Wei Potian woke up after god knew how long.
All he saw when he opened his eyes was a small piece of the sky surrounded by darkness. He gazed, puzzled, at the scene for a good while before realizing that he was actually in a pit. The depression in the ground was an almost exact fit for his body, almost as though it was tailor-made just for him.
His thoughts cleared up after a while. This was no tailored pit! He had been slammed right into the ground.
Wei Potian struggled up and had to use both arms and legs to make it out. The stony ground of the new world was extremely hard, so much so that slamming into the soil felt impressive.
He had just poked his head out when he saw a pair of black boots in front of him. The beautiful combat boots outlined the owner’s lower leg perfectly.
Wei Potian didn’t need to look up to know that it was Nighteye. “Was I knocked out?”
“You did well to resist one strike.”
Wei Potian stood up and glanced at Nighteye, who was sitting on a nearby rock. “Where are my brothers?”
Nighteye pointed down the mountain. “They’ve been captured.”
“Captured?” Wei Potian looked over with a serious expression, his eyes going wide when he saw the number of captives. “Did they not resist at all?”
Nighteye said calmly, “I told them I’ll pop your head if they don’t come out from the fortifications and lay down their weapons. They obeyed.”
Wei Potian stamped his feet. “Idiots! How can I, the great Marquis Potian, have a squad that gives up without fighting?”
“You’d be dead if they didn’t surrender.”
“So what?! I’ve lived enough. After I die, send a message to Yuying if you have the opportunity. Tell her I fell in battle because of my inferior skills, that I’m resigned to my fate and not to avenge me.”
“You’re afraid she’ll die in my hands?”
Wei Potian became serious. “Yuying is stubborn, she’ll seek you out if it’s not made clear. And she’s not your match, never will be.”
“What’s the relationship between you two?”
“We just got engaged. If you ask about relationships, well… it began in the Great Maelstrom.” Wei Potian seemed happy as he reminisced about things.
Nighteye’s expression also softened a bit at the mention of Zhao Yuying. “That’s wise of you to know that she would be throwing her life away if she came.”
Wei Potian laughed wryly. “That’s because I just realized you were serious.”
Nighteye broke into laughter. “Why else would I be here? A tour?”
Wei Potian sighed. “I know the military wronged you in the past. Those people are all dead now, but it still gave you a reason to hate us. Now that you have defeated me, there’s nothing to complain about if I die to your blade, and I won’t let anyone seek revenge for me. My brothers, though… can you let them live, seeing as they didn’t resist? Hard labor is fine as well.”
“Since you want to die so much, I guess I’d better help you out.”
Wei Potian jumped up after hearing this. “Wait, wait! Do you mean you were going to let me off? Then we should discuss.”
Nighteye was startled. “Discuss what?”
Wei Potian rubbed his hands in delight. “As expected of Qianye’s wife. Didn’t I say so? There’s no way you’d be so merciless toward your husband’s brother! Let’s talk terms. How about ransom?”
Nighteye found this both annoying and amusing. “I’ve changed my mind, it’ll be quieter if I kill you.”
Wei Potian shut up almost immediately. He knew there was a limit to jokes when it came to life and death.
Nighteye said, “I’ll spare you this time. Run an errand for me, tell the Empire that I’m here and that certain wretches better not let me run into them.”
Wei Potian couldn’t make heads or tails of it. “Which wretched people? Except for those dukes, all of us here are your hubby’s brothers. It won’t be too easy to kill them, you need to be aware of the heavenly monarchs as well…”
“Shut up!” Nighteye scolded.
Wei Potian went silent immediately.
Nighteye glared fiercely at him, saying, “Tell your men to leave all equipment and make themselves scram!”
After replying with a “Yes, ma’am!”, Wei Potian cried out at the top of his lungs, “Everyone! Shed your armor, get into formation, retreat!”
This fellow was so quick to obey that Nighteye couldn’t help but find it amusing. “I will kill you as well if I see you again on the battlefield!”
Wei Potian wasn’t worried about himself and was instead concerned about Nighteye’s safety. “You weren’t sent here as a sacrifice, were you?”
Nighteye had no strength left to be angry. She said unceremoniously, “The heavenly monarchs can’t do anything to me. What do you think this is?”
A massive origin gun appeared in her hands—two meters long and as thick as a bucket. How was this a gun? It was clearly a cannon! She held up the giant weapon as though it was made of paper and tossed it to Wei Potian.
Wei Potian caught the gun and immediately felt a weight far beyond his expectations. His arms sank to the point where he had to unleash his origin power to catch it steadily and not embarrass himself. This giant gun was close to ten tons in weight and so heavy that it was on par with an airship’s cannon.
The design was fairly odd—there was an array of four square barrels with sinister-looking wolf totems carved on their sides. At a careful look, these totems were made up of intricate lines that formed many layers of origin arrays.
Such an exquisite array was rare even in the Empire, likely the work of a grandmaster. Wei Potian sensed a frosty killing intent rush at his face, almost as though he were being targeted by a void colossus; even his hands began to tremble. Amidst the murderous will, there was also a deep hatred for daybreak origin power.
This was a sentient weapon!
And considering its unique shape, Wei Potian gasped. “The Tempest!”
“Correct, this is the Tempest.” Nighteye nodded.
Wei Potian felt that something wasn’t quite right. This was the werewolves’ Grand Magnum, but wasn’t Nighteye a vampire?
At the same time that he caught the Tempest, he had a sudden urge to run away with it. However, he quickly dispersed the impractical notion. Ignoring how fast Nighteye was and whether he could even outrun her, it was easy to imagine what would happen to the thousands of Wei clan soldiers if he chose to do so.
In his heart, his brothers-in-arms were more valuable than this magnum.
Nighteye glanced at him with a spurious smile. “Aren’t you going to run off with it?”
Wei Potian sighed as he returned the weapon to Nighteye. “I can’t trade a gun for the lives of thousands of comrades. Besides, I can’t use it even if you give it to me, what’s the point?”
“You have some conscience after all.”
“Isn’t the Tempest from the werewolf race? Why is it in your hands?”
“Pioneering the new world is a major event for the Evernight Faction. The council has decided that the werewolves need to be a part of this, so we’ve allowed them to join us. I have to be guarded against your so-called heavenly monarchs, so I needed a good weapon. I’ve always felt that the Tempest was suitable for me, so I borrowed it for a couple of days.”
Nighteye made light of the situation, but Wei Potian felt secretly surprised. Getting her hands on the Tempest meant that Nighteye’s position in the council was even higher than the werewolf race.
And for her to have no fear of the heavenly monarchs after arming herself with the Tempest, that was rather inconceivable as well. After all, she was still a glorious marquis, a thousand miles away from a heavenly monarch. Wei Potian, though, didn’t think that she was bluffing—letting her bring a Grand Magnum to the front lines proved their confidence in her.
With the Tempest in hand, none of the Empire’s frontline generals would be a match for her.
Nighteye seemed to have read his thoughts. “Don’t worry, I won’t be using it against anyone but the heavenly monarchs. Otherwise, it’ll be too boring. Well, we’ve wasted enough time, now scram!”
Wei Potian left with the Wei clan soldiers in tow, his mind full of concern.
The dark races did make it difficult for them. For instance, they demanded that shoes were a part of the soldiers’ armor, so many of the warriors had to leave barefooted. This bit of hardship was nothing compared to survival. The men were moved to tears at how Wei Potian had given up a Grand Magnum for their lives; their loyalty to him was absolute and unconditional.
Back at the Imperial forward base, Song Zining was deep in thought in front of a map as the sounds of killing and fighting echoed outside. An aide ran in at this point, saying, “General Song, half of the enemy have fallen, they can’t hold on for much longer! Our flanking units are already in place to surround them. These werewolves can forget about escaping!”
Song Zining wasn’t happy at all. He muttered to himself with a deep frown, “Yeah… the werewolves, why are there werewolves in the field? And why are there only werewolves?!”
There was a series of hurried footsteps as Wei Potian’s loud voice arrived ahead of the person. “Zining, I’m back. Guess who I ran into?”
Without waiting for Song Zining to guess, Wei Potian said excitedly, “It’s Nighteye! Qianye’s wife!”
“Nighteye!”
Song Zining dropped the brush in his hand.
Wei Potian was surprised. He watched as the pen bounced on the floor, saying, “Why are you so surprised?”
Song Zining regained his composure and said with a forced smile, “It’s nothing, I haven’t seen her in a good while. How’s she doing, and how did you meet her? Come, let’s sit down and talk.”
After Song Zining had dismissed the staff, Wei Potian threw himself onto the sofa and said, “Sigh, I don’t even want to talk about it, it’s so embarrassing. I thought I was quite awesome to be able to handle four marquises at the same time, but who would’ve thought my Thousand Mountains couldn’t even take one slap from her? The second slap knocked me out completely.”
Song Zining would ask an occasional question while listening. His expression became unsightly when he heard that the Tempest was in her hands.
Wei Potian noticed the change. “What’s wrong with you?”
Song Zining seemed restless. “Do you really believe her?”
Wei Potian was stunned. “Why not? She’s Qianye’s wife.”
“She’s no longer.”
“When did that happen?” Wei Potian was confused.
“Sigh, you won’t understand even if I tell you.” Song Zining rushed out and assembled all of the staff officers, commanding them to withdraw all soldiers fighting who were still roaming the field.
