Having made a swift decision between little Zhuji and the natives, the mercenaries charged over like wolves and tigers. The Stormwind Fury commander’s eyes were almost turning green—he roared thunderously, but none of the mercenaries were listening to him. Many of them either belonged to other mercenary corps or temporarily formed hunting parties. How could any of them be willing to listen to his commands? All of them were advancing excitedly, hoping to seize Zhuji from Qianye. In their eyes, he was just a lucky brat who had caught Zhuji by chance.
Qianye only sneered after seeing these ruthless mercenaries and watched until they were in front of him. He would swat away the occasional bullet flying toward him as though they were annoying flies.
Most of the mercenaries were only looking at Zhuji. They simply didn’t notice Qianye’s astonishing feat of slapping away origin bullets. A few sharp veteran soldiers were drenched in cold sweat upon witnessing this scene, and they quietly slowed down their steps.
The sound of crashing waves echoed in the ears of the speeding soldiers. Soon afterward, they found an indefensible pressure bearing down upon them.
Most of the mercenaries fell to the ground, and the weaker ones found their bones creaking and groaning. Even the strongest ones were barely able to remain standing, to speak nothing of running.
But there was no need for them to keep on running, either. Qianye passed through their midst as though he were on a leisurely stroll, every flash of his blade drawing blood. Unexpectedly, the strongest mercenaries were the first to become corpses.
But then the remaining hundreds of soldiers also collapsed. The scene brought the horde of soldiers behind to a grinding halt. Their pause didn’t mean Qianye would stop, however. He passed through the group in just a couple of steps, instantly felling swathes of enemies with a momentary release of his Oceanic Power.
The mercenary rabble were large in number, but their power was fairly mediocre. Most of them couldn’t even breathe under Qianye’s domain, suffering fractures and injuries during the fall. Qianye couldn’t be bothered to go and finish them off one by one.
At this point, Qianye’s eyes were on the black-armored officer from Stormwind Fury.
The man’s eyelids twitched constantly as he stared at Qianye. His right hand was raised high, but he simply couldn’t lower it. He couldn’t see through Qianye’s strength at all, but knocking out hundreds of soldiers—as disorderly as they were—wasn’t something he could do.
Little Zhuji was clearly sitting on Qianye’s shoulder, almost like a mobile treasury. This kind of temptation would’ve been irresistible to him in the past, but now, all he had in his eyes was Qianye.
“Are you trying to make an enemy out of our Stormwind Fury?” He roared thus but failed to notice that his voice was dry and raspy. Besides, threatening people wasn’t Stormwind Fury’s style—killing ignorant people immediately was how these mercenary corps worked.
The black-armored champion was struggling between fight and flight. There were thousands of mercenaries left at the scene, including several hundred direct subordinates of Stormwind Fury, but all the corpses strewn across the ground told everyone that numbers were useless against Qianye’s terrifying domain.
The black-armored champion couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine when Qianye’s frosty gaze landed on his body. His intuition to danger had sent him a clear message. He made up his mind without the slightest bit of hesitation: run!
But before he could start fleeing, he saw Qianye swung his hand and actually toss little Zhuji over!
The black-armored warrior was momentarily stunned. What situation was this? Could it be that Qianye was offering the little fellow up to join Stormwind Fury?
This ridiculous idea was soon blown out of the nine firmaments. He immediately noticed that Zhuji’s incoming speed was abnormally fast and she was actually accelerating midair. The black-armored champion had a bad feeling when the girl spun her little fists about and slammed them down on his head. This little kid could fight? With the speed at which she was charging, wouldn’t she die on the spot after crashing onto him?
But a shrill whistle tore through the air as little Zhuji’s fists descended! The black-armored warrior was shocked, but it was already too late to dodge. All he could do was raise an arm to block the strike.
Zhuji’s fist connected with the arm that was even larger than her waist. The arm was bent out of shape with a muffled bang!
Little Zhuji let out a soft exclamation, surprised at how she had failed to smash this fellow to death. But this wasn’t all since every part of her body was a weapon. She immediately rammed into the enemy with her head.
The head was a weak point for most creatures, but the black-armored champion who had just suffered a fracture couldn’t quite trust his own judgment anymore. He didn’t dare charge forward anymore. Instead, he pulled back and pressed on Zhuji’s head with his intact left hand, hoping to use his exquisite combat arts to redirect this small human cannonball to one side.
However, he once again felt as though he was being stomped on by a giant beast. His body flew backward, and a gush of fresh blood welled up in his throat.
Fortunately, Zhuji finally wore out her charging momentum and the two parties put some distance between them.
The black-armored soldier turned tail and ran, no longer daring to linger here any longer. The thousands of soldiers who were still fighting had been left to their fates. The black-armored champion was even hoping that these soldiers could buy him some time to escape.
Qianye only stared at the black-armored champion as he attempted to flee the battlefield. All of a sudden, the man’s running figure appeared in his eyes, toward which he raised his gun and fired.
The black-armored champion shivered, almost as though he had been drenched in cold water. He glanced back subconsciously only to find that Qianye was also looking at him.
The black-armored warrior jumped up and fled the moment his eyes came into contact with Qianye’s. It was almost as though he had been scorched by fire. His reaction wasn’t slow, but just as he was leaping into the air, his entire body sank down as if it had been lassoed by an invisible rope.
This brief pause made it impossible for him to evade the shot coming from behind. He had to try his utmost just to see the trajectory of the incoming projectile. The bullet was shockingly fast, but it actually afforded him a measure of relief.
Qianye’s origin power rank wasn’t very high, so this swift origin bullet should logically be limited in firepower. This gave the man some hope of survival.
However, this origin bullet shot through his body without the slightest pause. The man’s hopeful expression transformed into inconsolable terror as he watched his shoulder and half of his chest being blown away. His body was almost torn into two.
Even a core character of Stormwind Fury couldn’t escape death under the combined effects of Qianye’s Eye of Control and the rifle whose barrel was hand-made by the Pointer Monarch. The man’s rank-sixteen cultivation and grade-seven armor could do little to save him.
Following the death of that black-armored champion, the morale of the Stormwind Fury soldiers fell to a freezing point. Even the most resolute of soldiers turned to flee the battlefield.
Qianye had killed their commanding officer in one shot. This was a peerless display of combat strength that no one here could beat. Mercenaries only looked at results and not the process. Who would have the time to care about Qianye’s rank-twelve origin power. It was every man for himself—the dead had no chance to debate the relationship between origin power and true combat strength.
Mercenaries from the neutral lands were even more wolf-like. They were incomparably fierce during victory, but now that the momentum was gone, they fled in all directions without the slightest hesitation.
Qianye drew the Twin Flowers and fired continuously, but he only managed to kill a couple dozen before all of them vanished from sight; even half of Stormwind Fury’s core forces had fled. But Qianye was too lazy to go after those ants. Stormwind Fury wasn’t likely to take this defeat lying down, and they would surely reassemble and return in a swirl of dust.
That was the moment he was waiting for.
Many of the mercenaries were still locked in combat with the natives when the group started to flee. Hence, their casualties there were quite high, far greater than the number Qianye had killed. Once the mercenaries had retreated, the natives flocked toward the survivors on the ground. Hundreds of mercenaries who had been disabled by Qianye’s domain power lay strewn across the field. The mercenaries and native warriors had long since formed a deep enmity during these days, reaching a point where one side wouldn’t stop until the other was dead.
A powerful shout from Gado stopped the native soldiers. He then walked over to Qianye and said with a bow, “Oh great warrior, these soldiers are the fruit of your battle, but can you give them to us? I’m willing to offer a single Sacred Tree fruit in exchange.”
Qianye shot him a glance. “These people aren’t worth the price, in my opinion.”
Gado composed himself and said through clenched teeth, “Too many of my tribesmen have died in the hands of these bastards. The spirits of my people will not find rest until they receive a blood sacrifice. For this, any price is worth paying.”
Qianye nodded. “Fine, I can give them to you, but you’ll have to wait for a while.”
Gado was startled. “How long?”
“Not much longer, it should be done before sundown.”
Gado glanced at the sky and noticed that it was not far off from dusk. Besides, the forest has always been a dark place, so twilight would arrive before long.
Qianye also shot a glance at the sky. “You can chop some firewood and light up some torches. That’ll make things faster.”
Gado was bewildered, but he followed Qianye’s instructions. These natives lived as one with the Black Grove, but Stormwind Fury had already felled a large number of trees to build the isolation belt. It only took some additional work to turn the lumber into a large number of good torches.
Within moments, the fierce flames from a thousand torches lit up the forest until it was as bright as day. The battlefield appeared rather bleak and tragic under the blazing lights.
Qianye cut down a wooden pillar and tossed it onto the ground. He then sat down on it at the brightest center of the battlefield, waiting silently with his eyes closed. Little Zhuji climbed onto Qianye’s shoulder and sat there with her little chin propped up on one hand. It seemed like she was waiting for something, too.
Gado and the natives were completely puzzled as to what was going on, but fortunately, they didn’t have to wait very long. A commotion arose from the distance not long after sundown as a horde of Stormwind Fury soldiers poured into the area. Seeing the flames from afar, they immediately adjusted their direction and charged over.
Only then did Gado realize why Qianye wanted to light up so many torches. It turned out that he had wanted to light himself up, lest the Stormwind Fury soldiers couldn’t find him!
The mercenaries stopped in surprise when they saw Qianye resting with his eyes closed at the center of the battlefield. This scene really didn’t make sense. The front rows had stopped, but the soldiers behind were still pushing forward, throwing the squad into disarray. The captains arrived at the front while spewing curses, but they, too, were astonished by the scene.
Qianye was simply sitting there with the loftiness of a mountain and facing the horde of soldiers all on his own.
