[V6C145 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]

Just as Qianye’s figure flickered into existence, his face turned pale and East Peak sunk downward in his hand. He couldn’t help but laugh self-deprecatingly—he had been so eager to try the technique out that he had forgotten all about its terrifying consumption. The Spatial Flash invented by Andruil required one to be at the marquis-level to activate, and the one Qianye had comprehended was a toned down version of it. Using it at a slightly longer range almost drained him of all blood energy.

The dark race warriors were in chaos after suddenly losing track of the enemy’s movements. They came to moments later only to find that Qianye was somehow standing in their midst. Despite their astonishment, all the dark race warriors glared over at him with cruelty and bloodthirst in their eyes. As they saw it, this human was walking to his death.

But just as they were about to raise their blades and spears, they felt their bodies grow extremely heavy as the roar of cras.h.i.+ng tides echoed in their ears. Everyone’s vision turned blurry, filled by a weave of countless red threads.

Only a dozen or so dark race warriors remained standing around Qianye after the oceanic suppression and Life Plunder. It wasn’t because these people were strong, but because they were lucky—the limited threads from Life Plunder hadn’t stabbed into them.

At the center of the battlefield, Qianye took a deep breath before his figure flickered past the survivors, killing them one by one.

In the blink of an eye, there was no one left on the entire battlefield. Qianye left out a light sigh as his face flushed red and he spat out a mouthful of blood. His blood was aboil with vitality and suffused with specks of burning golden light.

This batch of dark race soldiers was made up of elites, and the essence blood in them was much greater than ordinary soldiers of the same rank, some even twice as abundant. That arachne viscount’s essence blood was almost equal in quant.i.ty to a first-rank viscount. Apparently, they were soldiers with outstanding talents and promising future prospects. Unfortunately, however, they encountered Qianye and were duly laid to rest within the Misty Wood.

Life Plunder couldn’t distinguish friend from foe, nor could it take the level of threat into account. It would seek out targets with the greatest vitality within its range and attack them. That was why a fair part of the threads had latched onto the arachne viscount. The other barons, knights, and even esquires who were struck lost the ability to escape or retaliate. All they could do was watch as the sanguineous thread entered their body and robbed them of their essence blood.

It was precisely due to this reason that even Qianye would sometimes find it hard to endure if the absorbed essence blood was too abundant. This caused him to spit out a mouthful of blood, one full of vitality and essence. He felt a bit more comfortable afterward, but his body still felt somewhat bloated like a filled balloon.

He looked down to observe himself, but there were no noticeable changes. That sensation of fullness was merely an illusion. After a while, a part of the essence blood was distributed to various parts of his body, while the rest was absorbed by the Book of Darkness and Wings of Inception. The feeling of discomfort thus faded away naturally.

Qianye cleaned up the battlefield in due haste. Killing such a squad came with abundant profits—the contribution points alone had surpa.s.sed last month’s total.

Apart from that, the elite squad’s equipment and supplies were much better than ordinary units. After flipping through them, Qianye wanted nothing more than to take all the gear away. But even Andruil’s Mysterious Realm couldn’t fit so many things.

He first collected proof of contribution, and after that, he only picked up things that didn’t take much s.p.a.ce like ammunition and blood crystals. As for weapons, he only packed up the ones belonging to soldiers above the knight level.

Armors took up too much s.p.a.ce, so Qianye only removed the arachne viscount’s armor and helmet. Although they could hardly be used by humans, the materials alone had substantial recycling-value and thus warranted a s.p.a.ce within Andruil’s realm.

After spending quite a bit of effort here and just as he was about to leave, Qianye suddenly turned back and found a sprout poking out from the purple substance. Moreover, it was growing taller at a visible rate.

This giant tree sapling reached the height of a person in the blink of an eye and was growing twice as fast as the one he had seen before. The odd thing was that the crown of this tree was actually scarlet red and contained specks of gold.

Qianye felt a chill shoot up to his head because this tree was growing out from where he had spat out the mouthful of essence blood. After seeing this eerie giant tree, how could he dare let it mature? He neither had the scientific spirit nor the curiosity to know what the fully grown tree would look like.

To Qianye, the current Misty Wood was already dangerous and troublesome enough.

He leapt up on the spot and swung East Peak horizontally, cutting the young tree through the middle. Where the blade fell, Qianye could feel that the tree trunk was much st.u.r.dier than ordinary giant trees. If it were to grow as tall as the other giant trees, Qianye wasn’t sure if he could cut it in one hit.

After the young tree was cut down, it let out a blood-curdling scream of anguish followed by a fountain of blood spraying out from the cut end.

Qianye was astonished as he stared at the cut tree trunk. For a moment, he couldn’t quite tell if this thing was ultimately a plant or a living creature. The sapling’s cry spread far and wide, instantly awakening all the giant trees in the vicinity. Their tree trunks began squirming, and the chambers bulged up continuously. It was clear that the fierce beasts and midgets within were about to break out at any moment.

Qianye glanced about at his surroundings and found that the range of activation was exceptionally wide—even the trees at the end of his vision were swaying. Qianye felt as though he had been plunged into cold water. How would he dare linger here? He simply turned tail and ran at full speed.

Even someone with Qianye’s speed couldn’t escape entirely and was still surrounded by the beasts. Fortunately, he was already at the edge of the beast tide. After pressing a swathe of beasts down with his oceanic pressure, Qianye finally charged out of the encirclement by relying on his sharp blade and thick armor.

After extricating himself from the beast tide, Qianye activated Bloodline Concealment and various other concealment abilities at great cost. He then ran out hundreds of kilometers without daring to rest. Even when he finally managed to sit down under a giant tree, he still felt somewhat fearful after recalling that boundless, omnipresent beast tide.

Checking his surroundings briefly and finding that it was fairly safe, Qianye leaned back against a giant tree and began circulating the Mystery Chapter to refine the essence blood. It had been some time since he last cultivated it. Now that his daybreak origin power had reached rank-eleven, it was finally time to upgrade his suppressed blood energy.

Large amounts of essence blood were drawn into the vortex by the chapter. There, they were crushed, purified, and transformed into darkness origin power which would then be absorbed by his blood core. The blood core would pulse strongly after each absorption and pump out a drop of auric flame blood.

Qianye paid rapt attention to his internal environment and saw that the auric flame blood in his vessels was growing denser. It had already spread to most parts of his body with only the most peripheral capillaries remaining, and there wasn’t much ordinary blood left throughout his body.

By the time the entirety of his circulation had transformed into auric flame blood, Qianye would’ve reached the peak of the viscount rank. Of course, that was according to the ancient standards stated in the River of Blood.

The night pa.s.sed by fairly quickly. Qianye ended his cultivation and stood up once again after all of the essence blood had been converted. He was in great spirits, and his entire body was full of strength and vitality. He once again checked his equipment and resources before leaving his temporary resting place to continue his hunt.

In the days that followed, Qianye encountered several dark race scouts and hunting parties. At times, he would encounter two in a single day. The continuous high-intensity battles caused Qianye’s store of ammunition to dwindle like snow under the raging sun. Very soon, he was completely out of supplies.

On the other hand, his contribution points and spoils of war were increasing at a rapid pace. Currently, he was no longer interested in knights’ weapons and only picked up those above the baron level. As for that set of arachne armor, he had no choice but to sacrifice it to make s.p.a.ce for other valuable spoils—now in its place was a complete set of demonkin light armor.

This was the first time Qianye felt that Andruil’s realm was too small and how great it would be if it were twice as large. However, even a s.p.a.ce ten times as large wouldn’t be able to fit all the spoils.

Only Qianye was capable of engaging in such a high-efficiency slaughter. The oceanic might and Life Plunder combined could be considered a G.o.dly area of effect weapon. Once activated, he could clear out an area ten or so meters in radius.

Most of the dark races’ operational units in the Misty Wood consisted of roughly a hundred soldiers. This happened to be the best applicable range for Qianye’s strategy—all of them were virtually annihilated in a single blow.

This time, Qianye’s contributions had multiplied by several times before ten days had pa.s.sed. Barring an abrupt change in harvesting rates, Qianye reckoned he would be in the top three by now and climbing to the first place was only a matter of time.

It went without saying that the environment of the Misty Wood played a vital role in his accomplishments. Outside of the woods where the senses were less suppressed, Qianye would have to spend quite a bit more effort in order to exterminate the dark race’s high-ranking warriors. His recovery advantage wouldn’t be that evident, either. The most important issue was still the aftermath.

The traces left behind by Life Plunder were best hidden from the higher-ups of the dark races, and it just so happened that the purple ground substance in the Misty Wood would swallow them all up.

Qianye soon discovered that the closer he was to the central caverns, the higher the chances of encountering more powerful dark race forces. Sometimes, he would even encounter targets who were so powerful that he had to retreat quietly.

Qianye suspected that the dark races were planning to enter the cavern maze on a large scale. Who knew what secrets lay within?

While Qianye was pus.h.i.+ng steadily toward the central caverns, a group of Li clan warriors had set up a temporary camp to rest.

Within a fine tenet at the center of the camp, a young man in his twenties was frowning as he looked at the map in his hand.

This was a map of the Misty Wood. In this world covered in purple substance and giant trees, every direction was the same to the naked eye.

The Li family had tried many methods to prevent getting lost. In the end, they found that the most effective way was to install plates engraved with different numbers on the giant trees and use those numbers to calculate their coordinates.

The young man bore the arrogance of an aristocrat, but there was also a lingering seriousness about him.

At this moment, an old general with white hair who was standing beside him said, “Young Master need not worry. This unfavorable phase is likely temporary. How can things always go as smooth as last month? There’s definitely a place for you in the top three of the rankings.”

These words did nothing to relax the youth’s expression. The latter only said with a sigh, “What’s the use of top-three? I still won’t be able to surpa.s.s Brother Qingyun. I, Li Jingzhan, am also a hero of the generation, yet I still have to make way for him.”