Monarch of Evernight (Web Novel)
chapter-78

[Volume 2 - Bloom of the Other Shore Flower]

Qianye walked out of the mountain cave, his bags saddled with several dozens of kilograms more weight than before. This included a grade two origin gun, five physical origin bullets, several dozens of gold coins, as well as some survival gear and food for the wilderness.

About a day after Qianye had left the cave, Flying Bird and his subordinates arrived. At this point, Flying Bird had already been run rather ragged, his clothes grimy and torn in a few places.

The Sky Snake Gang henchmen were all equally winded and exhausted, and those that could still keep up with Flying Bird numbered only six, everyone else had been left behind. At this point, these Sky Snake Gang henchmen had long since lost that same swaggering arrogance they had when they had just left the city.

When Flying Bird saw Li Lunzhe’s corpse in the cave, his face turned incredibly ugly. Although he was incredibly arrogant and stubborn, he was no fool. He knew very well that this person was one of the strongest of the young generation from Home of Hunters. Furthermore, it was in a wilderness like this that a hunter could unleash his greatest ability. Out here, even Flying Bird couldn’t guarantee that he would be able to kill Li Lunzhe in a one on one.

But now, Li Lunzhe was dead, and had died in such a terrible manner.

Flying Bird crouched, and ignoring his own mysophobia, he personally stripped all of Li Lunzhe’s clothes, and carefully inspected every single wound. The more he looked, the paler Flying Bird’s face got. This was an abnormally professional and incredibly exquisite torture technique! Looking at the result, Flying Bird knew that if it had been him there and then, he might not have even lasted one minute. In fact, the more twisted and perverse the killer, the more fragile their mental states were.

If he landed in Qianye’s hands, the best solution would be to kill himself.

The image of Black Wolf’s corpse flitted across Flying Bird’s mind, and he slowly stood up. “Withdraw! We’re returning to the city!”

All of the Sky Snake Gang henchmen let loose a collective breath, and immediately followed Flying Bird, leaving in a hurry. Seeing that this was an enemy that they could only keep pursuing, and yet never actually catch, as well as the terrifying manner by which so many of their fellows on the road had died, these Sky Snake Gang henchmen, who would act brazenly without a care in Darkblood City, had already gotten a taste of true fear.

Was Qianye really only rank three? That was the question floating at the top of everyone’s minds.

At this point, Qianye was standing at the peak of a mountain several dozens of kilometers away, observing his surroundings. He peered from his hiding hole. “That Flying Bird should have commenced the return trip by now, shouldn’t he? As long as he isn’t completely stupid or insane.”

Qianye unfurled his map, whereupon several locations were already marked down. These were all prime locations for an ambush, forming a thick defensive line between Flying Bird and the road back to Dark Blood City.

By now, Flying Bird had lost the wind in his sails. He had found Qianye’s hiding spot an hour ahead of his predictions, so he was still pretty capable, however, since he had pursued Qianye across the wasteland for several days and nights without rest, Flying Bird had expended a lot of his energy. Hence Qianye’s intent of killing him on the way back.

Killing off Black Wolf and Flying Bird would make the Sky Snake Gang lose two of its four so-called experts, an immensely heavy blow for Sky Snake.

However, as Qianye was choosing his ambush spots, he suddenly had a kind of feeling and looked toward the far horizon.

The dark season of the Evernight Continent was also termed the horizon days. The night skies would be dark and empty, and the star clouds surrounding the world were especially far away. In this especially placid and desolate sky, a star suddenly flared with brightness.

Even as the starlight grew brighter, transforming the faint glow into complete illumination, each twinkle seemed to make it grow another ring. With Qianye’s night vision, that starlight looked as if it were rapidly moving, and even approaching him. An instant later, a small, bat-winged airship came into his sight. The airship was on fire.

It swayed from side to side unsteadily as its altitude constantly decreased. Finally diving toward the ground, it crashed on the other side of the mountain, immediately burst into a haze of fire.

Qianye was momentarily shocked. This airship’s design was so unique, he definitely couldn’t ever forget it! It was a lifeboat used only by the Red Scorpion Corps! Long ago, he too had flown one of these to escape certain death.

He didn’t expect that he would see it here once again. Qianye had already noticed that the airship being on fire was not due to mechanical malfunction. It had evidently come under external assault, and if even the lifeboats had been attacked, the state of the Red Scorpions’ mission could be easily imagined. However, given the strength of the Red Scorpions, it wasn’t even possible for the entirety of the Boulderstone Region to oppose them, much less Darkblood City.

Qianye’s heart chilled, remembering that mysterious black-robed man, and William from the Summit of Peaks. If they had run into either of those two, they would have been powerless to resist, even if there was a Red Scorpion captain commanding the troops. Unless the Red Scorpion Corps dispatched an expert on the level of a vice corp commander or higher, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

Qianye hesitated a moment, and then grit his teeth, continuing to rush toward the crash site of the lifeboat. Even though he feared that he might directly face a monstrously strong existence like William, Qianye still decided to take the risk. Although he had not spent very long time as a Red Scorpion, the Red Scorpion Corps had given Qianye many things. One one of them was something called comrades-in-arms!

As for Flying Bird, Qianye could no longer be bothered with such small fry.

Qianye carefully hurried forward as he kept his body extremely low, making use of the surroundings to constantly mask his approach on the crash site. He rapidly scaled the opposing peak, and then carefully peered out, looking ahead.

The lifeboat had crashed in the middle of the mountain, and was completely swallowed by the raging flames. In addition, there were ten-odd teams of vampire warriors forming an encirclement, currently besieging the lifeboat.

Suddenly, a beam of red light came from the rubble beside the lifeboat, instantly blowing away a vampire warrior. At this, the rest of the vampires began to speed up, traversing over a hundred meters in the blink of an eye as they rushed into the rubble, tussling with a tall, broad-shouldered Red Scorpion soldier.

That Red Scorpion soldier had long since been heavily injured, and seven-or-eight vampire warriors had him surrounded, enclosing him like a pack of wolves around a majestic lion.

As Qianye watched the battle, the Red Scorpion soldier’s movements suddenly slowed, and the surrounding vampire warriors were all greatly delighted, immediately pouncing at him!

In his heart, Qianye was howling!

He too had come from the Red Scorpion Corps, so he naturally knew what that soldier was up to. However, it was already too late to stop him at this point.

As a beam of piercing, silver light emerged from that pile of combatants, all of the vampire warriors pitifully clasped at their faces, staggering backwards. Following that, a ring of flame expanded rapidly with that Red Scorpion soldier as its epicenter, and the blast wave sent all the vampire warriors flying. However, the flames adhered to them, burning endlessly. Those vampire warriors were screaming from the burning pain, but even after continuously rolling over, they couldn’t extinguish the flames.

The blazing flames were suffused with little threads of silver. On top of that, these were flames that had been infused with Daybreak origin power, which was of great lethality to the dark races. This type of origin power grenade had immense power, but was equally expensive, usually only issued to captain-level soldiers.

In the center of that blast, that Red Scorpion soldier was thoroughly evaporated. He had burned through four of the origin power grenades in one go, and left nothing of himself behind.

That only left five vampire warriors. They had been the furthest away at that time, and hadn’t had time to pounce on him. However, even though they had, with great luck, scraped out of it alive, they had been scared stiff, and didn’t dare to approach the epicenter of the explosions, even though that Red Scorpion soldier had been vaporized by the blast.

Just at this moment, a loud roar suddenly sounded from not too far away, and a shining origin bullet tore through the sky, blasting away one vampire warrior.

The remaining vampire warriors immediately split up and pulled out of their displaced assault formation, charging toward the origin of the gunshots, a low shrubbery.

The origin gun boomed again, but this time round, the aim was just slightly off, and the origin bullet brushed past the body of a vampire warrior. That fellow squealed out, and in that instant of delay, was almost swept away by the remnants of the origin power wave. However, it was only a case of being bowled over, and given that vampire warriors had strong bodies, these kinds of injuries were completely ineffective at affecting their combat prowess.

Indeed, that vampire warrior followed his companions in continuing their attack, while another two vampires drew origin guns of their own, aiming squarely at those bushes and began to shoot. As the explosions rang out, a tiny, lithe figure leapt out of the shrubs, and then continued to frog-leap, dodging the vampires’ marksmanship somewhat wretchedly.

Qianye cried out in pity in his heart. That person in the shrubs was evidently some rookie, and to miss at a hundred meter’s distance could only be called being too nervous. Because of the extraordinary speed of vampires, much less low-grade vampire warriors, one would only have enough distance to shoot twice.

Despite not being a Red Scorpion anymore, Qianye felt that it would be an act of compassion to protect this obvious greenhorn.

Qianye’s finger depressed the trigger smoothly. The moment the origin bullet left the barrel, he would immediately shift the muzzle, completely ignoring the results of his initial shot.

One vampire warrior that had been lining up his shot was suddenly struck in the lower back, and was sent flying! This sudden, pinpointed attack left the vampire warriors’ formation to be thrown into disarray, and even as they were searching for their enemy, Qianye’s second shot had left the barrel, striking the other vampire warrior holding an origin gun.

The last two vampire warriors gave up chasing the rookie, and both came pouncing at Qianye. They had already detected that this assailant was deadlier by far.

Qianye stood up from where he had been sitting, and pulled out his hand-axe, welcoming the opponents’ charge! Going up against two rank three vampire warriors, Qianye was completely unperturbed, and with a few sharp cleaves, he laid them out in pieces on the floor.

Not far away, the little rookie’s reactions were still considered fast. She had scrambled up the slope, levelling an origin gun, but before she could finish charging it, all of the opponents had been laid flat.

It was a young girl that had just reached maturity. Her body hadn’t even finished growing, and her pretty little face still filled with a childish air, her large eyes drowning with panic.

Qianye looked around, and seeing that there weren’t any other vampires, gestured toward that little rookie. “Come with me, we’ve got to leave immediately!”

“But I’ve still got to collect Captain Xia’s remains…” cried the little rookie in a soft and weak voice.

“We’re out of time! Leave, now!” Qianye didn’t speak any further, and stepping forward in two strides, gripped the rookie’s collar, forcibly dragging her away.

The little rookie turned to look back, her tears flowing uncontrollably as she was dragged along by Qianye on that hectic escape.

Qianye roared at her, “No crying, rookie! Start route running, two hours straight! Follow me!”

The little rookie jumped in shock. For a moment, she felt like she heard a Red Scorpion commander give her an order. She instinctively slung her origin gun behind her, adjusted herself, and hurriedly followed Qianye. Only after running for some distance did she start to have a few murky thoughts. Why did this young man that suddenly appeared talk and act so much like a Red Scorpion?

However, she never managed to find a chance to voice her heart’s concerns. Qianye brought her along on a meandering route, ducking through the complex mountain passes, and constantly scaling mountains. Although the route run wasn’t especially fast like during an exercise, these hilly conditions made for an increased energy expenditure.

The little rookie ran until she saw white from exhaustion, huffing and puffing. How could she have the energy to speak? As it went on, even her eyes glazed over, and she barely managed to hold on and keep up with Qianye, even with the strength she had gained by the Red Scorpion training regime.

What the little rookie didn’t know was that a short time after they had left, another large group of vampire warriors had shown up near the lifeboat crash site. As that team of high-ranked warriors chased them, they were taken for a trip up and down the mountains and valleys by Qianye. After having given chase for a good hour and having crossed two rivers back-to-back, the group was finally shaken off.

Qianye ran for two entire hours before finally stopping. “You may rest now, rookie! You have thirty minutes.”

The rookie immediately collapsed onto the ground, barely managing to grab her water bottle. She drank two large gulps and then managed to recap the bottle with extreme effort.

“You may use stimulants, we still need to continue on, this time for an hour.”