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.