“Who are you?”
“Insolence!”
A series of shouts echoed across the field. The first reaction of the Stormwind Fury mercenaries wasn’t fear but anger. They had even managed to utterly defeat this large native tribe, while Qianye was but a lone mercenary. He must be tired of living to actually dare step out with such provocative words.
The reactionless crowd watched on as Qianye took aim at Old Meng. Only the strongest among them were astonished. “How come he’s so fast!?”
A crisp gunshot sliced through the Black Grove as the gun spat out a near-translucent tongue of origin flames. It was so faint that it barely looked like fire.
This shot was fired at Old Meng. In that split second, the few champions and viscounts had a single thought: “Where’s the bullet?”
Qianye’s shot was quite strange, but no one had any doubts about Old Meng blocking it. At most, he would receive some heavy injuries. Old Meng was the strongest expert in the group and one of the most well-known soldiers in Stormwind Fury. At his level, a distant shot from experts at the same rank would lose most of its menace—apart from sniper shots, of course.
However, in the plain sight of all spectators, Old Meng’s body suddenly began to disintegrate. In the blink of an eye, his entire upper body turned into a cloud of blood with scarcely a bit of flesh remaining. The man’s legs were still nailed to the ground in a defensive posture.
A single thought ran through the minds of the Stormwind Fury mercenaries: “Old Meng’s been blasted apart? In a single shot?”
They looked toward Qianye subconsciously, but the latter’s face was expressionless. He merely s.h.i.+fted his gun muzzle and took aim at the other vampire viscount who had gone after the native warrior.
That vampire viscount‘s expression was filled with terror. Perhaps he had wanted to scream, but half his body was reduced to a cloud of blood before he could even utter a sound. He wouldn’t even have a chance of survival in an ancient blood pond.
The Stormwind Fury warriors found their minds completely blank, unable to believe the truth before their eyes. Two fierce experts had been reduced to b.l.o.o.d.y mist just like that? Not to mention retaliation, they weren’t even given the chance to defend a move or two.
Qianye moved his gun once more and pointed it at the remaining vampire viscount. That person finally showed some reaction, unleas.h.i.+ng a scream full of extreme terror before running away. But he had completely forgotten that his backside was filled with natives. This about-face was no different from running into a horde of enemies.
The three experts guarding the battle line finally made their move. It was just that their courses of action were hardly uniform—a vampire viscount and a human champion rushed at Qianye in a bid to stop him from using that terrifying origin gun. Another human champion turned tail and fled at full speed.
Even the generals were in such a state, so it was a given that all the soldiers were at a loss about what to do. Some pounced at Qianye with loud battle-cries, while others turned about not knowing whether to advance or to retreat.
Qianye smiled coldly at the charging mercenary expert. He grabbed East Peak and slashed downward, splitting the charging expert into two!
The human champion was shocked. His expression became twisted as he did his utmost to stop his forward momentum—charging at Qianye now was no different from running toward a bottomless abyss. But he was already charging, so how could he turn about immediately? It might be possible if he knew Spatial Flash or at least an ability at the level of Demonic Reversal.
All he could do was watch helplessly as he moved closer and closer. He saw Qianye turn, take a step, and send East Peak sweeping at him. He raised his sword and slashed at East Peak, but he was already sure that this move was completely useless.
His origin power was split into two, followed by his long sword, and then his body. During his last moments, only one thought remained in his mind: “Just as I thought.”
Over half of Stormwind Fury’s elites had fallen in the blink of an eye. At this point, even the boldest of warriors had realized that staying here was akin to throwing one’s life away. However, it was already too late for them to run. The roar of ocean tides echoed through the air as a boundless pressure descended upon them, pressing them to the floor. Soon afterward, all of the remaining mercenaries were cut down amidst the interweaving sword radiance. The only one to escape was the human champion who had fled as soon as things turned south. The viscount who had charged into the native group was immediately besieged and wouldn’t last much longer.
At this moment, Qianye hadn’t yet withdrawn his domain—he could already hear m.u.f.fled thuds as the natives fell from the trees and struck the ground haphazardly. Their battlefront was interlocked with the mercenaries from Stormwind Fury, so they were also swept into the attack.
These natives could borrow the power of the woods to increase their combat strength. Their own power was limited and inferior to the people from Stormwind Fury, so how could they resist Qianye’s Oceanic Vortex domain?
Only a few among the natives were able to hang on and barely remain on the trees. The only one who could move about freely was the tall warrior, but even then, one of his feet had sunk into the bark, leaving a distinct footprint. Apparently, he wasn’t as calm as he seemed on the surface, and moving about freely during battle was probably impossible.
In the blink of an eye, there was only one person left capable of roaming about the battlefield.
“Aouuuu!” Shouting in delight, little Zhuji leapt dozens of meters into the air and landed in Qianye’s arms.
There was a m.u.f.fled thud as Qianye’s expression changed sharply. He couldn’t help but take a step back, feeling as though he had been struck by a cannonball.
Little Zhuji hugged Qianye tightly, rubbing her little head against Qianye. The latter’s expression transformed time and again; the scene was inexplicably brilliant.
This little fellow moving and rubbing about wasn’t as simple as it seemed. Maybe because she was too excited, the girl totally forgot to control her strength. The bones in Qianye’s chest were creaking and groaning—they might’ve cracked already if the girl were any stronger.
One had to recall Qianye’s const.i.tution. His ancient vampire physique was almost indestructible. It was much stronger than wars.h.i.+p armor under the protection of his blood energy. As for his bones, they were components of his fire-forged physique and had just begun to be tempered in auric flame blood. But even so, they weren’t too far off from that of a divine champion’s.
In other words, one really needed to be quite strong to enjoy little Zhuji’s affection. The somewhat weaker people under the divine champion realm might receive irreversible injuries from her hugs.
This little fellow had grown so much more powerful compared to when Qianye had left her in the Black Grove. She had grown well over twice as strong. No matter how much of a genius Zhuji was, there was no way she could’ve achieved this on her own—there had to be a reason behind this.
That Old Meng from just now had shot the girl square in the head. Although Qianye knew that Zhuji’s const.i.tution wasn’t inferior to his own, he still couldn’t help but feel worried about her.
There was indeed a wound on Zhuji’s round forehead and a break in her skin. The injury was the size of a nail but only skin-deep. It had stopped bleeding after the first spurt of blood and was already contracting gradually.
Qianye felt better after seeing this wound. In fact, he knew that there was no need to worry about her. Back in the year, Song Zining had used Zhuji as a sandbag to help Qianye block a divine champion’s attack. Even though that punch only had half its might remaining, it was still an attack from a divine champion and certainly more powerful than Old Meng’s shot.
Back then, little Zhuji had merely suffered some light injuries and a bit of discomfort from the impact. Now that Old Meng’s shot had broken her skin, it was frankly something that he should be proud of. Had he survived, he would be able to return to his hometown one day and boast to his descendants about how he had injured Her Excellency Zhuji back in the day. Unfortunately, Qianye blasted the man apart in his fury, depriving him of this opportunity.
But if Old Meng’s descendants knew about this battle, they would be able to say: “Back then, our old ancestor fell in the hands of a Heavenly Monarch.”
That gun-barrel in Qianye’s hand was indeed the work of Pointer Monarch himself. It wouldn’t be excessive to say that it was a heavenly-monarch-level attack.
With Zhuji in his arms, Qianye finally found relief from all of his worries. He was just about to ask about her experiences during this period when a sharp intent descended from above. That tall native warrior leapt up and flew toward Qianye with a loud roar.
Being able to dash through Qianye’s Oceanic Vortex proved that this native’s combat strength was indeed terrifying. It took the combined attacks from half a dozen champions and viscounts from Stormwind Fury to push him back repeatedly.
But Qianye was no Stormwind Fury. His comprehension of the combat arts had taken a step forward after leaving the Earth Dragon’s lair, gradually approaching perfection and leaving little to no openings. Seeing that tall warrior charging at him, Qianye merely lifted his left hand and pointed the origin gun at him.
The tall warrior’s expression s.h.i.+fted drastically as he performed a subconscious evasion. Qianye’s rifle possessed outrageous firepower and could even blast a viscount apart in one shot. How would he dare to take it head-on?
He was just about to change directions when the pressure on his body increased exponentially. Unable to control his momentum mid-air, he fell head-first onto the ground.
Qianye retracted his domain soon afterward. The native warriors who were doing their utmost to resist the Oceanic Power lost control as the pressure vanished abruptly. They shot into the air one after the other, where many of them crashed into the tree trunks and fell down dizzy.
That tall warrior hadn’t expected such a change, either. A momentary lapse in control sent him soaring into the air; he lost directional control as his feet left the ground.
To his great astonishment, he found Qianye holding Zhuji in his right hand while holding a s.h.i.+ning, dark muzzle toward his chest.
The two were less than thirty meters away, and there was no way to evade this shot.
Qianye didn’t open fire. Instead, he shot the tall warrior a glance, put away his gun, and reached out to pull on Zhuji’s face.
Qianye stretched her face pretty wide while she looked on with an innocent expression that screamed of being wronged.
That tall warrior rushed over with a furious expression and spewed a string of unintelligible words at him. Nonetheless, his body language was quite well-behaved, standing at least ten meters away without coming closer. He knew it would be all too easy for Qianye to kill him if he wished to.
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