[V6C134 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Qianye paid no further attention to Li Weishi’s movements and continued flipping through the reports. The exchange and registration of contributions was an important issue. No matter how valuable or pure the two black titanium daggers were, they couldn’t compare to the Li family’s prestige. It was unlikely that they would play any tricks here, especially when they were in such desperate need of manpower.
“General Qianye, is there anything else you need?” Li Weishi turned back enthusiastically.
Qianye flipped over a page and arrived at the sketch of a certain demonkin with his name and rank listed on the side. Moreover, the depiction was rather blurry.
Eden of the Dark Abyss. Count. Five-star swordbearer of the Evernight Council’s Dark Sun.
Qianye looked at this drawing—the rank in the data was a bit lower, and the sniper rifle here wasn’t quite the same as the one that had attacked him in the Misty Wood. However, the man’s standing posture, as well as the style and decorations on his sniper rifle was inexplicably similar.
The most important part was that his movements were depicted with great vividness—almost as though the artist had seen the demonkin before—yet his facial features had been blurred. This spoke volumes of the other party’s powerful concealment abilities.
“General Li, is there any further intelligence regarding this demonkin?”
Li Weishi shot a glance at the picture and replied immediately, “Yes, there is. This demonkin is quite the character. I’ll go and get the data.”
Li Weishi walked in moments later and placed a sheet of paper in front of Qianye. “This intelligence isn’t cheap at all, but we’ll provide it for free on account of the two blades.”
“That demonkin fellow you’re interested in is rather famous in the Dark Abyss, and he’s still a young man by their standards. He serves the Evernight Council as a member of Dark Sun. That shows just how outstanding he is. Oh, and he reportedly obtained a portion of void essence during the last battle, so it’s very likely that he’s grown even more powerful in the recent period.”
Qianye nodded as he examined the document. There was a clear portrait of him in this report, which itself seemed like a file set up for important dark race characters. It recorded Eden’s family background, bloodline, and previous posts, but the contents were very vague. What Qianye wanted to know were things like his rank, innate talents, and combat specialization, none of which was provided here.
Li Weishi’s explanation contained much more information than the document. Hence, Qianye put the file down and proceeded to listen to the man.
“In truth, this Eden has indeed grown more powerful. One of our combat squads encountered him in the forest a while ago, and a great battle ensued. The results were disastrous. Reportedly, he specializes in sniping but isn’t weak at all in melee combat, either. That surviving champion suspects that his visual range is significantly longer than ordinary people but has no grasp on how much.”
Li Weishi shook his head. “It’s fine if it’s just a visual range advantage, but if he has an edge in all senses, this accursed Misty Wood will become his home ground. In that case, we might have to ask the imperial army to send someone to suppress him.”
Qianye knew that this wasn’t quite feasible. Considering the unstable situation in every part of the floating continent, they would have to pay a steep price in order to request help from the imperial military. At the very least, their contribution points would be reduced significantly. The Li family would probably choose to trade human lives for this enemy.
Qianye asked, “How long ago was that.”
“Twelve days ago.”
Qianye did some calculations and found that it was probably soon after Eden entered the Misty Wood. The timeline fit rather well.
He gave it some thought and said, “This person’s strength is almost at the level of a virtuous count, and he uses a heavy sniper rifle that’s at least grade seven. Both his sniper rifle and handgun have the ability to pierce through defenses and heavy armor. His vision in the Misty Wood is at least two times longer than an ordinary person. As for his other senses, it is unclear.”
Li Weishi’s expression grew dark—a dark race expert roaming the Li clan warzone was a big problem. Suddenly noticing something, he asked, “You’ve encountered him?”
Qianye nodded lightly.
Li Weishi was astonished, and the way he looked at Qianye immediately changed. He, of course, knew that Qianye was powerful, but he didn’t believe Qianye would be a match for such an enemy. But now, the two had indeed run into one another, and Qianye not only returned in one piece but was also free of any grievous injury. Li Weishi felt that the Li family’s assessment of Qianye should be raised yet again.
The general immediately inquired about Eden’s weaponry. Qianye naturally hadn’t seen the handgun’s external appearance, but the eye-catching sniper rifle wasn’t hard to describe. Li Weishi’s expression transformed time and again as he tapped into his memory. “Carol of Shadows!”
“It’s a famed gun?” Qianye was curious because all famed demonkin and vampire armaments had a long history to them. Their bearers, of course, weren’t ordinary people, either.
Li Weishi’s attitude toward Qianye was now respectful on top of being cordial. “The information you brought back is fairly important! I must go and adjust the recent warning levels. You can call on me directly if you have need of high-level intelligence in the future!”
Qianye returned Eden’s records to Li Weishi and watched him leave in a hurry. Umbral Edge, Carol of Shadows—it would seem this demonkin called Eden wasn’t a minor character, but the Li family’s understanding of the mysterious demonkin was also quite thorough!
However, there was still no detailed intelligence about his innate talents and abilities—after all, it wasn’t so easy to obtain information regarding these weapons, either. They even had a clear sketch of his face. Qianye suddenly felt as though he had seen this countenance somewhere, but he couldn’t quite remember where.
At this moment, several sharp gazes landed on Qianye as he stepped out of the door. Qianye collected his thoughts and glanced back at them, but those people seemed to have no intention of retracting their fiery stares. The temperature in the room fell slightly and the clamor faded away—everyone had sensed the abnormality in the atmosphere.
The two parties gazed at one another but took no action, eventually going on to mind their own businesses. It was like the first meeting between two fierce beasts where they would probe one another cautiously.
Among them, there was a smiling chubby baldhead who gave Qianye exceptional pressure.
Qianye concluded his exchange and resupply business in due haste. He had just left the area when a female officer arrived and said, “General Qianye, the clan has just issued a new mission. Please follow me, an elder will explain it to you personally.”
“Mission?”
“Yes, it’s not compulsory, but there will be an extra payment for completing it. Additionally, the family will set up a contributions ranking starting from this month. There will be extra rewards for those who have accumulated a high amount of contributions.”
Qianye frowned after hearing this. In truth, both the imperial army and the major clans would issue certain missions to outsiders during drawn-out wars, using steep remunerations to attract experts capable of completing them. These missions were usually quite dangerous or required certain special abilities to complete. Of course, it was also possible that they were only trying to reduce enemy numbers and lessen the pressure on the warzone.
Qianye had no special opinion about the mission as he had seen many such recruitments during his time as a hunter on Evernight Continent. However, something like the contribution rankings would only spell trouble.
Qianye was soon brought to a conference room in the warehouse area. There were a number of experts sitting here, including Lu Sha whom he had met last time. Qianye picked a random seat and proceeded to wait with his eyes closed.
During the several minutes of waiting, Qianye sensed a number of gazes sweep past his body. Most of them were merely trying to examine him just as he would, the others. However, there was one containing a trace of malice lingering around Qianye’s vitals.
A cold smile appeared on Qianye’s lips. East Peak shot up all of a sudden and pressed violently toward a burly man in the distance. The latter couldn’t even react before the sheathed blade arrived at his face.
“What’re you…” The burly man only managed to finish half his sentence before he was stoppered. He crossed his arms in a desperate attempt to block East Peak, but the pressure from that heavy sword was akin to a toppling jade mountain. The burly man felt as though he had braced himself against a boulder instead of a sword.
The chair below the burly man shattered, and he himself was pressed flat on the floor and began sinking in inch by inch.
The man’s arms creaked and groaned, but the pressure suddenly dispersed just as his bones were about to shatter. East Peak returned to Qianye’s side with the lithe grace of a fallen leaf.
Qianye’s eyes never opened from the beginning to the end, and even his posture didn’t change much. Everything happened so fast that most of the people in the room couldn’t even react in time. The small number of people who hadn’t paid much attention to Qianye were now looking up.
Qianye cared little about everyone’s reaction. His eyes were still closed as he said indifferently, “I have a bad temper, so keep your eyes to yourself. I would’ve dug them out if we were on the battlefield.”
The room fell silent as Qianye’s words seemed to be directed at everyone in the room.
Those who had the right to sit here were mostly unyielding characters. However, they were also experts who had experienced hundreds of battles and quickly realized how strong Qianye was—this rank-eleven hulk of man had failed to block a single move, to speak nothing of retaliation. An advantage in words meant nothing in the face of absolute power.
Furious and too ashamed to remain in the room, the burly man simply clambered up and left. However, there was an old man standing at the door at that point.
“Scram!” the man roared as he charged straight ahead.
This time, it was as though he had crashed straight into an iron wall—the entirety of his origin power crashed back into him. The burly man was sent into an immediate daze and began seeing stars. He swayed about for a few moments before slowly collapsing to the ground.
The old man walked slowly into the conference room and, with a wave of his walking stick, swept the burly man to a corner of the room like a pile of trash.
“Why the rush to leave since you’ve already come? This old man is Li Tianquan and I do some miscellaneous tasks for the Li family.”
All expressions turned serious upon hearing his name.
This was a Li clan elder whom the outside world was familiar with, and one of the few characters from the older generation who held great authority.
Li Tianquan wasn’t sloppy at all. Announcing his name spared him the trouble of greeting everyone, and he immediately proceeded to deliver the missions. Most of these assignments were related to hunting certain targets, with the only difference being a slight increase in rewards for hunting dark race warriors below viscount rank. Additionally, there was an increase in the scope and prices regarding the acquisition of various resources and spoils of war.
Having worked before in the army, Qianye knew just by looking at these missions that the Li family’s frontline situation wasn’t too great. If not for the urgency of the situation, no one would list killing ordinary warriors as a mission objective.
The acquisition of resources and spoils of war was likely a strategy of “supporting war with war” as the Li family, with its sizeable workshops, could recycle and reuse them. The several new workshops on the other side of the camp were likely constructed to this end.
A number of special missions on the next page, however, intrigued Qianye quite a bit.
