Volume 4 – Perpetual Conflict, Chapter 42: A Daughter All Grown Up
Zhao Kai was completely puzzled—frank people like him were usually quite stubborn with their beliefs and not easily dissuaded.
And unlike Uncle Wang, Zhao Kai was an actual cousin of Zhao Weihuang who watched Zhao Ruoxi and her siblings grow up. At that time, Zhao Weihuang’s branch wasn’t the head of the clan. Thus, his attitude was more that of an elder than a retainer like Uncle Wang.
Uncle Wang suddenly interrupted, “Old Brother Zhao, think about it, it might not be a good thing for the young miss if more than one person can use the Red Spider Lily. It might not necessarily be good for our Zhao clan either. Additionally, that person is capable of materializing such an astonishing innate gift form. Even if it was induced by the Red Spider Lily, this still signifies that his inheritance and secret arts aren’t simple at all. If he’s from another clan…”
Zhao Kai was astonished. Uncle Wang’s words made sense—regarding a grand magnum like the Red Spider Lily, no one could be certain this young man would belong to the Zhao clan. The imperial court might even make the first move before them. If he himself was already the scion of a certain clan, it certainly wouldn’t be Zhao clan’s turn to claim the benefits.
He immediately replied, “Then we might as well…” But he quickly withdrew his suggestion about eliminating the subject.
A rank seven fighter being hunted down by a dark race champion indicated that his identity wasn’t simple. And despite all that, the brat was actually still alive! He might even have companions nearby. With regards to silencing someone, firstly one had to worry that the target was of a distinguished identity, secondly, there was the risk of not being secretive enough and being easily exposed later on.
As such, there were unpredictable risk factors involved in both recruiting and silencing this greatly defective talent. On the contrary, the most certain option would be to seal their lips tight and let this incident quietly pass by.
Zhao Kai couldn’t help but nod. Although somewhat dissatisfied, he had already begun to agree with this method.
A mysterious look flashed across Xixi’s eyes as she said slowly, “Uncle Kai, you should know how difficult it is for our Duke Chengen lineage. Although both I and fourth brother are slow-witted, we still believe we can carry on father’s legacy. The two elders definitely won’t be mistreated no matter who becomes the clan head in the future.”
Zhao Kai gazed at the little girl whose calm demeanor was so different from the past and suddenly felt quite satisfied. It felt as if he was seeing a daughter mature. No follower would worry about a clan scion being too ambitious—only the opposite because the subordinates would then have no future.
Duke Chengen was Zhao Weihuang’s title. However, the two hereditary dukes of the Swallow Cloud Zhao Clan were Duke Yan and Duke You respectively. In the past, the clan head would be born from one of their two branches. From this, one could imagine the meaning behind Xixi’s words about how difficult it was for the Duke Chengen lineage. Zhao Kai naturally knew that Zhao Weihuang had faced countless crises and power struggles in order to become the clan head.
Two years had passed since Zhao Weihuang ascended to the position of clan head, but even now, the situation wasn’t quite stable. On one hand, Duke Yan and Duke You were both well-established and still possessed great influence, while on the other, Duke Chengen’s title wasn’t hereditary. This meant that Zhao Weihuang couldn’t pass the title to his children.
Among Zhao Weihuang’s current children, Zhao Jundu was the most hopeful of succeeding his father’s business. He was a well-recognized genius who had touched the threshold of champion rank at 20 years of age. Xixi, on the other hand, was a special case among special cases. She had shown an affinity toward the grand magnum Red Spider Lily since she was only three years old. However, she was born with a weak constitution and suffered several bouts of critical illness during childhood. As such, this owner of the Red Spider Lily was rarely involved in administrative affairs despite her superior status.
There was another implication within the latter half of Xixi’s words—that she was already allied with Zhao Jundu. With these two working together, chances of the clan head position staying with the Duke Chengen lineage was greatly increased. This came as a wonderful news to people like Zhao Kai who were attached to Zhao Weihuang.
Although Xixi and Zhao Jundu were allied, there was still some rivalry between them. They certainly couldn’t let the other party catch wind of there being a second person who could use the Red Spider Lily. It would be difficult to tell if Duke Chengen would favor the son or the daughter after being informed of this matter.
Zhao Kai, feeling as if he now understood everything, patted his chest and said, “Young miss can rest assured. I’ve completely stuffed this matter into my stomach.”
Xixi smiled sweetly in response.
As for Uncle Wang, he was an elder brought into the Zhao clan by Princess Gaoyi, mother to Xixi and the fourth young master. His status was self-evident.
Meanwhile, Qianye was standing beside the vampire viscount’s corpse and trying to recall the memories he seemed to have lost. He clearly remembered that a bottomless abyss had appeared after the hammer struck, seemingly poised to suck the whole world into it.
Qianye frowned. There was definitely something wrong with that gun.
The principle behind origin guns was the activation of the array with instilled origin power. Individual control and strength of one’s origin power, as well as the compatibility of the origin power attribute and the array, would affect the final firepower. During this process, the wielder was certainly the active component. He had never heard of an origin gun that could draw energy as if it was sentient.
Sentient? Qianye’s heart was shaken. He suddenly recalled a certain legend in which each gun was sentient and would choose its owner.
Just like most people, he had dismissed this as an exaggerated rhetoric. The spirit was an exceptionally mysterious field. Even the peak characters of the empire were still debating its existence. As for the dark races, it was said that some demonkin wizards knew secret arts that could restrain spirits. However, no one had actually witnessed it.
Could that have been… the real Red Spider Lily?
This was simply too unbelievable. This almost ridiculous notion only flashed through his mind for a moment because even Qianye himself didn’t quite believe he could activate the Red Spider Lily. That grand magnum, one of the ten famous guns, had mostly remained ownerless during these long years, not to mention there being two people at the same time who could use it.
He rapidly shook his head and decided not to waste any more time on such mysterious things. Although this mountainous region was quite close to human territory, there might still be dark race warriors passing by. If they discovered that he had killed a viscount from the illustrious Byrne clan, he would land in even more trouble than taking Marquis Ross’s Twin Flowers.
Qianye swiftly searched through Zalen’s belongings. He found that the vampire viscount had set out in a hurry and wasn’t prepared for a prolonged chase. The weapons he had on him focused on portability. There was also an empty blood crystal box, but judging from its size, the contents were probably not for replenishment.
His gun was a grade six handgun and its cartridge, capable of holding five rounds, was already empty. Qianye recalled the times Zalen had opened fire at him and concluded that shooting wasn’t the viscount’s strong suit. He didn’t even bring any extra ammunition.
Zalen didn’t carry a longsword like most vampires and only carried a dagger that was somewhat shorter than the Radiant Edge. Qianye thought about it for a moment and immediately turned to check the vampire viscount’s hands. There, he unexpectedly discovered extremely thin finger-sleeves worn on the thumb and middle fingers of both hands. They were as thin as a cicada’s wings and made of an unknown material that was both strong and flexible.
Qianye was somewhat alarmed and a chill went down his spine. At this moment, he was rejoicing over his cautiousness and good fortune in not giving his assailant any opportunity to come into close range. Judging from the weapons carried by this dark race champion, it was obvious that he was a melee expert who exerts his might through his fingers.
Qianye drew the dagger and found a certain seal near the base of the shaft. Its name was Scarlet Edge. The dagger was of the same grade as the Radiant Edge, but its quality and craftsmanship was almost a grade above the latter.
At this moment, Qianye was already quite experienced with vampire melee weapons and was able to recognize several types of arrays amidst the complicated and beautiful design patterns, including the commonly seen firmness, sharpness, and blood absorption arrays.
He held the Scarlet Edge and gazed hesitantly at Zalen’s corpse.
Vampire bodies would also undergo changes after reaching the champion rank. The vampire heart would condense into a blood core where the greater half of his flesh and blood essence would aggregate. Even a low ranking blood core could be sold for a sky-high price. Its uses ranged from origin arrays to medicines, and a single blood core could be exchanged for a grade six origin gun.
On the other hand, it would increase Qianye’s strength by a level if he were to absorb it himself.
But after some thought, he decided to put it away in the empty crystal box.
It would inevitably take a long time to absorb and digest the dark race champion’s essence blood. Drawing from his past experience with the arachne viscount Brahm, Qianye knew he might even be rendered immobile for a couple of days. It truly wasn’t safe to do so in this border region where there was danger lurking in every direction. Additionally, he had to deliver the boulderheart jade letter to its destination as quickly as possible. He couldn’t just hide somewhere for half a month.
Qianye pierced the Scarlet Edge into Zalen’s already empty heart. The remaining blood energy flowed into his body through the dagger and, just as before, rejuvenated his spirit.
Finally, he found some random bits and pieces within a bag, including some crystal currency. There were actually several rutilated crystals among them. That was the most valuable common currency of the dark races, each equal to a thousand imperial gold coins.
He also found a red crystal pendant casually strung with a black rope, its style was a stark contrast to the exquisitely crafted vampire ornaments. Qianye had a feeling that the patterns on the red crystal were actually origin arrays and man-made ones at that. He tossed it into his pocket when he saw no reaction after instilling some origin power into it.
The items in the other two small boxes shocked Qianye quite a bit.
One of them was also a blood crystal, but its color was deeper than any Qianye had ever seen. There were some strands of bizarre purple in its center, and from this piece of crystal, Qianye sensed an aura similar to the purple blood energy in his body. He had no idea why Zalen hadn’t used this piece of blood crystal.
The other was an origin bullet box. He could sense the violent energy contained within just by holding the box without even opening it. Through the crystal cover, one could see a single purple-red origin bullet. There were extremely complicated and densely packed patterns carved upon it, forming an origin array which served to firmly lock the origin power inside the shell.
Qianye was suddenly drenched in sweat as he recognized the material of this bullet. Although he had not seen it personally, the classes in Red Scorpion had touched upon the general knowledge regarding all high-level armaments.
This should be the legendary black titanium, a rare and exotic metal found only in places with dense darkness origin power. It possessed exceptional sturdiness but extremely lightweight.
Black titanium possessed great destructive powers toward all living things and, due to its attribute properties, does even greater damage to those from the Daybreak faction. Additionally, a smith capable of handling such a rare material would inevitably be a great master. Judging from the top-notch craftsmanship and the violent energy contained within the bullet, its might was far above that of a mithril bullet of exorcism.
Black titanium bullets were listed as champion-level killer weapons within the empire’s armament evaluation list. It was said that human champions who suffered a direct shot from such a bullet would be gravely wounded even if he didn’t die on the spot.
Fortunately, black titanium was extremely rare, and those continents with the densest darkness origin power were ill-suited for survival, even to the dark races. As such, there was never a way to mass produce black titanium bullets of annihilation.
It seemed the vampire viscount couldn’t bear to use such a rare and valuable bullet on Qianye, hence, allowing the latter to survive this tribulation. Otherwise, how could Qianye escape the explosion? Even if Zalen wasn’t too accurate, the deviation shouldn’t be that significant. And the destructive powers of the black titanium bullet of annihilation possessed an area of effect.
Qianye cleaned up the scene of battle and thoroughly wiped away traces of himself and Xixi before throwing Zalen’s corpse into a ravine thousands of meters away.
