Volume 2 – Bloom of the Other Sh.o.r.e Flower, Chapter 45: Lone Wolf
Black Wolf carefully approached the cave entrance before taking a strong whiff. After observing the traces on the ground for a moment, he said, “He left. You two, go in and take a look.”
The two people chosen by Black Wolf crawled into the mountain cave. Not long after, their shouts rang out, “He pa.s.sed the night here!”
They hadn’t finished speaking before a terrific explosion occurred inside the cave. The shockwave even blasted one of the two people directly out of the cave!
“Dammit!” Black Wolf immediately bent downwards and covered his head, but he was also blasted several meters away from where he stood by the shockwave, falling sideways due to shaky footing.
Black Wolf turned over and hopped onto his feet, feeling impossibly upset with himself. The people he had sent into the cave were both experts in tracking and surviving in the wilderness, but why did they still fail to avoid the trap? With his two companions dead and him left alone, the tracking would become incredibly difficult.
Black Wolf hadn’t even managed to stand firmly before a streak of light flashed from the corner of his eyes. The sight immediately spooked him out of his mind. It was the light of an origin bullet!
The shot was very sudden, and it came from only a hundred meters away. There was no way for Black Wolf to avoid it no matter what he did, so he did the only thing he could do and barely s.h.i.+fted his vitals out of the way.
While letting out a bloodcurdling scream, Black Wolf was sent flying backwards by the shot, while his arms blocking in front of his chest became a complete, b.l.o.o.d.y mess. Black Wolf exerted every strength in his body to flip over in midair so that his feet would land on the ground, but before his feet had even touched the ground, yet another light flashed from within his field of vision. It was yet another origin bullet shot!
Black Wolf’s brain immediately turned blank, leaving behind only a single train of thought: How many people were there? What kind of shooting speed was this?! How could a single man possibly make all these shots?
No matter what Black Wolf was thinking at that moment, the origin bullet still struck the same spot on his chest as before. This time, Black Wolf’s defensive origin power was completely blown away as his arms flew into the air.
Right before Black Wolf crashed onto the ground, he finally saw Qianye’s shooting position.
Qianye was hiding right in the midst of a messy rock formation a hundred or so meters away. The rock formation there was craggy, but it did not have a high slant nor many foliages. The plants were so scattered that even the slightest movement would expose one’s position. It was not a good place to hide in the first place, which was why Black Wolf hadn’t paid it any special attention while inspecting the environment. Meanwhile, Qianye had buried himself beneath a layer of soil and did not move from the beginning until the end. That was how he had managed to fool Black Wolf, successfully launching his abrupt ambush.
Qianye tossed the emptied Ambusher on the ground and leaped forth from his hiding spot like a hunting lone wolf. He charged towards the remaining Sky Snake henchmen at top speed! While running, Butcher and his hand knife were gripped in his left and right hand respectively.
Bang! Butcher opened fire when Qianye was ten meters away from the group. The discharged origin bullet blew a Sky Snake Gang henchman backward into the air.
When Qianye dashed past the final ten meters like lightning, he dove into the still confused crowd that was trying to seek out its enemy, and his war axe flashed with a cold gleam, instantly dropping two people to the ground. Then, Butcher spun in the air as Qianye gripped its barrel and slammed the steel inlaid right into a third person’s head!
A rank one Fighter from the Sky Snake Gang stood slightly further away from the battlefield, and was currently holding his origin gun upward, trying his best to lock onto Qianye. The patterns on his gun lit up one after another, and it looked like it would finish charging any moment.
Qianye suddenly let out a low roar and rammed toward the Fighter. The dozen or so meters of distance was covered in the blink of an eye, while every Sky Snake Gang henchman in the way was bashed so hard that they flew to the sides!
Amidst the sounds of bones breaking, the rank one Fighter’s chest immediately caved in. In face of Qianye’s tremendous strength that could rival a rank five Fighter, he was instantly beaten into a state of near death. In one swoop, Qianye grabbed the rifle that was just about to be fully charged, and tossed it out with a backhand motion. The gun’s landing spot happened to be exactly where another Sky Snake Gang henchman was standing.
That henchman was also a rank one Fighter, and he had barely stumbled out of Qianye’s pouncing charge just a moment ago. He wasn’t even standing fully on his feet, yet when he saw the origin gun spinning and flying in his direction, he subconsciously grabbed it. He then experienced a sudden realization as he stared at the erratic, flickering light on the gun’s body and felt his expression twist greatly!
There was a bang, and the origin gun that had forcefully been interrupted in mid-charge exploded abruptly, covering Sky Snake Fighter’s face in blood. The man then fell backward and collapsed.
Qianye panted intensely while inspecting his surroundings. There was no longer anyone who was still standing around him.
Qianye slowly made his way in front of Black Wolf and looked at him with a bowed head, asking, “Are you Black Wolf?”
Black Wolf had taken two origin bullets in a row and had lost both of his arms. He did not even have the strength to sit up as he asked weakly, “You recognize me?”
“You are one of the four elites of the Sky Snake Gang. Since you and I are at war now, it is only natural that I investigate every one of your backgrounds.”
Black Wolf said with difficulty, “You… are not a normal hunter! Just who… are you?”
“My ident.i.ty is not important. Do you have any last words?”
A grieved look appeared on Black Wolf’s face as he said, “If possible, I wish to die… by an origin gun. That is where I truly belong.”
Qianye lifted Butcher and slowly revolved the Combatant Formula. As the origin array on the gun’s body slowly lit up, a soft, l.u.s.trous light appeared on its gigantic muzzle.
Qianye pointed the gun at Black Wolf’s heart before pulling the trigger. With a bang, the yellow beam pierced Black Wolf’s chest, and a meter high blood fountain sprung forth!
Qianye briefly swept through the battlefield and took away only Black Wolf’s grade two origin gun and everyone’s gold coins. After walking to a hill several hundred meters away to the east and laying down some arrangements, he then gradually merged with the surrounding environment once again.
Half an hour later, another group of Sky Snake Gang henchmen showed up, and this time, their leader was Flying Bird. When he saw that the cave entrance was littered with bodies, his face distorted greatly as he charged directly towards the scene.
However, when Flying Bird saw Black Wolf’s body, he skidded to a sudden stop and simultaneously raised his hand. The Sky Snake Gang henchmen immediately paused their footsteps before spreading out and finding their place in a battle formation. They instantly entered a state of combat readiness.
Flying Bird stood ten meters away from Black Wolf’s body and did not take a single step closer. After a moment of surveying the traces left behind on the battlefield, he accurately deduced the position Black Wolf was blasted away from the first time. Then, after observing and calculatingly quietly for another moment, he looked to where Qianye had first fired his shot.
Flying Bird slightly bent his body like an agile cat, and walked toward Qianye’s former sniping position with erratic movement speed. Naturally, there was nothing to be found in the location, and not only was the pit Qianye had used to hide himself reburied once more, there were even a few rocks laid on top of it.
Flying Bird’s gaze landed on the small patch of gra.s.s that was posed awkwardly between two of the rocks. He then raised his head and followed Qianye’s sniping trajectory before scanning through the entire craggy rock formation once more.
In the afternoon, the wind on the wasteland had started to grow stronger again.The plants in the open s.p.a.ce were all swaying slightly, following the wind’s direction, but the little patch of gra.s.s between the two rocks was forcefully positioned to bent sideways. It would seem that this had been Qianye’s first hiding spot, but he had wiped his traces after the deed was done.
Flying Bird took two steps forward and crouched down to check the fake markings Qianye had left behind. An excellent hunter would be able to deduce their opponent’s habits through these little clues, and gain a key advantage during their next encounter with the enemy.
However, he had only just bent his waist when he abruptly bounced up from the ground as if he had been bitten by something! Only, it was already too late. From the corner of his eyes, Flying Bird caught a ball of light shooting toward him, and it was only then the boom of a gunshot entered his ears!
The light exploded, and Flying Bird was tossed backwards like a ragged sack. He did a flip in midair and barely landed on the ground, but his left arm was lowered bonelessly beside his body and could never be raised again. The entire arm was a b.l.o.o.d.y mess.
Several hundred meters away on a gradual slope, Qianye stood up from his hiding spot and as he stared Flying Bird, he made a neck-cutting motion at him from afar. He then turned around and climbed away.
With a deathly pale face, Flying Bird slowly stood up straight. The Sky Snake Gang henchmen wanted to chase after Qianye, but they were stopped by Flying Bird.
Qianye had obviously exhausted his origin power and no longer had the strength to devour them all in one gulp. That was why he chose to retreat after hurting Flying Bird in one shot. However, if the group had chased after Qianye without Flying Bird to hold the lines, then they would only be picked off one by one by Qianye using mobile warfare.
Flying Bird wrapped his wounds and surveyed every trace of the battlefield including inside the cave before finally climbing up the mountain ridge and looking at the direction Qianye had gone off to. His eyes gleamed with bloodthirsty madness, but there was profound wariness behind them as well.
As Qianye ran, he would at times pay attention to his back. Seeing that Flying Bird did not chase after him, he felt a chill in his heart as he knew that he was facing a very difficult opponent. However, he had broken Flying Bird’s arm with his shot, and there was no way he could heal it without a week’s time. If Flying Bird refused to return and would persist in chasing after him, then his combat power would be greatly affected.
After running continuously for several dozens of kilometers, Qianye finally decreased his speed and proceeded forward carefully. By now, he had broken away from Darkblood City’s control, and occasionally, there would be dark races operating around the area. Just as the human race would hunt down the dark races, the dark races would also capture those of the human race. The difference lay in that the majority of the dark races saw humans as food, especially humans who cultivated the extraordinary origin power. These types of humans were a rare treat to certain races.
While proceeding forward, Qianye looked for a hiding spot and finally settled on a hidden mountain cave by a low cliff overgrown with bushes. He crawled inside and disguised the cave entrance. It was only then that he finally relaxed.
Qianye took out a map and inspected it for a bit. He then plotted the route to take by the morrow and marked several notable locations. Finally, he reviewed his work from beginning to the end once more.
If the injured Flying Bird continued to come after Qianye, following the tracks he left behind, then he would get a profound experience of the difficulties of the wasteland. Once both sides had exhausted a majority of their stamina, Qianye planned to give Flying Bird a deeply impressive battle encounter. The relations.h.i.+p between prey and its predator was never fixed on the wasteland.
After finis.h.i.+ng his preparatory work, Qianye began cultivating the Combatant Formula. He could now endure up to twenty-five cycles of origin tides every time he nurtured his nodes. In the foreseeable future, he had the hope of cultivating using a Fighter King’s level of origin tides.
Qianye was somewhat looking forward to that future. The sheer power behind the impact of a thirty cycle origin tide could destroy almost any barrier beneath a Champion’s level of cultivation. That was to say, no bottlenecks existed for Fighter Kings before they reached rank nine. Although the blood energy inside Qianye’s body would devour a small portion of his origin power during the nurturing process, his origin power was already compact and immense in the first place. This bit of loss would only drag him down to a normal cultivator’s level.
While Qianye was cultivating, the blood energy inside his body acted on its own. The gold and purple blood energies became active once again as they respectively killed and devoured many strands of normal, dark red blood energy. Their activities were growing more and more frequent, to the point that they had almost become a constant interlude between every nurturement of the nodes. At this point, Qianye practically ignored them most of the time and simply treated it as part of the cultivation process.
When he was done cultivating, Qianye began performing maintenance on his guns, and instilled a new origin bullet. Once all the combat preparations were complete, he closed his eyes and fell half asleep, quietly awaiting daybreak.
The night was as noisy as ever. Sometimes there would be long, drawn-out wolf howls, and sometimes there would be beast roars. There were also the booms and rumbling howls of gunshots. In this deep and dark, and seemingly eternal night sky, the human race, dark races and feral beasts slaughtered each other in order to claw out a land of living.
Ambusher and Butcher were right by his hands, and the war axe was within arm’s reach as well. Qianye could feel icy and firm metal with his fingertips at any moment. His frame of mind was very stable too. As long as he could fight, as long as he was still alive, he would never give up.
Qianye gradually entered dreamland.
He didn’t know how much time had pa.s.sed, but he suddenly found himself standing in the middle of a forest. His surroundings were dark, and there was nothing to be seen, but he could feel layer upon layer of killing intent piercing his exposed skin like a sea of needles, causing wave after wave of gooseb.u.mps to tremor through his body.
Suddenly, a rustling sound appeared from behind some shrubs, and Qianye immediately lowered his body like a wild hunting beast. He held his breath and closely watched the direction where the sound had come from.