Chapter 180: Safe Arrival

[Volume 3 - The Place Where My Heart Feels At Peace]

Qianye lowered his head to inspect his body. He found his armor torn in many places with blood seeping out of the wounds caused by the origin guns. However, the damage these grade one origin guns could inflict on the current Qianye was rather limited. Gunpowder weapons couldn't even penetrate his defenses and only left a smoky scent on him.

The slave-trading soldiers charging at Qianye were momentarily stunned after seeing him unfazed after taking several hits. They had witnessed such scenes before with powerful dark race warriors, but the one before them was a human—a sniper no less.

Qianye creased his brows and said slowly, "It really is a little bit painful!" His cold gaze swept over the soldiers whose faces were surging with murderous intent. "Perseverance can, of course, be considered a good moral characteristic."

With that, he suddenly rushed into their midst—two illusory flowers bloomed on the battlefield—the distinct rumble of the Twin Flowers reverberated through the air. Not only did the tremendous force tear apart its primary target, but the radiating energy also flung the nearby people into the air. These rank one fighters were incomparably weak before a rank four origin gun.

Qianye drew the Radiant Edge after firing twice and proceeded to illuminate the air with streaks of blood color light. The slavers fell one after another, and the remaining soldiers went berserk in their desperation. Many were determined to tear off Qianye's flesh even on their deathbeds.

Qianye's physique and strength far surpassed these soldiers even without activating his origin power. He weaved throughout the battlefield and was virtually unstoppable. The more he killed, the more he found it difficult to restrain his anger. Why couldn't they direct such valiance toward fighting the dark races instead of using it against someone of the same race!?

Qianye suddenly let out a long howl. Origin power rushed into the Radiant Edge, and accompanying it into the blade was his evolved blood energy! The dagger erupted with a scarlet radiance. These human soldiers were simply too weak before the blade capable of cutting open swordspiders and werewolves. Oftentimes, they were cut into two merely after brushing past the overflowing origin power radiance!

Gunshots suddenly rang out beside Qianye. Among them was the rumble of origin guns and an even greater number of gunpowder weapons. Fresh blood burst out from the bodies of the slaver soldiers rushing toward Qianye in waves.

Qianye turned around to check—the people who should've been hiding behind the cars had climbed onto the roof and were firing continuously from an advantageous elevation.

Many of them used to be outstanding soldiers who possessed almost consummate shooting skills. Those without guns picked up swords and staves, while the rest without any weapon at all simply picked up stones from the ground before charging toward the battlefield!

The slavers began to retaliate. Several slaves collapsed as a series of gunshots rang out. However, this caused the remaining slaves to charge even faster and their cries to grow even louder! Their surging murderous intent caused the slaver soldiers a great deal of alarm.

Only a few dozen soldiers from the village remained by the time the battle ended. This meant that over half of them had fallen. A squad with such a casualty ratio could be considered one with martial spirit, even by imperial army standards. The problem was that this squad wasn't even part of the army. Only a small part of them were on the seventh division's official records, while the others were privately groomed guards. Their combat targets weren't dark race members but instead, humans.

Qianye never understood why these people could erupt with such fighting spirit against their own race.

Nevertheless, the battle had ended. The gap between their strength and Qianye's was already too large to compensate with numbers. Fortunately, in the end, their fighting spirit crumbled in the face of blood and carnage, else the only option would be to bathe the village in blood. Qianye could easily accomplish this but he certainly wouldn't enjoy it.

They found a large amount of supplies within the settlement as expected. In addition to the two warehouses full of black stones, there were several dozen industrial-use black crystals, a warehouse full of metal ingots, and large amounts of grain and cured meat. They found sufficient weapons and armors to outfit the hundreds of seedlings. There were also quite a lot of vehicle components and some spare trucks. All of these things were carried away by Qianye as spoils of war.

The captives who had surrendered were all crammed into a cargo compartment after being disarmed. It was quite fitting to lock these prisoners in a vehicle used to transport slaves.

The convoy drove toward Broken River City that very night. The fatigue brought by the entire night of jolting intensified as even some of the trucks broke down. Fortunately, there were actually some seedlings who were familiar with mechanical repair. Add to that the components and tools obtained from the settlement, all the trucks were able to resume their advance in the end.

Qianye had no intention to stop and rest. He arranged for the drivers to take turns at the wheel. Everyone else was to remain within the passenger compartment to preserve energy. It was imperative that they leave the seventh division's domain as soon as possible. They could only be considered safe after getting in touch with the representatives of the Wei clan base at Broken River City.

Hurried footsteps rang out within the seventh division headquarters in the dead of the night. A staff officer rushed past the drill grounds and was headed toward Wu Zhengnan's residence at full speed.

A gloomy Wu Zhengnan appeared in the parlor, still dressed in pajamas. Despite his usual fondness for the officer, his glare at the moment seemed to say that the latter better have a good explanation or else he would be punished severely.

"General, the convoy has encountered an accident."

The staff officer's word caused Wu Zhengnan to jump up from the sofa. He grabbed the former's collar and roared, "Which convoy!?" Wu Zhengnan's voice was actually trembling slightly even though he was a champion level expert.

The officer's reply shattered Wu Zhengnan's final bit of hope. "The one with which we completed the transaction yesterday. The goods being transported were seedlings."

Wu Zhengnan released his grip and fell onto the sofa. He let out a heavy breath and asked, "Those kinds of seedlings?"

"Yes, sir."

Actually, the two instances of confirmation were completely unnecessary—Wu Zhengnan couldn't be clearer—there was only one convoy transporting seedlings within half a month. He had deliberately refrained from scheduling other transactions during this period in order to avoid unnecessary complications to this important deal.

"Where are the seedlings now? Have they been handed over to the dark race?"

"The transaction had already been concluded at that time but the werewolves and arachne were ambushed before they had gotten far. The escorts were almost completely wiped out, and it was said that only two werewolves managed to escape. The seedlings were all lost."

Wu Zhengnan asked solemnly, "Where are those seedlings? Have you found them?"

"They returned to the camp under the leadership of a young man where a battle ensued."

"Battle? Don't tell me we lost!?"

The staff officer's face was pale but he summoned up the courage and said, "We... indeed lost. Captain Zhou fell in battle along with most of the soldiers. The rest were taken captive with the exception of a few who had hidden themselves. The young man leading them seemed to be in a hurry. He took everything he could and left."

Wu Zhengnan's expression was exceedingly somber. "A young man? Any distinctive traits?"

"We only know that he wields an Eagleshot."

"A sniper? A sniper can actually crush all the troops in the settlement!?" Wu Zhengnan roared in absolute fury. He stood up and grabbed the officer's collar and howled, "Do you know how much time I had to invest in order to find so many seedlings? Do you know how much this failure will cost us? 50 f*cking thousand gold coins! 50,000 whole imperial gold coins!"

The colossal amount caused the staff officer to go dizzy, but even more dizzying was Wu Zhengnan's hand. The bones on his neck were emitting cracking sounds under the latter's grip.

Wu Zhengnan tossed the officer onto the sofa with a humph. "There aren't a lot of people in this region who can use an Eagleshot. Go and investigate—I'll give you a week's time to find out his identity. And what's the use of keeping those cowards who don't even have the courage to fight the enemy?"

The staff officer replied, "Rest assured, General. I know what to do now."

The staff officer hurriedly excused himself after seeing Wu Zhengnan wave his hand in response. Wu Zhengnan paced back and forth in the living room with a solemn expression. It was late at night but he had already lost any and all sleepiness.

Dawn arrived once more. Broken River City was already visible in the distance. The journey was rather uneventful albeit exhausting. They ran into a beast pack twice but encountered neither dark races nor humans. Qianye instructed the convoy to stop near the hills on the city outskirts. There was a forest nearby from which they could gather materials for a temporary camp. Qianye headed toward Broken River City after allocating their duties.

Broken River City had a population numbering in the tens of thousands—it couldn't compare to Darkblood City but was more or less equal to Blackflow City in scale. The city, along with an area of over 100 square kilometers around it, fell under the jurisdiction of the 10th division.

Geographically, Broken River City was closer to the interior of human territory, while Blackflow City was located near the front lines. Consequently, Broken River City was much more prosperous in comparison. Its perpetual dynamo tower at the city center was somewhat larger, and the public facilities appeared to be more orderly.

Qianye brought out his hunter's association badge and entered the city after paying the entry fees. He compared the map data in his mind to the streets at present and soon found the place without much effort. It was a rather majestic looking building standing a whole seven stories tall. The decoration was new and didn't look like the old buildings of the Evernight Continent at all. This great building felt like a giant among dwarves in Broken River City.

Qianye stood before the metallic doors and looked up at the four large words: Far East Heavy Industries. The four words were vigorous, powerful, and exuded an especially murderous aura. Every stroke possessed the sharpness of an unsheathed blade.

Far East Heavy Industries. This was one of the Wei clan's primary industries which was, much like those of the other aristocratic families, engaged in the manufacture of all kinds of products ranging from machinery to weapons and ammunition. From what Qianye understood about the aristocratic families, it seemed they were all on a trend to manufacture everything by themselves in order to avoid being controlled by others. This was especially true for the successive generations of the Wei clan serving as regional lords.

Far East Heavy Industries was a gigantic entity to the Broken River City. Its imposing manner was evidenced by this building which easily occupied half a block. Despite all this, it could only be considered second-rate in the upper continent because this wasn't the Wei clan's specialty.

Two guards walked over after seeing Qianye stand before the door for some time. They sized up his hunter attire and shouted, "What are you looking at!? This isn't a place you can come to. Scram!"