Chapter 41: Do Battle

Qianye did not attempt to avoid the blow. He took a step forward with his left leg and lifted his right knee, slamming it directly into the young man’s sweeping foot! There was a crack and a bloodcurdling scream. The young man’s leg was bent at an unnatural angle, his ankle obviously broken.

The young man could no longer stand on his feet as he crashed on his back. He glared at Qianye. It was only now that he felt true fear!

Qianye’s expression didn’t change too much. In the end, even his spring-like smile wasn’t completely withdrawn yet. It was as if taking a dozen lives was nothing to him at all.

The young man finally understood that in the eyes of this man who was so beautiful that he even appeared a little fragile, his strength as a rank two Fighter meant that he was an ant that could be crushed at any moment. Qianye’s true strength was definitely not as it seemed to the surface!

“Don’t kill me, don’t kill me! My father is Sky Snake!” At this time, sobs could be heard behind the young man’s words. He shifted his body backward repeatedly, trying to stay away from this devil of a man.

“I know that your father is Sky Snake.” Qianye said indifferently.

Calmly, he pushed the final bullet into the chamber and aimed it at the young man’s other, unhurt foot. He then said, “I won’t kill you. Go back and tell Sky Snake that I will play with him until the end if he dares to provoke me again! As for you, if you show up in front of me again, you will not be as lucky you are today. Let this shot will be a lesson for you and Sky Snake today.”

While speaking, Qianye pulled the trigger. The bullet flew out of the chamber with a bang and slammed into the young man’s knee. Although Sky Snake’s son was a rank two Fighter, the heavy duty bullet still came very close to shattering his knee.

Qianye threw the emptied gun down onto the young man’s face before unholstering the Flowing Gold Rose from his waist. He said, “You are not worthy of this gun, and neither is Sky Snake!”

Qianye turned around and left.

It was only a long time after his figure had disappeared that the young man dared to let out a bloodcurdling scream, “Someone! Someone save me!”

Moments later, at the Sky Snake Gang’s headquarters, Sky Snake slammed the wooden tea table with his palm, and instantly broke it into several pieces! His face was so dark and heavy that one could almost wringe water from it. His face twitched non-stop as he stared at the dozen or so corpses laid in a row on the hall floor.

Right now, Sky Snake’s precious and only son was receiving treatment from a doctor at the back of the room. He had one arm and one leg crushed by Qianye, and he nearly completely lost a knee as well. However, these were still not the worst of his injuries. His son had suffered such a terrible shock that he had gone a little insane at the end of everything. At times, he would suddenly let out shocked screams as if Qianye were standing right in front of him.

Even if he could fully treat his external injuries, his son could never reach Sky Snake’s current level any longer. Originally, Sky Snake had been hoping that he could inherit the Sky Snake Gang.

While brimming with murderous intent, Sky Snake slowly stood up and yelled, “Summon the men! We shall go to Home of Hunters!”

An hour later, several hundreds of leather-adorned men gathered at Home of Hunter’s doorsteps, and filled the entire street. Every man’s elbows were tattooed with all kinds of snakes.

Sky Snake led several dozen of his trusted subordinates and strode into Home of Hunters.

A few hunters had initially been seated in the hall. Right now, they had all stood up in doubt and surprise as they watched Sky Snake aggressively step into the hall.

“This is none of your business! Sit down now, or I’ll assume that you’re trying to provoke me.” Sky Snake said coldly.

These hunters were all Fighters of rank two or so. Their faces paled instantly, and they sat back down on their seats. Sky Snake was a rank five Fighter, and the difference between their strength could not be more obvious. He wasn’t someone they could resist at all.

Old 2 was the only one still seated primly behind the counter. He had only raised his head for a glance when Sky Snake led his men into the hall. He had then turned his gaze back to his book.

BANG! Sky Snake’s palm slammed down heavily on the counter.

However, this slap did not shatter the entire counter as he had expected it to. There were only a few cracks spreading out where he had struck.

When Sky Snake struck downwards, Old 2 had put his hand on the counter as well, and protected it with an immense amount of origin power. His origin power had clashed fiercely against Sky Snake’s.

Still, a few cracks had appeared on the counter, so it was obvious that Sky Snake’s origin power was slightly greater than Old 2’s.

Sky Snake’s face was incredibly ugly as he said in a cold tone, “Old 2, are you going to start a full scale war against my Sky Snake Gang for that one star hunter?”

Old 2 lifted his presbyopic glasses and said seriously, looking through the lenses that were slightly worn out, “Are you talking about Qianye? The grudge between you two has nothing to do with me or Home of Hunters. However, if you try to break the counter I make a living with, and the table that I eat my food on at the very second you come in, what else do you think I should do? When that happens, I have to fight even if I don’t want to, don’t I?”

Sky Snake said in a chilly voice, “This counter isn’t broken yet, but my son already is! If Home of Hunters plans to defend that little brat, then yes, this war must start! On top of that, let’s not forget that my Sky Snake Gang lost a dozen or so lives as well!”

Old 2’s eyebrows wrinkled as he said slowly, “Sky Snake, do not forget that Home of Hunters exists not only in Darkblood City, but also the on upper continents of the Empire as well. Try not to do something stupid, even if you think I am not worth giving face to.”

Sky Snake laughed coldly and said, “Of course, the Sky Snake Gang cannot be compared to the entire Home of Hunters. However, I’ve never heard that Home of Hunters would break their own rules and interfere with matters they shouldn’t either.”

“There are exception to rules, especially when our counter were to be smashed by someone.”

However, Sky Snake did not even frown at his veiled threat and said, “So we’re doing this the hard way, then?”

Before Old 2 could answer, Qianye’s voice rang from the side, “So what if we do this the hard way?”

Sky Snake abruptly turned around and stared at Qianye like a hawk. He laughed coldly and said, “Good! Very good! I have never seen someone who dares provoke our Sky Snake Gang in the face! Do you think I’m easy to pick on?”

Qianye’s laugh was equally cold, “If someone tries to kill me but is so weak that they got killed by me instead, what else is there to be discussed about? Or do you think that I should just sit on my ass and die? Sky Snake, do you think I’m easy to pick on?”

Sky Snake’s eyes narrowed slightly as he uttered coldly, “You are merely a rank three small fry. So what if I pick on you? When I saw you last time, you did seem to have some talent in you, but if I kill you now, then no matter how good your talents are, it will be worth nothing at all!”

Qianye laughed disdainfully, “You want to kill me?”

Sky Snake’s pupils shrank, and he suddenly smiled, saying, “Do you want to give it a try right now then?”

Old 2 stood up at this point and said solemnly, “Sky Snake, must you take a life at my place?”

“What are you going to do now, Old 2? Even if you’re willing to make sacrifices, do not forget that he is not the only hunter in Home of Hunters.” Sky Snake’s face was unpleasant, and his tone was already veiled with a threat.

Old 2 was unmoved by his words as he said indifferently, “You’ve already crossed the line when you brought so many men into my place. Therefore, no one is allowed to fight here today, or they will have me as an enemy. After tonight, no matter what happens between you and Qianye, it will no longer be my business.”

Sky Snake raised his eyebrows and was about to say something. But in the end, he held himself back, nodded powerfully, and answered coldly, “Alright! I will give you face today, but this will be the last time! From tomorrow morning onwards, I will come and settle my business with this kid. However, I will remind you, Old 2, you have a lot of hunters, and not all of them are strong. You better wish that they will have a safe journey when they go on their missions from now on. If I run into any hunters in or outside the city, maybe I’ll share my kindness and ‘help’ them along the way!”

Sky Snake glanced at the hunters inside the hall once before beckoning at his men. They then left Home of Hunters swaggeringly.

The rank two hunters all wore ugly expressions on their faces. If they ran into Sky Snake or his elite subordinates when they were out on a mission, they might not even have the chance to escape. Being a hunter was an extremely dangerous occupation in the first place, and now that the Sky Snake Gang had appeared out of nowhere and became their enemy, it meant that their death ratio would become a lot higher than it had been before. Therefore, there were a lot of Hunters who were staring at Qianye with extremely unfriendly eyes.

“He’s just a freshman. He has no idea of the the immensity of heaven and earth! If he wants to fight the Sky Snake Gang to the death that’s his own business! Don’t drag us into his mess!”

“That’s right!”

“A person like this better watch his back when he goes on a mission in the future. A man that’s too arrogant can only die faster!”

The hunters began conversing with one another as their grudge grew bigger and their words turned uglier.

Qianye did not say anything. He simply swept a glance at them once.

Those hunters suddenly choked on their words. Their numbers were greater, and Qianye was only one level higher than they were. Supposedly, they had nothing to be afraid of against Qianye. However, when Qianye had glanced at them, they all shivered at once and were unable to continue talking any longer. They looked into each other’s eyes and saw the shock and fear inside them. Because of this, they didn’t dare to stay behind any longer, and left Home of Hunters while muttering beneath their breaths.

Qianye arrived in front of the counter and said to Old 2, “Do you have any alcohol? I would like to drink a bit.”

Old 2 took out a cup and fished out a palm-sized purple sand wine jar. He then filled a small half of the cup and pushed it to Qianye.

Qianye grabbed the cup and drank it in one gulp. After holding his breath for a moment, he finally said, “Great wine! It’s still a little weaker than the one I make myself though.”

“Are you talking about military use stimulants?” Old 2 obviously knew a lot more than he seemed to.

“That stuff is a little harmful to the body though. It must be taken sparingly.”

Old 2 poured Qianye yet another cup of alcohol, saying, “Looks like you got quite the trouble with Sky Snake.”

“That is true! His son just tried to rob me.”

“It is very much like that young man’s style to do so. He does have some smarts, though. He knows what kind of person he can afford to provoke.”

Qianye let out a mouthful of wine vapor and smiled, “Unfortunately for him, his luck wasn’t good enough. That’s why he found me. I am exactly the kind of person he should not have provoked.”

Old 2 looked at Qianye deeply and said, “You have great confidence in yourself.”

Qianye said calmly, “I simply believe that I cannot let them act however they like.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“You’ve already done enough for me.”

“You may need more weaponry.”

“It’s fine. I’ll get them from Sky Snake.”

Qianye set down the empty cup on the counter and headed outside just like that.

At the entrance to the hall, there was a big guy leaning against the door. It was one of the three people Qianye had run into when he first visited Home of Hunters.

When he saw Qianye, he suddenly spat on the ground and said, “I hate the smell of dogs with the Empire’s stench on them. However, those trash from the Sky Snake Gang disgust me even more! The entire street outside is filled with their eyes right now. If you aren’t careful enough, I may have to take care of your corpse tomorrow morning.”

Qianye paused his footsteps and said, “If you enjoy carrying corpses on your back, then congratulations, there will be plenty of Sky Snake Gang henchmen who’ll be your customers by the morrow. I may not like you, but thank you regardless.”

The big guy nodded and opened the way. He walked toward the counter and said to Old 2, “Old 2, I’m here to submit a mission!”

It was only when Qianye had exited the front door that the big guy said, “That little guy might actually be able to do a little something. Maybe he’s worth raising.”

Old 2 simply shrugged and said nothing.

When Qianye left Home of Hunters, he unhurriedly entered a dark alley by his side.

The vagrants roaming around Home of Hunters immediately followed him from a suitable distance. The second Qianye entered the alleyway, he instantly sped up and charged to the end of the alley like a typhoon. He then turned to the left with a quick dash and step.

The people following him couldn’t be bothered to conceal themselves any longer and charged madly towards the street where Qianye disappeared. However, when they reached the crossroad, Qianye was long gone.

A moment later, Qianye suddenly appeared at Yu Yingnan’s doorsteps. However, before he could lift a hand and knock on the door, it suddenly opened to reveal a fully-armed Yu Yingnan walking out full of killing intent, carrying an extremely powerful, double barrel shotgun in one hand.

Qianye suddenly leaped forward and pushed Yu Yingnan into the room. Then, he kicked the door shut.

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Chapter 42: Eyes of the Night

Whether it be the Yellow Springs Training Camp that Qianye attended as a child growing into a young man, or Red Scorpion, both had a standard class of training to resist captivation.

Such training was exceptionally cruel, as it trained from both mental and physical aspects. The coming of age ceremony in the Yellow Springs Training Camp was a beginning, but not the end, and its objective was to raise killing machines with no weaknesses at heart.

Yet, prodigies who have greater potential than others would have even more rigorous demands placed upon them by the instructors, and the intensity of the training would increase as well. After too much of these kind of experiences, many of them would turn into freaks.

Qianye had always thirsted for great power as fast as possible, so in the Red Scorpions, he had always applied for the highest limit of all kinds of trainings that he could endure. This class was no different. Due to that, although he couldn’t be considered a freak, in the later sessions he had often approached the brink of crumbling. It was still Nan Batian that had directly used his authority to cancel the rest of Qianye’s classes.

But Qianye never once regretted the enormous price that he paid in his training, especially since mind captivation was a killing technique of many dark races. Anyone whose willpower wasn’t strong enough would end up dead when going against those dark race experts with strong mind powers.

And what he looked up to was the world of the strong with people at Lin Xitang's level. Qianye was absolutely unwilling to stop halfway through.

In one of the final tests in the Red Scorpions, Qianye could already resist the psychic control and seduction of those with Champion-level mind control and captivation for a short time. No matter how he looked at her, this girl couldn’t be at the Champion level, which is to say that she shouldn’t have been able to captivate Qianye at all.

Shouldn’t have, emphasis on should. In this world, there were too many things that shouldn’t have happened but still did.

Looking at it purely results-wise, Qianye had indeed been captivated just now, and to a fairly deep degree at that. Deep level captivation like this would often leave behind some difficult-to-perceive hidden concerns.

Just what exactly is going on?

Qianye’s mood was very much in a mess at the moment; this strange woman was making him unusually irritated and uneasy, yet she was clearly still merely unconscious.

It was to the point that Qianye didn’t even dare to look at her, terrified that he could be captivated by her. That’s right, it was captivation, how else would he be able to explain it? Qianye’s frustration towards this was different from the frustration he held against when his thirst for blood flared up. It was like the entire world was revolving wildly around him, and he wished very anxiously to have something to grab onto.

Remain calm! When Qianye was undergoing captivation resistance training, the first thing that the Red Scorpion instructors taught Qianye was to remain steadfast. No matter what he saw or felt, he had to remain calm. If he couldn’t keep himself steady with his own strength, then he should try to brace himself with something else.

Qianye began to consider what he had on hand. Against this kind of terrifying woman, it wouldn't bode well if no preparation was made.

A smoke? Or maybe alcohol?

Both didn’t seem good enough, the power was too weak. Even those special products with stimulants added wouldn’t be enough.

This woman, while in a state of unconsciousness, could already influence Qianye like so and and cause him to instinctively feel extreme danger within the chaos. Perhaps it was such alertness against danger that stopped Qianye from entirely sinking into confusion.

The more he didn’t understand, it meant the greater the danger she was.

Qianye steeled himself, and suddenly took out a syringe hidden pocket from behind the bar top, stabbing it into his arm and pushing down the plunger fully. He then silently waited the three minutes for the medicine to take its complete effect.

This was a standard issue tranquilizer of the Red Scorpion, its effect was simple and unrefined. It would cause someone who took it to thoroughly calm down in a short amount of time, turning them into an iron-hearted butcher. This kind of tranquilizer also could effectively resist mind impact as well as a series of influences and attacks from mind power. It could also be used to treat the psychological problems that would arise from excessive killing. Unfortunately, this was the last of his stockpile.

As the sedative took effect, it was as though an barrier had been added onto Qianye’s mind, and he no longer dreaded external influences. He walked up to the girl once again, and quietly looked at her face. This time around it was indeed a lot better than the last; although her tightly-shut eyes still had that deadly attraction, it no longer had that feeling of nearly falling into an abyss.

But what Qianye didn’t expect was, even under the calmest circumstances, he still felt that her features were of his ideal. He somehow felt that he had seen her somewhere, yet couldn’t remember where at all. Unless it was really only in his dreams?

However, Qianye could finally resist the effects of those eyes and spend more time looking at her face with an examining gaze. She had short, somewhat messy hair, and together with her well-defined, absolutely stunning features, she carried a natural ice-coldness and pride. Moreover, under that layer of frost was deadly captivation.

Her face was a sickly white, and her skin was as exquisite as the most delicate jade. But as he looked, Qianye suddenly found that there was a very abnormal red flush along her neck. So he reached out and touched it, and instantly felt an astonishingly high temperature, almost scalding his hand. But as he placed his hands upon it for a while longer, he felt a coldness from his fingertips as if he was touching an ice block.

Qianye was shocked. That sickly pale skin as well as that greatly fluctuating body temperature were exactly the initial symptoms of a blood thrall! He sniffed, and indeed, there was an extremely faint smell of fresh blood. He immediately examined her entire body again and saw that there were two small rips on the sleeve of the field army uniform, along with a little bloodstain.

Qianye tore her field army uniform and the bodysuit beneath, revealing her entire arm. As expected, there were two deep and round holes on the upper arm area. Those were the tooth marks left after being bitten by vampiric fangs!

Seeing these tooth marks, Qianye suddenly felt heartstrings tugging, and felt a powerlessness as though he was suffocating.

Such young lady, was already a blood thrall?

How much longer could she persevere? Seven days? Three days? Or maybe... one day?

After frequently coming into contact with the dark races, Qianye already knew that being bitten actually wasn’t a sure sign of contamination. Normal people would be in danger even just from touching a blood thrall. It was because they had no origin power, hence they were especially susceptible to being invaded by dark energy. For the strong, some wounds with blood aren’t very much fatal.

But being stabbed deep into the blood vessels by vampiric fangs was an exception; unless one could receive the Embrace of higher ranked vampires and formally become a vampire, they wouldn’t be able to shake off the inevitable destiny of becoming a blood thrall. People like Qianye who could resist the invasion of the blood of darkness up until now could be said as very few.

Perhaps those rumored aristocratic family’s secret arts really had effects, and maybe there were others who could endure, but the Empire’s policy about blood thralls had always been the same; terminate on sight, with nary a hint of compassion. Ever since that year where a prince of the Empire who had been infected with the blood of darkness was executed, this policy had never had a single exception nor compromise.

If it had been half a year earlier, Qianye would have killed her without any hesitation or delay, no matter how he was captivated by her supernatural power. In the Empire’s eyes, death was a form of release to a blood thrall. Even if he didn’t have a merciless heart, Qianye still wouldn’t have wanted to watch her turn into a mindless blood thirsty monster.

But now, without him noticing, Qianye’s feelings had long since changed. He himself was a very good example that, testifying that as long as one persisted, a miracle really could happen.

Qianye gave it some thought, and then cut open his own wrist and placed the cut next to her mouth. As expected, she reacted towards that pulsing fresh blood, and after sniffing it, she instinctively drank all of the blood that flowed beside her mouth.

After being bitten by a vampire, the thirst for fresh blood was almost irresistible. At the same time, fresh blood was also a vampire’s miracle drug. No matter how deep the wound, as long as vampires had enough fresh blood, they would recover.

She kept drinking the fresh blood, and her pallid face rapidly gained a healthier shade. When the blood near Qianye’s wound dried, her breathing clearly quickened, and her face looked immeasurably pained, instinctively lifting her head and searching for blood. Qianye once again cut open his wrist and let the fresh blood seep out.

Qianye even had an immature conjecture; perhaps his suppression of the blood of darkness was due to his blood having some sort of antibody or something. Feeding her more of his blood might just be able to delay the activation of the blood of darkness within her body.

As the wound dried for the second time, Qianye had already begun to feel his entire body turning cold. His face was more so ghastly pale while his vision was starting to blur, a clear sign of too much blood loss. The good thing was that she finally wasn’t suffering any longer, as her expression looked far more relaxed.

When some color returned to that girl’s face, she suddenly released an even more irresistibly lethal force of attraction, and even after Qianye had taken the tranquilizer, he could still feel his heart jump at every little move she made.

Finally, the girl slowly opened her eyes, and sat up.

She didn’t panic and didn’t overreact either, just calmly turning her head to survey the surroundings as if she had just woken up in her own home. The girl’s large eyes were filled with innocence and vacantness, but Qianye knew that her act was definitely a facade.

“You’re awake?”

She didn’t reply but lowered her head to look down at her exposed arm, and then she reached out her hand to her lips and rubbed her lips gently, tasting the fresh blood on the tip of her tongue. Finally, she looked at Qianye she asked, “It’s you who saved me?”

Her voice was gentle and a little overcast, and paired with those somewhat unfocused gaze, it had another unique feel to it.

“I guess, but that’s not important. Your current state is very troublesome…” Qianye squirmed a little over his words, unsure of how he should break it to her.

The fact that she was going to be a blood thrall was too cruel, and she was evidently quite young, maybe the same age as Qianye, or even a little younger. Could she handle such a cruel blow?

“Troublesome? You mean… I’ve become a blood thrall?” She was far calmer than Qianye imagined her to be, and was also very knowledgeable.

“…Yes.”

Her eyes finally gained an expression as she looked at Qianye seriously. “Then shouldn’t you kill me right now, and not save me?”

Qianye smiled bitterly. “A blood thrall is not entirely without hope, perhaps you still have enough time. My advice is, you can… head west. There lies the territory of the dark races, as well as some vampire activity. If you are lucky enough before you lose your wits, you might meet an upper-class vampire and receive the Embrace, then you may live on… as a vampire.”

The girl’s expression turned somewhat baffled, as she asked with interest, “Aren’t you human? You’d actually suggest that I go become a vampire? Doesn’t that increase another enemy of humanity?”

“Since I’ve met you in this state, of course I had to save you. As for the future… If, I’m saying if, we ever have the chance to meet on the battlefield, I will personally kill you!” Qianye’s voice was calm.

She looked at Qianye’s wrist, intentionally or otherwise, “You’re really a strange guy! Saving me just for the sake of killing me in the future? And you’d even let our your blood for me to drink… you’re pretty knowledgeable about blood thralls.”

Qianye took out a bandage, and while he bound his wounds, he spoke, “Everyone knows about blood thralls well, especially in this god forsaken place! Here, almost everyone had experienced relatives or friends who turned into a blood thrall.”

She went silent for a moment, and then stood up, holding out her hand to Qianye. “I understand now. My name is… Nighteye.”

As she stood up, an imposing aura flared.

Chapter 43: The Final Hunt   

Qianye reached out toward her hand and shook it, and felt that her hand was still as cold as ice like before, “Your name is rather strange, but also a good sounding one. I am Qianye, and as for my surname… I’ve forgotten.”

“Forgetting even your surname, heh.” Nighteye laughed, but didn’t pursue the matter.

This could be called a formal introduction between the two.

Nighteye looked around, and her sight especially paused for an instant on the stringed hand-grenade trap at the door. “As you can see, someone is pursuing me. If you can, give me something to eat, better if you have drugs, stimulants or anything are fine. Other than that, I need my weapons.”

“Coincidentally, I happen to have all of that.” Qianye felt a little strange.

Nighteye’s attitude was very natural and graceful, but it seemed like she knew everything he had on hand. This feeling of being seen through made him very unnerved.

A while later, Nighteye was seated with Qianye in the bar’s kitchen, earnestly devouring the tableful of food.

In the infertile Evernight Continent, high-calorie food was incredibly precious. The few basins of beef on the table were two months worth of Qianye’s of food stock.

Although that mysterious girl and old man had left him a few dozen imperial gold coins, in this lawless abandoned land, these things weren’t so easy to spend. Even if nobody dared to snatch it from him for the moment, he couldn’t use it to purchase things directly, and could only find underground markets to exchange them.

Because silver was effective against vampires, it was also one of the strategic resources of the Empire. Hence, the so-called silver coins was really only a name with very little silver inside of it, as they were primarily made of a metal called nickel. When the Empire was first setting up its currency system back then, it did use cast-silver, which also had the usage to see if people were infected by the blood of darkness. But as time passed, the amount of silver used in the silver coins decreased.

As for now, Qianye only needed to use a little bit of technique to shorten contact with the silver pieces to an extreme, and hence not be affected by it. If he could, he would rather only have taken several hundred silver pieces instead, which would have saved him a lot of trouble.

Other than food, there were also two large cups of strong liquor on the table. Qianye then took out the little hip flask, and carefully poured its contents into the liquor glass. This time, it wasn’t just one droplet, but rather, he poured nearly half of the flask into each cup.

Nighteye’s eyes flashed, and she picked up the cup, sniffing it. “The Empire Elite Corps’ special combat stimulant? Oh, it’s not pure stimulant, but all of the key ingredients are in it. I heard that this stuff can make a person’s strength increase greatly for a short period of time, turning them into a killing machine. You made this? How did you know its formulation?”

Qianye was secretly shocked at Nighteye’s depth of knowledge, but of course, he couldn’t tell her about his experiences in the past, so he only spoke vaguely, “Someone in my line of work always has their means. Getting such a formula isn’t particularly difficult, just a mere few silver pieces. However, collecting the medicinal ingredients is the hard part. Just by chance, several of the key ingredients could be found nearby, so I made some. Although it isn’t as strong as the original, it lasts longer, as its effects can keep up for several hours. Besides, it also has the ability to suppress the thirst caused by the blood of darkness.”

Nighteye’s eyes lit up, and she grabbed the steel hip flask. “Good stuff! Can you give me the rest of it?”

Qianye, without a single change in expression, took back his flask from her hands, saying, “I need it too, plus I only have this much left in reserve. Ah, right, who exactly is hunting you down?”

Nighteye cut the beef as she nonchalantly spoke. “I am a certain organization’s hunter, specialized in hunting down dark races and then collecting the bounty from the Empire. Right now, I’m being pursued by a group of vampires.”

At first, Qianye merely crooked an eyebrow. In this abandoned land, the status of a bounty hunter was slightly higher than scavengers, but not by much either. After hearing the final line, though, he couldn’t hold it in, “Vampires?”

Qianye’s voice suddenly had an almost imperceptible tremble in it.

“They’re not blood thralls, they’re true vampire warriors. And among them, there’s even one who has aristocratic rank!”

Qianye suddenly went quiet.

He finished the food on the plate in front of him, stood up again to serve up all of the remaining meat in the large pot onto the plate, and then continued to busy himself with the food.

Nighteye looked at him. “I’m about to continue my escape and battle, so I need a lot of energy. Why are you eating so hurriedly? This far exceeds your usual food intake, doesn’t it?”

Qianye mildly said, “I’m going to fight along with you later. I will send you to the dark race-controlled border region to the west.”

Nighteye’s face gained an undisguised shade of shock. “You’re going to fight with me? Don’t joke, those who’re pursuing me are real vampires, you know. With such weak combat strength, are you going just to send yourself to the grave? Let’s see... you’re not even a rank three Fighter, aren’t you?”

Qianye’s heart jumped. Under her eyes, it seemed that any kind of secret was impossible to keep. But he persevered. “I have my ways of dealing with vampires.”

Nighteye furrowed her brows. “But if I am with you, I will be bogged down! I have no interest in moving with a weakling! You’d best stay here, if I make it out, I’ll definitely send you your remuneration!”

Qianye didn’t like Nighteye’s tone at all; it was the kind of scorn and belittling of the weak by the strong, so obvious and deep to the bone. Even though Nighteye was doing it out of goodwill, this kind of attitude made him exceptionally uncomfortable. Moreover, Qianye had other plans, so he directly ignored Nighteye’s attitude and opinion of refusal.

“We’ll advance according to the path, staying at a distance from one another. We’ll move independently, and won’t interfere with each other.” Qianye creased his eyebrows as well.

Nighteye spoke out. “If you do that, aren’t you just becoming my bait?”

Qianye laughed as he spoke. “Even if I am a bait, those bloodsuckers need to make sure they can swallow the it down!”

Nighteye took a deep look at Qianye, and then the vacant look in her eyes disappeared, finally revealing the haughtiness and iciness hidden behind her gaze, “It seems you’re very confident in yourself. But in my eyes, this kind of confidence is no different from foolishness! In the eyes of an upper class vampire, merely a rank two Fighter is but an ant that they could squish with the slightest bit of effort. If you truly wish to come along, then so be it. I can only tell you, that the current you following me will merely guarantee your death.”

“People have foretold my death since long ago, but not only have I lived, but I’ve lived very well.” Qianye’s voice also grew increasingly cold.

Nighteye creased her eyebrows. “If you’re trying to earn back your dignity and face in front of me, and trying to woo me in this way, then you honestly don’t have to. Because the weak have no dignity to speak of at all, and I will never be moved by the weak. Don’t die a dog’s death. This is my final advice I’m giving you, seeing as you saved me.”

Qianye knocked on the table, “I do not have an ounce of interest toward you, I merely want to destroy those damnable bloodsuckers!”

“Then do whatever you want.”

Just like this, their conversation ended rather unpleasantly, and the two of them finished off the table full of food in silence. Qianye then laid out a paper map on the table and sketched out a westward route.

This was a meandering path with twists and turns, and the journey took them past two valleys, past a mountain peak, a vast stretch of forest, and then past an abandoned industrial area as well as the skeleton of an interstellar battleship’s wreckage.

“This is the route to the west.”

“Why so complicated?” Nighteye couldn’t help but ask.

“The complexity of the route will help us to end those bloodsucking bastards who are following you,” said Qianye, and he dotted one of the mountains on the map. “Our final destination is here. There should be a secret vampire gathering ground here, and there were sightings of a high-level vampire here. From their insignia and their methods, they should be the ones who people call the ‘Neos’ Among the vampires, their way of actions are relatively moderate, and perhaps you’ll have a chance to receive the Embrace, and become one of theirs.”

The look that Nighteye gave Qianye finally had a hint of excitement. “You even know about the ‘Neos’, it seems that you don’t have a simple past, either! You can’t have always been the little keeper of this bar, can you?”

“These informations are no secret, many in the Empire know about it.”

“But there aren’t many who are able to find the vampires’ secret gathering spot without being discovered. A rank two Fighter that can do so is more so one of its kind.”

“That’s not important. What is important, is that you perhaps will be able to receive The Embrace, and continue to live on. If you become one of the ‘Neos’, then the chances are that we’ll have less opportunities to meet on the battlefield.”

As he finished, Qianye tapped the map sharply and said, “Remember the route. I’m going to burn the map in a moment.”

He looked at the time. “We leave in twenty minutes!”

Suddenly, it was as if Qianye had returned to the time when he was in the Red Scorpion, unwaveringly cutting the enemies down.

While Nighteye looked at the map Qianye had brought out, as well as his choice of route, and even him pointing out the vampires’ secret gathering ground, she finally began to feel curious about Qianye.

Could it be that this little fellow who was so weak that it was pitiful, actually be able to do something?

Time passed quickly, and when the 3 A.M. bell rung, the bar’s back door was discreetly opened. Nighteye left alone, quickly vanishing into the night.

Nighteye would leave ten minutes before Qianye. And as to who would be whose bait, it would depend on what happens then.

Nighteye gradually revealed her arrogant character, completely unwilling to move with Qianye. Meanwhile, Qianye too had many secrets that he didn’t want her to see either, hence they had this weird, one in front and one in the back kind of lone hunter movement pattern.

In the wilderness, this was one of the classic tactics of the Red Scorpions. Two experts with a tacit cooperation could do in a dozen of dark race warriors of similar strength over the course of several days of mobile warfare.

Qianye waited until Nighteye had left and dug open the floorboard in the center of the hall, revealing a stone slab with a ring handle on it. Pulling open the stone board, he took out an approximately one meter long dark red briefcase from within.

Placing the briefcase on the floor, Qianye carefully input the pin code, and after hearing the light click, he finally relaxed his expression and opened the box.

Within the case were shockingly the main parts of an origin rifle and its various accessories!

The rifle’s body was bulky and rather clumsy. On it, many origin power circuitry were inscribed and masked with a special black paint. This special black paint could mask the light that shone from these circuitry when they were active, yet not affecting the origin power circuit beneath it from absorbing free-moving origin power from the environment. Just this coating alone was worth more than the cost of an entire traditional high-accuracy sniper rifle.

Qianye retrieved the gun and with abnormally well-practiced hands, he soon assembled a field rifle that was almost half as tall as his body. This gun was entirely coated black, and various accessories needed were all there. It’s craftsmanship was extremely exquisite. Just sitting there quietly, it faintly exuded a murderous aura.

Qianye had always wanted to take revenge for his Red Scorpion teammates for that fateful night, but now that the blood of darkness was becoming hard to control, he knew that he was running out of time. A year was too optimistic; he at most had a few more months.

So now, Qianye only hoped that before he fell to the darkness forever, he could take a few more bloodsuckers down with him.

Chapter 44: One Hit Kill

Qianye balanced the assembled rifle and quickly got a good feel for it. It was not an average origin gun, but rather, it was constructed by the Red Scorpion Corps, a custom-made Red Scorpion gun. It was standard equipment for Red Scorpion soldiers.

The model came from the Empire’s Firebird Group, its speciality being high precision and power. Its origin power conversion rate was almost fifty percent, making it belong to high-grade standard origin guns. However, the Scorpion Needle Custom that the Red Scorpion Corps had constructed had gone through redesign and adjustment in major areas, which increased its accuracy and power at the cost of decreasing its speed.

This suited Red Scorpion’s style: Only move when it’s a one hit kill.

Qianye lightly held the gun’s grip, feeling as if he were meeting an old friend again. Even when he was in need of money the most during his escape, he didn’t sell a single piece of the gun. After settling down in Lighthouse Village, Qianye buried it deep down below the lobby of the bar. It had been a long time since he last saw it.

Now, it was time to use this Scorpion Needle again.

As a former Red Scorpion, Qianye’s target wasn’t average vampires, but the titled, high-ranking vampire.

Qianye carried his Scorpion Needle on his back, and took out his Kohler Pistol to attach a silencer. Then, he left the bar and followed the path he and Nighteye had decided on beforehand.

Soon after, a few vampire soldiers completely covered in black robes appeared outside Lighthouse Village.

One of them sniffed the air, and said in a hoarse voice, “Nighteye already left this place. She is heading west. Quickly, inform Sir Wilde. We will give chase.”

A vampire soldier standing to his side said, “To the west? I remember there was a meeting place for a new gang there. She doesn’t want to go to the new gang’s territory, does she? If this is the case, then this is another thing the Council can use to attack us.”

“We don’t have to worry about that kind of stuff. There will naturally be grand figures who will worry in our place! What we need to do is capture Nighteye and bring her back. If we lose her, however, that will be our responsibility.”

The vampire soldiers began to move westward at a rapid pace. They separated into a huge fan-shaped formation, creating a large net without any holes, and headed in the direction Nighteye ran.

Their running speed was extremely fast, even faster than werewolves in the wilderness. In addition, they were able to maintain this running speed for an entire day and night without rest. This was a vampire soldier. Their race had extremely high talent and were naturally powerful, thus being natural enemies to humans.

At the top of a large tree in the distance, Qianye was holding his tactical scope and looked out over the wasteland under the shroud of night. The scope had a strange, pale-red field of view. Inside the lens, one could see the rapidly moving outlines of raging flames.

This was a multi-purpose tactical scope that Red Scorpions were equipped with. It had a mechanism that specifically targeted vampires and werewolves. When this mechanism was equipped, it could detect vampires’ unique blood power, making them appear in Qianye’s field of view as the red outlines he had seen before.

Qianye quietly counted the number of enemies, “One, two … nine in total! Alright, they really committed a lot of resources to this. The woman who calls herself Nighteye doesn’t seem to be as simple as she claimed! Hunter? Hmph!”

He glanced at the wilderness again, and cautiously changed his scope to werewolf vision, but couldn’t find any other suspicious signs.

Amongst the nine vampire soldiers, he did not see any signs of the titled vampire, which meant that these soldiers were only the vanguard. The main force still remained behind them. Their means of chasing Nighteye was reflected similarly. They did not impatiently chase after her, but separated and slowly began surrounding her position while remaining within tracking range.

This was exactly what Qianye wanted. He had already prepared to fight these scattered, dark-blooded creatures. Qianye put away his tactical scope and jumped down the large tree, disappearing into the boundless night.

Under the night sky, a vampire soldier cautiously walked into a valley. The valley wasn’t big, but its terrain was complex. Spread throughout the valley were bramble bushes and not a small number of caves. Many scavengers made this area their temporary dwelling.

When scavengers camped out, they would habitually create small traps in their surroundings, but when they leave, they often do not clear out their traps. After many years, this valley had become filled with danger at every step, being very difficult to pass through.

Scavengers had an understanding of each other, so they could to see through signs of traps others had laid down. This standard vampire soldier, on the other hand, did not have such an ability. Soon after he entered the valley, he had already been soaked by foul-smelling water and acid, and was injured on his calf by another trap.

He was extremely furious.

A small injury like this did not actually hinder a vampire’s strong body, but the acid and foul-smelling water made him feel extremely disgusted. Every vampire was born with an obsession over cleanliness! However, he had to thoroughly search this valley, because this was the best place for someone to hide. If Nighteye was hiding there and he did not find her, then he could only look forward to the severest of punishments.

That was why the vampire soldier continued searching despite his complaints.

The vampire thought that if he could find a scavenger, that would be great. He definitely wouldn’t suck the dirty blood from someone who had been wandering through garbage, but he would spend time torturing these cunning humans!

While walking, the vampire soldier suddenly came into contact with a thin, black string. Before he had time to move his foot back, the string broke!

The vampire soldier wrinkled his brows, vigilantly scanning his surroundings. He waited for the trap to spring. As long as he noticed them, traps made by scavengers would definitely not overcome him.

However, the moment he opened his eyes to survey the landscape, a silvery flame sprang up a few meters away. In that moment, it released a piercing light!

Seeing such strong light in pitch black darkness of the night, the vampire soldier who naturally had strong night vision screamed and covered his eyes!

He was very experienced in battle, and after receiving this sudden attack, he didn’t even think before he immediately rolled to the side to leave his original spot.

However, when he stood up and prepared to open his eyes to look around, his back chilled. A sharp blade pierced through his back, stabbing deeply into his heart!

When the sharp blade entered his body, the vampire soldier suddenly felt a burning pain inside his chest. He even smelled incineration within his own breath. In that moment, a thought flashed inside his mind, “There is silver on the knife!”

He struggled, but it was futile. He could not even moan lightly, because a powerful hand was gripping his throat.

The vampire soldier finally understood that he had met a strong opponent. Maybe it was that most hateful vampire hunter. Only those with deep understanding of vampires would be able to accurately tear through his heart in one strike and prevent the opposition from even calling for help by clutching his throat. Many humans without experience would cover the vampire’s mouth, then fall to a bite. Even if they killed the vampire in the end, they would still become a blood thrall.

This vampire soldier struggled for a few moments, then collapsed onto the floor, to never move again.

Like a ghost, Qianye appeared from behind him, quietly pulling out his military knife. He then stabbed the body a few more times. He flipped the vampire soldier over and pried open his mouth. There were two complete vampire fangs, a symbol of official members. Any mature vampire would have the strength of at least a rank two Fighter.

Qianye used his knife to pry out the two fangs and threw them in his backpack. Many institutions in the Empire bought these fangs for a high price as a reward for killing vampires. One official vampire soldier’s fangs were worth one imperial gold.

Qianye searched the vampire again and put everything of value inside his bag. He didn’t touch anything else. Weapons used by vampires usually had blood scents that were designed to be tracked, and without suitable methods and tools, destroying the tracking system was very difficult. If one was greedy and took a weapon, then that would essentially be giving all of the vampire’s comrades a clear target.

After using a few minutes to get rid of his tracks, Qianye scurried through the valley in a loop and took out his remaining tin foil bags. These bags were able to create strong flashes of light, making them weapons that could be used to defend against vampires and their extraordinary night vision.

After fulfilling his tasks, Qianye left the valley. In just half an hour, he had already run twenty kilometers and found a hidden cave to conceal himself.

Qianye put on his military gloves and carefully took a bag of liquid silver from his backpack. He forcefully resisted the eruption of his blood and dipped his saber into the liquid for a few moments. He then let it dry and returned it to its sheath, and just like this, he finished preparing for his next battle.

After this, Qianye closed his eyes and began resting. He was soaked in cold sweat after completing just a few of these simple tasks.

In the distance, Nighteye stopped sneaking around. Her left pupil became blood-colored. In her field of view, she saw a chain composed of seventeen pale links of blood energy, connecting her body to something in the distance.

These were Blood Shackles, a secret art possessed only by pure bloods. With multiple vampires cooperating, the Blood Shackles could connect to their target, but it would suppress both sides’ power level.

The more Blood Shackles there were, the more effective the suppression was. However, both sides experienced this power of suppression, and everyone was heavily restrained. The side that owned the Blood Shackles could use them to suppress a genuine expert by sacrificing a lot of cannon fodder.

In addition, after being locked down by Blood Shackles, there was no real way to escape them. The Blood Shackles would inform both parties of their enemy’s location at all times, so unless one killed all the shackled enemies, one would never be able to escape.

At this moment, Nighteye felt her entire body lighten up a little. A blood chain broke and faded, indicating that an enemy soldier had been killed.

Nighteye looked in the direction of the chain’s path. “He actually killed one? Is this good luck?”

To her, Qianye was truly too weak. It was equivalent to a vampire soldier that had just risen from the newborn rank. Humans were truly so weak.

However, humans were extremely cunning and too good at reproducing. It had been told that during the War of Daybreak, an uncountable number of dark race heroes had suffered at the hands of humanity’s Human Wave Tactics.

The vampires on the other side of the Blood Shackles were definitely not low rank soldiers. Within the imperial army, rank six Fighters were already Lieutenant Colonels, capable of leading close to a thousand Fighters, but although each of these vampires originally had power equivalent to a rank five or rank six human Fighter, they were suppressed to mere rank two Fighters after being locked by the Blood Shackles.

From Nighteye’s point of view, these advanced soldiers died to a mere rank two Fighter. They likely died with everlasting regret. However, she stopped thinking about this. To her, the fate of those soldiers was not worth spending more time thinking about.

Nighteye continued to sprint forward under the night sky, quickly covering long distances.

Chapter 45: Place of the Decisive Battle    

Inside another valley, Qianye laid hidden inside the underbrush, looking through the gaps of the  blades of grass at the advancing vampire warrior that was searching not far away. The vampire warrior snapped a thin thread with his foot, activated the mechanism as the tin foil bag suddenly exploded. Immediately, a bright silver flame began to burn.

This vampire soldier had slightly faster reaction time than the previous. Right when the light flashed, he had already turned around and closed his eyes so that they were not harmed too badly. Moreover, he had quickly backed away before opening his eyes and starting to search for any enemies in hiding.

Yet, Qianye did not give him an opportunity to recover. The moment the vampire soldier began backing away, Qianye had jumped up and threw a tin foil bag. When the vampire soldier opened his eyes, he saw the tin foil bag a few meters in front of him and Qianye pulling a thin string with his hands. Another flash of light illuminated in front of the vampire soldier’s face!

The vampire soldier ultimately suffered. He screamed with pain, and instinctively covered his eyes.

Qianye pulled out his Kohler pistol, clutching it tightly with his two hands. He emptied the seven bullets within his magazine at once despite the massive recoil, which he recovered his aim in time for every following bullet.

Every bullet landed on either one of the vampire soldier’s hands or his face, but not one was able to penetrate the hands that were still covering his eyes. Two bullets were embedded in his chin bone, but were not able to penetrate through bone either.

Qianye felt his heart chill. What a tough body!

At this distance, guns that used gunpowder had no way of penetrating the body of an high rank vampire soldier. That also implied only Black Scorpion veterans were able to fight one! If Qianye met an advanced vampire soldier in a direct confrontation, he definitely would not have any chance at victory.

However, from the strength of his darkness origin power and his reaction time in battle, Qianye could tell that this vampire truly had the strength of a rank two Fighter. Could it be that he had some sort of special innate aptitude? Qianye’s thoughts shifted quickly, his hands pulling the trigger for the last time without any hesitation.

The vampire soldier had been forced back by the barrage of bullets, which caused him to continuously scream even louder. The bullets were all coated in silver. Once they entered his body, they immediately began corroding his flesh. However, Qianye knew that his bullets were only cheap, silver-coated bullets. Silver-coated bullets could only exacerbate the injuries and would not reach the point of lethality, but real silver bullets were controlled by the army, so he had no way of getting them.

Qianye dove forward and passed the vampire soldier’s front in a flash. Like a ghost, he then circled around to the soldier’s back and stabbed him with a knife smeared with liquid silver. The knife cut through the heart in one jab before Qianye speedily retreated.

The vampire soldier let out a mournful cry, struggled for a moment, and then fell over at last.

Qianye finally released his breath as deep-seated fatigue overwhelmed him. This battle took only a short while, but it exhausted almost half of his origin power. He had used every strategy and trick he knew, consecutively setting traps for his opponents before finally deciding the result of this battle.

However, the cries of this vampire soldier had already spread far and wide. The other vampires were definitely alerted and increased their vigilance. To ambush one again so soon would be much more difficult.

Qianye continued searching the body and found a gold badge inside the vampire soldier’s pocket. On it was a symbol of a crescent moon and a scepter, but Qianye had never seen this symbol before. It might perhaps be some ancient family’s insignia.

Qianye pocketed the badge and then similarly took some of the crystal currency generally usable in dark races that the vampire had brought along with him.

Lastly, Qianye pried out the vampire’s fangs.

This time, he examined them carefully. This pair of fangs was slightly longer than those of low rank vampire soldiers that he had fought before. It also had a finer texture and a higher transparency. The openings for sucking blood and injecting venom were also slightly wider. The accumulation of these minor differences confirmed that the vampire wasn’t an ordinary, but an high ranked vampire soldier.

However, as to why a high ranked vampire soldier had experienced a sudden drop in power, a drop from rank six to rank two, must have other reasons. Perhaps, it have had to do with their pursuit of Nighteye.

Qianye pondered for a moment, then decided not to erase his traces and only adjusted a couple of things and before quietly leaving.

Having lost two high ranked soldiers, the titled vampire definitely wouldn’t easily let the killer escape. Thus, these traces could give clues to that vampire big shot and throw him off in analyzing Qianye’s battle strength.

Within the traces also remained some of Qianye’s scent, which any keen vampire could use to easily track him. This was Qianye’s goal. His true target was the boss of those vampires!

Far away, Nighteye was slightly surprised. Another piece of her Blood Shackles had snapped. She now felt that maybe she should raise her opinion of the little guy known as Qianye. Even though his strength was pretty damn weak, he was obviously extremely cunning. Just the ability to consecutively kill two elite vampire soldiers gave him the qualifications to be placed on par with experienced vampire hunters.

About half an hour after Qianye left, a handsome young man was standing inside the valley. He frowned as he looked at the vampire soldier’s body. Behind him stood four other vampire soldiers who were all slightly trembling at this moment.

This man was dressed in a tuxedo. His slim body, coattail, bowtie, and linen blouse, not a single detail wasn’t perfect. He looked as if he was about to attend a banquet. Under the light of the blood moon, his boots seemed especially dazzling.

He turned around to face a middle-aged vampire soldier, coldly smiling as he said, “So these are the elite soldiers you trained? They weren’t able to chase down Nighteye, and two were killed by a weak human instead! From what I see, our house’s dignity has utterly been lost by you lot!”

The vampire soldier spoke in a low voice, “Sir Wilde, their strength had been suppressed by the Blood Shackles.”

Wilde pointed toward the body’s wound on the backside, where the heart should have been, and sneered, “Even if they were suppressed, their strengths would’ve still been rank two! You see this wound? That human also merely had the strength of a rank two. Don’t tell me the elite soldiers you trained for a few decades couldn’t even defeat a human of the same rank! Are you guys trying to say that the kid who opened a small bar in that little town is actually a soldier from the Broken Wings Angel or something? Or perhaps from one of the other elite corps? Such as the Swords of Radiance, the Red Scorpion, or the Arms of War?”

Under this barrage of remarks, the few vampire soldiers were unable to respond at all.

Wilde coldly laughed for a while, then finally said, “This guy must die! However, I don’t have any confidence in relying on you. I will finish him myself!”

The captain of the soldiers was shocked, and hurriedly dissuaded him, “Sir! You still need to deal with Nighteye!”

Wilde arrogantly said, “That’s not a problem, there’s no way for her to escape. Even if she and that guy were waiting for me together, do you actually think that a rank two human can affect the battle situation between me and her?”

Wilde scanned the four vampire soldiers and wanted to say something, but suddenly looked westward. He gradually revealed a twisted smile as he said, “Ah, look what information the wonderful scent of sacred blood had brought us! It is truly unbelievable. That noble and proud lady Nighteye is actually coming in this direction. Does she want to join hands with that brat? Join hands with a rank two human?”

Wilde especially emphasized phrase “rank two”.

The vampire captain summoned up the courage to say, “Sir, please be careful!”

“Be careful?” Wilde’s smile gradually became ferocious. “Even if I don’t catch Nighteye, there’s no way for her to escape. There are still some unlikable, big dogs that will arrive soon. This area is their paradise!”

“Werewolves? Then Lady Nighteye…”

Wilde coldly interrupted the captain, “My orders were to bring Nighteye back, but they didn’t specify whether she had to be dead or alive!”

Wilde didn’t plan on acting alongside the four soldiers. He believed that these guys who were suppressed down two rank two would only hold him back. Despite being a chain on the Blood Shackles, he still had the strength of a rank five soldier, and was well-matched against Nighteye.

During his battle with Nighteye, there was no place for a rank two insect to interfere. However, he had no problem with killing this insect before he fought Nighteye. This would make him joyful whereas Nighteye, not so much.

Just thinking of that little insect laying in a pool of blood and moaning already gave Wilde uncontrollable pleasure.

However, Wilde very quickly found this chase to be unpleasant, very unpleasant.

Wilde followed the scent and chased after it until he stopped in front of an enormous warship skeleton, his expression becoming extremely ugly.

The enormous skeleton of warship was over one hundred meters in height and one thousand meters in length. It was a Colossus-model main force warship of humans after the War of Daybreak. Now that it had fallen here, it was entirely like the ruins of a small city.

This tiny insect was obviously very cunning, or he would have never chosen this place to hide himself.

Seeing the filthy environment and smelling the pungent scent of metal and other materials that had lingered through all these years without fully dissipating, Wilde rubbed his tormented nose and made a bitter smile as he made his way inside a propulsion pipeline.

This Colossus-model warship truly deserved its name. A person could even stoop and walk through its propulsion pipelines.

Wilde bent over and walked through the enormous propulsion tube for a long time before finally coming out on the other side. What he then discovered, was that it was only a piece of fabric from a shirt that lead him here. However, this scent was much fresher than before, so that little punk couldn’t have left more than twenty minutes ago.

Wilde immediately chased this trail. He was so fast that one would almost be unable to see him. He looked like a mirage traversing the wasteland.

A moment later, Wilde suddenly stopped in his tracks, his expression becoming even grimmer. He was able to feel that Qianye was hiding just in front of him. It seemed that this was the place where the little rascal had chosen as grounds of their final battle. Although, in Wilde’s eyes, the correct phrasing would be a chosen burial ground.

Nighteye also arrived at the other side of the battle ground. She and Wilde were both able to feel each other’s presence, but at this moment, her expression was not much better than his.

Qianye’s choice of location for the final battle, was largest ruin and junkyard near Lighthouse Town.

The smell was immensely putrid. Besides the various types of garbage, there were also a few abandoned factories, while gigantic airships skeletons scattered all over the place. This area used to be the graveyard for airships before the Empire withdrew from the region, and a few hundred years, it had gradually accumulated into a mountain range made of garbage of various compositions.

To high vampires who had mysophobia from birth, while also having an extremely sharp sense of smell, this place was worse than hell.

Wilde’s expression was extremely ugly, but there was no way he could give up on killing Qianye. Two high ranked vampire soldiers had already died in his hands, so as their leader, Wilde had the responsibility to expunge this embarrassment.

“Insect, you better hide well! You’d better not let me find you!” Wilde murmured, finally stepping into the junkyard.

Chapter 46: Werewolves’ First Appearance   

At this moment, Qianye was hiding behind an abandoned airship. Only half of the main cabin remained and the perimeter of the tear had incomparably sharp, metal edges. All different kinds of trash were hung upon the edges, flowing with the wind like fluttering banners. They blocked the line of sight.

At this moment, Qianye was looking through a hole that had once been a window. He had very carefully hidden his entire body behind the metal wall. Even his eyes couldn’t be seen directly. From outside of the hole, only the black lenses of binoculars could be seen.

Within his field of view, Wilde’s body emitted a dark red, but the color was faint, suggesting that the amount of dark origin power that was leaking was actually very little. This was a sign of a true high-ranking vampire. Vampires who were true experts were able to withdraw their bloody aura and origin power. They could never be accurately analyzed by a mere Tactical Scope.

It seemed like this was the titled vampire Nighteye was talking about. Qianye closely observed Wilde’s movements, not missing even the smallest of details.

According to Qianye’s experience, high ranking vampires and vampire soldiers were two different organisms. Any titled vampire, even the lowest ranking calvary, will be at least rank seven and was definitely not someone Qianye was able to contend with. Even though the enemy had been lured into the garbage dump because he underestimated him, Qianye knew that he only had one chance.

He had to kill him in one strike!

Qianye only had a chance because the enemy would never think that a rank two human would have strong killing weapons such as the Scorpion Needle and the Mithril Bullet of Exorcism.

Qianye saw Wilde blindly searching and even turning his back facing him multiple times, but he still never fired. High-ranking vampires all had extremely fast reaction time, and Wilde had just entered the garbage dump, so he was still on high alert. It was not the best time to strike yet.

Back in the Yellow Springs Training Camp, Qianye had already learned of patience and for someone with no future like him, killing the high-ranking vampire who was in front of him at that moment was the most meaningful thing in his life.

Inside the garbage dump, Wilde already considered his augmented sense of smell a burden. Tracks had been cut off there, so he could only rely on his attraction to blood and life force, his experience, and his eyes to search for his opponent.

However, within such an enormous garbage dump, there was all kinds of junk lying around everywhere he looked. How could it be easy to find someone hiding intentionally using such a primitive method?

While Wilde was wandering around, he suddenly stopped and looked toward the top of a broken warship. On the tilted gangway raised high in the air appeared a slim figure.

“Nighteye? You would actually also come in a place like this!” Wilde seemed very surprised.

He knew that Nighteye’s identity was special. Someone like her would definitely not enter such a filthy place. He never would have thought that not only did she enter, she even had the intention to fight him here.

“Why can’t I come?” Nighteye coldly said.

Wilde suddenly took off his well-ironed uniform, and dropped it on the ground. He then smiled and said, “Since even you are not disgusted by this dump, there’s no reason for me to be either! However, is this little insect of a human that important to you?”

After he finished speaking, Wilde pulled out a flexible sword that vibrated as it straightened. His entire person then rose into the air and charged toward Nighteye.

Nighteye pulled out her dagger and dropped down ten meters, but in the middle of the air, she suddenly changed direction by kicking the airship and charged in Wilde’s direction!

The two people turned into shadows and fought with movements as fast as lightning. Every single second, each person struck out numerous times, but barely a sound of weapons clashing rang out.

Qianye observed the battle of these two and looked at Nighteye with his binoculars.

Within the vampire scanner, Nighteye virtually did not have any red light about her and barely looked any different from how she did normally. Qianye wrinkled his brows. Usually, this would have confirmed her identity as a human, but he still had an inexplicable feeling that something was off.

Qianye had fought against vampires in dozens of battles and knew their combat styles by heart. Vampires fought by utilizing their power, speed, and battle techniques. Their inhuman speed and power that didn’t seem to belong to their body type were the essential differences between their and humans’ combat styles. Based solely on the scene of battle, it seemed to be clear that two high-ranking vampires were fighting, but Nighteye’s body emitted no signs of dark origin power.

After identifying Nighteye as a human, yet seeing her vampire-like combat style, Qianye had a weird feeling that he couldn’t explain.

Qianye quietly retreated into the airship’s engine room. The room was mostly intact, so hopefully, some of its shielding capabilities remained. He took out his Scorpion Needle and used his crystal cartridge box to fill the magazine. He put a single Mithril Bullet of Exorcism inside the gun chamber.

He waited a few seconds, but everything was normal. The Mithril Bullet of Exorcism did not fluctuate due to the effects of his blood of darkness. The Scorpion Needle’s production was of the highest quality. It was entirely airtight, and free of any leakage.

Qianye had an imperceptible smile on his face. He could still use exorcism weapons without any problems. That really was good news. Then he clutched the grip of the gun and slowly infused it with his origin power.

The gun’s body lit up with a myriad of dark red lines where origin power passed through as Qianye’s consciousness followed along. At this moment, his origin power stimulated each component of the origin array as it followed the path inside the Scorpion Needle. It created a film of special energy that wrapped around the Mithril Bullet of Exorcism.

This was an ability Qianye acquired when he became a rank two Fighter: Heavy Caliber.

Heavy Caliber was the most common ability used by snipers, but it was still highly useful. The film’s energy would increase the damage of the bullet when it was fired and burst open. When combined with the Mithril Bullet of Exorcism, he was definitely able to heavily injure any vampire below the rank of Viscount. It was an instant kill if it hit a vital point!

This was the present Qianye had prepared for Wilde!

Qianye carefully inspected his entire body to confirm that there was nothing that could hinder him before quietly moving through the airship to leave through the other exit. He immediately removed a layer of garbage and slowly peeked his head over.

In front of him, Wilde and Nighteye were fighting to the death.

This was a very suitable spot. The moment Qianye entered the garbage dump, he had noticed its advantageous position. The most important benefit was the thick layer of rotting organic material which was basically a natural barrier against vampires. Even a Count would never be able to detect his presence within the garbage mound.

As for the stench and filth, Qianye did not care at all. Since the beginning of his memories, he had been inside a garbage dump. If it weren’t for such a huge garbage dump and the upper continents regularly dumping their garbage, he would have never found enough food to survive.

Within the protection of the garbage, the barrel of his Scorpion Needle slightly peered out. Right when the very tip was exposed, it stopped moving and froze. It then slowly pointed downward, toward an empty field, after which Qianye began patiently waiting.

Wilde and Nighteye suddenly separated, each staring at the other. The two were injured at the same time. Wilde was injured on his thigh, with a spike bayonet embedded far enough into the flesh that it reached the bone. Nighteye also received an injury on her left shoulder. There was a large wound, deep enough to reveal her bones.

Wilde suddenly laughed, his expression very exaggerated. “You can’t escape now! With the scent of your blood on you, you will be captured by soldiers of the Dark Nightmare Tribe no matter where you run to!”

Nighteye coldly said, “You actually colluded with those disgusting dogs! You have thrown away the glory of our race!”

“What do you know? Once I pull your father out of his position, I’ll see how long you’ll be able to keep everyone beneath you!”

Nighteye wanted to say something, but then her expression drastically changed. Bursts of howling rang out from outside the garbage dump, and then a few black werewolf fighters appeared on top of an abandoned airship.

Qianye was one hundred meters away and couldn’t hear what Nighteye and Wilde were talking about. However, once he saw the high ranking vampire give what seemed like instructions to the black werewolves, his face couldn’t help but change!

Werewolves!

This was another main race within the dark races. Their strength was barely weaker than that of vampires. However, the two races had been enemies for numerous generations throughout history. Sometimes their hatred for each other was even stronger than their hatred of humans. Thus, seeing a vampire and a group of werewolves virtually cooperating with each other made for a very abnormal scene.

This further confirmed that Nighteye’s identity wasn’t simple. It was important enough that werewolves and vampires would cooperate to take her down.

A few black werewolves with giant bodies appeared. They were all official fighters recognized within their race, and were also rank two Fighters. One of the werewolves was larger than the others. The distance between his head and tail was four meters, he was almost two meters tall, and he didn’t look much different from a lion. This was an elite soldier within the werewolf race that approximately had the strength of a rank five human Fighter.

At this time, more than ten vampire soldiers finally appeared from outside the garbage dump and reached them. Even though these soldiers were only rank two, victory belonged to the side with the numerical advantage. They had filled in all the empty areas that the werewolves could not cover, completely sealing off any route of escape for Nighteye.

The situation instantly became incomparably dangerous. In the face of this kind of strength, the only prospect was death. No matter how fast Nighteye was, it would still be very difficult for her to escape this encirclement. Aside from that, she was injured. Dripping blood served as tracks for werewolves. In the wilderness, werewolves were the best hunters, even tougher than vampires.

Qianye had never expected this to happen. From the way it seemed, all of the nearby high-ranking dark races had appeared. It was important to note that this place was still within the imperial expeditionary army’s control! When so many high-ranking dark race warriors appeared, the imperial expeditionary army would definitely react fiercely. It was likely that the army would completely cleanse the area.

Wherever the expeditionary army had passed through, the area could be described, without exaggeration, as completely devoid of life. This was true even for humans.

Within cities where dark races had appeared, the expeditionary army would always begin a large-scale search for blood thralls. Amongst the captured blood thralls, true ones who were truly infected sometimes did not even amount to half. The rest were people that had a possibility of being infected or people that had hidden blood thralls away. Some people were even captured under the name of a blood thrall solely because an officer of the expeditionary army didn’t like them.

Once the main force of the expeditionary army was mobilized, half of Lighthouse Town would definitely be destroyed.

However, Lighthouse Town’s future was not something Qianye could care about. With his blood of darkness erupting ever more frequently, controlling it became more and more difficult. Qianye had already made preparations. The moment he could no longer resist his bloodthirst and was on the verge of beginning indiscriminate killing to drink blood, that would be the last moment of his life.

This was another reason for why Qianye wanted to come with Nighteye when he heard there would be a high-ranking vampire. In his eyes, there could be nothing of more worth than him trading his life, which could already end at any moment, to kill a high-ranking vampire.

Sacrificing a rank two Fighter to kill a high-ranking vampire of at least seven was something any commander would do without hesitation.

Qianye lightly moved his gun barrel, and patiently locked his eyes down onto Wilde.

Chapter 47: Death by Explosion

Qianye felt that this vampire noble was somewhat strange. Although he only displayed power around the rank four or five, his combat skills and reactions were far greater than that of a high-ranking vampire soldier.

Thinking back to the two vampire warriors he had personally slain earlier, Qianye faintly felt that this high-ranked vampire might have the same circumstances, and could not understand the reason as to why his strength was suppressed. The enemy should be a Blood Esquire or maybe even a rank eight Knight.

However, Qianye continued to wait for when Wilde would relax.

Seeing that the situation had been decided, Wilde was finally relieved and smiled, saying, “Miss Nighteye, the end result is now certain, and even if you want to run, it is impossible for you to! If you are willing to submit and then advise your father to cease resisting, the viscount would be very happy. He might even be willing to grant you a pretty good position. Perhaps becoming the wife of a viscount would be suitable for you? However…”

Wilde’s face suddenly sank and he said coldly, “However, if you do not cooperate, then sending your corpse back to your father is just as suitable. Furthermore, at that time, I cannot guarantee what you will look like. As you know, our black-furred friends utterly hate vampires, and they are capable of anything. Even if you become a corpse, there is no escape from the treatment awaiting you! I think our friends don’t mind if you are dead or alive. You can also try waiting for reinforcements, for example, that rank two brat…”

Nighteye’s fingertips trembled slightly, obviously due to her extreme anger. She looked away, her face filled with a look of contempt, not even willing to say one more word to Wilde.

Her gaze swept the surroundings, looking for any chance to escape. However, the black werewolf fighters and vampire warriors had blocked all paths of escape. Under the suppression of the Blood Shackles, she had no chance of running past those ferocious, four-legged bastards.

Wilde looked at Nighteye with satisfaction, and his gaze began to brazenly wander up and down her whole body. Even by vampire standards, Nighteye possessed a city-toppling charm. Moreover, she possessed a natural charm ability; it was no wonder that even a cold, bloodthirsty, and exuberantly ambitious important figure such as the viscount would be moved by her to the point of disregarding the future risk of revenge and instead sought to personally obtain her.

“It would be best if she resisted until the end. That way, perhaps I may have the chance to try tasting her…” Wilde stroked his jaw while lost in thought.

At that moment, the sharp howl of a wolf woke Wilde from his daydream! He immediately felt his scalp fry, and his survival instincts continuously screamed of life-threatening danger, making him extremely frantic.

Wilde instinctively turned his head to look in the direction the dangerous attack came from, his body already beginning to make evasive maneuvers.

From the corner of his eyes, a dazzling, silver flash ceaselessly grew larger.

It was a silver flash!

The thing vampires hated the most was silver, and a silver flash within the darkness often implied the worst thing possible. The instant Wilde saw the silver, he instinctively rushed forward, not even having the time to think about where this attack came from.

In that moment, Wilde felt as if a sledgehammer had ruthlessly slammed into his leg, making his whole body fly away while he immediately lost all feeling in his right leg.

Qianye, who was buried within layers of garbage, looked through his tactical scope and watched as the silver flash exploded into a bundle of flames and Wilde’s right leg soared away from his body. That body part emitted a hissing sound and quickly diffused into black smoke. Wilde himself tumbled through the air after having been knocked into the sky by the impact.

It wasn’t that the shot was off target, it was just that Wilde’s reaction time was just too fast. He somehow optimally dodged in an impossible time frame and avoided fatally injuring his vitals. Just based on this degree of battle skill, he had to be at least a Knight.

Additionally, the power of the Mithril Bullet of Exorcism was far beyond Qianye’s imagination. If this gun with the addition of the power of Heavy Caliber had hit Wilde’s body, it would have immediately taken his life.

Qianye did not look back in regret. He quickly pressed the second Mithril Bullet of Exorcism into the gun, during which his eyes never left the tactical scope. Right when he finished reloading, his sights were already set on Wilde’s landing location. These extreme ammo loading, aiming, and shooting skills were tempered during all of Qianye's endlessly ruthless training.

The moment when Wilde fell to the ground, the second Mithril Bullet of Exorcism whistled out and turned into a silver light, smashing into his chest.

Wilde had no strength left to dodge the bullet, and he pitifully screamed and shouted as a large hole immediately opened in his chest.

Wilde emitted dying screams, his mournful voice piercing the night sky as it spread far and wide.

Qianye observed for an entire minute, and only after determining that not even being soaked in the legendary Vampire Progenitor Blood Pool could save Wilde’s life did he move the muzzle away and point it in the direction of a werewolf.

During the process of observing and moving the gun, he put the third Mithril Bullet of Exorcism into the bullet chamber and then began to madly hasten the origin tide, regardless of the severe pain sweeping through his chest area as he injected the last of his origin power into the Scorpion Needle.

Because the Combatant Formula overwhelmed other arts, it became the main practiced art of the lower end of the Empire’s army. Other than being able to rapidly increase one’s strength in the initial stages, it was also faster than the other arts at charging an origin gun. Under these kinds of situations, saving even one second could determine life or death.

Although this unforeseen event was sudden and unexpected, after firing two consecutive shots, Qianye had also exposed his own location. Vampire warriors quickly rushed toward his hiding spot, momentarily making a hole within the encirclement around Nighteye.

Nighteye didn’t immediately seize the chance to escape, instead clenching her teeth and moving behind one of the vampire warriors like a specter, ruthlessly stabbing a dagger into his heart. At the same time, two spiked bayonets flew out from her hands, shooting into the body of a werewolf who had come to benefit from others’ disputes. The extremely potent toxin on the spiked bayonets immediately reacted. The giant werewolf rushed out for ten more meters, uttered a sad final wail, and then fell to the ground.

The werewolf leader let out a long howl in extreme anger. Reacting to this, all the werewolves turned toward Nighteye, while the chief itself charged toward Qianye. In its mind, Qianye was a much bigger threat than Nighteye.

The power of the Mithril Bullet of Exorcism made every member of the dark races tremble with fear!

Qianye watched the rapidly approaching werewolf leader, yet did not fire. When werewolves ran in their wolf forms, their instinctive reactions were even faster than those of vampires, making it completely possible for them to change directions and dodge in the moment it would take him to pull the trigger. Not only that, but the restorative capabilities of the werewolves’ bodies weren’t any worse than the vampires’. If his shot did not hit their vitals, they would be able to restore themselves after a period of time.

“Come on then! Damn bastard! A life for a life, there’s still more to earn!” Qianye contemplated this in his heart as his eyes that stared in the werewolf leader’s direction were cold and steady.

Having eliminated Wilde, Qianye had already found his meaning in life. Right now, he found that if he was able to claim the head of one more rank five werewolf, then his entire life would’ve been worth it!

This was how a soldier calculated!

The werewolf leader had already arrived within ten meters of Qianye. He then jumped up, changed into human form in mid air, and dove at Qianye!

Now is the time!

The moment Qianye had been waiting for was the werewolf’s leaping strike!

His upper body suddenly leaned back, and he lifted the muzzle while pulling the trigger! With this opportunity, the angle was precise, as if it had been rehearsed in advance.

The Mithril Bullet of Exorcism drew a beautiful and dazzling streak of silver in the night sky, instantly burying its way into the werewolf leader’s chest!

Immediately, a large piece of silver light flew out from the werewolf leader’s back, leaving a terrifying wound about the size of a large bowl! The silver light was like a fountain sprinkling into the air, with little droplets refracting light and bizarre colors.

The werewolf leader still fell onto the designated position, fiercely swinging down with its claw. The Scorpion Needle flew out from Qianye’s hand, but the heavy blow exploded on his chest without obstruction! But this blow did not cut open that frail human like the werewolf had anticipated. It only made him fly far away!

The werewolf leader let out the indignant roar of an injured beast and once again jumped toward Qianye to chase him, but it only ran for a few meters before uttering a whine and collapsing to the ground. When the Mithril Bullet of Exorcism passed through its body, it had already burned all its internal organs. No matter how tenacious its vitality was, it was unable to resist the true strength and the destructive power that came from a true expert of the human race.

Qianye fell down dozens of meters away and lost consciousness after spitting some blood out of his mouth.

On the other battlefield, Nighteye’s situation wasn’t all that good either. She had finally slain all of the vampire warriors, removing the Blood Shackles from her body, but her body currently sustained dozens of wounds. Her left calf was twisted in an unnatural way, and her leg bones were all broken from being bitten by a werewolf.

However, there were four werewolves still around her!

Nighteye gritted her teeth, and the intense pain covered her forehead with cold sweat. Her bayonets had all been used up, and the only weapon she had left was the dagger made of special material. She looked in the direction of Qianye and finally grimaced, turning toward the outside and fleeing.

Qianye was only a rank two Fighter, so getting hit by the werewolf leader only meant that he was doomed for certain death.

.This group of werewolves was unexpectedly strong, and even though Nighteye had removed the Blood Shackles, restoring her strength still required time. Nighteye had originally wanted to take Qianye’s corpse away, because if she left him here, he would become dinner for of the hateful werewolves. However, at this moment, she could no longer look after him.

The four werewolves chased after Nighteye unhurriedly as they were not that worried that she would stall for time. With those kinds of heavy injuries, she would completely run out of stamina before she could recover a couple of levels of her strength. That was the hunting instinct of the werewolves.

Nighteye had just exited the garbage dump when, suddenly, an indistinct shadow pounced out from the side, ruthlessly throwing her to the ground.

A shadow wolf!

They were the cruelest and most cunning assassins among werewolves. It had long since arrived but had been lying in wait all the way up until now.

Nighteye’s face flashed with despair and then suddenly became fierce. Her pupils surged with a sanguine hue, and an invisible attack shot out from the depths of her eyes ruthlessly smashing into the shadow wolf’s brain!

The shadow wolf let out a wail, and it froze for a moment. Nighteye took advantage of this chance and used the dagger to pierce into the shadow wolf’s lower abdomen!

The shadow wolf roared, and its claw knocked away Nighteye’s dagger. It then bit her arm, and with a loud crack, it broke both her arms.

After waiting for Nighteye to lose the ability to resist, and waiting for her to fall into a coma, he gradually changed forms, transforming into a young man that was teeming with a wild aura. He glanced at the wound on his abdomen, seemed to be extremely furious, and hatefully kicked at Nighteye with his leg.

“Enough! If she dies, her value may not be as great.” An old man with over ten werewolves following behind him stepped out from the darkness.

The shadow wolf pointed at Nighteye angrily. “But there is no way this cold-blooded woman would yield! Not only that, she also murdered so many of our fellow werewolves!”

“Those are the things Viscount Duke has to consider, it has nothing to do with us. We need to deliver a living Nighteye to him, and she must not be missing any important parts or else it won’t count as completing the transaction,” the old man said slowly.

The shadow wolf’s chest rose and fell and as he glared at Nighteye. He spat a mouthful of saliva toward her.

However, what was strange was that after the mouthful of saliva flew halfway, it hung suspended in the air and slowly began to revolve.

Chapter 48: Primo

Seeing this strange scene, all of the werewolves went on full alert and watched the surroundings. The fur of all the ones who stayed in wolf-form under this tremendously alarming feeling rose!

At this moment, the wind suddenly was no more. The night also seemed to be especially quiet, and the darkness seemed to have weight, fiercely pressing down on the werewolves.

Right when it seemed that the whole world went silent, the sound of footsteps broke out. Every step seemed to crush the hearts and souls of all life.

Two people walked out from the cover of the dark night.

One was a tall and thin old man. He had a head full of snow white hair, his face was especially square and long, and the corners of his eyes drooped down. It was a face that strongly resembled that of the Apennine Colossus, capable of impressioning others with a single glance. None of his white hairs were stained, and the end of the locks on both sides of his cheeks curled into luxurious rolls.

At the same time, the other one was a petite young lady. She had an exceptionally pleasant, small face. Beside her pale white skin, her blood-red lips were particularly dazzling. The young lady had her hair tied up into a long ponytail, and the collar of her black cloak stood straight up, revealing a blood-red pattern along the edge, tender and beautiful, but also strange.

The white-haired old man softly said, “I really didn’t expect that so many of these wild dogs would gather in this kind of small place, no wonder we could smell the stench from so far away.”

“Moreover, some extremely interesting things are happening here, it seems that we have some primitive clan’s internal conflict?” the young lady said.

The white-haired old man raised his head, took a deep breath, and said, “Oh, guess what I scented? It’s the smell of the highest quality of mithril. It’s dangerous, but ah, it brings the beauty of death. Not only that, but the one who refined seems to actually be a real opponent deserving of respect. Haha, there is actually so much going on in a small place like this, it’s so unexpected! Could it be that this is the call of fate?”

The young lady’s eyes swept over the werewolves while she wore a face full of disgust and said, “If it weren’t for the smell on these wild dogs being too strong, I would also be able to smell the scent of mithril.”

Hearing the young lady’s ruthless insult, the werewolves let out an angry growl one after another, but an imminent feeling of danger stopped them from advancing.

The old werewolf man’ gripped a wooden staff, stepped forward two steps, and shouted in a low voice, “Where are you from? This is the territory of the Dark Nightmare Tribe!”

The white-haired old man said with a smile, “Dark Nightmare, what is that? As for where we came from, this is not something you need to know. For an old wolf that is about to die, you shouldn’t have such strong curiosity. Curiosity, that’s something that should only belong to the young and the upper races.”

The young lady’s gaze fell upon Nighteye’s body, and she exclaimed in surprise, “What is that? What beautiful blood!”

The white-haired old man stared blankly, and slowly walked toward Nighteye. With every step forward, the werewolves would whimper and retreat back a few steps. The fear induced by the great difference in rank caused them to have no intention of resisting.

The white-haired old man arrived at Nighteye’s side, reached his hand out, dipped it into her blood, and put it into his mouth to taste it. His facial expression began to fluctuate uncontrollably.

He suddenly backed up a few steps, and an exaggerated smile lit up his face as he forcefully waved his hands to express his joy. “Th-this is the taste of the progenitor’s blood! She has actually awakened the progenitor bloodline, she… she is a primo!

“The duke will be interested in her,” the young lady said.

The white-haired old man pondered deeply, “That’s right! However, the scent of her blood is somewhat familiar. Let me think, whose territory is close to here… being too old really is no good, always forgetting things… Ah! I just recalled, the closest to here is Count Klaus. This little girl’s blood has Klaus’ scent, she probably is his pure blood descendant!”

“Klaus?” The young lady’s eyes held doubt.

The white-haired old man spread his arms open. “An old fellow, said to have an ancient heritage. However, he was obsessed with searching for the secret to the Black Monarch’s treasure, and he can’t even control that small piece of territory he has. I’ve heard that the a few of his subordinate viscounts are seeking to overthrow him. It seems this was the reason for the internal conflict.”

“Sounds like he’s a useless bastard. I have no interest in Klaus, but the smell of these wild dogs is about to kill me.”

“Then clean it up, you should be the one to do it,” said the old man with a smile.

“Why is it always me!”

The young lady complained, but did not refuse. Her pupils suddenly turned an extreme red, like two shining rubies. Her lips opened and closed non-stop as if she were chanting something, but no sound came out.

What she emitted was high frequency sounds that the human ear could not hear. She was just singing a tune, but in the ears of the werewolves, it was no different from the summons of a death god!

All the werewolves promptly piteously cried out in pain, and one after another fell to the ground, rolling around as if their lives depended on it!

The werewolves with relatively low strength did not even last more than ten seconds before their heads burst. Soon after, the heads of the higher-ranking werewolves also started exploding, one by one. It was extremely bizarre and scary!

Looking at this bloody scene, the young lady still continued to sing as an apparently excited yet cruel smile appeared on her doll-like face. At this moment, she was like the messenger of death, and all who heard her voice were fated to be condemned to the country of eternal silence!

The Shadow Wolf persisted for thirty seconds and then finally fell as well. He held his head in his hands and rolled around. It hurt so much that he actually wanted to smash his head into the bulkhead of an airship. Deep, sunken pits were indented into the bulkheads welded by steel, yet his head was actually fine.

However, the young lady suddenly raised her pitch, and the Shadow Wolf finally let out a long, pitiful howl. With a bang, his head exploded into a haze of blood.

Only the werewolf elder continued to persist. He completely relied on his cane to support his body, and pointed to the young lady in horror and grief. “You...You are Nana…”

“Bingo!” The young lady showed a sweet smile, reached out, and snapped her finger. The werewolf elder’s head exploded in response.

The white-haired old man took out a snow-white handkerchief, covered his nose, and said, “Don’t you feel that this will only make the scent of those wild dogs increase and spread through air?”

“Doing this will make you move faster.” The young lady lifted her delicate, small hands and also covered her nose.

The white-haired old man inspected Nighteye’s injuries, frowned, and said, “She is badly hurt, I need some fresh blood to ease her condition, this way we can promptly rush back.”

“The nearest place seems to be a human village, but it’s still quite some distance away.”

“No, there’s not enough time. Fortunately, there is a person right here, I already noticed his scent.” Saying that, the white-haired old man stood up, and only took two steps before disappearing in the depths of the garbage dump. The next moment, he once again stepped out of the darkness, carrying Qianye in his hand.

“This is really a valiant and cunning human. He actually hasn’t died yet. Otherwise, the blood would not be fresh,” the white-haired old man said while smiling.

He pulled a heavy metal plate out from Qianye’s chest. The metal plate was already completely warped, and on it were multiple deep claw marks, shallowly passing through to the other side.

Before Qianye faced the werewolf leader , he had padded his clothes with this three centimeter thick origin alloy plate. Otherwise, he would have been cut open long ago. However, the impact of the werewolf leader’s attack still broke all of the ribs in Qianye’s chest, so he would die not long after.

The old man threw Qianye next to Nighteye, tore open his upper garments, and then reached his hand out and pierced Qianye’s neck. Fresh blood immediately rushed out.

Nighteye suddenly had a reaction, as all vampires have an instinctive reaction toward fresh blood. She turned and stood up, and her eyes finally opened, but her pupils were vacant of the color of blood. Two vampire fangs gradually stretched out of her mouth.

She instantly pounced to Qianye’s side, using her fangs to bite his neck while sucking his blood in with big gulps. Not only did the hot blood quench her hunger and thirst, it even rapidly alleviated the pain in her entire body.

Seeing Nighteye’s perfect posture while drinking blood, the white-haired old man couldn’t help but praise, “As expected of the primo who awakened the progenitor bloodline! Aside from her pupils having enhanced abilities, she can even perfectly mask her vampiric characteristics. This ability can only be possessed by descendants from the thirteen ancestral clans of that year. Exactly which ancestor could she have inherited it from? I have to carefully think about this…”

Nana watched from the side, her chest constantly moving up and down and her breathing becoming more and more rapid. She didn’t even hear what the old man said.

She suddenly grabbed Qianye’s right hand, and bit the artery of his wrist!

The praise and sighs from the white-haired old man abruptly stopped, and he looked at Nana, stunned.

Nana fiercely sucked a couple big gulps of blood before suddenly screeching. She forcefully threw down Qianye’s hand, backed up a couple steps, and looked at Qianye with a complicated expression.

“What’s wrong?” the old man asked gravely. He rarely saw Nana act like this.

Nana looked a little at a loss and said, “His blood is sweet, but that is about it. I don’t know why, but the instant I smelled the scent of his blood, I became unable to suppress my urges. I want… to give him the Embrace!”

“What?” The white-haired old man was genuinely shocked this time. After he confirmed that Nana was serious, he sighed and shook his head. “It’s already too late. His blood has already been consecrated by this child. She is a primo, and although her rank is really low at this moment, whether it be you or me, we will be unable to suppress her blood energy. Other than her, nobody can turn this human into a vampire again. However, although she can wake up right now, she won’t be able to complete the Embrace in her condition right now.”

Nana still looked somewhat at a loss, continuing to lick the remaining blood off her lips.

The white-haired old man picked Nighteye up and said, “It’s time to go. Any further delay and it will be too late for her to soak in the blood pool.”

Nana left with the old man, occasionally looking back and taking a glimpse of the completely unmoving Qianye. Although she wasn’t willing, she still departed in the end.

Becoming a blood thrall was a road with no return. Humans were helpless in the face of this crisis, and vampires similarly were not able to do anything about it.

The night finally quieted, as if nothing had ever happened. However, if an insider were to have seen the white-haired old man and the young girl appear, it would definitely cause an enormous commotion.

With the strength of Marquis Julio and Nana, even compared to the upper continent’s vampires, they could be said to be slaughter gods.

After an unknown period of time had passed, Qianye felt within a haze that someone was dragging him away, and he could vaguely hear voices.

“This guy’s finally dead.”

“Yes, hurry and throw it into the Blazing Canyon. I for one do not wish to stay there longer than needed.”

“Me neither.”

Chapter 49 : Abnormal Changes

The name of this place, Blazing Canyon, seemed very familiar.

Qianye searched his memories for a quite a while before finally remembering where he had heard of this name.

Blazing Canyon wasn’t very far from the Yellow Springs Training Camp. Many Crystal Lizards inhabited the canyon, and these six-legged crawlers could grow up to five meters in length and were genuine monsters. The crystals on their body were one of the key ingredients for making origin guns.

The graduation requirement for the Yellow Springs Training Camp had been to hunt a Crystal Lizard and collect its crystal. To normal students who were only given a dagger, killing a huge rank two lizard was easier said than done. The graduation exam was also one of the Yellow Springs Training Camp’s hurdles with huge death rate.

On the other hand, Crystal Lizards were carnivorous, so Blazing Canyon was the training camp’s best place to dispose of all different kinds of bodies.

Once he remembered Blazing Canyon, Qianye suddenly stiffened and instantly shouted as loud as he could, “No! I haven’t died yet, I’m still alive! Let me down!”

He suddenly sat up and found that it had actually been a dream. Even after this many years, he would wake up from a nightmare every night. Sometimes he wouldn’t even be able to tell if it was reality or just his imagination.

Qianye scanned his surroundings, realizing that it was still deep in the night and that he was still at the garbage dump. A bone-thin wild dog was biting his feet, straining to drag him away.

Qianye grabbed a random piece of scrap metal and forcefully threw it. The scrap landed right on the wild dog’s nose, causing it to whine and escape with its tail between its legs.

Qianye moved a little, feeling only pain throughout his body. His chest was especially sensitive to movement; every time he moved even the slightest bit, he felt pain in his chest like it was splitting apart. He first inspected injuries throughout his body and discovered that his left shoulder was broken. More than half of his ribs were broken, and his body had a lot of various injuries.

Unexpectedly, his injuries were much lighter than he had thought. The broken bones had automatically grafted together and had miraculously begun growing back. His open wounds no longer bled, and many small cuts had already closed.

Within his body, Qianye felt a vigorous life force flowing rapidly. Other than his bones not having completely healed, his body was already in a condition healthy beyond belief. In addition, his thirst for blood that had sprung up halfway through the previous battle had virtually disappeared already.

Qianye suddenly felt two deep wounds on his neck, his expression instantly stiffening.

How did he get bit by a vampire again?

However, he immediately calmed down once more. What was the difference between getting bit once or getting bit twice? He had been tainted for a long time. However, a smell from his fingertip made Qianye’s heart drop again.

It had a light, pleasant fragrance and seemed very familiar. It was Nighteye’s fragrance!

From this, all of his questions were answered. Nighteye was not only a vampire, but a vampire of extraordinarily high rank.

Nighteye’s special ability was actually able to hide all of the unique traits of a vampire. She looked no different from humans and even had normal body temperature.

Whether Qianye directly searched her body or observed her battle techniques, he had never been able to identify her as an actual vampire from her responses. This ability really brought unusual thoughts to one’s head.

He had actually cooperated with a high-ranking vampire to kill a vampire noble and an elite werewolf? Qianye’s thoughts were unusually complex at this moment. He didn’t know whether he should be happy or regretful.

Nighteye was the first partner he had cooperated with since arriving at the Evernight Continent. When Nighteye had returned to the garbage dump in the last battle, Qianye’s heart had thumped vigorously and he had even been extremely emotional. Before Qianye was struck away, he had seen Nighteye in a highly dangerous situation, being surrounded by werewolves and vampires.

Even though he had confirmed that Nighteye was a vampire, Qianye could not bring himself to hate her. There was no other reason for that but her action of resolutely returning to help him fight enemies that were too strong for them to beat.

“Since she was able to suck his blood, she should have survived, right?” Qianye thought.

Icy-cold wind blew past, bringing a constant rotten smell. Qianye shook his head, clearing his mind of these messy thoughts. He suddenly felt that his wrist had something unusual on it. He lifted it up to see and there were actually two teeth marks!

Qianye wrinkled his brows as he reached over and wiped it with his other hand. A sweet aroma wafted from his fingertips. However, no matter how sweet-smelling it was, it couldn’t change the fact that another vampire had left this mark from sucking his blood.

It was actually, Blood Banquet? This phrase popped into Qianye’s head.

Blood Banquet was a particular ritual performed by vampires.

In reality, true vampires would never randomly choose to bite people. During battle, they had a larger thirst for blood because they wanted to recover their strength and injuries, just like how humans used various military stimulants to boost their combat ability.

Normal vampires viewed ingesting blood as a sacred thing, as their way of communicating with their ancestors. It was their private time to inherit more blood power.

Blood Banquet was equivalent to humans’ social interactions in salons. It represented intimacy between the participants, amicability in their relationship, and trust between them. As for the main dish in a Blood Banquet, the human must fulfill the vampire’s desire for delicious food. The human’s blood must taste exquisite, and the human must also be strong or have a special identity.

Qianye suddenly raised his head, looking at the blood-red moon, and smiled as he spoke to himself, “I actually have the qualifications to be the main dish in a Blood Banquet!”

Being the main dish wasn’t too weird. The weird thing was that he had actually lived through it.

He silently stood for a moment, before beginning to carefully survey his surroundings. Qianye had trained this skill for many years, which had allowed him to avoid many hidden attacks on the battlefield and survive in dangerous situations.

Not far from him lay many werewolves’ bodies. Amongst them was one with extremely long limbs. That unique characteristic actually belonged to a Shadow Wolf!

These werewolves had an obvious difference in strength compared to those Qianye had initially seen. Nevertheless, they all died there, and not even one skull remained intact. The blood-stained dirt, the broken bones, and the melted matter of brains revealed the cause of their death.

Another point of suspicion was that a few werewolves were already in a shriveled state, evidently devoid of any blood. This was definitely not a common sight. Everyone knew that vampires never drank the blood of werewolves, although not because of the taste, but because of their beliefs.

In addition, the remaining smell of blood actually gave Qianye a familiar feeling. He walked to the werewolves’ bodies, knelt down, and carefully observed them. The werewolves’ arteries had been bitten open, but what remained weren’t the holes left by vampire fangs, but rather the marks of a human’s bite.

Qianye immediately realized that he had sucked the werewolves’ blood dry himself.

No wonder he did not feel any bloodthirst even though it had been so long. His bloodthirst had already been activated while he was unconscious. This was the first time Qianye had ever drank so much blood since the accident. Even though the matter hadn’t been an issue this time, Qianye thought he would probably no longer be able to suppress his blood of darkness soon. Maybe the next time his bloodthirst took control would he his last.

At this thought, Qianye unconsciously reached for his Red Scorpion Army knife, but felt nothing but air. It was only at this moment that he remembered that all of his gear should have fallen down when he was struck in the air by the elite werewolf.

Qianye planned to look for his army knife. When preparing for the moment of ending his own life, he still wished to use his army knife from Red Scorpion.

At this moment, his eyes fell on the cane in the tight grip of a werewolf’s body. On the tip of the cane was an Eternal Sundial. Qianye automatically converted the time given on the dial’s calendar and became startled. Three days? He had only been unconscious for three days, no wonder the blood moon had yet to fade.

Qianye suddenly realized that after waking up, his body felt like it had some abnormalities. He first reached over and dialed the Eternal Sundial, confirming that it had not been broken. After this, he used a simple inner vision technique to view the condition of his body.

As suspected, everything was abnormal.

With the passage of only three days, the blood moon had not yet ended, but Qianye did not have the unbearable, scorching feeling that came with each reaction of his blood of darkness. If the reason that his bones had started reconnecting, his organs were already half healed, and his external injuries had virtually finished healing was that he had sucked enough blood, then that all showed that the blood had increased his rate of recovery to an extremely abnormal level.

Qianye thought for a moment that he had basically become a blood thrall, but his conscious stayed clear and his thinking remained normal.

Qianye immediately found a hidden area and sat cross-legged to propel his origin power. He ran the complete Army Healing Chant to inspect his body internally.

The force of origin power in his body had already met with the boundary of rank three. A clear outline of the origin node in his right hand appeared. Its barrier could be broken through at any time. Once the barrier of this level was broken through, the origin node on the right hand would ignite and one would truly reach the level of a rank three Fighter.

However, at that moment, along with the movement of the origin power within his body actually flowed condensed strands of dark red power. This was blood energy generated from blood of darkness.

Originally, the blood of darkness in Qianye’s body was not controlled at all as it randomly flowed within his meridians, breaking down and assimilating the surrounding flesh and blood. Wherever it flowed past, it would bring bursts of burning pain, and once the heat accumulated to a certain point, it would burn severely enough to cause one’s consciousness to gradually slip away and be replaced with an incomparable thirst for fresh flesh and blood. Qianye had fought such conditions off for almost a year, and could not be more clear on the destructive force of these strands of power.

However, at that moment, that cluster of blood energy that bordered on pitch-black still circulated, but without any feeling of discomfort. If he wasn’t observing himself internally, Qianye almost would have felt that it was power from his own body. Two additional unique colors actually appeared on the almost pitch-black blood energy. One was a faint purple within the deep red color, and the other actually was a strand of pale gold.

Qianye’s consciousness moved slightly, stopping his Combatant Formula. The force of his origin power gradually slowed and the blood of darkness actually became similarly peaceful. Qianye couldn’t help but feel that it was unbelievable. He tried to control and propel the blood energy. A moment later, his entire body trembled as the blood energy wildly entered his heart, and then slowly flowed out. In the end, it even condensed into two mysterious runes, and some information instantly flowed into Qianye’s mind.

Vampiric body type.

Eye ability: Night Vision.

The two runes actually belonged to two vampiric powers.

Vampires’ bodies automatically moved their blood energy to continuously fortify themselves, increasing their rate of recovery. In addition, after having fed on a large amount of blood, the body’s rate of recovery would once again increase. This was yet another advantage that belonged only to vampires.

Eye Ability: Night Vision was a power that many vampires were born with. The ability to see during the night was more effective than human night vision devices.

Qianye was baffled as he observed the changes within his body, but no matter how he used his inner vision technique, he couldn’t find anything else. Within his blood flowed two completely separate streaks of balanced power, the white streak belonged to Daybreak origin power, and the dark red mix of three colors was blood energy, a type of Darkness origin power. The two streaks of origin power with opposing attributes co-habited the blood in peace, as if it were completely natural.

However, Qianye at least knew one thing. If the blood of darkness no longer created that corrosive heat, then he would no longer have any thirst for blood and flesh. Maybe it also meant that he would be able to keep his consciousness and sanity forever? The two additional powers also made Qianye full of hope.

Fate finally revealed a hint of a pleasant smile to Qianye!

Chapter 50:  A Startling Transformation

Qianye circled around the garbage dump and discovered that his Scorpion Needles were thoroughly damaged, essentially turning into a pile of scrap parts. He separated these parts and carefully buried them in different corners of the garbage dump.

The Scorpion Needles were weapons manufactured by the Red Scorpions and were one of a kind. Not even a single part could be casually exposed, or it would attract an endless stream of trouble.

Then it was dealing with the werewolves’ corpses, especially those that had marks of a human bite on their bodies.

However, Qianye was a little puzzled. The werewolf clan highly valued community spirit, and would never allow a clansman’s corpse to be exposed to the wilderness in such a way so easily. Yet with so many werewolves dead in this area and no sign of any new werewolves coming to claim the bodies, it was clear that this area had some complications.

Qianye finally found two spike bayonets used by Nighteye and then washed a dagger used by a vampire warrior. These were all the weapons he had to protect himself with now. The small parts he had originally brought along, and even the Red Scorpion army knife were lost somewhere.

It was deep into the night, and the wind blowing across the wilderness was still icy cold. It could be that there was finally a possibility of the proverbial sharp longsword that was suspended above his head disappearing. As Qianye lifted his head to gaze at the blood-red moon occupying nearly half of the sky, he did not feel even a tinge of bloodthirst. He even felt that the dark red color seemed a little faded, that perhaps the scarlet nights would be over after a couple of days.

Dawn finally arrived.

However, though it temporarily removed the danger posed by the blood of darkness, Qianye still needed to remain on guard and avoid the imperial army, the grand households, and the aristocratic families. They had numerous strong people, and heaven knew who would discover that half of his blood was the blood of darkness flowing in his body.

Qianye had to return to Lighthouse Town first. A quick count revealed that he had not shown his face for about five days, but in a chaotic place like the Evernight Continent, a person’s disappearance would not cause any commotion.

After running for a few hours, Lighthouse Town appeared in within Qianye’s vision. The small town seemed unchanged, but Qianye felt it was a little too quiet. Dawn was approaching, and although the horizon was still pitch black, the sky overhead had begun to brighten, glowing softly. At this time, the scavengers should have been awake and getting the equipment for their journeys ready.

Qianye did not directly approach the large, unrepaired door that was equivalent to a wide open space, but detoured to the side, slowly approaching the city walls.

From Qianye’s position, he could see the bald sheriff sitting on the city gate’s tower, his cap over his face, as if taking a nap. This was a demonstration of how the sheriff had to stand watch the whole night until the city gates were repaired. Although the sheriff constantly appeared drowsy and sleepy, Qianye knew that it was a facade. If he got too close at night, then even with his ability to move stealthily, he would still rouse the sheriff’s attention.

Qianye chose a place that was relatively far from the sheriff and lightly jumped, landing noiselessly on the city walls. Qianye felt the obvious strengthening in his jumping ability with this leap, as he would have directly leaped over the less than five meter wall if he had not controlled it well. He was just about to enter the town, when he suddenly sensed that the sheriff’s sleeping position seemed unnatural. This should be a very uncomfortable position to be in for a long period of time.

Qianye bent low, practically pasting himself onto the city wall as he inched closer. From a distance, he could smell the thick scent of blood. His night vision ability allowed him to clearly see the coagulated blood stains on the sheriff’s chest, along with the already dried blood that had turned black, seamlessly blending into his black uniform.

The sheriff was dead, and sitting on the city wall was merely a corpse.

Qianye’s heart pumped wildly for a moment before he crouched lower, hiding in the shadows.

Although the sheriff was just an official of the lowest rank, he was still a representative of the law in the Empire. His presence signified that this land still completely belonged to the Empire. Even if a foreigner came along who was stronger than the sheriff, he would still not casually kill the latter. Killing the sheriff was equivalent to challenging the dignity of the Empire, and the imperial expeditionary forces were stationed not far from this place.

Qianye glanced towards the town and inhaled deeply, immediately discovering that his awareness and perception of human blood had sharpened. The good news was the smell of human flesh and blood did indeed not arouse any symptoms of thirst or hunger in him.

However, Qianye did not have the time to celebrate, as he sensed that the total blood vitality within the town had been reduced to less than half!

Qianye jumped down from the city walls and first circled around a few familiar households belonging to commoners, confirming that the people sleeping inside were the original owners, before he slinked to his Red Spider Lily bar that was not too far off.

The bar was in a mess; the door that was installed a few days ago was now tilted to one side, not a single window was left intact, and all furniture inside was left in a pile of shattered pieces, with some even sporting ghastly bloodstains.

However, from the direction of the bedroom, rhythmic breathing could be heard that was so loud that it even travelled through the corridor and resounded in the hall.

Qianye did not head straight over, but detoured and entered via the backdoor, then silently walked into the living quarters. There was no movement from the two guest rooms flanking the sides, meaning that the sound came from his own bedroom.

A young man hugging a hunting gun was leaning against the sofa, deep asleep. This fellow was obviously the appointed sentry to stay behind and wait for Qianye to appear.

However, since Qianye had not returned after multiple days, this fellow who stayed behind dropped his vigilance and started to become lazy. But then again, nothing much was to be expected from local ruffians like these.

Qianye used his dagger to lightly pat the man’s face.

The young man was instantly awakened, and as he was obviously grouchy from being jerked awake from his deep sleep, he started spouting a string of curses before he truly saw who was before him.

Qianye smashed a fist into the young man’s stomach, causing him to immediately arch like a shrimp, lodging the remaining curses in his throat. Qianye then forced his face into the sofa, immovably, and viciously kneed his ribs a few times in succession, only finally stopping when he heard a couple of bones breaking.

Once Qianye let go, the young man wanted to howl, but the chilliness of the dagger at his throat had him swallowing back any screams.

“What happened here? Who sent you here? If your answer doesn’t satisfy me, I’ll cut off your fingers one by one,” Qianye said icily.

When the young man clearly saw it was Qianye, he immediately capitulated and hastened to reply, “I’m working for Tiger Yan. The expeditionary forces sent two squads to Lighthouse Town the other day to hunt for blood thralls. We followed them here…”

“Continue.” Qianye applied more pressure on the dagger, and drew a thin line of blood on his neck.

The young man, having seemingly sensed killing intent beneath Qianye’s calm eyes, immediately shuddered and quickly said, “Sir Qi of Blackflow City is unhappy with you and Sir Zhao. He lost a lot of money because of both of you, and also a high grade origin gun, so he thought of a way and had the expeditionary forces mobilize two squads under the guise of hunting for blood thralls, but in reality, it was to… to kill you and Sir Zhao off.”

Qianye’s heart tightened. He clearly understood what hunting for blood thralls meant to the people of Lighthouse Town.

“Then, how about those people who have disappeared?”

“Most of them have been killed, and some taken away by the expeditionary forces.”

“How about Tiger Yan? Where is he?” Qianye questioned.

The young man trembled and said, “He’s with Sir Zhao.”

Qianye nodded and slowly withdrew his dagger, saying, “Since you were honest, I’ll give you a chance and spare your life. Leave this place immediately, and scram as far as you can!”

“Y-yes! Thank you!” The young man nodded his head like a chicken pecking at rice.

Qianye turned to leave, and just as he crossed the door, he suddenly flicked a spike bayonet from his hand. The spike shot through the air like lightning, and impaled the ruffian’s throat in the blink of an eye!

The young ruffian stared at Qianye, stunned. The hunting gun in his hand had been aimed at Qianye’s back, but it was a pity he no longer had the strength to pull the trigger.

Qianye walked back and retrieved the hunting gun from the ruffian to examine it.

It was a long flintlock gun, but it could use locally produced bullets. As it was crudely made, its precision and power could not be guaranteed beyond ten meters, but it was still considered a rather powerful weapon for killing at close range, at least better than a dagger. Qianye rummaged through the ruffian’s clothes and found ten bullets before tossing the corpse on the floor. He then took one last look at his bar.

The bar was a mess, where each tile of the limestone flooring had been pried away, and every valuable item had been pillaged. The Red Spider Lily which had accompanied him in the darkest stages of his life had gone up in smoke, just like that.

When leaving the bar, Qianye was not furious, but conversely felt calm, even a little excited.

Based on the training in the Red Scorpion Corps, this was the best condition to be in before battle.

Qianye made a beeline for Sir Zhao’s abandoned factory headquarters. It was said that over the last couple of days after Tiger Yan took over control of Lighthouse Town, Sir Zhao had been staying in there.

Daylight still had not broken over the horizon, and the blocks of tall factories ahead casted particularly sinister silhouettes, not unlike a creature which could devour humans at anytime. Among them, only one block of factories had been renovated by Sir Zhao, making it habitable. The rest were in ruins.

The exterior of this block of factories bore obvious battle scars, with empty shells scattered everywhere.

Qianye picked up one of the shells to examine, and his heart sank slightly.

This shell belonged to an assault rifle made by the imperial expeditionary forces, and although it was an antique, a retired rifle from ten years ago, it was still more powerful than any ordinarily manufactured weapon.

Since the other party managed to obtain and utilize a number of weapons manufactured by the military, it was more or less a hopeless case for Sir Zhao.

The factory doors were ajar, but Qianye did not enter through them. Instead, he backed up a couple of steps, then ran and leaped, using the momentum to scale over the outer wall. In the blink of an eye, he was at the top of the factory.

Tiger Yan did not station any men here, allowing Qianye to smoothly pass through the top floor’s exit and enter the inner section of the factory.

The inner section of the factory had three levels constructed against the wall, while the rest remained as the original hall. Inside, there was a huge generator inside, but it had long become scrap metal.

Qianye remembered that the top floor was Sir Zhao’s original living quarters and the middle floor housed the bodyguards and his organization’s elders, while the lowest floor was for his group of followers.

Qianye descended from the top level, and naturally found himself at the third floor. He silently walked to Sir Zhao’s bedroom, and immediately smelled the thick scent of blood which had gone stale.

Qianye hesitated for a moment, then lightly pushed the door open and peered in.

Sir Zhao was on the floor, his body full of wounds, and a section of his lower leg was missing. In his final moments, he had struggled towards the cupboard on the wall, leaving a horrifying trail of bloodstains on the floor. There was a bullet hole blown into the middle of his forehead between his brows, yet his expression showed a slight smile of satisfaction.

Qianye was neither grieving nor delighted as he entered the room and crouched next to Prince Zhao.

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Hey, I'm sorry for the slow update. I'm stuck in Burma/Myanmar because of the lockdown (my family stay in Taiwan).