Chapter 396: Entering Deeper [V5C103 - A Distance Within Reach]
Regardless, Qianye still felt his skin crawl after seeing this several-meters-tall arachne and gave up any intentions of ambushing this giant. If there were no surprises, this arachne was likely the master of Black Nest and Count Stuka’s brother, the first-rank viscount Porter.
Qianye’s rifle crosshairs wandered around Porter’s vital areas for a good while, but in the end, he had no choice but to resist the urge to fire and let him go.
Recalling the bitter fight between Wei Bainian and Brahms back then, Qianye wasn’t entirely confident in severely injuring Viscount Porter who was in his peak state. Moreover, there was also a large squad of guards around him. Judging from how he had mobilized in full force, it was likely that a powerful enemy had appeared nearby—it was likely that a certain aristocratic family or army corps had arrived.
After the arachne combat unit had passed by, Qianye was hesitant about how he should proceed. But he immediately recalled that Porter had taken all of the elites under his command. Wouldn’t this mean that Black Nest was entirely unguarded?
Qianye had been active around Black Nest in the recent days and was very clear about the dark race warriors arriving at Black Nest for transit. With the gradual extension of the war, all incoming soldiers would leave soon after arrival and disperse toward the vast battlefield.
He no longer hesitated and began sneaking toward Black Nest immediately.
The massive Black Nest once again appeared over the horizon. As expected, things were much calmer than the past couple of days, and even the guards in the vicinity had lessened quite a bit. Qianye observed for half an hour but found only a couple of arachne passing through, not to mention the servspiders perched within were also few in number.
Qianye approached an unassuming exit like a spirit. This was a logistics passage through which slaves usually moved in and out with carts full of miscellaneous items. The defenses here were much weaker than the others, perhaps because this place was always in use. People would inevitably think, out of habit, that infiltrators wouldn’t choose such a lively place to enter.
There was a giant servspider lying on one side of the passage. It made not the slightest movement, and it was a mystery just where its ten-odd eyes of varying sizes were staring at.
Qianye approached the spider at an angle from behind. The servspider shifted restlessly as though it had sensed something. Its gigantic body swayed slightly as it made an attempt to stand up.
Qianye suddenly leapt up. East Peak descended and slashed the servspider into two.
He immediately activated his blood energy to release his vampiric aura and shuttled through the smaller servspiders. Those servspiders were quickly suppressed by the might of his superior bloodline and fell paralyzed to the floor. Qianye moved his blade like the wind and all the servspiders were killed with a sweep of his sword intent.
These servspiders were all rank two or three cannon fodder. The empire’s reward list counted enemies rank two and above as eligible for military contribution, but each would only award a minuscule amount. Thereafter, the reward would increase twofold for every increase in rank. Although the servspiders in front of him could be exchanged for some contributions, Qianye was too lazy to collect the spoils. Instead, he ran swiftly and headed into the depths of Black Nest.
Before long, a group of servants appeared in the passage along with a number of servspiders. They were shocked out of their wits when they saw Qianye. The servspiders emitted shrill screams as they threw themselves at Qianye who, with East Peak in hand, charged past them without the slightest pause. He rushed through the entire group in the blink of an eye and killed all of the servants along with the servspiders, leaving behind only a single human servant.
Qianye waved East Peak at the man and said, “Take me to Porter’s residence if you want to live.”
The servant’s knees shook, and he could hardly stand despite leaning against the walls of the passage. He raised a trembling arm and pointed toward a certain direction.
“Catch up on your own.” Qianye only left some words before his figure vanished in the blink of an eye.
The servant’s pale countenance turned blue as he almost fell onto the floor. In the end, he gritted his teeth and clambered up with the wall as support before following Qianye’s trail.
After turning a corner, the servant was utterly shocked by the scene before him. There was a room on the side of the passage for the guards to rest, and normally, there would be several werewolf guards within. Now, however, they were all covered in flowing blood and strewn across the place at different angles.
Qianye was standing amidst the corpses, watching the servant with a spurious smile as he arrived. “A timely arrival more or less. Keep pointing the way.”
The servant’s heart almost leaped out of his chest, knowing Qianye would’ve turned back to kill him had he not followed from behind. After personally witnessing how seven or eight violent werewolves had been wiped out in complete silence, the servant dared not have other thoughts and could only point the way obediently. Moreover, he especially reminded Qianye about the locations of hidden sentries and patrols.
With such a hardworking guide beside him, Qianye’s progress was exceptionally smooth. East Peak was as heavy as a mountain peak, and his techniques, having undergone countless tempering, was like a fish in the water in such tight spaces—even knights couldn’t block a single blow from his blade. Only an arachne baron managed to block a head-on blow, but Qianye’s follow up attacks fell like raging tides upon the spider who couldn’t move freely within the enclosed space. He thus suffered ten-odd blows within moments and was almost torn apart.
Qianye cut off his head in one slash and stored it within Andruil’s Mysterious Realm.
The arachne baron was seemingly the highest-ranking warrior in the area. The journey after killing him became a smooth sail, and there was little resistance until they reached Porter’s residential area.
The residence was an isolated area, and at the end of the passage was a small circular courtyard. The servant had reminded Qianye that this courtyard was actually an elevator for Porter’s personal use. Fortunately, nobody could activate it while he was out, so there shouldn’t be any danger of an attack from above.
There were two large copper doors on the other end of the plaza, and standing before them was a large, entirely black arachne clad in sinister-looking armor. There was a giant axe in his hand with flames burning faintly upon its edge. One could immediately tell that it was no ordinary item.
“A human?!” The arachne’s voice rang out like thunder. His burly body stooped down ever so slightly, and it seemed he was fairly surprised. But immediately afterward, the arachne raised his giant axe amidst a swell of viscount-level darkness origin power which resembled lingering black mist.
“It’s indeed surprising that you managed to arrive here, but it ends here after running into me, Gurema! Tonight, you will become the most sumptuous dish on our table!
Qianye spoke not a single word. He raised East Peak and arrived before Gurema in a single flash before slashing down with his heavy sword!
Gurema roared frantically and waved his giant axe horizontally to clash against East Peak.
“Dong!” A powerful sound, akin to the toll of a bell, shook the entire passage!
There wasn’t the slightest bit of fanciness in this contest of pure strength and origin power. However, contrary to his expectations, Gurema failed to knock the puny human flying as though he would a fly. The clash with East Peak felt as though his Giant Axe had collided with a mountain—the recoil immediately sent Gurema’s blood and qi into turmoil. He couldn’t help but stagger and fall backward to the ground as his arachnid legs gave way.
Qianye was also sent flying backward with numbed arms. Apparently, he didn’t have it easy either in this clash. Gurema was evidently proficient in close-quarter combat, and his strength, among the dark races, was capable of looking down on all of those in the same realm. Qianye could already be considered extremely powerful to be able to contend against him head-on and come out only slightly worse for wear. In fact, no one would believe that such a thing actually happened.
Having sounded out Gurema’s strength, Qianye no longer continued his probing. He drew out a wisp of darkness origin power from the void and East Peak slashed down from mid-air.
Nirvanic Rend!
Gurema sensed the danger instinctively. He let out a wild roar and erupted with origin power, hoping to resist the incoming attack with his heavy armor. At the same time, he raised his giant axe to retaliate during this opening. The human before him possessed extraordinary strength, but Gurema wanted to see if his insect-like body could withstand a blow from his axe.
However, the giant axe had just been raised when it was frozen in the air before it could even come back down. Gurema was assaulted by a wave of weakness as though he had fallen into a deep abyss. Most of the origin power he had condensed vanished in the blink of an eye as a long crack emerged on his heavy armor, almost tearing it into two. Under the armor, there was also a wound on his body that was currently opening up.
With a slight shift of Gurema’s body, the injury burst open and fresh blood gushed out instantaneously. He was immediately shocked and could hardly believe that this single sword strike would possess such might. How was this a human? Even an all-out attack from a descendant of the Twelve Ancient Vampire Clans was only at this level.
At this time, Qianye’s figure flickered as he stepped onto Gurema’s arachnid body.
The arachne smashed his elbow toward Qianye with a roar, but Qianye promptly caught his arm. There was nothing to compare between their arms—Gurema’s wrist was much thicker than Qianye’s thigh—but the contest of strength resulted in both parties being locked in place without a clear winner.
In the short while that they were in a stalemate, Qianye tossed East Peak away, drew the Scarlet Edge, and plunged it deep into Gurema’s back. The blade went straight for his heart.
“You’re not… human?!” Gurema’s giant spider body collapsed with a boom just as he finished muttering his final words. His limbs were still struggling unconsciously, but his body was no longer mobile. He never received an answer up until the very end.
Qianye lay atop Gurema’s body without any movement and arose only when the rolling tides of essence blood had dried up. Afterward, he began to gasp loudly for breath. The arachne possessed powerful vitality and could still survive for some time even if they were cut through the waist. They could be considered truly dead only after their essence blood had dried up.
Qianye calmed down his breathing before cutting open Gurema’s chest to retrieve a fist-sized crystal. This was an arachnid crystal condensed by most viscount-level arachne. It was also proof of his military contribution.
Gazing at the translucent yellow crystal, Qianye vaguely sensed origin power flowing within. Even the empire hadn’t discovered the uses of arachnid crystals up until this day, so most of these things became ornaments for imperial nobility. It was the perfect item to use as proof of contribution.
The trembling servant poked his head out from the other side of the plaza and exclaimed in shock after seeing Gurema’s corpse, “Sire Gurema has died? Just like that?”
Qianye replied with a laugh, “How else should he die? Do I need to kill him a couple more times?”
The servant waved his hands and said in terror, “No! That isn’t my intention. Sire, up ahead is Viscount Porter’s residence. I’ve never had the opportunity to enter before. I wonder…”
Qianye waved his hand and said, “You may leave. Be careful not to get killed.”
The servant left while holding his head in his hands as though he had just been granted a great amnesty.
Qianye sighed secretly. This servant was a bona fide human, but he had grown up in the Dark Nation and had no intention to return to human-controlled territory.
This man would probably look for a place to hide and then return to being a servant after things had calmed down. He would continue this life until he died of old age, or until he became food on a certain dark race dinner table. That was simply because he knew no second way to live.
Qianye collected his thoughts and walked toward the copper doors which opened wide after a forceful push. The door wasn’t locked, and there were no restrictive arrays behind it either, so much so that there weren’t even any guards or sentries. It would seem Porter placed full trust in Gurema’s protection.
The resident was abnormally wide and almost seemed to occupy half of the lair’s area. Before Qianye was a half-enclosed passage ten meters tall and ten meters wide. Walking through it, the place felt exceptionally empty and spacious—even his footsteps would produce echoes. But after recalling Porter’s massive arachnid body, it was only natural that he would require such a tunnel; in truth, it could even be considered narrow for him.
A blazing torch hung from the wall at regular intervals, casting a peaceful, greenish light upon the path and granting it a touch of incomparable eeriness. The area was extremely silent as though it were a sleeping city. At the moment, it seemed like the intense battle between Qianye and Gurema hadn’t alarmed anyone at all.
Qianye walked out of the hundred meter passage with due swiftness and arrived at a magnificent building at its end, the main doors of which were decorated with depictions of spiders. This time, Qianye didn’t rush to push the door open and instead pushed himself close to listen attentively.