Chapter 756: Stalemate
Before long, Qianye had discovered the two men advancing stealthily across the wilderness. Their concealment abilities were outstanding, but there was no way they could hide their origin power fluctuations from Qianye’s eyes.
The vice-commander hadn’t realized that Qianye had discovered them. He made a gesture ordering his subordinate to follow him. The two went into hiding behind a nearby hill, waiting for a scouting party that was due to pass by. Judging from their uniforms, this scouting party belonged to the Wolf King. There were three young, valiant-looking werewolves among them, observing the surroundings in a cautious manner.
The vice commander was far more powerful than these werewolves. He didn’t even need to take action personally. That subordinate alone subdued the entire squad and began interrogating them. Due to the distance, Qianye didn’t know what the other party was asking, but he could see the vice commander’s expression turning sour by the minute. Apparently, it wasn’t good news at all.
It was at this moment that the vice-commander realized someone was spying on them. He suddenly turned around and glanced in Qianye’s direction. The latter remained completely still with his aura retracted. The distance between them far exceeded the visual range of an ordinary expert. Only Qianye, with his supernatural eyesight, could see everything clearly. As long as he remained immobile, he would be no different from a speck of dust to the vice-commander—there was simply no way to distinguish him.
Seeing nothing, the vice commander mumbled to himself for a while, took out his binoculars, and scanned the area once more. There was an eerie purple radiance flickering on the scope—it clearly wasn’t an ordinary pair of binoculars.
Qianye had seen this kind of apparatus before. Specifically made to detect reflected light from other scopes, it could be used to find enemy snipers and scouts. Qianye, however, wasn’t using any kind of scope and merely relying on his superior vision to spy on his targets. He was only using a scope before because he knew someone was observing him from afar. He was merely pretending to throw off the other party’s judgment.
Finding nothing, the vice commander grudgingly put away the binoculars. Then, he proceeded to kill the werewolves one after the other and left after setting up a trap.
Qianye had already recognized this vice-commander. It would seem he was in charge of patrolling this segment of the battlefront. As an outsider, it was only natural that they would be cautious about him.
Just as Qianye was thinking whether or not he should follow them, he sensed something all of a sudden and dove sideways. He had just left his original position when a sniper bullet landed there, immediately producing a small, deep hole.
Qianye was astonished because this shot had come entirely out of the blue. He had only detected the projectile as it was approaching him. In addition, its firepower wasn’t small at all. Even he would suffer injuries if struck.
Qianye turned about and glanced in the direction of the shot, but all he could see was a faint, grey silhouette in the distance. The assailant was like a distorted smudge against the backdrop colors—it was difficult to even tell his race, let alone how he looked. That person fled immediately after missing the shot. A shrill voice echoed in Qianye’s ears at this moment. “Pretty good, brat. We’ll play this game slowly.”
That wisp of grey warped and vanished against the vast land. No one knew what secret art he had used, but the man had disappeared entirely from Qianye’s perception.
Qianye didn’t give chase and, instead, returned to the original spot to observe the bullethole.
The hole was extremely deep and its walls were smooth. It wasn’t hot to the touch, either. On the contrary, there was a cold dampness about it that proved the owner’s odd origin power attribute. The last opponent who had managed to approach and snipe Qianye without his notice was Eden, and that was in the Misty Wood.
It would seem that the people from the Wolf King and the Spider Emperor’s side weren’t that easy to deal with, either. All of them had secretly dispatched experts to penetrate the other side of the battlefield.
Qianye neither continued chasing the vice-captain nor traveled far. Instead, he remained in place with his aura retracted and waited for nightfall. That mysterious assassin probably hadn’t imagined his target to be here. Qianye didn’t mind giving him a surprise if he were to come back and check the scene.
However, the sniper didn’t appear until midnight. Only then did Qianye rise and sneak toward a certain direction.
All of a sudden, a powerful origin power fluctuation arrived from the distance. Apparently, there were experts fighting in that direction. Qianye hastened his steps and approached the battlefield. He wouldn’t be stingy about helping out if there were people from his side involved. Port City was at a disadvantage in this war and thus needed to preserve as much strength as it could.
The battle he saw upon scaling the hill far exceeded his expectations. Several experts were locked in a fierce battle, along with the dozens of soldiers under their command.
The vice-commander who had followed Qianye before was also among them. He was suppressing an enemy count and two viscounts on his own, giving them no opportunity at retaliation. In the periphery, dozens of high-ranking soldiers from either side were locked in a bloody battle. All of them were hoping to wipe out the enemy and provide what little assistance they could to their experts.
Judging from the situation, the forces of Port City were at a slight advantage. It would be a sure win if that subordinate of his could score a victory against his current opponent and help the vice-commander share one of his. Of course, the other party wasn’t made up of idiots, either. They would surely retreat before that could happen.
Qianye concealed his aura and gradually approached the battlefield. At this moment, he suddenly noticed a tiny origin power fluctuation in the distance. This little bit of origin power would be easily overlooked during a fierce battle, but Qianye remembered this aura. This was the person who had nearly landed a shot on Qianye a while ago.
His concealment ability was extremely powerful. Qianye might not have sensed his existence if it wasn’t for the unavoidable leakage of aura before the shot.
During the split second that could potentially decide the outcome of this battle, Qianye made the instantaneous decision to charge at that assassin!
This time, Qianye used every ounce of strength he had. He flitted across hundreds of meters and arrived like a bolt of lightning. At this moment, the origin bullet had just left the chamber and was flying toward the battlefield, shrouded in a layer of deep greyish energy.
The sniper finally revealed his form briefly. The shape seemed humanoid, but at a glance, he looked like a distorted mass of greyish white colors.
Just as he was about to reach his target, a shadow suddenly appeared before him. This entity looked like one of those fabled knights—he was clad in a full suit of heavy armor, the only opening being a slit in his visor. This strange knight barred Qianye’s path, shouting, “Bulwark!”
His arms spread out to form a shield of origin power, the surface of which was decorated with a dense array of almost tangible runes. Apparently, its defensive prowess was extraordinary.
In a great hurry, Qianye hoisted the origin gun made by Cui Yuanhai and fired, the massive recoil stunting the momentum of his charge. The origin gun spat out a rather large ball of flames which struck the knight’s shield with great ferocity.
Following a loud boom, the heavily armored knight took a step back. The origin shield in his hand was flickering on the verge of collapse. However, it actually didn’t shatter after taking an all-out blast.
Qianye’s pupils contracted, realizing that this knight was, just like Wei Potian, a defense specialist. Wei Potian still had some offensive techniques, but this person seemed to be entirely focused on defense in terms of his secret arts, equipment and talent abilities. That secret art called Indestructible Bulwark was rather ridiculously named, but it really wasn’t destroyed in this exchange.
The knight was evidently shocked by Qianye’s attack. He glanced contemplatively at the flickering shield in his hand, his thoughts unknown.
At this moment, the grey silhouette had also stood up. Although his eyes weren’t visible, it was clear that his gaze was fixated upon Qianye. The formless glare was so sharp that it stung his skin ever so slightly.
Qianye was wary because the ability of these two men complemented each other well. Their power would increase exponentially when working together. Qianye gauged the duo at rank twelve or so, but their combined abilities were extremely difficult to deal with. There was probably no way to keep them here without revealing his aces. However, Qianye didn’t want to reveal too much in front of everyone. After all, the curtains had just risen on the war. To him, this wasn’t a battle of hatred and enmity; just another way to earn mercenary rewards.
The two mysterious assassins also stopped their advance, apparently worried about getting entangled with this difficult opponent. Meanwhile, the battle on the other end was still going on—the grey shadow’s shot had missed due to Qianye’s sudden appearance.
The two assassins exchanged glances, then slowly pulled back. At the same time, they pointed at Qianye’s back. Understanding their intention, Qianye also nodded and began retreating. Both parties went back into hiding after putting the distance between them.
The casualties on the battlefield were severe, but the wounded were all soldiers. The experts from either side only suffered light injuries. They also seemed to have sensed the changes and lost the will to keep on fighting. Eventually, both sides stopped fighting and left the scene along with their wounded. As for the corpses and those who couldn’t be transported, they were abandoned in the field.
Qianye watched with a heavy heart. If this were in the empire, the military tradition was to fight for the remains of comrades. The tribes of Evernight also attached great importance to remains because they were bloodline descendants. In this place, and especially at such a time, people had neither the strength to spare for moving corpses nor methods to suppress their smell. Transporting the deceased in such a manner would make them easy targets.
Qianye stood silently with his aura retracted, almost like a rock in the wilderness.
Some shadows appeared in the distance and approached rapidly. A werewolf raised his head and sniffed the scent in the air. He then turned back and growled before running toward the battlefield. Those at the back slowed down and approached in a cautious formation.
This group of a hundred was wearing the colors of the Wolf King. The three viscounts among them proved that this was an elite hunting party. The werewolf who had arrived first observed the corpses strewn across the ground. Then, he pointed left and right, sending a couple of werewolves in each direction to act as sentries.
That werewolf walked quickly around the battlefield, sniffing constantly as though he were searching for something. He issued a low growl—a while later, several werewolves walked over carrying some corpses on their backs, then left in due haste. That werewolf personally stood guard in the vicinity with a dozen or so elite warriors.
If this were the Misty Wood, Qianye could’ve taken down such a squad. But the surroundings here were fairly empty despite the rising slopes, and he had to take that grey shadow assassin into account. It would be too dangerous if he were to get entangled.