[V6C36 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
That demonkin brought out a sheepskin scroll and outlined a segment of the land with just a few strokes. With that, the map in his hand became slightly enriched.
After drafting the local geography, he studied it for a while before pointing to a certain location. “We should be here. Let’s move ahead one kilometer and observe again.”
A barely discernible glint flashed through Nighteye’s pupils as she nodded in silence and followed the demonkin. The direction they were headed in was precisely where Qianye had gone toward.
In this strange, vast land, there was no telling just how many soldiers were cautiously searching for enemies. On one hand, they had to resist the omnipresent suppression of the void colossus’ will, while on the other, they had to wrestle with the distorted perception. It was arduous, to say the least.
Qianye was relatively at ease and his movements had gradually sped up. He was able to firmly lock onto his direction and advance toward the colossal skeleton even in a forest where everything seemed the same.
After circling around a certain large tree, Qianye’s ears twitched ever so slightly as he caught a series of extremely light footsteps. He immediately stood with his back against the tree and glanced toward where the footsteps had originated from. Hundreds of meters away, a vampire viscount had appeared through the mist. He held a sword with both hands, the tip of which was pointed toward the ground as he calmly walked forward step by step.
This was a stance in which he could brandish his sword and attack at any given moment. Apparently, this viscount was no ordinary character. He didn’t bother to hide his movements but instead chose to maintain a combat stance at all times. This was confidence, a firm belief that he could easily kill or retreat even when encountering a powerful enemy.
The widespread purple substance was fairly special, and one could hardly avoid making sounds while walking over them. One would need to maintain flight form in order to advance quietly. However, most champions would emit obvious origin power fluctuations during flight, and the consumption was also too great.
This second-rank viscount’s choice wasn’t wrong. The only issue was that he had encountered Qianye.
Qianye had already set up his sniper rifle at this point. He had perfectly hidden his aura with Bloodline Concealment as he placed the crosshairs steadily over the viscount’s blood core.
In truth, Bloodline Concealment wasn’t a necessity in such an environment because the viscount would need to come within a hundred meters in order to discover Qianye. It was just that Qianye had gotten used to being cautious. Moreover, he could vaguely sense a pair of eyes upon him from time to time.
Qianye’s fingers had started tugging on the trigger when he noticed a datura flower on the vampire’s collar—the Monroe clan’s insignia. The emblem was somewhat glaring as it reflected in his eyes.
Qianye’s hesitation lasted only a split second. He quickly drove away the distractions in his mind and pulled the trigger. The Mithril Bullet of Exorcism drew a blinding silver flash through the air as it flew toward the viscount.
That vampire viscount was indeed expecting an attack, but not one from a sniper. He swung his sword out of instinct as the silver flash appeared in his eyes and actually managed to hit the sniper round mid-air.
The instant reaction proved that his combat arts had reached an extremely high realm. However, the great firepower behind the sniper round caused him to take several steps back and his hand to go numb. The viscount’s expression shifted after that abhorrent silver color appeared clearly in his vision.
Had this shot connected, he would’ve been gravely injured if not killed. The most frightening point, however, was that he couldn’t sense the enemy at all! The only thing he could do was judge the enemy’s location form the bullet’s trajectory. But what good would that do? The assailant had surely left his original position during this short period.
The blood energy around the vampire viscount grew denser, and a faint image of the datura flower appeared within. He had pushed all of his remaining power to the limits. Another flash of silver appeared at this point, but just as the viscount was about to slash at the bullet, the pressure upon his body grew drastically and almost pressed him onto his knees.
Domain! The viscount cried out frantically in his heart. But how could anyone deploy a domain under the standard level suppression of this accursed place? Even he, Armas, one of the Ten Dread Daturas who had possessed a domain since knighthood, couldn’t produce a complete domain here.
Not only was the suppression of this particular domain substantial, but it also felt as though it had never been weakened by the colossus’ will. Armas was unable to resist this pressure even after pushing his blood energy to the limits. He could only watch with wide-open eyes as the Mithril Bullet of Exorcism blasted onto his body.
Amras flew out a dozen or so meters amidst wretched cries and crashed into a large tree. He fell decrepit onto the ground and never rose again. He hadn’t just suffered the daybreak energy explosion of the exorcism bullet, but also the strand the blood energy Qianye had instilled into it. It took Armas everything he had just to resist the erosion of the blood energy, and even raising his hand became strenuous.
Qianye’s figure appeared from within the mist and walked over quietly to the vampire’s side.
Armas stared fixedly at Qianye as he ceased his struggle with a smile of relief. “I didn’t expect it to be you, Zhao Qianye, one of the empire’s twin stars. It’s not unjust for me to die in your hands. Just do it, it’s very simple, but you won’t get any information out of me.”
Qianye remained silent for a moment. “Do you have anything to say?”
Armas laughed ruefully and said, “I do have a question. Why was there blood energy on your Mirthril Bullet of Exorcism? But then again, you probably won’t tell me anyway. Let’s end it here!”
“You were a respectable opponent. Godspeed!” Qianye’s East Peak pierced into Armas’ chest and destroyed his blood core.
Armas was indeed an expert. Although he was incomparable to factional geniuses like Zhao Jundu and Nighteye, he was still a first-rate expert. If it weren’t for the suppression of the void colossus’ will, Qianye would have to fight an arduous battle in order to kill him.
Against such an opponent, Qianye decided to help him preserve a warrior’s dignity—he neither absorbed the vampire’s essence blood nor pulled out his fangs as proof of contribution.
Qianye thus left and quickly vanished into the hazy mist. Meanwhile, Armas’ body was left leaning against the large tree as the surrounding purple substance gradually extended over, attracted by the presence of flesh and blood.
Qianye’s thoughts weren’t calm as he continued deeper in. The conversation with Armas just now was short but informative.
The other twin star of the empire was naturally Zhao Jundu, and this term made evident the Evernight faction’s assessment of them. It could be considered a worthy evaluation since Qianye and Zhao Jundu had rampaged through the Iron Curtain and achieved peerless military success.
However, that term Zhao Qianye made it clear that his relationship with the Zhao clan was beyond close and that even the Evernight side had already heard about it. But he should’ve expected this situation long ago since Zhao Jundu had registered Qianye’s name under his secondary residence.
It was just that he had quietly erased the Zhao surname from his heart. The fierce, war-like Zhao clan and their outstanding descendants were an honor to fight alongside. But compared to the extravagant Zhao Residence on the Western Continent, the tiny Blackflow City felt more like home to him.
Qianye encountered several waves of enemies as he pushed deeper and deeper in—even a count. But the advantage of his True Sight was evident, and that huge third-rank arachne count was hardly agile. Qianye badly injured him with a single Refined Silver Bullet of Extreme Yang and proceeded to suppress his lackeys with the momentum of a great ocean. East Peak swept across and immediately slashed through the arachne’s waist.
Being severed from his arachnid body was a lethal blow even for a count. With the count eradicated, the remaining barons couldn’t even release their domains and were directly killed by Qianye’s oceanic power. The survivors were all put down with one slash each.
Qianye took a break after finishing off this group and collecting the essence blood as well as the spoils of war.
When he had just arrived in Blackflow City, Arachne Viscount Brahms was a tremendous entity Qianye could hardly look up at. The arachne might’ve turned Blackflow into rubble had it not been for the top-grade defenses of Wei Bainian’s Thousand Mountain. Today, however, Qianye could already fight head-on against an arachne count. Of course, he had also taken advantage of the suppression of the void colossus’ will in order to accomplish this.
Among the four great dark races, the arachne’s essence blood was of the lowest purity but the highest in quantity. These opponents filled Qianye’s essence blood stores by more than half. Presently, Qianye reckoned that his body could accommodate an amount of essence blood equal to that of a virtuous count.
In this land filled with danger, every bit of strength might be a life-saving measure at the critical moment. Hence, Qianye was in no rush to go further—instead, he found a hidden place to circulate his Mystery Chapter and refine all of the essence blood before going on.
This time, the refinement process took an entire day. The greater half of the darkness origin power was absorbed by the Wings of Inception, while the remainder were split evenly between the Book of Darkness and the dark golden blood energy. The scope of his auric gold blood expanded slightly once more after absorbing the darkness origin power. Qianye would advance to become a second-rank viscount by the time the auric gold blood had been distributed throughout his trunk, and a first-rank viscount when they had covered his limbs.
The experts from various parties operating in this vast forest had increased progressively when Qianye resumed his advancement.
No matter how they had passed through Giant’s Repose to enter this world, they would all arrive at locations surrounding this region. Moreover, everyone could see the giant skeleton in the distance, no matter how distant they were.
Nighteye and that demonkin traversed the forest like specters. As time went by, their accomplishments also increased continuously.
That demonkin wasn’t a nobody. He was a genius expert from the Dark Abyss called Eden and his rank was that of a mighty count.
Dark Abyss, Masefield, and Jeruson were all famous demonkin families that produced countless experts. One could hardly underestimate someone considered a genius in such a clan. His Unshrouding Eye was an excessively powerful ability capable of seeing through many types of concealment, not to mention he could use origin power to amplify its penetration effect.
That was the reason why Eden had been dispatched directly by the Evernight Council to accompany Nighteye all along her journey. His real mission was to protect her; supporting her was only secondary.
The results of their battles in this peculiar world were just as the Evernight Council had predicted. Although the scope of his Unshrouding Eye wasn’t as great as Nighteye’s, it was still two times that of ordinary people. Being specialists in concealment and camouflage, their combined powers were extremely sharp and gapless in the present environment. They would be able to escape calmly even if they were to encounter a true expert.
Eden halted his advancing steps all of a sudden and gestured toward the left side that he was in charge of. Nighteye turned about quickly and approached rapidly at the same pace. Faintly discernible silhouettes appeared before them in the blink of an eye.
Three soldiers had made a temporary camp under the tree. One of them stood guard, the other one was dressing his wounds, while the third was cultivating in a cross-legged posture in a bid to recover origin power.
The three had split their roles according to reason. They seemed relaxed, but the entire area around the camp had been covered by two of the soldiers without any dead angles. The true gap in their surveillance was because of Nighteye and Eden’s excessively long visual range.
Eden gestured toward Nighteye, removed the origin gun from his back, and took aim at the vigilant warrior. Seeing that the soldier wasn’t aware of anything, a smile appeared on Eden’s face as he slowly pulled on the trigger.
It was during the split second before the shot that Nighteye suddenly reached out and pressed down on Eden’s gun muzzle.