Chapter 394: Hunting [V5C101 - A Distance Within Reach]
The vampire youth also saw Qianye. He was first astonished, but his eyes lit up immediately afterward. “A human!”
He drew his handgun rapidly and aimed it at Qianye. The youth’s movements weren’t slow, but Qianye’s figure in the gun’s sight was oddly distorted and indistinct, so much so that it was continuously fading away. The vampire had never encountered such a scene. A bullet had already pierced through his forehead during the short moment that he was startled.
Qianye lowered the Mystic Spider Lily and walked over to the young vampire’s corpse. The Mystic Spider Lily’s powers had begun to appear as Qianye’s own strength increased. Although its firepower wasn’t comparable to the Bloody Datura, it would occasionally distort Qianye’s figure while he was firing, throwing off the enemies’ judgement and aim.
Astonishment and shock were still plastered on the vampire youth’s countenance as his completely lifeless eyes stared listlessly at the sky. He was very young, and would only be fifteen or sixteen in terms of human age. Despite that, he already possessed the strength of a knight, an indication of his outstanding bloodline and talent.
Qianye searched the body and found several blood crystals, melee weapons, and small, tightly-packed notebook with the depiction of a bloody dagger on its cover. It was filled with densely packed notes and even red highlights in certain areas.
Qianye looked through it and found all types of military contribution rewards. The highlighted parts contained armaments, bloodlines, and titles—everything a youth would dream of. But Qianye found, after some calculation, that it would require one to kill five or six experts at Zhao Yuying’s level.
“What a madman.” Qianye couldn’t help but sigh emotionally at the young man’s sky-high ambitions. It seemed beasts weren’t the only ones who had gone berserk under the Iron Curtain—people from both factions might be even more so.
However, on second thoughts, Qianye found that he might not be so different either. He put away the spoils into Andruil’s Mysterious Realm, removed the youth’s vampiric fangs as proof, and continued on his journey.
Qianye started encountering small dark-race combat units on the road ahead. These groups were of different sizes and strengths, but, judging from their direction of advancement, all of them seemed to be hurrying toward human territory. Apparently, they were also looking to hunt human warriors to exchange for rewards.
The vast land under the Iron Curtain was slowly turning into a battlefield.
Qianye wasn’t interested in small groups below the knight level. He did his best to evade them as he moved deeper into enemy territory and finally arrived at Black Nest.
Black Nest was, just as the name suggested, a lair comparable to a small, black mountain. The scale of this fortress was much smaller than Count Stuka’s, but there were a lot more passages. It was evident that this lair’s master was even more radical than the count.
At this moment, the interior of Black Nest was clamorous with all types of dark race members moving in and out. This place seemed to have become the Evernight Faction’s transit base.
Qianye didn’t dare act blindly after seeing this. He found a good hiding spot to conceal himself and waited patiently for an opportunity.
Apparently, the dark races hadn’t expected a human to have infiltrated their surroundings. Security was somewhat lax as most of them were in a state of restless excitement on the eve of war and slaughter. Their line of thought was simple and effective—such a large number of warriors had already gathered here, and this, in and of itself, was the best defense.
Qianye patiently remained in hiding in the days that followed, waiting for the right moment. Valiance was important in battle, but patience was equally crucial.
A few days later, signs of human warriors appeared in Black Nest’s vicinity. This group of ten or so adventurers was actually led by a champion and had likely killed their way here from the opposite direction. Powerful and skilled in teamwork, it was no wonder they were able to reach such a deep place.
But their luck was simply too bad. They had likely never expected this viscount castle to be a dark race transit station. Hundreds of soldiers of all types swarmed out soon after the alarm went off and spread out into the wilderness as though casting a net.
Atop an isolated mountain peak, Qianye had disguised himself as a rock and retracted his aura. The view here was good and allowed him to take in the entirety of the surrounding area. At this moment, an intense pursuit battle was raging on in front of him.
The squad of human adventurers fought and ran for an entire day. Their headcount had also dwindled down to five from the previous ten-odd members. The pursuers had also sustained over fifty casualties, a clear indication of how powerful those adventurers were.
Qianye was just hesitating whether or not he should save these adventurers when a rustling sound entered his ears. A vampire soldier had arrived on the peak with a large sniper rifle in tow. He circled around, selected a satisfactory location, and began setting up his weapon. Afterward, he sat down to take aim and wait for an opening.
Qianye was speechless after seeing this. The vampire sniper was no more than ten meters away from him but failed to notice him at all—perhaps he was too concentrated.
Qianye’s eyes lit up after seeing the giant, eye-catching sniper rifle in the vampire warrior’s hand. The extremely elaborate gun was so filled with intricate patterns that, at a glance, one would find it difficult to tell the decorations apart from the origin array. The barrel retained the original color of the material—black mixed with golden specks—it looked like metal but was not.
The ten-odd meters between them was but the distance of a single sprint. Qianye activated his Bloodline Concealment to the maximum and silently awaited his opportunity.
The vampire sniper began moving the muzzle ever so slightly. He had apparently locked onto his target and was completely focused on the crosshairs, completely oblivious to his surroundings. He was muttering irresolutely as his finger latched onto the trigger and tugged at it little by little—the shot was imminent.
Qianye leapt out without hesitation and plunged the Scarlet Edge into his back, all the way to its hilt!
The vampire sniper’s body tensed up as he glanced back slowly with a face full of shock. But weakness washed over his entire body before he could see Qianye’s figure behind him.
Qianye lifted the flaccid body and placed it slowly on the ground before drawing out his dagger.
The victim was a baron, but only a single step away from becoming a viscount. Qianye waited until the last drop of essence blood had entered his body before picking up the sniper rifle.
He wasn’t mistaken. This magnificent sniper rifle possessed a firepower fitting of its grand external appearance. It was specially designed and likely the premium work of a master craftsman. Although it was only grade-five, the combination of its accuracy and long distance arrays, along with the use of special bullets, would bring its firepower fairly close to grade-six.
Qianye flipped through the baron’s body and, as expected, found two boxes with a total of ten titanium cored sniper rounds. The tip of this bullet was cast with a black titanium core. Although its might couldn’t compare to the annihilation bullets made of pure black titanium, its price was nothing to scoff at. The two boxes of ammunition were enough to exchange for two Black Titanium Bullets of Annihilation.
A fellow who could afford to use such a weapon couldn’t be a poor person. This vampire baron also possessed a fair number of other small odds and ends. There were over thirty rounds of various types, and all of them were good quality items. The only fly in the ointment was the fact that these bullets only possessed special effects against humans.
But this was perfectly understandable since the objective of the participants of the bloody battle was to kill humans—it was only natural that they would bring the relevant equipment, just like how Qianye had bought a fair number of refined silver bullets before setting out.
It was just that the situation surrounding this bloody battle was somewhat special, and there was a lot of infighting among humans. With this sniper rifle and so many bullets in hand, Qianye somewhat looked forward to “encountering” the Nangong family.
Qianye handled the baron’s corpse quickly and left the mountain peak. Moments later, the fortunate human survivors ran past the base of that mountain, completely unaware of the fact that they had just escaped a disaster.
Only at this point did the vampire warriors in charge of interception notice something wrong. They rushed to the mountain peak to check but found nothing apart from the baron’s remains and some traces of blood Qianye had left behind.
A night passed by in the blink of an eye, and the five adventurers had become three. They ran with all their might but failed to notice that the number of pursuers were dwindling. Qianye, like a specter, followed the hunting party from behind, pouncing at them whenever the opportunity arose and killing one or several of them before vanishing once again.
Qianye had already discovered that only the native beasts could sense his presence. Naturally, they could also sense the dark race soldiers. Meanwhile, the dark race’s perception was no different from the norm, or even somewhat decreased due to the Iron Curtain’s effects. This made Qianye feel thoroughly relieved.
The remaining three adventurers ran frantically with neither rest nor sleep. Even eating was done while running. Even then, they just barely managed to prevent themselves from being overrun. When they finally rushed out of the mountainous woods, they found themselves within a valley with precipitous cliffs on three sides and no other way out.
“How did this happen? Aren’t you capable of telling the direction under any circumstance?” The champion’s expression was gloomy as he turned to glance at his lanky companion.
The latter’s countenance turned extremely unsightly. “The Iron Curtain’s suppression on my ability is quite significant. I don’t know when my senses deviated.”
The champion snorted with a furious glare. “Prepare to fight with your lives! Climbing the ravine at this point will only turn us into living targets.”
Numerous dark race warriors appeared from the dense forest and closed in on the three people. The only female among the three had turned pale, and her sword hand was trembling continuously.
The champion said solemnly, “Xiaoqing, keep calm. We’ll just have to die at worst.”
“I… perhaps don’t need to die,” the woman mumbled to herself. Her voice was so soft that even she herself couldn’t hear it clearly.
The champion’s hearing was extremely powerful. His countenance turned frosty as he said, “You’ll only live a couple more days after falling into their hands. You’ll become food in the end.”
The woman’s face turned paler, but she managed to stabilize her hand and stop it from shaking.
At this time, the three noticed that the dark race warriors in front of them were acting abnormally. Their movements were slow, and their gazes were dull. There was also something wrong with their numbers—there were far fewer of them than they had expected. They took a couple of steps forward before falling down one by one. Only then did the wounds behind their backs start gushing fresh blood.
Qianye appeared from within the forest and said to the three adventurers, “You’re safe now, but only for the time being.”
The three were delightfully surprised by the sudden development. The woman groaned and fell limp onto the ground—the brush with the grim reaper had left her completely exhausted. The other two weren’t any better. They had sustained injuries of all sizes from head to toe and were on the verge of collapse.
Qianye said calmly, “If you don’t want to die, then leave the battlefield and return only after recuperation.” He pointed toward the southwest of the incoming road. “Head in this direction and swim downstream when you reach a big river. You’ll soon arrive in human territory.”
With that, Qianye bent down to check the dark race warriors and put away the parts that could be used as proof of contribution.
The champion said, “Thank you very much! Please die now!”