[V6C1 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
With the passage of the gradually alternating days and nights, the airship arrived at Weiyang City on Evernight Continent. This secondary hub connecting the empire and Evernight Continent was just as bustling as before. Qianye didn’t linger very long this time and only stopped to send Song Zining a letter from the nearest Ningyuan Group branch.
The airship proceeded toward the Iron Curtain after a brief stop to resupply. Its destination wasn’t Blackflow City, but instead the Zhao clan’s base in the bloody battle. Qianye replenished his supplies here before returning to the Iron Curtain to join the perilous Zhao clan war zone.
Qianye was resting on the airship with his eyes closed. He didn’t even move a little bit.
The airship was of exceptional performance, and one could hardly feel any turbulence in the fine weather. He could even cultivate here were it not for the Profound Combatant Formula causing too much ruckus during its practice. The void origin power Qianye would draw in would affect the airship’s flight.
The captain entered the cabin mid-flight to report that they were only a couple hundred kilometers from the destination and that they would arrive in less than two hours. Qianye nodded in acknowledgment. This was the final leg of the journey. It was a smooth ride without any accidents along the way.
Naturally, the biggest reason was due to the Zhao clan insignia on the airship. Attacking the Zhao clan airship outside of the Iron Curtain was basically suicide.
The entire vessel shook violently just as the captain was about to return to the control room and Qianye was gradually closing his eyes again. Qianye grabbed ahold of the handrail at lightning speed and managed to fix himself to the cabin wall. The captain, however, was quite unfortunate. He was thrown so hard onto the floor that he was bleeding from his head.
Qianye didn’t bother to go and support the captain since it was merely a superficial wound and nothing important. He shot over the windows to gaze out and was immediately shocked.
It turned out that a large area of black clouds had appeared in the previous clear skies at one point and was rolling over continuously like boiling water. And behind the black clouds, the familiar aura of Sky Demon was gushing out incessantly.
Qianye was truly astonished. As someone who had taken part in the bloody battle for a long time, how could he not recognize that the cloud above his head was the familiar Iron Curtain? But the army had clearly announced that the Iron Curtain had already stabilized! Moreover, they were at least hundreds of kilometers from the original location of the Iron Curtain.
However, the Iron Curtain in the sky was not only expanding rapidly, but Sky Demon’s will was also flitting repeatedly through heaven and earth. Before this terrifying might comparable to the world itself, even someone as powerful as Qianye found it difficult to endure the pressure—even moving was difficult. And this was only because Sky Demon hadn’t taken notice. There would be no way to move at all after being locked onto by his will.
Qianye’s blood ran cold. He had come into contact with Sky Demon’s will before on the battlefield. Compared to the present situation, however, it felt like the previous case was caused by an instinctive reaction and not Sky Demon’s actual will. If one were to say that Sky Demon was asleep back then, now he was awake and starting to become active.
It was at this moment that an incomparably frosty will descended upon the cabin and spread to every corner of the vessel. Qianye felt as though he had been washed over by the coldest subzero waters of the ocean. His fingers lost all sensation in the blink of an eye as he fell kneeling onto the floor.
There was nothing capable of stopping this frosty will as it permeated Qianye all the way into his being. But a dim black barrier shot out from the Book of Darkness at the most dangerous moment and enveloped his blood core, blood energy, and Wings of Inception, isolating them from the prying of the cold will.
Sky Demon’s will descended in a flash and left just as abruptly. It was like an invisible wave of coldness sweeping through every nook and cranny of the world.
Qianye’s senses gradually recovered after the departure of Sky Demon’s will, and he got up slowly. But the jolting of the airship grew more intense at this moment. Even its route had changed, and it was beginning to dive toward the ground. Qianye immediately realized that the pilots must’ve been stunned by Sky Demon’s will and lost the ability to move.
He dragged the immobilized captain lying on the floor beside him and rushed through the cabin doors toward the control room. As expected, the pilots were all paralyzed and twitching on the floor. Some even had blood flowing out of their mouths and noses, their vitality growing weaker by the minute.
Qianye darted to the console and began operating the control lever. He first increased the thrust and pulled the airship to level before shouting, “Guide the direction. We must leave this place!”
The captain knew that they were at a critical juncture. He got up with all his strength and began correcting the bearing while telling Qianye how to operate the airship. The airship was finally restored to level flight after descending several hundred meters and gradually began to pull up.
A big ball of flames rose up at the end of their vision. It was a large airship that had crashed to the ground and gone up in flames.
It seemed Sky Demon was looking for something and was mainly examining airships flying at high altitudes. The airships were bound to crash without someone as strong as Qianye on board.
The captain had flown back and forth many times between the Iron Curtain and the Western Continent. He glanced out of the window and said with a fairly solemn expression, “How did the Iron Curtain get here all of a sudden?”
“No idea.” Qianye’s emotions were rather heavy at this time. There were many friends under the Iron Curtain whom he knew and was worried about.
Just what could’ve happened in the depths of the Iron Curtain for such a drastic change to appear with Sky Demon? But one could easily imagine how much the people under the Iron Curtain would be affected if it was already so bad on this side.
Qianye steered the airship to a gradual descent and flew toward their destination at an altitude of several hundred meters. He saw two more burning airship wrecks along the way. On the ground, there was a motorcade rendered immobile in the middle of the road. There were also two cars that had rushed off the wayside and had flipped over in the wilderness—several figures were strewn around the crash site, their fates unknown.
Qianye didn’t stop. He flew at full speed with the control level steadily in his grasp and finally arrived at the Zhao clan forward base.
The base was built in a small town. It was well-connected in terms of transportation, and there was no difficult terrain nearby which made it easy for people to pass in and out of the Iron Curtain. But at this moment, Qianye saw the distant town in chaos.
He landed the airship in an open space outside of the town and headed toward it. The town was in great confusion with people everywhere either collapsed or gasping while leaning against the walls. Those who were able to move were mostly running about while carrying those who had been wounded by the impact of Sky Demon’s will to the hospital. The lightly wounded were left in place.
Qianye had to spend some effort to find the person in charge of the base amidst the chaos. He requisitioned a jeep, a suit of the latest military uniform, as well as a batch of ammunition and supplies before driving off into the wilderness.
There was disorder everywhere throughout the battlefield. All low-ranking warriors had collapsed to the ground when Sky Demon’s will swept through. Only titled experts were still able to move about. It was fine when a battle was not taking place, but swathes of soldiers would fall on both sides in certain battlefields where the confrontation was fierce, and the first reaction of those who had come to was to plunge their swords into the closest enemy.
Countless people died tragically during a short period of time.
In a certain valley, dozens of warriors who had been locked in an arduous battle all collapsed. Even the two champions who had been engrossed in the fight could barely remain standing as they faced off against one another.
On one side of the battle were Zhao clan warriors, while the other was a mixed group made up of several combat squads, their numbers twice that of the Zhao clan’s men.
That Zhao clan champion pushed his heavy sword into the ground and sneered as he stared fixedly at the opponent, “Bai Huicong, you’re not this daddy’s opponent. You can wait for your death after I recover first!”
A peculiar smile emerged on the Bai clan champion’s face. “Zhao Youpin, you’ll indeed recover faster than me, but what’s the use?”
At that moment, a small figure suddenly jumped out from the crowd and pounced at the Zhao clan champion’s back. A broad dagger was plunged deeply into his back, all the way to its hilt!
The Zhao clan warrior roared wildly. He wanted to erupt with a final burst of power, but his qi vortex was seemingly frozen; even his entire body was paralyzed and immobile. He turned back with great difficulty only to see a beautiful little face.
“Bai Kongzhao! How can you even move? You’re clearly not even a champion…” His words hadn’t even ended when the bloody froth from below obstructed his throat.
Bai Kongzhao leaped about like a sprite. The dagger in her hand rose and fell continuously, taking a Zhao clan life with each descent.
Zhao Youpin’s glaring eyes were almost torn apart, but Bai Kongzhao had already cut off his vitality. He could only glare with wide opened eyes as he gradually collapsed.
Bai Kongzhao seemed to feel nothing as she faced all the Zhao clan warriors’ bitter gazes. There was actually an earnest and focused look on her beautiful little face as she reaped their lives one after another with great coldness and efficiency.
All of the Zhao clan warriors on the battlefield were turned into corpses in the blink of an eye. Even Bai Huicong couldn’t help but feel apprehensive as he watched Bai Kongzhao.
Scanning her surroundings and finding no more enemies, Bai Kongzhao finally stopped her work. Her little face was flushed, and her breathing was rapid—apparently, she was tired.
Bai Kongzhao walked over to Bai Huicong and said, “You lot continue forward. I’ll follow from nearby.”
“Yes, Miss Kongzhao.” As a champion, Bai Huicong’s position in the clan wasn’t low, but he was exceptionally respectful at this moment.
Bai Kongzhao stood in front of Bai Huicong and casually rummaged through his body. She fished out a white towel with which she cleaned the blood on her dagger. She also found a box of origin bullets which she looked through before putting it away into her pocket. Afterward, she removed Bai Huicong’s sniper rifle, slung it over her shoulders, and finally turned to leave.
Bai Huicong breathed out a long held-in breath only after her petite figure vanished into the forest. He was actually drenched in cold sweat, and his body was incomparably limp and painful from head to toe. When Bai Kongzhao’s hands crept over him just now, he felt as though two lethal vipers were roaming all over him. He didn’t dare move recklessly even as she plundered all his items.
Bai Huicong was worried those cold, smooth little hands would turn into lethal weapons in a flash if he somehow offended her.
The Bai clan warriors all clambered up one after another, all of them pale in the face. They had never been afraid of taking part in arduous battles, but Bai Kongzhao’s massacre just now had shocked them out of their wits.
“Everyone alive will get up and clean up the battlefield. We leave in half an hour!” Bai Huicong shouted. He then shot a glance at the other surviving squads and said coldly, “All of you will follow me. No one is allowed to leave from this point onward. Or else…”
The remaining words needn’t be spoken. After seeing Bai Kongzhao’s massacre, they all understood the outcome of disobeying the Bai clan.
After half an hour, the combat squads from numerous families quickly rallied and marched toward the direction where Bai Kongzhao had left.
This so-called sweeping the battlefield was only picking up supplies and ammunition. That was because, in Bai Kongzhao’s eyes, there was no need to waste time hiding the corpse of an already dead person.
Deep within the Dark Nation, Zhao Jundu was traveling with a gun in hand. His steps came to an abrupt halt as he snorted lightly, a trickle of fresh blood streaming down the corner of his mouth. He reached out to wipe it and observed the blood on his fingertips before gazing at the Iron Curtain in the sky. “I never thought I would still receive a minor injury. How about you? Are you still alive?”
“How would I dare perish first when even the famous Zhao clan fourth young noble was only lightly wounded?” A specter-like figure emerged from the woods. It was actually Twilight.
The two were only ten meters apart, and, to them, an attack at this distance could be considered instantaneous.