Qian Ye moved silently, stealthily approaching the source of the sound. When he was about three to four hundred meters away from it, he stopped and looked around, choosing a nearby tree to climb. As he slowly ascended to the top of the tree, he cautiously peeked out, not without reason; that sound could have been a trap.
Qian Ye activated his true vision, and the dense fog in his sight gradually faded, revealing the outline of a temporary camp of dark races several hundred meters away.
In the camp, silhouettes moved about, and there were about dozens of soldiers—indeed, a mixed force of arachne, werewolves, and bloodkin.
Though the number of arachne was not large, there were seven or eight giant servitor spiders. Qian Ye recognized these bulky, ash-green creatures with slightly short and thick limbs as forest spiders. It seemed the dark races had put a lot of thought into using forest spiders as transport for the werewolves and bloodkin to carry out an assault.
However, the Misty Forest was no ordinary forest. Even though the will of the void behemoth had vanished, allowing ordinary soldiers and servitor spiders to penetrate deep into the forest, the matrix substance still posed a significant problem.
Moreover, the environment of the Misty Forest, which obscured perception, exerted a natural, invisible pressure. The longer they stayed, the more restless the servitor spiders became. The sound Qian Ye heard earlier was one of the servitor spiders, unable to suppress its agitation, scraping against a tree trunk with its limbs.
A sharp reprimand from an arachne in the camp quieted the servitor spider. At that moment, a bloodkin baron approached, exchanging a few words with the arachne, both their faces showing a trace of worry. The bloodkin baron raised his head, looking at the strange, towering trees with oval crowns, his unease growing ever more profound.
Finally, he waved his hand and barked, “Halt the rest! Break camp! We are leaving this damned place!”
The dark warriors all stared at the bloodkin baron in shock. They had just set up camp after a grueling march, and now, barely able to orient themselves, where could they go?
The bloodkin baron’s face suddenly darkened, and he reached for the pistol at his waist. But before he could draw it, his head exploded into a cloud of blood!
Immediately, a sharp, thunderous sound echoed from afar.
In an instant, all the dark warriors leapt to their feet. Some werewolves swiftly moved towards the direction of the gunshot, while others nimbly climbed trees, trying to find the enemy from a higher vantage. The two arachne circled behind the trees, whistling commands for the servitor spiders to form a barrier with their massive bodies. As for the bloodkin warriors, they provided cover for each other, rushing towards Qian Ye.
Qian Ye did not move, instead continuously firing his Thunder, blasting one dark warrior after another into pieces. The tremendous power of the Thunder could severely wound even a viscount, let alone these low-ranking opponents who were no more than knights.
The surviving bloodkin and werewolf warriors rushed out a hundred meters, but despite searching every tree along their path, they found no trace of the enemy. They were left bewildered. The gunshots continued, rhythmic and deadly, each one taking a life.
For a moment, both the fierce werewolves and the cunning bloodkin were at a loss. In their minds, even the mysterious and powerful demonic sniper would have a visual range of only a hundred meters in the Misty Forest.
Yet, the sniping bullets continued to fly from the heavy mist ahead. No matter how they dodged or moved, a comrade fell with each blast.
Facing a sniper with a visual range exceeding two hundred meters in the Misty Forest was tantamount to suicide. As the two arachne remaining in the camp fell, the remaining warriors suddenly realized that all those above the sixth level were dead.
The remaining lower-level warriors, even if they surrounded the sniper, risked being completely wiped out. Without hesitation, they scattered in different directions.
Seeing them flee in various directions, Qian Ye sighed inwardly, stowed the Thunder, drew his Bloodsucker Blade, and leaped down from the treetop, chasing after each one.
Even with his superior speed and visual range, after killing seven or eight fleeing soldiers, he lost track of the others. Abandoning the pursuit, he returned to the battlefield, collected the military merit tokens, and erased any traces he might have left before continuing deeper into the Misty Forest. The corpses would soon become nutrients for the forest.
Instinctively, Qian Ye chose to follow the direction of the last disappearing werewolf warrior. Midway through, he had a sudden realization. Even though this group of dark races had lost their high-ranking warriors, the remaining ones handled the rout quite professionally, avoiding being completely wiped out. This indicated that they were the elite of the elites.
Such well-trained warriors, though not very high in rank, were likely not expendable cannon fodder. They might know the location of one or two fixed bases. With this in mind, Qian Ye pushed his speed to the limit, straining to discern the increasingly faint traces. The Misty Forest’s unique environment, with its purple matrix substance capable of digesting everything, meant that any signs would be erased after some time.
Qian Ye raced through the forest like a cheetah, covering over ten kilometers. Suddenly, he saw a motionless werewolf warrior lying under a tree.
Qian Ye cursed inwardly and hurried over to find the werewolf indeed dead, his throat torn open, bloodied and mangled, likely by some wild beast. He had been tracking this werewolf, and with him dead, he had no other target, severing the trail.
The werewolf’s fresh blood still dripped, forming a winding crimson stream on the ground. The purple matrix, stimulated by the blood, writhed and began to envelop the werewolf’s body, ready to digest it. Even the hardest metal was no match for the matrix’s digestion.
Qian Ye sighed, took a couple of steps to the left, and looked around. He arrived quickly but heard no sounds of movement within a few hundred meters. The creature that tore the werewolf’s throat was likely still hiding nearby.
At that moment, the mist behind Qian Ye surged, and a gray shadow leaped out, pouncing at him like a wild wind.
Qian Ye sidestepped, raising his left arm to block the gray shadow’s attack. The creature bit down with shocking force. Qian Ye was startled; the bite was so strong it creaked his arm’s armor. If not for his immediate use of origin power, the armguard might have deformed.
The gray shadow was a wolf-like beast, with long limbs and a dark gray body that blended seamlessly into the forest. Its bite could mark hard alloy, and break steel rods. No wonder the robust werewolf warrior was no match, falling to a single bite.
But the bite that could break steel was not enough to hurt Qian Ye’s arm. With his upper-class bloodkin physique and origin power defense, the most it would do was break the skin.
However, in Qian Ye’s memory, he had never encountered such a beast during his previous travels through the Misty Forest or the cavern maze. It was faster, more dangerous, and more lethal. Its bite could even threaten viscounts. If such beasts had appeared in large numbers in the previous battle, the casualties for both the Evernight and the Empire would have been even higher.
Qian Ye seized the creature by its neck and twisted, breaking its spine. But the beast’s life force was tenacious, and it did not release its grip until its skull was completely crushed.
Looking at the deep tooth marks on his armguard, Qian Ye named the beast a Shadow Hound. He drew his Bloodsucker Blade and pierced it, drawing in a trickle of cold, potent blood.
This blood was full of energy, comparable to that of a dark viscount. However, the cold essence within was toxic, and if ingested by a regular bloodkin, it would cause a severe illness. Qian Ye, however, was unaffected. His possession of the Song Clan’s ancient scroll, refining the dark origin-infused blood, was a process of purifying impurities.
He threw the Shadow Hound’s corpse to the ground, watching the purple matrix slowly consume it, a heavy shadow settling over his heart.
This Shadow Hound, if classified by origin power, was only at the knight level. Yet, in the Misty Forest, its combat prowess matched that of a werewolf baron, with blood comparable to a knight. It possessed power far beyond its rank.
If the native beasts in the central caverns underwent similar changes, this battle would become even more arduous.
Qian Ye pressed on, stopping after a distance to tap a nearby tree. The vibrations spread, forming a clear image in his perception. Within the tree crown, there was a strange, rapid vibration, like many hearts beating wildly.
He leaped to the treetop and sliced the tree crown with his Bloodsucker Blade. Inside, in the honeycomb-like chambers, life forms were incubating, still in embryonic stages but with fully developed hearts.
The problem was, the embryos clearly belonged to different species. Some were the strange and deadly dwarves Qian Ye had seen before, some were similar to the Shadow Hounds, and others looked like insect pupae, their final form unknown.
This bizarre sight made Qian Ye shudder, and he inadvertently cut deeper into the tree crown with his blade.
The tree below seemed to cry out in pain, emitting a sharp, piercing scream. The liquid inside the tree crown began to boil, and the half-formed embryos dissolved, a foul stench rising into the air.
Qian Ye felt a slight dizziness, realizing the smell was toxic. Fortunately, his golden-blood flowed, neutralizing the poison instantly.
As if in response, nearby trees quivered, emitting cryptic whistles.
In Qian Ye’s true vision, massive amounts of energy were pouring into the tree crowns, rapidly strengthening the dozen or so energy fluctuations, forming and solidifying. Clearly, the terrible beings inside were about to emerge.
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