[V6C77 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Qianye didn’t hesitate in the least despite failing to sense anything there. He produced several grenades and hurled them out at full force. The explosives crossed several hundred meters in the blink of an eye and blasted into the dense cloud of smoke like a cannon sh.e.l.l.
A cry of alarm emerged from the mist, followed by the appearance of a silhouette trying to escape the blast—but it was one step too late. Moreover, Qianye’s grenades fell in a particular pattern which locked down a ten-meter area around the person. The shockwaves from the consecutive explosions swept the person back in.
Only a miserable cry was heard before the figure rushed back out, covered in flames from head to toe. But his movements faltered after taking two steps out as an origin bullet tore through the air and took away half his head.
Qianye blew on the smoking-hot barrel and walked over to the corpse.
It was a demonkin. The remaining half of his head was still frozen in an expression of pain and astonishment, apparently unable to believe that he would be discovered.
As a mere baron, he was neither powerful nor pivotal in a factional war of this scale. But a number of his sinister abilities held destructive potential when coupled with powerful grenades, and this far surpa.s.sed his own strength.
Had the dark races been less particular about bloodlines and personal combat strength—if they had only made an exception and a.s.signed him a number of super-powerful black t.i.tanium grenades—the casualties on the empire’s side would be unimaginable.
Qianye couldn’t bother to search the body. He fired swiftly from the b.l.o.o.d.y Datura and killed off all threatening enemies in the vicinity. This handgun in Qianye’s grasp had actually fired from the range of an a.s.sault rifle, and many of the dead dark race soldiers didn’t even know where the bullets had come from.
Those killed by Qianye were all core enemy experts, middle-ranking officers of the Evernight army. And with these people dead, the troops under them fell into immediate chaos. It was at this time that a fierce hail of bullets swept over these low-ranking soldiers and cannon fodder, mowing them down row by row. The stronger ones were then surrounded and killed by the vanguard battalion soldiers.
Before long, the tables had turned in the area Qianye was in charge of. The dark race warriors in the area had been routed and were fleeing in scattered groups.
Qianye glanced at the surroundings and found no enemy in sight. He had just breathed a sigh of relief when he felt something off with his shoulder. He reached for the source of discomfort and found two bullets there. Only then did he look down and discover that he had been struck several times. Some of the bullets had been blocked by his armor and origin defenses, but a couple of others had left wounds of varying degrees on his body.
These were merely surface injuries, so Qianye paid them no heed. He simply injected a dose of stimulants and rushed toward another part of the battlefield to beat up the dark race squads there. A shrill whistle echoed through the air just when Qianye was considering whether he should charge into the enemy camp.
He looked up and, with his superior vision, saw a dozen or so black dots approaching from the sky. Heavy cannon sh.e.l.ls!
But these sh.e.l.ls had come from the empire’s side and were headed for the middle of the Evernight army.
These were the empire’s heavy cannons! Since even the heavy artillery corps had arrived, it was likely that the elite cavalry was already flanking the enemy.
Qianye became spirited. The morale of the imperial soldiers also rose dramatically, and some even cheered with open arms. Meanwhile, fear and chaos descended among the dark race units that had been pushed back several times by Qianye.
Qianye grasped this short-lived opportunity. He raised his sword and shouted “Follow me!” as he charged headfirst into the dark race formation. His oceanic power and Nirvanic Rend quickly produced a wide empty s.p.a.ce in front of him.
The vanguard battalion soldiers were dauntless veterans to begin with. Seeing how powerful Qianye’s single a.s.sault was, many of them found their blood boiling as they followed Qianye into the dark race formation. Origin guns weren’t satisfying enough in a melee fight since they had to be charged up. Many people discarded their a.s.sault rifles and charged in with daggers drawn.
The Zhao clan private army a.s.sumed their own formation in battle, and Qianye grew accustomed to their tempo after pus.h.i.+ng several hundred meters in. He now focused only on charging ahead and left the other sides in their hands. Thus, their vanguard battalion charged through the tempest and rampaged through the dark race army. They inflicted heavy casualties among the dark races, and rolling waves of blood would flow wherever they went—no one could stop them.
In just a short while, Qianye had led the army to a point where he could no longer see the other imperial soldiers. He glanced about and found himself deep within the enemy formation, just a short distance away from breaking through the entire enemy ranks. However, empty areas were likely to draw the concentrated fire of the Evernight camp’s cannons. As such, Qianye killed his way through the encirclement and led the vanguard battalion back to the imperial formation.
This excursion was like walking through an uninhabited land. Before Qianye, all of the dark race army’s formations fell apart and descended into chaos. This quickly eased the pressure on the imperial frontlines.
Whistles rang through the air yet again from the dozens of imperial heavy cannons. At this moment, a rain of fire fell from the sky as the imperial airs.h.i.+ps arrived. These airs.h.i.+ps had finished off their opponents and rushed over to provide support for the ground troops.
The imperial defensive line had solidified, and their heavy artillery was pounding down on the Evernight side. Finally, the signal to retreat emerged from the enemy camp. The dark race soldiers pulled back from their front lines in misery, suffering attacks from the heavy cannons and airs.h.i.+ps along the way. Although their experts were fine, the low-ranking soldiers and cannon fodder suffered grievous casualties—the latter had been wiped out almost entirely.
The Evernight faction had used over half of their forces in this battle. Over a hundred thousand dark race soldiers swarmed over the vanguard in a bid to defeat them before they could gain a foothold. The Zhao clan private army and the other major clan armies added together numbered less than fifty thousand, yet they had managed to stem the tide of the dark race a.s.sault and last out until the main imperial army had been completely deployed.
With the loss of this battle, the Evernight main camp was bound to fall. That majestic but hastily-built castle wasn’t a military stronghold. It looked grand, but the defenses in many areas weren’t well constructed. After ample preparations, the imperial main army would charge into the Evernight camp and wrest control of Giant’s Repose in one go.
Qianye didn’t charge after them blindly after hearing their retreat signal. He looked back and found that the casualties of the vanguard battalion weren’t very significant. Everyone was in high spirits, but many of them were wounded and low on origin power.
The vanguard battalion had never stopped fighting since arriving on the battlefield. Not only had they destroyed the enemies in their own defensive zone, but they had also finished off many enemies from the neighboring ones. Their contributions could be considered rather splendid.
Qianye raised a hand to stop the muscleheads who wanted to give chase. He then glanced toward the Evernight main camp and said, “Vanguard battalion, return to the defensive lines and remain on alert! No one leaves without my order!”
Military orders had to be obeyed without question. The soldiers thus moved toward the imperial vanguard unit, found their own battle positions, and began constructing defensive structures there.
Qianye’s mission, as well as that of the imperial vanguard unit, was to arrive first on the battlefield and establish a defensive line there. This would facilitate the deployment of the arriving army. It could be said that they had already over-fulfilled their duty. A premature advance would greatly increase their casualty rates.
Qianye suppressed his somewhat restless mood and waited patiently in the defensive line. He longed to do battle, but his grasp of the bigger picture wasn’t lacking at all. He knew that the defensive line was critical to the safety of the arriving imperial army and couldn’t be lost. In a battle where each side was fielding hundreds of thousands of men, killing a couple more soldiers on one’s own had little impact on the war as a whole.
The imperial main army soon arrived, and the various types of combat vehicles and heavy cannons moved into position. The military engineers who arrived last began constructing temporary camps immediately upon their arrival.
However, they had just laid down the framework when Zhang Boqian’s voice reverberated throughout the battlefield. “What are those camps for? Attack immediately!”
The temporary commanders and generals were all startled. But naturally, no one dared to go against Zhang Boqian’s personal orders. They immediately split up to dispatch their respective troops—the bugle sounded as military orders moved down the various ranks and eventually reached the soldiers.
Song Zining looked rather unremarkable in the imperial army since a brigadier general was nothing amidst the sea of general epaulets in the staff office.
However, his authority wasn’t one to be trifled with. There was a sand table in front of him with the designation of each unit marked out upon it. At this moment, a staff officer handed Song Zining a military order he had just written. The latter ran his eyes over it and pondered slightly before moving the unit designations on the sand table.
The a.s.sistants nearby immediately recorded Song Zining’s moves, which were then converted to military orders for dispatch.
After the generals had confirmed the attack targets and troops to accept the mission, the corresponding order would arrive in the hands of Song Zining’s group. The latter would then dissect the mission to confirm the order and details of each squad.
There were five such sand tables in the staff office headquarters, which meant that Song Zining held the concrete power to mobilize one-fifth of the forces. Although the direction and target of these units had already been determined, there were many small things that needed some work.
At this moment, Song Zining made a few casual moves and switched Qianye’s unit to the second echelon. It would be his turn to attack only after the Evernight camp’s outer perimeter had been broken through.
Although the military contributions on the surface would be a bit less, the Zhao clan warriors would gain precious time to catch their breaths and more or less recover some strength.
These were only detailed adjustments, and it was well-justified because Qianye’s vanguard battalion had just completed an a.s.sault. The entire staff office was so busy that they seemed to be flying about, and thus no one noticed this small detail.
Song Zining revealed an implicative smile after seeing the military order being sent out. His gaze then fell upon the Nangong family’s designations. He reached out and placed them in a gap on the frontlines.
The a.s.sistants nearby recorded these changes and drafted a military order for Song Zining to check. The latter scanned it briefly as usual before nodding in confirmation. Thus, the order was finally issued.