But could it be that those veterans, the Red Scorpion captains who detonated their own explosives, and Colonel Wei Lishi, who brought him into the Red Scorpions, had died in vain?
No! They could not disappear so silently!
Qian Ye gritted his teeth.
To avenge the Red Scorpions, there were only two ways. One was to rise to the upper echelons of the Empire, amass more power than the shadowy masterminds, then expose the truth and seek justice for the fallen Red Scorpion warriors. But Qian Ye, now a Blood Slave, lived from one perilous moment to the next; he could no longer return to human society.
Yet, there was another path! That was to survive, to acquire formidable strength. When Qian Ye’s power reached a certain level, he could add those black hands to his hit list, one by one!
He hid his important gear, keeping only a dagger on him, and donned a civilian coat. He set out for the outskirts of the mountains, intending to find a human settlement to gather information about the surroundings and see if he could get any news from the outside world.
The preset return coordinates for the escape pod should have been the Red Scorpion headquarters, but the star map might have been damaged when the mothership was hit, and now it was unclear where it had crash-landed. The undeveloped, primeval scenery provided no clues about the exact location.
But a day later, Qian Ye returned to this place. He had several new gunshot wounds, and a large burn mark on his arm, the result of being hit by a silver bullet. Even now, it oozed yellow pus.
His face was a mask of confusion and gloom.
When he had gone to the city to gather information, the sight of the crowds immediately filled his nostrils with the sweet scent of blood, something he had never experienced before. The bloodlust that lay deep within him erupted, and Qian Ye, unprepared, radiated a thick aura of blood.
This was the border of the Empire, where dark races often appeared, and the city guard was extra vigilant. A passing patrol squad instantly detected the vampire aura emanating from Qian Ye.
In an instant, almost everyone around him became an enemy.
By the time Qian Ye escaped the crowd, he was already riddled with injuries. Though he managed to make it back to the mountains under the cover of night, he knew he could not stay here any longer.
This was indeed the Red Scorpion headquarters, the site of the Yellow Spring Training Camp, Qin Land, but it was not good news for Qian Ye.
Most of Qin Land was under the Empire’s control, with only a few fringe areas still held by the dark races. If Qian Ye’s identity as a Blood Slave were exposed, people would give him no chance to explain.
It had been the same when Qian Ye was still with the Red Scorpions. The first reaction upon seeing a Blood Slave was to shoot. As the Red Scorpion captains had taught him, no one could afford the consequences of leniency.
A thousand years of war between the two races had accumulated a deep-seated hatred, reducing everything to a matter of stance, with no room for right or wrong.
Qian Ye slid down against a tree, his mind blank. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his side, like being licked by flames.
He jumped up, and a small object fell from his inner pocket, rolling to the ground, glinting with a flash of silver. It was a silver casing. He had forgotten when he had put it in his pocket, and it had stayed there until it touched his skin through a tear in his clothes, reminding him of its presence.
The small object was quite rough, its industrially polished exterior barely adequate, and its internal force array had many flaws, only achieving 50% energy compression efficiency. Yet, this single silver bullet, when it made contact with his body, caused a burning pain, a reminder of his current situation.
Qian Ye’s military boot suddenly crushed it, grinding it into the earth, then covered it with dirt, flattening the small hole, and soon there was nothing to see.
Qian Ye stood quietly for a while, taking one last look at the mountains and the land, picked up his backpack, wrapped himself in a cloak, and pulled up the hood, silently leaving the mountainous area.
At this moment, in one of the central provinces of the Empire, a region had just bid farewell to days of rainy weather. The afternoon sky, partly cloudy, opened up, and sunlight streamed through.
The river shimmered, and the wind chimes on the lakeside platform clinked. Their shape resembled Bi Fang, a mythical bird with a single crane-like leg, the emblem of the Song Clan of Gao Ling, the lowest of the four great noble houses of the Empire.
The buildings in this area were all of wood and stone, with high platforms, pavilions, and eaves, their lustrous green tiles reflecting light, blending with the azure water. Everything exuded a nostalgic air of ancient times, starkly different from the main cities’ style of green stone and metal.
The upper echelons of the Empire favored an ancient style, and their vast resources supported the delicate and seemingly fragile facilities.
Inside the lakeside platform was a spacious study, sparsely furnished, with a desk placed beneath a long window. Song Zining sat there, a stack of processed documents in front of him, with only one last trivial imperial courier report left.
From Song Zining’s calm and composed expression, one could not tell that his expected visitor was five minutes late. In his schedule, each task was allotted fifteen minutes, a habit he had developed during his training at the Yellow Spring Training Camp.
Song Zining glanced at the courier report, finally opening it out of boredom, something he would never waste time on under normal circumstances.
A name caught his eye: Lin Qianye.
Song Zining paused for a few seconds, flipping back to the first page, the paper rustling lightly. In an inconspicuous corner, a brief message stated that the Red Scorpion mission had failed, with one-third of the Red Scorpion-grade warriors lost. The inner pages listed the names of the fallen, and among them was Lin Qianye.
At that moment, the door was knocked, and a servant announced the guest’s arrival in a low voice.
Song Zining quietly closed the courier report, placing it on the pile of processed documents, then stood up, greeting the distinguished lady with an impeccable smile.
Meanwhile, at the Broken Angel headquarters, Wei Po Tian lay sprawled on his bed, sleeping soundly. The intense training over the past seven days had exhausted him. But the effort was worth it; he had successfully stood out among the new recruits, earning the right to represent the Broken Angels in the upcoming military competition.
As for the second letter he had sent before the closed training, it sat quietly in the return box at the Red Scorpion headquarters. This letter, with no recipient, would be sent out with the next batch of official documents, traveling across three continents before returning to the sender.
A day later, in a remote corner of Qin Land, a team of Imperial soldiers found the crashed airship and discovered where Qian Ye had awoken.
The officer in charge had sharp eyes and a resolute face, weathered by experience. After carefully examining the site for an hour, he said, “He still has his wits. This is not a Blood Slave, but a newly born vampire. However, he has lost his trail.”
“Is a newborn vampire really that significant?” another officer asked.
“Not really. We’ll report this, and our mission is done. That airship belongs to the military, and I don’t want to get involved with their affairs.”
The other officers agreed. The Imperial Military Department was a massive war machine, with numerous factions and complex relationships. The local garrisons and regular armies were entirely separate systems. Many regular armies liked to use the local garrisons as cannon fodder, so the relationship between the two was not amicable.
A crashed lifeboat and a fleeing newborn vampire, in the vast sea of the Empire, were like insignificant bubbles. No one cared to waste time on such matters. Thus, with a tacit understanding, this small incident vanished into the Empire’s bureaucratic system.
Several days later, in the region where the Empire and the dark races met, a solitary figure appeared. He looked ahead, and on the distant horizon, a small town appeared, with a large, albeit old, airship docked by its side.
This person was Qian Ye, who immediately recognized the airship as an intercontinental vessel.
It seemed he was right. This was the place.
The town was not marked on any map, and there was no official information about it in the Empire’s records. But it existed. It was a gray zone, the intersection of Eternal Night and Dawn.
In this town, dark races and humans could coexist, provided they had money and the strength to protect themselves.
Qian Ye strode towards the town, and at the entrance, a massive, rotund man blocked his way.
“What are you doing here, kid?”
Qian Ye gave the fat man a once-over. This gatekeeper was actually a Level Three fighter!
Qian Ye grew wary, reassessing the place, and then said, “I’m looking for Grey Feather.”
“Grey Feather? That’s our boss! What do you need from him?” The fat man seemed slightly more serious.
“I need a ticket.”
“Where to?”
“Eternal Night Continent.”
“Haha!” The fat man let out a strange laugh, saying, “Anyone who wants to go there must be crazy! You didn’t do something really big, did you? Alright, you don’t have to answer. I’m just curious. Boss Grey Feather said we should be polite to those who want to go to Eternal Night. But, seriously, who would pay such an expensive ticket to sneak into that damned place?”
As the fat man rambled, he moved his massive body towards the town, and Qian Ye followed behind, silently entering the town.
Half a day later, the old and enormous airship struggled to take off, taking a full day to leave the continent and enter the void. Qian Ye sat by the porthole, watching the Empire’s mainland gradually recede through the murky glass. After a few more days, a new continent appeared in the porthole.
It was the Eternal Night Continent, where Qian Ye had grown up.
Eternal Night, this forsaken land, where the forgotten souls lived.
Qian Ye chose it as his refuge, where he would continue to fight fate, perhaps suppressing the dark blood, or perhaps being consumed by it. Regardless of the outcome, the stage would be the Eternal Night Continent.
Eternal Night truly was a damned place, but now it was the only place that could accommodate a Blood Slave who retained his sanity.
The world below the airship remained a gray, sunless expanse, mirroring Qian Ye’s mood. He could no longer choose Dawn, but he also did not want to succumb to Eternal Night. He would dwell in the gray between, waiting for fate’s judgment.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage