The battle was short and fierce. By the time Frost Wolf had slaughtered his opponent, the battles in the periphery had started to die down.
He came limping back before Qianye while clutching his left shoulder. “Sire, mission accomplished.”
Qianye replied with an indifferent smile, “Completed? No, it hasn’t been completed. There’s a caravan behind.”
Frost Wolf laughed wryly. “Those goods belong to merchants. If we do that, the enmity between us and the Wolf King will be irreconcilable.”
Qianye glanced at him. “Don’t tell me it’s still reconcilable now?”
Frost Wolf knew this fact fairly well. Bracing himself mentally, he turned back and shouted, “Those who can still fight, come with me!”
In the blink of an eye, he jumped onto a still-operable transport vehicle and whizzed away. Only at this point did Frost Wolf reveal a bit of valor and ruthlessness. Before this, he was always a bit cowardly despite his tall stature and even looked a bit constrained while fighting against the werewolf viscount. He wouldn’t have suffered so many injuries, otherwise.
Now that there was no going back, he finally let loose and began to look a bit more imposing.
Qianye stood in place on the roof of the car, merely ordering the men to sweep the battlefield.
His eyes lit up all of a sudden as he turned toward the distant horizon. There was nothing else there apart from a dense patch of low-lying clouds, but Qianye could see a slowly revolving ring of origin power. It was clear that there was someone hiding inside the clouds and spying on the action. The origin power was a fairly chaotic mixture of daybreak and darkness origin power, but it was definitely a human expert.
This person’s ident.i.ty wasn’t hard to guess—there weren’t a lot of human experts in the area, much less those paying so much attention to the Wolf King’s men. Qianye, however, didn’t want to waste time guessing his intentions. He only pointed at the man from far away and performed a cutthroat gesture.
Qianye’s message was clear. If this person dared to interfere, he would be killed along with the group.
Then, he turned away and continued observing the battlefield in silence, paying no more attention to the hiding human expert. The merchants also came to help because the entire place was a mess.
An old man’s figure flickered within the distant clouds, merging almost perfectly with the clouds around him. His face was ashen, and he was so angry that his beard was trembling. As an important character who had gained fame for dozens of years, he had never experienced such disdain. He stared fixedly at Qianye with equal measures of resentment and doubt, not knowing what gave Qianye the gall to provoke him.
Surging with killing intent, he was of a mind to rush over and teach Qianye a lesson, but caution got the better of him in the end. Up until this point, he still had no idea how Qianye had discovered him.
Far in the distance, Qianye was focused on the cleanup progress, literally not giving him a second glance. This was even more offensive than a direct provocation, and it almost caused him to blackout from anger.
In the end, he could no longer bear this kind of invisible humiliation. His robes rose up slightly as he waved his sleeve and left, revealing a small insignia hidden underneath—it was the emblem of Zhang Buzhou.
At this point, Frost Wolf had just driven back after conducting the battle. There were dozens of cargo trucks behind him, while the merchant managers were all in his car.
Frost Wolf arrived before Qianye. “Sire, the mission has been completed. All of the cargo trucks have been brought back.”
Qianye revealed a favorable smile. “Not bad, this time.”
Frost Wolf felt a bit of helplessness, but it was already too late for regrets. He did have a question he always wanted to ask. “Sire, why did you order us to fire before the enemy was within firing distance?”
“The other party would’ve opened fire if they were within range.”
“That’s not wrong, but it’s not too late to attack after confirming the other party’s hostility. Besides, we’ll have the advantage in retaliation.”
Qianye’s laugh interrupted the man’s words. “I just have to fire the first shot.”
“What?”
“I just have to fire the first shot,” Qianye repeated.
Frost Wolf was shaken and speechless.
Now that was the definition of tyrannical.
At this moment, a couple of merchants walked over unsteadily and began offering words of greeting and friends.h.i.+p.
Qianye waved his hand impatiently. “Leave the trucks and seek compensation from the Wolf King.”
The managers’ expressions changed drastically. Merchants had to pay a steep price to hire mercenary escorts, but the corps would compensate them if the convoy was robbed—this rule applied to all mercenaries, as well as the Wolf King’s men. All these years, the Wolf King’s men had rarely, if ever, slipped up on their job. Hence, most merchants were willing to hire the Wolf King’s soldiers as escort despite their price tag.
On the other hand, the Wolf King’s men maintained a bottom-line and wouldn’t rob the merchant caravans they were escorting.
The goods contained in these trucks were of extraordinary value. It would take quite a bit of courage to seek compensation from the Wolf King, and there was no telling if a mortal disaster would fall on them instead. After all, there was no need to compensate dead people.
One of the merchant managers sneered, “I don’t care who you are, but you need to know that the Wolf King is not someone you can offend. Hand over the goods obediently and we might put in a good word for you.”
He hadn’t even finished speaking when Qianye flicked his finger. A ma.s.s of origin power shot out like an origin bullet and flew toward the manager. The man’s expression froze up amidst a burst of blood from his forehead, and his body slowly collapsed to the ground.
“I don’t need to care who you are, either,” Qianye said while looking at the other managers. “Who else wants to argue with me? Stand out.”
That manager’s corpse was still nearby, so who would dare to stand out at this juncture? Everyone shook their heads with ashen expressions.
“This is a battle between me and the Wolf King. Whoever stands on his side will find no mercy from me.” With that, Qianye dismissed the managers with a wave of his hands. As for the cargo trucks and their drivers, all of them were detained. Qianye a.s.signed some mercenaries to escort the goods back to Southern Blue, while he himself led the caravan toward Seagaze.
The remainder of the journey was free from any disturbance.
With the Wolf King’s retaliation looming over the horizon, everyone else in the convoy was extremely nervous. In accordance with the merchants’ request, the motorcade drove on through the night and arrived at Seagaze after half a day of traveling. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief as they entered the city.
The arrival at the destination was secondary; the most important thing was that they could clear themselves of their relations.h.i.+p with Qianye. Even if the Wolf King were to seek vengeance, they would not be a part of the collateral damage since all major powers depended on these merchants to thrive. Even someone as violent as the Wolf King wouldn’t dry the pond just to catch a proverbial fish.
Qianye understood their line of thought quite well but didn’t point it out. He sent Frost Wolf to arrange for lodgings while he went out to stroll the streets.
Seagaze was a major human city built atop a highland above the sh.o.r.es of the Eastern Sea. Although it wasn’t as grand and majestic as Totemic Castle, it was also hundreds of meters above the water, and one could overlook the Eastern Sea from the highest points in the city. Albeit barely, it could be considered a place with wonderful views.
There were numerous large courtyards constructed on the higher areas inside the city. The stone walls and gates looked fairly rigid and, despite lacking in n.o.ble grace, looked fairly in line with the barbaric style of the neutral lands.
Each of these courtyards represented a powerful family. Some of the stone sculptures outside the architecture were decorated with mottled scars, having weathered the wind and rain for over a century. Observing the entire area, one could almost see a vague reflection of imperial aristocratic families. Of course, they were far from true n.o.bility in scale. The difference would be even more exaggerated when comparing them against a major clan like the Zhao, whose main residence was bigger than Seagaze City itself.
Within the main building of the largest and oldest building in Seagaze City, a stern-looking old man was seated inside the study, his brows locked in a frown as he read the secret report in his hands.
There were two young men inside the study. One of them was as silent and stern as a mountain, while the other was glancing about restlessly.
The old man finally put down the report and said worriedly, “The other party has already entered the city, how do you think we should handle them?”
The seemingly restless youngster chuckled. “Naturally, the clan lord should decide on such an important matter. We’ll listen to your elderly grace.”
The old man roared, “Xue Ding! You’re about to a.s.sume important duties! How can you be so frivolous? Do you think I can hand family matters over to you like this?”
Xue Ding didn’t seem to mind at all, though. He replied with a mischievous voice, “What use does the Xue family have for me? You have Elder Brother, don’t you? And a single mountain is too small for two tigers, aren’t you afraid we’ll start fighting with one another?”
The old man banged the table with an angry expression. “Blood is thicker than water, what’s there to fight among brothers? I’ll drive you out of the Xue family if you keep spouting nonsense!”
Xue Ding paid him no heed. “So what if you drive me out? This isn’t the first time anyway. Besides, I can be considered the Wolf King’s foster son, not a member of your Xue family.”
The silent Xue Wu spoke up at this point. “Little Ding, enough.”
Xue Ding was fairly respectful toward his silent brother. He quickly removed his frivolous att.i.tude and said seriously, “I think we should pretend we never received the Wolf King’s missive. They won’t stay here for long, anyway, a couple of days at most.”
The old man was unhappy. “Nonsense! Do you think the Wolf King is a three-year-old? You think you can fool him just like that?”
Xue Ding sneered. “Isn’t he treating us like three-year-olds? I heard the Wolf King himself wasn’t able to capture that person back at Southern Blue. Additionally, he went into isolation immediately after returning to Totemic Castle, and there have been rumors that he was gravely injured. He’s ordering Seagaze to capture a person he himself cannot even handle. If this isn’t deliberately causing problems for us, what is? How are we going to take that person down? If we fail, he’ll have an excuse to deal with us and weaken the human race.”
The old man replied with a stern expression, “You know the Wolf King will blame us afterward! Then, how dare you say we should ignore his orders?”
Xue Ding replied, “I do have a way out of this, but I wonder if you have the guts for it.”
The old man snorted. “Speak!”
“Simple, rebel against the Wolf King!”