Chapter 276: Reward [Volume 4 – Perpetual Conflict]

A wild grin appeared on the vampire viscount’s eerily handsome face as he let out a shrill scream and exerted strength from both arms.

In his expectations, this power was enough to crush Qianye’s wrist, so much that he could even hear the crisp snap of upcoming fracture. After all, the human body was just that fragile, just like a porcelain doll.

But the vampire viscount felt, after exerting strength, as if he had grabbed onto an incomparable solid piece of superalloy. During their collusion, he discovered that the opponent was completely immovable like a mountain.

Qianye also felt somewhat astonished. The strength coming from the vampire viscount’s side was much weaker than he had imagined. Indistinct rumbles of thunder rang out in the air as he took a step forward.  

The vampire viscount couldn’t help but take a step back when Qianye advanced. The mockery on his face was no longer there and had instead been replaced by shock. The viscount had never imagined that he would be at a disadvantage in such a contest of strength.

However, the continuous waves of energy gushing toward him were absolutely indefensible. The viscount was pushed back at every exchange until his back crashed against the wall with a bang.

Qianye let out the roar of an ancient primordial beast—all the origin nodes within his body trembled as specks of golden flames suddenly emerged amidst the scarlet origin power around his body. With a crack, the bones in the vampire viscount’s hand were crushed whereupon the violent origin power surged into his body. The sounds of fracturing bones echoed throughout the vampire’s body, extending from the arms to the chest, and all the way down to his legs.

Qianye took a step back and gazed at this opponent who could now barely stand while leaning against the wall. “In any case, you’re an opponent worthy of respect. I shall put you to rest according to your ancient traditions.”

With that, Qianye drew his Scarlet Edge and pierced the vampire viscount’s blood core.

The vampire viscount didn’t pass away immediately and said while looking at Qianye with eyes full of disbelief, “So, you’re… actually a descendant of the sacred blood…”

“I’m a human,” Qianye replied.

Qianye immediately vanished into the mist after completely depriving the vampire viscount of his vitality. The viscount’s strength was so unusually weak that Qianye suspected he had already been wounded or had exhausted a great part of his essence. 

He had only walked out of another street block when he encountered yet another vampire baron, whereupon an intense battle broke out between the two parties. In the end, Qianye finished off the baron with his mithril coated Scarlet Edge, while he himself also suffered three cuts.

Comparatively, Qianye felt that the previous viscount was much weaker.

There was no place in the city that could be considered safe now that the buildings couldn’t be entered. Pursuers might appear at any given moment, even within a silent alleyway. Qianye sat down on the spot and applied some simple bindings to his wounds. He then began to circulate the Mystery Chapter of the Song Clan Ancient Scroll in a carefree manner. Abundant essence blood was continuously transformed into darkness origin power which was then absorbed by the blood energies in his body.

It was imperative that he conserve strength while facing this unpredictable city and the countless enemies within. Although his daybreak origin power had little function after the strengthening of his blood energies, it could still accelerate the recovery of his injuries and physical stamina. 

Luck seemed to be on Qianye’s side—no enemies appeared during the time it took for him to complete a full cycle. He sensed the Eye of Truth’s location as he stood up once again. This was likely the closest it had ever been to him since he entered the city. It was only a couple hundred meters away!

Although he knew from experience that he wouldn’t be able to find the place that easily, Qianye still headed over in that direction.

An explosion rang out moments later. Qianye watched as a vampire knight collapse in front of him. The might of a vampire origin grenade wasn’t so easily blocked.

Two more explosions rang out minutes later. Following which, Qianye drew his sword and pounced toward the wounded vampire baron. The enemy was quite fierce and managed to return two stabs despite falling to the Scarlet Blade in the end.

Qianye glanced down at the injury on his thigh and sighed helplessly. An injury here would make things fairly troublesome for him as it affected his speed. The main reason Qianye had always been able to gain the advantage whenever he encountered a battle was because of his overwhelming advantage in both constitution and speed.  

What followed was a series of battle encounters. Although Qianye was able to kill his opponents every time, he had also suffered continuous injuries. He had already experienced a blood boil and had also used his recovery medicine. Fortunately, however,  there was no shortage of essence blood.

Qianye sat down at the corner of a certain wall. From here, he could clearly see the enemies approaching from the front and prevent an enemy assault from the rear. Most of the wounds on his body had already closed, but they were still emitting waves of pain. Additionally, they would burst open again if he were to engage in an intense battle.

Qianye brought out another Mithril Bullet and applied it to the Scarlet Edge. He pondered about how all the enemies he had encountered along the way were no weaker than knights but no stronger than viscounts. Among them, the knights and barons possessed normal combat strength, but the viscounts were evidently weaker, so much that they were even inferior to the barons. What was going on?

Finally, the entire Mithril Bullet of Exorcism transformed into a layer of silver on the blade’s edge. Qianye inspected his equipment once again—he had two more mithril bullets or exorcism and three more vampire origin grenades. He hadn’t touched the Black Titanium Bullet of Annihilation at all.

Qianye exhaled lightly, got up, and instinctively sensed the direction of the Eye of Truth. He was somewhat startled to find that, at this moment, the Eye of Truth was within a hundred meters of him. It had never been so close before.

Suddenly, a chill run down Qianye’s spine as a thought suddenly arose in his mind. Could it be that the Eye of Truth would appear only after a sufficient number of deaths? He looked up and saw the unchanging mist before him and the carnivorous city behind—it was like a living creature hiding within the darkness. 

But wasn’t this a gift Andruil had left for his servants and descendants? How could the Black-Winged Monarch have known that countless dark race warriors would follow the activator into the spatial door and thus become sacrifices to the city?

Qianye had a premonition about what was to come and felt that there were more secrets to this city than anyone knew of. He had made certain associations after recalling how the highest ranking enemy to appear here was at the level of viscount, and even then, they were suppressed.

But for now, he could only wait silently. Qianye didn’t get to rest for long as a certain vampire knight appeared around the street corner. Qianye rushed out like a bolt of lightning and pierced the blood knight’s heart with his blade.

This blood knight was fairly young but possessed astonishing combat strength. He actually executed a successful retaliation in his death throes, piercing through Qianye’s abdomen with the sword in his hand. 

Qianye let out a muffled groan as he pinched the blade’s edge, effectively preventing it from causing greater damage. At the same time, he shook his right hand and sent a wave of oscillations along the Scarlet Edge’s blade. This stirred up the blood knight’s innards into paste.

Qianye endured the intense pain and slowly pulled the sword out from his abdomen before downing a bottle of healing medicine. His strength rapidly recovered in his blood boil state, swiftly contracting the wound on his abdomen and stopping it from bleeding. However, the internal injuries weren’t that easy to heal.

The blood knight’s body was already beginning to be dragged down into the city.

Qianye picked up the sword he had just pulled out from his body and was moved after giving it a glance. The edge of the sword was stained with blood just now, but it had become completely clean just within moments to reveal the origin power patterns upon it. Those seemingly coarse and inflexible patterns were, in fact, formed from a layer of finer patterns.

This sword absolutely wasn’t a normal grade-three weapon used by blood knights. Qianye tried slashing a couple of times and felt that the sword was extremely heavy, perhaps even hundreds of kilograms in weight. He thrust the sword into the nearby wall in passing and saw almost half the blade easily pierce into it with a pfft.

The stones in this city were all as hard as metal alloy.

After activating the origin array upon it, Qianye recognized the effects "advanced stability" and "advanced sharpness". This also meant that this sword was at least grade-five. A weapon which not even a viscount might possess had actually appeared in the hands of a blood knight.

It was clear that he was a direct descendant of a certain ancient clan and was likely a genius of great importance. Such a person had met a fate in this city where even his remains weren’t left.

Qianye shook his head with emotions that couldn’t really be considered regretful. He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, seizing every moment he could to rest.

It was at this time that a wave of intense pain assailed his head without warning. It was so painful that Qianye couldn’t help but groan in agony. A familiar voice rang out within his consciousness, “Bring me my head!”

Contrary to the one in his dream, the voice this time was extremely loud and clear. Every word shook Qianye’s ears until they were ringing and he was almost dazzled.

“Where is your head?” Qianye couldn’t help but reply within his consciousness.

His question was then answered. 

“You’re close now, very close! Keep on killing. Kill those outsiders and… the guardians. You’ll find my head when you’ve accumulated enough blood!”

The voice slowly receded but left a word just as it was about to fade away. “This is your reward in advance…”

The pain in Qianye’s head gradually disappeared. Presently, he was no longer in the mood to rest—he leapt up all of a sudden and was startled. The stone slab before him was rippling like water and bubbling up as if something was actually about to emerge from within.

It was a sword! The blade was jet black in color with faint silvery patterns carved upon it. At a glance, it was quite similar to the grade-five sword he had obtained from the blood knight.

Qianye slowly reached out, grabbed the sword’s hilt, and lifted it up. The formation of origin array patterns on this sword was indeed quite similar; it was also made up of layers of embedded arrays. There was only one new ability: Devastation.

Qianye weighed the sword in his hand and then pushed the pointed end into the ground. He had only casually pressed on it without much force, but the sword let out a soft whistle and easily pierced into the sturdy ground.

It was indeed Devastation. It would produce even more devastating strikes when brandished with greater force. This could also be considered a half active ability that was particularly useful in battle. Naturally, it was also very valuable.

It was at this time that a figure, once again, appeared from the mist.

Qianye immediately reacted by tossing out an origin grenade as the figure of a man appeared in the corner of his sweeping vision. He wasn’t very tall, but stood ramrod straight and was surging with killing intent. 

It was Li Zhan!

Qianye hadn’t expected to meet him again so soon. Li Zhan’s strength was just short of a first-rank vampire viscount and, as a character who had walked out from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, possessed abundant combat experience.

It was unknown what Li Zhan had been doing all this time, but he was also startled upon seeing Qianye. Immediately afterwards, he reacted with a speed similar to Qianye and also tossed out a grenade.