Chapter 410: Fierce Battle [V5C117 – A Distance Within Reach]
Qianye’s heart was shaken. These people were elite soldiers of the Nangong family sent to hunt him down. It was just that he had no idea why Bai Kongzhao would be working together with them.
The Nangong family and the Bai clan working together wasn’t good news at all.
Qianye didn’t dare linger for long, so much so that he simply turned and left without bothering to clean the battlefield. He was already short on food and ammunition after this period of hunting—he was already out of grenades and only had a couple of physical origin bullets left.
Moreover, the commotion from just now was too great. The giant fireball could be seen from dozens of kilometers away and might draw people over. To the isolated Qianye, anyone could be an enemy.
Qianye abandoned his intention to head toward Silverflow Fjord because the base there was too crude and had no experts overseeing it. There was no way it could defend against the Nangong family’s combat squad. In a bid to return to Blackflow City, he spent half a day cautiously traversing the fierce war zones where the humans and dark races were fighting.
That was his territory and also one of the expeditionary army’s foremost nodes in this bloody battle. Even Bai Kongzhao and the Nangong family wouldn’t dare launch an open assault on the city.
However, Qianye was greatly alarmed after walking out of the war zone borders because he had seen yet another blockade with his True Sight. His heart sank—he had the confidence to sneak past if it were only a simple blockade. However, things were different with Bai Kongzhao in the equation.
Qianye hesitated for a moment. Finally, he retreated after deciding that it wasn’t worth the risk.
This time, he was prepared to cut through the east and foray into a large segment of the Dark Nation territory before entering human territory once again. This path would take him well out of his way, but the good thing about this route was that even the Nangong family and the Bai clan put together wouldn’t be able to set up a blockade hundreds of kilometers long.
Qianye had just started running when his heart skipped a bit. He looked toward the left to find a bright signal flare shoot up only tens of meters away from his current position.
This was a signal to surround and attack! Although he couldn’t see the person’s origin power reaction, he could tell without thinking that it was Bai Kongzhao who had shot this flare.
He didn’t run immediately and, instead, stood silently in place, allowing the footsteps in the vicinity to grow denser and denser.
Finally, a human figure flickered through the forest as the young girl appeared from behind a tree and gazed suspiciously at Qianye’s location. In the end, what she immediately found were the dark muzzles of the Twin Flowers!
Qianye pulled the trigger without a moment of hesitation—blood immediately burst forth on the girl’s body accompanied by a wretched scream. With a flip of her body, she quickly hid herself in the woods and disappeared just like that.
Qianye secretly complained about how regretful it was. At this moment, he was already like an arrow at the end of its flight and could no longer combine the Twin Flowers into one. But the grade five firepower of the Bloody Datura and the Mystic Spider Lily were more than enough to deal with a rank-eight fighter.
His two merciless shots aimed at the head and heart failed to achieve their objective in the face of Bai Kongzhao’s terrifying combat instincts. She reflexively twisted her body at virtually the same time the gunshots rang out, evading the headshot and causing the shot aimed at her heart to land on her back instead. This time, Bai Kongzhao was badly injured, but the results were far from what Qianye had imagined.
Since the beginning of his martial career at Red Scorpion, Qianye had rarely, if ever, missed in such a fashion. From a different aspect, this also went to show that this young girl was one of Qianye’s most terrifying opponents, even though she was lower than Qianye by one rank at present.
Qianye didn’t linger after Bai Kongzhao had fled. He charged brazenly into the surrounding unit and broke through the siege.
What followed was a fight for his life.
Along the way, Bai Kongzhao appeared a number of times like a specter but was repelled several times by Qianye. She was also being wounded continuously, and her injuries might not be any lighter than Qianye’s own. But this young girl’s tenacity was extremely terrifying—she would always evade Qianye’s fatal blow by a hair and recover at an astonishing rate, appearing around him again before long.
Qianye discovered that even his True Sight could hardly discern Bai Kongzhao’s existence at a certain distance. He suddenly recalled how he had misjudged the Monroe clan blood knight’s rank from hundreds of meters away and only discovered the issue after exchanging blows face to face.
At this point, Qianye formed a horrible speculation. Bai Kongzhao might’ve gained the power of the Iron Curtain just like that blood knight—she could lock down his location and conceal herself under the Iron Curtain. He immediately modified his strategy since this was the case. He no longer attempted to hide his presence and, instead, started to run at extreme speeds, maintaining a balance between his speed and stamina.
Just as he had dealt with the vampire viscount back on the Western Continent, he was planning to rely on his physical advantage to wear down the pursuers.
However, Bai Kongzhao was like a lone wolf in the wilderness; both her patience and stamina were terrifying. She remained hot on Qianye’s trail and would try to pounce on him from time to time. Although such attempts mostly ended with Qianye’s counterattack, she never gave up from the beginning to the end.
Any other person would’ve collapsed under her continuous ambushes, but Qianye’s own tenacity wasn’t weaker than Bai Kongzhao’s at all, so much so that even his reactions showed no signs of delay or weariness. Qianye would’ve turned around to kill her if not for the Nangong family soldiers chasing after him.
In this aspect, the two of them were quite similar. Perhaps the experience of growing up at the junkyard granted them a similar perseverance.
The pursuit continued intermittently for the entire afternoon and continued into the night. Bai Kongzhao was still behind Qianye, but the Nangong family soldiers were starting to fall behind in quick succession. In the end, no more than ten people were able to keep up with Bai Kongzhao, but all of them were pale in the face, and their breaths seemed to be hanging by a thread. It was questionable whether they could even shoot if a battle were to break out.
Qianye didn’t have the slightest chance if he had to fight this pursuit unit head-on, but half a day of constant running had totally worn them down.
However, Qianye wasn’t in good shape either. New wounds were being added to his body constantly, and his origin power was gradually running dry. His movements were growing heavier as he had no time to absorb and replenish his blood energy. Bai Kongzhao remained on his trail like a spirit who didn’t know what exhaustion was. There was no telling when she would appear and deliver a fatal blow—this was the greatest pressure.
One, two, and three days passed by on the chase.
The Nangong family’s soldiers had vanished entirely. Their most powerful rank-eleven champion had died one day ago under Qianye’s ambush. The champion was completely drained of origin power and could hardly exert half his abilities at that moment.
However, Qianye also paid a heavy price in the form of two stabs as the champion launched a dying retaliation. Immediately afterward, Bai Kongzhao had taken the opportunity to launch another ruthless stab that almost pierced right through his body. The young girl’s continuous strikes were all aimed at his back and legs.
In this manner, this fight for life had turned into a game of cat and mouse between Qianye and Bai Kongzhao three days after it all began. The two would exchange roles from time to time—the hunter from a moment ago would instantly become the hunted after a moment of carelessness and a heavy injury.
At this point, Qianye had already considered Bai Kongzhao as a great calamity. He would pursue and counterattack whenever the opportunity arose. This young girl was like a sharp blade hanging above his head. It was unknown when death would descend upon him if he couldn’t kill her.
Two days passed by in a flash.
Qianye ran and ran, but finally, he could hold on no longer—he collapsed onto the ground and lay there gasping for breath. His throat had become so dry that it was about to split apart. It felt as though there was a fire burning in it. He grasped Andruil’s Mysterious Realm and wanted to bring out some water and medicine but, in a burst of extreme pain, he lost the ability to communicate with the spatial necklace.
This was also within his expectations. His body was now drained of both origin power and blood energy. Qianye glanced in every direction and saw a small waterhole in the distance. The hole was filled with muddy water, but it was like a sweet spring to one who sought to survive. He immediately crawled over and began to drink in large gulps, finishing every last drop in the blink of an eye.
Qianye felt somewhat rejuvenated after drinking. He moved his body against a big tree and stood up with its support. His every movement at this moment brought about stabbing pains throughout his entire body. He had no idea how many wounds he had on him right now, and many of them had already started to fester as he had no time to clean them.
The shrubbery on the other side suddenly split open and out came Bai Kongzhao. At this moment, the girl’s skirt had been ruined beyond recognition and had turned into a rag wrapped around her waist. Her entire body was exposed—her slim frame was also covered in wounds, and sinister-looking white bones were exposed in certain places.
She could hardly stand at the moment, but the grip on her knife was still powerful, and her clear eyes were gleaming brightly.
Qianye, on the other hand, was quite relaxed now. He remained sitting against the tree as he glanced at the young girl. “Why do you hate me so much?”
Bai Kongzhao remained silent for a moment before replying, “I can’t rest easy as long as you’re alive. I’ll die in your hands one day.”
“Why?” Qianye hadn’t expected this reply. Recalling the past, he had at least let her live twice.
“Intuition.”
“Fair enough of a reason.” Qianye stood up with the tree as support and gestured at the girl. “Come then. Kill me.”
At a glance, Qianye no longer had any capacity for combat. A single stab would end this long battle and eliminate her restless nightmare. Bai Kongzhao’s hand on her knife grew tighter and tighter as strands of darkness origin power actually seeped out from her fingers.
Qianye smiled faintly as his gaze fell on her hand. “So you were hiding an ace all along. Since you still have darkness origin power to spare, why aren’t you attacking? Come. One stab is all it takes. It’s just that simple.”
Bai Kongzhao, on the other hand, was hesitating. Her originally clear eyes were flickering with a wisp of surreptitiousness.
The two were only a few meters away. The outcome of such a confrontation would depend on who collapsed or revealed an opening first.
The girl was still hesitating. She saw that Qianye’s aura was weak, and his entire body was full of openings—only his eyes were as spirited as before.
At this moment, Qianye’s body was almost lifeless. The daybreak origin power in his vessels had virtually dried out, and the occasional flickering specks were a telltale sign that the flame of his lamp was only one step away from being snuffed out. Only the depths of his heart was still full of life—the dark golden blood energy was swimming and floating up very slowly. The wings formed of blood energy spread out little by little, and one of its feathers was emitting a brilliant radiance.
