[V6C2 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
The two baron-rank arachne were like two lumps of military contributions in front of Qianye’s eyes. He sped up all of a sudden and charged over, grazing past the Bai clan soldiers as he crashed into the arachne.
The muffled sound of impact almost covered up the resultant screams as the arachne Qianye had collided with was sent flying. It landed on the ground with a thud and collapsed with its eight limbs distorted into various unnatural shapes.
Qianye took a step forward and quickly arrived beside the other one. He had merely leaned in with his shoulders, but the sturdy arachne body was badly shaken. All of its internal organs shattered, and the arachne grew limp like a loaf of freshly baked bread. At the same time, the vampiric blade in his hands was plunged into the vitals on its abdomen.
Qianye’s hands paused for a moment before pulling out the vampiric blade. He then walked over to the other arachne lying on the ground and stabbed it. Only then did he glance over at the Bai clan warriors.
These people were standing nearby. Not only did they have no intention to come over and help, but were even on extreme alert after seeing Qianye slaughter the two arachne with relative ease. They were constantly sizing up the Zhao clan insignia on Qianye’s battle armor. It was likely that they would’ve escaped long ago if they weren’t completely spent. Their exhaustion set in after catching their breaths, and they could no longer even move.
The major clan war zones usually overlapped with one another and would change frequently according to the circumstances. It wasn’t surprising for a clan’s combat squad to appear in another’s war zone. But the Bai, Nangong, Kong, and other clans appearing in the Zhao clan warzone wasn’t a negligible matter. Qianye had long since understood the present circumstances from the Zhao clan’s reports.
Qianye knew what was going on after seeing the Bai clan warriors in such a state and wasn’t in a rush, either. He finished draining the arachne’s essence blood before drawing the vampiric blade out with a shake of his hands. Afterward, he walked toward the other party.
“Throw all your weapons to the ground or I’ll send you off to accompany the two arachne,” Qianye said coldly.
The Bai clan warriors glanced at one another, but the origin guns were still grasped firmly in their hands, their muzzles aimed at Qianye.
Qianye laughed coldly as he flicked a finger. An air bullet shot out with a thunderous explosion and pierced through the head of the strongest warrior.
That person’s face was full of astonishment as he fell backward.
The others were both shocked and furious. One of them shouted, “You dare kill our Bai clan’s people…” His words hadn’t even ended when another thunderous blast rang out and a hole appeared on his forehead. He then fell backward just like the person before.
The remaining two were shocked out of their wits. They quickly threw down their origin guns and began to remove the other pieces of equipment on their body.
Qianye’s eyes scanned between the two men and asked, “Where is Bai Kongzhao?”
A lanky Bai clan warrior paused his hands and drummed up the courage to speak. “How can people like us know Miss Kongzhao’s whereabouts?”
Qianye glanced at his flickering eyes before turning coldly to the other Bai clan warrior. “How about you?”
The other person was just about to speak when he heard a clap of thunder as his companion’s body toppled over with a bloody hole on the forehead. The warrior momentarily lost his voice—the dagger he was removing slipped out of his hands and fell onto his foot.
Qianye said indifferently, “I don’t have time to listen to lies. Answer the question or die. It’s fine if you don’t want to say it. I believe you’re not the only Bai clan squad in the area.”
The man replied with a trembling voice, “The last time we saw Miss Kongzhao was three days ago. She usually appears only when there’s a battle. We really don’t know where she normally goes!”
Qianye narrowed his eyes and continued, “How did you fall into such a state?”
“I don’t know what happened, but Miss Kongzhao stopped appearing for several days straight. Our group grew smaller and smaller as we fought on, this place…” The man swallowed hard and glanced nervously at the Swallow Cloud Zhao Clan insignia on Qianye’s shoulder. “We didn’t have enough supplies since this isn’t our war zone. In the end, we suddenly encountered a powerful arachne squad and were scattered. Now, only these few people remain from our group.”
Qianye said, “Bring out your war map and mark out all the places where Bai Kongzhao has appeared in the recent month.”
The man crouched down and fished out a war map from the tactical backpack he had thrown down earlier. His hand was shaking slightly as he duly marked out the time and places. Apparently, both Bai Konghzao and the clan were a great pressure to him. However, with death so close at hand, he finally chose to provide the information obediently.
Qianye took the map and asked him quite a few details to confirm that he wasn’t lying. Finally, he said, “You can leave now. You better not let me find you in the Zhao clan war zone if you want to live a while longer.”
The man left in a hurry, while Qianye continued observing the map in his hands. A cold killing intent emerged in the depths of his eyes as the areas where Bai Kongzhao had appeared before were slowly outlined in his mind. He crushed the map into shreds with a twist of his fingers, locked onto a certain direction, and soon vanished into the woods.
Qianye ran hundreds of kilometers in one day and night, experiencing several battles, big and small, along the way. Most of them were related to the dark races, and only once did he encounter two human squads fighting one another. The Zhao clan wasn’t among them, however.
In all of these battles, Qianye had always intervened with great force and killed his way into the battle with a peerless momentum. He would immediately kill off the strongest dark race member, then he would finish off all the dark race members before turning back to subdue the human squad. When he encountered the two human squads locked in a civil confrontation, Qianye beat up the two leaders black and blue before proceeding to question them.
What he primarily sought was Bai Kongzhao’s whereabouts and the situation between the Zhao clan and other combat squads.
However, the news he obtained all seemed to indicate that the last time Bai Kongzhao had appeared was three days ago. The fights she had taken part in included battles against the dark races, the Zhao clan, and even some third parties. Regardless of who her enemies were, they would end up completely wiped out. She had no habit of leaving survivors.
Qianye had traveled hundreds of kilometers and passed through a small part of the Zhao clan’s northwestern war zone, but he still hadn’t managed to track down Bai Kongzhao’s whereabouts. The information he obtained was shockingly uniform—she seemed to have vanished into thin air three days ago and had never appeared since.
Qianye halted his steps as the sky lightened up once more, his brows locked in a frown. An inexplicable notion welled up in his heart. His intuition told him that Bai Kongzhao must’ve sensed his arrival and had thus hidden herself. She might have even gone far away by now.
As for how Bai Kongzhao had discovered his return to the Iron Curtain, that was a mystery. Perhaps this was a result of her communication with the will of the Iron Curtain, or perhaps it was by some kind of instinct.
There were many inconceivable aspects about this demonic little girl. Her combat capabilities and instincts were unimaginably sharp. During their past battles, Qianye clearly held the upper hand in terms of combat strength but always found it difficult to suppress her. She had always managed to slip away with all kinds of outrageous ticks.
Since it was possible that Bai Kongzhao had already left this war zone, Qianye decided not to spend time looking for her and, instead, turned around to hunt the other family units in the war zone. He fought across the region, expelling two aristocratic combat squads, destroying one each of the Bai and Nangong clan units, and rescuing a Zhao clan squad that had fallen into a perilous situation.
In the series of major battles, none of the combat units from the various families had the ability to fight back against Qianye. Those who resisted or refused to disarm were all killed without mercy.
Qianye instructed the surviving Zhao clan warriors to escort the captives back to the forward base. As for whether the Zhao clan would kill them or demand ransom, that wasn’t something Qianye was concerned about.
The Iron Curtain became unstable during this period, and the overall battle situation had also reached a white-hot phase. On both the dark race’s side and the empire’s, the only ones left on the battlefield at this moment were elites refined through blood and flames. As such, the battles became extremely cruel, and every victory was won with a bloody price.
Qianye and Zhao Jundu both operated on their own amidst the tangled and complicated circumstances. The trajectories of their movement weren’t always limited to the Zhao clan war zone. They would frequently kill their way beyond the borders, even penetrating deep into the Dark Nation or other war zones. However, they actually never encountered one another.
Their fearless rampage under the Iron Curtain was akin to dropping two big rocks into the pool. Numerous ripples spread out in all directions and soon affected the vast battlefield.
On a certain mountaintop, Zhao Jundu was sitting alone on a rock with Blue Firmament in his arms. His battle armor had been torn in many places, but the warrior attire inside remained undamaged, stained only by traces of gunpowder. His sitting position was solemn, and his back was as straight as a javelin. His handsome face was suffused with a frosty expression as he gazed silently at the boundless wilderness beneath his feet.
A fair and alluring figure appeared from the distant valley. Zhao Jundu broke into a frown but stood where he was without any movement. Twilight’s shadow approached rapidly like a wisp of smoke and was soon standing on the mountaintop.
She didn’t mind Zhao Jundu’s visible annoyance at all. She walked over to him on her own and said with a smile, “I’ve discovered the Zhang clan operating on the other end of the battlefield. I’ll send people to harvest them very soon. In return, I want you to kill the powerful vampire operating in area c13.”
Zhao Jundu said coldly, “I really don’t want to see you.”
Twilight laughed enticingly, “This kind of transaction isn’t bad at all.”
“I do not make deals with the dark races!” Zhao Jundu interrupted her.
Twilight’s smile grew even more joyous. “We’ve already cooperated before, and that counts as a deal! Many aristocratic families from your human race are secretly making such deals. If you don’t work with me, won’t you be facing enemies on both sides? Zhao Fourth Young Noble, even though you’re noble and brave, you’ll only be able to keep yourself safe under these circumstances. You probably can’t help others, right? Oh right, I saw Qianye twice recently.”
Zhao Jundu remained silent for a moment, then said in a deep voice, “I absolutely will not be threatened.”
“This isn’t a threat. I’m just telling you what you gained from me, and one must always repay for what he has gained. The deal between us doesn’t hurt our interests, nor does it affect the bigger picture, right?” Twilight explained patiently. “The bloody battle goes on, and we are still killing our enemies. It could even be said that the number of enemies who died in our hands is greater than that of our opponents. The only thing we need to do during this war is to snatch some profit from the hands of our adversaries and put them into our pockets.”
Zhao Jundu stood up slowly. “What you say seems to be very reasonable, but I have my own principles. Our contact will end here. There will be a fight the next time we meet!”
There was a certain chill to Twilight’s demeanor, but her smile possessed a bewitching allure. “I truly admire Zhao Fourth Young Noble’s resolution. But I’m afraid you still don’t know that I happen to know Qianye’s most recent route of activity.”
Zhao Jundu stared at Twilight for a while with a deep violet in his eyes. He then said with a difficult sigh, “Qianye… has to grow on his own. I can’t protect him forever. Moreover, you might not be able to kill him either under the Iron Curtain.”
“What if I add a condition to look after him occasionally? Now that I think about it, Qianye really is a beautiful boy. His temperament is also quite similar to Fourth Young Noble!” Twilight smiled. Perception was her forte, and she could often see through even the most subtle changes in the human heart. Her voice grew extremely soft as though she were a witch chanting a hypnotizing spell. “Fourth Young Master, you… wavered just now!”