Volume 3 – The Place Where My Heart Feels At Peace, Chapter 17: Player
Qianye raised his voice and repeated, “Is there anyone who wants to go back to the Empire with me? There may be hazards along the way, but I have killed all of the vampires inside the ancient castle. You may not necessarily be able to live even if you stay behind. I give you only three minutes to consider!”
“I want to return to the Empire!” a girl suddenly ran out of the crowd.
“What are you doing, come back!” the young man beside the girl tried to pull her, but the girl threw him a backhanded slap before running towards Qianye again.
Bitter resentment appeared on the young man’s face, and he abruptly pounced towards the girl. However, a blur happened before his eyes, and he slammed into something and fell back two steps dizzily as if he had run into a mountain.
Qianye had appeared before the young man before anyone noticed, and he was staring coldly at him. It was he whom the young man had run into just now.
“Are you asking for death?” Qianye’s voice was both soft and icy cold.
The young man stared straight into Qianye’s emotionless eyes, and with a burst of courage that came from G.o.d knows where he suddenly yelled, “She is my fiance! The lords of the Sacred Family had promised to give her to me after exercising her virgin rite. You cannot take her away from me!”
Qianye drooped his eyes slightly before raising it immediately. He smiled and said softly, “Sacred Family?”
The young man said loudly, “If we perform well, the lords of the Sacred Family would pick out one of us and give the Embrace, changing us into one of them every once in a while!”
Qianye had no wish to listen any longer. He swung his arm and gave him a slap! The slap hit the young man so hard that he flew out while rotating in midair. Moreover, he spat out a mouthful of blood foams and several broken teeth.
The young man did have some courage in him, and throwing all caution to the wind he yelled, “Even if you all followed him, you would not be able to escape the Sacred Family’s chase! And what if you did reach the Empire! We are born and raised in the Sacred Family. Do you think that the great Qin will let you off? They will only treat us as blood thralls and kill us all! Ah!!”
The young man let out a long, bloodcurdling scream. In fact, Qianye had already walked over and snapped all four of his limbs with his foot before saying, “It will be too easy to kill a guy like you right away. Wait until your Sacred Family lords arrive, let’s see how they will treat a handicapped livestock!”
It was only now the young man thought of the potential consequences he might have to face. In an instant, he trembled all over and shouted at Qianye while twisting his body, “You devil! I will haunt you even if I die!”
Qianye no longer paid any attention to the young man and asked one more time. This time, there were almost a hundred people who were willing to follow Qianye back to the empire.
“This journey will be very difficult. We must proceed at top speed, and we will not slow for anyone who was left behind. Those who are not confident that they can complete the whole journey, you may withdraw now.”
All those who stood out no longer wished to stay behind, so Qianye led these one hundred or so human beings who were kept like animals on the journey back home.
There were still a few carriages inside the ancient castle, and they were all taken away by Qianye. These carriages were used to allow the fleeing humans to rest in turns. And so, the fleeing group had run nearly two hundred kilometers in a day and a night.
At this point, all of the horses had worked themselves to death, and nearly half of the people in the group were eternally left behind on the road. Some had worked themselves to death, and some had fallen behind the group. However, their conclusions were the same. Normal humans who were left alone in an area controlled by the dark races shared a fate that was not much different from consumable animals’.
No matter how many people had lost steam and fallen behind the group, Qianye did not slow down in the slightest. Meanwhile, everyone did their utmost to follow the group in silence. No one complained, and no one groaned. They continued until they no longer had the energy to continue forwards.
Just when they were about to leave the region controlled by the dark races, Qianye suddenly paused his footsteps and said to the very first girl who stood out, “Lead them and keep running along this direction. You must not slow down no matter what. Get it?”
The girl nodded strongly before asking, “What about you?”
Qianye glanced once at the incoming road and said, “There is a team of black blooded b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who had caught up to us. I’ll deal with them first before meeting up with you all later.”
The fleeing group continued onwards, whereas Qianye turned back and welcomed the dark race patrols who had tracked them to this point.
Saving these kept people was just the secondary objective. Qianye’s true objective was to lure out another patrol team. The patrol team had chased them for several hours and traversed hundreds of kilometers. Right now be it their stamina or their alertness were at a low point, so this was the perfect opportunity to act.
This was a cruel revenge towards the blood feast. How could slaughtering a few random dark races compare to taking out a settlement and a regular patrol team?
Qianye did not wait more than half an hour before a dozen or so running dark warriors had appeared in his scope. The leader was actually a Blood Esquire, which was also the type of prey Qianye loved the most. After an entire day’s time, Qianye had injected yet another physical origin bullet. It was just the gift to this Blood Esquire.
Eagleshot’s loud bang shattered the night’s silence. As if struck by an invisible hammer, the Blood Esquire flew backwards into the air horizontally. Qianye immediately pulled out his short knife and rushed forwards into a sudden a.s.sault. His figure drew many afterimages as he brazenly pounced towards this team of dark warriors.
Blood immediately dyed the night red!
A while later, Qianye left the battlefield while carrying an entire body of deep and shallow wounds and a rank three vampire origin gun. Behind his back, everyone in the patrol team had been turned into corpses piled into a landscape. Every vampire had their throats and limb arteries cut out prior or after their deaths. This was a human’s revenge towards the blood feast.
While Qianye was infiltrating the dark races’ territory, the expeditionary forces’ military camp had welcomed yet another important personage that they were both in awe and afraid of, Bai Longjia.
The second Bai Longjia got off the airs.h.i.+p, he immediately said to the expeditionary force commanding officer who arrived to welcome him and said, “General Yang, I heard that a blood feast has appeared at this place. Let’s go, bring me to the location.”
Although both men were major generals, and Bai Longjia’s rank was even the superficial kind since he did not command an army directly like the expeditionary force’s major general. Judging from their att.i.tudes, Bai Longjia actually looked more like the other major general’s direct superior.
“General Bai, this seems…”
Bai Longjia cut off the expeditionary force’s major general coldly before he could even finish, “There is no seem! Bring me to the scene, now! If you are unwilling to go, then I will have another person lead me. But you will not need to lead ever again from this point onwards as well!”
The major general of the expeditionary forces immediately piled on a face full of smiles and said, “No, no, I will arrange this immediately! Please wait for several minutes.”
“Right. Call Mayor Luo and General Du along as well.”
Major General Yang immediately looked a little hesitant, “Those two have been quite busy as of late…”
But Bai Longjia did not appear open to his explanation at all, “I will see then on the airs.h.i.+p half an hour later!”
Darkblood City’s Mayor Luo Jianyi, and the expeditionary force’s dispatched generals Yang and Du, were the three Champion rank elites of the human race in Darkblood City. This allocation prominently showed Darkblood City’s status, since another city of the same scale would enjoy the protection of only one Champion.
General Yang’s smile froze as he immediately called over his aide and yelled, “No matter what you do, call the mayor and General Du over immediately! They must arrive within half an hour! Say that this is the order of General Bai, you hear me?”
Bai Longjia looked at him once before saying calmly, “It’s no use trying to push the matter on my head. If it is just the impeachment of three generals of the forgotten land, I can still take it.”
With a head of gray hair, Major General Yang was almost sixty years old already. But at this moment, he was bowing and bending and sc.r.a.ping in front of Bai Longjia, who was half his age while forcing a smile on his face, “How would I possibly dare! However, if I don’t use your t.i.tle then those two will not come over. My face isn’t that worthy.”
Bai Longjia nodded noncommittally before he walked back to the airs.h.i.+p directly. He leaned against the back of a chair and began to close his eyes and recuperate. Meanwhile, Major General Yang was dumped outside the airs.h.i.+p.
His actions obviously meant that he treated Major General Yang as just a simple orderly. The officers and soldiers of the expeditionary forces all wore odd looks on their faces, but Major General Yang appeared just like normal and had not taken any offense of the humiliation at all. He looked rather much like a person who had turned the other cheek.
On the night the Evernight Council member Ge s.h.i.+tu had visited Darkblood City, it was he who advocated to hold fast like a turtle. As a result, he accidentally offended Bai Longjia big time. Now was the perfect opportunity to atone for his crime.
They might both be major generals who shared nearly the same combat power, but Bai Longjia was an influential figure of the Bai Family, one of the four grand households the Bai Family, and a member of the Broken Winged Angel. His future could be said to be limitless. Meanwhile, the expeditionary force was just a member in the quota of the empire’s main corps, and the garrison stationed at Darkblood City was just a second rated corps even in the expeditionary forces. Both parties might share the same military rank, but their statuses were as far apart as heaven and earth.
The army had only allocated two generals to Darkblood City because of its special circ.u.mstances, great profits to be gained and balancing of forces. Usually, both general Yang and Du did not follow a line of command, and each one of them owned a territory of their own and bowed to no one. So if General Yang were to send his aide to summon General Du, it would be courteous already if General Du had not kicked his aide out on the spot.
But Bai Longjia was different. A child of a great household like him acted without restraint, and sometimes they even lacked a sense of propriety. If they really p.i.s.sed him off, a high official supervisor might come down from the Empire after he went back. Who among the generals who were stationed at the borders could truly withstand an actual detailed investigation?
It hadn’t even been twenty minutes when Mayor Luo and General Du arrived. Bai Longjia did not waste words with them as he directly ordered the airs.h.i.+p to head to the settlement where the blood feast had happened.
An hour later, the airs.h.i.+p slowly landed outside the settlement. Bai Longjia had already taken the lead and walked into the settlement while the three government officials followed behind him. He stepped into the meeting hall.
The hall was preserved just as it was that day. It had already been a few days since the blood feast, and most of the corpses were at the advanced stage of putrefaction. The thick stench of dead bodies were everywhere. However, the cruelty and bloodiness of the blood feast when it was held could still be identified.
Be it Mayor Luo, General Yang or General Du, they were all frowning on the inside. They found the thick stench of corpses a little difficult to bear. Meanwhile, Bai Longjia stood quietly as if he hadn’t smelled anything. His eyes slowly swept across the interior of the hall.
After a full dozen of minutes or so, Bai Longjia finally said, “I heard that a demonkin Champion had laid down this trap in order to hook a few big fishes? You three truly are cautious and resourceful for not falling into this trap!”
His words did not sound like praise no matter how one were to judge it. The three Champions might be furious and ashamed on the inside, but nothing could be gleaned from their faces. There was only shame on their faces.
Bai Longjia placed his hands behind his back and stood up facing towards the scene of the blood feast. He said indifferently, “Since the other party has already prepared such a spectacle, it wouldn’t be right to not give a show of support! I suppose I shall attend once and see if this demonkin truly is as powerful as the legend says!”
“You cannot!”
“Please rethink this, General Bai!”
The three champions of Darkblood City were greatly alarmed at the same time, and hastily acted to dissuade him. Bai Longjia’s ident.i.ty was nothing to be trifled with, and he was the future central pillar of the Bai Family. If he were to be killed in action due to retaliating against the blood feast, this would implicate every higher up in Darkblood City. They would not escape at least the accusation of lack of effort, and if the important personages of the Bai Family were to push b.u.t.tons from the back, then a discharge and an investigation were definitely on the light side of the punishment. The calamity would most likely reach their friends and family as well.
“It’s fine if you want to throw away your own life, but don’t drag us down with you!” The trio looked at each other and shared the same thoughts at a rare moment.
A demonkin Champion was not the same from a normal Champion. They were called the sons of darkness, and wielded combat strength that far exceeded their peers. They could not be measured by plain ranking at all. It was just like Bai Longjia capable of taking out any two out of three major generals currently present despite being a major general himself.
Bai Longjia let out a heavy snort upon seeing the looks on their faces. He said coldly, “Look at how much you were frightened by a mere demonkin! Hmph, the demonkin plans to reel in some fishes, but there’s no telling if he’ll reel me, the big fish, in or be dragged into the water instead!”
“But this is obviously a trap. It truly isn’t smart to barge into one forcefully!” Luo Jianyi hastily stopped Bai Longjia seeing that he was about to leave.
Bai Longjia suddenly let out a heavy sigh and said, “Perhaps the three of you have stayed on the Evernight Continent for so long that the history of the Empire has faded from your memories. Since ancient times, most of the blood feasts held by the dark races were obvious traps. However, the Empire would always respond brazenly towards every blood feast appearance, killing the culprit or repay in blood no matter what the cost! Do you think that the many famous generals and commanders of the empire were all idiots for the past hundred and thousand years? Do you think that they could not see through even a little trap like this?”
“The forefather of our Empire, Di Yun once said, those who infringe upon the people of our great Qin will be slain no matter the distance! This is the true essence of the iron fist response of our commanders!”
Bai Longjia’s statement was powerful and resonating, with every word sounding like a clap of thunder, causing the trio’s faces to change color from shock. However, how could the major figures stationed at the borders for so many years that they had almost cultivated themselves into slippery, old officials be persuaded by a few simple lines? They were all nodding their heads and saying yeses, but no one s.h.i.+fted a foot. At the same time, they were even shooting signals with their eyes and planning to stop Bai Longjia.
It was at this moment an unenthusiastic voice rang beside everyone’s ears, “Well said!”
This voice came without any warning, and it sounded just like it was whispered beside the ear. However, there were obviously no one else within dozens of meters of the surrounding!
The three champions of Darkblood City all turned round in shock, looking everywhere for the person who uttered these words. A huge change had also pa.s.sed by Bai Longjia’s face, since this voice was so familiar to him that he almost felt like trembling!