation.
Qianye waited in silence.
But in the end, Twilight didn’t sink her fangs into him and only bit him flirtatiously. She then whispered into his ears, “I already told you that this is only a small test. Congratulations on passing it. Which means you now have the qualifications to be my man. But this is only the first step!”
Qianye moved his body ever so slightly but found that his body was mostly numb from the arms down. He couldn’t sense the origin power activity within him at all. Apparently, it was a powerful restrictive secret art which utilized blood energy to lock down his senses. It was somewhat similar the origin restriction drugs humans used on their slaves.
Qianye asked calmly, “Why me?”
“Because you’re very interesting. You also have great potential. Although you’re somewhat weak at the moment, I needed to use my domain to take you down unscathed. You should have the power to fight evenly when you arrive at the same level. That’s why I said you have gained the initial qualifications. But you must become stronger if you want to become my only man.”
“Then… our encounter here wasn’t coincidental?”
Twilight broke into a laughter. “Don’t try to stall for time. It’s meaningless. I don’t want to kill you just yet. I only want to sleep with you!”