Monarch of Evernight (Web Novel)
chapter-102

[Volume 3 - The Place Where My Heart Feels At Peace]

The demonkin’s hands were bundled up inside his silk-lined sleeves as he spoke to the little girl beside him, “Your idea is pretty good. Some fish actually took the bait after we held a blood feast. Although it cannot be considered luxuriant, it works as an appetizer before wine. After this battle is over, I will give you a reward, an ample reward.”

The little girl pursed her pink lips and swept her big, black eyes across the hunters and the dark race warriors standing off against one another. Then, she nodded strongly.

A blood esquire said respectfully to the demonkin, “What should we do now, Lord Masefield?”

The demonkin youth’s face darkened, “What should we do? Kill them all of course! But I can warn you that this battle is not as easy as you think. Even if someone were to escape, I will not dip my hands into this fight. Small fries who are not even at the level of champions do not deserve the intervention of a member of the ancient and noble Masefield Family!”

Yu Renyan’s expression was heavy as he slowly took off his short cape and tossed it on the ground. Then, he discarded the survival equipment bag behind his back and said, “Don’t hold yourself back. Use everything in your power. If you do not have a trump card, then think of a way to take someone down with you. Trust me, dying in battle here will be a far luckier fate than to fall into their hands alive!”

The dark race warriors began to approach them. Yu Renyan bent his body slightly before he broke off into a run, charging head-on into a blood esquire. Naturally, the blood esquire would not turn down the challenge of a low ranking human. He too began to speed up and charge as well.

Both people increased their speed to the max and rammed squarely into one another!

The dull noise of bodies ramming against one another was like a toothache. Be it the blood esquire or Yu Renyan, they both looked to be technique oriented warriors. The foolhardy clash of strength between the two sides was truly surprising. It looked more like an accident than a premeditated affair. However, while the clash was beyond the blood esquire’s expectation, it was a deliberate move by Yu Renyan.

When the duo separated staggeringly, a hole had appeared in Yu Renyan’s stomach and even his wriggling intestines were exposed! That blood esquire, on the other hand, stood tall a dozen or so meters away, looking as vigorous as ever.

Yu Renyan smiled coldly while stretching out his right hand. He was holding a heart in his palm—a vampire’s heart!

Yu Renyan let out a frightening smile at the dark race warriors and stuffed the heart into his own mouth. After chewing it for a couple of times, he swallowed the heart down his throat right away. His mouth, when opened, was just like a snake’s—it was as though his lower jaw didn’t exist at all. It seemed capable of swallowing anything no matter how big it might be.

The fact that they had lost a companion upon first contact surprised and enraged the other blood esquires. They immediately charged forward without any more reservations and a bloody battle ensued!

Following a couple of origin gunshots, they entered melee combat in the blink of an eye.

The intense battle did not last for long before a glaring silver light lit up on the battlefield. The demonkin youth observing the battle stared right into the silver radiance with utter carelessness, whereas the blood esquires’ eyes were all covered in a layer of blood energy to obstruct the silver light’s corrosion. Meanwhile, the dark race warriors were starting to adjust their joint attack positions to avoid the brunt of the damage. While this kind of flashbang was effective against low ranking vampire warriors, those at the blood esquire level already possessed plenty of defensive measures against it.

What followed after the silver light was an intense explosion as the youngest hunter triggered all the explosives on his body in advance. The burst of silver shrapnels took a couple of dark race warriors down with him and damaged a blood esquire whohad failed to dodge in time.

The oldest hunter suddenly relinquished the defenses over his body and leaped onto that blood esquire who hadn’t yet secured his footing. Then, another loud explosion followed!

After the explosion was over, the duo’s shadows were no longer present at the center of the explosion.

As if sharing a mutual understanding with each other, the remaining three hunters suddenly did everything in their power to attack a blood esquire together, while Yu Renyan delayed the last blood esquire by trading wounds blow after blow with him. When the surrounding dark race warriors noticed that the situation wasn’t too encouraging, they no longer cared about their superior’s honor or the threat of explosives. They all swarmed the hunters and attacked at once.

Masefield frowned and said in a low voice, “A bunch of trash! You, go help them. Let’s treat this as a small… cheat.”

The little girl walked towards the battlefield with the butcher knife in tow. It looked like the square blade would fall off her hands at any moment as her little body hauled the weapon not much smaller than herself. A long, deep mark was left on the ground where she dragged the blade behind her back.

The surrounded blood esquire was the highest ranking out of the four. He actually managed to calm down during this dangerous moment. Every block and dodge he made were perfectly steady, and his defenses were extremely firm. Meanwhile, the dark race warriors at the perimeter landed continuous attacks onto the three hunters, adding new wounds to their bodies. It was at this moment that a hunter let out a burst of odd laughter and reached out for the grenade at his waist!

A slight breeze seemed to pass by as the hunter’s laughter came to an abrupt stop!

Before he knew it, the little girl had appeared behind his back with the butcher knife lifted high in the air as though it were weightless. Then, with an arced horizontal swing, she lightly cut off his right arm and elbow at the same time! The hunter’s elbow fell and rolled a couple of times on the ground along with the trapped grenade. However, the grenade did not explode. The young girl had made clever use of the vibrations to break the detonator when she cut off his arm.

While the hunter was still in shock, several dark race warriors immediately slashed at him and killed him under a flurry of blades.

After she had dealt the blow, the little girl retreated from the fray without even waiting for the results. There was not the slightest hesitation in her at all, forbidding the remaining two hunters from grabbing onto any opportunity of a counter attack.

Yu Renyan’s faint colored pupils shrank. With a blade wound as the cost, he pulled away from his opponent and instantly flashed behind the little girl, thrusting the short knife in his hand right into her back.

The little girl obviously had her back towards Yu Renyan, but she suddenly leaped to the side and avoided the attack as though she had seen it with her own eyes. She happened to land right beside a dark race warrior. The little girl reached out to tug at his battle robes, then gave the warrior a push when he glanced down at her in surprise.

The dark race warrior, despite his level of strength, was nearly pushed to the ground. He staggered onto Yu Renyan’s forward path, forcibly interrupting his sudden charge skill. However, the dark race warrior paid a price as well—Yu Renyan’s mithril knife plunged into his chest and ground his heart into pieces.

The little girl had already made her way out from behind the dark race warrior, and once again the butcher knife floated into the air as if it had no weight at all. With a horizontal slash, it drew a huge wound across Yu Renyan’s leg.

Yu Renyan let out a dull groan. Finally, he withdrew his scorn and focused in preparation for her next attack. This girl might only be at rank three, but her combat style was extremely strange. Every one of her attack angles was unexpected, and the might behind each attack was unusually powerful.

However, the little girl did not continue the attack. Instead, without stopping her charge, she ran far away towards the other two hunters’ battlefield.

The square butcher knife flew out of her hand mid-air and went spinning towards one of the hunter's backs.

“Watch out!” Yu Renyan cried out loudly.

One of the hunters lifted his head in amazement, whereas the other made up his mind to trigger all the explosives on his body.

The intense explosions blasted the dark race warriors until they were a complete mess. The blood esquire flew backwards as blood instantly drenched half of his body. For a time, he actually failed to clamber back onto his feet.

However, the little girl had switched directions and escaped the second she hurled the square butcher knife. Presently, she had reached a distance where she was only flipped over once by the shockwave, adding some scratch wounds to her body. She quickly climbed onto her feet and ran without any pause towards the demonkin youth.

At this point, the hunter squad had been annihilated. The sacrifices of the last three hunters did not bring much damage to the enemy either. Naturally, this was the work of the little girl.

Yu Renyan immediately made the snap decision to turn around and escape.

The blood esquire who was the least wounded let out a fierce howl before throwing out a half-meter-long square thorn! Like lightning, the square thorn pierced through Yu Renyan’s back and exited through his chest, the surplus force carrying with it a long string of blood droplets as the weapon finally dropped to the ground a dozen or so meters away.

Yu Renyan let out a dull groan, but rather than slowing down, he became even faster. In the blink of an eye, he had already escaped the battlefield and was running towards the depths of the wasteland. The blood esquire’s expression was extremely ugly. He had never imagined that this human’s body was so strong that he could escape even after suffering such a severe injury. He had no choice but to re-evaluate his own abilities—even though vampires were known for their speed, it did not look like he could catch up to Yu Renyan.

The blood esquire turned around to look at the demonkin youth, but before he could even ask for help, the latter said coldly, “I’ve said before that a worm like this is not worthy of my hand. Can’t you catch up to him?”

When Masefield said this, there was obvious killing intent behind his words. The blood esquire trembled all over and forced himself to say, “No, I can! I’ll chase after him right now.”

Suddenly, Masefield raised his hands and waved lightly. A barely discernible black thread wrapped twice around the blood esquire’s neck like a living thing before it disappeared.

The blood esquire’s expression froze instantly as his head was separated from the body and fell onto the floor. The wound on the neck was unusually bright and clean—the flesh and tissue had actually been crystallized, leaving behind not a drop of blood.

Masefield looked at blood esquire’s head on the floor and said with slightly fed up tone, “You clearly can’t catch up to him, and I hate it when people lie to me!”

The surviving dark race warriors all trembled in fear.

The demonkin youth rubbed the little girl’s hair and said, “You did well! You always give me a pleasant surprise that exceeds your supposed combat power. In this respect, you are much better than those idiots. Follow me well and you will enjoy ample rewards.”

He swept another glance at the dark race warriors and instructed, “Sweep the battlefield and place some cannon fodder at the perimeter just like before. Now that the little worm has escaped, it shouldn't be long before a true big fish takes the hook. I will be waiting right here for them! Now, the game has truly begun.”

In the eyes of this young Masefield, it was as though all the humans in the big cities of Boulderstone Region, including those Champion level personages, were merely big fishes to be cooked at any moment.

A new day had arrived. As usual, Qianye cultivated and stabilized his own realm. After three days of rest, the ordinary blood energy had returned to seven in total, while the golden blood energy had turned into a cocoon and was currently hibernating in silence. The ordinary blood energy had finally escaped the fate of being devoured. In comparison, the purple blood energy was much gentler. It would consume at most two or three normal blood energy before it was full, and even its digestion took up to several days.

However, there was a knock some time past afternoon as a hunter yelled from outside the entrance, “Is Qianye around? Old 2 needs you for something urgent. He needs you to go to the Home of Hunters!”

“I’m coming right down!” After a change of clothes, Qianye hastily followed the hunter back to the Home of Hunters!”

A light off-road vehicle was parked at the entrance to the Home of Hunters and Old 2 was already on the car. When he saw Qianye, he beckoned him and said, “Come up! I’m bringing you to see a person. He should be someone you know.”

“Is it related to that mission?” Qianye was a little confused.

Old 2 said heavily, “No, it is related to another matter. A very… unfortunate matter.”

When the off-road vehicle made its way to Dark Blood City’s military hospital, Qianye never imagined that the person he would be seeing was Yu Renyan.

Right now, the man who could be considered a formidable enemy was lying face up on an operating table with eyes staring emptily at the ceiling. The doctor pulled over a white sheet to cover up his body and shook his head at the people coming inside. Bloodstains spread continuously over the sheet, swiftly turning into a purple-black color.

“This is Yu Renyan, the Dark Blade Special Ops commander of the imperial expeditionary army from Blackflow City. Right now, his other identity is a five-star hunter. He's killed many of those dark blooded bastards during this period, but something went wrong with the current operation. A few of our best hunters are all dead, and he was the only one who managed to escape and return. He has exhausted all of his life force during that last battle and doesn't have much longer to live.”

Once he was finished, Old 2 sighed and said to Qianye, “He said he recognizes you and wishes to see you before his death no matter what. Go and have a chat!”

Old 2 and the rest left the sick ward. Qianye walked to the side of the operating table and looked at the opponent against whom he had once fought a desperate battle.

Yu Renyan rolled his eyes and saw Qianye. He let out a strained smile and opened his mouth slightly. Qianye immediately went closer, for it was the only way to hear what the man wanted to say clearly.

“Qi Yue’s true father is… The expeditionary army division commander Wu… Zhengnan. They have been trading secretly with the dark races all this time. And it's not just weapons, but humans… as well…”

Qianye’s heart trembled slightly.