[V6C10 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
William shrugged after seeing Qianye remain silent. “Very well then! Since you were able to kill so many people, it’s not unimaginable for you to beat a third-rank viscount. But…”
“... Regardless of the reason, you killed Olaf.” William’s voice suddenly became cold and gloomy. “And I am born of the Summit of Peaks. We must fight now that I’ve seen this! Evernight and Daybreak are eternal enemies.”
Qianye nodded without much surprise. He raised East Peak slowly and said, “True, Daybreak and Evernight will always be enemies.”
“Yes, remember these words!” William’s aura rose continuously and reached the Iron Curtain’s limits in the blink of an eye.
This was the first time Qianye was confronting William head-on. Although William had released his domain and suppressive might back on the Western Continent to prevent him from running away, but he couldn’t feel any excessive danger back then.
Only now on the eve of their true battle did Qianye come to appreciate William’s terrifying strength.
His vigor while standing there was not much greater than Nangong Zhen or the Monroe count. After all, the power these restricted experts could exert under the Iron Curtain was limited. However, the pressure brought about by William was many times more powerful than the Monroe count, far from a level Nangong Zhen could ever reach, and even Nangong Yuanwang was a tad bit inferior compared to it.
Under the Eye of Truth, Qianye could see darkness origin power flowing along William’s body surface with miniature explosions occurring continuously. Apparently, his power would erupt in a terrifying manner the moment he attacked. The darkness origin power in his vision was all muddled even though Qianye knew William might attack at any moment. The latter actually revealed no offensive intent and thus had no openings to grasp.
Among all the enemies Qianye had met up until this point, those at William’s standards could be counted on one hand. Perhaps even Twilight was slightly inferior.
Qianye’s expression was solemn without the slightest hope of getting through this by luck. He respired thrice and circulated all the origin power in his body. His blood core also began to pulse as auric flame blood flowed through his vessels, filling every corner of his body with explosive power.
A pair of illusory golden wings unfurled behind him. His Shot of Inception was ready for activation and could launch a fatal blow at a moment’s notice. Preserving one’s strength in the face of a great enemy like William was equal to courting death.
Qianye would be easily slaughtered once the shot had missed, but he wouldn’t be able to run away either after being defeated by an enemy who was three-ranks higher than him.
The moment the Shot of Inception was readied, William’s body shook, and the image of a giant golden wolf glimpsed behind him. However, it was quickly suppressed. In that instant, William’s intuition for danger had almost forced out his innate talent form.
William’s strict expression became exceptionally grave, and even his exposed killing intent had been retracted. His pair of blue-grey eyes were filled with serious concentration. From that point onward, he was treating Qianye as a great enemy worthy of respect—one that he needed to confront with full force.
William drew his old twin-barreled handgun then stretched out his left hand to don a pair of similarly plain bronze-colored gloves. He thus began encircling Qianye with slow steps.
Qianye, on the other hand, didn’t move at all. East Peak was pointed at the ground without even the slightest vibration, and only a scarlet origin radiance was flowing along the blade like water.
One stationary and the other mobile—the two thus confronted one another.
The atmosphere in the castle hall grew increasingly oppressive. After a while, this pressure gradually became tangible. The corpses strewn across the place began to move. Many decorative objects were vibrating slightly, while some even became twisted and deformed.
The pressure grew more and more intense. The pipelines in the walls burst open with crackling sounds, spewing out large amounts of steam. The entire great hall became a sea of hazy white through which one could hardly see anything. Such high-temperature steam could almost scald a person, but Qianye and William felt nothing as they continued their standoff.
A rumble suddenly came through from behind the castle as the kinetic tower gradually collapsed amidst the explosion. The excessive leakage of steam had finally caused the delicate operations of the kinetic tower to go past its tolerance, and the long overloaded parts broke apart one by one.
Qianye and William remained just as before—one stationary and the other mobile.
None of them had released their domains up to this point.
Qianye’s domain power was simply too powerful. He could barely activate it with his current strength, let alone perform exquisite transformations. Using it to deal with an enemy like William might cause the attack to backfire. William, on the other hand, had apparently reached a certain level in controlling his power and didn’t need to keep the domain active at all times. It was fine to deploy and expand the domain at the critical juncture. Using it early would just be a waste of energy.
Even without releasing their domains, the confrontation between the two was already causing the castle to totter on the verge of collapse.
Finally, William halted his steps and slowly raised his gun toward Qianye’s chest.
The great hall was suddenly filled with green light as two origin bullets shot out at the same time. “Boom!” A massive rumble engulfed the entire castle or perhaps even the entire mountaintop. The wall on the other side crumbled completely to reveal the machine room behind it.
The large-scale transmission machines were absolutely deformed and unrecognizable with various components shooting out in all directions. A corner of the grey sky was revealed amidst the utterly chaotic scene. This centuries-old castle was actually blasted through in one shot.
William stood silently at the center of the hall. Both gun barrels were somewhat red, a testament that the two shots had been fired at full power.
But the space in front of him was completely empty—the shots had missed. The moment the blast rang out, a rotating origin array appeared below Qianye’s feet as he shot into the air. This was the ability Qianye had gained after his ascension to the champion rank: Origin Vault.
A sudden gust of wind was transmitted from above William’s head. He looked up only to see a giant pinion—which two men could wrap their arms around—flying toward him at high speed.
William pulled back instantly and allowed the gear, with its terrifying momentum, to pass by.
Qianye had jumped onto the ten-meter-tall steam clock. There he was, grabbing the gears and hurling them out, the pinions screaming sharply as they flew toward William.
William had just evaded one when all kinds of parts and gears swarm toward him. He was smashed until he was scuttling up and down in misery. In the end, Qianye pried off the clock arm and shot it out like a javelin!
William discovered that he had been pushed into a corner of the hall after stepping back continuously. He would soon fall into a passive position if he kept on drawing back. He had no choice but to raise his gun and blast the clock arm to pieces, but this exhausted the origin bullet he had just condensed.
This was the opportunity Qianye had been waiting for. He leapt off and floated down like a falling leaf as East Peak finally slashed at William through the air!
This strike was as light as a feather and just as quiet. William’s expression changed drastically. He unleashed an explosive shout as the image of a golden wolf, several meters tall, emerged behind him. At this moment, William could no longer withhold his strength and finally utilized his domain.
The faint ripples of Nirvanic Rend emerged in front of William, but its incoming momentum had become much slower like a ripple upon a reef and even began to change directions. The giant wolf suddenly opened its mouth as if to roar, and clawed out to shatter the Nirvanic Rend.
The ripples of Nirvanic Rend shattered into countless pieces and shot in every direction. Everything they struck was punched in, be it the walls, pillars, pipelines, steel frames, or even machine components.
The entire castle building shook and half of it slowly toppled over.
Shattered rocks were flying everywhere all of a sudden. William and Qianye rushed out from amidst the rubble and rose into the air, standing off against one another from the distance. The two sides exchanged blows only for a short moment, but this was enough to destroy half a castle. In the end, they were, quite surprisingly, an even match.
William pushed his twin-barreled pistol into his pocket and stretched his neck. “I have to admit that this outcome is far beyond my expectations. You still have unused trump cards, don’t you?”
“Aren’t you the same?” Qianye didn’t deny it.
William suddenly retracted his domain and said, “It seems that’s all we can do under the Iron Curtain. Let’s stop here!”
“Not fighting anymore?” Qianye was somewhat startled.
William’s radiant smile was restored as he said, “I told you just now, it’s just a battle. I didn’t say we have to fight to the death. Now I have a good reason for appearing here. I can explain things perfectly!”
Qianye couldn’t help but say, “Didn’t you say Daybreak and Evernight are eternal enemies?”
“That’s not wrong! War is a matter of two factions. It’s indeed related to you and I, but that doesn’t apply to every situation.” William’s magnanimous laughter almost sounded a bit scoundrelly to Qianye.
Qianye glared at him for a while, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry. He returned East Peak to its sheath and asked, “How come you’re here?”
William waved his big hands and said, “I heard about a Monroe settlement here, so I ran over to flip it over.”
“It’s that simple?”
“It’s just that simple,” William replied assertively.
“Didn’t you say you were going to seek justice for Viscount Olaf?”
William said disdainfully, “Olaf? This traitor to the Sacred Mountain is actually willing to serve the Monroes. He’s lucky enough that he didn’t die in my hands.”
Qianye frowned. “Then why did you say all those things to me?”
William chuckled mischievously. “Would you have fought me seriously if I didn’t? My hands started to itch after seeing you finish off everyone in the castle. Heh, heh, heehee!”
Qianye was angered speechless after hearing this reason.
William wasn’t lenient at all when he had attacked just now, especially with that twin-barreled pistol. That was a bona fide count level killing weapon, and even Qianye’s body would’ve been gravely injured if he were struck by it. He was already very close to using the Shot of Inception and might’ve used it if William had pressured him just a bit further. It was just that William hadn’t revealed his trump card, and Qianye also felt he might not win even if he had used it.
From his unsightly expression, William realized Qianye was quite furious. He scratched his head in an embarrassed manner and said, “That… umm… the fight just now was quite satisfying, wasn’t it? Hehe!”
But that chuckle sounded incomparably stiff.
Qianye had no intention of accepting his “hehe”. He narrowed his eyes, then glanced at East Peak in his hand, sensing the residual power therein. It looked like he really wanted to repeat this entire process.
Finding his trick ineffective, William blinked his blue-grey eyes and adopted an honest expression. He then flew toward Qianye and said mysteriously, “Didn’t you notice something wrong with the Iron Curtain recently?”