t [V6C4 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Regaining something after losing it, then losing it again—what kind of feeling would that be?
Zhao Jundu suddenly raised his head, his hesitation completely gone. At the moment, his expression was clear and sharp. He said word by word, “I refuse to be threatened! If you dare touch Qianye, I will chase you down and kill you along with your clan even if you hide on Twilight Continent for the rest of your lives.”
Twilight only laughed. “Zhao Fourth Young Noble sure is confident.”
Zhao Jundu sneered, “You’ll not be my match in one year. After five years, you won’t even be able to escape if you meet me.”
Twilight’s smile froze but quickly recovered. “Fine, whatever Fourth Young Noble says. My talents may not be as good as yours, but there are people with equal or even greater talents among our sacred-blooded descendants. Ignoring the other clans for now, that vampire in c13 shares my bloodline, and she’s a primo.”
“Primo.” Zhao Jundu’s eyes turned sharp for a single moment as he sized Twilight up.
“Don’t look at me. My primogenitor blood runs much thinner than hers. At most, I can be considered a half-primo,” Twilight said with a smile. “She’s one rank lower than me, but in terms of combat strength, I’m not really confident about killing her. You see, this war zone isn’t safe even if I look on without doing anything.”
Zhao Jundu shot Twilight a cold, silent glance before leaving with Blue Firmament on his shoulders.
Twilight’s smile became increasingly resplendent as she watched the figure of his receding back. There wasn’t a single trace of displeasure denoting her miscalculation. Twilight didn’t have to successfully persuade Zhao Jundu, either—it was enough to let him know of this news.
The human heart was a fickle soil. One needed only to plant a small seed to see it grow into an enormous tree one day.
Far in the distance, Qianye had ascended a certain mountain peak and was scanning the valley below with his falcon-sharp eyes. This place lay in the depts of the Bai clan war zone, far away from the Zhao clan. Qianye had encountered two Bai clan squads along the way, both of which he duly routed and destroyed.
But contrary to expectations, he had never encountered any true Bai clan experts all this time. He didn’t find any traces of Bai Kongzhao, either. Bai clan recently dispatched a rank-eleven champion to intercept him, but Qianye inflicted heavy injuries on the man in just a few moves. There was no way he could’ve escaped, but Qianye lost the mood to chase him down after seeing the familiar insignia on his imperial army uniform.
Qianye’s present location was the last stop on his predetermined route. There was nothing he could do if the Bai clan experts weren’t appearing even when someone had fought his way deep into their territory. As for Bai Kongzhao, Qianye had actually given up on hunting her down. Trying to assassinate someone with uncanny instincts like her on this vast battlefield was no different from finding a needle in a haystack.
Qianye didn’t have the slightest intention of hiding his presence as he stood on the battlefield. He wanted his enemies to see him and come knocking on the door—that way, he could save time trailing them.
No one from the Bai clan came, but instead, he saw a familiar figure. Her movements were abnormally agile, almost like a specter. She was only at the border of the woods below the mountain when she emerged, but had reached Qianye in the blink of an eye.
“Twilight?” Qianye recognized her with a single glance—that beautiful, eerie, and powerful vampire lady.
“I’m really happy that you still remember me.”
Qianye sighed somewhat grudgingly and said, “But I’m not happy to see you.”
“Why is that?” Twilight was apparently quite curious. Her pair of cold, amorous eyes were gleaming brightly.
Qianye slowly drew East Peak from his back and said calmly, “Because I might not be able to beat you, and I have other things to do. Fighting with you is a big waste of time.”
“We haven’t met for only a while, but your tone of voice seems to have hardened!” Twilight teased, but she didn’t come as close to Qianye as she did when they had first met. This actually proved that, contrary to her demeanor, she didn’t have that strong of a grasp on the situation.
Qianye was clearly three entire levels inferior to her. Regardless of the faction, it wasn’t easy to make up for such a large gap with tricks or talents. But for some reason, that sword-wielding youth standing before her was like an abyssal pond, an unmoving mountain peak—she could sense great danger from him.
Twilight reached out to comb through her hair. This movement caused her chest to bounce a couple of times, inadvertently displaying the assets that were capable of looking down on most of the ladies in the world. Qianye’s gaze was on her hands, but the scope of his vision always included her chest—it was just that his focus wasn’t on the source of the woman’s allure but, instead, at the location of her blood core.
Twilight pursed her plump lips and smiled charmingly without the slightest trace of displeasure.
Qianye’s obsidian eyes were as clear as ever, but a deep azure emerged in the depths of his pupils. At this moment, Twilight’s blood core was already in his vision, and he would be able to decide the best moment to take action once she made an abnormal move.
“Actually, you don’t need to be so tense. I told you before that there’ll be a reward if you grow stronger, and you didn’t disappoint me. So much so that even I have no confidence in killing you under the Iron Curtain. Such a man is worth rewarding, so I’ve come today bearing a little gift.”
With that, Twilight reached out and opened up her five slender fingers, revealing a mass of light on her palm. That mass of light outlined the appearance of a young girl, and it was none other than Bai Kongzhao.
“I heard you’re looking for this little fellow, are you not?”
“Where is she?” Qianye did nothing to disguise his killing intent. However, he was somewhat shaken at the same time because this mysterious woman’s ability to gather information was simply too efficient. There was only one explanation—there were people working with her on the human side, and that person was of high status and authority. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have gotten this information so quickly and accurately.
“She’s appeared in area a3.” Twilight was referring to the empire’s war zone division numbers, which only served to reinforce Qianye’s guess even further.
Zone a3 wasn’t too far from this place, but it was quite a ways from the Zhao clan war zone. They were basically in two different directions.
“Why should I trust you?”
Twilight said indifferently, “You have no choice. You can never find her on your own, can you?”
Qianye replied honestly, “That is true, but this reward seems a bit too odd. There’s no reward without service. Don’t tell me you’re helping me just because I’ve grown stronger.”
“Of course not! We both have our own standpoints in this bloody battle. It’s just that our interests align in this single aspect. That little bastard, I think she’s called Bai Kongzhao, has already killed a fair number of elites from my clan. Her combat instincts are too strong and will definitely become a source of trouble should she mature. I believe you also understand this very well.”
Qianye was naturally very clear about Bai Kongzhao’s cunning and ruthlessness. His advancement on the martial dao of breaking through everything with force, apart from coincidence and destiny, also had a little bit to do with Bai Kongzhao. If Qianye went all out at this moment, he would be able to exert the great sea vortex’s shearing force with every movement, enveloping the area all around him. Bai Kongzhao would have no gap to exploit regardless of how keen her intuitions were—she would only be able to face him head-on or retreat.
Zhao Jundu’s gun technique “True Strike” was also the nemesis of people like Bai Kongzhao. But True Strike was an extremely rare and powerful ability, and only a handful of people throughout the empire were able to comprehend this art.
Twilight possessed great strength while specializing in speed and concealment. Although she couldn’t restrain Bai Kongzhao, just from the suppression of their level-gap, she had no need to fear her, either.
However, the three of them were geniuses of the generation from each faction. How could any other young scion be Bai Kongzhao’s match? One simply couldn’t make a single mistake when fighting against her, otherwise, she would grasp that opportunity to strike back.
It was precisely because Qianye had recognized this fact that he had made killing Bai Kongzhao his first priority after returning to the Iron Curtain.
He and Bai Kongzhao had formed a vendetta against one another, but she was extremely adept at making use of the circumstances. Both her exploitation of the Nangong family and the massacre of entire enemy squads during the chaos of civil conflict served to prove one fact—this person would surely harm the people around them if she wasn’t removed early. For instance, Zhao Yuying’s combat style would be completely restrained against her. Bai Kongzhao would pose a mortal threat to Qianye’s friends and subordinates once she became a champion.
Thus, Qianye was ready to jump in even though he knew Twilight might be setting up a trap for him. He felt that no trap would be able to bind him as long as the Iron Curtain remained. This was especially true against the dark races because Qianye possessed a natural bloodline advantage over them in addition to the Black-Winged Monarch’s inheritance.
Qianye pondered for a while before saying, “Fine, I believe you this once.”
A radiant smile blossomed on Twilight’s countenance as she blew him a kiss. “This smile could’ve been more direct if you were the same as when we first met.”
To Qianye, this was no doubt a fairly high praise. This was tantamount to her admitting that she could no longer approach him carelessly.
Twilight turned to leave, while Qianye himself headed toward the a3 war zone. But this time, in order to hasten his journey, Qianye no longer charged ahead like before. He activated Bloodline Concealment after his descent and disappeared into the vast forests.
Twilight, who was floating through the distant forest, suddenly halted her steps. Qianye had vanished from her perception just now and could no longer be traced.
She stood quietly for a moment—no one knew what she was pondering. Moments later, she turned and left without making a further attempt to follow Qianye.
Scarlet was originally a small human town on the borders of Evernight Continent. Those operating here were mostly scavengers, exiled mercenaries, and adventurers who dreamed of easy money. This little town, needless to say, was extremely run-down. By imperial standards, even the mainland slum houses were much better than this place.
The only thing worthy of praise in this settlement was the tall and sturdy stone wall. At least, it was capable of blocking out vicious beasts and dark race cannon fodder. As for formal dark race soldiers, they would never visit such a remote and run-down place.
But this presentable wall could only be considered a hindrance in Bai Longjia’s eyes. That was because the first order he had issued after arriving here was to have it demolished.
Scarlet’s position was close to the frontline and had thus been chosen as the Bai clan’s third forward base. Every forward base corresponded to a war zone, and this one was being personally overseen by him.
With the Bai clan’s strength, constructing a forward base was naturally an easy matter. A dozen or so airships arrived at Scarlet the day after Bai Longjia chose the town and delivered an entire construction squad along with their large machinery.
Before ten days had passed, Scarlet was already looking like a military base model. The airship port had been leveled, and the framework had been completed for the storehouse, barracks, and airship hangars as resources poured in continuously from behind. They were even about to build a mobile kinetic tower to provide the energy requirements of the entire base.
Bai Longjia stood still within the command room, staring at the sand table while several staff officers nearby adjusted the indicators according to the latest reports. The sand table’s coverage area was the entirety of the bloody battle.