Monarch of Evernight - Chapter 408

Chapter 408: 408

Chapter 408: A Lifelong Enemy (Part 1) [V5C115 – A Distance Within Reach]

Bai Kongzhao appeared behind Qianye like a specter—the combat knife in her hand, flashing with jet-black radiance, thrust ruthlessly toward Qianye’s lower back .

Qianye, with his quick reflexes, had originally evaded this stab but Bai Kongzhao seemed to have anticipated his maneuver . Her blade made a sharp turn midway and continued its trajectory toward Qianye’s waist .

The edge was incomparably precise and aimed directly between the bones .

“Pfft!” Qianye’s tenacious body became fairly weak in the face of this attack as the blade’s tip entered his back!

Bai Kongzhao’s skirt danced in the wind . Apparently, she had exerted her full strength, yet her movements were still silent and undetectable . Qianye couldn’t detect even a shred of origin power fluctuation from her body and was only able to confirm where he was struck after the blade entered his body .

At the moment of danger, Qianye’s expression was as gloomy as still water . He reached out to grab the sharp edge of the combat knife, momentarily preventing it from piercing deeper . His right hand performed a simple horizontal slash and hacked at Bai Kongzhao’s waist .

The girl’s eyes flickered as she glanced at the incoming East Peak . She wore a vacant expression as though she had no idea how to deal with the attack—the sword was too fast, too heavy—her only choices were to pull back or endure the blow .

Bai Kongzhao suddenly pulled back her blade with all her might . The combat knife left Qianye’s body and, at the same time, left a bone-deep gash on his palm .

After drawing her combat knife, Bai Kongzhao immediately performed a backflip and evaded East Peak by a wide margin .

A blue light suddenly emerged in Qianye’s eyes at that moment . Bai Kongzhao’s body immediately fell down with a muffled groan . Meanwhile, East Peak’s angle shifted ever so slightly and struck her like a shadow chasing after its caster . The young girl was sent flying through the air like a kite with its strings cut .

Qianye frowned slightly and went after her in large strides . He knew that Bai Kongzhao seemed to be struck flying but was, in fact, using the force of the blow to retreat . The strike just now couldn’t be considered a heavy blow at all .

As expected, the young girl had gotten up with a flip of her body . She stared fixedly at Qianye with flickering wolf-like eyes, and her lips opened slightly as if she wanted to say something .

But Qianye had no interest in listening to her speak . East Peak hacked down from overhead, poised to cut her mercilessly into two halves .

Bai Kongzhao’s expression turned extremely awkward . She raised her blade horizontally against East Peak and borrowed the force to roll to one side, effectively evading the slash seemingly backed by a thousand tons of force .

Qianye raised East Peak and swung out once again, his brows locked in a frown .

Under his Eye of Truth, the origin power trajectories around Bai Kongzhao were transforming continuously . This proved that she had no fixed technique, and all of her moves were produced depending on Qianye’s movements . The problem was that the trajectories were shifting too fast, and the ones she chose to materialize in the end were those with the least openings . It was truly difficult to catch her .

At this moment, Qianye had truly experienced Bai Kongzhao’s incomparable talents in combat . The only fortunate part was that her origin power was quite mediocre; she was only rank-eight at the moment .

Since he had no way to gain the upper hand in terms of combat techniques, Qianye simply raised East Peak and launched a flurry of sweeps, slashes, flicks, and slaps . All of them were basic sword techniques he had used repeatedly, but every strike was incomparably heavy and sought victory through force .

At this moment, although there were still openings in Qianye’s sword strikes, they were extremely few in number . Moreover, each strike was so fierce and heavy that Bai Kongzhao simply didn’t dare to meet them head-on . Even if she did find any openings, it was impossible to take advantage of them because merely blocking and borrowing the momentum of the blow was already taking great effort .

The two fought an intense battle without pause . At this moment, Qianye’s attacks were like a bear, and every slam was enough to break bones and tendons . Meanwhile, Bai Kongzhao’s movements were incomparably agile like a panther .

But Qianye was already badly injured, and it was disadvantageous for him to be tangled on . Moreover, he was all alone while it was unclear whether Bai Kongzhao had reinforcements .

Suddenly, one of Qianye’s strikes went too heavy . Bai Kongzhao took advantage of this opportunity to press down with a wave of her blade, sending East Peak piercing into the ground . The girl soared into the air and actually stepped onto East Peak before lunging at Qianye’s chest with the combat knife in her hand .

Qianye had no time to change his move . His only choice at the moment was to abandon the blade and retreat or receive the blow with a less vital part of his body .

Unexpectedly, Qianye actually made no effort to retreat and his body didn’t so much as sway . He received the blade’s edge directly with his chest . At the same time, his pupils turned an unfathomable azure which pierced Bai Kongzhao’s eyes . An invisible hand passed through all obstacles and grabbed at the young girl’s heart .

Bai Kongzhao realized that Qianye was looking to exchange injuries . Without further thought, she clenched her teeth and continued forth . She endured the intense twitching pain in her chest as she steadily pushed the combat knife in her hand into Qianye’s chest .

However, the blade was oddly sluggish in entering Qianye’s body . Bai Kongzhao cried out involuntarily as she recalled how Qianye had escaped so quickly despite taking a sniper round to the chest . It was obvious that he had a chestguard of excellent quality!

Bai Kongzhao retreated rapidly after the miscalculated move . Both her attack and retreat were decisive and efficient, but East Peak was like a coiled dragon arriving through the skies .

The young girl had no other choice . She let out a scream and hacked fiercely at East Peak’s edge with all her might .

This was a contest of pure force without any fancy moves . Qianye’s legs sank into the earth as though his body were tens of thousands of tons in weight . Meanwhile, the origin power within his body formed an astonishing tsunami which struck out along East Peak and slammed ruthlessly onto Bai Kongzhao’s body .

As the forty-nine cycles of the Combatant Formula poured out in an instant, East Peak’s common steel-like exterior lit up for a moment, but soon recovered its jet-black appearance . It was as though that force capable of destroying all weapons below grade-five was merely an illusion .

Bai Kongzhao had taken a solid blow from this incomparably powerful heavy sword . Her small body was flung away like a lifeless puppet and smashed through several large trees before collapsing to the ground . But she actually managed to bounce back up amidst the cloud of dust and, like a startled rabbit, soon vanished with great haste .

Qianye was greatly astonished to see her escape with such alacrity after taking such a heavy blow . It was just that she had spurted out three mouthfuls of fresh blood during that short moment—it was apparent that she wasn’t having it easy either .

Qianye didn’t chase after her . He stood silently in place for a moment before spraying out a mouthful of fresh blood . The wound at his waist split open and, likewise, shot out a stream of blood .

The Combatant Formula was fierce and incisive, but the price one had to pay was also significant . Qianye had forcefully pushed the formula to its limit of forty-nine cycles despite being heavily injured . Although East Peak was able to handle the washing of the violent tides, his body couldn’t endure the backlash, adding injury upon injury .

Qianye stood for a while and waited for the violent origin power tides to recede before dressing his wounds simply . He then went over to pick up the combat knife Bai Kongzhao had dropped .

The knife was slender, and the blade was no more than three fingers in breadth . However, it was quite heavy in the hand and flickering with a sable radiance . There was a sinister looking beast-head at its crossguard depicted in a characteristic demonkin style .

Moreover, the sniper rifle strapped to the girl’s back was also of demonkin make . Demonkin weapons could be activated with darkness origin power and had no blood-energy-limitations like vampire weapons, but they should only be able to exert about seven parts of their maximum power in human hands .

During the battle just now, the demonkin blade had worked unobstructed in the little girl's hand and was able to exert all of its might . In the final confrontation of origin power, Qianye’s Combatant Formula had easily shattered Bai Kongzhao’s origin power, however, a mysterious force had dispersed the greater half of the raging tides, thus saving her from death . Regardless of race, an ordinary rank-eight fighter in her place would’ve had all his bones immediately fractured and his innards shattered—neither heavenly monarchs or dark princes could save him .

It seemed there were quite a few secrets on Bai Kongzhao’s body, and it might not be fewer than Qianye’s own . He weighed the demonkin combat knife in his hand and put it away into Andruil’s Mysterious Realm in passing . He would be able to barely put this grade-five weapon to use in situations where he needed to conceal himself and thus couldn’t use East Peak . Otherwise, inferior weapons simply couldn’t handle his tyrannical origin power .

Qianye walked over to where Bai Kongzhao last fell down and gauged the other party’s status of injury . It was unknown whether this assassination attempt was her own idea or the Bai clan’s intention . If it was the latter, then his situation would be even more dangerous .

Qianye cleared the scene and returned to the blood knight . Bai Kongzhao had struck him in passing during the intense battle just now . Although Qianye had interfered in time, one of his legs was still cut off at the knee .

“Now speak, how did you discover me? Tell me and I’ll give you a clean death . ”

The blood knight’s listless eyes lit up ever so slightly . “One day, I suddenly heard a voice in the depths of the Iron Curtain calling out to me . I responded and formed a connection of sorts with the Iron Curtain . Thereafter, I was able to persistently sense the power there . This type of power made me stronger, and my perception range grew wider, allowing me to sense anything within a thousand meters . But now, it's leaving me and I’m in great pain . ”

The blood knight suddenly began to twitch and spasm as though he were in great pain .

Qianye realized he couldn’t get anything more out of the vampire . As such, he raised East Peak and pierced it through the blood knight’s heart, effectively ending his suffering .

Qianye looked up and found that the sky was a dense lead-grey color, just like his own heart . From the blood knight’s words just now, he could confirm that it wasn’t just the beasts that had been affected by the Iron Curtain . Some of the dark races might also be affected similarly . At present, he had no idea if the humans would encounter such a situation, but he didn’t exclude this possibility .

The increase in strength after gaining the Iron Curtain’s power was only secondary to Qianye . What worried him the most was the greatly increased perception because that was a lethal threat to him . Fortunately, he had only seen this blood knight as an example, and this particular threat had been eliminated . But this increased his vigilance—at least, he could no longer sneak deep behind enemy lines as unscrupulously as before .

At this moment, the military drugs he had just taken a while ago were starting to take effect, and his injuries were feeling somewhat better . Qianye’s spirit had also risen accordingly . He identified the direction and headed back toward Silverflow Fjord .

He hadn’t gone very far when a sense of alarm arose in his heart . There was something abnormal in the darkness origin power suffusing forest—it was denser in one particular place .

Qiane kept on going without batting an eyelid . His steps came to a sudden halt at one point as he drew the Mystic Spider Lily and fired at that place .

Bai Kongzhao shot up from the ground like a startled deer and vanished into the forest . During that short maneuver, Qianye noticed that a corner of her short skirt was now torn with blood trickling down her leg . Although this shot wasn’t aimed carefully, it still managed to injure her leg .