Volume 2 – Bloom of the Other Sh.o.r.e Flower, Chapter 48: Intercepting Murder
Qianye, on the other hand, was merely a little out of breath. He didn’t drink any water, nor did he use any stimulants. He only needed a few minutes of rest in order to recover to his previous state. The rookie’s eyes narrowed to slits watching him.
If she wasn’t mistaken, Qianye had only ignited three origin nodes That was to say, he had rank three origin power just like her. However, the physicality that Qianye exhibited was just too terrifying, capable of matching that of a Red Scorpion captain. Furthermore, the cleaving strikes he had made while facing the vampire warriors were so ferocious that they far exceeded those of many Black Scorpion veterans.
Qianye sat quietly, waiting for the half hour to pa.s.s. He actually did have more questions, but in the end, he found that he couldn’t bring himself to say a word.
At this time, he took a serious look at this little rookie.
She was a sweet young thing. Her small, heart-shaped face held two round eyes that glistened like gems and had a faint air of innocence.
This young girl actually had rank three origin power just like Qianye. It seemed like her talent for cultivation was uncommon, and she was probably one of those who had skipped past the evaluations and directly enlisted into the Red Scorpions. The technique that she had used to charge the origin gun was clearly not the military standard. Although it lost out on speed, the strength displayed by those two shots was clearly more than sufficient, which most likely meant that it was some family’s high level secret technique.
She was not weak, but she lacked combat experience. That Red Scorpion captain had clearly sacrificed himself to suppress the vampires and give her a chance to escape, but this rookie had not been able to control herself and, evidently went back to exact her vengeance. However, after taking down only one vampire warrior, the vampires reacted and counterattacked. She then lost her cool and missed her second shot.
If Qianye hadn’t been there, she would long have since become a prisoner of the vampires. Even committing suicide would have been a pipe dream.
Qianye watched this little rookie, and sighed from the bottom of his heart. It wasn’t too long ago that he, too, was just a rookie, itching to shake off his probationary period and formally become one of the Red Scorpions. The future had been so beautiful, but that one fateful battle had forever changed the course of his destiny, and those of many others with it.
After the thirty minutes pa.s.sed, Qianye stood up and expressionlessly called out, “One hour ultra running, keep up!”
Qianye dashed out ahead, and then the rookie immediately jumped up, running after Qianye into the distance.
This time around, Qianye ran in a ruler-straight line, without any intent whatsoever of covering his tracks. Just like that, one ex-rookie of the Red Scorpions and one current rookie ran off toward the horizon, right through the broad wasteland.
As they ran, Qianye suddenly said, “Turn around and look!”
As the rookie turned her head at those words, her gaze swept the horizon, and she suddenly saw the silhouettes of several vampire warriors appear at the mountaintop where they had been resting before. She immediately got scared, her legs suddenly moving a lot faster.
Qianye, on the other hand, didn’t accelerate at all, only continuing on with that unhurried, constant pace as he ran, not even bothering to turn around to look.
“What if… they… make it to us?” said the rookie breathlessly.
“They will never make it to us, they’ve already been exhausted,” replied Qianye flatly.
The little rookie was still a little doubtful, especially since the opponents were only a few kilometers away. After running a while, she couldn’t help but look back once more, and yet, those vampire warriors were still standing on top of the mountain, not pursuing them. The little rookie’s heart relaxed a bit, and the figure of Qianye’s back grew larger in her heart.
On the mountaintop behind them, a vampire elder watched with a face like steel as Qianye and the rookie escaped through the wasteland, nary a hint of blood on his lips. The bloodsuckers next to him all had their cloaks wrapped tightly around them as they silently watched the two humans daringly crossing the wasteland.
Several vampires had given up the chase, especially since they had already exhausted all of their physical strength by giving pursuit all the way from the battlefield.
“Lord, shall we pursue?” suggested a rather young vampire. His voice was severely lacking in self-confidence.
The vampire elder shook his head. “By the time we catch up to them, we’ll already be well into the traditionally human-held lands. The human expeditionary army is still rather troublesome.”
The vampire warriors watched as Qianye went on his way, turning around one by one before disappearing behind the lee of the mountain.
The hour pa.s.sed, and when the rookie turned around, the vampires’ silhouettes were already gone, and only then did she let out a breath.
Qianye stopped, pointing toward the front. “If you continue on this way, Darkblood City is a mere hundred kilometres away. In the city, there’s a garrison of the imperial expeditionary army, and once you flash your ident.i.ty, they should be able to give you the necessary help to return.”
The little rookie nodded, and thinking about how she was able to return to the Red Scorpions safely after that gruelling escape from danger, her face immediately regained a little of its color. However, when she thought of the Red Scorpion captain that had died in battle, her little mouth drooped, and she started to look as if she was about to cry.
Qianye’s face sank a little. “Suck up those tears, rookie! Any true self-respecting Red Scorpion is forged in the fires of a hundred near-death experiences, and you may be weak the first time you take to the field, but if you continue being weak from the second time on, then that is completely unforgivable! So, get your a.s.s to Darkblood City this instant and find the expeditionary army! Then report back to the Red Scorpions! You have four hours, rookie!”
The little rookie instinctively puffed up her chest, and shouted, “Yes, sir!”
Qianye nodded, and then pointed forward. The rookie immediately began to run. Running a hundred kilometers in only four hours, she would still need to maintain the same pace as she had during the ultra running. However, after running a few steps, she turned back and watched as Qianye still stood there on the plains, getting further and further away.
Was he not going to go back with her?
Qianye waved to her, and then turned, walking the way that they’d come.
The rookie suddenly had a thought.
—He was going to find trouble with those vampires and avenge the Red Scorpion captain!
But this young man had nothing to do with the Red Scorpions, so why would he do that? She couldn’t understand no matter how she looked at it, but her feet were still instinctively running, and her pace was completely unaffected.
Before long, she would be able to return to the Red Scorpions. This time around, she was determined to properly train herself, to temper herself in combat. Once she completed her probationary period, she would return to find him.
Suddenly, a serious problem popped into the rookie’s muddled little head.
She had no idea what his name was!
The rookie stopped in shock, and when she turned back to look, Qianye had long since disappeared from the horizon.
She stood there blankly, at a loss.
Qianye was currently advancing, and the wasteland’s ravines seemed to have no effect whatsoever on his traversal. He was even picking up his pace as he went. Without the rookie as a burden, Qianye’s excellent physique and combat capabilities were finally able to show themselves.
One hour later, Qianye was climbing the summit of a small mountain, coldly looking at the vampire elder and his subordinate warriors still halfway down the mountain. From his high vantage point, he didn’t bother at all to hide his tracks, shoving two silver-infused origin bullets into the barrel of the origin gun. He then lifted the barrel.
The vampire elder sucked in a breath of cold air. He was a rank five vampire warrior and all those under him were rank three warriors. This particular force should logically be able to completely smash Qianye, but for some reason or another, when Qianye pointed his origin gun toward him, that elder felt a wave of uncontrollable terror!
This particular elder had come from a rather famous vampire clan known for having an extremely strong instinct for danger. Although he was not in his best condition right now, his rank five power should’ve kept him from recoiling so badly at the sight of two mithril bullets. As long as they didn’t hit him anywhere vital, he was completely confident in being able to recover from wounds caused by these bullets.
The elder didn’t move, so his subordinates were even more afraid to move; the mithril bullets were completely lethal to them. Although they could tear him to shreds the moment he fired, the unlucky soul that got hit first would definitely die.
Qianye calmly took aim, and then actually chose to walk toward the crowd of vampire warriors one step at a time!
A ludicrous thought sprang up in the vampire elder’s heart.
This human intended to fight them head-on?
Out of all the battles that he’d fought, large or small, a good thirty percent had been against humans, and even then, he’d never seen something so ridiculous. This was practically suicide!
The vampire elder already had no time to think any further. With a cry, he braced himself and charged at Qianye. As the vampire with the highest rank, he was the leader. He had no reason and no way to avoid confronting Qianye, a mere rank three soldier.
However, when Qianye pointed the gun at him, the vampire elder suddenly felt immense danger screaming at him. He saw Qianye’s mouth suddenly curl into a small smile, the smile of a hunter watching his prey walk into a trap!
With a boom, Qianye’s gun spit out a beam of origin power, and a physical bullet came whistling out! The vampire elder howled, blocking with his arms crossed in front of him, his blood energy roiling as it formed a dark-red blood s.h.i.+eld in front of him!
After smas.h.i.+ng through the blood s.h.i.+eld, the origin bullet’s power weakened by half, but it still bore deep into the elder’s arm and created a gaping wound in which bone could be seen. The mithril immediately charred the wound black.
The elder immediately determined that these injuries were well within acceptable parameters. He pointed at Qianye and yelled, “Kill him!”
The vampire warriors immediately surrounded Qianye, but he suddenly pulled out the Butcher and fired it twice in a row, blowing two of them away. The Butcher’s power was extremely effective at close range and lived up to its tyrannical name. Those two vampire warriors struck the ground hard and remained there, motionless.
When they tumbled through the air, a b.l.o.o.d.y mist spread from them. The smell of fresh, slightly cold blood mixed with that of burning gunpowder to create a distinct aroma of life, like that of gra.s.s after rainfall. Qianye pulled out his hand-axe, and as he stared straight at the vampire warriors encircling him, his heart suddenly leaped with great excitement, making him feel as if he were trembling!
Qianye was bursting with a thirst for battle, the most intense battle!
All of the vampire warriors pulled out their swords in perfect synchronization, a layer of thin b.l.o.o.d.y light covering every blade. They clearly weren’t some ragtag warriors from some small family, but the militarized guards of a large clan. To take the greatest advantage of their superior speed, power, and other natural talents unique to their kind, these warriors preferred traditional dark race weapons over origin guns.
In an instant, Qianye had been completely surrounded, but he didn’t have even an iota of fear. He violently stomped at the ground, sending a shockwave spreading out in front of him. Borrowing its momentum, he shot forward like a cannonball and collided with one of the vampire warriors!