Chapter 546: Vanguard [V6C76 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]

The empire had thrived for thousands of years, but its most successful area was with large mechanized weapons, even surpassing the Evernight faction both in terms of city defenses and airship warfare. The empire held a particular advantage in terms of single-airship firepower. Hence, the Evernight side had to depend on their advantage in the number of experts to fill this gap.

However, the two great monarchs from the Evernight side hadn’t appeared during this battle, and the less powerful experts were soon dominated by the well-prepared empire. The Evernight airship fleet thus suffered grievous losses.

A couple of hours into the battle, the Evernight side had lost one entire airship fleet, but even then, airships from both sides continued to pour in. They weren’t completely unprepared—they had two sub-fleets hidden in a distant base to serve as reserve units. What they didn’t expect was that the empire would have a hidden ace in the form of three sub-fleets parked out in the void.

The troops on the ground were still charging forth. Qianye soon closed the window and looked straight ahead, collecting his thoughts.

Rolling smoke and dust rose over the horizon. That was the thirty-thousand strong vanguard unit of the regular army, half composed of imperial soldiers, and the remainder occupied by Zhang clan private soldiers. Zhang Boqian, as the commander-in-chief of this operation, had assigned his own private army to the vanguard unit. Even the clans who held a grudge against the Zhang clan couldn’t help but admire his dedication.

Qianye passed an order for the entire battalion to maintain formation and pay attention to their distance from the main army vanguard and adjacent units. Afterward, he lit a cigarette and allowed himself to enter a complete state of rest. Constant rumbling explosions came from above, but Qianye still managed to relax his spirit, slow down his thoughts, and eventually enter dreamland—he had actually fallen asleep in such a situation.

After an unknown length of time, an intense rumble woke Qianye up followed by the shrill sound of a descending cannon shell. However, the round failed to complete its mission as a sniper atop the jeep fired several rounds in succession and caused it to ignite mid-air.

The explosion took place several hundred meters from the ground, yet the vehicle was badly shaken and its windows shattered. From this, one could see how great its firepower was.

Qianye tidied his hair which had been messed up by the shockwave. Then, with a light tap on his seat, he flipped out of the window with great agility and arrived on the roof to observe the surroundings.

A series of shrill whistles filled the sky as a torrent of cannon shells fell toward Qianye’s vehicle. “Issue my command, perform independent evasive maneuvers!”

A senior officer immediately stood up and waved the relevant command flags. The motorcade behind them immediately spread out and, at the same time, spat out tongues of flames from their roofs. The constant flashes of origin power moved forth like a large net to intercept the descending shells.

Black plumes of smoke exploded in the air amidst deafening rumbles as the heavy-cannon shells were blasted apart one after another. There was also a fair number that managed to break through the interception fire, leaving deep pits on the ground wherever they landed.

A military transport made a sharp turn but still failed to evade the incoming shell. It was struck directly and transformed into a ball of flames. The soldiers within were flung out in all directions like broken dolls. Only a small number of officers managed to extricate themselves, while the rest were completely disfigured.

Qianye broke into a frown. A single shot had taken the lives of dozens of elite soldiers, and even among the vehicles that hadn’t been struck, there were casualties sustained from stray bullets during the evasion process. But less than a hundred had died while passing through the artillery blockade. This could already be considered an exemplary performance, unquestionable proof of the Zhao clan private army’s quality.

Qianye stood firmly on the roof of the car with a scarlet origin glow flickering around him; he would reach out to intercept the falling cannon shells from time to time. Seeing his actions, the other powerful vanguard battalion officers also leapt onto the roof and activated their origin defenses to protect the advancing motorcade.

Qianye glanced far into the distance and saw balls of light rising up at the extremes of his vision. The vanguard unit had spread out at the designated point and formed a temporary line of defense from which they were fighting against the Evernight army. The Evernight side had invested a great number of troops in their defensive line, much more than the empire had in the vanguard. Apparently, they wanted to push the frontline back before the Imperials had gained a foothold.

Qianye immediately issued an order after seeing this. “Full speed ahead!”

The jeep engine roared frantically as it sped forward over the rugged wasteland. The vanguard battalion cars all accelerated after seeing the command vehicle speed up and whizzed toward the frontlines.

Qianye leapt off the jeep several kilometers away from the battlefield and charged forward at full speed. Upon seeing this, the communications officer on the jeep grabbed the flare gun and fired a signal flare in Qianye’s direction. The bullet swayed upward and drew out a blue line through the sky. All qualified imperial soldiers would know that this was a signal flare used specifically by the Zhao clan.

The vanguard battalion’s cars stopped thousands of meters away from the battlefield. All warriors alighted and ran toward their designated positions in a staggered formation.

The cannon fire in the air grew so dense that even the earth was trembling. The deafening explosions rumbled continuously as bomb craters appeared left and right.

Soldiers of the Zhao clan vanguard battalion were veterans of many battles. They leapt from one crater to another, using the transformed landscape to hide themselves during the advance. Some soldiers would be flung away from time to time, but most of them merely fell to the ground and managed to scramble up soon afterward.

These veteran soldiers possessed great individual fighting power and were equipped with high-quality armor—even the cover bombing couldn’t pose a great threat to them. They were mostly left with light wounds unless the shell fell right beside them.

At the foremost, Qianye had already charged into the imperial vanguard unit. One of the Zhang clan generals was startled when he saw the Zhao clan insignia on Qianye’s uniform. “You guys came so fast!”

Qianye had no time to reply as East Peak flashed out to block in front of the general's chest. A large ball of origin flame exploded on the blade, tainted with strands of black energy—it was a powerful sniper round.

The Zhang clan general lost all color. Had Qianye not blocked that shot for him, it was likely that the bullet would’ve pierced through his armor and opened a large hole on his chest.

The general had no time to thank Qianye under the urgent situation. He grabbed the assault rifle nearby and, with two bursts, made a sieve out of the distant vampire. Only after pressing the trigger did he have the time to express his gratitude. “Thanks, brother!”

Qianye said with a wave of his hand, “No need, we drink after the fight!”

Qianye didn’t linger around at all and sped toward a group of charging arachne. The oceanic power pressed half the arachne onto the ground as he took their captain’s head with a sweep of East Peak.

Qianye rushed time and again into the most dangerous of places. Each time, he would arrive in the enemy’s midst with unparalleled speed, suppress them with his oceanic might, and take the head of their most powerful expert. He killed with incredible speed and defeated numerous dark race units in the blink of an eye. The stress on the defensive line was immediately eased up.

At this moment, the Zhao clan vanguard battalion arrived at the scene in quick succession and moved toward Qianye in formation.

Qianye drew his Twin Flowers and downed several dark race soldiers in front of him. He then turned back and roared, “Form a defensive perimeter here. Front row, assist in the attack. Back row, deploy defenses!”

He had just given the order when a sense of alarm arose in his heart. Immediately afterward, a vampire origin grenade appeared at his feet, seemingly out of nowhere. Qianye was sent flying from the intense explosion and soon crashed onto the distant ground due to East Peak’s weight.

For a moment, Qianye could only hear the explosion ringing in his ears and see stars in his eyes. The blood energy and origin power in his body were in turmoil. That wasn’t just an ordinary origin grenade, but one with the ability to disrupt daybreak origin power.

As powerful as his body was, he could hardly clamber up on the spot.

Qianye soon felt someone dragging him backward. Several Zhao clan soldiers had appeared around him and were firing with all their might to cover their retreat.

Then, another vampire hand grenade exploded. It didn’t have any added effect like the previous one but managed to land squarely in the midst of the soldiers. The warriors evaded with all their might but failed to escape completely from the blast radius. The great half of them fell in an instant with only one managing to clamber up and fire back.

Qianye only saw things up to this point before he was dragged into a bomb crater. Soon, he felt a slight pain at his neck as though he had been bitten by a bug.

The potential attack to his vital area activated all of Qianye’s instinctive defenses. He immediately became sober and sat up with his handgun pointing forward.

Beside Qianye was a young soldier. He was already a major in the army despite his tender facial features. At this moment, he had a syringe in his hand and was looking at the bent needle in a daze.

This was the Zhao clan’s specialized life-saving medicine, one with the combined effects of healing, stimulation, and blood restoration. Its effects were much better than those issued by the imperial regular army. Even within the Zhao clan private army, only officers and special units like the vanguard battalion would receive a quota.

The medicine was specially designed for critical situations. Its needle was constructed from the same alloy used to make origin gun barrels and possessed the ability to pierce through standard armor. This saved time during emergencies by removing the need for a proper injection site to deliver the medicine.

What caused the youth to be flabbergasted was that the needle bent out of shape after sticking into Qianye’s bare skin, leaving nothing more than a red spot.

Seeing what had transpired, Qianye took the medicine from the major, pinched off the needle, and swallowed the contents in one gulp. “Let’s go!” With that, he leapt out of the crater.

Qianye held the Bloody Datura in one hand and East Peak in the other. At the same time, he activated his Bloodline Concealment and began roaming through the battlefield under the cover of the thick smoke. He ignored several good opportunities for an ambush because the most important mission right now was to find the stealthy enemy who had tossed that grenade.

That person was too dangerous. He managed to launch a successful sneak attack even under Qianye’s sharp senses. The empire would suffer greater casualties if he couldn’t deal with this person as soon as possible.

Before long, a grenade appeared nearby as though it had floated up from underwater. The blast sent two imperial lieutenants flying into the air along with several soldiers and effectively silenced the heavy machine gun they were operating.

During this short moment, Qianye caught a ripple-like origin power trajectory in his True Sight. Apparently, that was the origin power which had delivered the grenade to its designated location. However, the source of this trajectory was filled with mist, and no life-form could be sensed therein.