Seeing Qianye turn the situation around single-handedly, Edward couldn’t help but feel infuriated. It was at this time that the sky started to grow dark, almost as though an invisible gauze cloth had flown in between the heaven and earth.
Without a second thought, Qianye unfurled his luminous wings with Misty Cold in his left hand and Heartgrave in his right. The latter weapon was aimed directly at Edward, shrouded in a layer of hazy light.
Within moments, Edward’s blood core began to beat frantically, and an unprecedented sense of danger engulfed his entire being. “Are you crazy!?”
With the enforcement of the Wings of Inception, Heartgrave’s firepower would reach the peak of grade-nine, and that wasn’t something Edward could take. Similarly, the tremendous drain would leave Qianye completely exhausted after the shot. Even if he didn’t die, he would have no way to escape. This mutually destructive move was why Edward blurted out if Qianye was crazy.
Heartgrave grew brighter and brighter, and a speck of light flickered in the depths of the barrel. Edward felt a sharp pain between his brows which told him—to his fear and shock—that he had been locked onto. Any more delays and it would be too late once the trigger was pulled.
Even though the Demoness was extremely powerful, Edward wasn’t willing to put his life in her hands. Just like when Basil was in the well, neither the vampires nor the demonkin did their utmost to protect him.
If the Demoness were just slightly late, she would be able to bury the vampire Holy Son inside the Great Maelstrom, and no one could blame her for it. Edward had no doubt that she would do that because he would do the same in her shoes.
Edward retreated at the final moment, opening up a path for Qianye and evading his lock-on in the process. Qianye passed by in large strides and smiled coldly at the sky—the power of Misty Cold surged around him like a celestial realm, and the darkened sky in an area ten meters around him returned to normal. The Demoness’ domain was blown away by the weapon.
“Qianye!” Zhao Yuying was delightfully surprised. She flung away her opponent and ran toward Qianye.
“Run!” Qianye roared without even looking back.
Zhao Yuying was startled. She glared with widened eyes, saying, “What’s wrong with you? I came to help you, how could you treat me like this?”
Qianye looked up at the sky and raised his voice again. “Go! Now!”
Zhao Yuying wanted to say something, but Li Kuanglan dragged her away from the battlefield. The former struggled furiously, saying, “What are you doing? Lil’ Five is in there, let me go. I must help him!”
Li Kuanglan said coldly, “You’ll kill him if you go.”
“What?” Zhao Yuying was, of course, skeptical. Li Kuanglan sent a stream of icy origin power into her body and locked down all of her movements. She then dragged the Zhao young miss through the vampire experts and ran away like a shooting star.
“Wait!” Wei Potian cried out, not knowing whether he should help Qianye or go after Zhao Yuying.
“Let’s go!” It was at this time that Ji Tianqing arrived from the air and grabbed him by the collar. She then lifted him off his feet and flew away.
Only Qianye was left standing at the center of the battlefield
The Demoness appeared and came face to face with Qianye. “They’ve left, are you satisfied?”
“Very much so.”
The Demoness pointed at Mist Cold, saying, “Do you think you can escape again this time?”
Currently, there was a layer of dark smoke around the misty mirage, maintaining a distance of several feet from the gun’s power as though it were a sentient being. The Demoness’ control over her domain was truly stunning.
This meant that Qianye could no longer destroy most of the Demoness’ domain like before. Even if he were to zoom back and forth, he would only be able to destroy a small portion of the domain, and the Demoness would sense where he was based on which part of the domain was missing.
Qianye looked around at Edward, Twilight, Anwen, Eden, and Basil, and then let out a long laugh. “Who said I’m going to run away?”
He wasn’t? The group of Evernight experts could hardly believe their ears. What was he going to do then, fight against all the Evernight experts by himself?
The last time, Qianye had managed to escape because no one had imagined he would possess an origin gun with such special effects, nor did they think he would have an explosive of unimaginable firepower. Now that the Demoness had made relevant adjustments to her domain and Qianye’s Spatial Flash wasn’t powerful enough to flash out of effective range, what was he going to fight her with?
Actually, the group present here was enough to defeat Qianye even without the Demoness’ help. It was just that they wouldn’t be able to stop him from fleeing.
With everything settled, the Evernight experts relaxed a bit and weren’t actually in a rush to attack Qianye. It was as though they were waiting for him to make a move, yet it also seemed like they were secretly gauging their own party’s relationships.
As for Ji Tianqing and the others escaping, the Evernight experts didn’t mind at all. Even if every one of them ran away, it would be worth it if they could capture Qianye. Qianye’s combat strength actually wasn’t that high, but his abilities were simply too powerful. Add to that his ability to use Spatial Flash, he could easily wound anyone here in a single face-to-face exchange.
This kind of enemy was the most troublesome, and thus everyone had come to a mutual understanding that they had to capture him regardless of the price.
Qianye looked around quietly before saying, “I have three Shots of Inception, who wants to try?”
The Evernight Experts looked at one another, not knowing how to respond. Back then, Qianye had sent the Demoness back into deep slumber with three Shots of Inception. The shot had gained great fame since that battle.
Be it Edward, Anwen, or Eden, none of them could take three Shots of Inception. Twilight and the other vampire experts would either die or be heavily injured in just one shot.
Only the Demoness could go into deep slumber and recover after taking three Shots of Inception. Judging from the time, however, it wasn’t yet time for her to awaken, so perhaps her body wasn’t at its peak state at the moment.
Edward and the others actually understood that the best way was for everyone to take one hit each. At most, they would be heavily wounded, and the injury wasn’t enough to hurt their foundations. It almost seemed like a good trade if they could get rid of a potential trouble like Qianye.
However, Qianye had long since seen through their plans. “Guess whether I’ll fire all three shots at the same person or not.”
Everyone’s expressions changed.
The Shot of Inception’s aim was no secret. Once locked-on by Qianye’s Shot of Inception, no one apart from Anwen and the Demoness could do anything to resist. At the very least, Basil couldn’t escape, so the arachne was the first to feel afraid.
During this stalemate, the Demoness said, “Fire at whoever you want first, there’s no need to ask.”
The experts only woke up at this point. This was the best way to break this deadlock—life and death, riches and poverty, everything was up to the heavens on the battlefield. What was the point of overthinking it?
Qianye’s thoughts moved quickly. “Your Highness, you hide in the distance and don’t even dare to show up. Of course, you’re relaxed since my Shot of Inception can’t lock onto you.”
Edward and Basil wondered whether these words were true, especially the latter, who had just suffered greatly in the Constellation Well. His trust in the Demoness was at its lowest at the moment. Even until now, he refused to believe that she would fail to block Qianye, so the only explanation was that she had purposely let him approach the well. Her aim was naturally to stop Basil from obtaining a stronger bloodline.
The Demoness hadn’t imagined Qianye would say something like that, and she herself had also noticed Edward and Basil’s concerns. But her long-standing habit of pride stopped her from explaining. Just as she was about to denounce Qianye, the latter took action!
The luminous wings behind his back spread out as Mist Cold was activated. A ten-meter radius around Qianye was filled with rolling velvet clouds that shrouded his figure entirely. The firearm was able to destroy domains and also isolate perception. At this moment, no one knew what exactly Qianye was doing.
The Demoness was just as calm as before. She only contracted her domain slightly to make way for the Misty Cold, but kept it tightly wound around Qianye. If he were to step out of the mist, she would immediately sense it.
Qianye didn’t make them wait very long. Almost at the exact moment that the mist expanded, everyone saw a luminous feather shoot out amidst a flash of light.
Shot of Inception!
In the blink of an eye, even the calmest of experts became frantic. No one could keep calm in the face of this indefensible and unavoidable shot. Basil cried out, “Why is it me again!?”
Amidst exasperated cries, Basil’s giant body sprang upward under the pull of eight spider web strings, leaving numerous afterimages along the way. His speed during escape was so fast that even Qianye’s Spatial Flash would have to yield.
Basil fled hundreds of meters away within moments. As for the gap in the encirclement, he couldn’t care about it at the juncture of life and death. Basil still didn’t feel at ease after arriving high up in the sky. His body kept flickering constantly, making it so that the Shot of Inception wouldn’t lock onto him even if it were to arrive here. He would then have the opportunity to flee or use some other methods to stop it.
From this, it was obvious that Basil wasn’t an ordinary person. He already knew how powerful the Shot of Inception was since the beginning.
But the Shot of Inception didn’t go after the arachne after his escape. It kept moving forward, and now, it was time for Edward to be shocked. Although the attack wasn’t aimed at him, he was the closest expert from the target, and Qianye’s missed shot would most likely be drawn toward him.
Edward moved ten meters away to the side, hoping to draw away from the Shot of Inception and place himself in a good position.
His course of action wasn’t wrong, but the Shot of Inception made a sharp turn in the air and darted toward its true target! It was one of the vampire counts.
How could an ordinary count stop the Shot of Inception? He almost couldn’t react before the luminous feather entered his chest, and his vitality shut down rapidly. The man’s life force was entirely cut off before his body had even collapsed.
The Shot of Inception’s firepower was enough to bring a chill to every spectator’s back.
Qianye unleashed a long laugh as his figure flickered past the falling count. He then activated Spatial Flash and vanished.
