Although he couldn’t outargue Qianye, the business still had to be done. William scratched his head hard, trying to think of a way to move Qianye.
Looking at his clumsy figure, Qianye recalled the first time he had met William on Evernight Continent. The difference between the first impression versus after becoming familiar was so great that they almost felt like two different wolves. He then recalled someone mentioning that William was either underage or had just come of age.
Qianye felt a bit guilty for bullying a kid, and he really didn’t want to keep making things difficult for the fellow. “What kind of equipment do you produce? What kind of things do you want to sell me? You brought samples, right?”
The words woke William up. He produced several items with a flip of his hand and laid them out in front of Qianye. The equipment included a set of light armor, a set of heavy armor, several melee weapons, and a crude-looking origin gun.
Out of professional habit, Qianye picked up the origin gun and observed it carefully. The crude weapon was double-barreled and loaded from the rear, almost no different from an ordinary shotgun. Its bullets were also pellet shells. The meticulous structuring of its gun-barrel was what set it apart.
Qianye tried pulling one of the switches, but the mechanism rotated to a different side. This time the origin array was different.
He tried to study the array for a while, but he simply couldn’t figure out the structure so ended up asking William directly.
William explained, “These two arrays focus on different aspects. One serves to shrink the scatter to improve range and firepower. The other will increase the scatter for greater effect at close range.”
Qianye understood now. This was a combination of a long-barreled shotgun and a sawed-off shotgun, a fairly good idea. William explained its stats, which Qianye converted to imperial standards, and found that it was around grade-three. Yet, those at rank-one could use it since it was a specially enhanced type.
Its only shortcoming was also quite evident—the weight and accuracy. But considering the werewolves’ habits, they wanted nothing more than to press the muzzle against the enemy’s head before opening fire. Weak accuracy wasn’t that much of an issue since this was a shotgun.
Qianye looked over the other equipment. The armor was produced for the werewolf physique, allowing for great flexibility and even transformation. From a design standpoint, it was indeed tailored for a werewolf. The craftsmanship of the body armor wasn’t bad, either. The materials were solid and the set was a fairly good fit for individual soldiers.
The weapons were also the types most favored by werewolves. There was even a claw-glove that could extend their claws by half a meter, something Qianye found entirely unnecessary.
After looking through them, Qianye said, “Not bad.”
William grinned wide and was just about to blow his own trumpet when Qianye added, “They’re pretty good for an ordinary workshop, but it doesn’t make sense for the Summit of Peaks to produce such goods. Any second-rate workshop from the Empire can produce better weapons.”
“Design, it’s in the design! They aren’t werewolves, so their designs don’t fit werewolves.”
Qianye paid him no heed. “What about the price?”
A depressed William reported a string of prices. He shook his head with a sigh, ready to put the items away, when Qianye stopped him.
“I’ll take them. Let’s start with… two hundred thousand sets. I only have ore, though.”
Qianye’s voice sounded like heavenly music to William’s ears. “Two hundred thousand sets? Oh my, we might not have enough stock. But don’t worry, I’ll figure it out! Ore’s fine, I’ll take ore!”
Qianye couldn’t help but shake his head after seeing William beside himself with joy. This fellow was probably the worst candidate to come out and do business. He was clearly wise and unflustered back when he was dealing with the werewolves’ internal conflict and all the hidden friction with the vampires.
Qianye’s thoughts wandered here and there. Could it be that werewolves returning to their ancestry would grow more childish as they grew stronger?
William paid no heed to Qianye’s weird gaze, nor his reason for ordering two hundred thousand sets of armaments in one go. In truth, there was only one reason—the price he had quoted was only half of the Empire’s products of the same level.
The young werewolf was clearly preoccupied with other things. He suddenly turned serious, saying, “Can I see the city and army camp?”
Qianye found it odd. “With your ability, who can stop you if you want to go and take a look?”
“I want you to take me on a tour.” William was insistent.
Qianye had no idea what he was thinking. He said helplessly, “Follow me, then.”
The two moved swiftly, Qianye with Spatial Flash and William gliding through the air in his giant wolf form. The two arrived in Cerulean Wave City in the blink of an eye and, after touring the city briefly, proceeded to the military camp. Qianye showed William around the camp and introduced the various facilities.
William showed little interest in traditionally important locations like the armory and cannon turrets. Instead, he was quite interested in the tents, mess hall, and toilets.
He then asked about the military contributions system. Qianye had no reservations in this regard—he called for one of his men to bring a ready-made booklet and passed it to William.
After reading through the contents carefully, William said with a sigh, “Clear cut punishments and rewards, an orderly hierarchy, and the werewolves’ position in the army is not lower than the humans and your mercenaries from the neutral lands. How did you manage it?”
“Just like that, what’s so difficult?”
“You used to be ruthless toward the dark races, including us werewolves.” William looked aggrieved. “Including me, your good friend.”
Qianye blinked innocently. For the longest time, William’s strength was overwhelmingly above his. He wouldn’t even be able to escape if he didn’t go all out. Later on, they fell on completely different sides as factional wars broke out.
William wasn’t really looking for an explanation, either. After the joke, he said, “How come you’re accommodating werewolves now?”
Qianye said after some thought, “The werewolves here have suffered so much, and they are completely sincere with their submission. There’s no way I can kill ten million werewolves who wish to follow me. That’s no longer killing enemies, that’s a massacre.”
William patted Qianye’s shoulder. “Regardless, I’ve already seen how the werewolves under your rule are living. Let’s go, I want to take you to see a certain person.”
“Who?”
“You’ll know when we get there.”
Qianye simply followed William, not at all worried about a trap.
Having reached a certain level of strength, the two of them moved with great speed. Qianye had the advantage since he could use Spatial Flash, but William’s saunter through the air—despite looking slow and relaxed—was also extremely fast. The two had reached the edge of the Jade Sea in less than half a day.
Qianye came to a stop, saying, “We’ll be in Storm’s territory if we go further. We have an agreement not to take part in the battle.”
William didn’t reply and only pointed downward. Qianye’s expression shifted noticeably as he gazed in the direction.
Below were the remains of a destroyed tribal army camp. That was no surprise since burning enemy cities and depriving them of a base was common practice. However, there were numerous stakes erected around the camp, and a werewolf impaled on each of them. Many of them were in strange postures, which went to show that they had been impaled alive and burned to death on the stake.
The most eye-catching feature was that these werewolves were rather small, children apparently.
Qianye sighed, “What? You can’t accept this?”
William shook his head. “These werewolves live under primitive conditions. To the Summit of Peaks, these barbaric and bloodthirsty werewolves still don’t know the difference between prey and intelligent species. They can’t even count as a member of our race, really. You humans would probably be eaten alive if you were to fall into these werewolves’ hands. Anything is possible in the face of such hatred. It’s just that I don’t feel good after seeing what’s going on.”
Qianye didn’t know how to console him, either. This was the plight of the werewolf race—a combination of ancient and modern, ignorance and intelligence.
William said, “The Summit of Peaks has always held a neutral stance against the ancestral school, neither recognizing nor interfering with their activities. At first, I thought there was no good solution, but you showed me a path.”
“What path?” Qianye couldn’t understand.
“A path for them to escape the ancestral school, to embrace reason and intelligence.”
William didn’t explain further. Instead, he transformed into his giant wolf form and howled at the sky. He had channeled sufficient origin power, causing his voice to spread far and wide. Qianye managed to catch a certain note in the howl, a low beat akin to a war-drum. Ordinary people couldn’t hear it, but its travel range was much further than ordinary soundwaves.
Moments later, a faint howl that sounded like a reply arrived from the distance. A second howl rang out within moments, and this time, it was much closer. A while later, a tall elderly man with white hair appeared before the two.
“Storm Duke!” A pair of luminous wings unfurled behind Qianye as he made ready to attack at full force.
Qianye had formally reached the vice-duke rank. He would normally be quite confident about defeating the likes of the Storm Duke, but this werewolf was extremely swift and powerful. A moment of carelessness might see the tables flip.
Startled, the Storm Duke retreated almost immediately upon seeing Qianye. Two sharp blades popped out of his sleeves and into his grasp as he stared intently at Qianye. “You’re going back on your words!”
“I brought him here.” William transformed back into his human form and began dressing up.
The Storm Duke didn’t relax in the slightest. “I know you. You’re William, the number one genius from the Summit of Peaks and a candidate for the next successor. You people have always held yourselves high, why are you here on this impoverished continent?”
William was expressionless as his blue eyes gazed deeply into the Storm Duke’s. He went straight to the point, saying, “I hope you’ll admit that Qianye is the true son of darkness.”
“Impossible!” The Storm Duke’s volume rose sharply.
Admitting that Qianye was the son of darkness meant giving up his entire territory. How could the arrogant duke accept this? Besides, Qianye was only a vice duke—although he had forced the Storm Duke to hold back even as a glorious marquis, the difference on paper was substantial. It would be a humiliation for him to submit to Qianye.
William had long since expected such a situation. He laughed coldly, saying, “Look at the werewolves under your rule! They don’t even get a basic period of maturation! You’ve been pretending for far too long. You can forget about leaving today if you aren’t willing to relinquish the authority.”
The Storm Duke laughed loudly, “With just you two? William, you are indeed powerful but you’re still a glorious marquis. How can you beat me? Laughable! Have you all gone mad without the protection of the ancestral spirits?”
William spoke no more. He transformed into a giant wolf again and let out an earth-shattering howl!
The Storm Duke’s expression shifted drastically. He could feel his aura declining rapidly in the face of William’s howl. In the blink of an eye, he had fallen to the vice-duke realm!
