[V6C137 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Demonic Traversal was an ability exclusive to the demonkin. It formed a special pa.s.sage with demonic energy, within which the demonkin’s speed would increase dramatically, allowing him to move over a thousand meters in the blink of an eye. It was indeed a unique life-saving measure.
This skill was powerful but rare—Qianye himself had only heard of it but never witnessed it personally. Unexpectedly, Eden possessed this ability and even used it to escape the Shot of Inception.
Qianye compared the ability to Spatial Flash, the ability he had inherited from Andruil yet still couldn’t use to this day. He couldn’t help but feel that he needed to be more cautious of demonkin special abilities. Spatial Flash was a direct crossing through s.p.a.ce, while Demonic Traversal was a spatial tunnel which ignored the environment. Both of them were profound abilities that touched upon the principles of void origin power and s.p.a.ce.
Even though Qianye had seen the entire process of Demonic Traversal’s emergence and activation, there were still many parts he didn’t quite understand. He couldn’t find an immediate way to interrupt this skill, either. However, such a powerful ability would surely involve significant levels of consumption. With his current injuries, Eden would surely need to withdraw from the battlefield and recuperate for some time.
Qianye himself wasn’t feeling great, either. In addition to missing the Shot of Inception, his origin power and blood energy were also at rock bottom. He didn’t dare chase after Eden at this point. Moreover, he needed to find a place to recuperate, lest other people take advantage of the situation.
Qianye sighed. The more he battled the dark races and encountered an increasing number of high-ranking experts, the more he realized how vast this world was and how minuscule his own existence. He wondered where the pinnacle of strength was and what the scenery was like at the apex.
He had just turned about when a crisp sound emerged from within his body—it was as though something had just shattered. In the blink of an eye, Qianye’s perception of the surrounding origin power became much clearer, and what remained of this origin power was cheering in jubilation. It felt as though his every breath was capable of devouring the origin power in the surrounding air.
Qianye examined his own body and, as expected, found a new origin vortex taking shape.
This new fellow was rather frail compared to the first full vortex, only a little more than a swirling mist. However, origin power several times its volume was pouring into it, much like rivers flowing into the sea. This small vortex was seemingly connected to a boundless ocean—it simply devoured everything thrown at it.
It would seem that the fierce battle with Eden just now had shattered that last barrier and paved the way for the condensation of a new origin vortex. Qianye had finally taken that last step and reached rank-eleven with his daybreak origin power. It was something he knew would come, but that didn’t stop him from feeling delighted.
“Eh?” Qianye took a couple of steps back and, to his great surprise, found the giant Carol of Shadows lying on the ground. There was also a tactical backpack about ten steps away, onto which the purple ground substance was already creeping.
Qianye rushed over to pick up the weapon and backpack before they had been swallowed up. Apparently, Eden had offloaded all of his equipment before entering Demonic Traversal. Qianye couldn’t help but admire Eden’s sharpness—had he been just a little bit hesitant, he wouldn’t have escaped the Shot of Inception. At that point, not to mention equipment, even his head would’ve been left behind.
Qianye picked up the Carol of Shadows and examined it thoroughly inside out before trying it out. This weapon was clearly demonkin specific since its activation mainly required demonic energy. Although other types of darkness origin power like blood energy could also activate it, the firepower would be greatly reduced.
But this sniper rifle was more powerful than Thunderbolt even after this discount. After all, Thunderbolt was merely a grade-six standard weapon of the imperial army. It was significantly inferior to the demonkin masterpiece at the peak of grade-seven. One could sell the Carol of Shadows’ barrel and buy several Thunderbolts.
Qianye’s mood improved greatly after picking up the sniper rifle. “At least it’s not a complete loss.”
Qianye tried using both the dark golden and purple blood energies. In a surge of inspiration, he also instilled his daybreak origin power into the gun. Not only did the patterns on the gun light up, but the radiance was also fairly bright. It was just that the temperature rose sharply all of a sudden, turning the weapon into a piece of red-hot metal seemingly on the verge of explosion.
Shocked out of his wits, Qianye quickly pulled back his power. Demonkin origin arrays were indeed extraordinary. Ordinary dark race guns were only difficult to activate with daybreak origin power, but this famed demonkin weapon actually contained a self-destruct mechanism. Qianye wondered if the array could be remodeled.
Eden would probably be absolutely furious if he knew how Qianye was messing around with his gun. The Carol of Shadows was made specifically for demonkin use. Using any other darkness origin power to activate it would reduce its firepower and increase its consumption. If possible, Eden was more than willing to redeem this sniper rifle with “Scarlet Moonlight”, a vampire sniper rifle at the peak of grade seven. He would even throw in two boxes of black t.i.tanium sniper rounds.
Qianye was naturally unconcerned about Eden’s emotions. A different question emerged in his mind as he glanced at the Carol of Shadows. Perhaps due to the differences in origin array, factional attributes were more evident in weapons of a higher grade. This was especially true for the weapons produced by the demonkin, a race widely accepted as possessing the highest array technology.
So, how come there wasn’t any factional limitation with the legendary Grand Magnums? Then, what was the medium for activating the grand magnums if not origin power with attributes? Was it void origin power? What was the path he would need to take in order to fully release the power of the Wings of Inception?
Qianye couldn’t continue these thoughts since he was in a dangerous area. He stowed the Carol of Shadows into Andruil’s s.p.a.ce and opened up the tactical backpack. Eden really didn’t disappoint Qianye—the items inside, while spa.r.s.e in number, were of great quality and value.
Two scopes of different sizes that could reveal origin power attributes, two boxes of black t.i.tanium sniper rounds, and four boxes of ordinary sniper rounds. Additionally, there was also a spare handgun barrel.
The box containing the black t.i.tanium bullets wasn’t very big. Judging from its external appearance, it likely held three rounds. Qianye felt waves of stabbing pain on his face when he opened it—it was clear how high the black t.i.tanium content was.
Qianye glanced at them briefly and found that the bullets were a translucent black with swirling black gas within. He closed the lid quickly even though he wasn’t afraid of its effects.
Qianye had guessed why Eden was here in the Misty Wood. These sniper rounds contained several times more black t.i.tanium and were suited to dealing with human experts above the marquis level, which was, to say, major characters like generals. They would even prove quite troublesome for divine champions.
Eden himself was quite powerful. His specializations in concealment, sniping, and long-range vision made it possible for him to kill a human general.
However, he would’ve never imagined that his premium equipment would fall into Qianye’s hands in the end. Those armor-piercing rounds were fairly ordinary, but that was only in relation to the six black t.i.tanium bullets—they were still items Qianye couldn’t quite afford. In terms of value, a single shot was akin to igniting a grade-four origin gun; only someone like Eden would use such ammunition.
Qianye loathed Eden’s extravagance during their fierce battle, but now, he felt how good it would be if the other party were even richer than this. Qianye’s killing intent diminished for a brief moment. He felt that it might be better to rob the man and let him go, rather than killing him outright. That way, he would be back with more top-grade equipment during their next battle.
But Qianye’s smile vanished after a while. That was only a random thought—trying to “fatten a sheep” on the battlefield was a surefire way to invite disaster. Only wilderness hunters would play such a dangerous game.
He put away all of the equipment and medicines into Andruil’s s.p.a.ce. Then, he counted the time and realized that his defensive mission for the week had been completed—it was time to go back and receive his pay.
Qianye’s entanglement with Eden had mostly occurred within his area. Knowing Qianye’s destructive potential, the latter had purposely kept the dark race squads away from their deaths. Qianye had also cut down all the small scouting parties that had wandered in, so his record here wasn’t bad at all.
Tallying contributions was something better done early than late. As such, Qianye set out on his return journey.
Meanwhile, in the Desert Valley. A new dark race fortress had appeared where the Bai clan’s base once was.
At this moment, a hundred-meter transport s.h.i.+p was slowly descending from above. This vessel was fairly peculiar in appearance and looked much like an ugly box with protruding corners.
This went against common knowledge. Among the dark races, the vampires and demonkin were known for their love of beauty. Anything related to them, from buildings to weapons, was known for their elegance and beauty. Even the imperial n.o.bility paled in comparison.
Eden appeared over the horizon just in time to see this colossal vessel descend. It didn’t land at the airs.h.i.+p port but instead lowered itself at an odd angle into an empty s.p.a.ce beside the city.
After landing, the transport s.h.i.+p’s exterior opened up layer by layer, revealing several preconstructed buildings within. It turned out that the airs.h.i.+p’s walls were all convertible.
Then, the four corners of the airs.h.i.+p stretched upward and stopped only after reaching a height of several hundred meters. The protective plates at the top then opened up to reveal numerous dark cannons.
Four anti-air sentry towers thus appeared in the blink of an eye.
Hundreds of arachne warriors scuttled about, removing the heavy s.h.i.+p parts with the help of their servspiders. Afterward, these heavy plates were installed on the nearby fortress walls. There was only a framework at first, but it immediately became a st.u.r.dy fortification once the airs.h.i.+p plates were installed.
A new fortified structure rose up in the area as the giant airs.h.i.+p was gradually and continuously broken down into its components.
Soon, yet another giant airs.h.i.+p appeared in the air and landed in the empty s.p.a.ce on the other side of the fortress. At this rate, a new fortress would be completed in the blink of an eye, and it was even bigger than the one the Bai clan had constructed from before.
There were tens of thousands of slaves and laborers inside the fortress. A similar number of cannon fodder were also being urged to complete some of the detailed jobs. Even though the building hadn’t yet been completed, its style was already fairly evident. It was part-demonkin-part-vampire, with the former being dominant.
A small squad ran over immediately after Eden’s arrival.
The captain immediately recognized him. “Your Excellency Eden, what happened?”
Eden said in a cold voice, “Stop blabbering and take me over for treatment!”
The captain trembled all over. “Yes, sir!” He drove the other warriors off the car, invited Eden onto the vehicle, and drove rapidly toward the first-aid area.
On the way, they pa.s.sed by another jeep coming from the other side of the road.
The driver and pa.s.senger seats were occupied by a demonkin and vampire respectively. There were two beautiful vampire ladies giggling at the back, their bodies almost stuck to the two up front. The dark races’ discipline on the battlefield was far inferior to humans, and they were more or less free when there were no battles to fight. Naturally, the prerequisite to freedom was that one had to be strong enough.
When the two vehicles pa.s.sed by, that demonkin suddenly cried out in an exaggerated manner, “Hey, isn’t that Eden? How come you’re in such a bad shape? Is this really the Eden I know? Haha, it looks like your arm is broken, will you even survive?”