Chapter 645: Ambushed
[V6C175 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Moments later, Twilight walked out of the marquis’ chamber with an ashen expression. The meeting just now couldn’t be considered a happy one because she was scolded immediately after entering the chamber. Although the marquis didn’t really convict her of desertion, he didn’t let her off that easily, either. She was held responsible for the men who went with her but never returned, and would have her contributions docked accordingly.
In the end, the marquis told her that he would’ve thrown her in the dungeon if not for her value somewhat exceeding that of the viscounts added together.
Half of this summons was occupied by rebuke and the remaining half with humiliation, leaving no face at all for Twilight. The latter was born of the Monroe clan, but this identity was useless in front of a demonkin marquis who, himself, hailed from a famed clan.
Twilight returned to her room afterward and locked herself inside.
This matter soon spread throughout the camp and became a hot topic of discussion. In the world of darkness where strength was most revered, fleeing from battle was certainly a bad reputation to have. Moreover, many people were secretly delighted to see powerful experts facing problems. It was just that they didn’t dare express it openly and only dared gossip behind her back. After all, the marquis was the only one who could firmly suppress Twilight.
At dinner time, William appeared outside of the mess hall in a leisurely manner. He had never been late to a meal before. Judging from his messy, golden hair and vacant expression, it was clear that he had been napping until now and hadn’t even woken up completely. It was his instincts that had dragged his body to the mess hall.
He hadn’t entered the doors when Twilight’s cold voice emerged from behind, “Follow me.”
William’s body jolted as he sobered up. He refused without even looking back, “No.”
Twilight gritted her teeth. “Bullsh*t! Are you coming or not?”
William replied immediately, “Not going, it’s dinner time.” It was just that his imposingness had grown a bit weaker while saying so.
Twilight said coldly, “You’ve crossed my bottom line. It’s fine if you’re not going, but I might do something out of anger.”
William smiled wryly and scratched his head with a sigh. In the end, he followed Twilight to her residence.
The latter locked the doors and sat down. After a moment of silence, she said, “William, are you trying to shed all pretenses?”
William threw himself into the sofa and shrugged. “I was just teasing you. Isn’t dealing with superior characters your specialty? This isn’t a big matter anyway. It should be fine after explaining things a bit, right? Who knew things would turn out this way?”
Twilight stared at William in silence.
William suddenly sat straight and said in a hushed, curious voice, “I heard you didn’t explain anything to the marquis and admitted to all accusations. Why take this trouble?”
“What does that have to do with you?” Twilight’s voice rose subconsciously.
William laughed, “What I meant is, are the secrets of Spatial Flash that important?”
These words exploded in Twilight’s ears like thunder. She shot out of her seat and blurted out, “How did you know?”
“There are no small number of records about it at the Summit of Peaks,” William replied.
Twilight’s expression fluctuated several times as she slowly resumed her seat. “This is indeed a secret, but the Black-Winged Monarch’s inheritance is simply too ephemeral. No one can say who will obtain it. Hence, the value of this secret is much greater than the lives of your two tribes. If you stir up trouble again, I’ll kill them immediately.”
William’s smile disappeared and his expression turned solemn. “I’ll have no more apprehensions if you kill them. Sooner or later, I will kill you! You can only pray that you cultivate quickly enough, or perhaps that you can run fast enough.”
“Even the Summit of Peaks can’t protect you if you kill me.” Twilight laughed.
William shrugged and said frivolously, “So? You’re already dead by that time.”
Twilight’s expression froze.
William wasn’t wrong. Even if they could wipe out William's entire tribe in retribution, what was the point if she was dead? In Twilight’s eyes, she was the most important. Not to mention a single William, she wouldn’t be willing even if the entire Summit of Peaks were buried with her. William’s words struck right at her weakness.
The two fell into an immediate deadlock since both had their own apprehensions.
Moments later, Twilight said slowly, “You’ve nearly broken through the limits of my patience this time.”
William acknowledged her words. It was just that his lazy demeanor didn’t quite express any sincerity.
She said coldly, “Kill Qianye the next time you see him. If you keep holding back, don’t blame me for not putting up with you. I might not kill the entire tribe, but what can you do if I kill a couple of them?”
This time, it was William’s turn to turn silent.
After a while, he said, “Let me give you some advice. There are contributions to be reaped everywhere, why must you embarrass yourself? That exchange I had with him back then was a real battle.”
Twilight was momentarily astonished. She wanted to ask more about it, but William had already left.
She sat in a daze, recalling her brief exchange with Qianye. William’s words had confirmed the guess she had back then. Those red threads were a characteristic feature of Spatial Flash. Once touched, Spatial Flash would activate and Qianye would appear behind her in the blink of an eye—an earth-shattering attack would then follow. Since Qianye was capable of exchanging a head-on blow against William, then it was very possible that Twilight wouldn’t be able to withstand a single move from him.
But why would Qianye know Spatial Flash?
Twilight sat restlessly. She wished to capture Qianye and interrogate him but wasn’t too confident in being able to do so. Presently, she had also lost the courage to fight him head-on. If what William said was the truth, then Qianye’s attack wasn’t one Twilight could block. Since she couldn’t block the attack, the only method left was to evade. However, against Qianye and his Spatial Flash, constant evasion was nothing more than a joke.
Why would Qianye know Spatial Flash? This question repeated in her heart.
At this point, Qianye had already broken through several dark race interceptions and successfully reached the Wei clan private soldiers. This batch of warriors was indeed made up of elite troops—they had been able to hold out until now under the overwhelming siege. The combat strength they had displayed was far above their ranks on paper.
There were less than a hundred soldiers left of the Wei clan army when Qianye’s group arrived. Meanwhile, the dark race soldiers before them had paid several times this price in casualties.
Qianye brought the surviving Wei clan soldiers away and slowly closed in on the Zhang clan army under the cover of the night.
According to Song Zining’s strategy, they would have to retreat into the range of the Zhang clan fleet once things didn’t go well. That fleet was their greatest guarantee for reaching the Zhao clan warzone and the greatest deterrent against the dark race experts. The giant ballista that had killed the vampire count, Qianye had neither seen nor even heard of before. It would seem that the Zhang clan and the empire hadn’t been idle all these years—they had secretly invented quite a few good items.
Borrowing the deterrent power of the fleet, the squad would turn toward the southwest and enter the Zhao clan’s first-line fortifications. There, they would bolster the defenses and guard the area tightly. Only when the dark race army arrived and things were looking dire would they retreat to the next line of fortresses. They would have to drag the dark race army down with the layered defenses and sniping to allow the Zhang clan army to retreat into the Zhao clan base.
According to Song Zining’s predictions, the path toward the fleet should be an easy journey. With William and Twilight pushed back, the dark races here had no powerful experts they could bring out. Even if someone came, they wouldn’t be Qianye’s match. The only way to stop the four people here was to transfer a large number of experts and surround them. However, such a transfer would take quite a lot of time. The Wei clan’s private soldiers had received a great boost in speed from Song Zining’s domain, not leaving any chance for the dark races to call for reinforcements.
The earlier part of the journey was indeed as smooth as Song Zining had predicted. Qianye took point alone and broke through several obstructions along the way. The numerous viscount leaders, be they arachne or werewolves, fell under Qianye’s Spatial Flash and East Peak’s slash. They couldn’t even take a single strike and were slaughtered immediately. Once the leaders were dead, the dark race squads usually became inferior to the human ones. Soon, they were killed to the point of scattering in all directions.
On the land, Qianye led the Wei clan private army like a sharp blade, cutting apart the dark race’s defensive lines with unstoppable momentum. In just under two hours, they had traveled dozens of kilometers and destroyed several defensive lines. At this point, Qianye started to feel somewhat strained and tired.
An inexplicable sensation arose in his heart just as he was killing yet another arachne viscount. In truth, his instincts weren’t really ringing any alarms. He only felt something wrong in the flow of origin power but couldn’t quite point out where or what was wrong.
While Qianye was dazed, the nearby Wei Potian suddenly let out a loud roar. The Thousand Mountains erupted violently and covered a ten-meter area around him with illusory peaks. He took a swift step forward and blocked Qianye’s backside.
Wei Potian’s entire body trembled as the mountains crumbled one after another. The technique famed for its great defensive prowess had been destroyed in an instant, while he himself was thrown backward amidst a gush of blood.
Qianye suddenly turned around to see a speck of light glittering in the distance. An origin bullet wrapped in dark energy was flying over at great speeds. Qianye had quickly judged the target, but all he had the time to do was shout, “Careful!”
Song Zining and Zhao Yuying were both embroiled in a fierce battle at this point. They felt a chill in their hearts after hearing Qianye’s cry. They only sensed the incoming danger at that point and looked over at the flying bullet. Zhao Yuying pounced forward without a thought and rolled onto the ground with the enemy in front of her. One could see from this how experienced she was in battle and war. Her instinctive movement was correct and rapidly executed.
Song Zining stared blankly for a brief moment as the enemy in front of him was blown apart and a slender origin bullet charged out through the flesh and blood. At this point, he could no longer dodge.
The enemy’s strategy was extremely sinister. The shot struck their own men before attacking the enemy—it was practically indefensible. However, this Song seventh young master was a character with many outstanding methods. He could no longer evade and his domain had no effect on the bullet, but at the moment of imminent peril, the folding fan which he carried at all times suddenly flew out and spread open in front of him.
The folding fan was shattered with a ferocious bang, and the impact sent Song Zining flying backward, his clothes torn and his face full of blood. However, he managed to clamber up after falling to the ground and was apparently uninjured. It was just that he glanced at the pieces of the folding fan in deep heartache.
Only at this point did the rumbling gunshot arrive.
Qianye’s expression was gloomy as his body flickered out of existence and appeared hundreds of meters away. His shadow flickered several times over the span of a thousand meters, leaving lingering afterimages along the way. He was almost as fast as an origin bullet!
Qianye pushed Spatial Flash to its limits with no attempt at hiding its power. He was truly furious.