Chapter 19: Outpost
Volume 3 – The Place Where My Heart Feels At Peace, Chapter 19: Outpost
The count’s roar caused every vampire to shiver with cold. This was the instinctive fear of an inferior towards their superior.
Moreover, the count’s temper had never been too good. Every time he was this irritated and in rage, it would take tearing several living bodies apart with his own hands to calm him down. Most of the time it was the human captives who got torn up, but sometimes there were unfortunate vampires who became his sacrifice as well.
Supposedly, Weald’s strength was slightly above Moya’s, and thus the vampire’s status should be slightly stronger in Gemini City. However, not long ago the Evernight Council member Ge Shitu had suddenly graced Gemini City with his presence, and after resting for a short period, he was about head to the human’s Darkblood City to handle a certain important matter.
However, for whatever reason the council member’s whereabouts were leaked, and as a result he was intercepted by a human elite outside Darkblood City. It was said that the famed gun Red Spider Lily had found a new master after several hundreds of years. Heavily injured by the Nether River Flower’s mysterious abilities, Ge Shitu had no choice but to retreat in a panic.
The council members of the Evernight Council were important figures that even Weald had to look up to with all his might. At first he thought that this was a once in a blue moon opportunity to curry favor with a council member, but he did not imagine that such a big slip-up would occur. After Ge Shitu came back he was extremely furious, and he laid down the order for a strict investigation to find out the leaker before leaving abruptly. From this, Weald knew that his image in this council member’s heart had fallen to the lowest depths.
The fallout of this incident wasn’t over yet when Luke Masefield showed up.
This young Masefield was extremely arrogant, and he did not give either Weald or Moya any face at all. Weald could only endure it because he was absolutely incomparable to this young demonkin be it in terms of strength or status.
Weald heard that the young demonkind had laid down the bait for a big fish by implementing a blood feast. The experienced vampire count instinctively thought that it was improper, but he was powerless to stop it. However, he knew very well about the human empire’s principal of cruel revenge towards a blood feast.
Originally, the count hoped that the young demonkin would possess a strength equal to his arrogance and be able to defend himself from the human’s revenge. But he did not imagine that the human’s counter attack would arrive so swiftly and so fiercely that the demonkind and his entire base was wiped off the map entirely!
When he received this news, Weald immediately understood the severity of the problem. The young demonkin’s first name wasn’t important; what was important was that his last name was Masefield! A Masefield had actually died in his domain and during his term of office!
Weald could not help but feel a severe case of headache. He seriously had no idea how he was going to explain this outcome to that family that was as gigantic as Evernight’s mountain range. He couldn’t say that the young Masefield had died completely due to his own idiocy and arrogance, could he?
The last report that came was the final straw that threw Weald completely into a fit of rage.
The document was thrown right at a vampire baron’s face with a loud pop!
“Not only did a human hunter killed Benjamin and his clan right in front of your eyes, he even saved several dozens of human cattle in the process! And not only did he led those ordinary people without a shred of origin power in them back to human domain, he even took out an entire patrol team? Is this the army you people train? Is this the army I spent thousands of crystal coins every year?”
“It was one hunter! One! What rank can he possibly be at? Seven? Eight? Don’t tell me that there’s a Champion rank hunter!” Weald roared angrily while waving his arms, “Investigate him! Dig out everything and anything about this presumptuous bastard! After that, bring his head to me no matter what method you have to use and what price you have to pay! Go contact our friends; their existence is for such an occasion. I want to see his head in a month’s time, you hear me?!”
Right now at this moment, Count Weald’s roar was the only sound resonating throughout the entire castle.
Qianye did not yet know that his activities had caused a reaction that was so huge that it was on equal footing with Masefield’s death. In fact, judging from the level of fury, he even seemed to be more successful.
After all, the person who could wipe out Masefield and his base along with him was absolutely no ordinary human elite. Weald knew that he would only die faster if he tried to take revenge since he wasn’t even a match for the young Masefield. However, how dare a human hunter—a thing that wasn’t much more noble than a reptile—dare commit atrocities on Gemini City’s domain? This was not to mention that Benjamin was no ordinary vampire knight.
Following Weald’s fury, the tremendous force belonging to Gemini City began to move. The pieces buried among the humans were also used to investigate the hunter’s origin at full force.
A large web had been spread out, and it was enclosing Qianye from all directions.
Right now, Qianye was facing a new problem. The several dozens of human beings he saved were stopped at the expeditionary forces’ outpost.
“Who are you people!” when the outpost guards asked this in a loud voice, these people who had never been to the great Qin Empire were at a loss. Some of them admitted honestly that they were originally slaves penned up by the vampires, and that they had just been rescued before escaping to this place.
The expeditionary force sentinel’s complexion immediately changed. After backing off a few steps in secret, he suddenly cried out in a loud voice, “Alert!”
Instantly, the alarm was sounded, and there was a commotion at the military camp beside the outpost. In less than three minutes, hundreds of soldiers ran out and surrounded the several dozens of survivors at the center.
When Qianye arrived, he just happened to encounter this sight.
“Stop!” Qianye yelled loudly before rushing to the scene. He then asked the captain responsible for this outpost, “What’s going on?”
Qianye might be a hunter, but he was already at rank four. That expeditionary force captain was only at rank two, so he forced himself to give Qianye a brief explanation because of his rank.
The second Qianye heard his explanation, he knew that his worries had become true. It was obvious that this captain viewed these people as blood thralls, or at least potential blood thralls. According to the expeditionary forces’ regulations, even if these people were executed as blood thralls on the spot, they would be isolated as potential suspects, and by isolation it meant throwing them into the black mines until the observation period was over. The problem was that the observation period usually lasted a lifetime.
Imperial soldiers were given a lot of decision power when deciding whether a person was a blood thrall. This was especially true among the expeditionary forces, where the extent of their authorities could more or less be simplified into one line, “I say you are, and so you are.”
“They are not blood thralls!” Qianye attempted to argue.
The captain had already lost his patience. He smiled coldly and said, “It’s not up to you to decide!”
“It is true that they had been penned up by vampires before, it was all bloodletting only. They have never been bitten!”
The captain continued to smiled coldly, “Who knows?”
Qianye forced down his anger and said, “You’re saying that I saved them from the vampires and led them over hundreds of kilometers, only to have them all killed as blood thralls?”
“Young man, you did the right thing!” a voice came from behind Qianye. It was a gloomy and cold-looking major, and he appeared to be the outpost’s highest ranking officer.
“However, I only mean the part where you got them away from the vampires. There is no need at all for you to bring them over such a long distance; that is you putting yourself in unnecessary danger. All you need to do is to kill them. Leaving such people alive would only increase the vampire’s strength.”
“They are humans as well!” Qianye said word by word.
The major looked at Qianye for a moment before shrugging. Then, he swept a glance across the numb or trembling survivors before suddenly focusing onto the girl. After examining her closely for a moment, he let out the hint of a meaningful smile before pointing at her and saying, “You! Come over!”
The girl walked out with slight anxiety.
“You don’t look like a blood thrall. Go stand there at the side!”
The girl grew more and more anxious. She could almost imagine what kind of experience she would go through later. Sometimes, when guests arrived at the vampire manor, they would be selected from the group just like this. Then again, it didn’t seem much compared to staying alive. After glancing once hesitatingly at Qianye, she walked towards the location the major had pointed her at.
The major randomly selected a few more women to stand beside the girl before taking out a cigarette, lighting it up, swayed his way in front of Qianye and poking the cigarette hard at his shoulder blades and said, “There, kid! You saw what I did. I’ve given you enough face by letting a portion of this people go! Now, you can disappear!”
“What about the rest?”
“Them? Of course they had to be isolated and inspected. If they are confirmed not to be blood thralls, then there will be further arrangements later.”
Qianye knew very well what he meant by isolation and inspection. He immediately said coldly, “Let them pass. I will think of a way to arrange them.”
“You? Arrange them?” the major looked at Qianye like he was staring at an idiot, “Who the hell are you to make arrangements for them? Can you handle the responsibility if there is even one blood thrall among this people? If it wasn’t because you have some skill I wouldn’t even waste so much breath with you! Who the hell do you think you are! A crap hunter is no different from a wild dog in my eyes!”
Killing intent flowed out of Qianye’s eyes, and the major yielded nothing. He took two steps forwards until he and Qianye were almost pressed together. He unleashed his origin aura while holding nothing back. He was also a rank four expert.
Qianye said coldly, “You better put away your army riffraff methods!”
The major suddenly laughed loudly, “Who are you? Are you a noble? Are you a son of a bitch of those aristocratic families who doesn’t even know how to fart, or are you my boss? You’re nothing! Why should I listen to you! I’m telling you that on this place, my word is the law! Blacky!”
A fat-faced staff sergeant responded to his command and struck a middle-aged man to the ground fiercely with the butt of his gun. Then, he pulled the trigger and poured an entire magazine of bullets, shooting until the ground was scattered and the air was foul. The middle-aged man was so scared his face was pale. He lay on the ground and did not dare to move a muscle.
The major beckoned the staff sergeant with a finger while biting his cigarette and looking at Qianye’s eyes, saying, “The next round of shooting will be so accurate you’d be surprised. Get me a few other.”
The staff sergeant wore a nasty grin as he searched for his next victim among the crowd. Very soon, he spotted a handsome-looking young man and smashed his face his the butt of his gun. Then he said, “Your daddy here hates pretty-looking ones the most!”
The major waited expectantly for the blood curdling scream that was about to ensue, but suddenly, a fist swiftly grew bigger right before his eyes. Then, as if he was struck by an giant ancient beast, he flew backwards involuntarily.
Qianye sent the major flying with a punch before grabbing onto his ankle and swinging him heavily on the ground. In the end, he stepped right on his stomach!
Although the major possessed the tough body of a rank four, he felt as if he was ran over by a fully loaded heavy truck just now and nearly passed out. Just when he had finally recovered, a thick and ice-cold was plunged mercilessly into his mouth and right to his throat!
The burning cigarette was pressed deep into his throat and was extinguished against its will.
The major finally understood the situation before him. Qianye was holding an extraordinarily long origin gun and holding its barrel inside his mouth. He immediately noticed at first glance that it was the astonishingly famous sniper rifle Eagleshot!
Forget Eagleshot, any firearm sniper rifle that was fired in someone’s mouth would kill the person no matter how tough their body was.
All the guards at expeditionary force outpost were stunned for a time. The ruthless and invincible major in their hearts was actually knocked out in a single blow. This did not look like a fight between identical ranks at all; even a rank five could not have crushed a rank four so thoroughly.
Qianye said coldly, “That bit rank of yours means nothing to me!”
The major could only let out muffled sounds. The eyes of some expeditionary force soldiers were finally filled in fear. They did not recognize Eagleshot, but they did notice that the gun looked like a sniper rifle. A professional of sniper rifles like Qianye had always been the scariest hunter to face. Of course, there was no way he could provoke the giant that was the expeditionary force, but the senior officers would have no interest in investigating to the end if grass-root soldiers were to be assassinated on the way back home of a certain night.
Qianye slowly withdrew Eagleshot’s gun barrel and said, “Let them go!”
The major smiled bitterly and said, “Impossible! If we let them through just like this, the moment the higher ups know about this, every one of the brothers here will be sent into the cannon fodder camp. They must be isolated and inspected! You should know this since you can use Eagleshot.” right now the major was only thinking that his bad luck had caught up to him. When he recognized Eagleshot, he already knew that he had provoked the wrong person. While it was true that the adventurers, hunters and mercenaries on the wasteland were worth nothing, but god knows about people who used such identities as cover.
Qianye said indifferently, “Then what do you say we should do?”