Monarch of Evernight (Web Novel)

The convoy was still several kilometers away by the time twilight began to deepen and mists rolled in. It was impossible to see them without any special abilities. An idea flashed through Qianye’s mind as he shot a sidelong glance at Wu Shiqing. Normal night vision abilities would never be able to see so far.

Wu Shiqing said with some uneasiness, “Young Master, I-I have some special perception abilities. Mainly night vision and the ability to see some things others cannot.”

Qianye had already expected him to possess powerful night vision, but it seemed that Wu Shiqing was able to see other things too. This meant that he possessed a complex perception ability. This surpassed the level of a mere outstanding talent. Even if this man could only reach rank five, he could still become a lethal sniper when equipped with an Eagleshot. Wu Shiying, on the other hand, hadn’t developed any obvious special ability, but her development was worth looking forward to just based on her training speed.

The guard captain surnamed Wei was somewhat restless. “Young Master Qian, how many of them are there?”

“A lot! I’m guessing a whole regiment. Ah, two airships just landed over there. From their size, they should be carrying a whole battalion,” Qianye replied.

“Almost two thousand enemies?” The two guards’ expressions turned rather ugly. Although mentally prepared, they had never expected that the expeditionary army would go all out like this. Such a large movement would be impossible to hide afterward. This meant the other party was determined to win at all costs—the following day and night were destined to not be easy.

Even if the Far East Heavy Industries guardsmen were quite confident about fighting the expeditionary army, the difference in numbers was simply too great. While there was quite a large number of people under Qianye’s command, less than half of them were battle-ready, not to mention they had been trained for only so many days. In the guards’ eyes, this group of 400 people would likely equal a company at most, and they weren’t even properly outfitted.

The captain surnamed Wei said, “We have insufficient weapons and ammunition.”

The captain surnamed He sighed rather calmly. “It doesn’t matter, we have no choice but to fight.”

The expeditionary army soldiers were alighting in quick succession when they were joined by the battalion that had come by airship. There was only a short period of confusion while the two groups merged and organized themselves before they quickly restored proper order. From this, one could see just how well-trained these troops were.

Seeing Qianye wave his hand, a soldier behind him released a long blare from his bugle. The deep alarm reverberated through the village, causing everyone to turn solemn as they tightly grasped the weapons in their hands.

Qianye brought out a large bore gunpowder sniper rifle and tossed it to Wu Shiqing. “I’ll hand this to you. You may operate independently during the upcoming battle. Remember, kill only officers at the rank of captain and below. Forget about those above the rank of major. Shiying, you’ll be in charge of supporting and protecting your brother.”

Wu Shiqing received the shockingly heavy sniper rifle and the large bag of bullets Qianye had tossed over. However, he wasn’t quite satisfied as he stubbornly said, “I want an origin gun!”

Qianye shook his head. “You’ll be drained after a couple of shots with your origin power capacity. This is a battleground; it’s no place for you to play hero! Remember, don’t attack those at the rank of major and above. It’s best if you don’t even attack captains. Just focus on killing first and second lieutenants.”

Gunpowder weapons posed little threat to the captains who were usually rank four or rank five experts. However, they were still quite damaging against rank two or rank three fighters. The expeditionary army’s chain of command would suffer greatly if a large number of mid to low tier officers were killed.

At this time, Wu Shiying stepped forth, her expression a mixture of nervousness and resolution. “Please… Please give me an origin gun! I-I can fire more shots than the others.”

Qianye asked with a laugh, “How many shots can you fire?”

Wu Shiying became even more tense and rushed out her next words, stumbling upon them in her hurry. “I can fire five, no, six shots from a grade one origin gun!”

Even the two guard captains were visibly intrigued by her words. Not even all rank two fighters could fire six shots, whereas Wu Shiying obviously possessed only one origin node fluctuation.

Qianye was immediately fascinated. Honestly speaking, this number didn’t differ too much from his own. Gazing at this girl whose back had tensed up into a straight line, he softened his tone and said, “It seems that you also have some special talents. Can you tell me about it?”

Wu Shiying answered softly, “I seem to be able to control the flow of origin power, thus reducing the energy consumption while firing origin guns. Additionally, my origin power also appears to be slightly more abundant compared to others.”

Qianye nodded. As it turned out, Wu Shiying’s abilities were origin power manipulation and increased origin power capacity. Although they didn’t sound too impressive at a glance, she would be able to suppress all her peers by virtue of the increased origin power capacity alone.

These siblings were nothing short of geniuses.

An idea flashed through Qianye’s mind as he glanced at the two. “Do you two know why I decided to make our stand here?”

Wu Shiqing and Wu Shiying seemed to be at a loss. This military matter wasn’t something they could understand.

“That’s because the surrounding area is strategically indefensible. Additionally, natural enemies like wild beasts will be tempted to attack us if we become weakened. Therefore, even if we want to run, we’ll still have to take advantage of the immediate topography to destroy our pursuers before having any real chance at escaping. Not that we’ll need to do so. Our reinforcements will arrive tomorrow night, so we just need to hold out until then.”

What Qianye didn’t tell them was that this battle would greatly reduce the number of seedlings as well. Only the strongest would survive, and they would be comparable to treasured swords removed from the furnace—they would grow sharper and sharper with every calcination.

“Can we really defeat them?” the guard captain surnamed Wei mumbled. He didn’t seem too confident despite not fearing death.

Qianye laughed but didn’t reply. Since the expeditionary army had actually mobilized a whole regiment, there had to be at least two rank six experts among them. The two guard captains had never considered retaliation because not only was their side inferior in equipment and weaponry, but they only had Qianye as a rank five expert. Holding their current position was already quite difficult.

The defenses within the small village had long since been deployed, and now all they had to do was wait for the enemy assault.

The expeditionary army’s soldiers didn’t even bother to change their military uniforms—they just tore off their designation numbers. Such a careless disguise indicated their determination to eliminate the other party to the last man.

The expeditionary army fell into formation outside the village and brought out some small cannons from the cargo trucks, preparing to deliver a bombardment. Soon, a number of explosions rang out as several cannons erupted with flames, sending shells raining into the village. Cannon bombardment was a rather primitive method but an effective one nonetheless. It was especially lethal against ordinary soldiers who didn’t cultivate origin power.

The trajectory of those cannon shells was exceptionally clear to Qianye. He suddenly grabbed the sniper rifle from Wu Shiqing and fired into the air as if he was shooting with an assault rifle.

The rumble of the sniper rifle almost drowned out the sound of the exploding shells. An eye-catching light blossomed in the air as a cannon shell was blasted apart in mid-air.

Such a scene was common in battles involving high ranking soldiers, but the expeditionary army regiment rarely had an opportunity to witness such an impressive spectacle, not to mention the seedlings behind Qianye.

Qianye fired off four more continuous shots almost without aiming, emptying a five bullet cartridge immediately. Four balls of flame erupted in the night sky, showering the vicinity in waves of heat—a wave of deathly silence washed over everyone within the village and beyond.

Moments later, world-shaking cheers rang out from the village! Qianye nodded. They would only be able to fight if morale was high enough! After all, the expeditionary army was an undefiable monster to normal people, let alone to those here who had once been slaves.

The expeditionary army kept on firing while the vanguard pushed towards the village. The machine guns in charge of suppressive fire were shooting out tongues of flame, sending streams of bullets whistling through the air. Miserable screams would ring out from time to time as the hail of bullets landed in the village.

However, the effects of the bombardment weren’t particularly good. Most of the non-combat seedlings had retreated into the mines, while the other soldiers were spread across the whole village. In addition, it was obvious that the expeditionary army had mobilized in a hurry, seeing as how they didn’t have the time to prepare heavy artillery. Hence, Qianye wasn't worried about them. The real battle would begin only when the expeditionary army advanced into the village. The deciding factor of the battle was still going to be the showdown between experts.

A machine gun atop the village wall suddenly opened fire, mowing down a batch of expeditionary army soldiers. However, origin power erupted amidst the enemy troops, and a dazzling origin bullet whistled over the battlefield. It shot through the machine gun’s steel plates with relative ease and tore the gunner into two.

Soon after, whistles rang out through the sky as several artillery shells rained down upon the machine gun, pulverizing it along with the assistant and reserve gunner.

Qianye sighed inwardly. These people had received too little training. Apart from the ten-odd soldiers from the regular army, most of the other mercenaries, hunters, and adventurers had little to no experience with group battles. The gunner just now lost his cool under the immense pressure and started firing too early, compromising his position. He could’ve avoided the concentrated cannon fire if he had waited until the expedition army reached the city walls and the frontlines of both parties drew closer.

Qianye’s gaze swept over the expeditionary army, memorizing the position of the first lieutenant who had fired just now. Qianye was waiting patiently for a few of the big fish to get hooked. The moment his Eagleshot started rumbling, those lieutenant colonels were sure to hole up as far back as possible.

That was why he couldn’t give them the opportunity to run away once he started shooting.

The cannons gradually stopped rumbling once the expeditionary army reached the walls, and their eruptions were replaced by the sounds of guns and explosions in every direction—the battle had finally begun. Several agile figures leapt out from within the expeditionary army ranks and swiftly jumped onto the village wall which stood several meters tall.

These people moved like the wind and didn’t seem like humans at all. It could even be said that they possessed the agility of wild beasts. Several of Qianye’s soldiers would fall whenever the agile soldiers jumped onto the wall. Only the guardsmen from the Far East Heavy Industries were able to obstruct them, albeit barely. A certain burly, bald man was completely unfazed even after being struck by tens of bullets and revealed a nasty grin as he twisted a soldier’s neck.

This was a fighter. His kind was almost unbeatable when facing ordinary soldiers.

The sounds of sniper rifles rang out across the battlefield. The burly man froze momentarily in a defensive posture, but he was completely unharmed. A second lieutenant beside him fell back and collapsed. This somewhat puzzled the fourth rank fighter—he scratched his head, wondering what was going on.

The sniper rang out once again, eliminating another second lieutenant some distance away from the burly man but leaving him still unharmed.

This obviously roused the muscular man’s wrath. He scanned his surroundings for the damned sniper and soon noticed a youth heading toward him within his field of vision. The odd thing was that this youth passed through areas of intense fighting with relative ease and soon arrived before him without the slightest hindrance.