The forest was quiet, and so was the Constellation Well.
The vampires had constructed a camp on the edges of the grove and were resting quietly. Anwen and Eden had also set up a demonkin-style tent, which Eden constructed while Anwen continued to scribble on the ground. Bai Kongzhao moved back and forth to help Eden with his chores.
No one knew where the Demoness had gone, or Qianye’s whereabouts.
It was originally the vampires’ turn to absorb origin blood after Basil’s departure, but Edward had suffered significant injuries as he was at the center of that earth-shattering explosion. Additionally, the Constellation well had become unstable following the explosion, with numerous stars inside flickering constantly. The other vampires, including Twilight, didn’t dare enter under such circumstances. They would only continue after the well had stabilized and Edward recovered.
Many people were still worried about a different matter—would Qianye regroup and return?
Even though he was constantly being suppressed with no chance to retaliate, the number of tricks he had up his sleeve surprised everyone.
Despite its limited firepower, that peak grade-seven firearm of his possessed the ability to destroy domains, striking squarely at the Demoness’ weakness. The latter’s domain was formless, invisible, and unimaginably big. That was also the reason why it was relatively fragile. Qianye himself couldn’t destroy the domain, but with Misty Cold, he could disable it long enough to escape calmly.
Additionally, no one knew what that tube Qianye had dropped was. How could it be so powerful to the point of being able to injure a marquis? If it wasn’t for Edward blocking a part of the impact, the man would’ve been torn to pieces.
Edward himself had overestimated his own powers. He had moved to save his subordinate when, in fact, he could hardly save himself from the impact. If the Demoness hadn’t deployed seven layers of protective barriers around him at the critical moment, the Holy Son wouldn’t have gotten away with his current wounds.
As for how much damage the Demoness herself had sustained, no one knew.
What was that cylinder? And more importantly, how many of them did Qianye have?
Everyone knew that such a powerful weapon couldn’t be a dime a dozen, but they couldn’t say for sure he only had one. If he had a second one, some of the weaker experts would only be courting death if they were gathered in a group.
Edward didn’t dare allow his subordinates to gather in a single camp, so he had to split them into small groups in different parts of the forest. Although splitting forces was also a taboo, the other groups could rush over to reinforce them if they could hold out for just a few moments.
In the depths of the forest, Qianye was seated and resting in the crown of an ancient tree. The fight with the Demoness just now had drained him significantly, and he would probably be caught if he hadn’t escaped when he did. The metallic tube he had tossed out before his departure was just to scare the enemies and disrupt Basil in passing. He hadn’t expected that the explosion would be so terrifying.
But that wasn’t unreasonable, either, because this component was the backup mechanism the empire had installed in the Martyr’s Place engine. Its role was to completely destroy the Earth Dragon’s heart in case of an emergency, and its firepower was calibrated to heavily injure a void colossus. There was only a handful of them in the empire, so how could ordinary vampire experts withstand it?
Qianye’s eyes were closed as the Book of Darkness poured out a steady stream of essence blood to replace his expenditure. On the daybreak side, the old man’s medicinal wine was still in effect, so the origin power absorbed was extremely pure and only needed a bit of refinement.
In less than half a day, Qianye was once again at his peak state.
He jumped down from the tree and gazed at the distant skies. It was already afternoon, and the sky was as clear as before without that misty sensation. It would seem the Demoness’ domain hadn’t reached him.
Qianye calculated his directions and started sneaking toward the Constellation Well once more.
He hadn’t gone far when he heard a series of faint footsteps, so he immediately went into hiding. He saw three vampire experts moving through the trees in a single file, hurrying toward the Constellation Well for some reason.
This was a strong group of two counts led by a marquis. Even Qianye would need to expend some effort in order to defeat them. He didn’t want to waste a killing move this early on in the game because he needed to intimidate people like the Demoness and Edward.
After some thought, Qianye channeled Bloodline Concealment and followed the entourage. Halfway on the journey, he gradually closed in, unfurled his luminous wings, and locked onto the vampires!
The sudden change shocked the vampires. Their first reaction was to erupt with blood energy to protect themselves. The fear of being locked onto by the Shot of Inception was overwhelming, even for a marquis.
It was at this moment that a raging flame lit up around Qianye and the aura of the dark golden blood energy appeared. Almost immediately, the blood barrier around the two counts became blurry and distorted. The marquis was also alarmed, and he didn’t dare step out and save his two subordinates.
Countless strands of dark golden threads shot out from Qianye’s body and stabbed into one of the counts. The man’s protective barrier was penetrated like paper in the face of those sanguine threads.
Qianye reached out to grab one of the counts like he would a wild beast, and slowly dragged him backward. The count looked dejected and desperate. He merely struggled for a while before losing all strength.
The marquis and the other count looked conflicted and apprehensive. All they could do was watch as Qianye dragged their comrade into the forest because they didn’t dare move a muscle. After Qianye disappeared, they let out a long sigh and congratulated themselves on escaping this calamity. They didn’t dare linger very long, nor did they have the leisure to worry about their tracks. They ran away immediately as swiftly as their legs would take them.
After entering the forest, Qianye tossed the count to the ground. The man was already dead at this point. Struck by Qianye’s Life Plunder and restrained by his blood energy, this count died without even displaying a tenth of his combat strength.
Qianye’s body was once again full on essence blood after killing the count, and he continued sneaking toward the Constellation Well.
There was still some distance from the well when Qianye noticed origin power fluctuations in the distance. It would seem some people were in a fierce battle.
Numerous Evernight experts were gathered around the Constellation Well. The only ones who could be fighting them were Imperial experts or fierce beasts from the Great Maelstrom. Qianye increased his speed and immediately approached the battlefield.
He hadn’t run very far when a shocking rumble erupted in the distance. Rolling waves of origin power sent his hair flying, and then spread out into the distance.
This was the timber of an origin gun, and it was grade-eight at the very least. The origin power was daybreak in nature. It would seem the bearer of this gun had fallen into a dangerous situation, otherwise, they wouldn’t have used such a method of mutual destruction.
Qianye began running toward the battlefield at full speed and soon arrived.
The large battlefield was quite lively with fights going on in the air, on the ground, and in the forest. Patches of ancient trees collapsed amidst loud rumbles and clouds of blood and demonic energy. At the scene, the massive arachne body almost blotted out the sky. A wisp of daybreak energy would drift upward from time to time, destroying layer after layer of blockades. However, the massive blood energy in the periphery formed a cage that would trap all daybreak origin power within.
The ones flying about were familiar figures—one party was naturally the Evernight experts and Bai Kongzhao, while the members of the other side were even more familiar. Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan were shuttling about, fighting shoulder to shoulder with Zhao Yuying and Wei Potian.
On the Evernight side, the vampire experts stationing their individual camps had formed an inescapable encirclement. Edward, Anwen, Twilight, and Basil were fighting fiercely at the center. Bai Kongzhao, on the other hand, was roaming about and attacking whenever the opportunity arose. Her sudden attacks would catch even Ji Tianqing off-guard.
Eden didn’t take part in the battle. He took his place on a high ground, overlooking the battlefield and would snipe whoever escaped from the fight.
What made Qianye the most apprehensive was the fact that the Demoness hadn’t appeared, and that her domain was nowhere to be seen. If she willed it, that domain would quietly cover the entire area and no one, including Qianye, would be able to escape her pursuit. Besides, that earth-shattering attack she had used to attack Zhao Jundu back then was still unused.
Qianye’s heart sank because the battle seemed unfavorable. The one he actually feared was the Demoness, and the other was Bai Kongzhao. The girl’s attacks were extremely ruthless and would always come for one’s vitals. Additionally, it seemed her special ability had started to take form. Whoever was struck by her attacks would be severely injured.
Her every slash was alarming because, once struck, the victim could hardly be saved.
Qianye hesitated no longer. He flickered to the center of the battlefield and arrived behind Basil, whereupon East Peak bore down on the arachnid body with mountainous power.
The arachne cried out in shock as he shot out a spider web from his limbs, drawing his entire body into the air and barely evading this attack. East Peak’s edge brushed past his razor-sharp limbs, shaving off a finger-sized chunk of it.
Basil was furious. “Why me? Don’t you have more hatred for that bastard?”
The one he was pointing at was Edward, making the Holy Son’s expression turn quite ugly. Qianye’s slash had truly frightened the arachne because his abdomen would’ve been slashed apart if he had been a tiny bit slower. This injury might not be lethal to the arachne, but it would be very troublesome.
Qianye paid him no heed and looked coldly toward Bai Kongzhao.
The young girl jumped halfway in the air, aiming for Wei Potian with her cleaver. The latter had his back against the girl, completely oblivious of the danger as he plowed around the battlefield with his Thousand Mountains.
Fortunately, the girl noticed Qianye’s gaze. She trembled all over after seeing him and fell straight down from the air. She then turned to flee without looking back.
Qianye sighed expressionlessly. He had finally managed to scare that murderous star away.