Chapter 66: The City of the Dead

Qian Ye listened intently for a moment, but there was no sound. After a brief hesitation, he cautiously stepped inside.

The scene before him made him involuntarily frown.

The room and hall were high and spacious, devoid of any furniture or decorations. The entire first floor was empty, with nothing but bare rock on the walls.

A thin mist permeated the building, making the opposite wall from the doorway appear hazy.

Qian Ye approached the wide double-spiral staircase and looked up. Everywhere was eerily silent. He ascended to the second and third floors, but there was no sign of anyone having lived or stayed there. By the time he reached the third floor, he could no longer hear any sounds from the first floor.

He gazed out of the floor-to-ceiling windows without curtains. Everywhere he looked, a dense fog obscured the view, and only the outlines of large buildings across the street were faintly visible.

The damp, gray fog, giving the world a constricted feeling, reminded Qian Ye of something. His heart suddenly thudded heavily; it was that dream! The same one he had twice—once after obtaining the crystal shard from Baron Dalur and again when entering the Falling Star Mountains.

Qian Ye pondered for a moment, then quietly descended the stairs. He then entered several more buildings, all of which were empty, with nothing of value. Regardless of the size or layout, they were all the same.

At this point, a sense of unease and restlessness arose in Qian Ye’s heart, and his heartbeat quickened. He was startled and realized the source of his discomfort.

The city was too quiet, so much so that he could only hear his own footsteps. In this extreme silence, every small sound was magnified, and eventually, even the sounds of his heartbeats and blood flow became audible. Walking alone in such a city, it felt like the whole world contained only him. This loneliness gradually became unbearable.

Qian Ye took a deep breath and tried to relax his taut nerves.

The city was not small; from the outside, it appeared capable of housing tens of thousands. Yet, despite the well-preserved streets and buildings, there was no sign of life. It was too clean, with no trash, no dust, and not even any rust on metal.

Time seemed to have frozen the moment the city was completed.

Fortunately, the Wings of Origin were not hindered by the thin mist and could still sense the location of the True Eye. But this was also where Qian Ye’s confusion lay: the True Eye seemed to be constantly changing position. Each time he closed the distance, the next perceived direction would differ.

Moreover, regardless of whether he moved fast or slow, the True Eye’s position in the next moment would be unpredictable, sometimes getting farther away and sometimes drawing closer, as if its movement was random, with no discernible pattern.

After realizing this, Qian Ye no longer tried to catch up with the True Eye. He entered a nearby building, sat on the ground, and while regulating his breathing to recover his power, he pondered his current predicament.

In this fog-filled city, Qian Ye had actually lost his sense of direction. After following the Wings of Origin’s guidance, he suddenly found that he could not even identify the place where he had entered the city. Each building and street looked similar, and although there might be slight differences, it was difficult to find any distinctive reference points in the limited field of vision.

After discovering this, Qian Ye had tried marking the buildings. However, this turned out to be a bad idea because he was still being pursued by two formidable enemies, and surely more would come. Any marks he left would expose his trail if discovered.

But the number of enemies was unknown, and Qian Ye was shocked to find another eerie aspect of the city: whatever marks he left would slowly disappear in the mist. He even used the Crimson Tooth to carve a deep mark several centimeters into a metal decorative pattern on the wall, only to watch it slowly flatten and vanish.

Unconsciously, Qian Ye completed a full cycle of power circulation, the abundant dawn power surging through his veins, invigorating him. He banished all distracting thoughts, opened his backpack, and began checking his equipment and items, even disassembling and maintaining the Twin Flowers.

Then he lay down, closed his eyes, and silently counted to a thousand—a method to force rest. When he reached a thousand, Qian Ye leaped to his feet, drew his blade, and left the building.

Since he couldn’t find the True Eye and couldn’t unravel the secrets of the empty, desolate city, and was even unable to leave the city, at least there was one thing he could do: kill the enemies following him.

In such an environment, doing nothing would quickly drive one mad. And now, it seemed that the only action he could take was to kill.

Outside the city, dozens of vampire nobles and warriors led by Li Zhan had gathered. They had indeed entered the space at different points, but from every exit, they saw the city standing on the plain.

Several viscounts looked serious and hesitant, not because some of their companions were still missing, but because the silent city before them was clearly the core of the space, the most likely place to hide the treasure of King An’duya, the Blackwing.

However, the halls of the fearsome Blackwing King were not easy to enter.

If one observed carefully, a faint red glow could be seen enveloping the viscounts, indicating that their blood powers were constantly active. Occasionally, wisps of white mist would appear in the air, falling onto them and being neutralized by the red glow. The viscounts had experienced this pressure when passing through the spatial gate, and though they thought the danger was over, standing at the city gate triggered the restrictions again.

After standing quietly for several minutes, one viscount said, “Let’s go in. We don’t have much time.” He glanced at Li Zhan.

The viscounts exchanged looks, their expressions showing helplessness and bitterness, and they nodded.

The human’s strength was no less than that of any viscount, but from Li Zhan’s rigid face, it was unclear if he was also under the pressure of the spatial restrictions. If the viscounts, out of fear, did not enter the city, and the king’s treasure fell into human hands, the consequences would be worse than death.

The vampire and human warriors entered the city in single file, immediately swallowed by the thin mist.

Qian Ye walked the empty streets, now without a sense of direction or time. If not for the goal of ambushing the enemy, his restlessness and unease might have multiplied.

He didn’t know how long he had been walking, but he had the illusion that he could walk to the end of the world. Turning a corner, he suddenly stopped, listened, and heard nothing, but a strange pre-battle shiver indicated that something was approaching.

Qian Ye immediately calmed down, quickly moved to the wall, and waited.

From the mist, a vampire warrior emerged, bent low, holding a long sword in one hand and a short gun in the other, fully alert and scanning the surroundings.

When Qian Ye saw him, the vampire warrior also saw Qian Ye, and they were less than ten meters apart.

The vampire warrior reacted quickly, roaring and lunging forward instead of retreating. At this distance, shooting was impossible, and close combat depended on taking the initiative.

Exactly what Qian Ye was thinking.

Qian Ye crouched slightly, then propelled himself forward like a cannonball, colliding head-on with the vampire warrior.

With a loud thud, the vampire warrior flew back, while Qian Ye’s hand flashed, and the Crimson Tooth had already struck three times.

The vampire warrior was thrown more than ten meters, crashing into the building across the street, and then slid down, collapsing on the ground, unable to stand, with blood spreading from beneath him.

Qian Ye approached the vampire warrior, whose breathing was gradually stopping, and was about to search him, but halfway, he swiftly withdrew his hand.

Beneath the vampire warrior, blood was still flowing, but it disappeared beyond a meter. The street was paved with giant stones, polished smooth, with almost invisible seams, so how could the blood seep in?

At that moment, the seemingly lifeless body of the vampire warrior moved.

Originally, he had fallen against the wall, leaving a shocking trail of blood. Now, before Qian Ye’s eyes, the body slowly sank into the wall and the ground.

Soon, the vampire warrior’s body was completely engulfed, leaving no trace of blood on the ground or the wall. In this world, there was no evidence that the vampire warrior had ever existed.

In an instant, Qian Ye felt a chill run down his spine.

The desolate, silent city had just revealed its sinister side.

Qian Ye slowly squatted down and touched the ground. Just moments ago, there had been a pool of blood, but now, he felt only cold stone.

He stood up, exhaled lightly, gripped the Crimson Tooth, and walked in a random direction.

After passing through two blocks, a small square appeared ahead. The mist seemed to thin slightly in the open area, revealing a faint shadow. Qian Ye recognized the figure—it was Li Zhan, whom he had ambushed before.

Qian Ye had been concealing his aura, and now he was especially careful not to make any sound with his feet or hands. He slowly pulled out the Twin Flowers and pointed them at the figure ahead.

Just as Qian Ye pulled the trigger, Li Zhan seemed to sense something and suddenly stepped sideways, turning and firing his gun with lightning speed.

The crimson energy bullet grazed Li Zhan’s chest, and in the same moment, Qian Ye dodged Li Zhan’s shot.

Two bullets fired into the mist, perhaps hitting a building, perhaps not, but no sound was heard.

The two adversaries, however, paid no attention to such strange details, their focus entirely on each other.

Li Zhan looked at Qian Ye, his expression initially serious, then twisting into a wicked smile, and said, “Finally, I’ve caught you.”