Chapter 695: The Last Step
[V7C012 – In Life and In Eternal Rest]
The pursuers were getting closer and closer. Several airships whistled past the distant horizon, carrying soldiers to cut off her forward path. Meanwhile, on the land, numerous vampire squads had spread out like ripples on a lake.
A large hunting net had begun to form within just a few days. Despite the primogenitor bloodline that made her peerless in the same realm, Nighteye gradually started to feel the mounting pressure.
Soon, a long, narrow valley appeared in front of her. Nighteye became spirited as she recognized one of the important areas Song Zining had mentioned repeatedly. She dived in without a second thought and made straight for the bottom.
Several dozen vampires were hot on her trail. Just as they reached the bottom of the ravine, however, the entire area began to tremble. The valley walls actually began to crack and collapse!
A shrill sound wave echoed through the air at this point. The vampires, who had just taken flight, fell back to the ground, where they were soon buried by the endless stream of falling rocks and debris.
Nighteye had rushed out of the other end of the valley at this point. She looked back at the dust-filled ravine and felt a wave of renewed confidence.
In the blink of an eye, she had charged through several blockades. She had lost track of the time and location by this point—all she knew was that she was not far from the borders of the Twilight Continent. Yet, this was where things became increasingly dangerous.
It was at this moment that an imposing vampire count appeared in front of her, standing in the midst of several corpses. Apparently, the support team Song Zining had arranged for her had been wiped out on the spot. The count stretched out his hand and said, “I want half of the ancient origin blood.”
“Dream on!” Clenching her teeth, Nighteye charged in with her swords drawn.
Moments later, the vampire count was kneeling on the ground with a shocked expression. “Eye of Destruction, Eye of Destruction…” He mumbled while clutching his chest but soon fell face-first into the dust.
The corpses of the count’s dozen or so subordinates were also lying around him.
A pale Nighteye thrust her blades into the ground—she looked down, grabbed the hilt sticking out from her ribs, and slowly pulled out a dagger. The moment the blade left her body, she couldn’t help but let out a muffled groan.
The primo shot a glance at the bloodstained dagger in her hand before throwing it away. The thrust had come all too close to piercing her blood core. However, the count failed to deal that final blow before his own blood core was crushed by the Eye of Destruction.
Nighteye found some high-grade blood crystals on the count, the contents of which she duly poured into her injury. Then she bound the wound tightly before making her way toward the continent’s edge.
One day and night went by in a flash. The edge of the continent was growing ever closer, but Nighteye’s progress was also slowing down. Fights broke out often as vampire warriors rushed out from time to time. Nighteye’s consciousness had grown heavy—her blood core was groaning from the overload, and all her injuries were starting to sting.
The ancient origin blood began to feel scorching hot, emitting an almost irresistible enticement. Nighteye would recover immediately if she could absorb this ancient origin blood. To a gravely injured vampire, this was an inherent allure born of the body and soul.
Nighteye touched the ancient origin blood subconsciously. Yet in the end, she pulled her hand back with great willpower and continued dragging her leaden body into the distance.
A small village appeared far up ahead. Nighteye remembered that this was the last transition point, wherein lay the last link Song Zining had arranged for her. After this point, his men would escort her on the final leg of the journey to the hidden location and bring her back to the empire via high-speed airship.
But Nighteye discovered something wrong with the distant village. It was quiet, so quiet that it looked dead. Such villages on the border of the Twilight Continent were beyond the law, a place where all kinds of people gathered. It wouldn’t even be a surprise if there were groups of humans here. There were similar grey areas on every continent. Perhaps the reason for their survival was because they were living gold channels for the higher echelons.
Nighteye halted her steps and gazed at the village with a frown.
At this moment, a small voice called out from nearby, “This way, this way!”
Nighteye turned around and saw a shabby-looking youth waving at her from behind a tree. Nighteye realized that he was one of Song Zining’s men. All the key characters in this operation cultivated a secret art that would respond to a piece of special jewelry on Nighteye’s body, allowing both sides to identify one another. Otherwise, with her Bloodline Concealment, there was no way these support teams would be able to sense her arrival.
As Nighteye walked over, that youth said anxiously, “Something’s happened. Seventh Young Master’s plans have been compromised, and our people have been killed. I only survived because I came to meet you outside the area. Go with me, we might just make it if we head straight for the airship port!”
Nighteye realized that her uneasiness this entire way had finally been confirmed. Unwittingly, a mysterious chill had slowly crept into her heart.
She pondered for a while before producing the ancient origin blood and handing it to the youth. “Give this to Zining, this is the thing he wants. Go now!”
The young man was astonished. “How about you?”
Nighteye said indifferently, “If we leave together, no one will survive. Remember, this thing in your hand is more important than me.”
The young man understood the urgency of the situation. As a decisive person, he immediately put away the ancient origin blood and bowed toward Nighteye before flickering out of existence. His silhouette was already several dozen meters away when it reappeared, speeding off into the distance. If not for Nighteye’s extraordinary vision, she would’ve lost track of him beyond a hundred meters.
The primo turned to the silent village with frosty eyes.
There seemed to be nothing wrong with the place apart from the excessive silence, the empty streets, and the lack of any signs of life.
Nighteye stopped in front of a short house and gently pushed its doors open. The unlocked door duly opened up, revealing a simple commoner’s house within. The furnishings were fairly ordinary—there was a werewolf totem in one corner of the room and something was still cooking on the stove, but the flames had long since died out.
The werewolf family was sitting at the table, prepared to partake in their simple dinner. Yet time was frozen at this moment, almost as though the werewolves, young and old, had all fallen asleep.
Nighteye scanned the place and knew that none of them were alive. Even among the ancient vampire clans, it would take an extremely tyrannical secret art to reap life in an instant.
Nighteye didn’t enter the house and walked to a different one instead.
The houses nearby were all occupied by werewolves, and it would seem all of them had lost their lives in a flash.
Nighteye headed toward the center of the village and finally found traces of battle. She picked up a stone club along the way and shook it gently. The stone weapon immediately broke down into a shower of fine dust. It would seem the battle here was short but intense. The affected area wasn’t large, but everything in its range was involved—even a stone club struck by the shockwave was reduced to fine powder. There was no way to disguise traces of such a battle.
Nighteye suddenly looked up toward the small square at the center of the village. There were several wooden poles there with corpses strung upon them. This was a common scene in grey areas, but Nighteye’s gaze fell upon the corpse of a certain woman.
Her skin was slightly dark, but her face was delicate and her figure, slender—a lady who was fairly pleasing to the eye. It seemed as though she could erupt with great power at any given moment, but now, she had lost all signs of life. Not even the vampires’ ancient blood pond could revive her.
At this point, Nighteye finally broke into a frown. This woman reminded her of the empire’s number one genius, Zhao Jundu, whom she had only seen once. Although quite faint, his aura on her couldn’t escape Nighteye’s notice.
A gentle laugh rang out in the village as a well-groomed man walked out. “You’ve finally arrived. It’s fortunate that I didn’t have to wait too long.”
Nighteye couldn’t help but take half a step back after seeing this middle-aged man. The feeling he gave off was like a snake—cold, moist, slippery, and, at the same time, extremely dangerous.
The middle-aged man praised with open arms. “Your entire plan was like an art, there’s really no word to describe it. In truth, it’s truly admirable to be able to plan out an escape path on Twilight Continent with such limited resources and time. Just from this scheme alone, one can see that Song Seven’s reputation as the next divine strategist isn’t undeserved. You see it, don’t you? According to the plan, you should already be on an airship back to the empire. A perfect plan indeed! If only I had not appeared…”
“Who are you?”
“Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m the leader of the fifth central military command, Li Fengshui, and currently a general in rank. I hope my identity is worthy of welcoming Miss Nighteye.” [1]
Nighteye scanned the surroundings. A dozen or so people had appeared at some point and surrounded her. These people were different in appearance and stance, but they were similarly sinister and powerful. Every one of them gave Nighteye a vague feeling of danger.
“Why are you waiting for me here?” Nighteye inquired.
With victory in his grasp, Li Fengshui didn’t mind revealing some information. “Because you’re… important. Although I don’t know why the seventh young noble would expend so much resources to do this, your identity alone is important enough for us. As for why you’re here, we have enough time to chat about it slowly.”
Nighteye looked at Li Fengshui and sneered, “It seems like you’re confident about capturing me?”
“Naturally.” Li Fengshui revealed a sincere smile that was completely devoid of malice.
However, his smile soon froze up as his image was reflected in Nighteye’s pupils.
The man’s eyes quickly became bloodshot, and an odd redness flashed across his face as his heart began beating wildly. He acted immediately, reaching out to grab a nearby subordinate and using him as a shield. It was unknown what kind of secret art he had used, but Li Fengshui’s image in Nighteye’s pupils suddenly became that of the subordinate.
The soldier’s face suddenly turned scarlet, and his eyes bulged out—apparently, he was suffering great agony and terror. He opened his mouth to spit out a mixture of blood and organ fragments before falling limp. It was clear that he would no longer survive.
[1] This Li different from the Li family.