Qianye swept his perception out in every direction while walking toward Seagaze. The void energy on the wilderness suddenly calmed down after some time and Qianye’s senses stretched out toward a battlefield.
Qianye noticed a fight taking place in the distant horizon. He retracted his aura and sneaked toward the conflict at a steady pace. Eden could also be hiding in the wilderness at this point, so Qianye didn’t want to give him an opportunity.
When Qianye arrived, he was confronted with a raging siege. A dozen mercenaries were fighting for dear life against hundreds of soldiers surrounding them. Bullets and grenades were spraying out in all directions, almost as though they weren’t worth any money. The only protection these mercenaries could rely upon was a patch of rocky terrain. This little bit of cover wasn't nearly enough to protect them against origin guns, but they had erected metallic plates between the stones to form a simple defensive structure. Relying on that, they had managed to hold out against an enemy several times their numbers.
Those seemingly crude metallic shields were actually quite capable in defense; it would take a grade-three origin gun several shots to penetrate them. The hunters in the wilderness possessed grade three weapons at most, and even the leaders could hardly afford a grade-four gun. These plates could be connected together or used as individual shields. If not for these movable walls, this group of mercenaries would’ve been routed long ago.
A burly man in officer’s clothing roared, “Blackbird, Dark Flame will never let you go. Even if we die here today, it’s merely leaving a bit earlier than you!”
A shrill voice echoed among the attackers, “You think Dark Flame can survive? Before long, it’ll be wiped away along with Southern Blue. Old Six, you should surrender immediately if you understand the situation. Considering our many years of friendship, I’ll let you live and even take you to meet my new master. Dark Flame simply cannot compare to the future prospects here. What say you?”
Old Six let out a long laugh. “You want me to turn traitor? Never!”
“Then I’ll have to say I’m sorry, I didn’t want to use this move against you.”
Before Old Six could even speak, a sharp whistle echoed across the battlefield. An origin bullet surged along the battlefield, drawing a long trail of origin-power as it shot through the mobile wall, Old Six, and the mercenary standing behind him.
The man’s body froze up on the spot. The strange origin bullet was so fast that his origin defenses only started to disintegrate at this point. The mobile parapet wasn’t able to save his life, either.
Blackbird’s voice echoed across the battlefield. “Kill them all, leave none alive!”
Countless bullets flew over from all directions, cutting down the Dark Flame mercenaries one after the other. Qianye only arrived at the battlefield at this point, his expression dark as he observed the scene. He stepped into the midst of the mercenary squads and took down dozens of enemy soldiers amidst the roar of ocean waves.
Blackbird felt that something wasn’t quite right at the sudden loss of a section of firepower. He was just about to turn back to look when he saw a black sword on his shoulder.
“Tell your men to stop firing if you want to stay alive.” Qianye’s frosty voice rang out near Blackbird’s ears.
The latter was a clever man. He immediately started shouting hysterically, “Stop! Everyone, lower your weapons!”
The shocked mercenaries looked at their captured leader, then at the collapsed comrades on the ground, and quickly realized that this was an expert they couldn’t contend against. Everyone put down their weapons obediently and raised their hands.
Blackbird heaved a sigh of relief and was just about to ask for mercy when Qianye asked, “Who’s your master?”
“A-A demonkin. I don’t know his name, and neither have I seen how he looks. All I know is that he’s extremely powerful and rich. He’s the one who instructed me to intercept caravans coming out from Southern Blue.”
“Is that all you know?”
Qianye’s indifferent voice sounded demonic in Blackbird’s ears. Shivering subconsciously, he said, “I’m fairly observant if I do say so myself. From certain details, I can tell that this demonkin is related to the Liu family in the city. I really don’t know anything else. Sire, this lowly one has some savings throughout the years. If you don’t mind, I’m willing to…”
He hadn’t even finished when a light flashed on East Peak as it cut open his throat. Blackbird collapsed, his face full of terror. “... Give you everything.”
Qianye stood up and said to the surviving Dark Flame members, “Bring these people back for interrogation.”
An elderly mercenary asked, “Sire, what about you?”
Qianye patted his shoulder, saying, “I have my plans.” He then vanished into the vast wilderness.
The surviving Dark Flame members endured the grief as they placed the corpses of Old Six and their fallen comrades onto the truck. Then, they led the surrendered mercenaries back to Southern Blue.
Not long after they had left, the scenery on the empty wilderness warped all of a sudden. Two tall, cloaked figures appeared like demons in the night, their facial features hidden beneath sinister-looking masks. They moved as silently as specters, scanning the battlefield in the blink of an eye. The place where they lingered the longest was where Qianye had unleashed his domain and near Blackbird’s corpse.
There were less than ten Dark Flame survivors but almost a hundred prisoners of war. Qianye had also left pretty quickly, so the mercenaries only swept the battlefield briefly for spoils of war before departing. They didn’t even take Blackbird’s corpse with them.
The two black-robed men picked up Blackbird’s remains and proceeded to check every trace on his body—not just the sword wound on his neck. Blackbird’s body reacted like a puppet as they moved their hands and, in the blink of an eye, returned to the kneeling position he was in before his death.
The two glanced at one another. “It’s Qianye, his combat strength seems to have improved yet again.”
Another person said, “It’s hard to confirm whether he’s grown more powerful since the void continent.”
“No matter what, we have confirmed Qianye’s existence. We have to report this matter to the young master. We’ll leave it to Eden to confirm Qianye’s true combat strength.”
“Good idea. It’s time we added new missions for Eden, anyway. We must see what he’s hiding.”
“Let’s go.”
The two black-robed men rose slowly into the air and made to fly away. The two of them began accelerating at the same time, yet only one of them shot out for dozens of kilometers. The other remained motionless!
Shocked out of his wits, the former turned back to see that Qianye had grabbed the other person’s leg. No matter how the man struggled, Qianye remained nailed to the ground.
The captured black-robed man unleashed a shrill scream. His entire body burst into demonic flames as he shot into the air. This move should’ve taken him hundreds of meters into the sky, even if he were carrying several tons in weight—that was if Qianye hadn’t caught him by the ankle.
But now, all he could manage was to bring Qianye slightly off the ground. He couldn’t move a single inch further behind that. This black-robed person had lost entirely in this confrontation of demonic energy, origin power, and blood energy.
The black-robed person, who was already in the sky, didn’t turn back to rescue his comrade. On the contrary, he flew even higher and vanished into the sky.
Qianye didn’t chase down the one who had fled since he had already caught one anyway.
The black-robed person in his grasp struggled with all his might, but to no avail. He looked back and saw Qianye gazing quietly at him with an expression of mockery. His right hand suddenly erupted in demonic flames, which quickly transformed into a burning sword and slashed down!
What startled Qianye was that the man hadn’t slashed at him but at his left leg, instead. The sword strike severed the limb at the knee and granted the man temporary freedom. Ignoring his injury, the black-robed person channeled his demonic energy and shot into the air.
Nonetheless, Qianye moved like the wind and reached out to catch the man’s right leg.
The unyielding black-robed man slashed backward once more and severed his right leg as well!
Seeing this, Qianye grabbed at the air with his right hand—East Peak immediately appeared in his grasp and pressed down on the man’s back.
The black-robed man surged with demonic flames. He was like a caged bird, unable to spread his wings no matter how hard he tried.
The man turned around suddenly, removing his mask to reveal a pale, handsome face. This was a characteristic demonkin countenance, and the complicated pattern on his forehead was a telltale sign of his major-clan origins. He glared at Qianye with eyes full of embarrassment and hatred as he swung his neck toward East Peak’s edge.
Qianye was greatly surprised as he watched the man’s head fly through the air. A demonkin from a famed clan, even just a third-rank viscount, should’ve wanted to survive at least. No matter how ruthless he was to himself, it was entirely unexpected that he would be that decisive.
Qianye planted East Peak on the ground and searched through the man’s remains. As expected, there was nothing on him that would prove his identity—not even a family crest. The equipment he had on him was also fairly generic: only two combat knives, a pistol, ammunition, and enough food to last one day.
Qianye frowned slightly as these clues were useless. A demonkin viscount could last several days without any food or drink, so one day of rations was enough for him to cover a thousand kilometers. The range was too big for Qianye to guess the location of his base.
Qianye looked up in the direction of the escapee, his eyes suffused with a blue hue. A faint trail of origin power left behind by the other demonkin stretched into the clouds. This person seemed quite proficient in tracking and assassination. His traces were quickly wiped away by the void origin power once he was in the clouds, so Qianye couldn’t easily determine whether he had flown upward or moved in a different direction.