Monarch of Evernight (Web Novel)
chapter-362

t [Volume 5 – A Distance Within Reach]

The dark race members’ eyes were filled with ferocity. The warriors nearby had clearly heard that Qianye was drained of origin power, and a warrior without origin power wasn’t much stronger than an ordinary person regardless of his rank.

Qianye almost seemed oblivious to the dangerous situation he was in. He brought out a cigarette from his pocket, inhaled deeply, and said with a smile, “Do you guys want a smoke?”

An arachne and two vampires roared loudly as they charged toward Qianye.

A ring of sword radiance suddenly emerged and swept past the three warriors. Their bodies kept on running forward and only split apart after taking a couple of steps.

“Together!” It was unknown who exactly let out such a shout, but it caused everyone to swarm forth.

Qianye stood holding his sword with both hands at the center of the battlefield. East Peak’s sword qi weaved back and forth, drawing out an illusory image with every wave of the blade. Be it vampires, arachne, or werewolves, the sword would immediately see blood if it so much as brush past them.

Qianye was merely repeating the basic sword stances tempered by the Book of Darkness. However, every wave of his sword would bring about a bloody storm and send broken limbs and bits of flesh flying in all directions. Dark race warriors were mowed down in droves. Some attacks did land on his body, but even slashes at full force only managed to leave shallow wounds on his body.

After a round of fierce killing, the dark race warriors finally grew apprehensive and began to retreat in succession.

Dozens of corpses had fallen around Qianye, while others who had lost the ability to move lay groaning and gasping. Qianye removed the cigarette hanging from his mouth and gave it a quick glance before tossing it to the ground.

The blood below his feet had formed a river. The cigarette stub fell into the sanguineous flow and was extinguished with a sizzle.

Qianye suddenly drew the Mystic Spider Lily and fired into the distance. A certain smith who was trying to slip away was taken down in a single shot.

Qianye aimed the Mystic Spider Lily at the gathering of smiths and said, “None of you may leave. Whoever dares escape will meet the same fate.”

Someone in the crowd shouted, “Split up and run!” Some of them felt a rush of excitement. They saw that Qianye only had a single handgun. How many rounds could he fire? How many of them could he intercept? But numerous balls of flame erupted beneath the foremost group just as they began to run, and the pungent smell of gunpowder quickly filled the air. That was a gunpowder grenade!

The smiths were immediately frozen in place. Those further from the explosion still hadn’t given up, but the moment they stepped out, a number of grenades landed accurately near them—it was as though they had grown eyes. Only then did the smiths slow down their steps and return.

Qianye watched them with a spurious smile while tossing a grenade in his right hand. A heavy cloth bag had appeared in his left hand at some point, and from the shape, it was very likely filled with grenades.

The smiths’ expressions turned dismal. Some among them weren’t low in rank, so much that there were even rank seven or eight experts. However, they had been working with origin arrays most of the time and were thus lacking in combat experience. The only reason they had raised their strength was so that they could construct higher level arrays.

The explosives in Qianye’s hands were all gunpowder grenades. Although a single blow wasn’t enough to kill them, they still wouldn’t be able to avoid receiving heavy injuries. Under such circumstances, splitting up to escape was more or less a joke. No one was willing to become cannon fodder for the sake of draining Qianye’s ammunition.

Some of them still had their hopes pinned on the count’s army. But they glanced around only to find that all the dark race warriors had long since run away while Qianye was busy with the smiths.

After Qianye tossed a grenade near them and the ensuing origin power shockwaves caused the nearby smiths to be unable to stand straight, all of them obediently returned to the law array without any other movements.

At this time, on the other side of the mountain, Zhao Yuying had slashed off the arachne viscount’s head with a wave of her combat knife. “Competing in speed with this mommy here. You’re just courting death!”

She suddenly remembered something and cried out in alarm, “Qianye!”

Zhao Yuying was too engrossed in the chase and only now did she remember that she had left Qianye, now drained of origin power, in the mine. And there were at least a hundred dark race soldiers there.

She ran back to the mine at full speed without even taking the time to collect the spoils of war.

Moments later, Zhao Yuying arrived back at the mine and was momentarily stunned after seeing Qianye.

It was unknown when a table and chair had been set up in the middle of the mine. Qianye was sitting at the table with East Peak beside him and drinking tea in all due leisure. Two vampires were standing beside him, and it seemed they were reporting something with great respect. There were also dozens of smiths working busily near the origin law array, disassembling and sorting the array components they had just installed a while ago.

It seemed as though Qianye was the actual master of this mine.

Zhao Yuying walked toward Qianye with large strides and asked, “What’s going on here?”

Qianye shrugged and said, “It’s just as you see it.”

“Where are those dark race warriors?”

“Oh, so you still remember that there’s a batch of dark race warriors here?”

Zhao Yuying immediately felt guilty and her tone softened by quite a bit, “That… well… this mommy here was only a bit careless. You seem fine and dandy right now.”

Qianye shrugged and said, “At this rate, you’ll kill me one day!”

Zhao Yuying knew she had passed a tribulation—she was immediately all smiles as she placed a claw on Qianye’s shoulder. “How can that be? You just stick with your elder sister here and there can only be benefits.”

After hearing this, Qianye felt that his future was rather bleak.

It was at this time that a muffled rumble was heard, followed by a series of explosions. Flames and smoke emerged from a mine shaft to the east as its steel doors collapsed with a boom and out poured a large group of miners and slaves. Most of them appeared to be humans, but there were also a fair number of dark races.

Those people were likely the slave miners toiling in the depths of the mine pit and mixed in with them were their supervisors. It was unknown why they had blasted open the spare exit and rushed out only at this moment.

A dense crowd of people had poured out. Most of them appeared malnourished and were clad in tattered clothing. They were waving mining picks and shovels, without any presentable weapons to speak of. There were a number of werewolves among them who emerged completely naked with their “chaps” swinging and moving below their crotches—they took a couple of steps out and simply started running out on all fours.

At this moment, the smiths still needed some time to disassemble the origin array. Moreover, the apparatuses and media were exceptionally precise, and even a single stomp would likely damage them. The origin array would be completely ruined if it were to be stepped over by the hundreds of mining slaves.

Qianye saw the crowd’s direction and couldn’t help but frown—these people weren’t scattering and were, instead, running toward the center of the plaza—apparently, someone was urging them on from behind. These people possessed little martial prowess and naturally posed no threat to Qianye and Zhao Yuying who had even defeated Count Stuka. But they could cause chaos. On one hand, they could take this opportunity to destroy the array, while on the other, they could give the smiths an opportunity to escape.

Qianye scanned the smiths in the law array and noticed that some of them had stopped working and were gazing into the distance. He said coldly, “Continue working.”

Qianye did not repeat his threat, but the smiths discerned the sharp killing intent within his words. They all shivered and lowered their heads before continuing to disassemble the array—they understood that the next grenade in Qianye’s hand would likely land on their heads and not near their feet.

The incoming stampede approached rapidly and someone in the crowd shouted, “Charge! Whoever kills that wretched man and woman will be granted freedom!”

Many slaves’ eyes were red as they let out bestial roars and charged over while brandishing the makeshift weapons in their hands.

The perpetrator’s intentions were clear as day. The mining slaves were mostly humans, and thus, he wanted to see if Qianye and Zhao Yuying could bear to take action against so many of their own race.

Qianye hurled numerous gunpowder grenades and drew a firing line in front of the advancing crowd. He then shouted with a stern voice, “Withdraw! One step forward and you will die!”

Under the effects of his origin power, Qianye’s voice rang out like thunder and echoed throughout the plaza. However, the slaves showed no signs of slowing down their footsteps and continued to swarm forward. It almost seemed as though the ones up front were being pushed by those behind. Qianye’s warning fell on deaf ears.

Qianye’s countenance turned frosty. He looked over but found that there was a fair number of dark race members mixed within the crowd. It was simply impossible to tell the hiding perpetrators apart from the penalized dark race members who had been forced into slavery.

The human tidal wave approached the origin array in the blink of an eye.

Qianye was hesitant for a moment. He had no shortage of origin grenades on him, and he could blast away hundreds of people in this dense formation.

It was at this time that Zhao Yuying’s enraged voice rang out, filled with killing intent, “You want to play this game with this mommy here?!”

Soon afterward, a dozen-odd origin grenades flew toward the charging crowd in a horizontal line.

“This mommy here has killed even more people than you’ve seen in a lifetime!” Zhao Yuying only spat out the second part of her heroic speech after the attack.

The slaves, both dark race and humans, could still recognize the grenades despite the madness. The crowd fell into chaos as—those in front wanted to retreat with all their might, while the ones at the back couldn’t halt their advance immediately and kept on pushing forward.

The grenades exploded at almost the same time, and the dazzling origin power light formed a low wall in front of Qianye. The intense stench of blood filled the air—almost all of the hundreds at the van fell, and a land of death close to a hundred meters wide appeared in the midst of the horde.

Not many survived the immediate blast. The few lucky survivors were struggling in pools of blood, and their screams caused those behind to turn pale. They lost their heads and no longer dared to advance. Zhao Yuying’s cruelty and viciousness had finally stemmed their madness.

Some of the slaves were finally afraid and turned to flee. A sharp whistle rang out through the air as numerous grenades flew over, but this time, the explosives passed high over their heads and fell at the back, turning the escapees into corpses.

Neither able to advance nor escape, the slaves had no idea what to do at the moment. Some of the more timid ones couldn’t control the fear of death. They fell on their knees and began to plead for mercy.

Zhao Yuying tossed her backpack to the ground. One could see from the opening that it was indeed filled with origin grenades. Although she had used up a fair bit, about half of them remained. Not yet content with the present firepower, she looked around and found the two crates of gunpowder grenades under Qianye’s table which he had brought out to intimidate the smiths.

She arrived in large strides and, with a flick of her foot, sent the two heavy crates smashing near her backpack. She returned to her previous position, picked up a grenade, and tossed it in her hand while gazing forward with a cold smile.

The slaves immediately fell into a commotion. Meanwhile, the smiths buried their heads in work and dared not even shoot a glance.

Zhao Yuying said coldly, “This mommy will give you all a chance. Who made you lot charge? Point that person out along with all of the old spider’s men. Otherwise, I have a lot of toys here in this crate!”

Although most of them were gunpowder grenades, the slaves weren’t experts in origin power either. The threat from these explosives was no different from origin grenades to them—they would die all the same once they were caught in the explosion.

The slaves began to glance around, and a dozen or so dark race members were isolated almost immediately.