Monarch of Evernight - Chapter 623

Chapter 623: 623

Chapter 623: Abnormal Traces [V6C153 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]

But this small happiness wasn’t enough to lighten his worries . Preston’s brows furrowed as he once again picked up a battle report . His many years of experience and the intuition the demonkin were so proud of told him that there was something hidden within this report—something that warranted his full attention .

Qianye almost forgot the flow of time in the dozen or so days that followed . His life strayed little from searching, hunting, cleaning up the battlefield, and then cultivating to restore his origin power . These details rotated continuously as though they would never end . Add to that the fact that all of this was happening in the uniform environment of the Misty Wood, the stifling sensation almost made one go crazy .

Qianye never slept and only used cultivation to substitute for rest . The endless supply of origin distillate in the Misty Wood afforded him boundless growth in origin power for as long as he could keep digesting it .

And the battles—be it against dark races or fierce beasts—brought him vast amounts of blood energy . After suffering a couple of times, Qianye was fairly careful in using Life Plunder . At least, he no longer made the earlier mistake of using Life Plunder after arriving in the midst of a group with Spatial Flash—the amount of essence blood drawn from a hundred elites brought him to the verge of bursting .

The other reason Qianye didn’t sleep was because his eyes would be filled with images of the dark race combat squads the moment he closed his eyes . He saw countless swords and spears rushing at him while the sounds of gunshot and slaughter echoed in his ears . Only by keeping his eyes open could he extricate himself from these illusions . Yet, once he opened his eyes, all he could see was a scene of unchanging giant tree and mist—that was even more depressing .

Time went by in this fashion, and the soldiers in the Misty Wood only grew in number . It was as though there was no end to them . Moreover, the number of powerful experts had also increased . Qianye even encountered two fellows on the same level as Eden . He had no choice but to retreat after a short exchange because the enemy reinforcements had arrived .

At one point, he was fortunate enough to encounter a small patrol squad of a couple dozen soldiers . Qianye naturally helped himself to them without holding back . The baron-level captain’s shield caught Qianye’s attention as he was cleaning up the battlefield .

This shield had actually blocked a stab from his vampiric edge . Apparently, it was made of extraordinary materials . One had to know that the vampiric blade Qianye had been using was so sharp that it could pierce through most heavy shields .

Qianye didn’t spend too long sweeping the battlefield and duly placed the shield into Andruil’s realm . Just after raising his hand, he was startled to find that Andruil’s realm was now full .

“Time to go back . ” A notion emerged in Qianye’s mind .

“How many days has it been since I came out?” The moment this query emerged, Qianye knew that something was wrong with him .

It would seem the unending battles, the unchanging forest, and the otherwise silent ambiance had unknowingly placed too much pressure on him . This phenomenon was quite common among soldiers, especially veteran warriors who had been fighting year round on the front lines .

It was also quite easy to deal with it . All one had to do was leave the battlefield for a while and get some rest . Returning home, for instance, was a good way to recover from this state .

Qianye decided to leave after discovering his problem .

The road back to the base was much longer than he had anticipated . It would seem he had unknowingly ventured deep into the Misty Wood and was quite close to the central caverns . The forest was just as monotonous, but Qianye noticed a small black dot on the branch of a giant tree hundreds of meters away .

At this distance, ordinary people simply couldn’t see this nail-sized dot of black and red . However, Qianye’s superior vision could clearly tell that it was a half-dry drop of blood .

Seeing blood in the Misty Wood was proof that a battle had taken place not long ago . Otherwise, the blood would’ve been broken down by the mist even before it could dry out .

Qianye retracted his aura and faded into the mist before gradually approaching the area . He had encountered several battles during his time in the forest, but he would only lend a hand if the empire’s side was in danger and leave quietly in any other situation . It was fine if there wasn’t a contribution ranking to consider, but now, he might be mistaken for stealing contribution points if he were to jump into battle . Moreover, Qianye wasn’t too keen on dealing with these aristocratic families anyway .

He moved like the wind and soon arrived near the giant tree, where traces of a recent battle appeared before his eyes .

The scene here was bitter with corpses strewn about everywhere and hundreds of soldiers left dead from each faction . Judging from their apparel, there were viscount grade experts from both factions who had fallen here .

It was likely an encounter between an aristocratic family squad and a small subunit from the Evernight side . However, the two sides had fought a desperate battle ending in mutual destruction . At the very least, Qianye didn’t find any traces of a large force in the vicinity . It would seem there were very few survivors since there wasn’t anyone to clean up the corpses of those high-ranking experts .

Qianye didn’t rush into the battlefield and remained in his hidden state, deep in thought .

The situation before him wasn’t normal . The empire and Evernight were indeed irreconcilable, but it was another matter if this hatred was brought onto individual people .

Normally, parties in a random encounter would start to retreat once a certain level of losses had been incurred; very rarely would they fight to the last man . After all, the battle in the Misty Wood was a battle of attrition and not a key battle in some major war . There was no need to fight to the last man . One side would be wiped-out only when the disparity between the two parties was too great .

If Qianye were the commander, he would choose to lead the squad into breaking out of the encirclement, and then seek another opportunity later . Creating an advantage, an ambush, or fighting again under better circumstances was something a qualified general would do .

Qianye circled around the battlefield and, as expected, found many fishy places . There were many corpses here that had collapsed outward . It seemed as though they were running away when they were killed off one by one .

Expressions of extreme terror were plastered across their dead faces . Old veterans of the battlefield would rarely reveal such expressions even when encountering a deadly situation .

The weirdest part was that these abnormal corpses consisted of both imperial and Evernight soldiers . There were two werewolves who had died in a fairly miserable state—one of them had its entire spine pulled out of the body .

Qianye frowned as he glanced back at the battlefield and found many corpses that had been dismembered . This was especially evident with the few viscounts from the Evernight side and one of the human champions . The corpses had been cut up into several pieces and were connected only by a bit of skin which served to barely maintain their shape .

There was something wrong with this battle!

It wasn’t that both parties had fought to their deaths . It looked more like they had been attacking someone together but were wiped out instead . Just what kind of power would force the two factions to team up?

There was only one answer in the Misty Wood . It was a mutant beast birthed by the forest .

The beasts and midgets of the past were significant in number and possessed powerful attacks . However, they were usually quite weak and a single champion could cut down large swathes of them . It was just that the midgets were extremely fast and their spears were poisonous . Even champions could hardly hold out after a couple of stabs .

However, there were no signs of a beast tide on this battlefield at all . If these two units had really encountered beasts, they should be fairly few in number . It might even be a single powerful beast .

Judging from the battlefield, the duration of the battle wasn’t very long . Qianye estimated that even he wouldn’t be able to outdo this assailant in a fight against two hundred people . This meant that this beast’s combat strength wasn’t inferior to his own .

This wasn’t good news at all .

According to reason, even if the forest could produce such powerful beasts, the number should be fairly low . But time and again, this void continent had broken everything that was reasonable .

Qianye maintained his hidden state and remained on the periphery of the battlefield . He had no intention of rushing into the battlefield to collect spoils of war . Excessive greed before fully understanding the situation was akin to courting death .

Moreover, with the passage of time, he found something out of place on the battlefield . The entire place was littered with corpses and there was blood flowing everywhere . Yet, the response of the ground substance was exceptionally slow .

After a while, the restless purple substance stretched out in every direction and absorbed all the blood . After seeing this, Qianye became even more patient and cautious .

A quarter hour passed by before the purple substance finally moved toward the corpses . Only at this point did Qianye feel relieved and began moving toward the battlefield . The wounds on the corpses were helpful in determining the power of this unknown foe .

Qianye had just taken a couple of steps forward when he felt a chill creep up from his legs . He jumped up without a second thought and barely escaped the large cleaver flitting past his previous position . He would’ve lost both limbs if he had been just a little bit slower .

Qianye’s constitution was much stronger than an ordinary person, but that cleaver seemed quite sinister even from its outward appearance and was poised to cut right through him .

The cleaver was grasped single-handedly in a white, tender hand . Soon, a familiar silhouette scuttled out from beneath the corpses and followed up with another slash into the air .

A naive, innocent countenance was reflected in Qianye’s eyes—it was Bai Kongzhao again! This odd girl was like a ghost that just wouldn’t pass on . It felt like one would run into her everywhere .

Qianye was in the air when he discovered that the angle of that slash was extremely clever—it was bound to make him suffer whether he attempted to evade or retaliate . The best way was to attempt a close evasion, but there was a big chance that he would be injured .

A minor flesh wound didn’t seem like much, but Qianye had fought Bai Kongzhao countless times . He knew very well that she was the most dangerous of wolves . Even large prey would eventually fall after accumulating many small injuries .

However, Qianye was no longer the same as before . After seeing through Bai Kongzhao, he immediately swung his arm onto the back of the cleaver .

As expected, Bai Kongzhao’s cleaver shifted to a different angle, ready to receive Qianye’s incoming arm with the sharp edge .

With a sharp clack, Young Dragon’s armguard was actually cut open with the ease of cleaving through rotten wood . This cleaver’s sharpness was unimaginable! When the blade cut through the armor and into Qianye’s arm, he finally realized that the sharpness of the blade was only one aspect . The origin power attached to it was fairly odd—the combination of hardness and sharpness raised the might of this attack more than twofold .

However, this was but a small mishap . Qianye erupted with sudden speed, and his arm vanished from under the edge . His palm seemed to emerge through the void as he grabbed the cleaver and made a sharp turn . Borrowing the momentum of this movement, his vampiric blade flickered toward the girl’s abdomen .

Bai Kongzhao’s expression paled, but on the verge of life and death, she once again revealed her incomparably powerful survival instincts . She abandoned her cleaver decisively and retreated without the slightest bit of hesitation . Qianye’s vampiric blade hadn’t managed to stab very deep when she broke free of it .

Qianye sneered as he glanced over at the fleeing Bai Kongzhao . A thread of virtually indiscernible blood stretched forward and quickly arrived behind the girl .

However, Qianye’s entire body was sent reeling the moment he activated Spatial Flash . His blood energy and origin power were aboil as though he were in a void tempest, causing him to lose control entirely .