[V6C11 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]

Despite knowing that William was trying to change the subject, Qianye’s attention was still drawn. “Why?”

“I received news that those old fellows from the Evernight Council already know what Sky Demon is searching for. They’ve just made up their mind to take action and snatch it.”

This news was so significant that Qianye could hardly believe it for a moment. This should belong to the highest level of council secrets, and William being privy to such information spoke volumes about this count’s status in the realm of darkness. However, why would he tell Qianye such important news?

Qianye didn’t believe that it was merely due to the friendship between them.

He frowned and said without mincing words, “Why would you give me such important news? Aren’t you afraid that I’ll leak it back to the empire?”

William chuckled. “We’ve made a deal before, that you take care of the descendants of Marquis Ross. The present results are much better than I’ve expected. You have to know that Ross is only a branch of the Monroe clan, and there were a lot of Monroe main branch members in this castle today.”

Qianye raised his eyebrows suspiciously. “Why is my intuition telling me that your words can’t be trusted at all?”

William seemed as if he had been shot. He waved his hands and looked like he wanted to say something but retracted his exaggerated expression upon seeing Qianye’s darkening face. “Alright, stop overthinking things. It’s only a matter of time before this news is made public, so what’s the harm in telling you a bit earlier? Do you think the Evernight Council can keep the empire’s heavenly monarchs in the dark once they make a move? But it’s best for minor characters like us to steer clear once those big shots start moving. Otherwise, we won’t be able to take it even if it’s just a shockwave.”

“Ah, right!” William suddenly thought of a matter and said solemnly to Qianye, “You should leave this region as soon as possible. There’s a dangerous vampire overseer in this area, a woman called Twilight. You should stay as far away from her as possible. If you really need to attack, then don’t hold back in the least. She’s an extremely dangerous woman who’s killed several of my good brothers.”

Qianye’s heart was jolted. “Twilight? Since that’s the case, why not kill her?”

William laughed wryly. “How can it be so simple? That woman is extremely crafty and excels in speed. I’m not confident in tying her down in the wild even without the Iron Curtain’s restrictions. Moreover…”

At this point, William hesitated for a moment before continuing in a self-deprecating tone, “Moreover, both our identities are special. Once the assassination fails and she escapes, it’ll lead to an all-out racial war between the vampires and the werewolves. With the werewolves’ present situation, it’s best for us to avoid such a war if we can.”

Even William of the Summit of Peaks was emotionally moved like so. This allowed Qianye to appreciate the werewolves’ suboptimal circumstances in the Evernight faction.

William waved his hands forcefully as if trying to shake away the unhappy thoughts. “Enough on that. These things are meaningless. You, on the other hand, have stirred up quite a lot of trouble. This fellow’s status in the family isn’t low at all despite his ineptitude.”

“I’ve killed more than one vampire from the twelve clans. It’s nothing to add one more,” Qianye replied indifferently.

William gave it some thought, then nodded. He stopped speaking of this matter and only asked, “So what are your plans now?”

“I’m going back to rest and resupply,” replied Qianye. That was only one reason, however. The information William had given him was of extreme importance. He needed to inform his friends immediately and have them make preparations to face it.

Qianye wasn’t clear about Sky Demon’s strength. From Zhao Yuying’s initial description, it was like a terrifying existence which surpassed the peak experts of both factions. Now that the Evernight Council was looking to contend with Sky Demon and rob its treasure, it was proof enough that they were confident in stopping the latter’s main body.

At that time, the Iron Curtain would be useless even if it was still there. Without ample preparations, the young geniuses operating under the Iron Curtain—like Zhao Jundu, Song Zining, and himself—would be in grave danger.

William breathed a sigh of relief after discovering that Qianye had no intention to go further in. He glanced at Qianye’s tight grip on the sword and said with a whistle, “There’s no need to be so tense.”

Qianye laughed but didn’t relax his hand.

William didn’t mind, either. He only waved at Qianye and walked away. Qianye didn’t linger for long. He only cleaned up the battlefield briefly before leaving swiftly.

Before long, news of the dark races’ loss in zone a3 spread throughout the bloody battlefield and astonished both factions. The name Qianye finally rose to the surface and was soon known by the clans and nobility. His long-distance assault had penetrated an entire dark-race controlled region and killed countless powerful enemies, cementing his invincibility under the Iron Curtain.

All the major families including the Bai, Song, and Nangong clan treated Qianye with the same strategy as they would Zhao Jundu. They privately instructed their forces not to provoke Qianye and to retreat immediately once they encountered him.

At this point, Qianye had already returned to the Zhao clan base and passed the news onto the overseer General Zhao Gongcheng while also catching up on the latest news and exchanging military contributions. His accomplishments hadn’t been reflected in the latest military report just yet. Blackflow City, on the other hand, had once again become a hot topic, barring the news about how matchless Zhao Jundu was as he shouldered the entire Zhao clan war zone.

Song Zining wasn’t willing to be left alone after Qianye headed toward the Zhao clan. After a wave of reorganization and expansion, he led Dark Flame out of Blackflow City and started sweeping through the surrounding areas. Contrary to Zhao Jundu’s solitary rampage, the Song Seventh Young Master was followed by a large army as he marched into the Dark Nation in a grand manner.

Once Dark Flame started moving, the dark races naturally had to respond accordingly. No matter how matchless an expert was, he still had to return after killing his targets. But wherever the human army went, the regions in its wake would change owners. Thus, the dark race side had to continuously dispatch forces to open up a theater of war on the vast lands west of Blackflow City.

In the end, Song Zining proved that his victory in Blackflow City wasn’t a fluke. His strategies seemed to be guided by the gods as he triumphed in every battle, utterly routing great armies several times bigger than his own.

First, it was the native nobles of Evernight, then the higher bigwigs who had come from the distant continents. Even generals of significant origins—those on the same level as Demonkin Viscount Luther who was beheaded outside Blackflow City—took the field one by one, but were all defeated in Song Zining’s hands.

Those famed generals were originally quite arrogant and conceited due to their status and were disdainful toward winning by overwhelming numbers, but after being defeated one after another, they had no choice but to admit that ordinary generals like them were far from being a match for Song Zining’s leadership.

But Song Zining suddenly retreated just as the dark race was mobilizing a great number of soldiers and experts from various places to surround and kill the isolated Dark Flame army. As if he had predicted everything, Song Zining withdrew the Dark Flame army to a strategic location between two mountains and entrenched it there. The dark race scouts on the battlefield actually had no idea how these humans, with their meager speed, had run so far in such a short time.

The pursuing dark race army arrived to find Song Zining’s army hunkered down in a strategic terrain, throwing them into a difficult dilemma. In the end, they didn’t dare attack despite their large numbers and could only retreat unwillingly. With this retreat, the vast land stretching hundreds of kilometers between Blackflow and Song Zining fell in the hands of the empire.

Up to this point, Song Zining had led an army over hundreds of kilometers and won thirty battles in one month. He had conquered another territory almost the size of Trinity River County.

Such a military contribution immediately shook the empire, so much so that some people believed Song Zining had the potential to become a military god of the generation just like Lin Xitang. His fame for the moment wasn’t below that of Zhao Jundu.

What Song Zining gained following this campaign weren’t limited to fame alone; it was also accompanied by extreme profits. He had led a great army to open up a new county and slaughter the dark races by the tens of thousands. This batch of military contributions was far bigger than those of Qianye and Zhao Jundu who had been fighting on their own. It was big enough to bring about a change to the contribution rankings.

Should the Song clan obtain such a military god, their weak situation would be overturned, and there would be hope of a resurgence. All information related to Song Zining was immediately dug up by the various major clans. But astonishingly, they found out that Song Zining had long since fallen out with the Song clan’s elder assembly, and his personal assets had reportedly been frozen. It was no different from being expelled.

As such, the Song clan became the empire’s laughingstock yet again.

Qianye was happy for Song Zining after seeing the reports, but he also couldn’t help but worry. He immediately wrote a long letter to his friend detailing the Evernight Council’s possible movements and advising Song Zining to return to Blackflow.

Since they could take down a county this time, they could do it again another time. But once the Iron Curtain opened up, it would be disastrous for Dark Flame without an expert to oversee them. It was unknown just what kind of characters the Evernight Council would dispatch. After all, ten thousand expeditionary army soldiers were only ants before them.

After concluding his lengthy correspondence, Qianye replenished his ammunition and supplies before setting out once again on his own. He was planning to clear away the hidden dangers in the Zhao clan war zone as soon as possible and return to Blackflow City.

During this trip, Qianye planned to meet Zhao Jundu and take down several major settlements between the Zhao clan war zone and the dark race territory. The dark race combat squads would surely be driven away without the support of these bases. Even if some experts were able to push deeper in, the impact wouldn’t be too great. This would stabilize the Zhao clan war zone and also earn them another batch of contributions during the last phases of the bloody battle.

Even if the Iron Curtain were to disappear, Qianye and Zhao Jundu could calmly retreat if they worked together.

The latest military report detailing Song Zining’s accomplishments arrived on imperial lands soon after Qianye’s departure. However, not everyone was happy about Song Zining’s meteoric rise. The atmosphere throughout the entire Song clan was fairly odd recently.

Both young masters and the elders alike refused to talk about affairs related to the bloody battle—it was as though the nearly one hundred combat squads the Song clan had invested didn’t even exist. The subordinates, however, whispered quietly about certain elders smashing their tables and other young masters venting their anger on the servants.

However, there was always an end to deceiving oneself. The empire was shaken once again when the latest military contribution rankings were announced. The Song clan, which had been at the top for a long time, was finally kicked off the throne. Meanwhile, the Zhao clan’s rank skyrocketed, jumping several positions to take the top spot in one go.

This time, the contributions turned in by the Zhao clan were equal to the combination of all the clans ranked second to ninth! The significance of this number was extraordinary—it indicated that the Zhao clan alone represented half the nation’s power.

There were also incidental factors in the rankings shift—for instance, apart from the Song and Yin clans, the contributions earned by the others had all fallen sharply. This was especially true of the Nangong family, which gained next to nothing. People from the upper echelons were very clear as to the reason behind this drastic decrease.

However, an analysis of the Zhao clan’s contributions showed that the largest sum came from Song Zining, followed by Qianye and Zhao Jundu. Moreover, the combination of points from all the other combat squads couldn’t match either one of the three.

Song Zining’s explanation was that the Zhao clan had offered the highest price. These words caused the attitudes of the various families toward Song Zining to change rapidly, and they began inquiring about the possibility of buying from him. Since even the Zhao clan could buy contributions from him, what was stopping everyone else from doing the same?