[V6C45 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Presently, the right side of Qianye’s entire body was so numb that he couldn’t feel its presence at all. In terms of a gunshot wound, this situation could be considered very bad because it signified the presence of an added effect.
He pried open his chest guard with great effort and looked down at the bullet hole in his right shoulder area. He simply couldn’t see the bullet anymore because the wound had swollen up significantly and closed up the opening. Moreover, the flesh around his injury had turned dark and the skin, almost translucent. Seemingly sentient strands of black energy could be seen moving about underneath. It was a ghastly sight to behold.
Qianye couldn’t help but laugh wryly after seeing the state of his injury.
That was a Black t.i.tanium Bullet of Annihilation, one of the most powerful weapons the dark races had against the experts of the empire. This bullet was one of the foremost causes of death among imperial champion-level experts.
In a battle below the level of marquis, few experts would possess guns above grade-seven, the exception being those with innate talents in firearms. The Black t.i.tanium Bullet of Annihilation was the ultimate weapon at this level—its destructive potential against people of the Daybreak Faction was even slightly greater than the effects of the empire’s Refined Silver Bullet of Extreme Yang. It was roughly equal to the Song clan’s special ammunition.
Without immediate treatment, champions rank-twelve and below would either die or have their combat strength affected for life. The victims were almost sure to be crippled because it was a major injury that would burn off the origin vortex.
The moment she saw him, the sniper rifle’s crosshairs were placed right over his forehead.
Qianye sat leaning on the cave wall without rus.h.i.+ng to clean his wounds. He looked up at the ceiling of the cave, plucked out a little fluorescent gra.s.s from between the crevice, and began chewing on its stem. It was pungent, tart, and slightly numbing. Apparently, even the vegetation in this odd cavern was poisonous, and it wasn’t mild, either.
However, Qianye just kept on chewing with his eyes on the ceiling.
In truth, he wasn’t thinking about anything.
Or rather, he didn’t dare to think, too afraid to put any notions in his empty mind. But even without thinking, he could still feel the agony from the bottom of his heart.
He wasn’t willing to think about it, but the scene kept flas.h.i.+ng past his eyes repeatedly. He was discovered by the strange ability of the demonkin’s third eye, and immediately afterward, the latter yelled, “fire” before rus.h.i.+ng straight at him.
The sniper rifle in Nighteye’s hands rumbled at almost the same time. Origin bullets were extremely difficult to evade at this distance, and more importantly, Qianye was in a daze at that time.
It was his combat instincts that had saved him yet again. It could even be considered miraculous that he managed to evade his vitals. But what of it? It was a Black t.i.tanium Bullet of Annihilation, so it was a lethal blow wherever the bullet landed.
This shot had pierced through his defenses and also his heart.
That night at the small trading town felt just like yesterday. He could still remember how that old arachne behind the counter had been smiling spuriously, egging him on in secret. He recalled her flaming pa.s.sion and the warmth that could scorch everything!
Was everything just a dream?
No, it wasn’t. It was, in fact, the truth, but one that had already pa.s.sed. It was like an ephemeral illusion which had vanished under the rising sun.
At this moment, the bullet in his chest erupted with a burning sensation. It was like a beast awakened from deep slumber, reminding Qianye with its roar that the world in his senses was incomparably real.
Qianye finally s.h.i.+fted his attention to the wound on his chest and inspected his body. As expected, his daybreak origin power was standing off tenaciously against the black t.i.tanium, but its radiance had grown as dim as the twilight.
Meanwhile, the Wings of Inception were beating restlessly. With every flap, it sent out a gold-suffused ma.s.s of blood energy which traversed the daybreak tide with great difficulty. The blood energy entering the near-lifeless body was like a small blade of gra.s.s poking out amidst a barren land. The seemingly minuscule effort served to revive a sense of pain in his numbed body.
Qianye drew his dagger and cut open the putrid flesh around his wound. He performed another horizontal slash and pushed the tip of the dagger deeper, whereupon it came into contact with the Black t.i.tanium Bullet of Annihilation.
Qianye twisted his wrist and dug out the bullet along with the surrounding bone, flesh, and blood. The ruthlessness of his actions made it seem like the body wasn’t even his own. He couldn’t help but sigh lightly at this point despite his staunch willpower, and his forehead was drenched in cold sweat.
Gasping deeply, he leaned on the stone wall as he brought the bullet—embedded within a bone fragment—up for inspection. Even bringing the projectile close would produce a slight tingling in his eyes and skin. It was as though countless tiny particles were shooting at him.
A smile of mysterious implications slowly appeared on his face as he flicked the bullet toward the wall across—he no longer wished to see this item. It was a premium Black t.i.tanium Bullet of Annihilation, boasting much greater t.i.tanium content and firepower compared to the ordinary versions he had bought before.
Moreover, it should be considered quite fortunate that his armor, origin defense, and st.u.r.dy body had jammed the bullet, preventing it from exploding completely. Presently, only a third of its black t.i.tanium content had entered his body.
Qianye looked over his injury, then began shaving off the necrotic flesh with his vampiric blade, going all the way until his bones became visible. His chest bone had also been seared black and dotted with numerous necrotic spots, which Qianye proceeded to sc.r.a.pe off one by one. He was drenched in cold sweat after completing this arduous process, and his body felt extremely weak.
Qianye leaned back and more or less collapsed upon the ground where he was baptized in agony as his chest heaved along with the fresh wounds. But at this point, he felt that the pain was extremely comforting.
The burning sensation in his body didn’t lessen after removing the bullet and continued to flow from the injury toward his four limbs. This wasn’t a misperception, but the actual flow of the permeated black t.i.tanium as it spread within his body.
The most important thing after being shot by a black t.i.tanium bullet wasn’t the size of the wound because the amount that had seeped into the body was lethal enough for most people. Such a life-extinguis.h.i.+ng substance would devastate all life wherever it flowed. Ordinary people didn’t even need to touch it; merely standing beside unsealed black t.i.tanium for some time was enough to extinguish their life force.
Human champions could struggle for a week or more, but it was completely meaningless because no amount of medicines could neutralize the substance, not to mention the suppressive effect of daybreak origin power wasn’t quite sufficient. Additionally, all contaminated organs and body parts would suffer irreversible destruction.
As such, most people would choose to detonate their origin vortex to stop the spread of black t.i.tanium within the body, exchanging survival for a lasting impairment in combat strength. However, even doing so couldn’t restrain the injury every time.
In the battles of the past, no small number of imperial experts had chosen to end their lives or die along with the enemy after failing to bring their injuries under control. Few were willing to suffer the protracted pain and watch helplessly as their bodies were destroyed inch by inch.
Qianye laughed self-deprecatingly.
The empire also possessed similar weapons in their a.r.s.enal, and the Refined Silver Bullet of Extreme Yang was one of them. There were even stronger types of special ammunition, however, these weapons were extremely difficult to produce, and as such, they were tightly controlled by the imperial family and major clans.
Qianye had often seen how dark race members struck by Mithril Bullets of Annihilation or Refined Silver Bullets of Extreme Yang would die in great agony—and no small number of those bullets was fired from his gun. Their injuries would be charred black as though they had been scorched by raging flames.
Right now, it was Qianye’s turn to taste this pain.
The most painful part of this ordeal was the knowledge that she had personally fired that special black t.i.tanium bullet, and how the bullet had come for his forehead as it flew out of the muzzle. He couldn’t help but think that he wouldn’t be in such pain had the projectile found its mark.
“Are you still unreconciled?” Qianye laughed in self-deprecation as he recalled how he had evaded the bullet instinctively.
He produced a cigar, applied a drop of military stimulant onto it, and inhaled deeply. He didn’t care at all if his actions would attract enemies.
The familiar taste pulled Qianye back to his days at Lighthouse Town. Back then, he had been struggling against the torment of the blood poison every day. In truth, Qianye’s situation back then was even more desperate, but he had lived on with great tenacity just for that tiny bit of hope.
Qianye smoked in silence, watching as the sparks gradually reduced the cigar to ashes.
“Thump.” Qianye banged the back of his head against the cave wall! This immediately punched a cavity in the solid rock behind him and caused the entire wall to crack.
Blood flowed down the back of his neck and covered him with a velvety warmth.
However, a flame had reignited in the depths of his eyes. He watched as the flaming glow burn the cigar to the very end and die around his fingers. The pain on his body—just like that special stimulant—afforded him greater clarity.
He might have lost a woman, but he still had friends, a brother who was as close as family, and even blood relations of unknown closeness. There was more than one person on Evernight Continent waiting for him to return safely.
Intermittent footsteps emerged from the tunnel outside, and Qianye could clearly hear the sounds of uneven breathing. It would seem that the smoke had managed to attract a wild beast. It was a land beast the size of a boar that was sniffing its way toward the stone chamber. It had just felt a sense of alarm when Qianye suddenly hoisted the hundred-kilogram body into the air and bit into its throat!
The rolling wave of fresh blood entered Qianye’s stomach and filled it with a b.l.o.o.d.y tartness. It had been a long time since he had resorted to this primitive method of blood absorption. Perhaps that was why the bloodthirst and brutality of his ancient bloodline had awakened.
Qianye’s blood surged as the hot blood of that first bite entered his abdomen and his blood core pulsed with great power. He had actually entered a state of immediate blood boil!
A wisp of auric flame blood rushed out from his blood core and rushed toward every corner of his body, alleviating the burning sensation brought about by the black t.i.tanium and r.e.t.a.r.ding its spread.
Black t.i.tanium possessed extreme destructive potential against Daybreak life forms, but its effects were vastly inferior against creatures of Evernight. Qianye’s auric flame blood could be ranked fairly high even in the entirety of the Evernight Faction. At this moment, it was using his body as the battlefield to kill off the black t.i.tanium, continuously but gradually devouring this unwelcome intruder.