[V6C148 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]

The man fished out a map. The markings upon it were extremely detailed, much more so than the expeditionary army’s version and only slightly inferior to those of Dark Flame’s high-ranking officers.

He glanced toward Blackflow City’s northwest—there were several new mines in the newly annexed region, all of them black stone, copper, and iron mines. These minerals weren’t worth much, and just the transportation costs to the major human cities on Evernight Continent far exceeded their value.

The man mumbled, “Mine… mine… don’t tell me they’ve found some rare ore vein near Wolf City? This is big news!”

The woman sighed after hearing this. “Unfortunately, one can only enter and not leave the Wolf City. Only direct subordinate forces of Dark Flame are allowed free movement. I haven’t yet managed to rope in people from those squads. Do you want to mobilize those moles?”

The man smiled. “There’s no need for that. There’s more than one way to find out just what they’re shipping. You run back and tell those big shots to keep an eye on the airships leaving Blackflow City, especially the high-speed ones. They’ll know what to do.”

Two days later, at Dark Flame headquarters. Song Zining was listening calmly to Song Hu’s report.

“Young Master, we’ve gone through two sweeps, but the spies from other powers keep increasing. Even if we do another round of cleaning, I’m afraid it won't be easy to wipe out those mice.”

Song Zining nodded. “Let them be, just guard the core area well. It’s not like we can kick every suspicious person out of the city. We’ll ignore them as long as they behave.”

With Dark Flame’s rapid expansion, it was inevitable that they would recruit large numbers of lower-ranking mercenaries and adventurers. These fellows would usually become ruffians and scoundrels whenever they were back in the city, but one couldn’t deny that they were fairly strong. With some training, they would become qualified soldiers who could be sent directly to the battlefield.

After numerous battles, the current Dark Flame had recruited over ten thousand mercenaries and adventurers in total. The other powers had naturally planted several spies among them, a common move among the aristocracy. Normally, these people were only useful for collecting information and wouldn’t take things too far.

Song Zining’s policy was to either scatter these people and assign them to unimportant guard and patrol positions or concentrate them in training. As for the critical city defenses and the newly constructed Wolf City, all of them were garrisoned by Dark Flame veterans.

The new Wolf City constructed on Count Stuka’s territory was even more tightly sealed. No mercenary or trade convoy was allowed to approach—simply crossing the cordon was considered a challenge.

Song Hu reported a number of other everyday affairs, to which Song Zining only nodded. He was supposed to be fairly relaxed at this moment, but his expression turned somewhat odd all of a sudden.

Song Hu soon understood the reason—a little girl appeared behind Song Zining, where she grabbed ahold of his hair and climbed nimbly onto his head. There, she lay down like a cat that had found its litter.

Song Hu tried his best not to chuckle. He pretended not to see Zhuji as he continued his reports.

But Song Zining was no longer in the mood to listen—he grabbed Zhuji off of his head, pressed her onto his lap, and spanked her once with his folding fan. “How many times have I told you not to climb onto my head!”

Zhuji moved her limbs about and turned to Song Zining with a wronged expression. “Mama.”

Song Hu sprayed out the mouthful of tea he had just sipped.

Song Zining’s expression turned dark as he covered Zhuji’s little mouth with his hand. However, he pulled back almost immediately with a loud cry of pain—there was now a neat row of distinct tooth-marks on his hand.

Song Zining’s expression was, for the lack of a better word, marvelous. He had already circulated origin power to protect his hand, but it was still bitten through. This wasn’t the first time this had happened, either. Moreover, Zhuji was always precise with her bite. No matter how much origin power Song Zining used for defense, she would always go through it in one bite and leave tooth-marks on his hand. However, she would never actually puncture his skin and make him bleed.

At this point, it was clear that serious discussions could no longer continue. Song Zining cut the conversation short and asked, “When will the next batch leave?”

“It should be three days later.”

“Three days... I can’t wait that long. The military has dispatched a formal transfer order, and I must head to the void continent battlefield tomorrow. You’ll be in charge of the goods from now on. Remember, be very careful.”

After giving him several reminders, Song Zining allowed Song Hu to withdraw. Then, he picked up Zhuji, put her on the table, and spanked her several times with his fan. “That attitude of yours never changes!”

After the round of beating, a helpless Song Zining found Zhuji enjoying the activity with her eyes closed. He hadn’t held back at all with the disciplinary action just now, and the force was more than enough to break an adult man’s leg. Yet this strength was little more than a massage to Zhuji.

Song Zining wiped the sweat off his brows and tapped Zhuji on the head with his fan. “I must say, you’re nothing like a baby arachne! My strikes just now were enough to break even a grown arachne’s limbs.”

Zhu Ji looked back at Song Zining with wide, vacant eyes. She simply had no idea what an arachne was.

Song Zining could only laugh wryly. Zhuji had shed her shell once upon birth, and just a while ago, she had undergone yet another metamorphosis, raising her physical attributes to the next level. The former was already at a loss about how he should evaluate her.

However, Zhuji’s intelligence growth wasn’t obvious. She was still like a three-year-old human child and had awakened neither race’s traits or inheritances.

Song Zining boarded a high-speed personal airship at dawn the second day. His only luggage apart from his weapons was Zhuji.

At present, no one below the champion rank could handle the little girl. Only a handful of people like Nanhua could suppress her back in Dark Flame. Zhuji’s growth had far surpassed common sense—such speed of awakening was unheard of, even among dark race members in their maturation phase. The most worrying part was that her intelligence wasn’t maturing according to her strength.

Song Zining couldn’t foretell what kind of racial inheritance and memory she would obtain after her final awakening. Naturally, he didn’t dare leave her in Blackflow City. The seventh young noble had secretly cursed Qianye countless times for washing his hands off of this matter.

Another two days later, yet another airship left Blackflow City and flew toward the interior of the Evernight Continent.

In the bridge, a wizened-looking captain was nervously observing the surrounding airspace. The young assistant beside him said with a smile, “We’ve run this route for too many times, and nothing’s ever happened before.”

“What do you know? When has Evernight ever been peaceful?” the old captain scolded.

The assistant wasn’t quite convinced. “It’s already a miracle if those bandits can get their hands on an airship. How will they dare approach our warship with their rundown vessels? Not to mention them, even three or four of the expeditionary army’s hundred-year-old models aren’t our match.

The old captain remained unmoved and kept on observing the airspace.

The assistant glanced over at the fully equipped Dark Flame officer and asked in a whisper, “Uncle Liu, what exactly do you think we’re shipping? Why are there so many escorts?”

The old captain glared at him. “Have you forgotten Seventh Young Master’s rules? Stop asking about things you shouldn’t know.”

The assistant left mumbling in embarrassment.

It was at this time that an officer sudden shouted, “This is bad! We’re being followed!”

The old captain’s expression turned serious as he rushed over to the cabin windows to observe. Several airships were rushing out from the clouds nearby and approaching rapidly. It was clear that these vessels were hostile.

Merely judging from their speed, the people in the bridge knew they couldn’t escape. The enemy airship at the van was long and slender with two flaps on each side akin to swaying fins. Surprisingly, this vessel was one of the empire’s cutting-edge destroyers.

The captain’s expression was stern as he shouted, “Battle stations!”

“B-But...” The assistant’s expression immediately turned ashen. He hadn’t even finished speaking when the airship gradually turned about under the captain’s control and took aim at the attacking fleet.

Moments later, the entire sky was filled with dense, rolling smoke as the airship bearing Dark Flame’s insignia fell burning to the ground. Its wreckage was scattered everywhere.

The highspeed destroyer descended slowly and from it walked out a man in his thirties.

Looking over at the two black cavities on his airship, he sighed. “They actually caused such damage with that broken ship of theirs. I really wish to meet this enemy.”

But he shook his head after glancing at the wreckage before his eyes. No one from the Dark Flame side had emerged during the exchange, which meant that there were no champions on board. With the vessel in such shape, there was no way the people inside could’ve survived.

The man pointed forward and said, “Search the ship carefully, don’t let anything suspicious slip by!”

A hundred soldiers poured out of the airship and spread out into the battlefield to inspect the wreckage. These soldiers possessed powerful auras and their movements were well-coordinated, but there was no military insignia on their armor. Clearly, they were trying to hide their identity from other people.

After a while, a certain officer arrived before that man. “General, we found this.”

Six large crates were being carried over from behind the officer. These crates didn’t look very big, but they were, in fact, extremely heavy. Six high-ranking warriors were required to move a single box.

The crates themselves were made of high-quality alloy which allowed them to survive the airship crash. It was just that their surfaces were now uneven and somewhat deformed.

The man walked over with his dagger drawn, circulated his origin power, and hacked off one of the locks. He then opened one of the crates to check the contents but closed the lid with a gasp immediately afterward.

“General, what’s inside?” An officer nearby was curious.

“You don’t need to know. Enough, our mission has been accomplished. Load all the crates onto the airship and clean up the battlefield. We’re leaving.”

That night, a number of people were sitting around a table inside a secret chamber. All of them were staring at a piece of ore with burning eyes.

A long while later, a young man exhaled deeply and said, “Such high-quality crystal iron ore is indeed rare. Crystal iron only forms under high temperature and pressure in environments abundant in origin power. Normally speaking, the higher the quality, the greater the reserves in the ore vein. This mine is extraordinary, to say the least!”

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