Monarch of Evernight - Chapter 502

Chapter 502

Chapter 502: Sprinting Hunter [V6C32 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]

The journey that followed became fairly protracted . At the outset, Qianye could see the stone forest just by standing atop a hill . In truth, it took him several days to arrive . This was, in part, due to his power being suppressed and his speed, greatly reduced . It could also be attributed to his disordered perception .

Qianye had already noticed the abnormality of this world from the very first day . Perhaps time itself had been affected by the suppression of the void colossus’ will . Even with the Eye of Truth, he could only expand his visual field, but the distorted perception was unavoidable . Many distant objects appeared quite close, but the true distance was far beyond his expectations .

From this, it was obvious that this floating landmass was much larger than he had initially anticipated .

At this moment, Qianye had finally arrived before the stone forest . He reached out to touch one of the stone pillars and confirm that he had truly arrived . Then, he leapt up to the top of the pillar and found a foothold from which to observe the surroundings .

Unsurprisingly, he discovered that this forest of stone pillars was much bigger than he had seen from afar . There was no end as far as the eye could see . The colossal skeleton was still far off in the remote distance . It seemed as though several days of running hadn’t reduced the gap at all .

The deep breath Qianye took atop the stone pillar felt like a mouthful of fire .

The world was, in fact, very cold, and the frigid winds cut right to the bone . Only at this point did Qianye finally discover why people believed this place to be the wind tunnel . That was the near-tangible remnant will of the void colossus—one would take in a small amount of it with every breath .

The suppression of the colossus’ will was fairly special in that it contained a wisp of illusory power . People here would have to circulate origin power at all times to resist it, lest their perception becomes blurry . It was as though time and space had mixed into a formless mass that would fuse and devour one’s consciousness at any moment . Each breath felt like flames even with the resistance of circulating origin power, taking quite the effort to stave off the burning sensation .

This was the true nature of the dangers here .

Those entering had simply no way to resist the will without sufficient rank and would be devoured immediately . Those with sufficient rank would need to expend the standard amount of origin power to suppress the scorching sensation, but a mere moment of slackening would result in a failure to resist the void colossus’ will . The origin power throughout his body would be completely ignited, and the person would be burned to ashes .

Qianye had seen an immolated marquis fall to the ground soon after he had entered this realm . That was how he had fallen .

But after several days of adjustment, Qianye had already acclimatized to the colossus’ suppression . To him, this was only a matter of reduction in available origin power and an increase in basal consumption .

Qianye was just about to jump down from the stone pillar when he suddenly noticed a cloud of smoke surging over from the distance . It seemed like something was running toward him . He quickly activated Bloodline Concealment and retracted his aura, hiding himself perfectly .

After the dust cloud approached, one could see that it was a horde of charging beasts . This type of wild horse had two curved horns on their heads and uneven bone spurs over their shoulder blades . They were tall, large, and looked to be full of power as they galloped, every leap taking them a dozen or so meters away .

This group of strange beasts charged into the stone forest in the blink of an eye and ran toward its depths .

An idea popped up in Qianye’s mind . He leapt down from the stone pillar and landed soundlessly on the last beast, whereupon he grabbed ahold of its curved horn and plunged his vampiric blade through its shoulder .

The creature wanted to cry out in pain but Qianye had choked its vocal organs, preventing it from making a sound . Afterward, the animal slowly fell limp to the ground as the blade drained all of its essence blood .

The beast pack in front charged on without knowing that one of their companions had fallen behind .

Qianye dragged the creature into a relatively deserted area . This was the first large animal he had seen since coming into this realm . He had found few lifeforms apart from strange plants and oddly-shaped insects, none of which seemed palatable .

But fortunately, Andruil’s Mysterious Realm was still effective, and he was able to survive on the supplies inside .

Qianye found a space between two stone pillars where he could gain shelter from the wind . There, he lit a fire and began roasting the beast meat . He had prepared well for this trip and even brought some condiments which produced an immediate fragrance after they were sprinkled over the meat . Having lived off military supplies for several days, Qianye’s appetite at this moment was extraordinarily good . He finished nearly half the beast in one sitting before he was fully sated .

Qianye cleaned up the scene briefly before heading deeper into the stone forest . He then looped back via a longer route and concealed himself atop a nearby stone pillar .

Qianye became fairly patient after gaining an initial understanding of how vast this unknown continent was . He was now prepared to engage in a long-term exploration . As for the ancient essence fragments, it seemed like they were mobile because it was no longer at the same place when Qianye saw the light a second time . Moreover, he couldn’t sense it anymore after entering the stone forest .

Qianye didn’t have to wait very long before a werewolf flew over at great speed . The werewolf leapt over with great agility in his combat form and arrived at the place where Qianye had been roasting meat . The vigilant werewolf first circled around the place, then approached cautiously to sniff the slab of roasted meat on the ground . Only afterward did he grab the food and began eating ravenously . Apparently, he was starved .

This world was sparse in both flora and fauna . Moreover, most plants had a metallic appearance . This signified a lack of food for both humans and the dark races, something Qianye had already experienced .

Although he sympathized with them, it didn’t mean that he would let this werewolf go . Qianye drew the Mystic Spider Lily, installed a silencer, and took aim at the werewolf .

A light “pfft” rang out as blood spurted out from the werewolf’s leg; a fist-sized wound had appeared therein . This shot wasn’t lethal, but it had destroyed the werewolf’s ability to escape . The werewolf roared in agony and was just about to turn around when he was shot on the other leg, then each of his arms as well .

Qianye only jumped down from the pillar at this point and appeared before the werewolf . He walked over to the victim and pressed the scorching muzzle to his temple .

The werewolf’s eyes were filled with terror as he nodded continuously .

Qianye gained little from the interrogation that followed . The werewolf came from a small tribe and was the vassal of an arachne count . He himself was a baron equal in power to a rank nine fighter from the empire .

He was separated from his companions soon after entering Giant’s Repose and had failed to find so much as a shadow after several days of searching . Even he himself had little idea how he had passed through the ten-thousand-mile Giant’s Repose . The werewolf only remembered how he had slipped while passing through a certain crevice, whereafter he fell through boundless clouds and mists to arrive at the stone forest .

Qianye referred to the process by which he had arrived here and couldn’t help but frown . It would seem that many parts of the space in Giant’s Repose were distorted . This meant that some people might not find their way here even after prolonged investigations, but it was possible for others to accidentally fall in . That being said, those who had come in groups were likely to be dispersed .

The werewolf had received two orders from the Evernight Council . The first was to search for the ancient essence fragments, and the second was to explore the lay of the land . They were to draft a map along the way and kill as many imperial people as they could .

No longer able to get anything else out of the werewolf, Qianye pressed him to the ground and plunged the vampiric blade into his heart .

The essence blood from the baron was almost two times the amount from ordinary dark race members of the same rank . Apparently, those capable of moving unobstructed in this world were people with strength well above their peers .

Qianye fished out an emblem from the werewolf’s body . The depiction upon it—a giant running wolf—was fairly well-known . It represented the Sprinting Hunter Mercenary Corps . This dark race mercenary band operated on the dark race side and was comparable to elite corps of the empire like Broken-Winged Angels and Red Scorpion . The Sprinting Hunters were mostly made up of werewolf soldiers, but the leader was an arachne marquis .

Qianye had fought with them before during his time in Red Scorpion and knew how difficult it was to tangle with them . But here, a Sprinting Hunter baron, a high-ranking colonel, was no different from cannon fodder .

This werewolf was still quite young and likely a well-known genius in his world . But he had fallen here in the end .

Qianye stood up to gaze at the deep night sky and breathed the scorching air deeply . He then collected his thoughts and made for the void colossus’ skeleton .

Meanwhile on the surface, an area hundreds of kilometers around Giant’s Repose had turned into an unstoppable battle . Having rallied their forces to a certain degree, the Evernight Council and the empire waged their first major battle one fateful afternoon . Each side had deployed over a hundred thousand soldiers to kill the other . The battle lines were locked in a zig-zag pattern and fluctuating wildly at every moment .

Even a middle-ranked champion was in danger of falling amidst the chaos . But not only did Song Zining take part, but he had also gained significant fame after two battles .

The seventh young master hadn’t mobilized dark flame across thousands of kilometers . Instead, he had borrowed his fame from the battle of Blackflow City to assume command of the armies of a middle and two lower-ranking aristocratic families . He deployed their experts from the bloody battle for group combat tactics and roamed the battlefield in search of opportunities .

Song Zining was never one to fight zealously—he would launch a single attack then leave regardless of success or failure . After several fights, people found to their astonishment that the best opportunities would always appear around this seventh young noble . Whether it was a tired, half-routed division or a completely unprotected minor unit—all of them would be devoured by his forces .

There was only one time where he clashed against an organized dark race army that was locked in battle against an elite division of the imperial regular army . Song Zining had appeared right behind the dark race army to launch a sudden ambush . He broke into the center of the army and worked with the imperial experts to kill the enemy general, thus winning a great victory .

There were many such examples .

The Song clan seventh young noble weaved through the great chaos of the battlefield like a fish in the water, always managing to gain advantages along the way . But whenever the dark races transferred a great force to wipe him out once and for all, Song Zining would disappear as though he had known in advance .

The dark race experts could no longer sit still after several repeats of similar incidents and wanted to finish off Song Zining . However, the empire’s experts were also quite strong in number and they naturally wouldn’t watch from the sidelines . Everyone took action to obstruct the attack . Thus, the armies of each faction launched continuous attacks around Song Zining’s unit and several intense battles erupted between them .

Several weeks later, both factions had accrued heavy casualties; the cannon fodder squads had mostly died off, and only the elites among elites remained . Under such circumstances, Song Zining’s little army made up of men from several minor aristocratic families became quite the thorn in people’s eyes . But he just had to go deep behind enemy lines to harass them again . It almost seemed as though he had been surrounded by several fierce dark race divisions .

Even the Arachne Warlord Darkus’ prestige would be threatened if they couldn’t eliminate this little counterfeit army .

However, the route of Song Zining’s unit was never constant, denying his enemies even the smallest of terrain advantages .

Song Zining was surrounded once again near the imperial borders after an entire day and night of pursuit .