After the ceremony was over, Qianye instructed the men to clean the battlefield. The werewolves broke out in cheers as the great shaman sang the announcement. They began dancing while picking out their prey, almost as though it was a celebration of sorts.
Qianye was speechless. At this rate, the casualties would be severe if those beasts charged out in the tens of thousands. Yet, it was already a difficult task for these werewolves to remain in a military formation in battle. Cleaning up the battlefield according to military standards was too much to ask of them. Even Eiseka couldn’t quite keep his soldiers in check at this point.
Qianye had just ordered the mercenaries and human soldiers to form a defensive line when a wave of beasts charged out of the mist!
This wave wasn’t very big, but their numbers were still in the tens of thousands. Ten thousand alien monsters were akin to ten thousand elite soldiers. It wasn’t impossible for them to scatter an army several times their size amidst the chaos and disarray. At least the damage would be significant.
Qianye’s heart tightened along with his grip on East Peak, ready to step forward and intercept the enemy. However, he was already exhausted in the previous battle and could no longer use Spatial Flash. Even flying was a bit forced at this moment.
The surprising thing was that the werewolves in the periphery weren’t panicked by the incoming enemies. Instead, they howled at the sky spiritedly.
This was their warning signal after discovering an enemy. All the werewolves on the battlefield turned toward the direction.
“More food!” An unknown person’s shout ignited all the werewolves, who charged toward the beast army like the raging tides!
Tens of thousands of alien beasts were quickly drowned out.
There was limited space on the battlefront, enough for about a hundred thousand werewolves. Hence, the remaining few hundred thousand of them could only stay outside restlessly.
Looking at the messy werewolves squeezing themselves through the unformed front lines, Song Lun whispered, “We’d best not mess with those hungry wolves.”
Song Hui agreed deeply.
As for Dark Flame’s mercenaries and the human soldiers from Zheng, they were dumbfounded by the entire process. The battle was fairly hard-fought in the beginning, but they couldn’t even get to the front lines anymore later on.
When the werewolves finally dispersed, the enemy beasts had already turned into large chunks of meat and were being hauled away.
Qianye heaved a sigh of relief to see that these werewolves still had the sense to return to base.
The great shaman moved closer to Qianye and said hesitantly, “Sire, our tribesmen wish to request something of you.”
“What is it?”
“We hope Her Highness Zhuji can stand aside and watch the next battle. She’s too young, after all, and not suited for battle.”
Not suitable for battle? Qianye remembered Song Zining using her to block a divine champion’s punch back in Indomitable. These beasts might be able to tear through armor but not necessarily Little Zhuji’s skin.
The werewolf shaman spoke tactfully, but Qianye quickly realized his intention. Not knowing whether to laugh or to cry, he said, “You want more prey?”
The great shaman laughed along. “Yes, yes. One breath from Her Highness can render thousands of beasts untouchable. It’s truly… a pity.”
“That’s the only way to reduce your casualties.”
Zhuji’s breath didn’t just kill all the beasts in the area-of-effect, it would also produce a large residual field of poison. Even before the poison could fully take effect, simple passage through the area was enough to kill most enemy creatures. The soldiers on Qianye’s side would not have been able to catch their breath so quickly had this poison field not weakened the enemies.
What the great shaman replied was: “Dying on the battlefield is the fate of warriors while prey and food will help many more children grow up. We’re willing to pay the price for this reward.”
He added after some thought, “In the past, we never even dared to imagine we would get benefits out of sacrifice.”
Qianye was helpless against this horde of hungry wolves and could only nod. He felt heavy in his heart, but glancing at the great shaman, he really didn’t know what kind of mood he should be in.
It was already night by the time the cleanup was over. Most of the beast carcasses had been categorized and shipped to the rear. Here, tens of thousands of female and elderly werewolves had gathered to smoke the precious supply of meat and preserve it for the winter.
After Qianye returned to the warship, Song Hui came to him with a pile of documents. “I have good news and good news, which one do you want to hear first?”
Different types of good news? Qianye shrugged. “Either.”
“The results of the study are out. Most of the beasts possess a type of gland inside, probably its blood-producing organ. Eating it will allow one to resist the effects of the white mist. The tests show that any warrior with origin power can endure the effects of the peripheral mist and even last about half an hour in the depths.”
“It’s that effective?”
Song Hui explained, “The mechanism should involve a change in the body after eating the gland, allowing them to adapt to the misty environment.”
“What’s the other news?”
“This physical change is temporary. In the limited time we had, we noticed the effects slowly deteriorating. At this rate, one ingestion might last for around ten days, and they will need to take it again afterward.”
“Is this good news?”
“Of course it is. This means that the change to the body isn’t permanent. You have to know that permanent modifications aren’t a good thing. You might be able to adapt to the environment inside the mist, but what if you can’t adapt to the environment here? It will affect cultivation.”
Qianye finally nodded. “Fine, that’s good news as well then.”
Qianye went straight to the equipment area after leaving the command room. There, he requested a new set of armor and began putting it on. “Tell Xu Jingxuan and Eiseka to wait for me on the front lines. Oh right, have they eaten those things?”
Song Hui replied, “All the high-ranking officers have eaten them.”
Qianye’s movements froze. “What’s going on?”
“They want to follow you into the mist and scoop out the creatures’ nest. So, they all ate the glands after the results came out. You know these blood glands are everywhere on the battlefield.”
Qianye continued wearing his armor. “This must not happen again in the future! Inform the generals to pick fifty thousand soldiers and prepare blood glands for them. Wait for me to return before launching the attack.”
Moments later, Qianye met up with Xu Jingxuan and Eiseka and led them into the depths of the misty region.
Not long after entering, Xu Jingxuan glanced at the surroundings and then at himself. He took a deep breath, saying, “How miraculous, I actually don’t feel any pressure.”
Eiseka said thoughtfully, “If it’s that effective, maybe we can find other methods.”
The three arrived before the wall of mist before Xu Jingxuan and Eiseka started to feel slight discomfort, albeit still bearable. Qianye stepped into the wall first, followed by the two.
The space inside the wall of mist had narrowed significantly. The group walked out from the other side after traveling less than ten meters.
This time, Qianye stepped through the screen swiftly and left no time for the creatures hiding behind it to attack. However, he discovered that there was not a single beast here. Xu Jingxuan and Eiseka emerged soon afterward, both of them stunned upon seeing the vast world.
Having been here once, Qianye immediately glanced at the end of the valley. That high platform was still there, but it was no longer shrouded in mist and that six-armed creature was nowhere to be found.
Qianye jumped into the valley and crouched down to observe the ground. There were neatly arranged craters all over the ground, and they were more or less the same size. The holes in the neighboring area were much larger. Apparently, the beasts that used to rest here were much bigger.
These alien beasts would stop almost all of their vital functions while resting; their vitality was even lower than some of the hibernating animals in the Evernight World, so much so that they were no different from rocks. Their skin contained a thick corneal layer, covered by a hardened layer that could lock in moisture and prevent it from being drawn out by the surroundings.
Qianye had seen a hundred-thousand-strong beast army resting in such a state. If they could keep up that condition for a long time, their supply requirements would be extremely small.
After observing the resting area in the valley, Qianye gestured to Eiseka and Xu Jingxuan to go back and await orders. He then headed over to the stone platform himself.
The valley was big, but Qianye moved swiftly and arrived before the stone platform in the blink of an eye. The platform was made up of stone blocks of various shapes and sizes. There was a type of inexplicable beauty in natural rocks being pieced together so neatly. There was no binding material between them, yet the rocks formed a perfect rectangle.
Qianye jumped onto the stage and saw that the large stone chair was still there. From the side, one could see that the four-meter chair was built in the shape of the six-armed giant.
Qianye circled around the platform but found no secret mechanism or door. He observed the stone chair and found that its surface was smooth. Its back, however, was decorated with several rows of unknown words and patterns. Apparently, this chair was frequently used, and the six-armed creature would frequently appear in this area.
Now, however, there wasn’t a single beast in the valley, and there was no trace of that six-armed creature. The environment here was weird—the air was moist and cold, but the land was extremely arid. Qianye simply couldn’t understand how this came to be. One thing was certain, most traces left behind by the living beings would be wiped away.
Finding no clue around the platform, he jumped past it and began running toward the other end of the valley. He climbed up a hill a while later and found the scenery before him open up.
What appeared before him was a barren world, with windswept stone pillars jutting out from the rugged landscape. The vegetation was largely made up of shrubs and cacti, their thorns shining with a metallic glow.
There were several giant trees over the distant horizon. From what he could see, Qianye guessed that these trees were close to a thousand meters tall and almost a hundred meters in diameter. Each of their leaves was likely the size of a dining table.
This world was oddly quiet, and there was no sign of life within his vision. It was almost impossible to imagine that the two beast hordes had originated from this place.
Taking a deep breath, Qianye spread his senses to the surroundings. The origin power here was chaotic, turbid, and contained an abnormal ratio of daybreak origin power. The only problem was that it was too violent, akin to burning coal. Ordinary people might die of burned innards.
To Qianye, with his Glory Chapter, this was a great place to cultivate. This scorching origin power was a far cry from Venus Dawn, nor was it a match for void origin power in its destructive power. With how tyrannical Qianye’s Profound Combatant Formula was, it could be said that his cultivation would progress by leaps and bounds here, not at all slower than in the Great Maelstrom.
