Chapter 47: Journeying Together

However, another patriarch shook his head, saying, “A joint attack, how easy is that? He’s a ruthless man, and the kind of losses we would suffer are not something our small clans can bear.”

As soon as these words were spoken, many people echoed in agreement.

A trembling old man sighed, “I’ve lived in this city for over a hundred years. The city, the people, and the various clans have never changed. It was the same when Heavenly King Zhang came, and it was the same when Wolf King arrived. But once Qian Ye showed up, he immediately destroyed the Zhu family. Who knows which family will be next to suffer.”

The Zhu family, originally a minor clan eligible to attend, had almost all their experts, including the patriarch and elders, killed by Qian Ye in the recent battle. Though they still had members, they could no longer maintain their previous status.

The elderly present felt a shared sorrow and began to criticize.

Xue Fu-lun slightly frowned but said nothing. However, the Great Elder of the Wang family was full of spirit, continuously denouncing Qian Ye’s arrogance and rudeness.

After a period of heated discussion, an elder finally raised a critical question: “How should we respond to the Wolf King’s order of expedition?”

Various opinions emerged: some argued that the Wolf King’s power was too great and must be obeyed; others went further, suggesting sending troops to Nanqing City. Some believed that both the Wolf King and Qian Ye were best avoided, with the best response being to delay any action and wait to see how the situation unfolds.

In the end, no one was willing to stand up and oppose the Wolf King.

The elderly each held their views, stubbornly refusing to budge, and the discussion quickly turned into an argument. Normally, the Xue and Wang families would step in at this point, taking a stance. Usually, once Xue Fu-lun spoke, a decision would be reached.

But today, for some reason, Xue Fu-lun remained silent, leading to the argument going on without resolution. The Great Elder of the Wang family wanted to reach a conclusion to pursue and kill Qian Ye, but he failed.

He was cunning and realized that in the eyes of everyone, his family and the Xue family still had a significant gap. On the other hand, the near annihilation of the Zhu family had terrified the other small and medium-sized clans, and no one was willing to confront Qian Ye in a fight to the death.

As the night deepened, the tea party ended without any conclusion. This, however, was the norm, with eight out of ten tea parties ending in such a manner.

After a day and a night, Nanqing City once again appeared in Qian Ye’s sight. The sentries on the walls of Nanqing City also spotted the distant caravan, slowly turning the ballistae on the turrets to aim at the caravan, ready for defense.

At this point, everything was safe. Qian Ye no longer wasted time with the caravan and instead took to the air, flying towards Nanqing City.

As he flew over the city walls, the guards below, sharp-eyed, recognized Qian Ye and immediately slapped down the soldier who was aiming his gun, yelling, “Are you blind? Can’t you see that’s Lord Qian Ye?”

Qian Ye paid no attention to the small incident below, as he was in a hurry.

In just a few days, the new headquarters of Dark Flame had taken shape. Under Ji Tianqing’s coercion and enticement, the owners of the nearby residences had obediently moved elsewhere. They had no choice; Ji Tianqing had built two turrets, and the feeling of being watched from above, with guns pointed at them, was far from pleasant.

After this consolidation, the scale of the new Dark Flame headquarters reached nearly half the size of the city lord’s residence. Guan Zhong-liu had secretly come to observe once, leaving him fuming. Although he was angry, he knew restraint, ignoring Ji Tianqing’s provocations and refusing to engage her in combat.

Ji Tianqing was in charge of planning, while the actual coordination, scheduling, and construction were Song Zi-ning’s responsibilities. Fortunately, the young master had a wealth of talent under him. The Ningyuan Heavy Industries team was far superior to the local rabble. In just a few days, all the plans were transformed into detailed blueprints, and supply channels were established, initiating large-scale construction.

Once construction began, progress accelerated. With thousands of mercenaries under him, Song Zi-ning had no intention of letting them idle. Each was given a set of tools, temporarily transforming them into construction workers.

For mercenaries, doing manual labor was a bit demeaning, but with Lady Tianqing around, they had long understood that survival was more important than pride.

At this moment, half of Nanqing City had become a construction site, with big and small mercenary groups either rebuilding or relocating. The land they vacated was reserved by Song Zi-ning for the future construction of weapon shops, equipment workshops, and more.

After searching for Song Zi-ning without success, Qian Ye decided not to look for him specifically and returned to the temporary headquarters of Dark Flame, selecting a batch of supplies and ammunition. After replenishing, he prepared to leave Nanqing City.

Just as he was about to fly over the city walls, a rope suddenly looped out from below, accurately lassoing his foot. The surprise attack came silently, and Qian Ye, surprisingly, failed to dodge it.

Once lassoed, the rope yanked, making Qian Ye’s body sink. Unafraid, Qian Ye landed gracefully, intending to see who dared to ambush him in Nanqing City.

With a loud thud, Qian Ye hit the ground like a cannonball, sinking the ground beneath him by half a meter. The intense shockwave caused chaos, with people and horses tumbling, unable to stand.

However, the end of the rope was empty, and the attacker had already vanished. Qian Ye had no clue how she had struck or disappeared.

At that moment, Qian Ye felt a strange sensation on his shoulder. Without a change in expression, he quickly mobilized his blood energy, spreading it over his shoulder.

A fair hand appeared out of nowhere, landing on Qian Ye’s shoulder, followed by Ji Tianqing’s voice: “Sir, are you going out again? Why didn’t you take me with you… Ouch, ouch!!”

The moment her hand touched Qian Ye’s shoulder, it felt like it had landed on a red-hot iron block, instantly bouncing back.

Ji Tianqing hurriedly looked at her hand, only to see a charred black patch on her once fair and delicate palm, with the skin completely burned. The intense burning pain made her rush to blow on her hand.

“Pain, pain! How could you do this!” Ji Tianqing’s large, tearful eyes threatened to overflow. She blew several times, flailing her hand, but it had little effect. Finally, she pouted, extending her hand in front of Qian Ye in a sulk.

“This… How did this happen?” Qian Ye had not expected this. It was the first time he had used dark gold blood energy both for protection and attack. In the past, he occasionally sent a strand of blood energy into an enemy’s body during attacks.

He had intended to give Ji Tianqing a taste of her own medicine, but burning her entire palm seemed a bit excessive. Moreover, Qian Ye couldn’t understand how, with her cultivation, she could be burned like this. Even now, he couldn’t discern her level.

Ji Tianqing’s cultivation level seemed entirely dependent on her mood. She could show three origin vortexes if she wanted, or five, or even two Origin Champion-level origin crystals to Qian Ye.

Qian Ye could at least be sure that Ji Tianqing was not an Origin Champion. Since he couldn’t figure it out, he gave up guessing.

But her palm was indeed burned, and Qian Ye had no choice but to hold her hand, bring it close to his mouth, and gently suck. The dark gold blood energy lingering around her wound was drawn back into Qian Ye’s body.

If this blood energy hadn’t been recovered, it could have burned her entire right hand to a crisp.

With the blood energy reclaimed, her injury was mostly healed. The remaining minor flesh wound would heal in a few hours.

Qian Ye was about to let go, but Ji Tianqing said, “Is that it?”

“Ah, isn’t it done?” Seeing her serious expression, Qian Ye doubted his judgment for the first time. He activated his True Sight, repeatedly sensing her injury, confirming there was no residual blood energy, and then exhaled in relief.

Ji Tianqing waved her hand in front of Qian Ye, saying, “The wound, it’s not healed at all!”

Qian Ye was taken aback, “This, shouldn’t you take care of it yourself?”

With Ji Tianqing’s cultivation, running a secret technique to heal such a minor injury would take only a few minutes. Her physical condition might not match Qian Ye’s, but the power and effectiveness of the secret techniques she knew were far greater. Qian Ye would never believe she couldn’t use healing techniques.

However, Ji Tianqing continued to wave her hand in front of Qian Ye, not even using a hint of origin power to stimulate her flesh growth.

Helpless, Qian Ye resorted to the most primitive method to treat her wound. He took out his military knife, gently cutting away the charred flesh, revealing fresh blood and muscle underneath, and then lightly sprayed Dawn’s Edge origin power onto it.

Dawn’s Edge, an origin power near the peak of dawn, was highly beneficial for human flesh growth. As soon as the origin power was applied, Ji Tianqing’s flesh began to visibly grow. However, after a moment, the growth stopped, and the Dawn’s Edge origin power was far from exhausted.

A glance from Qian Ye told him that Ji Tianqing wasn’t using her own origin power. At this moment, her hand was like that of an ordinary person. Without her own origin power support, Qian Ye’s use of Dawn’s Edge to stimulate her flesh growth had to be restrained. Otherwise, rapid flesh growth would lead to rapid necrosis.

“Tianqing, you need to use your origin power too.”

“How do I use it?” Ji Tianqing opened her eyes wide, looking at Qian Ye as if genuinely confused.

“Like this… Never mind, I’ll do it.”

Qian Ye, helpless, found bandages and wrapped her hand. Such primitive treatment was rarely seen on a champion. For a champion, the body was already fully reinforced, and origin power was the foundation. With sufficient origin power, even the most severe injuries could be healed. Therefore, the best healing medicines were those that could replenish a vast amount of origin power, making them holy.

Ji Tianqing, looking at her bandaged hand, became fascinated, examining it repeatedly.

Qian Ye stood up, saying, “Your wound is fine now. I have to go.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll tell you when I return.”

“Where are you going?” Ji Tianqing repeated her question.

From the gleam in her large, bright eyes, Qian Ye knew he wouldn’t be able to leave without satisfying her. He had to say, “I’m going to Tide Hearing City to rescue someone.”

“A big city, a rescue. Good, I like it. Go on, be more specific.”

“This is not a joke. The city lord there has his own weapons workshop, and the city lord of Tide Hearing City is rumored to be a trusted confidant of Zhang Bu Zhou, with the cultivation of an Origin Champion.”

“Heavy weaponry, strong defenders, even better, I really like it! Let’s go together, it’s decided!”