[V6C80 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
The shadowy figure in the sentry tower slowly stood up. He grabbed the longsword leaning on the chair and moved up the stairs to intercept Qianye at the top of the tower. However, an inexplicable sense of extreme danger welled up in his heart. He suddenly glanced sideways, and there, he saw a layer of green bulging up from the surface of the wall.
Time seemed to slow down as an azure origin bullet tore through the sentry tower and flew straight toward him.
This bullet appeared without the slightest of warning signs, almost as though it had materialized out of thin air. A perilous notion emerged in the shadow’s mind—he knew he couldn’t evade this bullet no matter what. In the end, he managed to suppress these thoughts through sheer willpower and moved his body with every bit of strength he could muster. He shifted his vitals out of the way but couldn’t evade the shot completely. The greater half of his thigh was blown away amidst his miserable cries.
However, the sense of danger grew even more intense. Enduring the pain, he leapt up with his remaining foot and shot through the roof of the sentry tower.
But when he glanced upward, all he could see was the incoming East Peak!
Qianye swung horizontally and cut the shadow into two. He was somewhat startled by the easy victory and couldn’t quite figure out why this count would deliver his head up like this. Only when he saw the missing leg did Qianye realize that someone had already made a move before him.
He looked in every direction but couldn’t find the person who had lent him a hand. Equal measures of admiration and cautiousness lingered in his heart—he hadn’t sensed that origin bullet even with his sharp senses and True Sight. Apparently, it was a special firearm ability.
In the shadows far away, Zhao Jundu lowered the Blue Firmament and made a forward gesture. A dozen or so elite soldiers appeared from the darkness and quickly followed Zhao Jundu toward the back of the castle.
At this moment, Zhang Shiduo had discovered that things hadn’t gone quite as planned. He jumped onto the tower and couldn’t help but become a bit startled after seeing the vampire count’s corpse. He quickly gave Qianye a big thumbs up.
After losing the defenses of this sentry tower, the area below soon became a melee battleground for imperial and dark race warriors. Seeing the urgency of the battle situation, Zhang Shiduo quickly set up his assault rifle and said to Qianye, “Draw any powerful enemies you meet out into the open. I’ll deal with them!”
“Okay!” Qianye agreed, leapt down the sentry tower, and sped toward the depths of the castle.
He ordered the vanguard battalion to occupy the wall and sentry towers first. Then, they were to take control of the castle periphery and push in gradually. Ordinary soldiers played little role in the battles inside the castle. They would only be slaughtered should they run into a true Evernight expert.
Zhang Shiduo rubbed his stubble after hearing Qianye’s arrangements, feeling that this youth’s combat style was rather novel. He quickly ordered his own squad to cooperate with the Zhao clan’s vanguard battalion—this combination of melee assault and long-range firepower left no room for suspense in this segment of the battlefront.
Qianye arrived deep in the castle grounds and before the tiered main building. The castle was constructed along the mountain slope and consisted of over ten layers from top to bottom. Additionally, the interior of the entire mountain had been hollowed out and turned into a complex maze of tunnels.
This majestic castle was no doubt the work of a master, one who had perfectly combined vampire and arachne architectural styles. Judging from its scale, it could only be bigger than Zhang Boqian’s central command camp; furthermore, it was built from scratch within ten-odd days. Just from the speed of its construction, one could see just how many experts were assigned to its construction.
The battle within the castle was abnormally arduous and far surpassed Qianye’s expectations. Fights had broken out in every room and every corner of this city-sized castle. There was conflict in all of its passages and streets, staining them with the blood of experts.
Since stepping into the castle, Qianye felt that there was simply no end to the enemies. Bullets would fly out from every unexpected corner, and enemies would fall one after another before him. However, the battles seemed to go on perpetually.
Qianye kicked open the door and rushed into a certain room. The place was surprisingly free of traps and enemy ambushes, the first ever since his arrival here. He immediately felt like the luckiest person on earth.
From the intricate furnishings, it was likely that the room belonged to a vampire noble. There was a pot of soup on the kitchen stove which was still warm to the touch.
There was a painting in the study depicting a group of vampires riding through the snowy woods, drawn in a frosty art style characteristic to vampires. One of them was clad in a viscount’s attire and wore a rather gentle expression that was different from his cold peers.
It would seem that this small room was the viscount’s residence. Experts were as abundant as the clouds in this castle of the two great dark monarchs, and even a viscount could only occupy a small room.
Qianye searched the place once and sat down at the study desk to flip through some of the books. Most of them were about history and literature, studies that were popular among vampire nobles.
But Qianye came across two translated imperial books. One was a history book, while the other was a tragic story about two star-crossed lovers who couldn’t be together due to familial enmities and about how, in the end, they sacrificed themselves in the name of love.
Qianye slowly put the book down and felt somewhat different when he looked at the room once more. He could see that the owner of this room loved his daily activities and had made this place his home.
Judging from the daily necessities, there was also a female owner here. It was just that no one knew whether or not she was obligated to join the battlefield. But virtually all dark race members were soldiers, and even some of the older children might be valiant warriors. This vampire lady might not be an exception.
In truth, it wasn’t that Qianye hadn’t witnessed such scenes before. However, he never had the time to pay attention to these things, and his hatred for the dark races obscured his vision.
Perhaps due to Nighteye or otherwise, he could now see certain things he never could before.
Qianye’s exhausted body recovered some origin power after a moment of rest. He stood up and returned to the door. This brief respite had ended—the battles had to continue, and the killing must go on.
Qianye suddenly retracted his aura at the door and stepped sideways. The room door was shattered by a heavy axe which planted itself in the ground. The werewolf soldier lost his balance after missing his target and almost stumbled into the room.
Qianye slapped his back with East Peak and pressed him firmly onto the ground before plunging a vampiric blade into the werewolf’s back.
The werewolf gradually weakened as the rolling waves of hot blood threw Qianye into a state of blood boil and his stamina recovered rapidly.
Qianye withdrew the blade and wiped it on the dead body. He suddenly thought of something and flipped the werewolf soldier over to reveal a young, handsome face.
By Evernight standards, someone with this level of combat strength at such a young age possessed great future prospects. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have appeared in the two dark monarchs’ castle. This warrior’s career had just begun when it was ended abruptly by Qianye.
Qianye stood up slowly. His expression and emotions had calmed down once again as he pushed all of these thoughts to the back of his head. After walking out of the room, he once again became that peerless god of death who had rampaged through the bloody battle.
The constant battles that followed soon drained Qianye of his origin power. He thus charged into a nearby room to catch his breath, however, his eyes froze up at this point. There was another door inside which likely lead to the main bedroom. The aura of fresh blood was seeping out from the cracks in the door, and from a single whiff, he could tell that it was human blood.
Qianye collected his remaining origin power and opened the door violently. The spectacle caused all of his blood to rush to his head!
There were a dozen-odd imperial corpses in the room, some of which had died recently. These corpses had been bitten and mutilated until only the bones remained. This room was a miniature blood feast.
Qianye also saw some Zhao clan insignias among the remains. From the traces left behind in the room, it was clear that this blood feast was being held to vent anger and not to sate one’s appetite.
Qianye stood silently for a while. Then, he produced an incendiary grenade, buried it under the pile of corpses, and closed the door. Raging flames flew out behind him as he left, turning the place into a scene right out of hell.
It was at this time that he felt a massive impact from the side which sent him flying several meters away. Qianye leapt up almost immediately, darted into a nearby tunnel, and hid himself behind a weapons rack.
He felt a scorching pain on his shoulder, and his hand was drenched with blood when he reached out to touch the injury. He was in no rush to treat his wounds—he tossed out another incendiary grenade first and produced a sea of flames to deter any pursuers. Only then did he began inspecting himself.
He had been shot just now, and this origin bullet possessed massive firepower. It blasted right through his armor, tore open his tenacious flesh, and badly mangled his flesh. Even some of his bones at the site of injury had been shattered. Fortunately, this bullet had been specially constructed to favor firepower and contained no black titanium. Otherwise, Qianye would be in deep trouble right now.
The shot came so silently that Qianye hadn’t sensed it up until it came into contact with his body. It would seem that other perceptive abilities were ineffective against the danger—he would need to activate True Sight.
However, the entire battlefield was filled with narrow passageways and experts fighting everywhere. Add to that the constant origin power interference from the surroundings, it would be beyond difficult to trace the assailant unless he attacked again.
This was certainly a special ability and one that was extremely dangerous on the battlefield. Qianye recalled that the demonkin who had died in his hands also possessed a similar ability, allowing him to transport grenades stealthily. Qianye naturally possessed the ability to deal with him in a one-on-one fight, but it was a different story amidst the confusion of the battlefield.
Qianye thought long and hard. Just what kind of ability could hide origin grenades and bullets from his perception? From his experience with the previous demonkin, he had a vague feeling that it had something to do with void origin power.
