Monarch of Evernight

At this point, Qianye still wasn’t sure who the enemy really was. Su Dingqian’s stance on the war was fairly strict—he had designated an area a hundred kilometers around Port City as a warzone. Any army entering the region would be attacked on sight.

In the depths of the quiet night, Qianye was sitting in the courtyard after preparing his equipment, waiting for the coming dawn.

He left the little compound as the first rays of dawn washed over the vast land. The vice captain of the city lord’s guard was waiting at his door to personally drive him to the city gates.

“General Zhao, are you leaving the city already? Aren’t you going to wait until later?” Since Qianye had already accepted the identity of a city guard officer, the vice guard captain’s address changed from Mr. Zhao to General Zhao.

In the face of an organized army, sniping under the cover of the night was a common choice. Qianye didn’t reply, opting only to reply with a smile. The vice guard captain didn’t inquire further, either. An expert’s combat style was his privacy, and one might very well be inviting trouble by knowing more.

The vice-captain drove Qianye ten kilometers out before turning back.

The landscape outside of the city was hilly and uneven, but it was mostly occupied by low hillocks and gently sloping valleys, with little to no dangerous geography.

Qianye waved his hand after the vice-captain had left, and the field backpack behind him vanished into Andruil’s Mysterious Realm. He fished out a map and studied it in detail. He found a small town a couple kilometers away and decided to take a look there.

Several kilometers took but a moment for Qianye.

The small town was actually of considerable scale and home to thousands of people. The houses here were similarly short and simple, so much so that there wasn’t a single two-storied house. The tremors from the Earth Dragon flipping over would cover hundreds of kilometers. This little town had gone through countless cycles of destruction and reconstruction—such a small settlement wouldn’t have the budget for arrays that protected buildings.

When Qianye walked into town, the entire place was in chaos. Many people had packed their luggage and were leaving their homes for Port City, while others were scattering in different directions. An elderly man who looked like a tribal chief was speaking to a couple dozen people, “This battle is clearly directed at Port City. Running to the city at this point is akin to jumping into a fiery pit. How can there be any city defenses? Even I can jump over those short walls!”

“But they have City Lord Su!” Some young members were dissatisfied.

“No matter how strong the city lord is, he’s alone! Do you think the Wolf King and Spider Emperor are inferior to him? Besides, City Lord Su is a heavenly character. Even if he can protect Port City, do you think he’ll even notice little bastards like you? In a fight between these major characters, you’ll lose your life just by getting close.”

The young clansmen were still dissatisfied, but they couldn’t out-debate the elder. In the end, they clambered onto the car unwillingly. Two truck engines rumbled as the vehicles drove out of the town with great difficulty and steered away into the distance.

What Qianye found surprising was that the passengers on the car were all strong warriors, while the old, the sick, and the women had to walk behind.

Qianye scanned the group and found that those on the car possessed enough origin power cultivation to qualify as members of the city guard. Meanwhile, the walkers were ordinary people or of rank-one cultivation at most.

He understood the reasoning after some contemplation. This family was actually leaving the young warriors in a state of vigor and strength in order to deal with the dangers on the road ahead. And when needed, the old and weak behind the motorcade would be sacrificed.

From this, one could see just how cruel the neutral lands were.

Just like that, the residents of the small town left to escape the war. Many of them would’ve been qualified soldiers in the empire, but in the neutral lands, they were helpless members of the lowest rung of society.

Qianye passed through the town, walking against the hurried tide of people. All of a sudden, he saw two people in the depths of a small alley. Having thought of something, Qianye walked in. The ambient light there was rather dim and an uncomfortable smell rushed at his face.

Both clad in civilian clothing, the two men were currently lying still in a puddle of mud. The water under their bodies had turned a deep purple. Apparently, they had already bled out.

The sounds of coarse breathing arrived from the alley corner. One could even make out the clear sounds of a rapidly beating heart. Additionally, Qianye could sense that person’s blood flowing at increased speeds—he seemed to be extremely nervous.

Feigning ignorance, Qianye stepped over the two corpses and turned to the corner. The person hiding behind the wall leapt up and stabbed ruthlessly at Qianye’s waist! This dagger was fast, fierce, and absolutely merciless. He wanted to kill Qianye.

The assailant’s power, however was simply too minuscule. The dagger had just touched Qianye’s combat robes when the latter caught him by the wrist and crushed the bones therein.

The ambusher screamed in misery and fell to the ground, trembling in pain. This person was dressed in a mercenary uniform and had a bandage around his waist that was seeping blood. Additionally, there were several wounds of different shapes and sizes on his body. The bigger ones had been hastily dressed, but the smaller ones were still visible. It would seem he had no time to deal with them at all.

Qianye was indifferent to this mercenary’s plight. He had never shown mercy to those who wanted to kill their own people.

He reached out to grab the man and pinned him to the wall. “Why were you trying to kill me? Speak, and I’ll let you die quickly.”

The mercenary’s expression was dismal. He pointed at the civilian corpses and said, “I thought you were with them. Our group managed to flee back here with great difficulty; only three of us were left out of the dozens. But these bastards saw our injuries and tried to rob us of our equipment! Old Wang and Iron Tiger survived the battlefield only to die in their hands!”

Qianye followed the mercenary’s finger and saw two mercenaries dead against the wall. There were half a dozen civilian corpses around them, all of them full of injuries. Apparently, the battle here was exceptionally fierce. These town residents had wanted to rob the heavily injured mercenaries but didn’t expect them to have so much strength remaining. In the end, they paid for their deeds with their lives.

The mercenary in Qianye’s grasp was also in bad shape and didn’t have long to live. He had been guarding the alleyway, looking to drag a couple more down with him. No one would look into this matter amidst the chaos.

Qianye sighed inwardly. He had gained a new understanding of the disorder in the neutral lands. He loosened his grip and, leaving the mercenary on the ground, headed into the depths of the alley.

“Wait, save me!” the mercenary cried out.

Qianye walked on, pretending not to have heard anything.

“You’re so powerful, why not save me!?” The man’s cries were filled with misery.

Qianye maintained his rate of advancement and was soon going to leave the alley.

The mercenary’s face was full of malice as he roared, “Since you refuse to save me, go to hell!”

He used his relatively good left hand to grab his origin gun and fired at the back of Qianye’s head.

The latter sidestepped the incoming projectile. A mere grade-three origin gun was simply too slow for him. Actually, the bullet wouldn’t have injured him even if he had remained still.

Qianye drew the Twin Flowers and fired three backward shots. One of them shattered the mercenary’s left hand and origin gun while the other two broke his legs. Qianye’s figure flickered and appeared before the man once more. “Now you’ll die a slow death.”

When Qianye walked out of the small alleyway, the mercenary’s wretched cries and curses were still echoing behind him. Qianye was absolutely unconcerned about the curses from such weaklings. Besides, the pain of having his four limbs broken was punishment enough for him. This experience left him with a hint of puzzlement—was the neutral lands filled with such twisted, crazy people?

The exodus continued throughout the small town, accompanied by the occasional sound of gunshots. The people here had gathered in familial units and would fire without hesitation if another wave of people were to approach. They were like wolf-packs, baring their fangs and claws at each other, and attempting to intimidate the other party from a distance.

Qianye left the small town and headed for his next destination. There was a sizeable village ten kilometers away, home to a couple hundred people.

There were countless villages like this scattered around Port City. Spiked rats and rainbow fish would be driven out of the earth whenever the Earth Dragon turned over or became agitated. Many of these villagers made a living by capturing such local resources.

The area Su Dingqian had demarcated was traditionally a part of Port City’s territory. The towns and villages in the area needed to pay taxes to the city in exchange for protection and the right to reside there.

Qianye spent half a day patrolling several villages. The ones in the periphery had long since been emptied as the townspeople fled the battlefield. The only ones left behind were those old people who couldn’t travel. There were some people left in the towns closer to Port City, but they were also preparing to leave.

Battles between divine champions weren’t rare in the neutral lands. Su Dingqian himself had fought several times against the Wolf King and Spider Emperor. Port City’s outstanding position was something he had forged by hand. The effects of a clash between divine champions stretched far and wide—ordinary people simply couldn’t survive.

While patrolling one of the villages, Qianye encountered a mercenary corps in the process of “resupplying”, sourcing goods from the villagers who hadn’t yet managed to flee. This ten-man group hadn’t yet encountered a battle just yet. It would seem they were just going around and looking for villages to “resupply” at. Seeing Qianye on his own, these people began to crowd over like a pack of wolves that had discovered a sheep.

Moments later, when Qianye left the village, everyone from that bandit mercenary corps had turned into corpses.

The few battles on the first day were actually between human civilians and mercenaries.