Back in the year, Zhao Yuying had already demonstrated how to deal with such strange leaves. Qianye simply raised his hand and swiped at the target. The shocked leaf evaded at lightning speed, but it couldn’t escape Qianye’s fingers no matter how fast it was. An indefensive power bore down upon the leaf as it was caught in his grasp.
Qianye was planning to crush the leaf into a ball when a shocked voice emerged from inside his fingers. “No!!!”
With a smile, Qianye released his fingers and allowed the leaf to fly out.
The leaf floated about in the air before stabilizing itself. Apparently, it hadn’t quite recovered from its state of panic. Song Zining’s image appeared on the leaf—it was but the size of a finger, but it stood on the leaf as though it were riding on a lone boat. This kind of style was indeed quite rare.
The seventh young master sized Qianye up from head to toe and praised, “You’ve grown stronger again, what a rare genius. At this rate, I really won’t be able to beat you.”
Qianye laughed. “You? Beating me? The last time that happened was years ago.”
Song Zining was furious after being exposed. “I’m the seventh young master of the Song, so I won’t bicker with a barbarian like you! Fighting and killing is meaningless. Oh right, how have you been recently? You seem to have made a bunch of enemies again.”
Qianye didn’t reply. “Weren’t you fighting on the floating continent? How did you end up here?”
Song Zining laughed. “I’ve decided to leave the army and pursue commerce. I want to manage my Ningyuan Heavy Industries well, so that I can conquer the world with my virtue! I heard the neutral lands is a hidden treasure, so I came here to scout the land.”
Qianye didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. He made to flick the leaf with his finger, threatening, “Speak like a man!”
Shocked out of his wits, Song Zining wanted to move his leaf away but was stopped by an invisible force. Glancing at the flickering scarlet glow all around him, he understood that there was no way to evade this flick. “Qianye, you’ve learned bad things.”
Qianye broke into a laugh. “This is the neutral lands, can’t feign innocence here.”
“Fine, in short, even the military department has found out that you’re here. Knowing their character, they definitely won’t let this matter be. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to handle things alone, so I dropped by to check up on you. Oh yes, Zhao Jundu also knows about this and has dispatched several of his trusted generals.”
Qianye was surprised. “Who did he send?”
Song Zining listed a couple of familiar names, all of whom were capable and familiar generals of the Zhao clan. This made Qianye worried. “Now that he has sent these men over here, what about their defensive line? The dark races aren’t that easy to deal with, why didn’t you stop him?”
Song Zining laughed. “Your fourth brother has a brain made of stone, when has he ever allowed others to change what he has decided? If it wasn’t for his every move drawing too much attention, he might’ve come over personally.”
“This…” Qianye suddenly didn’t know what to say.
“Okay, enough with the nonsense and stop cultivating your d.a.m.ned arts. I feel frustrated just by looking at you. When will I ever win against you at this rate? I went through a lot of trouble to come here, so you have to treat me to a drink!”
Qianye laughed. “You dare provoke me with that measly alcohol tolerance of yours? I’ll make sure you relive the nightmare of Yellow Springs tonight.”
Song Zining raised a middle finger at Qianye, saying, “I’ll arrive at Southern Blue this evening, just you wait!”
There was a fair amount of time until evening, which meant that Song Zining was still hundreds of kilometers away. The floating leaf soon fell quietly onto Qianye’s palm and turned into an ordinary leaf. Qianye touched its l.u.s.trous green surface in great delight. After some time apart, it would seem that Song Zining’s domain had once again taken a leap forward.
Qianye’s cultivation rate was beyond rare in this world, yet Song Zining had always kept up with his every step, never falling far behind.
Soon, it was almost night. Qianye retracted his Glory Chapter and left the inn, duly turning toward the tavern to his left. Since Song Zining had managed to find him in Southern Blue, it was only natural that he would easily find this tavern.
After sitting down, Qianye ordered ten large bottles of strong alcohol and sat down waiting for Song Zining’s arrival.
“Are you going to drink alone? Can I sit here?”
Qianye looked up to find a tall female hunter looking down at him. She looked rather handsome, but the two sword scars on her face somewhat detracted from her beauty.
Qianye smiled. “I’m waiting for a friend.”
“That’s fine, too, let’s drink together when he comes. It’s on me tonight!” The hunter wasn’t about to hold back and simply sat down.
Qianye merely shrugged but didn’t refuse her. He was actually in a fairly good mood today and, on her, he could see some rare semblance of his old acquaintance, Yu Yingnan.
Who would’ve thought so many years would pa.s.s by in the blink of an eye.
Qianye sighed inwardly as he thought about how he had mostly forgotten the feeling of pa.s.sing time. Vampires were known to be long-lived, their longevity extending far beyond that of human beings. Toward the end of their life, the stronger superior vampires would resort to deep slumber and blood ponds to increase their lifespan. There were examples of some who had lived for thousands of years.
Currently, his body was already that of an ancient vampire, and the many years that had pa.s.sed left almost no traces on him. To a human, however, this period was enough to change many things.
Once the drinking had begun, the ale went down quickly. Almost mysteriously, the drinks in front of them were soon half-gone. Qianye couldn’t remember what he had said to the hunter nor what she had said to him. In this inebriated state, countless past matters flooded into his heart and tugged at his emotions.
At some point, a man appeared in the seat in front of him. Who else could this carefree figure be but the seventh young n.o.ble?
Song Zining sat down and filled his cup to the brim. “Long time no see. You’re quite capable, aren’t you? You’re actually drinking with someone, aren’t you afraid Nighteye will break your legs when you go back?”
“Nighteye?” Qianye laughed wryly and emptied a large gla.s.s.
Song Zining was smart enough to instantly realize that something was wrong. “What’s wrong?”
“Hey! Who’s this Nighteye?” The female hunter was fairly tipsy at this point, and she wasn’t very happy to hear some other woman’s name.
Qianye filtered out the hunter’s voice and sighed. “She’s gone.”
The female hunter felt much better. “Come, drink!”
This was indeed a good moment to drink, so the two men picked up their gla.s.ses and emptied them.
Recalling their own worries amidst the climbing intoxication, they fell into silence and only emptied one gla.s.s after another.
The bottles on the table were soon emptied. A new round of drinks arrived, and that, too, was consumed.
Song Zining sighed deeply, his breath tainted with a strong smell of alcohol. He suddenly grabbed Qianye’s shoulder and said, “Nanhua is dead.”
“I see.”
“I killed her myself.”
“Oh?”
“If only… let it be, there are no more ifs now.” Song Zining shook his head and turned the topic to Qianye. “How about you? What’s wrong?”
Qianye wanted to speak but then stopped midway.
At this point, the female hunter finally realized that these two good looking fellows had both suffered in their relations.h.i.+ps, and that their problems were fairly serious. Feeling quite cheerful, she reached out to grab both of them by the shoulder and said heroically, “It’s just a woman, isn’t it? They’re everywhere! Stop thinking too much about it. This mommy will accompany you tonight. You two can come together, haha!”
This change was so sudden that it shocked Qianye and Song Zining out of their tipsiness. The two glanced at the hunter and then at each other, realizing the gravity of the problem before them.
The female hunter was feeling quite content at this moment. The tavern was filled with whistles and cheers from the other patrons. Some even jumped onto the table, hoping to observe the live battle.
The female hunter laughed loudly and heroically. She made to slap the two men on the back, saying, “Stop mumbling nonsense, go back with this mommy tonight.”
But her hands struck the table instead. She felt a sharp pain from the impact, yet she couldn’t find any traces of Qianye and Song Zining.
Her eyes turned round from astonishment. She glanced left and right, but there was only an empty table full of empty bottles in front of her.
This short moment made the hunter suspect whether or not the entire night she had spent here was just a dream. She turned back suddenly and saw all the other customers gazing at the empty table with their mouths wide open. It was almost as though they had seen a ghost.
“You guys, you saw the people here just now, right?” the hunter questioned.
Some people nodded, some remained in a daze, while others rubbed their eyes and shook their heads. How had these two living people vanished under everyone’s eyes?
At this point, Song Zining and Qianye had slipped out of the back door of the tavern and sped off into the darkness of the night.
Moments later, the two were atop the city walls, basking in the wind and gazing at the distant stars.
“I would’ve never thought that your domain could be used like this,” Qianye said.
Song Zining laughed. “These are just small tricks used to fool ordinary people. It’s useless against powerful experts. Enough about that, want to drink?”
“You have more?” Qianye found it strange.
“Of course I do, who do you think I am!?” With that, Song Zining fished out two bottles of wine from his chest pocket and swung them in front of Qianye.
Delighted, the latter s.n.a.t.c.hed one of the bottles and downed half of it. “Where did the alcohol come from?”
“Of course it’s the stuff we didn’t finish just now. I s.n.a.t.c.hed two before we left.”
“But… I think we haven’t paid?”
Song Zining laughed loudly and slapped Qianye on the shoulder. “Just think of it as your accompaniment fees!”
“Get lost!”
After a round of laughter, Song Zining asked with a serious expression, “So what exactly happened with Nighteye?”
“Aren’t you proficient in divination? Since you can even find me, how can you not know Nighteye’s matter?”
Song Zining laughed wryly. “I had to pay a steep price just to find you, and that’s because you’re not resisting me. Putting that aside for now, there should be some great changes on Nighteye’s side, I was only able to scry a small bit before I suffered a backlash and nearly lost my life. How would I dare divine her?”
Qianye immediately understood.
After a moment of hesitation, Qianye finally said, “Don’t try to divine her, she’s… a completely different person now, no longer someone we can influence.”
Next up, Qianye slowly narrated everything that had taken place in the neutral lands. Naturally, he also made mention of Nighteye’s awakening.
Song Zining listened quietly without interrupting him, even when Qianye revealed that she was once an ent.i.ty atop the sacred mountain.
But when he heard of Qianye’s plan to put her on the sacred mountain, Song Zining jumped up and shouted, “You’re insane!”