Monarch of Evernight (Web Novel)

Qianye crouched down and used the crevices to approach like a specter.

Perhaps because she was immersed in the killing, Bai Kongzhao didn’t seem to notice Qianye’s approach. Her opponents weren’t only limited to the dark races—there was also a small group of imperial experts at the center of the battlefield. As she passed by one of the colonels, the girl’s agile hands landed lightly on his neck. This action, as gentle as a lover’s caress, actually “plucked off” the man’s head in the blink of an eye.

The entire process lasted but a moment, and the imperial colonel simply had no time to react. He hadn’t even noticed Bai Kongzhao’s approach and was busy firing at the dark races.

Close to a hundred dark race soldiers had occupied the periphery, half-surrounding the twenty-some imperial soldiers at the center and blanketing them with fierce gunfire. However, lives were taken indiscriminately with Bai Kongzhao’s sudden appearance—be it friend or foe, dark race or imperial, they were all cut down in droves. No life was allowed to exist around her. It was as though she had no particular motive and was just here for the massacre.

Qianye inhaled deeply and brought out the Carol of Shadows for the first time. He pressed a black titanium bullet into the chamber and slowly instilled some blood energy.

The Carol of Shadows gradually began to react and awaken from its slumber. The dark jade-green patterns on its body lit up, but its barrel remained akin to the bottomless depths—a color so dark that it almost seemed sentient.

Delighted to find that his blood energy was effective, Qianye sped up the installation and completely activated the Carol of Shadows.

After the activation, Qianye felt that the rifle’s body became a part of his own limb. He could even increase his perception range by releasing it via the gun. He closed his eyes, yet he could “see” everything within 100 meters by virtue of the Carol of Shadows.

Qianye came to realize that the Carol of Shadows played a part in why Eden was able to match the Eye of Truth’s visual range inside the Misty Wood.

Although both were grade-seven firearms, the Thunderbolt was simply not at the same level compared to the Carol of Shadows. As a mass-produced imperial weapon, the former had no special abilities and only relied on its great firepower to barely count as a grade-seven gun. Moreover, it had many shortcomings. For instance, its loud rumble was how the name came to be. On the battlefield, the sniper would have to move after each shot because even the roar of artillery couldn’t hide the sound of the Thunderbolt.

Qianye had once experienced the firepower of the Carol of Shadows with his own body. He knew that it was far above the Thunderbolt and at the peak of grade-seven. It was just that Qianye couldn’t draw out its full power with his blood energy, but even that was enough to deal with Bai Kongzhao. The young girl was famous for her terrifying instincts and talent in murder, not her strong constitution.

Qianye’s perception reached out from the Carol of Shadows, and the moment it touched the young girl, Qianye pulled the trigger!

The Carol of Shadows let out a deep, eerie rumble, not unlike the chant of a chorus. As though it were shrouded in shadows, the bullet was blurry and barely discernible as it flew toward the girl’s back.

This sudden attack was launched from less than eight hundred meters away. The moment the bullet left the chamber, Qianye knew that it was over for Bai Kongzhao.

For a split second, Qianye felt a certain emptiness and reluctance in his heart. Bai Kongzhao’s effect on the battlefield was no less than Qianye’s. If only she was willing to fight for the empire, she would surely become a supporting pillar of the nation one day. Unfortunately, she had always killed for no good reason with little discrimination between friend and foe. She was no different from a lunatic, one who couldn’t be left alive no matter what.

Qianye’s reluctance was just like a bubble, which burst in the blink of an eye. He was just about to put the Carol of Shadows away when he was suddenly startled.

At death’s door, Bai Kongzhao actually sensed the incoming peril and turned toward Qianye. At the same time, her body twisted with all its might and folded at a strange angle.

A shower of blood burst out from her shoulder, half of which, at this moment, was already nowhere to be seen. The little girl was flung over ten meters away and fell to the ground like a broken doll.

The girl bounced up immediately after landing and sped away immediately. Her speed seemed unaffected in the least.

Qianye was dumbfounded as he watched Bai Kongzhao disappear from his vision. He didn’t give chase because he couldn’t catch up at such a distance. Moreover, Bai Kongzhao’s concealment abilities were one of the best Qianye had ever seen. She could just hide randomly within this complicated landscape, and the latter would hardly be able to find her.

Qianye shook his head as he put away the Carol of Shadows. That sniper round just now contained black titanium. Even though she didn’t die on the spot, there wasn’t much time left for her to live. The scourge was finally gone, yet Qianye didn’t feel much relief.

He collected his thoughts in due haste and rushed into the battlefield. He rushed straight into the group of dark race soldiers with his Twin Flowers rumbling continuously. Qianye’s marksmanship had also increased along with his combat arts—every shot from the Twin Flowers struck the enemy’s vitals. Every crack was accompanied by the fall of a dark race soldier, regardless of their level.

An extremely angry arachne baron charged at Qianye while waving his war axe.

But the latter didn’t even look at him before shooting backward. The baron fell on his back while spraying bloody mist from his mouth—neither the powerful body nor heavy armor could stop a bullet in the mouth. The Bloody Datura’s strengthened firepower immediately shattered the lower part of the arachne baron’s face.

Qianye raised his left hand and followed up with another shot. This attack landed at the exact same spot, blowing away whatever was left of the arachne’s brains.

As the most powerful expert in the squad, the baron was the only one whom Qianye needed two shots to kill, more or less preserving his status as an expert.

The arachne baron’s death destroyed the morale of all the other dark races. They left a dozen or so men to bring up the rear while all the others fell into a retreat.

Qianye sneered. He planned to circle around the rearguard and hunt down the escapees before coming back to deal with the former, just like how he had done countless times in the Misty Wood. No one could escape from Qianye’s hands.

However, the remaining dark race soldiers were all prepared to die. After seeing that they couldn’t hold Qianye, they began going after the surviving imperial soldiers in a suicidal manner. In the blink of an eye, several imperial soldiers fell under their crazed attacks.

Qianye sighed as he had no choice but to turn back and assist the human squad. Otherwise, there would be less than ten of them left by the time he had returned from his hunt.

With Qianye’s return, all the dark race soldiers met the same end no matter how fierce they were—all were blasted to death in one shot. In the blink of an eye, he had wiped out all of the soldiers who had stayed behind and gone on to chase the escapees.

Moments later, Qianye killed two of the fleeing squads and began chasing after the third. There were two more small units he had to let go because they had fled too far.

The current unit was entirely made up of werewolves. At this moment, they were running swiftly in their wolverine forms, yet the distance between them was shrinking rapidly because Qianye was much faster. The enemy came into range of the Twin Flowers within mere moments. Qianye raised his right hand and aimed the Mystic Spider Lily at one of the fleeing werewolves. Once struck, the illusion of pain from this shot would also affect nearby werewolves and disrupt their speed.

An abrupt sense of warning emerged in Qianye’s heart just as he was about to pull the trigger, and he dived forward without a second thought.

A bullet whistled over and struck Qianye’s back diagonally! Young Dragon’s backplate caved in immediately. Moreover, the bullet tore the armor connections and sent it flying into the distance. Qianye spun through the air due to the massive kinetic force and then slammed onto the ground, shattering a giant rock in the process.

Qianye immediately spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. However, he performed a quick roll and assumed a half kneeling position—at this point, the Carol of Shadows was already in his hand, pointing in the direction of the assault. Bai Kongzhao was standing behind a huge rock, gazing blankly in disbelief. A shot she had believed to be a certain hit had actually deviated.

Her right arm hung limply to the side, and her shoulder was wrapped tightly with a piece of her dress. In her slightly trembling left hand was a sniper rifle much taller than her self. One could easily imagine the price she would have to pay for operating with one hand a sniper rifle that was capable of blasting Qianye away. If she wasn’t already a champion, the recoil from this gun would’ve crushed her left shoulder.

Qianye’s pupils constricted somewhat—he noticed that the sniper rifle in Bai Kongzhao’s hand was exceptionally large and its body, as elegant as it was sinister. Shockingly, it was a firearm of demonkin make. The tall, slender demonkin favored such two-meter long rifles.

Seeing that Qianye could still stand, Bai Kongzhao fled like a startled rabbit with that huge gun in tow. Soon, she had vanished among the rocks.

Qianye didn’t give chase because he didn’t have that ability. His body had just suffered a powerful impact and even the organs that had been strengthened by his vampiric constitution were slightly out of place. This kind of shock wasn’t much to Qianye, but intense movements would damage his innards further and inflict heavy injuries.

Qianye stood up slowly and put the Carol of Shadows into Andruil’s realm before inspecting his body. The true damage was in the organs, but with his regenerative powers, all he needed was half a day’s rest. Apart from that, there were only surface injuries that required no special attention. It was just that Young Dragon was completely deformed, and wearing it was too uncomfortable. Qianye had no choice but to take off his chest plate.

Perhaps out of fear that she wouldn’t be able to kill Qianye, Bai Kongzhao had used a kinetic round instead of an armor piercing round. She sought to use the latter’s powerful impact to damage the opponent, an effective method against heavily armored opponents. Even against a combat vehicle with specially reinforced armor, the passengers inside would die from the impact once struck. Had this shot landed on any other human champion with heavy armor, his body would’ve turned to mush even if the armor remained intact.

Qianye sighed as he looked at the large segment missing on the armor. It was really uncertain if the armor could be repaired again. If not for this Young Dragon, Qianye would’ve fallen into mortal danger on several occasions—he might’ve fallen during his first exchange with Eden. But now after suffering continuous damage, this battle armor had more or less reached the end of its life. Even after repairs, its defensive power might not be as good as before. Any further damage and it would need to be sent back to the furnace to be reforged.

At this time, a sudden thought came over Qianye. That huge sniper rifle in Bai Kongzhao’s hand seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Where did she get it from?