Monarch of Evernight

With the strength Qianye was displaying outwardly, it was already quite lucky for him to have obtained a grade-seven gun. Now, he was actually discarding that in favor of a nondescript heavy sword? The knight sneered secretly. He even opened up his Unbreakable Bulwark to make a provocative finger gesture at Qianye. “Come, what are you waiting for?”

Qianye didn’t attack immediately. Instead, he glanced sideways toward his back where another person had appeared. This person, with his sword and dagger, was shrouded in an aura of shrewdness and experience. Compared to the extreme skills of the grey figure and the knight, this person seemed more balanced and his arrival significantly increased the three-man team’s fighting prowess.

The knight said confidently, “You won’t escape with your life if you can’t break my shield. I would consider surrendering if I were you. With your skills and ability, it won’t be a problem for you to gain a good position in the organization. This will also open up your future prospects.”

Qianye wasn’t as hesitant or nervous as he had expected. On the contrary, his expression appeared fairly relaxed. During their meeting in the wilds, Qianye always had a feeling that they had a hidden ace up their sleeves which, apparently, was this third person. Now that their trump card had been placed on the table, there was no longer a need for him to be hesitant. Qianye moved forward with his sword raised, stuffing the knight’s words of persuasion down his throat.

The twin-bladed warrior moved at the same time, sticking close behind Qianye at a constant distance of ten meters. This gap would take no more than a flash for experts of their level—Qianye would be stuck in a pincer attack if he failed to break through the knight’s defenses. Besides, there was still that grey figure who would be searching for an opening from far away.

The knight couldn’t comprehend Qianye’s motive. From the intelligence he had obtained, Qianye was only a hired independent expert and such people would never sacrifice themselves for their duty. It was common for independent experts to surrender in hopeless situations. Could it be that Qianye was confident in extricating himself? The knight glanced at the incoming sword but found nothing special except for the apparent weight.

The knight broke into a frown, but he decided to try one last time. “You think you can destroy my Unbreakable Bulwark with that sword of yours? It takes brute force to drive a heavy sword. Truth be told, even vampire counts can forget about breaking through my shield, let alone a human like you!”

Qianye was surprised at how hard this knight was trying to recruit him. Chuckling to himself, he arrived before the knight in a single step and performed a very simple slash.

It was just that East Peak’s movements were accompanied by the sound of wind and thunder!

“Oh no!” The knight was shocked out of his wits. He raised his shield with both hands and injected every ounce of origin power he had into the shield. The bulwark not only became thicker but veined patterns started to appear at its edges, apparently increasing its defensive capabilities. The smell of blood began to drift out from the cracks between his armor. It would seem he had truly put his life on the line to block this slash.

An inexplicable thud echoed throughout the battlefield. Everyone felt a grave discomfort, almost as if their hearts had been pounded by a sledgehammer.

East Peak stopped very briefly on the shield, and then it bounced back softly, drawing a beautiful arc in the air before pointing diagonally toward the ground. His stance was a display of utter disdain for the opponent.

The knight actually remained in place with his hands on the shield, not taking a single step backward. Nonetheless, he was as rigid as a statue, and his every movement seemed terribly difficult. He made to lower his shield and glance at Qianye, but that small movement elicited a crisp crackle from the bulwark. The shield soon shattered into countless fragments, which scattered to the ground and dispersed in the form of origin power.

“Y-You’re a vampire from a famed clan. N-Not just a count…” It took the knight a lot of effort to utter each word.

“I am a count.” Qianye allowed the knight to know a little bit more about him in light of the attempted recruitment.

“N-No, impossible…” The knight was still standing, but his head fell limp. Up until his last breath, he still couldn’t unravel the doubts in his heart.

That was the extent to which Qianye could explain. The knight had no idea that there were ancient vampires above those from the famed clans.

With the knight fallen, Qianye turned back to target the twin-bladed warrior.

A cold shiver jolted the man out of his shocked state. He was also a character who had faced great winds and waves, someone who shouldn’t have lost his composure in battle. But as someone who had worked with the knight for so long, he knew very well just how terrifying that Unbreakable Bulwark was. It could be said that the knight’s origin power aegis was truly unbreakable except against characters above the marquis level.

Yet Qianye had shattered this unbreakable bulwark in a single slash! It would’ve been fine if the knight had gone flying from the blow, but he couldn’t even take a step back. With no way to disperse the incoming force, he had to take on the entirety of the impact on his own.

This was the most shocking part—just what level had the force on the blade reached?

“T-This, how is this possible?” The twin-bladed warrior gasped.

Qianye didn’t give him much time to think, though. He delivered a horizontal slash, saying, “Nothing impressive, just brute force and weight.”

Brute force was the simplest way to increase the strength of a blow, something he also knew very well. Qianye’s sword looked mediocre and devoid of shocking powers. Perhaps the outcome was, just as he had said, due to sufficient force and weight.

But to kill that knight in one blow, how heavy would the sword have to be, and how powerful the force behind it? The twin-bladed warrior was soon drenched in cold sweat.

The man lost the will to fight upon seeing that blade drifting over weightlessly. He let out a loud cry and turned to flee. Was this a joke? How was he to take Qianye’s slash when his defense was even weaker than one of the knight’s arms? There was no need for a square hit; a graze was enough to cripple him.

Qianye arrived behind the twin-bladed warrior with a single step and slashed at the man’s back.

“Grey shadow, save me!” the twin-bladed warrior screamed in his desperation.

A faint silhouette emerged from behind, holding a vaguely discernible sniper rifle in his hand. However, Qianye’s speed and acceleration were changing rapidly. The sniper muzzle kept following him, but there was simply no opportunity to fire. As a master sniper himself, Qianye naturally understood how to prevent being locked onto.

During this short period, the twin-bladed warrior had been forced into dire straits. Unable to evade one of the incoming slashes, he had no choice but to block with his dagger.

The swordsman felt a shock through his entire body as the blades came into contact. The dagger in his grasp was actually unbroken; only bent out of shape and useless. Desperation filled his eyes because he knew he wouldn’t last long with a single sword.

Seeing the swordsman hanging by a thread, the grey figure drifted toward Qianye. Proactively drawing closer would increase his accuracy, but it also placed him in harm's way.

A cold gleam flashed through Qianye’s eyes as he abandoned the swordsman and pounced at the grey figure. This charge, akin to a flash of lightning, finally revealed his true strength.

Greatly astonished, the grey shadow fluctuated wildly and flew backward immediately, hoping to put some distance between them. Qianye erupted with a low roar at this point—the space surrounding the grey silhouette became heavy, sluggish, and distorted from the massive force. The distance between the two was close enough for Qianye’s domain to take effect, rendering the grey shadow unable to escape.

Both the swordsman and grey shadow had fallen into a perilous situation. Under the knight’s protection, the two were able to play to their strengths without restraint, and this gave them a false sense of power. Now that the knight was gone, the entire group was quick to fall apart.

The grey shadow struggled with all his might, but the suppression grew increasingly substantial. Qianye soon arrived with East Peak raised high and slashed at the sniper’s waist.

However, the shadow seemed almost intangible and remained unaffected as the blade swept through him. He kept on struggling against the suppression of the domain, and Qianye could feel his resistance growing stronger and stronger as the man adapted to the pressure. Just as he was about to escape the domain, the shadowy figure let out a shrill, menacing scream at Qianye.

Qianye paid the wail no heed, however. With a jolt of his blade, a faint scarlet origin flame ignited on East Peak.

Seeing the origin flames formed of Venus Dawn, the grey shadow screamed continuously as though he had just encountered his nemesis. Judging from the reaction, Qianye knew Venus Dawn happened to be his weakness. Even if that wasn’t the case, he still had the dark golden blood energy to try. There had to be something capable of restraining this enemy in either daybreak or Evernight. Otherwise, he would have to be a heavenly monarch and not a minor character like this.

The grey shadow became fiercely distorted as he wailed in agony. In the end, the outer grey layer burst open, and taking advantage of the blast, a smaller silhouette charged out of the domain and fled.

Qianye was caught unprepared and couldn’t chase after the enemy in time. This mysterious enemy might prove fairly troublesome if allowed to escape.

Gazing at the receding grey figure, a cold gleam flickered in Qianye’s eyes. He was prepared to use spatial flash and assault the target from the air.

Faintly discernible threads of blood appeared in the air, connecting Qianye to the grey shadow. Just as Spatial Flash was about to activate, an odd but clear whistle reverberated through the air. An origin bullet streaked across the sky and struck the grey shadow at unbelievable speeds.

The shadow wasn’t afraid of physical attacks at first, but this bullet was like a powerful venom to him. It vanished right after entering the body, causing the silhouette to distort violently and eliciting a mournful scream from the man.

With a boom, the grey shadow soon burst into flames. Even with Qianye’s powerful perception, he had no idea what type of fire it was, only that it contained a trace of blood energy. The sanguineous blaze ignited the grey shadow, causing flames to burst out from within and turning him into a human torch.

The raging fire lasted for an entire minute before the grey shadow collapsed to the ground and his true form came into view. All that was left of him was a charred, human-shaped body whose facial features could no longer be seen.

With the grey shadow dead, the swordsman was naturally no match for Qianye. The latter caught up to the target within a hundred meters and slashed him through the waist.

Only after killing the swordsman did Qianye have the leisure to glance at where the bullet had come from. Naturally, there was no one there.

For some reason, though, Qianye had a feeling that it was the mysterious woman again.