The giant glanced at Qianye, then back at the spears, his eyes full of disbelief. He had never imagined that this scrawny little fellow—who wasn’t even as big as his t.h.i.g.h—would possess such strength.
No matter how he looked, he felt that Qianye was as weak as an ant. It was a humiliation to have one’s weapon broken by such a weak enemy.
He raised his giant palm and slapped down with great force, only realizing his mistake halfway.
It was too late by then. A bulge appeared on the back of the giant’s hand, almost as though he had slapped a nail. The skin there was stretched to its limits before bursting apart in a cloud of blood. Qianye rushed out from the opening, sword still raised upward.
The azure blade was incomparably sharp, and its material was almost indestructible after many years of tampering at Howard’s side. The weapon was unharmed even after taking on the two spears the size of tree trunks. No matter how tough this giant’s palm was, it couldn’t be tougher than the wood in the inner world. That was why swatting Qianye could only end one way.
Qianye circled around in the air and slammed onto the enemy’s back like a bullet. The giant was sent flying, almost as though a void colossus had rammed into him. However, a pair of black wings unfurled as the giant came to a weird stop in the air. He then spun about and stomped Qianye away.
This time, Qianye flew back hundreds of meters and crashed into several trees before coming to a stop.
This exchange of blows seemed to have injured both parties quite a bit. The giant’s arrogance and contempt were nowhere to be found, replaced by shock and seriousness.
Qianye’s gaze landed on the enemy’s wings. Those black wings were rather short, but they seemed to be able to control space, allowing the giant to perform some unbelievable maneuvers.
Qianye couldn’t help but find these wings somewhat familiar.
The giant checked his back repeatedly after landing. There was a hole there spurting a fountain of blood. A mere beast hide shirt wasn’t capable of stopping the azure blade.
Qianye clambered up from the ground and stretched his body. He then put away the azure blade and made a provocative gesture at the giant.
This time, Qianye met the enemy with his fists. The two parties traded punch after punch, fighting until the world almost lost its light.
After god knew how long, Qianye caught one of the giant’s legs. He spun the enemy about with a loud roar and slammed him ruthlessly into the ground like a hammer. A pit several dozen meters in diameter appeared amidst a cloud of dust. The excessive force caused Qianye to lose his grip on the giant, flinging the latter away after the impact.
The giant rolled through the woods, destroying countless giant trees until he came to a stop several hundred meters away. He tried to stand up several times but ended up collapsing.
Qianye looked rather pale as this battle had placed a great strain on him. However, his aura was already recovering rapidly as he walked over in large strides. Qianye’s endurance in combat was now unparalleled following the remodeling with chaos origin power.
Qianye still didn’t draw his sword because he wanted to capture the giant alive. The other party was an intelligent creature, so there would surely be a way to communicate with him given enough time. Those who were strong enough could even communicate directly via consciousness. Capturing this giant would reveal a certain portion of the new world’s secrets.
Just as the matter of this giant had just been settled, Qianye suddenly felt a sharp sense of threat. He halted his steps and glanced around.
Rustling sounds echoed through the woods as countless figures slowly emerged. These creatures looked similar to the one Qianye had been chasing in the very beginning—they were smaller versions of the giant.
This time, Qianye could clearly see their appearance.
They were about two meters tall and looked rather comical with their long limbs. Most of them were clad in leather armor and holding spears or javelins. Their weapons and clothes were just as crude as the giant’s.
Despite the crudeness of their equipment, they were extremely fast. This granted great power to their spear and javelin attacks, so much so that even Qianye couldn’t ignore them.
And now, there were hundreds of them.
These “people” didn’t attack immediately after appearing. Instead, they cried out loudly with hatred and fear in their eyes, waving their weapons at Qianye. It was only after more of their number arrived that they pressed forward.
Some of the stronger ones scooped out some greyish white powder and put it on their faces. This powder emitted a pungent odor that Qianye could smell from some distance away.
Apparently, they felt that Qianye would fear them more after applying the powder. Their speed of advance increased a bit.
Qianye felt puzzled more than anything. He had no idea what these primitive warriors were trying to do. Were they trying to smoke him away with the odor? No matter how incapable Qianye was, he could still go on without breathing for half a day or even longer. All he needed to do was absorb origin power.
Qianye might not understand their intentions, but the enemy numbers were simply too great.
A glint appeared in Qianye’s eyes as the other side arrived within a hundred meters. All of a sudden, he flashed into their midst, grabbed one of the warriors, and vanished over the horizon.
The soldiers fell into chaos. They did their utmost to run after Qianye, so much so that they didn’t even bother with the injured giant. However, Qianye’s Spatial Flash was so fast that he was gone in the blink of an eye.
Half a day later, Qianye appeared outside of a natural stone cave and tossed the warrior to the ground. The man lay limp with his eyes closed, not making the slightest movement.
“Enough, stop playing dead. I know you’re conscious,” Qianye said. He had used his consciousness to aid in transferring the message. An intelligent life form should be able to understand the gist. This was a method used by the Empire and Evernight to communicate with unknown intelligent creatures. The earliest form was developed for communicating with void colossi.
The warrior actually understood Qianye’s words. He jumped up from the floor in shock and latched onto the roof of the cave, all his limbs reversed.
Qianye said impatiently, “Come down. You can’t escape from me even in the woods, let alone in this cave.”
The warrior’s tension and hostility slowly eased up. He landed from the roof but maintained a cautious, arched posture that would facilitate a potential escape—although that would be a vain attempt.
He stared at Qianye. “What… do you want?”
Qianye was surprised that the fellow could also use consciousness to communicate. He was speaking his own language, but the message was still expressed quite fluently. In terms of language, he wasn’t below Qianye at all.
Only a duke would be able to master such a secret art. The man before Qianye, however, was only about marquis rank in overall capability. This meant that his communication arts were superior to those in Evernight.
Since they could communicate, that made things a lot easier. Qianye simply sat down in front of the person and said, “I want to know about this place, where this is, who are you people, how you live, and why the sun is black.”
“This place… is this place…” He didn’t know how to express it.
Qianye understood after giving it some thought. To this native warrior, this was where he was born and where he lived; there was nothing special that he could tell Qianye.
“Let it be then, let’s ignore that question for now. What people are you?”
“People?”
“That’s what we call ourselves.”
The man understood. “We are the Attawa, which means children of light and darkness. There are thirteen tribes in total, representing the thirteen stars between Daybreak and Evernight. I am the son of the second tribe’s chieftain.”
Qianye walked out of the cave and looked up. The black sun hung high in the air, but its halo was gone now that it was night. There was only darkness in the background, so how could there be any stars?
“What do you mean by stars?” Qianye asked.
“Stars are stars. They appear only at night and release their radiance to guide our lost tribesmen.” The Attawa chieftain’s son spoke quite a bit.
Qianye glanced out of the cave once more but still couldn’t find any stars in the sky. Glancing at the Attawa’s dark red pupils, Qianye thought of something and promptly switched his vision.
Yet Qianye couldn’t see any stars no matter what vision he used. All he could see at a glance was the all-suppressing sun, emitting origin power that couldn’t be seen with the n.a.k.e.d eye.
Qianye simply dragged the chieftain’s son to the entrance and pointed at the sky. “Where are the stars you speak of?”
The man pointed at his c.h.e.s.t. “Of course they’re within our hearts. Why are you searching in the sky?”
“In your heart?” Qianye felt somewhat angry.
“Of course, where else can they be?” The chieftain’s son wasn’t afraid. On the contrary, he spoke as though it was right and proper. “The thirteen sacred stars are extremely far from our world. You cannot see them, but you can sense them with your heart.”
With that, he added, “Tribes with different bloodlines can sense different sacred stars.”
