Volume 2 – Bloom of the Other Shore Flower, Chapter 5: Peaceful Life
Qianye had another doubt in his mind. He could not feel the slightest bit of origin power from the girl’s body, so either she did not cultivate any origin power at all, or she was powerful to the extent where Qianye was incapable of detecting any origin power from her whatsoever.
The latter was obviously impossible. Even an elite at Uncle Wang’s level could hardly conceal their own origin power, so it just wasn’t possible that such a young girl would have an even greater power than him.
But it was also very strange to assume that she was the former. The true aristocratic families of the Empire would never lack resources, and if any child among their families had even a speck of talent, they would be completely unearthed and nurtured for their own purposes. It was rumored that some aristocratic families even had secret arts that could almost be considered to defy against the natural order itself. So even if she had no origin talent at all, as long as her family was willing to invest huge sums of resources, then they could create an extraordinary talent out of nowhere just the same.
Obviously, it was impossible that this girl wouldn’t have any talent at all. So the fact that she appeared to have no origin power at all became very strange. There must be something that he wasn’t seeing just yet.
Moreover, Qianye also sensed the hint of a familiar scent on the girl.
Suddenly, Qianye laughed derisively at himself. What did this girl’s predicament have anything to do with him? Even if the girl did run into some kind of problem, if it was something that could not even be solved by the huge family behind her, then how could a lowly blood thrall like him, who struggled to live between rubbish and ferocious beasts, possibly help her?
Any sack of that kind of tip tossed out casually by a servant of the girl’s would be enough for him to live for several lifetimes in this wasteland, not to mention that his lingering intimidation was sufficient to frighten the lawless expeditionary army from robbing him. On the contrary, they were even showing him good will.
But this was all meaningless. Perhaps not far away in the future the dark blood in him would break out completely, and he would turn into a corpse in this landfill and become dinner to scavengers and wild dogs.
Qianye covered up the crystalline box again, cutting off the origin aura of the Mithril Bullets of Exorcism. If he continued to expose these three extremely precious Mithril Bullets of Exorcism in the open, then the origin power inside them would leak out continuously over the next few days before dissipating entirely. These three bullets would then become normal mithril bullets. This was why all physical bullets infused with origin power needed to be stored in special containers.
This crystalline box was a top grade container on its own, capable of isolating nearly all origin power. It could preserve origin power bullets for up to an entire year! This box alone was worth a few hundred imperial gold coins. The origin bullet boxes distributed by the Red Scorpion Corps could only preserve origin power bullets for a month. Moreover, the power of the origin bullets would diminish continuously during the one month period.
The instillation process of origin power into the bullets was done by at least a rank three cultivator. As usual, these bullets required the use of an origin power gun. However, since the bullets were difficult to preserve, and its instillation process would greatly drag down one’s cultivation speed, the Red Scorpion’s soldiers would only begin instilling origin power into their bullets before battle. There was almost no market at all for these type of bullets.
Qianye put the Mithril Bullets of Exorcism back into the black, velvet sack and returned it to the shelf. Due to the dark blood inside his body, he instinctively wanted to move away from the three mithril bullets. Right now, the weakness brought by the nightmare was slowly fading, and his senses had regained their acuteness once more. He immediately heard some strange noises through the walls next to his room.
It was the voice of a man and woman, f*cking each other while moaning as the bed creaked. The adjacent room was the Red Spider Lily’s guest room, so the second Qianye heard the noises, he knew that the big bed soldered with angle iron was in danger of collapsing from the intense shaking at any moment.
The woman was crying at the top of her lungs. The man should be that big one-eyed man. It seemed like he was trying to squeeze out the full worth of his coin. Meanwhile, there were also some faint noises from the other side of the room. It was the sound of a person tossing and turning in her bed mixed with some suggestive moaning in between.
Ming’er was inside that room. She was the sole occupant, and she seemed to be doing a certain something.
Qianye simply pretended that he heard nothing, looking left and right to search for something to keep his hands busy.
But only a moment had passed before a series of banging noises came from Ming’er’s room. She was smashing her fists furiously against the wall of Qianye’s bedroom. Getting no response from Qianye after smashing for a while, she eventually grew quiet, perhaps out of exhaustion.
Although the night was still deep, Qianye couldn’t sleep. He composed himself and sat still on top of his bed, his mind gradually sinking into his own body as he began cultivating the “Combatant Formula.”
Right now, under Qianye’s guidance, the origin power inside his body was pounding against the origin node in his right hand like a tidal wave. The origin power inside his body had distinct edges, and every impact would bring Qianye pain that was much like being torn apart.
After suffering twenty full cycles of origin tides, Qianye finally withdrew his origin power and guided it back to the two nodes around his chest and abdominal area. Once he was done, Qianye promptly collapsed onto his bed, and it took him a long time before he finally regained a bit of his energy.
Qianye struggled down the bed, feeling pain as if every inch of his flesh and nerves were on fire. He looked at the alarm clock. He had cultivated for three hours, and it was already three in the morning. However, there was still the continuous sound of pounding coming from next door. It seemed that the one-eyed brutish man had made up his mind to recoup his losses, and Qianye wondered which woman was unlucky enough to be caught by him.
After he finished cultivating the Combatant Formula, the intercourse next door could no longer affect Qianye in any way. He took off his sweat-drenched clothes and wiped his body with a towel drenched in cold water.
Qianye had grown yet another few centimeters. He appeared lean when he was wearing a coat, but when his clothes were taken off, one would discover that his entire body was balanced, muscular, and full of power. His lines were as thick and tough as steel threads without any trace of flab whatsoever. The scar on his chest was now nearly half a meter long, looking like a giant centipede occupying the center of his body.
Every time he ignited the Aura Sea node, Qianye would discover that the origin power cultivated from this particular node was unusually violent and difficult to control. If Qianye’s origin power could be described as a sharp war blade, then in comparison to the origin power of the other soldiers, theirs were not even unsheathed yet.
This special origin power gave Qianye’s combat technique extraordinary strength and killing power. But in comparison, the pain and damage it caused to his body were also a lot more severe than other people’s. Although the Combatant Formula could be cultivated all the way up to rank nine, at this rate, Qianye would probably implode and perish by the time he cultivated it to rank six.
Qianye touched his left arm. There was also a scar here that was square-shaped and about the size of a palm. This was a scar Qianye had branded himself with since there used to be a tattoo in this same location. The tattoo was a scarlet scorpion with a needle-like tail. It was also the insignia of the Red Scorpion Corps.
The Empire had tens of millions of soldiers, and even at its max, the Red Scorpion Corps did not exceed ten thousand people. Although Qianye had entered the Red Scorpion Corps by the lowest standard and in the eyes of an outsider he was nothing more than a lucky kid, in truth, the injury on his chest caused the origin power Qianye cultivated to be a lot more violent than the normal Combatant Formula. The pain and impact he suffered at the fourteenth cycle of the origin tide was already the equivalent of some other soldiers’ twentieth cycle.
Among the Red Scorpion and several other elite corps, there was a title called “Soldier King” that was granted only to those who could endure thirty cycles of origin tides. Currently, it was a rarity for even one new Soldier King to appear per year in the entire Empire. Traditionally, the Red Scorpion’s commander and deputy commander position could only be held by a Soldier King.
Once, Qianye thought that if he had the chance to become a Soldier King if his origin power wasn’t so violent.
Unfortunately, ifs were only ifs, and they could never become a reality. The Empire’s rankings were strict and harsh, and although it might be cruel, it was also the fairest. The army only looked at results and not the process. Thirty cycles was the law, and the law demanded not a cycle less. Whether a person’s origin power was as violent as fire or as gentle as water, they must endure thirty cycles of origin tides to truly be considered a Soldier King.
Qianye abruptly let out a deep sigh amid the darkness. It was all in the past. The Red Scorpion Corps was now forever history, just like the tattoo that he had burned away with a branding iron. All of the honor, the martial power, the status, and the comrades related to the scorpion had been buried inside his heart. What remained was only a scar.
Ever since that fateful night, Qianye knew that he could never live a normal person’s life any longer.
Perhaps the one concern he had left was Lin Xitang’s fate, but the lower continent and the middle-and-upper continents were two completely different worlds. He could hear no news from the higher continents at all. Sometimes Qianye could only comfort himself by thinking that if something big truly happened to a great person like Lin Xitang, then the news should make its way even to such a small and secluded place like this town. Therefore no news also equaled the greatest news.
When Qianye first arrived on the Evernight Continent, he had drifted aimlessly until he finally arrived at Lighthouse Town. For whatever reason, he found the town pleasing and decided to settle down in this place. Moreover, he used the last few silver coins in his pockets to open this bar that was known as the Red Spider Lily.
The locals of this town were both cunning and guileless. They quickly accepted Qianye’s existence, because the drinks here were pretty great.
As long as Qianye’s alcohol remained the same, then no one would care about his identity. Even if Qianye were a bona fide bloodsucker, they would turn a blind eye to him.
Qianye walked in front of the wall. There was a steel plate embedded in the wall that was so polished that it was shining. This was his mirror.
The person in the mirror seemed a little distant even to him. For the past year, Qianye’s skin turned whiter and whiter, and his eyes and facial outline had also become more gentle and delicate. Although his strength had constantly been increasing, the muscles that were so big that they were somewhat ridiculous before his transformation were now withdrawn like origin alloy threads, thin but extremely durable.
It was at this moment when knocking noises suddenly came from outside his wall. Then, he heard the bald sheriff shouting through many layers of obstacles with his uniquely powerful windpipe, saying, “Qianye, come out and help me fix the town gate! And you too, Cyclops! I know you’re in there! I hope you haven’t squeezed yourself too much tonight that you can’t even move these steel pipes!”
Cyclops’ voice came reluctantly from next door, “I ain’t finished yet!”
“If you don’t come out then I’ll blast yer balls right off!” The bald sheriff’s threats were as direct and efficient as usual.
Qianye swiftly put on his clothes and walked to the living hall. He glanced at the main entrance of his bar where a door should be. It was completely bare without even a door hinge to be seen. Still, installing a steel door would be much easier than fixing the motor driven town gate.
Cyclops also walked out of the corridor behind Qianye while grumbling. His upper body was bare, and there were dozens of claw marks at the front and back of his body. Some of them were so deep that blood could be seen!
When Qianye saw the blood droplets on Cyclops’ body, his larynx suddenly turned a little in his throat. The intense thirst that abruptly came out of nowhere nearly caused a moan to escape his lips.
“What’s wrong, Qianye?” Cyclops asked him a little strangely.
Qianye managed a strained smile and said, “Nothing, just envying you.”
Cyclops chuckled and rubbed his head a little in embarassment, saying, “If you’re willing, that bitch Ming’er wouldn’t take a penny from you at all! I really don’t get why you keep turning her down.”
“I don’t have anything to offer her,” Qianye answered as if he didn’t hear him at all.
“You should give it a try. She really wouldn’t take a penny from you!”
The bald sheriff cut them both off, “Alright, cut the bullshit and come help me out already! I have no intention for us to live in a town with no gates when the dark season starts. Once the gate is fixed, you two lucky fellows don’t have to pay any taxes for the month.”
The sheriff’s surname was Zhang. He had a shiny shaved head, and his belly was so huge that he could keep a calf inside. Other than the fact that he was a person who handled matters fairly, he mainly relied on his rank one Fighter strength and massively powerful shotgun to hold his position as the sheriff of Lighthouse Town.
Cyclops and Qianye followed the sheriff to the warehouse. A moment later, the duo lifted a bundle of steel pipes and walked together to the town gate. By now the sheriff had already cleaned out the ruin, and after greeting them once, the trio arrived at the blown up gate.
chinachu Notice:
I know I stated that I was going to China with mommychu to visit grannychu and was hoping to return sometime June or so, but mommychu struck again, pushing our flight to June 1st. My trip to China is also now extended from June to the middle of July. Due to this trip, the planned double daily month releases for MEN will now be even more delayed. They WILL still come out after my trip though! Any regular chapters for every one of our series will still be coming out when I’m there (MEN 7, ATG 7, SR *TBD by Patreon*). I will try my best to get them out according to schedule, but if any chapters are missed due to chinachu problems, all of them will be made up when I get home.
I know some people do not read the chapter posts in their haste to read the chapter so I’ll be leaving this message at the bottom of each chapter as a reminder!
