[V7C036– In Life and In Eternal Rest]
With a loud boom, Zhuji’s charge actually broke the incoming beast horde into two halves. The beasts right in front of Zhuji were sent flying into the air. Grabbing and tossing randomly, the little fellow threw dozens of fierce beasts around. By the time they had fallen back down, the unfortunate creatures were either dead or incapacitated.
Later on, when the la.s.s had gotten into the mood, she simply picked up a rhinoceros by its hind legs and began smas.h.i.+ng the other beasts with it. This creature was two meters tall, weighed several tons, and its skin was as st.u.r.dy as metal. Yet, it had no room for struggle after landing in Zhuji’s hands and was soon seeing stars.
Zhuji let loose her voice and unleashed a shrill but sweet-sounding cry. Her voice might sound cute to ordinary people, but most beasts would turn limp and collapse.
Most of these fierce beasts, however, had been agitated by the white smoke and didn’t quite succ.u.mb to Zhuji’s threat. At this moment, a sad, distant tune of a flute arrived from the forest. Its melody was as peculiar as it was ancient and reminded everyone of the vicissitudes of time.
Upon hearing the tune, many of the intimidated beasts clambered up once more. A part of them pounced at Zhuji while the others circled around the little fellow and made for the camp. The group at the van was made up of large, thick-skinned beasts with great strength. Not to mention a frail log cabin, they might even be able to level a castle made of limestone and steel.
Judging from the movement of these beasts, Qianye understood that the natives were aiming to destroy his newly built home. In the eyes of the beasts and indigenous people, this area was probably their territory. Now that a newcomer had suddenly built a base here, it was only natural for them to not accept it.
Zhuji was, after all, still a kid and somewhat lacking in combat experience. A careless move allowed a panther-sized beast to latch onto her leg and drag her to the ground. Many beasts swarmed over at this point and sank their sharp fangs into the little girl, attempting with all their might to tear her apart. With Zhuji temporarily suppressed and tied down, the remainder of the beast horde marched past and made for the camp.
At this point, Nighteye walked out from the hole Zhuji had made and faced the incoming horde. There was only a single vampiric blade in her hand.
Qianye was rather worried—he knew Nighteye had recovered somewhat, but in his heart, he still saw her as the weak lady whom he had just rescued from the military stronghold, one who could barely even walk.
Qianye’s figure flickered and reappeared near Nighteye. His golden blood energy only flashed briefly before all the beasts in the vicinity fell p.r.o.ne to the ground.
Unable to stop the inertia, some of the giant beasts carved out long ditches in the ground as they came to a sudden stop. Those in the front had just stopped when the ones at the back crashed into them, sending the beast tide into a chaotic tumble that covered the entire area.
A silver panther-like fierce beast scuttled through the crowd and pounced at Nighteye, aiming straight for her throat! Those free of the golden blood energy’s intimidation were all rare mutant breeds. This silver panther was extremely fast and actually caught Qianye unprepared.
Qianye was shocked because he wouldn’t be able to unsheath East Peak in time. He opened his mouth to spit out a mouthful of origin power, in an attempt to kill this mutant species with his pure Venus Dawn energy. This method would pose a huge drain on origin power—even someone of his level could only manage a few such attacks.
He had just opened his mouth when a gentle satin-like hand covered his mouth, stopping his origin power from shooting out. Nighteye shot Qianye a glance and said with a smile, “Stupid!”
She waved her other hand at Qianye, in which the silver panther was hanging by the neck, immobile and with its four limbs hanging flaccidly.
Nighteye was the Monroe Princess for a reason. Combat had more or less become an instinct after the awakening of her bloodline, and she wasn’t inferior to Qianye in terms of combat technique—beasts like these were a walk in the park for her.
A fierce beast clad in thick armor charged toward them with its head lowered. Nighteye rose with the wind, stabbing the beast lightly as she flew past the creature. The blade went straight for the beast’s vitals and pierced in all the way to its hilt. She ran alongside the creature for a moment before leaping toward the next beast. The armored beast galloped for several hundred meters before its legs went limp, and it collapsed with a boom.
Nighteye moved so lithely that it seemed like she was weightless, jumping from one beast back to the other. Whichever beast she touched would fall to the ground soon afterward. Watching her fight was like enjoying a dance—it was inexplicably pleasing to the eyes.
On the other side, Qianye was moving in large strides. His movements were simple and crude—every swing of East Peak would mow down a large swathe of beasts.
At this point, it almost seemed as though Qianye and Nighteye had forgotten Zhuji.
On the other end of the battlefield was a small mountain of beasts huddled up together, and below them, Zhuji was tearing and dragging at the creatures to no avail. She struggled with all her might at first, but her little face became more and more depressed after the fruitless struggle. In the end, she began to cry loudly. However, she only let out a single wail before stopping. Her eyes gradually transformed into an amber color and her pupils became vertical.
With a sudden scream, her little hands drew back from the mouths of two giant beasts. This dragging force was so great that it sheared off several dozens of the beasts’ teeth, leaving the beasts howling in agony. Zhuji hated them to the bone—she grabbed one of them by the upper jaw while pressing its mandible down with her feet. The simultaneous pull and stomp forcibly tore the beast’s head apart!
She followed the same pattern and finished off several other giant beasts. The fierce creatures finally felt fear and began to disperse, hoping to flee from this terrifying enemy.
After several fights in succession, Zhuji began swaying about and almost tripped over. Her young age meant that her tenacity and stamina were still limited.
Seeing Zhuji unable to hold out, Qianye finally lost his patience. He pointed East Peak at the forest and said coldly, “Either come out or scram! Otherwise, I’ll not only wipe out this group of wild beasts but also chop down this forest!”
Several figures flashed within the Black Grove, but it was unknown whether or not they understood Qianye’s words. Meanwhile, Lil’ Knife and Iron Bear—under the cover of leafy cloaks—were staring at the battlefield with their mouths wide open.
Lil’ Knife touched Iron Bear and said softly, “Boss, that kid seems to be quite fierce. Why don’t we just let it be?”
Iron Bear said with a serious expression. “No rush, let’s watch for a while longer.”
“They won’t discover us, will they?”
Iron Bear snorted. “The Black Grove can interfere with people’s perceptions, and we’re also quite far away. How can he see us? So what even if he does? We’ll just fight him!”
Iron Bear was full of vigor, but Lil’ Knife wasn’t quite confident about the odds.
Qianye repeated his words once more, but he revealed a cold smile after seeing no reaction from the forest. Countless red threads flickered around his body for a brief moment. Moments later, all the beasts nearby began to stagger as though they were drunk and fell down one after the other. Qianye crossed dozens of meters in a single step and arrived in the midst of yet another group of beasts. The same sanguineous threads flickered around him and annihilated all the creatures therein.
Such a killing method shocked the natives in the Black Grove, startling them for a short moment. The hurried tune of a flute emerged from the woods soon after. As though they had just received a great amnesty, the beasts all tucked their tails between their legs and escaped toward the Black Grove.
The flute tunes became increasingly urgent, full of anxiety and anger. As Qianye listened closely to the flute, the Book of Darkness in his consciousness flipped continuously, and a secret art soon appeared on its pages at the expense of a large amount of essence blood.
Qianye raised East Peak and flicked its edge with his finger, emitting a clear, penetrative sound. This silent note was actually quite similar to the tune of the flute. It resonated with the sound waves from the flute and caused them to rise abruptly. Soon afterward, a gentle pop rang out as the flute cracked apart. A faint cry of misery erupted from the forest, followed by a series of furious screams. Several of the figures inside the forest ran to its edges and waved their weapons at Qianye.
Qianye sneered and raised a middle-finger at them. Although this gesture wasn’t applicable everywhere, the disdain in his action was noticeable by all intelligent creatures.
The silhouettes in the forest became increasingly furious and seemed to be on the verge of rus.h.i.+ng out. At this moment, however, the figure of a young girl dragged them back into the forest one by one. Qianye remembered this girl—she was the young girl he had encountered in the forest during the day. It would seem she was shocked quite badly back then and thus refused to let her tribesmen rush to their deaths.
Since the natives weren’t willing to do battle, Qianye didn’t plan to eradicate them, either. Moreover, he wanted to leave them with a false impression that the forest was a hindrance to him. In truth, Qianye’s vision was five hundred meters even in the Misty Wood, making this Black Grove no different from an ordinary forest. If these natives made any big movements with the support of their woodland advantage, Qianye was prepared to directly kill their leader and give them an unforgettable lesson.
With the natives gone, the surviving beasts also fled completely. The ground near the courtyard was littered with fierce beast carca.s.ses, at least a couple hundred of them. This solved the food problem for Zhuji and the others—the only issue was how to store them.
Qianye took advantage of the frigid weather at night to open up the ice cap on the river and brought back a large piece of ice. He then threw all the carca.s.ses onto the pile of ice and began digging a large pit, prepared to build a food storage chamber. Apart from a few dozen well-preserved carca.s.ses, Qianye planned to s.h.i.+p the rest to town and sell them. Most of the beasts here had been drained of essence blood by Qianye and Nighteye, which greatly subtracted from their value. But the merchants buying the meat wouldn’t know this, and neither would it affect the taste of the meat—it was just that Zhuji wouldn’t spare a second glance for them.
The battle that night could be considered a thorough victory and Zhuji was showing signs of advancement. But Qianye didn’t feel relieved at all. It would only take three fully-equipped champions to stop this level of a stampede.
This threat didn’t quite match the sense of danger Qianye was feeling. To him, the current attack wasn’t even a threat at all. The true enemy was hiding in the depths of the ocean.
It was yet another sundown and the town had grown quiet—apart from the only tavern in the settlement, most areas were now empty. The chill in the air grew more intense with the rising wind, driving away the warmth of the daytime in its entirety. The water that had acc.u.mulated on the ground was quickly turning to ice.
By midnight, the frostiness of the wind cut right to the bone. No one below rank six would dare go outdoors at such a time. Lil’ Knife walked out from the tavern at this moment, wrapped in a thick cloak that left only his eyes exposed to the outside. Even so, he s.h.i.+vered when the wind blew past and came close to tripping over.