Chapter 610: Duel (Part 1) [V6C140 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]

The logistics officer sounded rather surprised. “Of course, but the contribution points are routinely checked by specialists. There shouldn’t be any mistakes.”

He stood up and retrieved a booklet from atop the shelf. He then flipped through it on the table and produced all the details regarding enemies killed, missions completed, and items traded-in.

Qianye didn’t check the other parts and only picked up the items paper and saw that the record was for two melee weapons. The contribution for them was standard fourth-rate merit. This number discrepancy was too great.

There was no change in Qianye’s expression as he pointed at the submitted weaponry section. “What’s going on here?”

The officer scanned it briefly and said with a frown, “What’s wrong with that? Did you not trade-in two weapons? Those are the contribution points rewarded to you.”

“Are you sure?” Qianye smiled coldly.

The logistics officer was unhappy. He pointed forcefully at the book and said, “Our Jingtang Li Family has always maintained our reputation! You better consider your own status if you want to cause trouble here. Scram now! There are people waiting behind you!”

Qianye smiled. “What did you say?”

“I said, scram...”

The officer hadn’t even finished his words when he was kicked right in the stomach. He was flung backward, shooting right through the wall behind him and landing in the warehouse.

The sudden development caused the entire exchange area to fall into silence. Moments later, a few of the Li family warriors snapped out of their daze. They pushed the people away and rushed over to the scene with their guns pointed at Qianye.

Qianye calmly took a seat and said, “Bring Li Weishi over. Moreover, don’t point your guns at me or something bad will happen.”

The soldiers glanced at one another and dispatched one of their men in due haste. Qianye simply sat there in silence, but the temperature in the surroundings fell sharply. One of the soldiers began to shiver. He subconsciously lowered his muzzle a bit and also shifted the front sight away from Qianye. The other soldiers followed suit.

Some people poked their heads out of the rooms nearby, but none of them came over to inquire. At this moment, there were some experts who hadn’t yet left the exchange area. It would seem they had stayed behind to observe the developments.

“What happened?”

“Looks like his contributions have been stolen.”

“How can such a thing happen?”

Many experts had serious expressions on their faces. Disputes regarding contribution points weren’t rare—from minor quarrels between individuals and squads to major conflicts between combat units and army corps, all kinds of problems could arise.

However, the situation between independent experts and aristocracy was different. They weren’t servants or vassals, so they had no part in the usual benefits offered by the clan. They were risking life and limb on the battlefield just for those points and rewards. No one would be willing to come back and find their remuneration denied. This was something everyone dreaded.

The Li family’s reputation was fairly good. Although they weren’t entirely free of disputes, they were still able to deal with them quickly. This was the first time something this big had happened. As such, everyone was merely observing and whispering amongst themselves.

Qianye’s ears trembled slightly as he caught a certain conversation. “Ha, I knew he’d make a big fuss. That makes things much easier. We now have a lot of ways to deal with him.”

The voice was very soft,but Qianye’s senses had increased sharply after absorbing the void essence and Sky Demon’s embers. Add to that his prolonged training in the suppressed environments of the Misty Wood, his perception had now reached a whole new level. He heard this malicious yet familiar voice very clearly.

Qianye turned around immediately and gazed over to the source of the sound. There, he saw two people looking over at him with a hint of Schadenfreude. One was Du Li, and the other was a middle-aged man wearing a Li-family insignia.

Du Li was fairly alarmed after seeing Qianye look over at them. Afterward, his expression grew fierce as he performed a slaughtering gesture at Qianye.

The latter was completely indifferent to Du Li’s provocation and simply looked past the man. He did, however, glance at the middle-aged man from the Li family. Clearly feeling uneasy, the man let out a dry cough and left the exchange area.

Moments later, Li Weishi arrived in a hurry. He first sent the soldiers surrounding Qianye away and then said in a hushed voice, “I was going to explain this matter to you personally, but you found out before I had a chance.”

Qianye raised his brows and shot a glance at the hole in the warehouse wall. His attack wasn’t very powerful, but that unfortunate officer had to be carried away by the other Li family soldiers.

Li Weishi was drenched in cold sweat. He said with a wry smile, “That person… doesn’t know what’s going on. Please follow me, this place isn’t suitable.”

Qianye nodded. Judging from Li Weishi’s tone and manner, it was unlikely that the officer just now was entirely ignorant. But since the former was so polite, Qianye decided to listen to his explanation and not cause more trouble.

Qianye had just stood up when a burly man blocked his path. He stared intently at Qianye and said, “Are you that rank-ten brigadier general with the best pay?”

He pronounced the words rank-ten pretty loudly and caused many people to look over. Everyone wore strange expressions because this news had been circulating for quite some time. To independent experts, their price wasn’t just about money—it also signified their status. A gross “unfairness” was more or less like a slap to their faces.

Qianye finally locked eyes with the burly man standing in his way. If he didn’t remember wrong, this was the fellow who was shouting at the exchange area a couple of days ago. He possessed a sturdy, muscular build which strained his combat attire. His chest was covered in black hair, and his every pore seemed to be emanating an aura of danger.

Qianye shot a glance at Li Weishi, and then turned back to the burly man. “What does my pay have to do with you?”

The man took a step forward and stared at Qianye with great ferocity. “What are you implying!?” This burly man was rank-eleven, and he was usually the winner against many of his peers. He thus felt that he had no reason to back down.

Qianye sneered, “What I mean is, you don’t have the qualifications!”

His words hadn’t even ended when the sound of ocean tides filled the exchange area. Apart from a handful of experts, everyone began to stagger under the great pressure. The Li family’s ordinary soldiers all fell to the ground.

The burly man in front of Qianye was flushed red. His knees creaked and groaned as though they would fall to the ground any moment. He was hanging on by sheer willpower.

Qianye’s control over his domain had improved after his advancement. How could this muscular man hold out when most of the pressure from the Ocean Vortex was focused upon him?

Qianye lifted the man up by the neck before finally dispersing his domain power.

The man felt as though a steel hoop were tightening around his neck. He couldn’t even breathe, his chest was on the verge of exploding, and his face was so red that it might start dripping blood.

He desperately attempted to activate his origin power, but no matter how hard he tried, the usually formidable strength in his veins seemed to have become powerless—it was immediately and unreasonably shattered upon coming into contact with Qianye’s origin power. With no origin power to use, the burly man could only try to push Qianye’s hands away. But his deathbed struggle couldn’t move Qianye at all.

Everything happened so fast that Li Weishi himself wasn’t spared. He took two steps backward and had just stabled his footing when he saw the burly man in Qianye’s grasp. He cried out hurriedly, “General Qianye, let’s just talk things out!”

Qianye shook the burly man in his hands like a dead chicken and said, “The one who doesn’t want to talk nice is this person, isn’t it?” He swept his gaze over the experts who were still standing and added, “Sometimes, rank means nothing.”

The expressions of those experts changed rapidly. However, after seeing that man struggling in Qianye’s hand like a fish out of water, their countenances returned to normal and they quickly averted their gazes.

Qianye glanced over at Du Li and said coldly, “Du Li, do you not plan to collect your dog? I don’t mind cleaning it up if you don’t want it.”

Du Li was trying to evade eye-contact at first, but there was nothing he could do since Qianye had called him out by name. He gritted his teeth and walked over to Qianye, “Speak your terms.”

“Simple, fight me in the arena. Let me vent my anger.” Qianye’s tone was calm.

Du Li’s expression turned livid. “Vent? Are you saying you’re sure to win?”

Qianye smiled indifferently. “Oh, afraid now? I guess that’s a given since I’m already rank-eleven.”

Du Li’s expression shifted yet again, but the situation at present prevented him from saying no. If he were to withdraw from this challenge, he would never be able to raise his head again in this community. “Fine then, don’t you regret it! I’m telling you, I’m not some nameless pawn!”

People nearby could discern the implications in Du Li’s words because Lu Sha’s group was indeed well known. His words had already betrayed his weakness, but many experts still felt apprehensive because a pack of wolves was always more dangerous than a single wolf on the battlefield.

Li Weishi felt helpless. He lowered his voice and said, “General Qianye, it’ll be best if you don’t blow this matter up. They have a major character behind them.”

“Major character? Oh, do tell me more about it after I finish this fight.”

Qianye’s words blocked all of Li Weishi’s intended words. He glanced at Qianye’s expression and sighed secretly, but he gave up on dissuading him.

Such news traveled extremely fast. There were already quite a lot of spectators by the time Qianye had Du Li arrived at the arena, and many others were still rushing over.

Ten minutes remained until the battle, but there were already people taking their seats on the high platform. It would seem this duel had alarmed the entire base.

Qianye sat down at the side of the arena with his eyes closed. He neither moved nor engaged in any other form of preparation. Du Li, on the other hand, appeared restless—he kept performing a set of special movements, drawing upon his body and activating his origin power.

Qianye suddenly opened his eyes as a certain group appeared on the platform and met the gaze of a young man therein.

That man appeared rather mediocre apart from the pair of bright, slender eyes. His demeanor was calm and admittedly quite amiable as he smiled at Qianye.

The glint in Qinaye’s eyes receded. He simply nodded and closed his eyes once more.

The guard behind the young man approached and whispered, “Young Master Qingyun, do you need his data?”

Li Qingyun rubbed his chin. “That person is quite interesting. Let’s see his information.”

The guard acted in due haste and soon returned to hand a number of folders to Li Qingyun.

Li Qingyun scanned the document and said to a middle-aged general nearby, “Heh, heh, so this is Qianye. Second Elder, are you really going to act that fast and establish your might with one of the empire’s twin stars? Our Li family is currently in the midst of recruiting talents, don’t you think this course of action is rather inappropriate?”