Chapter 88: Soul of the Imperial Army

[Volume 2 - Bloom of the Other Shore Flower]

Wei Potian turned his head to look back. Most of the Broken Winged Angel rookies were hurt. Although the vampires had spared only four warriors to deal with them, the situation was still completely one-sided. One of his companions had already collapsed, and it was unknown if he was dead or alive. All of them, including himself, had used a stimulant for this battle. He was currently the only one who possessed a tiny shred of combat strength while the rest of the Broken Winged Angel rookies were struggling to break through the vampire encirclement.

Wei Potian clenched his fists tightly and roared like a wounded animal. He rushed over to force back the vampire warriors who were still attacking his companions before hoisting the unconscious rookie onto his back. Then he ran toward the expeditionary army's camp. All of the Broken Winged Angel rookies shot Qianye complicated glances before following closely behind Wei Potian and escaping the battlefield.

After attracting the attention of most of the vampire warriors, Qianye no longer traded his enemies blow for blow. Instead, he changed from his forceful style to a more nimble one by constantly moving and changing his position, relying on his speed and agility to avoid several close interceptions that would've led to more bloodshed. Despite having exchanged several blows already, both parties didn't actually come into contact with each other for a time. This lasted until a vampire warrior lost his patience and charged at Qianye with no semblance of skill whatsoever. A dull thud could be heard, and the vampire warrior was knocked back several steps while Qianye was thrown in a certain direction.

However, some vampire warriors immediately noticed that something was amiss. Upon hitting the ground, Qianye had actually rolled right into an alleyway. The vampire warriors that failed to notice anything strange immediately roared angrily and chased Qianye into the dark alley like a pack of wolves.

The Blood Esquire also started moving toward Qianye with a sinister smile on his face, but a sudden dizzy spell nearly caused him to slip and fall to the ground. He looked down at his wound in shock and finally realized that it was overflowing with the rotten stench of black blood!

The Blood Esquire immediately turned pale as he circulated his blood energy with all his might. He barely managed to suppress the poison in his wound and temporarily stop it from getting worse. He didn't dare to delay any longer, however. He needed to retreat and attend to his wound immediately.

The human was so hurt that, for the latter half of the battle, he didn't dare to fight them directly. Moreover, he was currently being pursued by ten vampire warriors. The Blood Esquire thought that the human who foiled their trap was definitely going to die, so he threw one last hateful glare at the alleyway before leaving. He swiftly vanished into the night.

Qianye panted rapidly. His wounds burned, and his body screamed with fatigue. He was following a map in his mind, and the battleground he had chosen to make his final stand in wasn't far ahead of him. However, he had almost depleted all of his blood energy and origin power during the short but intense battle that had just occurred.

Qianye stepped forward, jumped, and turned his body sideways in midair, firing a shot with his Butcher as he ran. The footsteps of the vampire warriors chasing him slowed down slightly, but he knew that his actions would only continue to enrage them and get them to chase him relentlessly. This was exactly what he wanted. His plan was to stall these vampires long enough for Wei Potian and his companions to escape to the headquarters of the expeditionary army. Maybe they might even be able to find some reinforcements and come to his aid in time.

Qianye smiled bitterly at this thought.

Timely reinforcements? That was clearly a thought borne of delusion.

A tall tower that reached into the clouds appeared in front of Qianye. Countless dark gray metallic pipes of all shapes and sizes connected to every part of that tower. A set of gears that took up an entire floor for themselves could be seen every few meters, each one being the height of an adult human. They fitted precisely into one another, and even the tiniest gear was as big as an elephant's foot. This was the colossus steam machine called the "Arm of the Colossus." Darkblood City once used it to build the walls of the city. Since then, this giant machine had lain dormant for many years, and multiple parts of it were covered in rust.

This was where Qianye had decided to make his last stand. Its terrain was complicated enough that it would get in the way of his pursuers trying to surround him. However, Qianye knew that, even if he managed to use the remainder of his strength to kill a few more vampire warriors, there was no way he would be able to survive until Wei Potian returned.

In reality, Qianye foresaw this outcome the second he fired his Eagleshot. He couldn't explain why he had pulled the trigger, condemning himself to save Wei Potian and some Broken Winged Angel rookies that he didn't know at all.

Perhaps he had been affected by Bai Longjia, or maybe he still couldn't forget the figure of the Red Scorpion leader in his heart. When standing on the great battlefield and fighting against the dark races, it seemed as though a person's beliefs would change without them realizing it.

Qianye originally hated Bai Longjia with all his being. That man was arrogant, rude, and only cared about background and talent. In short, Bai Longjia was the epitome all the flaws that a descendant of an aristocratic family normally possessed. Other than his strength, Qianye found almost no reason to like Bai Longjia at all.

To this day, Qianye still hadn't forgotten the comment that Bai Longjia had personally written on his file.

—The only thing that comes out of a landfill is trash.

But while Bai Longjia possessed all these flaws, they didn't stop him from singlehandedly holding back two powerful opponents as strong as himself to let the Broken Winged Angel rookies escape. They didn't stop him from standing strong and fighting to the end without ever surrendering. This one look at his back was enough to make Qianye forget all of his unhappiness from before.

In Qianye's eyes, Wei Potian and those youths were all just rookies right now, but it was these rookies that might become the Empire's backbone in the future! And since they were only rookies, it was naturally the task of a veteran like Qianye to repel their enemies just like back when that Red Scorpion leader had forced the black tide to retreat with his own flesh and blood!

When Eagleshot boomed, Qianye had already forgotten that he was no longer an imperial soldier, or that he was in reality just a rookie himself.

By now, Qianye had reached the bottom of the tower. He crouched and jumped up its limestone foundation, repeatedly grabbing the horizontal bars to pull himself up until he reached the first floor. He pressed his back against a large gear and inspected his Butcher with a lowered head. There was one last physical bullet inside its chamber. Meanwhile, the vampire warriors sped up and charged toward him from the alley down below.

Suddenly, Qianye sensed something and immediately jumped away from his original spot. It was only after he hid behind the half-cover of a metallic disc that he dared to look upward.

There was a lanky figure standing at the corner of the platform above him. His limbs were so long that the sight of them was almost impossible to forget.

Qianye remembered this guy. He had brushed past him during an earlier night, and had seen his brief but intense clash with that big werewolf. This guy was a rank six expert, and a thick stench of blood was emanated from his body. His pale-colored eyes never failed to instill the image of a strong and cunning beast in one's mind.

Qiante was confident in his ability to fight against a dark race warrior or a wild beast, but this man was one of the few beings to instill unparalleled vigilance in his mind. The most dangerous enemy of man was man himself.

"You're Qianye, right?" that man asked.

Qianye's heart sank slightly as he answered, "That's me."

"My name is Yu Renyan. I have come specifically for that matter at Blackflow City."

Qianye was slightly surprised by his answer. He calmed his heart and slowed his breathing, doing his best to recover his worn body to the best possible fighting condition. Although he was currently inferior to Yu Renyan in every aspect, he wasn't someone who was resigned to his own fate.

Yu Renyan let a short blade slip out of his sleeve to fall into his left hand. He then took an old-fashioned, double-barreled origin handgun from his waist and pressed a hidden button. Another blade appeared beneath the gun barrel.

Qianye's heart sank further. He only needed to look at the weapon to know that this man's combat style was similar to his. To Qianye, this kind of enemy was the hardest type to deal with, not to mention that there was still a group of vampire warriors following from behind.

A vampire warrior charged out of the dark alley. The moment he saw Qianye, he immediately charged toward him at top speed, wearing a sinister smile on his face. With a single leap, he landed onto the limestone foundation, but just as he was about to climb further, he sensed that the situation wasn't right. Because Yu Renyan wasn't trying to hide his presence, the stench of rotten flesh that permeated from his body was incredibly thick, causing the vampire to immediately detect his presence with a sense of alarm. It was like the scene of a wild animal encountering another vicious beast.

The vampire warriors appeared one after another as they slowly approached the duo.

Yu Renyan didn't wait for Qianye to speak up again. Instead, he turned his body sideways and opened up the path, saying, "I should kill you immediately, but that order will have to change considering how many black-blooded bastards there are in this place. I'll deal with these bloodsucking zombies first and then deal with you! Come on, we'll go to the roof and kill them all. You kill three, I'll take on the other seven."

Qianye's eyes narrowed slightly before nodding, "That's very fair!" He dashed past Yu Renyan before leaping upward, rushing straight towards the top of the tower.

Yu Renyan confronted the vampire warriors before slowly backing away and also retreating all the way to the roof of the tower.

An intense battle erupted the moment the vampire warriors charged up the roof!

Qianye waved his hand axe and slashed at his enemies like he was imitating raindrops. He made no attempts to defend himself at all and decapitated the three vampire warriors in the blink of an eye. When he turned around to look at the other corner of the roof, he happened to witness Yu Renyan pressing down on the last vampire warrior and cutting open his throat.

As he thought, this Yu Renyan was an expert. He had slain seven vampire warriors singlehandedly, but had barely fallen behind on Qianye. This wasn't just a difference in rank, but also because Yu Renyan's combat skills hardly fell behind on Qianye's despite not being a member of the Yellow Springs or the Red Scorpions.

Qianye leaned against a metallic tank, trying his best to even maintain a standing position. He felt like fire was flaring both in and outside his body, and both his blood energy and origin power were completely depleted. A dozen or so wounds had been to his body during the brief exchange just now, and even the slightest movement resulted in heart-wrenching pain that seemed to stifle even his breathing. He had completely lost all feeling in his left arm. In fact, he wasn't even sure if his left arm was still in place.

Yu Renyan was also hurt, but he hadn't suffered too many wounds. They were just flesh wounds that weren't deep either.

"It's our turn now." Qianye said.

He could not longer grip the hand axe. His right hand was holding a short blade he had snatched from a vampire warrior.

Yu Renyan looked Qianye up and down once before saying, "You're the one who did that thing to Qi Yue, aren't you?"

Qianye was just about to admit it when Yu Renyan waved his hand and stopped him from talking further.

"Actually, don't tell me anything. I'll be put in a difficult position if you did. Although I hate the army's style a lot, I am still a soldier myself."

Yu Renyan put away his weapon and looked at his own wounds, saying, "I saw your battle just now. I'm hurt myself, and I am no longer capable of killing you, so let's forget about fighting today. However, know that I won't show any mercy if I run into you again, so memorize my face, and pray, little guy. Pray that I will never find you again!"

When he was done speaking, Yu Renyan walked to the edge of the roof. As he passed Qianye, he suddenly said, "The blood of these guys is still warm, you should drink it now or you won't survive the night."

Qianye's eyes abruptly widened as he came face to face with Yu Renyan. However, knowing that he could no longer conceal his blood energy now that he was severely hurt, he immediately calmed down.

When Yu Renyan saw the stubborn light in Qianye's eyes, his vertical pupils suddenly alternated between black and white as he rolled his eyes. He revealed a hint of understanding that was overwhelmed by cynicism, "It is not wrong to hold fast to a belief, but sometimes it can be inconvenient to do so."

Right now, a red mist was flooding Qianye's eyes, and his vision was starting to blur. He was still pondering the meaning behind Yu Renyan's words when he suddenly heard the windy sound of something flying towards him. However, there wasn't nearly enough strength in his body to dodge, and he was knocked over by the heavy object. Qianye felt warm liquid drenching his entire head and body, as the sweet scent of blood energy enveloped him like a web.