Chapter 432: The Bizarre Girl [V5C139 – A Distance Within Reach]
A young man with long, multicolored hair laughed nastily and said, “You don’t need to know who this daddy is. You only need to know that most people trying to get into the muddy waters of Blackflow City are already dead. Heads like yours are worth a pretty penny at the Nangong family.”
Qianye’s expression turned much calmer after hearing the Nangong family’s name. “Does this mean someone has sold you information about us?”
“There are simply too many cooperative people in this line of work. You’re not the only thing being sold, either.” The young man hadn’t even finished speaking when a burly man beside him said, “Boss, why waste so many words? Just take him down directly. We can still make it in time for a midnight snack!”
The men spread out with their weapons drawn and slowly surrounded Qianye. These people were dressed like scoundrels, but their equipment was pretty good. One of their shields even had an origin array on it, a premium armament available only to the regular army corps.
Qianye took a step forward to appear before the young leader and threw a kick at his stomach. The move appeared calm, but was as fierce was an erupting volcano. The man flew out like a cannon shell and smashed through several houses before falling to the ground. His body was completely deformed and his fate, unknown.
Afterward, Qianye reached out and grabbed the burly man’s shotgun. The man didn’t even see how his weapon was snatched before a mass of pellets exploded in his face and sent him flying.
Gunshots rumbled as Qianye fired continuously and felled all the hoodlums one by one, not even sparing the ones trying to run away. He had no plans to figure out the identities of such people who were willing to sell their lives for the Nangong family. He wouldn’t show them any mercy, either, and planned to kill as many of them that appeared before him.
Qianye casually threw the shotgun away after spending all the bullets in a flash. It was at this moment that he heard a gun being loaded behind him and turned around rather unhurriedly. With the firing speed of the foe’s gun, he knew this runaway would die in his hands the moment he pulled the trigger.
A small figure pounced forward like a panther at this moment. It smashed the man behind the head with a black object and immediately sent him sprawling onto the ground. The person collapsed with a deformed head, twitched a couple of times, and then stopped moving.
The one who had finished off this thug was the little fellow who had been pestering Qianye to take him to Blackflow City. She had taken her hood off at this moment, revealing a young girl with short, brown hair. Her face was rather delicate and pretty, while her pair of dark eyes were full of spirit. It was just that there was a large patch of grease on her face, covering up most of her beauty.
Qianye’s gaze fell upon her right hand, in which she grasped a giant hammer. The weapon was gradually adjusting itself at this moment and would leak wisps of steam from time to time. It was actually a kinetic hammer, and a rather heavy one at that. The girl had used this blunt weapon to take down the thug who was trying to ambush Qianye. Being able to use such a kinetic hammer proved that there was much power hidden within her petite frame.
The girl raised her head and said, “I just helped you. Now you can take me along, right? Let me tell you beforehand that I have no money whatsoever.”
The young girl felt a sudden chill and couldn’t help but shrink before Qianye’s azure-suffused eyes.
In his true sight, Qianye saw that the girl had lit up six origin nodes. However, her origin power flow was rather peculiar in many places, especially on the left half of her body. It was completely different from ordinary people, but also inherently distinct from the dark races.
He was momentarily shocked as his attention shifted to her limbs. This little girl actually had numerous mechanical parts implanted into her body, all driven by origin arrays. This was especially true of her left arm which was almost half-flesh half-machine. That was precisely why she could use that shocking kinetic hammer.
Qianye nodded after seeing that this peculiar girl wasn’t weak in terms of combat strength. “There’s more trouble coming. I won’t have time to take care of you.”
The young girl puffed out her chest and said boldly, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you!”
Qianye shrugged and continued onward.
The two arrived at the depths of the small alleyway, passed through a side street, and arrived before an unremarkable little courtyard.
The night was deep, and the silent streets were devoid of all human shadows. Qianye glanced at the surroundings and confirmed that he had arrived at the correct place before kicking the doors open.
There were two ferocious-looking muscular men behind the gates at this moment, leaning against the walls in a bored manner. Seeing the courtyard doors being kicked open all of a sudden, the men subconsciously drew their weapons and took aim. Their vision blurred for a moment, and they soon found themselves lifted up by Qianye—one in each hand. Immediately afterward, they were smashed into the wall and lost consciousness.
Qianye headed into the room after throwing away the two guards. The commotion in the courtyard had apparently alarmed those inside as several burly men rushed out from within. Qianye moved at lightning speed as he picked them up and slammed them into the wall before casually tossing the unconscious victims behind.
He went up to the second floor and felled yet another batch of guards. Finally, he kicked open a door to reveal a magnificent room within.
Qianye walked into the room that was obviously out of place in this neighborhood. With a sudden swipe of his hands, the shotgun belonging to a man hiding behind the door fell into his grasp. The man tried to draw his dagger, but was blasted out of the room by a backward shot from Qianye—the latter didn’t even turn back.
Qianye didn’t stop there. He advanced in large strides and arrived before a desk at the end of the room. There, he aimed the still-smoking gun at the wizened middle-aged man behind the table.
“I want an airship to Blackflow City,” Qianye said clearly.
“To Blackflow City? That’s impossible!” the thin man cried out instinctively. This prompted the shotgun muzzle to press right against his forehead, the residual heat there causing his skin to burn and sizzle.
“It’s really impossible! If I send you to Blackflow City and the Nangong family finds out about this, I, my brothers, and our families will all die!” the thin man cried out desperately.
Qianye’s hand waved toward his back and pointed his gun at the assassin who had rushed out from a secret door to his left. The assassin didn’t even manage to take aim when blood spurted out of his head, and his body was blasted flying into the still-open secret door.
Qianye pulled the forestock back with a click, pushing a new round into the chamber. He then aimed the gun at the thin man’s head and said, “Disobey and you’ll die immediately. The same goes for everyone in the courtyard.”
“The Nangong family has issued a lockdown order. It’s useless even if you kill me.” The thin man was trembling. “Besides, we have no pilot capable of flying past their blockade.”
Qianye said indifferently, “As long as you give me an airship…”
The bizarre young girl suddenly cut in at this point. “I have a way!”
She activated her kinetic hammer and smashed down on the thin man’s foot! The heavy mallet immediately crushed all the bones and turned his foot into a puddle of flesh.
“Ah!” The thin man had just started to cry out in misery when his mouth was plugged by an oil-stained rag. He struggled desperately in his agony, but the young girl was exceptionally strong and used a single arm to keep him firmly pressed on the chair.
The thin man could bear it no longer when he saw the girl raise her kinetic hammer toward his other foot. He let out a series of muffled sounds in an urgent bid to speak.
The thin man said immediately after the gag was removed, “The airship is in the storehouse of the Shamrock Manor outside the city! This is the activation key!”
“Hey, thanks!” Qianye said as he took the keys and headed outside.
The girl was startled. She whacked the thin man behind the head and knocked him out before catching up to Qianye. “What do we do if he’s lying?”
Qianye shot her a glance and said with a smile, “Then we come back and kill him.”
“Who’s going to just sit and wait?” the girl mumbled to herself, apparently quite skeptical of Qianye’s decision.
The two left the city in due haste and soon arrived at the Shamrock Manor. This unfrequented manor was home to an excessively large warehouse. Qianye pulled open the doors after easily dealing with the guards, revealing the old-fashioned airship within.
The sounds of machines broke the silence of the night as the storehouse roof opened to each side under the draw of numerous thick chains. Qianye and the young girl jumped into the airship and arrived at the cockpit.
The airship activation key was shaped like a mechanical box with several metallic rods inside.
The girl stared fixedly at the box in Qianye’s hand and asked, “This is the key?”
“Of course.” With that, he inserted the box into the control panel, the metallic rods fitting snugly into the sockets therein.
As Qianye activated the origin array inside the box, the metallic rods started spinning at a preset rate and direction. This, in turn, operated the machinery inside the console.
The origin arrays on the control panel lit up one after another as the engine produced a deep rumble and spat out large masses of steam. Soon, the shaking on the airship grew stronger and stronger.
The airship rose into the air moments later. It rotated itself above the manor, settled on a direction, and flew away swiftly.
In the control room, the young girl seemed fairly curious about everything as she examined and fiddled around with everything. “So this is the airship control room? This is the first time I’ve seen one, but it’s unlike what I heard before. Why is it so rundown? Ah, this must be the control for the side wing. A rod driver? They’re still using such an old system? There’s not even an assistive origin array!”
Qianye couldn’t help but smile as he adjusted the airship’s direction. “This airship is a hundred-year-old antique, and it must’ve been designed even earlier. This is Evernight and not the upper continents. It’s already good enough that it can fly.”
The girl was somewhat dissatisfied. “But isn’t it said that the empire’s technology is the best? In the end, I entered an airship control room for the first time only to see these things!”
At this point, Qianye had already finished adjusting the directions at this point and locked the steering mechanism. Now that he was free, he glanced at the young girl and said calmly, “Now, it’s time to tell me why you’re going to Blackflow City.”
Qianye’s voice was suffused with killing intent because there were numerous suspicious points about this young girl. Qianye only needed to throw her out of the airship if it was confirmed that she had bad intentions. A thousand-meter fall would no doubt result in her death.
The young girl’s face turned a bit pale after sensing Qianye’s murderous intent. However, she wasn’t intimidated as Qianye had expected. Instead, she scuttled into a corner of the control room like a startled beast and curled up therein. She wasn’t cowering in fear and seemed poised to erupt at any moment to injure someone.
The young girl’s performance intrigued Qianye even more because this wasn’t a normal person’s reaction. Only old veterans who had stepped over mountains of corpses and seas of blood would act in such a manner—even when facing an enemy they had no hope of winning against, they would still find a way to hurt them badly.
As Qianye observed the young girl, his obsidian eyes once again turned into a deep oceanic azure.
The young girl shivered uncontrollably for a moment. She then stared at Qianye and said slowly, “I want to go and fight.”