Monarch of Evernight

Thunderbolt lived up to its name—every shot rumbled like a bolt of thunder. Within the scope, the left side of that giant tree exploded violently. A large defect was produced therein as the bullet pierced through the tree and flew into the mist.

A black shadow flickered on the right side of the tree and vanished into the mist.

“Damn, I picked wrong again.” Qianye couldn’t help but curse as he put Thunderbolt away.

There was no need for a second glance. Qianye could confirm that the fleeing shadow was that dark race assassin. This miscalculation had sent them back to square one—things would, once again, be decided by who discovered the other party first.

The two had been entangled for several days, continuously switching roles between hunter and prey. However, neither could deal with the other. Qianye had realized by now how dangerous this opponent really was.

All in all, Qianye held a slight advantage. He would sometimes discover that Eden had gone to great lengths to set up traps, using his followers as bait. That one time, Qianye was forced to pay a steep price after killing the other party’s subordinates and was badly wounded.

Believing he would have the advantage from there on out, Eden left the main force and chased after Qianye. However, he had never imagined that Qianye would be back at his peak state after a single night—he was nearly killed in an ambush.

For several days now, neither of them had been able to escape the other.

Eden escorted the two dark race squads to the edges of Misty Wood but did not follow them out. The mobilization of dark race forces was yet to be completed, and there would be several more squads taking this path in the days to come. He couldn’t allow Qianye to massacre everyone unscrupulously, otherwise, the loss of elites here would surpass that of an open battle.

Eden staying was exactly what Qianye wanted. The dark race forces gathering this time had far exceeded his expectations. It would be a one-sided massacre on the battlefield if an expert like Eden were to hunt alongside an organized force. The Li family independent experts—at least the ones Qianye had seen—wouldn’t even be able to run after encountering Eden.

Just like that, the two of them kept each other in check as they tried to kill one another. Unwittingly, they had already come to understand each other very well.

Qianye’s visual range extended farther than Eden’s, and although this range was only fifty meters or so, it afforded him an undeniable advantage. Moreover, Qianye’s physical defenses and recovery were much better.

However, Eden had his own advantages too—his concealment abilities were superior to Qianye’s while his hunting skill was about equal to Qianye’s. In the end, it was that heavy sniper rifle, Carol of Shadows, that gave him the edge. Although Qianye had barely survived a single shot from it, he certainly wasn’t looking forward to another round.

Yet another short exchange ended up being fruitless.

Qianye fled immediately after missing a shot. He circled around after running several kilometers and slowly approached the origin location.

It was at this time that a small dark race squad appeared in the vicinity. It was made up of about a hundred men, mostly arachne and werewolves. This was a standard combat squad. It was quite common to see werewolves and arachne forming teams on the battlefield.

The arachne were Qianye’s favorite prey, even more so than vampires. These gigantic creatures were like living targets for a long-range sniper.

The leader was an arachne baron, a fairly valuable target. The tank-like arachne had a greater impact on the battlefield compared to werewolves of the same rank.

This target was quite attractive to Qianye because he could finish it in one shot. At a distance of five hundred meters, Qianye hardly needed to activate any special abilities to penetrate its heavy armor and kill it immediately.

But… was this really an ordinary squad?

Qianye didn’t pull the trigger even after the last servspider vanished from his sight. He was waiting, waiting for a more valuable target—Eden.

What arrived though wasn’t Eden himself but his bullet. Qianye immediately leapt ten meters away from his location upon sensing the danger. The tree he had been hiding behind was blasted open by a black bullet, which duly chased after him without any reduction in momentum.

This projectile had clearly been bolstered with a special effect. Its firepower was far greater than the past shots and made straight for its target even after piercing through the tree.

It was just that Qianye’s body sunk down all of a sudden from the air, leaving its original trajectory and escaping the lethal shot. Upon landing, he made no attempt to search for Eden and simply sped toward a random direction.

After a lengthy battle, both sides had come to understand each other quite well. Qianye knew he would find nothing if he had rushed over—perhaps what awaited him would be a second ambush.

Qianye felt a slight pain on his arm as he was running. He looked down and found that a large splinter had lodged itself in one of the old defects in his armor, producing a shallow break on his skin.

“I guess that’s a small victory for you.” Qianye easily removed the splinter. This kind of injury was a little more than a mosquito bite, and it would heal on its own without any dressing.

After Qianye vanished into the Misty Wood, a distortion appeared up on one of the nearby trees as Eden’s figure appeared. He didn’t give chase immediately and, instead, sat down on the spot. There, he fished out a black crystal bottle and took a mouthful of its contents before his paper-pale face regained some color.

This was a medicine for demonic energy recovery. A single bottle could restore Eden’s demonic energy to its peak state in a matter of minutes—a life-saving measure if you will. Naturally, the price of such items had always been proportional to their efficacy.

Eden had never imagined he would encounter such a difficult opponent. He had used up most of his recovery medicines. This type of special drug couldn’t be obtained via ordinary military supplies; he would need to return to the clan or apply to the Evernight Council.

But he couldn’t spare its usage because Qianye’s recovery speed was shocking. Had he not seen it for himself, Eden would hardly be inclined to believe a human could regenerate so quickly. Things might take a turn for the worse if he couldn’t restore his demonic energy accordingly. The role of hunter and prey might switch at any time.

Since that first fateful shot, they had chased each other continuously for over ten days and ten nights. Eden could rely on secret arts and medicines to restore his demonic energy, but there was hardly any way to recover from the physical and mental drain. He wanted nothing more than to hug his gun and sleep for a couple of days.

After putting away the crystal bottle, Eden glanced back at the depths of the forest. He had a vague feeling that Qianye had already circled back and was approaching from that direction.

As the sense of danger intensified, Eden couldn’t help but curse loudly, “Goddammit, does this fellow not know fatigue?”

The reply came in the form of a thunderous gunshot.

Eden descended with a back-flip, planning to roll behind a giant tree to the southeast upon landing. However, it turned out that his luck wasn’t great. He felt a burning pain to his leg, followed closely by the scent of burning flesh.

Mithril! Eden immediately activated a secret art to seal the wound and then fled in due haste. This time, he fell into a precarious situation as he was hunted down for an entire half-day. In the end, he barely managed to escape by taking advantage of a beast horde erupting from the giant treetops.

Eden threw himself onto the purple substance after a successful escape—he didn’t want to move a single finger. At this moment, his hair was in disarray and his combat attire was beyond ragged. The demeanor fitting of a demonkin scion was nowhere to be found.

Eden flipped over and gazed at that odd, intertwining tree trunk, as well as the perpetual mist in the air above. Even though his vision was twice better than his peers at the same level, he still couldn’t see the guiding stars located at the top of this world.

Breathing heavily, he reached into his pocket to caress a piece of crystal and the simple figure carved upon it. Eden didn’t need to use his eyes to envision that figure—cold, proud, and perfect. If anyone were to see the depiction on the crystal, they would find that it was the portrait of a young lady. It was Nighteye.

No, I can’t fall here. I’ll die! There… there are too many things I need to do. Eden gritted his teeth as he sat up and glanced at the charred injury on his leg. Then, he rose and limped away. Black smoke appeared around him before fading away along with his figure.

Qianye walked out of the mist moments later. In his azure-suffused eyes, a wisp of black energy emerged to indicate Eden’s direction of departure.

“He can still run?” Qianye was quite surprised. He understood Eden just as well as the latter did him. He knew that the latter had been badly injured during the pursuit and had surmised that he would collapse around this place. How did he still have the strength to run?

Qianye hesitated for a while but decided not to give chase immediately. Instead, he sat down to catch his breath and restore some of his stamina. Qianye wasn’t quite worried about running out of origin power, but the long period of high-pressure hunting and sniping had taken a toll on his physical stamina, and there was no effective shortcut to restore the latter.

Qianye’s shot just now was an all-out attack. He had activated the full extent of his True Sight and added every special effect at his disposal into the attack. He had wanted to kill Eden in one strike. Quite unexpectedly, however, the results still deviated somewhat from Qianye’s calculations.

The dark hue between the trees quickly faded away as Eden’s demonic energy was devoured by the forest. Qianye tracked Eden down for a while but had to give up after finding no more clues.

Qianye was naturally regretful—a victory couldn’t have been closer, but Eden had escaped in the end. Valuable targets like Eden were beyond rare. He was clearly from a famed demonkin clan, and his rank should be between a mighty-count and a virtuous-count. Such a character would usually be surrounded by a great number of guards with only a few ever appearing solo.

After losing this opportunity, Qianye would likely not encounter such a prey for a long time. He couldn’t help but shake his head as he gazed at the mist hanging between the large trees. It was time to return to base.

Eden had probably lost interest in fighting to the death with him after receiving this grievous injury. He was almost certain to retreat from this battlefield.

The Misty Wood was just like before, but the two parties had made use of the environment to its limit during their many days of battle. Presently, Qianye could make use of even the most minute of changes in the surroundings.

Qianye’s return journey was rather quick. He traversed hundreds of kilometers in a little more than a day and appeared outside of the Li clan base. If one were to connect his trails, it could be seen that his route was perfectly straight.

Compared to when he had left, the Li clan base was even more bustling. The camp-grounds that were still under construction last time had been put to use. However, yet a new barracks was under construction to accommodate the influx of more people.