The journey that followed seemed to stretch on endlessly. At the start, Qian Ye could see the stone forest from the top of a hill, but it took several days to actually reach it. This was partly due to his suppressed strength and reduced speed, and partly because of the disarray in his perception.
From the first day, Qian Ye had noticed the anomalies in this land. The constant suppression of the void behemoth’s will made it difficult for him to use his True Sight, even though he could expand and sharpen his vision, his perception was still inevitably distorted. Many distant landscapes appeared much closer, but once he started walking, he realized the true distance far exceeded his expectations.
This indicated that this floating landmass was much larger than he had initially estimated.
Finally, Qian Ye stood before the stone forest, reaching out to touch one of the stone pillars to confirm his arrival. He then leaped up, finding a foothold on the top of the pillar, and looked around.
As expected, the forest of stone pillars was much more expansive than he had seen from a distance, stretching endlessly into the horizon. The giant beast bones were still far away, and the path ahead seemed just as long as before, as if the days of travel had not shortened the distance at all.
Standing atop the pillar, Qian Ye took a deep breath, feeling as though he had swallowed a mouthful of fire.
This world was cold, with the wind carrying a bone-chilling coldness. Now, Qian Ye finally understood what people referred to as “void gusts.” It was the omnipresent residual will of the void behemoth, almost tangible, and each breath inhaled a small amount of it.
The suppression by the behemoth’s will was peculiar, carrying a hallucinatory power that required constant resistance with his original force. Otherwise, his perception would quickly blur, as if time and space became a chaotic mass, threatening to swallow his consciousness. Even while using his original force to resist, every breath felt like inhaling fire, and great effort was needed to suppress the burning sensation.
This was the true danger.
Those who entered this world without sufficient rank could not withstand the behemoth’s will and would have their consciousness swallowed. Those of high rank had to expend standard levels of original force to suppress the burning, and any lapse in resistance would result in their entire body being ignited, turning them to ashes.
The marquis Qian Ye saw on his entry, who was engulfed in flames and plummeting to the ground, met his end this way.
After a few days of adjustment, Qian Ye had adapted to the suppression of the behemoth’s will, which now only meant he had less usable original force and higher consumption.
Just as Qian Ye was about to jump down from the pillar, he saw clouds of dust rising in the distance, something was galloping towards him from the plains. He activated his bloodline’s stealth, concealing his presence perfectly.
As the dust approached, he could see it was a herd of charging beasts. They resembled wild horses with two curved horns on their heads and several bony swords of varying lengths on their necks and shoulders. These large creatures ran with powerful strides, leaping ten meters in a single bound.
The herd dashed into the stone forest and continued deeper.
Qian Ye leaped down from the pillar, silently landing on the last creature. He grabbed its curved horn with one hand and thrust his blood blade into its shoulder with the other.
The beast tried to scream, but Qian Ye tightened his grip, choking its vocal organs, silencing it. The blood blade quickly drained its vital energy, and it collapsed to the ground.
The rest of the herd continued on, seemingly unaware that one of their own had fallen behind.
Qian Ye dragged the beast to a secluded spot. This was the first large creature he had encountered since entering this realm. In the past few days, aside from some strange plants, the only living things he saw were peculiar, unappetizing insects.
Fortunately, his Anduyar mysterious space still worked, providing him with rations and preventing him from going hungry.
Between two closely spaced stone pillars, Qian Ye found a sheltered spot and started a campfire to cook the beast’s meat. He had prepared thoroughly, bringing along some seasoning, and the aroma of the cooking meat filled the air. After days of eating solid rations, Qian Ye’s appetite was robust, and he devoured half the beast in one sitting, satisfyingly.
After setting up the cooking site, Qian Ye ventured deeper into the stone forest, circling back and hiding atop a nearby pillar.
Realizing the vastness of this unknown void land, Qian Ye became patient, preparing for a long-term exploration. As for the ancient essence fragment, it seemed to move; the second time he saw the light, it was no longer in the same place, and once he entered the stone forest, he could no longer sense its presence.
Not long after, Qian Ye spotted a werewolf bounding towards the campsite. In combat form, it agilely leapt and cautiously circled the area, sniffing the half-cooked meat. Finding no danger, it eagerly devoured the food, clearly famished.
In this realm, both plants and beasts were scarce, and many plants had a metallic appearance. This meant food was extremely scarce for both dark races and humans.
Sympathy aside, Qian Ye was not about to let the werewolf go. He retrieved his Phantom Manjushaka, fitted a silencer to the muzzle, and aimed at the werewolf.
A soft thud, and the werewolf’s thigh blossomed with blood, the wound the size of a fist. Not fatal, but enough to disable it. It howled in pain, and as it turned, another bullet struck its other leg, followed by shots to both arms.
Qian Ye then revealed himself, dropping from the pillar and stepping up to the werewolf, pressing the hot barrel of the gun to its forehead, “Now, answer my questions honestly.”
Fear shone in the werewolf’s eyes, and it nodded frantically.
During the interrogation, Qian Ye learned little of value. The werewolf was from a small tribe, a vassal to a spider demon count, itself a baron, equivalent to an imperial ninth-level warrior.
Shortly after entering the Behemoth’s Sleep, it had lost contact with its companions. After searching for days, it hadn’t found any trace of them. It couldn’t even explain how it traversed the vast expanse of the Behemoth’s Sleep to reach this place. The werewolf only remembered slipping in a rocky crevice and falling through endless mist, landing in the stone forest.
Qian Ye compared this to his own journey and frowned, realizing that the Behemoth’s Sleep had many twisted spaces. It might take a long time to enter this land, or one might accidentally fall in, leading to the separation of groups.
The werewolf’s orders from the Council were twofold: to find the ancient essence fragment and to explore and map the terrain, while killing as many of the Empire’s personnel as possible.
Qian Ye did not learn much more. He pinned the werewolf to the ground and plunged the blood blade into its heart.
This baron-level werewolf provided nearly twice the vital energy of a comparable dark race, indicating that those able to move freely here possessed greater strength.
Qian Ye searched the werewolf and found a badge with a running wolf. This emblem was well-known, belonging to the “Running Hunters” legion, a dark army equivalent to the Empire’s elite units like the Winged Angels and Red Scorpions. The Running Hunters had many werewolf warriors, but their commander was a spider demon marquess.
During his time with the Red Scorpions, Qian Ye had fought against the Running Hunters, recognizing their tenacity. Here, a baron of the Running Hunters, equivalent to a colonel, was nothing more than expendable cannon fodder.
This young werewolf, a prodigy in its world, had met his end here.
Qian Ye stood up, gazing at the deep night sky, breathing in the fiery air, and set off towards the behemoth’s remains.
Meanwhile, the Behemoth’s Sleep had become a battlefield spanning thousands of miles. The Council and the Empire’s armies had finally gathered in significant numbers, and a massive battle began one afternoon. Tens of thousands of troops from both sides clashed, with the front lines constantly shifting.
Even mid-level commanders of baron rank were at risk of perishing. Song Zining not only participated but gained fame in just two battles.
The Young Master did not bring the Dark Flame from afar but instead relied on his reputation in Blackflow to take command of a middle-ranking family and two lower-ranking family forces. Using their elite fighters as battle nodes, he roamed the battlefield, seeking opportunities.
Song Zining never lingered, striking and moving on, regardless of success. Soon, people noticed that excellent opportunities always seemed to appear around him, whether half-defeated, exhausted troops or small, unguarded units, all ripe for his forces to swallow.
Once, he encountered a large, organized dark army engaged in a fierce battle with the Empire’s main force. Song Zining’s forces attacked from behind, breaking through the center and, with the combined strength of the Empire’s elites, killed the enemy commander, achieving a decisive victory.
There were many similar cases.
Song Zining thrived in this chaotic battlefield, always finding advantages. Whenever the dark races mobilized to eliminate him, he would always evade them in advance.
This behavior eventually drew the ire of dark race commanders, who sought to eliminate him. However, the Empire had many strong fighters who would not stand idly by, and they intercepted the attacks. Fierce battles erupted around Song Zining’s forces.
After several days, both sides suffered heavy casualties, with many units wiped out. The remaining forces were the elite of the elite. In such a situation, Song Zining’s makeshift army stood out, especially as he continued to harass deep within enemy territory, surrounded by various dark forces.
Failure to eliminate this ragtag army would be a blow to the face of Grand Marshal Roxas of the Spider Demons.
But Song Zining’s movements were unpredictable, and he used even the slightest terrain advantage to escape, making the dark race’s scouts seem ineffective. After a day and night of pursuit, he was finally cornered near the Imperial lines.
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