Chapter 15: Blood for Blood
Volume 3 – The Place Where My Heart Feels At Peace, Chapter 15: Blood for Blood
There were many things that Qianye did not understand. Yu Renyan did not say clearly who the little girl was, nor did he ever said who that person he wanted him to take care of was. It was only during his last sentence that Qianye heard the inner voice of a warrior.
Every true imperial soldier had made up their minds not to return alive when they stepped onto the battlefield.
The great Qin Empire built its nation on martial power, and commanded a staunch military style. There might be other members of the human race who had successfully built their nations in the world for the past thousand or so years, but in terms of casualty ratio of high ranking officers, the Empire was far beyond other countries.
At this moment where no one could see, Qianye straightened his spine and gave the now deceased Yu Renyan a military salute.
This was a true warrior; a warrior who passed away on the battlefield. Perhaps he might have all sorts of shortcomings, but his merits of resistance against the dark races was enough to wash away everything.
Qianye walked out of the sick ward and told the doctor, “He has passed.”
The doctor nodded and brought a few assistants with him to deal with Yu Renyan’s body.
Qianye and Old 2 stood at the corridor and waited quietly. If the Blackflow military could not get here in time, then the Home of Hunters would step forth to handle the funeral arrangements.
“What kind of mission did he undergo? Why are the casualties so serious?” Qianye asked.
Old 2 sighed and said, “They saw a blood feast at a settlement at the borders. That’s why they couldn’t restrained themselves and chased into the area controlled by the dark races, falling for an ambush. That is a whole squad of high ranking hunters! In the end Yu Renyan was the only one who managed to escape home. Apparently, there were four Blood Esquires and a demonkin Champion among the enemy.”
“Blood feast!” Qianye’s eyes immediately overflowed with killing intent.
Back at Red Scorpion, Qianye had been present at more than one blood feast, and every time he saw one, he would deeply shaken by the bitter sight. It was the instinctive sorrow any normal living being would feel when they saw a member of their own tortured and slaughtered in cruel fashion.
Even within the internal division of the dark races themselves, the holding of blood feasts was extremely controversial. Only a minor faction had insisted on preserving their progenitor’s tradition and organized blood feasts. This portion of the dark races were the irreconcilable enemies of mankind.
The Empire’s principle dictated that the culprit of every blood feast must be hunted down to the very end. Even if they did fail to track down the murderer, or they temporarily did not have the qualifications to hunt them down, the Empire would commit mass murder within the same region and repay blood with blood.
This was the Empire’s usual style of force. Although the dark races had exploited this persistence and laid down traps many times in the past, the Empire’s upper level never changed their beliefs. The Empire was willing to accept even if they had to pay a heavy price for revenge.
In the past, an empire marshal once said this, “Rationality and utility means nothing before bloody vengeance.”
It was exactly because of blood feasts that this marshal had led his troops and fought a number of great battles against the dark races despite unfavorable conditions. It was only after paying a terrible price that he finally managed to obtain victory. Although more than half of the younger generation of his family who followed him to battle perished in the battlefield, and he himself was attacked non stop by his political enemies because of this matter, there was never again a blood feast held within the war zones he was in charge of protecting after the war and for the rest of his life.
Qianye sucked in a deep breath and said to Old 2, “I’m going out for a few days. Let’s set aside that mission for now until I come back.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“I’m going to kill a few black blooded bastards!”
Old 2 was alarmed, “You’re crazy! There is a demonkin Champion over there! You’re just going to throw your life away!”
Qianye said calmly, “Of course I’m not going to throw my life away at that place. However, there are still plenty of black blooded bastards at other places. It is the natural duty of every imperial soldier to repay blood with blood in the face of such hatred!”
“It’s not like you’re an imperial soldier!” Old 2 said while looking like he was having a headache.
It was only then Qianye realized his slip and immediately changed the subject, “This is unrelated to being an imperial soldier or not. Those hunters are not soldiers either, but they still chased the dark races all the way to their territory, didn’t they?”
“They are a whole squad, while you…”
When Old 2 saw Qianye’s expression, he did not speak anything further. He simply let out a deep sigh and said, “That panoramic scope has arrived. Come with me and grab it before you head out. Maybe this way you’ll be able to live just a bit longer.”
Qianye nodded and said, “Relax, I won’t be reckless. Only those who are still living can take out more black blooded bastards in the future!”
It was at this moment Yu Renyan’s body was pushed out of the operating room. His expression was very calm and looked just like he had fallen asleep.
As his body was being pushed away, Qianye stared quietly at him and bid goodbye from the bottom of his heart, “Goodbye, my friend.”
This man had not spoken more than a few line of words with Qianye, but they did fight an intense battle with each other. It was their shared characteristics of hatred towards the dark races and identity as imperial soldiers that made them grew close to each other. In Qianye’s heart, this man was already his own friend.
An hour later, Qianye carried Eagleshot and a full set of survival equipment on his back before leaving Darkblood City, heading towards the area where the dark races operated. The direction Qianye chose was directly opposite to where Yu Renyan’s squad had been ambushed. Naturally, he wouldn’t seek out the demonkin Champion rashly and throw away his own life, but beneath the level of Champions, even the high ranking dark race warriors with noble titles were on Qianye’s kill list.
Be it for retaliating against the blood feast, or taking revenge for his friend, Qianye walked duty bound towards the darkness ruled territory. Even if he could not don an imperial uniform ever again, he would never forget his pride and duty as a soldier.
Qianye ran several hundreds of kilometers for a day and a night. He then slowed down his speed and began penetrate deep into the lines carefully. This was already an area controlled by the dark races, and sometimes even established patrol teams would appear. These were the regular warriors of the dark races, and they were completely different from the disorganized soldiers usually killed on human territory.
Qianye continued to go deeper into the area, and relying on the latest panoramic scope he was able to successfully avoid several waves of patrol and sneak into a nearby dark race settlement.
He was lucky that it was a vampire’s settlement.
The entire settlement was in fact an ancient castle and its subsidiary manor. This was the classic and traditional layout of a vampire. The main body of the building was in the shape of a column, and there were narrow and long windows only after seven or eight feet above the ground. The walls crawling with thorny vines, and it was already impossible to see how many layers of vines were entangled around the walls after many years of time. The most characteristic trait of the building was the three cone shaped towers. The outer walls, the top and the corridor railings were aligned with many standing extraordinarily shaped statues, accentuating the gorgeousness and eeriness of the entire ancient castle.
Qianye quietly pushed the physical origin bullet he handmade into Eagleshot and observed the settlement with his scope for an extended period of time.
The ancient castle was alit be it day or night. Occasionally, shadows could be seen passing by the long windows. This was a small family, and there were about a dozen or so official vampires. The head of the family was an old, knight level vampire with a head of silver hair. He was both graceful and dignified. Meanwhile, his clansmen included a Blood Esquire and ten warriors that hadn’t reached high rank yet. The rest were normal vampires. There were also a few pure blooded descendants that weren’t grown up yet.
There were rows of low single story houses at the manor behind the ancient castle. Several hundred humans lived inside them. These people worked at the manor’s croplands during the day, and they were responsible for raising livestocks as well. When it was night, and the vampires were ready for their “holy communion,” they were the livestock who provided the main course.
These human basically would not die, though. They would be bled in rotation for the enjoyment of the vampires.
When Qianye saw up to this point, he knew that this family belonged to the moderate faction of the vampires, also commonly referred to as the “Neos.” Normally, they would not suck blood directly and treat it as beverages instead. This way, the humans who supplied the blood would not be polluted by the black blood and thus could be used repeatedly.
However, no matter the moderate faction or the progenitor faction, they were all vampires and thus, Qianye’s killing target. However, this vampire ancient castle was by itself a small fortress. Naturally, Qianye could not mount a frontal attack on his own, so he was waiting patiently for a chance to arrive.
Finally, when it was very late at night during the second day, the family’s patriarch took several warriors with him and left the ancient castle. He was getting ready to attend a feast at another settlement. This knight climbed up a four wheeled carriage under the escort of his guards. The exterior of the van was wrapped in deep blue velvet. The family’s gorgeous crest were sewn into both sides of the carriage.
When the old knight was relaxing his entire body and sitting down on the comfortable long chair, Qianye pulled down the trigger!
Eagleshot’s crisp timber broke the night’s silence. The origin bullet that escaped the chamber was wrapped in the ability beam of Heavy Caliber, while its interior was swimming with a wisp of blood energy. The timing of this shot was just right, and the distance was less than three hundred meters. The blood knight was halfway into taking a sitting position, and his guards had already spread out away from him. It was impossible to evade or block the shot now.
There was a loud bang, and the door and half of the carriage shattered apart as the knight was blasted into the air by a glaring ball of origin power. Half of his body was a bloody mess, and the scene of the explosion immediately fell into chaos. The frightened horses did their utmost to struggle free from their bridles, and the guards hurriedly jumped towards the knight and used their bodies to form a shield, afraid that another attack would soon follow.
Qianye pushed a second handmade origin bullet into his gun, and this time the muzzle slightly deviated to aim six hundred meters away at the castle gate. There, a young blood esquire was running madly out of the gate. Because the ambush had been abrupt, he was dressed in flax shirt and riding breeches. He held a thin, long saber in his hands, and he hadn’t even managed to put on his armor.
Eagleshot jumped intensely once more, and the origin bullet cut through the sky with silver light to blast right at the Blood Esquire. The Blood Esquire was completely caught by surprise, and he actually froze as he stared blankly at the silver light flying towards him! He could never imagine that the silver light was be aimed at him from such a far distance.
What kind of origin gun could shoot up to seven hundred meters away?
No one could answer his question. The Blood Esquire only managed to put on a defensive stance before he was ruthlessly blasted away by the origin bullet. After the bullet was imbued with the ability of Heavy Caliber, the one shot had damaged the Blood Esquire into a state of near death.
Qianye took out a military use stimulant and plunged into strongly into his neck. While enduring the scorching pain, he swiftly injected the medicinal fluid into his body. This model number of stimulant was specialized for combat. Other than quickening the recovery rate of origin power, it could also add up to about twenty percent of strength and reactionary speed temporarily.
Immediately after, he jumped up from his hiding spot and half knelt on the ground. Holding a firearm type large caliber sniper with one hand, he pushed in five arch-shaped magazines and began firing in bursts. Every time he fired, a vampire guard would fall to the ground.
Qianye’s shooting skills were extremely accurate, and he was using the large caliber sniper like a handgun. The gunshots almost connected together to form a single boom. The might of a sniper like this was the equivalent of a rank two origin gun, and it was incredibly powerful against vampire warriors below rank three. It could also hurt a vampire beneath rank five.
When the remaining vampires warriors saw that Qianye had been using a gun all this time, they immediately spread out, sped up, ran evasively and pounced towards Qianye like a ghost. The human sniper was dead the moment they got close to them!