Chapter 83: The Blue Firmament
Volume 4 – Perpetual Conflict, Chapter 83: The Blue Firmament
Zhao Jundu arrived at the Elder Assembly without a moment’s delay. The Sixth Elder seemed to have aged quite a bit during the few days of his absence; his hair and skin had all but dried up.
He returned the Radiant Edge to Zhao Jundu and said, “That person will appear at the eastern border of the Silentflame Steppes within five days.”
Zhao Jundu nodded. “Many thanks to Sixth Elder. I’ve already prepared the spirit condensation grass and marine lotus. I’ll have someone deliver it to Cousin Ruoming immediately.”
An expression of joy appeared on Sixth Elder’s tired face.
Spirit Condensation Grass was native to the Wasteland of Time, and Marine Lotus was a plant unique to the Great Maelstrom. The former was deep within dark race territory, while the latter was a natural stronghold that even powerful experts wouldn’t dare enter carelessly. With these two main ingredients, one could produce several types of high-quality medicines to aid with the breakthrough to champion rank. It might even be possible to make a selection based on Zhao Ruoming’s natural aptitude. With such a reward, Sixth Elder sacrificing ten years of his cultivation could be considered worth it.
Zhao Jundu returned to his residence, the “Violet Ketu Courtyard”, summoned his aides, and gave them some simple instructions regarding the matters at hand. He had made ample preparations for his upcoming journey during the recent days—most affairs had been arranged for and could be handed over any time.
Within two hours, a small high-speed airship rose into the air from the Zhao clan residence’s private airship port and sped toward Mount Taihang.
At the same time, a larger airship happened to be in the process of descending, and the two brushed past each other.
The landing craft was an armed airship equipped with two aerial cannons. Chatting enthusiastically on its deck was a group of young men and women in military apparel, most of whom were suffused with the scent of recent battle.
One of them suddenly exclaimed in astonishment, “Eh? Isn’t that the Zhao Fourth Young Master’s vehicle?”
Zhao Junhong suddenly turned around.
He could see through the cabin windows quite clearly at this distance—he saw Zhao Jundu sitting in the main cabin with the extremely eye-catching Blue Firmament in his hands!
The faraway Silentflame Steppes was the same as before with the gigantic red crescent-shaped peak stretching across the land under the vast blue skies.
The geography of the path taken by Qianye this time was more arduous. This part of the Taihang Mountain Range, full of steep inclines and precipitous cliffs, was definitely off the beaten track. So much that even the local wild beasts were few and far between.
But such a mountainous landscape wasn’t much of a hindrance for the current Qianye. He traversed the mountain range even faster than he had before and soon entered the hilly region between the desert and the foothills.
The Silentflame Steppes grew larger and larger within his eyes as speckles of red began to appear in the soil under his feet. This was the eastern border of the Silentflame Steppes, and the landscape here was almost level with little to no elevation.
Qianye suddenly noticed a number of vampires appear in the distance while he was running. Additionally, they were rushing toward him at high speed.
More trouble!
The entire wilderness was in plain sight during the day, and there was no place to hide apart from the giant parasol-shaped trees scattered across the region.
With his long range of sight, Qianye was quickly able to discern the details on the vampires’ bodies. From both their speed and insignias, he could tell that there were no viscount level experts among them. This could be considered good news, albeit barely.
Qianye simply halted his steps. He had already run for half a day and had exhausted a fair bit of his strength. Since there was no way to avoid a battle, he would rather initiate the fight and replenish his diminishing blood energy in passing. He drew the Twin Flowers, loaded a Mithril Bullet of Exorcism into each of them, and silently waited for those vampires to approach.
Those vampires were moving in an odd fashion, and their attention was so focused on the rear that they actually noticed Qianye only when they were 500 meters from him. Their expressions turned obviously frantic as they conversed amongst themselves in a secret code. Their path soon began to shift away; it seemed they were planning to skirt around Qianye.
This came as a great surprise to Qianye because, with their usual arrogance, the vampires would never display such weakness when encountering a solitary human. He suddenly noticed that almost all of them had dark stains on their clothes—it turned out that they had long since suffered injuries.
The group was made up of high-ranking vampires. They possessed fair skin, handsome features, and were equipped with exquisite clothing and premium weapons. Apparently, they were the descendants of a respectable clan. Just what kind of person was able to make them flee in such misery?
Soon, Qianye saw a number of figures appear in succession on the small hill where the vampires had first emerged. There were also vampires in that group, but there were more werewolves and arachne among them. A greatly alarmed Qianye swept this True Sight over the area and immediately found three enormous masses of origin power. To his astonishment, there were three viscounts!
Qianye drew in a breath of cold air. He then started to run with all his might without uttering a single word. Of course, he chose to run in a different direction from those who were being chased down.
At this time, the dark race warriors who had gathered on the small hill had approached a hundred. They could clearly see the situation in the vast wilderness. A certain arachne viscount chased after Qianye with a dozen or so men in tow—it seemed they had no plan to leave any survivors, even the passers-by they had come across incidentally.
The arachne possessed a great advantage while traveling in marshland, but the viscount could only maintain a basic champion-rank speed on the vast plains.
Qianye was able to gauge the difference in speed after running for a while. Outside of the arachne viscount, there were also two high-ranking vampires who possessed relatively threatening speeds. If he ran at full speed, he could shake them off completely within a hundred kilometers, and the remaining dark race warriors would fall behind within twenty.
The infighting among the dark races wasn’t a rare sight, and Qianye had no interest in the details of this pursuit. However, he was quite intrigued by the group chasing after him, especially the arachne viscount.
He was currently short of blood energy. Although the blood crystals made for effective replenishments, directly absorbing the essence blood from an expert was the fastest method. The lack of blood energy to shield his internal organs would obviously affect the progress of his Combatant Formula.
A bold idea formed within Qianye’s mind. Controlling his speed, he had pulled his pursuers apart in less than an hour. At his heels was the arachne viscount, and then at a fair distance were the two high-ranking vampires. The remaining dark race warriors were left several kilometers behind, while the weakest ones like the servspiders had long since been thrown off.
The time was just about right.
There was a towering tree in front with a small oasis about ten-odd meters in radius. Qianye broke into a sprint and, with a sudden leap, disappeared into the lush crown of the giant tree. The branches rustled violently as small broken twigs and leaves fell down pell-mell.
The arachne viscount who had just arrived looked on blankly—the tree definitely wasn’t a good hiding spot. With his strength, he could simply uproot the entire tree, and that was also what the arachne intended to do. A mass of dazzling origin power radiance enveloped his forearms as he got ready to unleash a fully-charged blow.
However, at this moment, a grey shadow silently rolled out from behind the tree trunk and leapt up as it reached the oasis. A pair of radiant wings suddenly unfurled in the air as Qianye combined the Twin Flowers into one and aimed directly at the arachne, layer upon layer of origin power patterns lighting up in succession.
Bang!
The gunshot reverberated throughout in the wilderness—it was a long rumble akin to a dragon’s roar. The arachne viscount was blasted high into the air and even flipped over as sheets of jade green brilliance flashed across its enormous body.
By the time the arachne viscount landed on the ground, he had transformed into a half arachne body, but the right half of his shoulder and two of his spider legs had long vanished. The viscount realized something was wrong and had immediately sought the high defenses of his true form. Unexpectedly, his defenses were directly broken, and even a part of his body had been dented.
Had the arachne viscount received this shot in human form, it was likely that he would’ve been obliterated. Even now, his situation wasn’t any better—he could only struggle at death’s door unless the injuries were treated immediately.
A shot—a single shot had crippled an arachne viscount! Even though he was only a third-rank viscount, the accomplishment was still something to be proud of.
But Qianye, standing at the edge of the oasis, was currently dumbfounded.
Clear blue light akin to flowing seawater had appeared in his hands after his Wings of Inception had accumulated its peak power and the Twin Flowers were fully charged. And within the radiant gleam, two flowers, one blood-colored and the other dark-golden, were faintly discernible. But, the issue here was that Qianye hadn’t pulled the trigger.
Someone else had shot that arachne viscount and sent it tumbling!
At this moment, the two high-ranking vampires had arrived before him. Their faces were full of astonishment, but they could no longer control their charging momentum. The changes were too sudden and had given them no time at all to react. They could only keep on charging toward Qianye.
Qianye’s origin power had already been activated to the critical point. As such, he split the Twin Flowers into two, aimed it at each vampire knight, and immediately blasted them to the verge of death.
Qianye then rapidly turned around only to find the same vast wilderness without a single human shadow to be found. Thus, he activated his True Sight and swept it over the horizon once again. This time, he found a certain location in the distance with signs of massive origin power accumulation. However, it was over a thousand meters away and thus he couldn’t see anything with his range of vision.
Suddenly, a beam of brilliant splendor surged up from the area of accumulation and, within moments, almost dyed the entire firmament a greenish blue.
It was at this moment that Qianye saw an origin bullet penetrating through the world of blue and whistling toward him. His True Sight immediately outlined the bullet’s trajectory—it would produce a slight deviation at a distance of three meters and form a slight curvature.
Qianye stood there without moving and allowed the origin bullet to brush past his left arm. The blue radiance would’ve infringed upon his sleeve had he shifted even a millimeter. Even so, the brilliance actually condensed into a number of crystalline fragments as it shone on Qianye’s wrist guard but quickly dispersed without waiting for him to reach out and check if it were real.
Qianye turned back and saw the origin bullet shoot through the pursuing dark race warrior.
It was unknown what material this origin bullet was made from, but its penetrative power was exceptionally strong. It actually shot through three dark race warriors in succession and continued flying over ten meters with its remaining momentum before exploding into a ball of flames.
The upper bodies of the three shot werewolf warriors burst apart completely, leaving only the lower halves. One no longer required accuracy with such terrifying firepower; a simple abrasion would lead to a lethal injury.
Compared to this terrifying firepower, what made Qianye even more apprehensive were the sniping skills the person had displayed. Especially that last bullet’s trajectory which wound around him and the accurate angle with which he killed three enemies in a single shot—both of them were the skills of a great master. Qianye felt that he himself was much inferior in comparison.
He raised the Twin Flowers and fired off three consecutive rounds, blasting off the heads of the last three soldiers. At this point, the entire squad chasing after him had been wiped out, and the servspiders that had lagged behind were of no threat; it wasn’t even certain if they could find this oasis.
The empty wilderness once again regained its calm, as if a great crisis had just passed. Qianye gazed at the horizon and suddenly felt beads of sweat appear on his forehead as a faint pinprick sensation arose between his brows.
The feeling was very faint and most people would’ve overlooked it. However, an experienced sniper like Qianye knew that this was the sensation of enemy crosshairs landing between his brows.