Monarch of Evernight (Web Novel)
chapter-582

Qianye immediately jumped off the tree. There, he circulated Bloodline Concealment and vanished from the dangerous area like a spirit.

Not long after Qianye had left, one of the giant treetops burst open and shot out dozens of mutant beasts—among them were shadowhounds and ten-odd midgets. These creatures began searching for the enemy immediately after landing, but Qianye had long since left. How could there be any traces of him?

Afterward, one tree after another opened up and sprayed out creatures. In the blink of an eye, thousands of fierce beasts and midgets had appeared and began searching through an area several kilometers in radius.

Far in the distance, Qianye was leaning on the trunk of a large tree. A fair length of extreme running had likely taken him out of harm's way, so he made a decisive stop and began catching his breath. Maintaining one’s stamina was the foremost priority in this dangerous land. The surroundings—be it the eerie giant trees or the all-encompassing purple substance—were calm. This proved that his Bloodline Concealment was effective in hiding him from this dangerous forest.

Even so, it remained that this forest was becoming increasingly dangerous. With these aboriginals around, ordinary soldiers entering the area would simply be committing suicide. Even the imperial regular army was no exception. Ordinary warriors were no match for hundreds of mutant beasts in an environment with less than ten meters of visual range. Even Qianye might not be able to retreat safely if he were to go deeper in.

Qianye’s heart felt heavy upon thinking about the independent hunters who had come with him. But this matter had its pros and cons because the forest was just as perilous for the dark races. Observing the trend of past battles, the dark races would hold the advantage in the early and middle phases of a skirmish. Hence, this situation was comparatively more advantageous for the empire.

Qianye ate and drank afterward, then took a short nap in a treetop before setting out again. He spent great effort to adjust his route and finally arrived at the south-western edge of the Misty Wood. He planned to cut through here and enter the Full Moon Plains in the other side.

That was the Song clan warzone.

There was no way Song Zining would be operating with the Song clan. However, Qianye had never been to the Full Moon Plains before, so he wanted to explore and take a look at the Song clan’s strength.

This war was sure to go on for a long time. He had to take control of the situation as much as possible earlier on, at least for the area he was operating in.

Several days passed by in a flash. Qianye had traveled hundreds of kilometers in the Misty Wood and annihilated two dark race scouting parties along the way. He had also killed off hundreds of mutant beasts and aboriginal midgets. Comparatively, it felt like the latter were giving Qianye a far harder time than the dark races.

But this was merely an illusion. The true difficulties would arrive when the true dark race experts had entered the battlefield.

Qianye had also encountered three groups of imperial experts. Perhaps they, too, had discovered the fangs of this forest; all of them were advancing in groups of three to five. They did not possess Qianye’s visual range and thus couldn’t discover his traces. Qianye had no intention of contacting them, either.

Qianye finally walked out of the Misty Wood at noon that day. Appearing before his eyes was a billowing hill region blanketed in green trees. The river far in the distance looked like a sapphire necklace strung around the mountains.

From a distance, it was nothing less than a beautiful painting of the mortal world. The Song clan really knew how to pick a good location. Beyond the hilly region was a flatland covered in a cushion of green grass that seemed to expand toward the horizon.

But in Qianye’s eyes, there was nothing of merit in the Full Moon Plains apart from the good scenery. According to the information at hand, there were no strategic resources to speak of and neither was it an important defensive position.

However, everyone knew that this floating continent would be embroiled in the flames of war for many years to come. Even if the empire could win this single battle, the Evernight faction wouldn’t easily admit defeat.

And there was really no telling what kind of deals were going on behind the scenes regarding the distribution of the seven regions.

Qianye climbed a hilltop and glanced about at his surroundings. The view here was open and expansive. Add to that his superior vision of one thousand two hundred meters, Qianye managed to take in the entire geography around him.

The Song clan was building defensive structures around a hilltop. The location was well thought-out and could easily exert control over a ten-kilometer area. Additionally, several other hill-tops were also undergoing construction, and judging from the shape of the structures, they seemed to be sentry towers. Hence, a defensive line was gradually taking shape.

Judging from the completed defensive points of this pace, they were likely made to defend against attacks from the Misty Wood. Meanwhile, two airships were patrolling the entire warzone from the air.

It would seem the Song clan had made ample preparations. After all, they had the money to spare. Even if they couldn’t produce talented people, they would still be able to gain an advantage by hiring more.

Qianye brought out his map and found his current position. From there, he advanced along the forest border toward the Northeast and soon arrived at the Bai clan region after several hundred kilometers. The area here was adjacent to the dark race forward base and warzone, making it a dangerous zone.

Qianye gave it some thought after closing the map and finally decided to spend a couple of days at the Bai clan war zone. He wanted to take a look since it wasn’t too far off, and he wouldn’t mind getting his revenge if he happened to run into Bai Kongzhao along the way.

The Bai clan war zone was an elevated desert land with several valleys stretching across it. The deepest among them fell over a thousand meters down and looked like a number of wounds stretching across the ground. The geography of this highland was fairly complicated. The numerous valleys split the highland into numerous areas and made transportation extremely difficult. Some were so wide that the only way across was via airship.

The region was scarcely suited for habitation, but the initial surveys revealed rare mineral veins in the depths of the ravines. Judging from the lay of the land, extraction was likely going to be quite troublesome.

But to the Bai clan who made a living off of producing high-end armors, these veins would no doubt serve as wings for the proverbial tiger.

The stretch of land between the Song and Bai clans was fairly quiet. Qianye didn’t encounter any scouting parties during the two days he had spent covering this distance. When he walked out from the Misty Wood once more, a steep incline filled with stones and gravel appeared before him.

The slope stretched dozens of kilometers and gradually climbed over a thousand meters high.

Qianye didn’t dare act recklessly. He climbed the incline slowly and soon arrived at the peak where the view before him expanded rapidly.

A desolate aura rushed at his face as a boundless desert appeared before him, decorated with tall peaks piercing thousands of kilometers into the sky.

The sudden expansion of vision caused Qianye to hold his breath. It was at this time that a dark shadow flitted past the ground, accompanied by a deep rumbling from above.

Qianye looked up and saw, a thousand meters in the sky, a gigantic airship emerging from the clouds.

It was a giant vessel hundreds of meters in length, and its backside was unfolded in many places as though it were made up of many leaves—the shape was as beautiful as it was peculiar.

Such shapes and colors usually signified that it was a vampire vessel. Moreover, its size and beauty were almost stifling—quite likely the battleship of a major character. Perhaps it was an honored marquis or even a duke.

Qianye was shaken at heart. He immediately fell to the ground and hid in the shadows of a giant rock. To an expert of that level, the distance of a thousand meters was hardly an obstruction. Moreover, Qianye had no way to deal with that gigantic vehicle up in the air. It would be meaningless to resist once he was found out.

A large group of airships appeared through the clouds after the gigantic airship had passed by. Their density was enough to blot out a part of the sky!

This was a fleet made up of hundreds of battleships. The outer-rim was made up of vampire battleships of all shapes and sizes, protecting the hundred-odd spherical transports in the center. Qianye had seen this type of transport many times on the battlefield. They looked clumsy and ugly on the outside, but would immediately spit out a barrack’s worth of dark race soldiers once landed.

This kind of arachne transport-class was called woodland beast, a vessel that was both reliable and cheap to produce. The most terrifying aspect was its transport capacity which far outshone the empire’s airships.

Close to a hundred landing vessels meant that a force tens of thousands strong was about to land. Such a massive force appearing directly in the middle of their land meant that the Bai clan was in for quite the misfortune.

“Goddammit, what is the imperial fleet doing?!” Qianye couldn’t help but curse out loud.

He watched the terrifying fleet fly past with an ugly expression. He couldn’t make up his mind whether he should join the battle alongside the Bai clan. This fleet was, for the most part, intact which meant that it had suffered little obstruction in the void. Against such a fighting power, it wouldn’t make a lot of difference even if he rushed over.

Just as he was hesitating, the dark race airships flew overhead and landed not far away.

At this moment, dozens of airships from the Bai clan scrambled into the air and rushed toward the enemy fleet despite the adverse odds.

Several of the Bai clan’s vessels fell from the sky upon first contact. The remainder advanced against the hail of cannon shots in a bid to push past the line of fire and reach those clumsy airships.

Any soldier with some experience would understand that tens of thousands of enemy soldiers would emerge if these airships were allowed to land. These Bai clan airships had no intention of returning alive and simply rammed into the transports when the situation was dire.

Dozens of brilliant fireballs appeared in the sky.

An airship that had charged into the midst of the Evernight fleet was exceptionally nimble. It opened up large holes on the enemy transports with great accuracy but soon burst into flames amidst the concentrated defensive fire.

Even so, it adjusted its course and crashed straight into a transport ship. Accompanied by a violent explosion, the woodland beast fell down into the canyon below and broke into pieces along the way.

Qianye stared intently at the dazzling light. He almost seemed to be able to see the captain stand up in the fierce blaze and change the ship’s trajectory with due calmness. In silence, he briefly organized his gear before darting toward the battlefield.