Chapter 30: The Taint

But at this moment, everyone was surrounded, with no way out in sight.

Qianye felt enemies all around him. With a wild swing of his blade, he could easily cut down a few cannon fodder of the dark races. He stabbed down over a dozen of these expendables before being caught off guard by a black shadow that lunged and tackled him to the ground. The shadow then bit down on Qianye’s neck, the pain almost tearing apart his consciousness!

A sudden gunshot rang in Qianye’s ears, and the head of the vampire warrior who had pinned him down exploded into a mist of blood. A large hand then hoisted Qianye up.

“Are you okay, rookie?” This was a captain of the Red Scorpion level.

“Y-Yes, I’m fine!” Qianye didn’t know how to respond, as his neck still throbbed with searing pain. But the blood and brain matter of the vampire warrior had splattered over half of his body, covering the wound on the side of his neck.

In the distant sky, two airships that had been floating mid-air were continuously attacked by dozens of flying black dots, burning and roaring as they crashed to the ground.

Qianye’s heart sank, but the Red Scorpion dragged him, sprinting towards the outskirts of the city. Perhaps the strong ones were concentrated in the inner circle, making the outer perimeter much less obstructed. They broke through layer after layer of interception until they finally stopped at the city’s edge.

The Red Scorpion pointed in the direction where the airship had fallen, shouting, “There are escape pods there! As long as you make it to one of them, you can get out, understand? Rookie?”

“Yes, sir!” Qianye responded in the loudest voice he could muster.

The Red Scorpion captain patted Qianye’s shoulder, satisfied. “Good! Go, rookie, I’ll cover for you!”

“But—”

The Red Scorpion captain cut him off, “Get out! That’s an order! Survive! That’s also an order! Find the mastermind and avenge us! Go, rookie, leave now!”

Qianye’s mind went blank, his habit of absolute obedience compelling him to dash toward the crash site of the airship.

The Red Scorpion captain turned and walked back into the city. At the end of the road before him, countless warriors of the dark races surged from several streets, forming a terrifying black tide that rushed toward the Red Scorpion captain!

Before the rolling black tide, the Red Scorpion captain’s figure seemed so small. But his footsteps were powerful, each step leaving deep prints on the stone ground as he strode resolutely toward the tide of the dark races!

The black tide engulfed the Red Scorpion captain, suddenly stopping, and then slowly receded! The massive wave of dark warriors, formed by innumerable soldiers, was being pushed back by the captain alone!

Suddenly, a beam of light shot out from within the black tide, followed by more beams of light. The silver columns of light soared into the sky, and any dark race warrior touched by the light screamed in agony, some even beginning to melt!

Then, a deafening explosion! Hundreds of dark warriors were blasted into the sky, and the street became eerily empty. The Red Scorpion captain’s figure had vanished forever.

At this moment, Qianye had already found the escape pod from the crashed airship and opened its hatch. The terrifyingly strong individuals who had shot down the airship had returned to the battle inside the city, and no one noticed the little rookie who had slipped through the cracks.

Before climbing into the escape pod, Qianye looked back and saw the earth-shattering explosion! The blinding light was like a star burning as it fell, scorching Qianye’s eyes.

That missile was immensely powerful, originally meant to destroy the dark race base. Each Red Scorpion captain carried one. It was just never expected to be used this way.

This explosion seemed to be the signal, as intense blasts began to ring out incessantly throughout the city, demolishing entire districts. There was no chance of survival for the nearby dark race warriors. But with each explosion, a Red Scorpion met their end. In the entire Red Scorpion corps, there were only about a hundred Red Scorpions, and nearly a third of them were lost in this battle.

Qianye closed the hatch with force, forcing himself not to look at the destruction in the city. He punched the control panel, activating the escape pod. The five-meter-long escape pod shook violently, detaching from the mother ship, ascending rapidly, and then speeding away!

Finally, Qianye let out a sigh of relief, but he immediately felt an intense heat throughout his body, and his head swam with dizziness. He could no longer hold on and passed out. Inside the metallic cabin, there was only silence, save for the faint mechanical clicking as the escape pod flew toward its preset coordinates.

After an unknown amount of time, Qianye finally regained consciousness. He slowly opened his eyes, but had no idea what he was seeing.

It took a long while before Qianye realized he was looking at the night sky.

The night was filled with countless stars, and a crescent moon hung obliquely in the sky, casting a cold, silvery light on the earth. Qianye struggled to move his head, looking around, and then forced himself to sit up.

He found himself on a small hill, with no signs of human or dark race activity, just a pristine mountain area.

Qianye gradually recalled the battle, but his memory ended at the point where he activated the escape pod and left the battlefield. What happened in between was a complete blank.

Suddenly, Qianye felt a burning sensation in his body, and his throat was extremely dry, as if he hadn’t had a drop of water for days. But ordinary water seemed to do nothing to quench this strange thirst.

Qianye looked around and suddenly saw the corpse of a deer lying not far away. But the deer was emaciated, as if all its blood had been sucked dry by a vampire.

Vampire!

A flash of realization struck Qianye, and he immediately reached for his neck. He now remembered, in the final moments of the battle, a blood warrior had pounced on him and bit his neck!

His fingers traced two circular wounds, deep and hot to the touch, but without any sensation. Even though he couldn’t see them, Qianye immediately envisioned the shape of the wounds in his mind!

Those were the marks of vampire fangs!

He couldn’t believe this conclusion, and with trembling hands, he pulled out the dagger from his belt, using the polished, silver-plated surface as a mirror. In the reflection, Qianye saw two deep punctures. Such wounds were common; every person bitten by a blood race would have similar injuries.

Suddenly, Qianye felt weak, all his strength drained from his body. He heard a crackling sound, and the world seemed to shatter around him.

He had been bitten by a blood warrior, and his body was now tainted by the dark blood. Soon, he would become a blood slave, a being with only instinct, always craving fresh blood and flesh!

Qianye couldn’t recall how many blood slaves he had killed, but he never imagined he would become one himself.

He confirmed the state of the wounds once more, and the last shred of hope vanished. Standing up, he staggered over to the deer’s corpse and examined it. The deer had died from having its blood drained. But from the wounds, it appeared to have been bitten by human teeth, not the fangs of a vampire.

There was no doubt, the deer was killed by Qianye himself, and in a state of madness, he had drained its blood. It must have been the deer’s blood that had revived him.

Sighing, Qianye slowly placed the dagger against his neck. This was a ritual among the Red Scorpion warriors. Every Red Scorpion was prepared to end their life before losing their sanity to a vampire bite. Better to die than to become a wretched blood slave controlled by the blood race.

As the silver blade touched the skin of the wound, a burning pain erupted, and a sizzling sound accompanied a wisp of smoke, charring a small piece of flesh. From this reaction, Qianye knew that the dark blood had spread throughout his body, and there was no returning to being a normal human.

Closing his eyes, Qianye prepared to apply the pressure. One quick slash, and it would all be over, ending his doomed fate.

But just before he could press down, a question flashed through his mind: Why did he still have his sanity?

After a vampire bite, a person would lose their sanity in a day or two, or even in a few minutes, turning into a blood slave with only animal instincts, responding only to fresh blood and commands from higher-ranking blood races. This process was irreversible.

And since Qianye had already, in a state of lost consciousness, hunted and drained a deer, he shouldn’t have regained his sanity.

This question was like a ray of light in the deepest darkness, bringing a sliver of hope to the despairing Qianye.

Slowly, Qianye lowered the dagger.

He never gave up easily, and as long as there was a glimmer of hope, he would fight for survival. Though Qianye didn’t understand why he still retained his sanity, as long as he didn’t completely lose his mind, he would strive to live.

Of course, in the final moments before becoming a blood slave, Qianye would not hesitate to end his own life.

Scanning his surroundings, Qianye saw the escape pod had crashed a kilometer away. He walked to the escape pod, retrieving a backup force gun, clothing, rations, water, and a flare gun. He lifted the flare gun, aiming it at the sky, but then hesitated!

The flare would explode high in the air, releasing a special force fluctuation that would activate the nearby military alarm system, allowing the military to locate the general direction of the distress signal. But the problem was, how would Qianye explain his identity when the imperial soldiers arrived?

A rookie of the Red Scorpion? No, he was no longer an imperial soldier. His current identity was that of a blood slave, one who, if discovered, would be burned on the spot!

Even if Qianye had many battle achievements, and even if he still had his sanity, the best he could hope for was to be thrown into a pitch-black mine pit, laboring for the rest of his life, exchanging the mined ore for a meager ration of food, until he died and became a pile of bones.

The blazing fire of that nameless city had taught Qianye that the empire had no mercy or forgiveness for blood slaves. If his identity as a blood slave was revealed, he would be condemned to death, no matter what.

Returning to report that the mission was a trap was out of the question. The high-ranking officials of the imperial military would never believe the words of a blood slave.

Moreover, even if Qianye were still a normal person, the mastermind behind a trap that eliminated a third of the Red Scorpion’s elite forces, using a command signed by Lin Xitang, was someone beyond the reach of a mere rookie.

Just as the Red Scorpion captain had said, in certain matters, some people and some forces could truly control everything.