Chapter 153: The Unusual Ruins

However, this small joy was not enough to dispel his worries. Pars furrowed his brows and picked up the battle reports again, reviewing them with years of experience and the instinct that upper-level demon descendants were proud of. He sensed something noteworthy hidden within these reports.

In the following ten or so days, Qian Ye almost forgot about time. His life was monotonous—searching, fighting, clearing the battlefield, then cultivating to replenish his origin power. These tasks repeated endlessly, as if there was no end. And all of this occurred in the Misty Forest, which looked identical in every direction, making one feel suffocated to the point of madness.

Qian Ye never slept; instead, he used cultivation to replace sleep. The Misty Forest had an endless supply of source liquid, and as long as he could digest it, his origin power seemed to grow without limit.

There were also battles. Whether it was killing dark races or beasts, they would provide a vast amount of vital blood, more than he could refine. After learning from a few setbacks, Qian Ye became much more cautious when using Vitality Plunder. At least, he wouldn’t rush into a crowd of enemies with a void flash followed by a Vitality Plunder, which once resulted in him nearly being overwhelmed by the vital blood from hundreds of elite soldiers.

Another reason Qian Ye didn’t sleep was that whenever he closed his eyes, he couldn’t help but see countless dark warriors and weapons rushing at him. The sound of gunfire and combat never ceased. Only when he opened his eyes did he temporarily escape the illusion. But what he saw were the same towering trees, only adding to his sense of oppression.

Days passed, and the dark warriors in the Misty Forest seemed to increase, as if they could never be exterminated. Moreover, the number of strong opponents grew. Qian Ye encountered two individuals who were roughly on par with Aden, and after a brief exchange, he had to retreat as their reinforcements arrived.

Finally, Qian Ye encountered a reconnaissance squad of just over a dozen people, whom he naturally eradicated without hesitation. While clearing the battlefield, the shield of the leading werewolf baron caught his interest.

This shield had blocked a stab from his Blood Blade, indicating that its material was extraordinary. His current Blood Blade was a level seven weapon, and even without any additional features, its sharpness alone could pierce through most heavy armor and shields.

Qian Ye didn’t have much time to clean the battlefield. He casually picked up the shield and tried to stuff it into Andua’s mysterious space. However, just as he raised his hand, he froze. Unbeknownst to him, Andua’s space was already full.

“It’s time to go back,” Qian Ye sighed in his heart.

“How many days have I been out?” When this question arose, Qian Ye finally confirmed that he indeed had a problem.

The seemingly endless battles, the monotonous forest, and the silence outside of combat gradually put too much pressure on Qian Ye. This was a common phenomenon among soldiers, especially those veterans who had fought on the front lines for years.

The solution was simple: take some time off from the battlefield, like going home for a visit.

Realizing his problem, Qian Ye decided to leave.

The return journey took longer than expected, indicating he had ventured quite deep into the Misty Forest, nearing the central cavern. The forest still looked the same, but Qian Ye’s keen eyes noticed a black spot on a tree trunk several hundred meters away.

At that distance, ordinary people would not have seen the tiny, black-red spot the size of a fingernail, but Qian Ye’s extraordinary vision clearly saw it—a drop of half-dried blood.

Seeing blood in the Misty Forest indicated a recent battle, as a stray drop of blood would be eroded by the mist before it dried completely.

Qian Ye suppressed his aura and silently approached the area. In the past, he had come across several battles, but he only intervened when the imperial side was in dire straits. Otherwise, he would quietly retreat. Without a merit list, it was easier, but with one, joining a battle might be seen as stealing credit. Additionally, Qian Ye didn’t like dealing with the aristocrats.

He moved like the wind, soon passing the giant tree and finding a battlefield in ruins.

Corpses lay everywhere, the scene extremely grim. Both sides had left nearly a hundred corpses, including viscounts from both the Evernight and the Empire.

It appeared that a family team had encountered a small Evernight unit, and they had fought a fierce battle to near annihilation. Around the perimeter, Qian Ye saw no signs of a large force leaving, and the bodies of the high-ranking individuals remained uncollected, suggesting that even if there were survivors, they were few.

Qian Ye didn’t rashly enter the battlefield but remained concealed, frowning in thought.

This situation was unusual. Although the Empire and Evernight were sworn enemies, personal conflicts were another matter. In such encounters, both sides usually withdrew after incurring significant losses. It was rare for a battle to end in mutual destruction. The fight in the Misty Forest was a war of attrition, not a decisive battle, and it wasn’t worth fighting to the last man. Only when one side was vastly outmatched would total annihilation occur.

If Qian Ye were the commander, facing an evenly matched opponent, he would break out and look for a new opportunity to gain an advantage, whether through an ambush or overwhelming force. That was what a competent leader would do.

Qian Ye circled the battlefield again and found many things amiss. On the periphery, there were many corpses that had fallen outward, as if they were fleeing but were killed one by one.

Many faces were frozen in extreme terror, as if they died in great fear. But seasoned veterans rarely showed such expressions, even in hopeless situations.

The strangest part was that these problematic corpses included both Imperial soldiers and dark warriors, and even two bloodthirsty, ferocious werewolves. One werewolf’s entire spine was removed from his body.

Qian Ye frowned, looking back at the battlefield. He noticed that many bodies were nearly dismembered. The bodies of several Evernight knights and the human warlord were particularly gruesome, cut into seventeen or eighteen pieces, barely held together by some skin and flesh.

This battlefield was wrong!

It wasn’t a mutual annihilation but more like a coordinated attack on someone, resulting in the attackers being wiped out. But in the midst of the all-out war between the Empire and Evernight, what threat could make the two sides unite?

In the Misty Forest, the answer seemed clear: a powerful beast spawned by the forest.

The forest’s beasts and native dwarves were typically numerous and highly dangerous, but individually weak. A single warrior could easily sweep through them. However, the dwarves were incredibly fast, and their poisoned wooden spears were lethal. Even a seasoned warrior couldn’t withstand multiple stabs.

But on this battlefield, there was no sign of a beast swarm. If the Imperial and dark teams had indeed encountered a forest beast, it must have been a few, or even a single, extremely powerful one.

From the scene, the battle hadn’t lasted long. Qian Ye estimated that if he were to kill two hundred people, he would achieve similar results. That meant the beast’s strength was at least on par with his.

This was not good news.

Although, by logic, the forest would produce only a limited number of such powerful beasts, everything on the floating land defied logic.

Qian Ye remained concealed, staying at the edge of the battlefield, not venturing in to clean up or collect spoils. Until he understood what happened, greed would be fatal.

As time passed, he noticed another anomaly. The matrix activity was unusually slow despite the blood-soaked ground.

After a while, the restless purple matrix spread, gradually absorbing the blood. Qian Ye became even more patient, his alertness at its peak.

After about fifteen minutes, the matrix slowly spread over the corpses. Qian Ye relaxed slightly and walked towards the battlefield. The wounds on the corpses would help him gauge the unknown foe’s capabilities.

Qian Ye had taken only a few steps when he felt a slight chill on his calf. Without thinking, he leaped aside, and a massive cleaver swept past where he had stood. If he had been a moment slower, his feet would have been cut off.

Qian Ye’s body was much stronger than an average person, but this cleaver, based on its appearance, was designed to cut through flesh and bone.

The cleaver was held in a small, delicate hand, and a familiar figure emerged from under the corpses, followed by a slash aimed at Qian Ye in mid-air.

A beautiful, confused, and innocent face appeared before his eyes—Bai Kongzhao! This eerie girl was like a persistent ghost, appearing wherever she went.

In mid-air, Qian Ye realized that Bai Kongzhao’s strike was exquisitely positioned, making it difficult for him to counter or evade. The best course was to narrowly avoid it, though he’d likely get cut and add another wound to his body.

A minor flesh wound seemed insignificant, but Qian Ye had dealt with Bai Kongzhao many times. She was like the most dangerous wolf, always leaving a small wound on her prey, which, accumulated, would eventually bring down even the largest target.

However, Qian Ye was different now. Seeing Bai Kongzhao, he directly swung his arm to block the cleaver’s back.

Sure enough, as Qian Ye’s arm swept, Bai Kongzhao’s cleaver skillfully turned, its blade flipping over, as if Qian Ye was offering his arm to be cut.

With a soft crack, the Dragon Armguard was effortlessly sliced open, as if cutting through rotten wood. The cleaver’s sharpness was beyond imagination! As it sliced through the Dragon, Qian Ye realized that the cleaver’s sharpness was only one aspect. The nature of the origin power on the blade was uniquely tough and potent, amplifying the strike’s power manifold.

But this was a minor surprise. Qian Ye’s speed suddenly burst, and his arm vanished from beneath the blade. His hand, as if reaching out from nowhere, grabbed the cleaver. Using the momentum, he turned and stabbed the Blood Blade into the girl’s abdomen.

Bai Kongzhao’s face turned deathly pale. In this life-or-death moment, she demonstrated an incredibly strong survival instinct, decisively abandoning the cleaver and retreating, turning and fleeing without hesitation. The Blood Blade had only shallowly pierced her, and Bai Kongzhao managed to escape.

Watching Bai Kongzhao’s fleeting shadow, Qian Ye sneered. A barely perceptible line of blood extended from his feet, instantly reaching behind Bai Kongzhao.

But just as he activated the Void Flash, Qian Ye’s body suddenly felt like it was in turmoil. His origin power and blood energy boiled, like a storm triggered by the chaos of the void, completely out of control.