Chapter 37: Collapse
Volume 3 – The Place Where My Heart Feels At Peace, Chapter 37: Collapse
Qianye released his hands and lay down directly beside the Blood Esquire’s corpse, panting heavily. Bao Zhengcheng also fell to the ground and panted just as heavily. The man was hurt all over, and a particular sword wound behind his back was so deep one could already see his bones.
If a few cannon fodders were to come in right now, they might be able to kill them all just like that.
After panting for a moment, Bao Zhengcheng asked, “Boss, are your eyes hurt?” His voice was filled with worry. In this circumstances, there was almost no chance that a soldier with an injured eye would be able to live through the next battle.
“It’s okay. It’s just a small wound. It’ll recover soon.” Qianye continued to keep his eyes shut.
Inside the domain controlled by humans, a military jeep was traveling slowly. The light in the seemingly endless forest was so dim that one could not differentiate either day or night. It was as if countless monsters were hidden inside.
The road was craggy and uneven. When the jeep’s wheel rolled over the floor covered in thick fallen leaves that was like a carpet, it felt as if it would slip at any moment. The four front lights of the jeep were all completely turned on. The bright white light was trained to the front.
This jeep was the best target in this dark environment. However, the sinister looking cannon on top of the jeep’s roof reminded the man or beast spying from the darkness constantly that this big metallic fellow was absolutely not to be trifled with!
A dark shadow suddenly charged out from beside the road and blocked the jeep. He waved his hands strongly and shouted, “Stop! Stop!”
The jeep abruptly came to a stop.
The man pulled open the jeep’s door and jumped directly to the front passenger seat. While panting heavily, he said, “I’m a sergeant of the 325th Battalion! Send me to the 60th division headquarters, quickly! Earth Castle has been surrounded by the dark races. We need reinforcements!”
The jeep started and continued forwards.
The sergeant finally relaxed and lay limply on the seat. It was only now he saw clearly that he and the driver were the only ones in the jeep. The driver was a young and beautiful short haired female lieutenant.
“First Lieutenant Ye Muwei?” the sergeant was both shocked and overjoyed. There weren’t many pretty girls on the battlefield. First Lieutenant Ye was both beautiful and capable, and although it hasn’t been more than several months since she reported herself to this warzone, she had become many soldiers’ dream lover.
“You know me?”
“Of course! Who wouldn’t recognize a great beauty like you?”
Ye Muwei smiled slightly and said, “You know me. That’s even better then. Isn’t the 325th Battalion subordinate to the 55th Division? Why do you want to go the 60th Division?”
“The dark races had mobilized the entire collective army! The path to the 55th Division is already blocked off.”
“I see. Did anyone else escape?”
“No. I’m the only one left.” the sergeant wore a downcast expression and looked outside the window. But when he saw what was outside, he almost jumped on his seat. He cried out, “No! This isn’t the direction to the DHQ. You—”
The sergeant turned his head, and it was only now he found the black hole of a muzzle pointed at his forehead.
“This isn’t the direction to the DHQ in the first place. This is the direction of your grave.”
Before she finished her sentence, Ye Muwei had already pulled down the trigger. The car window was immediately splattered with blood.
During evening, the jeep appeared at an intermediary transportation depot. Normally, there would only be a small troop of sentries garrisoned in the brightly lit depot. Now, it was parked with a heavy convoy. A moment later, Ye Muwei sneakily got up the backside of a truck.
Gu Liyu was the only one inside. He was leaning against the back of a chair and resting quietly. After he finished listening to her report, Gu Liyu said, “So the 131st Company did choose here to make their breakthrough.”
Ye Muwei asked in puzzlement, “If this were normal times the patrol of the 55th Division would’ve realized that something was wrong a long time ago. But the battle over there had started since last night, there’s no way they had the time to worry for Earth Castle. With Earth Castle’s meager strength, they absolutely could not hold out the night. But why do you still need me to intercept the messengers?”
Gu Liyu smiled and said, “Because I prefer to be absolutely safe.”
“But Qiqi would still have new lovers!”
Gu Liyu’s smile immediately became somewhat unnatural. Slowly, he said, “This person is different. He’s a threat.”
Ye Muwei stopped talking. Most of the people Gu Liyu thought as a threat had slept eternally in their graves.
Gu Liyu swept Ye Muwei into his lap and touched her hair softly. A while later, he finally said, “It’s not all for this insignificant fellow. The chief of dispatch of this battle is in fact the Yin Family’s Old 17. He wanted to protect the 58th Division’s strength and deplete the 55th Division’s strength for a bit. I am just following his wishes and achieving a small wish of my own in the meantime.”
Ye Muwei felt a cold chill climbing up her back. It was only now she abruptly understood Gu Liyu’s planning, killing two birds with one stone.
Yin 17 was one of the elders under Qiqi’s family branch, whereas the 58th and 55th Divisions were the main combat forces of Xichang City’s war zone this time. The 60th Division was their reserve force. A battalion Qiqi had brought with her was put under the 58th Division, so Yin 17’s thoughts were easily understandable. He was just reducing the risk his Miss was about to face. As for why he specifically made the request to deplete the 55th Division’s strength, there must be other internal reasons.
The 58th and 55th Division shared a proportional relationship with each other. If one side faced heavier pressure, they would suffer more casualties whereas the other part was the opposite.
Therefore, Gu Liyu had used false intel and baited the 131st Company to enter the dark races’ collective army mobilization zone at that point of time and location, causing the 55th Division’s defense zone to enter combat earlier than expected. He also requested her to intercept any messengers who might have made their way out to prevent the 60th Company from receiving the news and intervening in advance. A single night’s difference was enough to achieve many objectives.
A thousand things could happen in an instant on the battlefield. Perhaps Gu Liyu’s plan was not limited to what she saw, or he would not have hidden his own identity and arrived to the Evernight Continent personally. However, Ye Muwei was not interested in knowing more. In the hearts of these important people, military merits, success, and the overall situation was what they truly needed to consider. Casualties and sacrifices were just numbers. It did not matter at all which military number had more units, and which troops had less.
Ye Muwei only knew that the entire battle would absolutely head toward the direction Gu Liyu hoped to see. Even if the matter was discovered by Qiqi later, this was the decision of a Yin Family elder. What could she say?
Ye Muwei suddenly had a strange thought. When the surviving soldiers of Earth Castle lasted past tonight and welcomed daybreak, but then discovered that the reinforcements that they were hoping for did not arrive at all, what would they think? It was at this moment she heard Gu Liyu calling her name, and so she replied softly.
“Tomorrow afternoon later, we will head to the 60th Division.”
“We will go there to mobilize the army. I’m here this time with the temporary authority to conscript an expeditionary force troop. Earth Castle as a defense node cannot be lost. We will get it back from the dark races.” Gu Liyu’s voice slowly turned faint, “After this battle, I will be able to ascend to the rank of colonel.”
Ye Muwei did not say anything. She pressed herself before Gu Liyu’s chest and found a comfortable position. Meanwhile, his hands was rubbing her cheeks softly. The intoxicating warmth drove all thoughts out of her mind.
On this war torn continent, she only wanted now.
Right now, Earth Castle was slowly turning quiet. The sounds of fighting, guns, and cannon shots slowly faded as the surviving dark race soldiers retreated out of the town. The first battle had ended just like that.
Moments later, Qianye and Bao Zhengcheng lent each other an arm, struggled to stand up and walked out of the house. What they saw was devastation, ruins, bodies, and fire everywhere. Earth Castle was already destroyed.
One hurt soldier after another came out of their hiding spots. The officers began attempting to gather the soldiers, and Bao Zhengcheng also leaped out and beckoned loudly for any surviving brother.
While standing amidst the ruins, Qianye suddenly felt as if everything was a little unreal. His mind was also a little dazed. He opened his eyes a little, and he found the blood red color in his vision had faded quite a bit.
There was a military knife that was somewhat intact standing amidst the ruins. Qianye picked it up and raised the broadside of the blade, staring at his own eyes. Through the reflection of the slightly blurry metallic surface, there was now only a little blood color left in Qianye’s pupils. No one would notice it unless they paid close attention.
However, when Qianye stared at the face reflected by the narrow blade, he felt that it was both familiar and strange. A little dazed, he lifted his head and watched as one tired or painfully groaning soldier after another walk by him.
Everyone else was nearing complete exhaustion, but Qianye’s condition was unusually good. Although he still had wounds on his body, it was no longer affecting his movements by much. Most of his broken bones had begun connecting themselves together, so even the bone fixing process could be saved. If he could get some good rest in, then he would recover in full in just a few days.
By now the effects of the blood boil had gradually faded, and his additional strength and vitality were slowly returning to their normal level. Qianye once again felt tired. This was the fatigue brought by the double effects of excessive usage of stimulants and blood boil.
It was at this moment the expeditionary force soldiers walked by while dragging a few werewolf corpses.
Those corpses were different from the other dead werewolves in that they were completely dry and wilted like a mummy. The expeditionary force soldiers were arguing what on earth caused the corpses to turn out this way. Some people believed that it was the vampires who had become so hungry that they could not restrain themselves, whereas the other person retorted loudly saying that vampires would rather starve to death than suck a werewolf’s corpse. The duo argued along the way and slowly walked far away.
However, when Qianye saw the few impressively broken bodies, he already knew where they found them. On the battlefield, bloodsucking was an incomparable recovery method. Perhaps even the majority of the vampire’s kin did not have such amazing recovery abilities.
If he hadn’t triggered the blood boil effect by sucking blood, then he would have been torn apart and eaten alive by the werewolves already, just like that expeditionary force youth. He would not be able to kill that Blood Esquire and save Bao Zhengcheng either.
Qianye could only feel that his heart was empty while standing amidst the ruins. The pillar of belief he had held since he was young had utterly collapsed at this point.
He had always hated and rejected the vampires, and bore the courage and ferocity to choose death over becoming a blood thrall. However, he had now used the vampire’s unique talent, bloodsucking with full clarity of mind.
So what was he now?
“Boss! You’re still alive! Thank goodness!”
A familiar voice dragged Qianye back to reality. A 131st Company soldier was running over excitedly. He was hugging the ridiculously long Eagleshot in his arms. It was obvious that the soldiers had discovered the weapon while sweeping through the battlefield, and they immediately realized who the owner of the rifle was. Right now Qianye was almost worshipped like a god in their hearts. Not anyone could exceed their rank to snipe high ranking dark race creatures with just the strength of rank four.
Qianye accepted Eagleshot and stared at the smile on this blood and soot covered face. Suddenly, he felt as if the entire world had become real once more.
He returned him a calm smile and said, “Thank you.” then, he looked around and pointed at an empty ground, saying, “Call our brothers to gather at that spot. Tell them to look for food and ammo as well.”
“No problem, boss!” as if suddenly finding strength in his body, the young soldier broke into a slow run and went far away.
When Qianye leaned against a broken wall that was now only as tall as his waist, Bao Zhengcheng walked over with the expeditionary force battalion commander. They sat at the opposite side of him.
The battalion commander was also covered in blood and the vestiges of battle. The large majority of his head was wrapped in bandages, and there were two obviously teeth marks on his throat as well!
When he saw Qianye’s expression, the battalion commander smiled bitterly and said, “I’ve been bitten by a vampire, but it’s nothing now. I won’t live past the day I become a blood thrall. With our numbers, we can hold out a wave of attack at best.”