Chapter 682: Bloodburn Firesource
[V6C212 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Meanwhile, in Indomitable, Qianye had just sent an arachne flying with a swing of his sword. The strength he had applied was just right and not the slightest bit of origin power was wasted. That arachne crashed into the nearby roof, causing the small building to collapse.
The spider wanted to clamber up from amidst the ruins, but the space around him became evidently warped, and a powerful pressure caused his movements to turn sluggish. Moreover, several streams of origin flames shot out from the rubble and burned the arachne until he was screaming in agony.
All of this was born of the city’s defensive arrays. The greater the damage caused to the buildings of the city, the more powerful the retaliation would be. The attacks from these arrays weren’t lethal to the experts, but they could produce considerable disruption. In a battle between experts, however, even a small gap like this might be life-threatening. After discovering this fact, the experts on each side became oddly cautious and did their best to restrain themselves from damaging Indomitable, even down to its grasses and trees.
Just like that, the fights largely became a competition between combat arts. This was clearly disadvantageous for the arachne and werewolf who were used to violent combat. These were human home grounds, so it was unavoidable that they would encounter some fancy tricks that gave the hosts some edge. On the other hand, this was also a means for the empire to protect the city of Indomitable. If the Evernight experts took the opportunity to cause unrestrained destruction in the city, the losses would exceed the gains.
What really depressed the Evernight experts was that there were characters like Qianye in the Empire.
In terms of strength, he wasn’t any weaker than the arachne while his combat arts were exceedingly well-refined. The arachne and werewolves who were less proficient in technique would be sent flying after a few moves and crash into the nearby rooftops. He used this method to weaken his opponents then take advantage of the situation to defeat them.
At this moment, that arachne had just managed to stand up with great difficulty. Its arachnid body was full of injuries and charred on the abdomen, producing the scent of roasted meat. Without waiting for him to regain his footing, East Peak slashed through the force field of the defensive array and cut off two of his limbs.
The arachne cried in misery as the remaining six limbs lit up with a scarlet glow. Soon, six beams of red light shot into the night sky and beyond. He then rose into the air as if he were being pulled up by six spider webs and quickly vanished into the night sky.
This escape was similar to Qianye’s Spatial Flash but a tad lower in grade. Its sudden activation left Qianye helpless, and all he could do was stare on blankly as his target fled the battle. In truth, this arachne was extremely powerful, so much so that his tenacity was above Qianye’s own. A full-force slash from East Peak only managed to cut off two of his limbs, while the strike would shave off all four limbs on one side of an ordinary arachne.
Qianye shook his head and picked a vampire as his new target. Among all the races, it could be said that Qianye was the most familiar with the vampire race. With the knowledge from the River of Blood as foundation, Qianye more or less understood all vampire abilities. Hence, it was less likely for them to be able to flee from him.
Qianye’s consciousness had just locked onto an opponent when he sensed something else and quickly turned toward a different direction. There, a mass of extremely powerful blood energy was spreading out slowly, imprinting its suppressive might in the minds of all human experts.
This was a challenge to all human experts!
After the appearance of this blood energy, the disadvantaged Evernight experts rapidly converged on it, almost as though they had found a supporting pillar. Shaken, most of the human experts stopped to look about. This allowed their opponents to extricate themselves and form a new defensive circle below the blood energy.
Qianye was no stranger to this blood energy. It belonged to the Vampire Holy Son Edward whom he had once encountered in the central underground caverns. However, Edward’s blood energy was oddly weaker than it was back then, and there was a wisp of purplish-black energy hidden in the depths of his blood.
The hidden blood energy was beyond peculiar, which seemed to be attached to Edward’s own blood energy like a burning flame. The latter was doing its utmost to resist but couldn’t save itself from gradually burning away. Without resistance, his blood energy would be completely ignited. Hence, he had no choice but to spend a third of his power to retard the burning blood energy.
Many experts with powerful perception discovered Edward’s situation and immediately felt that it was a good opportunity. Qianye, on the other hand, recalled an ancient punishment method he had come to know from the River of Blood: Bloodburn.
This punishment had to be performed personally by a great dark monarch, using a drop of his own blood as the firesource. The recipient would suffer immense pain and, at the same time, would have to resist the ignition of his blood, lest all his blood energy burst into raging flames. This kind of resistance was mostly effective depending on the quality of the recipient’s blood energy.
Edward dared come to Indomitable in such a state and even challenged the imperial experts. One could easily imagine how outstanding his blood energy and bloodline talents were.
There was also a different significance to the Bloodburn punishment. The great monarch’s firesource would burn away most of the recipient’s blood energy, but it would also leave one of greater purity for him. The entire process was similar to the Song Clan Ancient Scroll Qianye was cultivating, but it was more tyrannical and effective. Once the recipient had suffered through the punishment period, all of his blood energy would be refined and his power would reach the next level.
Additionally, the great dark monarch’s firesource would remain in the recipient's body after the punishment and become a part of his bloodline. From a certain perspective, this was similar to gaining a bit of the monarch’s inheritance.
It was unknown which great dark monarch the purple dark energy came from, but judging from Edward’s current situation, it should be fairly easy for him to get through this ordeal. Once he had gotten through it, he could very well become a prince and the humans would gain yet another powerful foe.
“We can’t let him return!” That was the thought of many a human expert. Everyone surged with battle intent and thought of ganging up on the target.
But Edward’s blood energy continued to spread out quietly in the sky, almost as though he didn’t know that he had become everyone’s target or perhaps he simply had no fear.
Zhao Yuying mumbled something unintelligible as she stuffed a brightly colored shell into her cannon. Song Zining stood beside her while waving his folding fan, each movement causing the scenery around the girl to warp and blur considerably. He had already deployed his domain to protect Zhao Yuying. The origin hand cannon was powerful, but it also involved a great deal of consumption. She would be quite weak in the short moment after firing and thus needed protection.
Edward remained immobile even in the face of Zhao Yuying’s hand cannon.
Someone was even faster than Zhao Yuying. A blue radiance appeared all of a sudden and flew around Edward at unbelievable speeds. Cling-clang sounds spread out everywhere like a drawn-out melody!
After the sound had passed, Li Kuanglan appeared in the air several dozen meters away. Cold Moon’s Embrace was trembling slightly, and the brilliance on its edge had darkened a bit. She looked a bit pale as she stared fixedly at Edward. Apparently, she had sustained slight injuries.
Most of the human race experts looked on blankly, unable to understand what was going on. Zhao Yuying and Song Zining, on the other hand, looked quite serious. Qianye broke into a frown as he thrust East Peak into the ground. He had seen it very clearly just now—Li Kuanglan had used her peerless swift blade to launch hundreds of attacks. Edward, covered in a black cape, appeared amidst the blood energy and merely stretched out a single hand. His fingers flicked or tapped at the incoming sword with equal speed, effectively repelling the entirety of Li Kuanglan’s assault.
Compared to the central maze, he was now sporting dark golden fingernails that were several centimeters long. No one knew if these fingernails were natural or a certain kind of weapon, but they could actually contend against the sharpness of Cold Moon’s Embrace.
Ji Tianqing suddenly appeared beside Edward and thrust her hands into the blood energy. The latter snorted as he swung a claw at her, grabbing her two hands with one of his own. The two were in a momentary deadlock, much like a wrestling match, when Ji Tianqing unleashed a sudden shout and her hands jolted sharply. No one knew what powerful secret art she had used but Edward let out a muffled groan and the blood energy around him dissipated almost by half.
However, Edward’s fingers struck like lightning, tapping several times on her hands. Ji Tianqing retreated several dozen meters with a startled cry and stood off against the Holy Son from a distance, her face as pale as a sheet. Apparently, she wasn’t feeling too good.
Edward didn’t say anything, either, and merely snorted. Blood energy billowed around him, and soon, he had recovered to his peak state.
Qianye cried out in secret at the unfortunate turn of events. He had realized that Edward would have no choice but to retreat as long as one could drain his blood energy to the point where it was insufficient to deal with the firesource. Otherwise, he would burst into flames and die immediately.
Li Kaunglan had stood aside while Ji Tianqing was attacking and seemed to have no intention of interfering. The latter had also been hiding nearby and didn’t launch a pincer attack during Li Kuanglan’s assault. In the end, both of them ended up slightly inferior to Edward in a confrontation. Although the gap was small, they had no hope of winning.
If the two of them had worked together, Edward would be fleeing with heavy injuries by now. But the two of them just had to insist on their principles and weren’t willing to work together no matter what.
“This is the battlefield, not the arena!” Qianye screamed indignantly in his heart.
Qianye had come to accept Song Zining’s principles after a prolonged period on the battlefield. As long as one could kill the enemy, any method was fair game. They clearly had the opportunity to work together and finish off the enemy just now, but Li Kuanglan and Ji Tianqing were still thinking about their prestige. This simply left one dumbfounded.
But Qianye also knew that he couldn’t influence these two arrogant ladies. He could only rely on himself if he wanted to kill Edward. Only Qianye understood how terrifying Edward would be after escaping the blood sentence.
After Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan failed to gain the advantage, the human race experts didn’t think about anything else and quickly launched a group attack. Countless fireworks lit up around Edward, but the vampire’s figure flickered about and actually evaded all the attacks. The frightening speed he revealed at this point was even above Li Kuanglan’s! No wonder he dared to challenge all the human experts on his own.
Qianye drew the Twin Flowers after making up his mind to kill Edward with the Shot of Inception. Although it might very well reveal his secret, letting the Holy Son go would bring about the deaths of countless imperial experts in the future. Qianye’s friends and brothers might also be among these people.