[V5C154 – A Distance Within Reach]

Qianye reached out to pat Song Zining’s shoulder and laughed, “If we’re going, then we must go together! Sufferings must be shared.”

The two joked around for a bit before Qianye asked, “What happened just now? Sky Demon’s aura suddenly appeared and almost made me suffer.”

Song Zining’s voice turned cold. “What other than the trash from the Nangong family?” He then recounted what had happened just now.

Qianye nodded and asked calmly, “What are your plans?”

“What do think we should do?” Song Zining asked back.

Qianye said with killing intent flashing through his eyes, “Let’s just kill our way over there now.”

Song Zining broke into a laughter. “How simple and violent. I like it! But there are many major characters watching that place. Us brothers have neither power nor influence at the moment. We might have to wrap a cloth around us if we’re going to play with his mother. Haha!”

Qianye glared at him and said, “I’ll give you half a day’s time to prepare the loincloth!”

Song Zining said with great confidence, “I’ve already made ample preparations. We can leave right away.”

Moments later, a motorcade drove out from the freshly destroyed gate. This vehicles comprising this seven-truck convoy had eye-catching Dark Flame and expeditionary army insignias painted upon them.

The seven heavy trucks advanced in a single file, their engines rumbling, and their tall vertical exhausts puffing out black smoke. The eight man-sized wheels on each car rose and fell as they climbed over various types of rugged terrain, akin to colossal beasts of burden slowly traversing the desolate land.

These Primordial Beast trucks belonged to a model currently in-service in the imperial regular army, and a was rare sight on Evernight Continent. There shouldn’t be any at all in a remote place like Blackflow. Song Zining had only brought along some when he stationed himself here. Hence, one could easily tell that Dark Flame was here after seeing these massive entities.

The cab of the Primordial Beast was fairly spacious with two rows of seats. One could stuff in a dozen or so men during critical times.

Within the lead vehicle, Qianye was holding onto the steering wheel and clumsily operating this five-meter-tall steel beast.

Following a violent jolt, Qianye couldn’t help but slap the steering wheel and say, “It’s been so long since I’ve driven such a car. It’s truly hard to get used to.”

“Take it slowly. Here have a cigarette to raise your spirits.” Song Zining, on the other hand, seemed to be in a good mood as he lit a cigarette and passed it to Qianye.

The smoke soon filled the cab. Nanhua, who was sitting on the back row, sniffed hard and asked, “Why does this cigarette smell so odd?”

“This is high-quality, military-use stimulant,” Song Zining replied with a laugh.

Nanhua was still puzzled. “Are stimulants still useful to you guys? Moreover, the dose is so small.”

“It’s just nostalgia,” Qianye replied.

At this time, there was a tap from the roof, followed by Blackmoon’s voice. “Stimulants? Give me one.”

Song Zining grabbed a cigarette and flicked it upward from the window. Blackmoon grabbed it with a half-machine hand and lit the smoke by shooting out a thin stream of flames from her fingers. She then inhaled deeply and let out a sigh of satisfaction. Military stimulants were no longer effective for Qianye and Song Zining, but the effects for her were quite evident.

Blackmoon sat atop the truck, bundled up in her thick, dark cape—and beside her was a large-caliber machine cannon.

They motorcade passed not a single person during the entire hour of driving through the wilderness. The Nangong family had locked down the entire area and forbidden anyone from entering or leaving.

A heavily-guarded sentry post appeared at the end of the road with a small army camp beside it. The silhouette of a city also emerged over the horizon. That was the Nangong family’s main base camp, one of the important nodes they had been using to lock down Blackflow City.

Qianye shifted the steering wheel and drove the Primordial Beast straight toward the sentry.

“Halt! Halt!” An officer blocking the road fired several shots into the air while the soldiers behind him were also aiming at the convoy.

Qianye didn’t reduce his speed at all and only stepped on the brakes at the last moment. The eight wheels of the Primordial Beast stopped moving with a shrill screech, the massive inertia leaving deep grooves on the road. The valves on each side of the car spat out large clouds of steam which almost shrouded the entire vehicle.

The Primordial Beast stopped just short of the barrier. The officer had long since jumped to the side in fright and was steamed in every sense of the word.

Blackmoon was still sitting atop the car as steady as a mountain despite the violent deceleration. This was a complete defiance of the laws of physics.

Qianye pushed the door open and flicked the half-smoked cigarette to the ground before leaping down from the cab high above.

The officer, wet and miserable, made his way out of the steam cloud. Upon seeing Qianye, he spat out the words “I’ll slaughter you!” in a mixture of rage and humiliation before smashing the butt of his gun at Qianye’s face!

This blow was quite forceful, enough to shatter all the bones in an ordinary person’s face and leave him barely alive if not dead.

Qianye’s hand moved ever so slightly—no one knew how, but the officer’s wrist was caught in his grasp and rendered completely immobile.

“You really do want to kill me.” Qianye’s voice contained a trace of mockery.

The officer exerted himself several times, but his hand wouldn’t budge at all. Shocked and angry, the man roared, “You bastards from Blackflow City dare charge our checkpoint? Let go or this daddy will kill you all!”

Song Zining walked over with a smile and said, “Resorting to violence? Why go to all the trouble? Let me help you!”

With that, Song Zining grabbed the officer’s hand and twisted it into a weird angle before giving it a forceful pinch. This caused the muzzle to spit out flames and leave a bullet mark on the Primordial Beast.

“You really do want to kill us! Then I won’t be polite anymore.” Song Zining repeated Qianye’s words, but his tone was entirely different. He twisted the officer’s hand to aim the gun at his face before pulling on the trigger.

The officer collapsed with a face full of shock. The soldiers at the checkpoint couldn’t believe their eyes and quickly fell into chaos.

Leaves suddenly appeared around Song Zining and flew out in all directions. A terrifying laceration would open up on the body wherever the fallen leaves streaked past, and all the soldiers near him collapsed in the blink of an eye.

Qianye drew the Bloody Datura and fired at the two sentry towers, the origin bullet shredding the structural armor with relative ease and igniting the gunpowder within. Two balls of flame shot up with a boom and sent the sharpshooters in the tower flying.

At this time, the continuous sound of an autocannon rang out as Blackmoon started firing madly from atop the roof of the truck. Every bullet seemed to have grown an eye in Blackmoon’s hand as they blasted the soldiers away one after another. Even those behind cover were struck in the head by her shots.

Gunfire rang out like thunder as the Nangong family soldiers were mowed down in droves. The battle was almost over by the time Nanhua jumped out of the car—an entire company had been killed, while a small number of them fled toward the city.

Qianye paid the escapees no heed since these ordinary soldiers were all the same to him. What he needed to do was wait for the big fish from the Nangong family.

Their group boarded the truck once again and drove through the checkpoint toward the Trinity River County Capital. The commotion here had alarmed the distant city, and soldiers were moving out from their barracks. Moments later, an airship flew rapidly toward the motorcade.

“Only one?!” Blackmoon mumbled in apparent dissatisfaction.

Qianye stomped down on the brakes and pulled on a special red lever. The Primordial Beast panted to a stop, and the rear compartment opened to reveal a long, sinister double-barreled cannon. It was exceptionally long, twice as thick as an ordinary auto-cannon, and relied on the Primordial Beast’s kinetic power for its operation.

Blackmoon jumped behind the cannon and began operating it with both her hands and feet. With a blast of steam from its base, the cannon rose rapidly and aimed toward the incoming airship.

The vessels employed by the Nangong family were military battleships, and even the smallest of their patrol boats weren’t easy to contend with from the ground. But one simply couldn’t compare Qianye and Song Zining to ordinary champions.

Qianye played around with the Twin Flowers before combining them into one. With the reinforcement of the Wings of Inception, the Twin Flower was easily capable of tearing through the gun ship’s armor.

Song Zining produced a long spear from the cab. If needed, a hurl of his spear could send a champion flying hundreds of meters away. A patrol gunship was an easy target within its range.

As for Nanhua, she could only climb onto the roof and pick up the autocannon Blackmoon had thrown away. But it was clear from her clumsy movements that her aim wouldn’t be too accurate. Moreover, that little autocannon couldn’t do much against an airship.

The Primordial Beasts behind also stopped one after another. Three of them had been installed with high-caliber autocannons, but they were all inferior to the one in Blackmoon’s hand in terms of range and bore—that one was personally modified by Nangong Xiaoniao and embodied her simple and violent style.

Qianye gazed at the oncoming patrol airship and said regretfully, “What a pity that only one came.”

Song Zining said, “Looks like you’re quite confident in Blackmoon. I, on the other hand, think we might be in trouble if two more airships arrive.”

“Don’t underestimate that girl. We’re not that proficient in operating things like autocannons,” Qianye replied.

Perhaps because it had never been threatened, the patrol airship flew quite low and was no more than 200 meters high. Additionally, it was flying straight toward the convoy.

What surprised Qianye and Song Zining was that Blackmoon had already opened fire while the airship was still thousands of meters away. The muffled roar as the giant cannon opened fire was exceptionally intimidating, and the entire Primordial Beast shook from the impact.

The first salvo brushed right past the airship. The shock threw the operators into a fluster as they rushed to perform evasive maneuvers.

Blackmoon paused momentarily and made new adjustments before stomping down on the trigger paddle once again. This time, the bright shells drew out streams of flames and struck the airship fiercely like a blazing whip.

Despite the distance, Qianye and Song Zining saw several components and large pieces of the airship’s skin flying off continuously. As one of Blackmoon’s shots peeled off a propeller, Song Zining finally shrugged and said indignantly, “I must admit I’m not Miss Highbeard’s match in this.”

Qianye holstered his Twin Flowers and patted Song Zining’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, the main dish is still waiting for you! Nangong Zhen is all yours.”

Song Zining was immediately upset. “Why not Nangong Yuanwang?”

“Your physique is too bad. You can’t take a single hit from him.” Qianye didn’t leave any face for Song Zining.

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