Book 4: Near Blood - 180: Silverheart Valley
Book 4: Near Blood - 180: Silverheart Valley
The Silver Moon Shuttle circled around a few times in midair before landing.
Buller, the Ravager soldier, jumped out of the shuttle. He glanced around and found that he was currently in a mountainous area, sandwiched between two peaks.
“The Heavenly Might Battalion is not here,” he said.
“Were you hoping that I would bring a Ravager individual to the Heavenly Might Battalion so that he could observe our every action and then inform his leader of all our plans when he returned?” Su Chen said as he stepped out of the shuttle. Behind him were the white paper doll, Night Demon, and Shi Mingfeng.
They were currently in a valley in the northern regions of the Ravagers’ territory. After leaving the Beast Race’s territory, Su Chen hadn’t immediately gone to look for the Heavenly Might Battalion. Instead, he had directly come here to make some preparations before beginning his experiments.
“I was never planning on returning alive anyways,” Buller replied. As a Ravager, Buller was full of their characteristic courage, valiance, and directness.
As he had said, from the moment Danba had handed him over, Buller hadn’t expected to return alive.
“I am not planning on throwing away the agreement I’ve made with your master. Follow me,” Su Chen said as he turned around and began to walk through the valley.
“Where is this?” Night Demon asked, closely following behind him.
“Silverheart Valley, right next to the Halma Forest,” Su Chen replied.
“Why did we come to this place?” Night Demon asked.
Everyone had their suspicions and curiosity regarding Su Chen’s movements, but only Night Demon was bold enough to ask.
“You’ll know when you see it,” Su Chen replied.
He continued to walk forwards without even turning around, only stopping when he was deep in the valley. Even though it was also his first time here, he continued to walk forwards evenly and confidently as if he had often frequented this place many times in the past. Shi Mingfeng’s heart jolted slightly when he saw this, and some ideas surfaced in his mind.
The answer was quickly revealed.
They finally got close to a mountain overhang. Shi Mingfeng saw a group of soldiers standing beneath it; even though it was only a group of ten or so people, they were all Yang Opening Realm Origin Qi Scholars.
The captain of the squad cupped his hands in greeting to Su Chen and said, “Commander Su, you’ve returned. I hope that your travels went smoothly.”
“Smooth enough. How are things going with the generals?” Su Chen replied.
“Everything is fine. We received news a few days ago that the Beast Wave has gotten larger, so we knew that Commander Su must have succeeded in his endeavor,” the soldier said excitedly.
Buller harrumphed unhappily off to the side.
The captain saw Buller, the white paper doll, and Shi Mingfeng, and asked, “Commander, these are......”
The captain would have leapt to his feet a long time ago if he had seen a Ravager following anyone other than Su Chen.
“Shi Mingfeng, one of the regional commanders for the Immortal Temple. Night Demon, my good friend. Death Shadow of a Youth, my new slave. As for this one......” Su Chen glanced at Buller. “A business wager, of sorts. He will return alive to the Ravagers, so if there’s anything he shouldn’t know about, you shouldn’t let him find out.”
“Yes, sir!” the captain replied respectfully.
Su Chen took Buller and the others into the cave.
Upon entering the cave, Buller’s original suspicions were wiped clean from his mind when he saw what was in the cave.
The cave was filled with a large number of Ravagers.
He was originally wondering why the soldiers outside weren’t surprised at all that Su Chen had a Ravager following in tow behind him, but now he understood.
Su Chen’s research on the Ravagers wasn’t a secret. The Heavenly Might Battalion had always known about it; not only that, but they even supplied Su Chen with a steady stream of Ravager research subjects.
“Su Chen, answer me honestly. How much innocent Ravager blood is on your hands!?” Buller yelled with rage.
“I don’t remember anymore. If you include the deaths from the Beast Wave, there must be millions if not tens of millions, right?” Su Chen replied. “So why concern yourself with the ones I have here.”
“That’s not the same!” Buller howled angrily.
“There’s nothing different about it,” Su Chen said disdainfully. “There’s one thing that I need to correct you on. In the eyes of the human race, the Ravagers have never been innocent. You barbarians can only rely on plundering to survive, idling away your time and never moving past your barbaric and vicious way of life. You feel that the deaths of your compatriots were undeserved, but who will feel that way about the deaths of my compatriots? Don’t forget that for thousands of years, the Ravagers have always been the ones to encroach upon our territory.”
“That’s because you humans control the most fertile land! The Ravagers cannot produce any resources, so we can only import them from the outside. If you were willing to even hand over a bit of that fertile territory......”
“If we hand over a bit, then the Ravagers will only grow hungrier and turn their mouths on the human race. Once they expand to a point where the territory they have is no longer enough to sustain them anymore, they will once again try to expand and invade our territory. Don’t speak such nonsense, idiot. The Ravagers’ appetite is insatiable. There is no point in having mercy for a reckless race like yours. Slaughtering you all is still the best choice,” Su Chen said bluntly.
“But you’re cooperating with us right now,” Buller immediately countered back.
“It’s like the cooperation between a human and a dog. If I toss you a bone, the only proper response is for you to bark and come lick it. Even though the Ravagers are vicious and deserve to die, from another angle they make quite useful dogs.”
“You’re the one that deserves to die!” Buller howled fiercely as he charged forwards.
Su Chen slapped him, easily sending him flying. “You can choose to not accept what I say, but it’s the truth, and it’s also what I have in store for your future. As for right now, before you can become my dog, you will have to be my research subject. You can choose to not cooperate, but don’t forget that these experiments are being conducted to give the Ravagers the ability to control Origin Energy. You might feel humiliated by these experiments, but if you don’t cooperate, then the remaining surviving Ravagers won’t even be useful as dogs. But for you, the highest motivation is that you are Danba’s loyal dog already, right? So you’d better listen to his orders. Otherwise, I’m not afraid to kill you, then hand over another subordinate to Danba in your place. At that point, your death will have no value; on the contrary, it will only have made more problems for Danba.”
Buller was rendered speechless.
Only someone who held all the cards could afford to act so bullishly. Even though his opponent’s every sentence jabbed at his heart and made it bleed, Buller had no way of refuting or defending himself against these statements.
Buller knelt on the ground, staring maliciously at Su Chen like a vicious animal. “You won’t have a good ending.”
“Perhaps, but that’s not important. The most interesting part of life is the living part,” Su Chen said indifferently.
Then, he walked towards the Ravager captives.
He said, “You are lucky, yet you are also unlucky. Your fate is no longer that of being dissected and killed, but rather a different kind of experiment. However, I have no idea what suffering this new kind of experiment might bring to you. The only thing you can do is pray and cooperate. If you are lucky, you will survive, and you may even obtain great powers.”
He didn’t say what would happen if they were unlucky, but all of the Ravagers present knew what he was implying.
Now that they had fallen in the demon Su Chen’s hands, they would either be useful to him alive or be used to death. Actually, these two outcomes might even be the one and the same.
“Did you just say control Origin Energy?” a clear voice spoke out.
It was Reina, the bone diviner.
She hadn’t died, and was lucky enough to still be alive. However, she had become extremely pale and haggard.
“That’s right.” Su Chen smiled at her. “I will be researching a method to allow the Ravagers to control Origin Energy. If you have any remaining allegiance to your race, then it’s in your best interest to cooperate with me.”