Monarch of Evernight (Web Novel)
chapter-177

Qianye stealthily climbed onto a rooftop. A blood-red hue suddenly emerged in the depths of his pupils as he observed the surroundings.

The abrupt howl broke the silence of this small village. A large werewolf soon appeared in the distance and charged toward where Qianye had been previously standing. Qianye, however, had already disappeared into the night, leaving the werewolf howling in confusion.

Several werewolves appeared while an arachne climbed onto a roof. This large arachne occupied half the roof—the house creaked and moaned under its weight—it seemed as if it could come down at any moment. A man and a woman ran out from the house in panic amidst astonished cries.

One of the werewolves pounced toward the street with a growl, pinning the woman beneath its body as it opened its wide jaws.

A low voice was transmitted from one side, “If you bite down, I can’t guarantee the gun in my hand won’t accidentally go off.”

The werewolf raised its head—its greedy eyes stared at the middle-aged man who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The latter’s appearance was ordinary with the exception of a long scar on his face as his only notable characteristic.

The werewolf let out a threatening howl, but the middle-aged man seemed relatively unaffected. His finger was gradually adding more force on the trigger. The weapon in his hand was a rank three origin gun. Its large, modified muzzle indicated that it was a weapon which leaned heavily toward firepower.

Another werewolf walked over, dragged its comrade away from the woman, and then said to the middle-aged man, “Captain Zhou, are you trying to renege on this transaction?”

The Captain surnamed Zhou replied, “The deal doesn’t include the lives of my subordinates. You gave me your word that a repeat of yesterday’s incident won’t occur. Or perhaps you can’t even handle your own men?”

The werewolf leader let out an angry roar. “You’re insulting Bernt the Brave! I can raze this camp to the ground as long as I will it!”

Captain Zhou was seemingly unthreatened and replied with a cold laugh, “You can try! Although my men and I may die here, I promise you that the chances of your group returning alive is not greater than one third. As for you, Bernt the Brave, I wonder if you’ll return as a hero or an idiot after you destroy a trade channel that’s been established for well over a decade.”

Bernt was immediately incensed—he furiously roared but restrained himself in the end. He didn’t dare charge in because he knew Captain Zhou wasn’t exaggerating.

The arachne came down from atop the building and said, “We came to complete this transaction and not to mess things up. Bernt, why did your subordinate suddenly jump out and cause a commotion?”

Bernt turned toward the werewolf from earlier. The latter replied, “I smelled one of those damned vampires just now!”

Bernt turned to glare at Captain Zhou. “Are you hiding those from the vampire race here?”

Captain Zhou replied, “Are you lot trying to invent more problems? You’ve checked every corner of this place when you arrived. If there truly are vampires hiding here, why did you discover it only now?”

The arachne also shook his head. “Bernt, handle your subordinates well! This is a horrible excuse! Besides, they can’t do anything even if they really are hiding here. So, stop your empty threats. I still want to take a rest. Additionally, there are things among this batch of goods that Marquis Ross personally requested. That bad-tempered sire will have your head if you foil this deal!”

The werewolves howled in dissatisfaction but eventually withdrew. Captain Zhou also left after letting out a sigh of relief.

Qianye was silently observing the commotion nearby. He turned into a small alley and headed toward the other side of the camp.

He had sensed a large number of human blood energy reactions there. The density had far surpassed that of normal residents. There were actually hundreds of them albeit with much weaker blood energy reactions.

A vague possibility came to his mind.

He sped up his footsteps and soon arrived before a peculiar camp separate from the village. From the features of the buildings sticking out, he immediately discerned that the interior was likely a barracks. Security was tight with several sword spiders standing guard near the door. The walls were of the same height as the village’s. Qianye chose a relatively deserted corner and, climbing to the top of the wall, observed the interior of the camp.

Numerous long buildings stood within the campgrounds. Their windows had been nailed shut while the doors were tightly guarded by several wargs. Two werewolves stood in the center talking amongst themselves.

Qianye immediately understood what this camp was for—this was a slave pen, a place to hold the numerous slaves for trade. Every long building could hold over a hundred humans. The crowded human blood energy he had sensed came from this place. Such a camp could hold nearly a thousand slaves at its peak, a staggering number to speak of.

The goods for trade was now clear—humans... real, live humans.

Qianye had heard from Yu Renyan that Wu Zhengnan’s trade with the dark races included humans. However, this was his first time witnessing such a spectacle. Some of these people would become food, while the rest would be forced into labor or used as breeding machines.

Perhaps the deal included other contents, but these humans were obviously the most important merchandise.

Qianye stealthily withdrew from the village and found a place in the wilderness from which he could directly observe the village gates. He tightly pulled his cloak over his head while recalling the regional topography, defenses, and troop distribution of the various races in the village.

The arachne leader was rank seven. There were three more rank five arachne and werewolves, while the rest were all below rank five. Such a group was anything but weak, however, this wasn’t the first time Qianye had fought a dark race patrol squad. To him, eradicating them wasn’t an impossible endeavor as long as he had sufficient range and geographical advantage.

Qianye selected a few potential areas for an ambush and played out the scenario in his head for a couple of times before turning in.

Dawn. The village gates opened, allowing passage to a convoy which gradually drove toward the north. The containers on these cargo trucks had been modified, allowing one to see the numerous human figures through the iron bars.

Qianye’s judgement was correct. It was indeed a slave convoy. These cargo trucks were surprisingly advanced in terms of horsepower and auxiliary equipment, even comparable to the equipment issued to the main imperial corps.

This convoy cast an entirely new light on the value of this transaction. In the past, the dark race would have the slaves walk after capturing them—rarely would they ever transport them by car. Additionally, the dark race warriors were accustomed to moving through the wilderness. They probably wouldn’t take kindly to these constantly jolting tin cans which reeked of fuel.

For this trade, however, cargo trucks had been arranged for all the humans. Apparently, the dark race had attached a great deal of importance to this batch of merchandise. They weren’t willing to lose even a single one of them along the way.

This strengthened Qianye’s resolve to prevent the dark race from obtaining them!

The convoy was still slowly moving through the rugged terrain. Qianye, on the other hand, was already running through the wilderness and had soon arrived at the predetermined ambush points before long. It was a valley with numerous towering stone pillars. The ground was uneven, and the path was barely enough for a single car to pass.

The valley was permeated by a faint yet peculiar fishy smell, and there wasn’t a sign of life amidst the deathly stillness. It was because of these characteristics that Qianye was confident that the convoy would pass through here. He had already distinctly picked up the scent of an arachne. It was a great disaster for the small beasts and insects wherever an arachne passed. This path was highly likely to be the one taken by the dark races on their way to the village and was naturally their path back.

The location was already quite close to the dark race borders, but the dark race had no concept about repairing roads, or at least the lower level dark race didn’t. It has been said that the high ranking dark race members had already developed a greatly advanced culture and had built various lofty landmarks that were supposedly even more majestic than the Great Qin Empire’s trans-century projects. It was as if the higher level dark race members and the lower level ones were living in completely different ages.

Qianye selected a hiding place, laid down a few traps, and patiently waited for the convoy’s arrival.

An hour later, rumbling sounds began to ring out within the valley as a large cargo vehicle appeared in Qianye’s vision. The one behind the steering wheel was a werewolf while two arachne were cramped into the rear seat. They could only prop a few of their limbs outside because their large bodies weren’t able to fit entirely into the compartment. The sword spiders and wargs roamed at either side of the convoy. These less intelligent cannon fodder preferred running through the wilds than being crammed into these tin cans.

Qianye raised his Eagleshot and locked the crosshairs onto the target. The arachne with eye-catching white stripes on its abdomen was the leader of this trade procession and the only rank seven monster. Half the battle would be won so long as it was killed.

The foremost cargo truck suddenly spat out large clouds of black smoke and came to a halt. The agitated werewolves from the cars behind jumped down and growled menacingly as they glanced at the surroundings.

“Bernt! What is it this time?” the arachne impatiently shouted.

The tall werewolf roared in reply, “The scent of vampires is in the air and it’s extremely fresh. You know there shouldn’t be vampires in this area!”

The arachne shivered slightly. “Hold on, I’ll come down to take a look.” Moving its large body took some effort, almost as if it was trying to pull its bulging abdomen out of the car.

This action became the cause of its death.

A red light flashed in the distance. Sensing great danger, the arachne let out a screech and hacked away at the car with its limbs. This action didn’t merely break apart the vehicle but also hacked the other arachne seating beside him. The rank five fellow was completely split open from the waist up and immediately lost the ability to fight.

But even that didn’t allow the first arachne to escape harm. The incoming bullet was clearly reflected upon the center of its abdomen. The projectile wasn’t merely emitting a hazy origin light but was also surrounded by a band of radiance! The origin power within this bullet had stirred an external reaction. The more colorful it was, the more terrifying the might behind it.

A bloody mist burst out of the arachne’s abdomen and its bulky body was flung back from the momentum.