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Novel: [Night Without Borders]
Chapter 17: [The Harvest]
Author: [Chen Dong]
Translator: [Shadow Knight AK]
Editor: [Shadow Knight AK]
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"Only First Awakening..." Fu Entao was devastated.
He had undergone his Second Awakening many years ago, accumulating a deep foundation, yet he had been defeated by a mere first awakener.
He leaned on his longsword with one hand and with the other, yanked out the iron spear that had pierced his thigh.
A torrent of blood gushed forth, sending him reeling from exhaustion.
Shao Chengfeng, missing an arm and pinned to the ground by the iron spear through his abdomen, struggled to pull it free.
But when he saw Qin Ming turn to look at him, he could only let his lone arm fall limply.
"The entire Mountain Patrol Group... wiped out by one person," Shao Chengfeng realized he was doomed.
There was no way the other side would leave any survivors.
"He's only a first awakener. Why is he so strong?" Feng Yi'an muttered, wiping the blood from his mouth.
Qin Ming spoke, "Tell me something interesting."
"Dream on!" Fu Entao retorted defiantly.
He knew his fate was sealed, and even groveling wouldn't change anything.
Meanwhile, Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng remained silent.
Normally, they were ruthless wolves, hardened killers. If groveling could save their lives, they wouldn't hesitate to beg for mercy on their knees.
But that was unrealistic.
They knew their deaths were inevitable.
"Tell me about the Blood Bamboo Forest," Qin Ming said, approaching Shao Chengfeng.
Shao Chengfeng remained silent, his eyes vacant as he stared at the night sky.
He had already begun to review his past, knowing his life was about to end.
"Won't talk, huh?" Qin Ming didn't waste words. His wood-chopping knife fell with a thwack, severing Shao Chengfeng's head from his body.
Shao Chengfeng's eyes widened in disbelief, his gaze fixed in death. His opponent had been decisive, killing him without hesitation.
Qin Ming had come to eliminate the Mountain Patrol Group, not to torture them.
Since Shao Chengfeng refused to speak, there was no point in prolonging the agony.
He wanted to see if the other two would break under the threat of death.
Fu Entao's face twitched slightly, but his eyes burned with even greater ferocity.
Gripping his long blade tightly, he slowly shifted his weight, preparing to attack again.
A Second Awakener who had dominated this territory for years, Fu Entao was unafraid of death.
He was a ruthless survivor forged in the harsh wilderness.
Meanwhile, Feng Yi'an lay pinned to the ground, an iron spear piercing his back and anchoring him in place.
He couldn't rise, but he trembled slightly.
The wind and snow raged as Fu Entao charged forward like a human beast, swinging his blade with all his remaining strength in a final, desperate gamble.
After their fierce clash, Fu Entao gasped for breath, utterly exhausted.
He had truly reached his limit after fighting for so long, yet the young man before him remained as vigorous as ever, his Qi and Spirit brimming with vitality.
"Pfft!"
After another exchange, Fu Entao's right arm was severed by a blade.
His longsword clattered to the ground, his face turning deathly pale as he stumbled backward.
Combined with the earlier spear wound that had pierced his leg, his severe injuries caused him to lose his balance.
He knelt on one knee in the snow, panting heavily.
His naturally curly hair clung damply to his head, his face etched with resentment and despair.
"Do you have anything you want to say?" Qin Ming asked.
"Use my own longsword to end my suffering," Fu Entao gasped, his forehead slick with cold sweat.
His left hand trembled as he clutched the wound where his arm had been severed, but blood had already soaked half his body, staining the snow crimson.
"Why would I grant you such a wish?" Qin Ming advanced, his wood-chopping knife raised.
"You... you want to humiliate me?" Fu Entao struggled to rise.
"You don't deserve it," Qin Ming charged forward, his wood-chopping knife slicing across Fu Entao's neck.
The head, its expression still one of defiance, flew through the air, and the body collapsed to the ground.
Feng Yi'an lay there, his face ashen, struggling to sit up.
But the iron spear embedded in his body barely trembled, proving impossible to pull free from the frozen earth.
He felt humiliated.
His opponent was standing before him, one foot planted firmly on his head.
"Do you have something you want to say?" Qin Ming asked, looking down at him.
Feng Yi'an clenched his fists, then helplessly released them.
He gasped heavily, saying, "You want to find spiritual creatures? I won't tell you."
Qin Ming pressed down slightly harder with his foot.
A faint crack echoed from Feng Yi'an's skull, indicating a partial fracture.
The excruciating pain contorted his face.
Without hesitation, Qin Ming brought his knife down in a single stroke, beheading the bearded man and ending his life.
As for the location of the Blood Bamboo Forest, he could simply ask Old Liu when he returned.
In his youth, Old Liu had been ambitious and often accompanied the older Mountain Patrol Group members into the mountains, gaining extensive knowledge of the Fire Spring distribution within the Great Mountain.
Only the wind remained on the mountain, the jarring clash of steel replaced by an eerie silence.
The entire Mountain Patrol Group had been wiped out, all by Qin Ming alone.
He murmured, "I've killed so many people, and I didn't hesitate."
Qin Ming stood still, reflecting. Perhaps it was because he hadn't seen these men as his kind, but rather as mountain monsters — threats to the villagers.
He began clearing the battlefield.
The corpses could simply be thrown down the mountain for "stomach burial." Various ferocious beasts roamed the dense forest, leaving nothing behind, not even bones.
Qin Ming's frugality had become a habit.
After searching Fu Entao, Feng Yi'an, and the others, he held up some glittering objects in the light of the Fire Spring: Night Silver.
These coins were far more valuable than copper coins and were used for trade among merchants in town.
The coins were round with a circular hole in the center, representing the missing sun, hence their name: Night Silver.
Then Qin Ming discovered something even more precious: Day Gold.
It was entirely golden and radiant, a perfect circle resembling the vanished sun, embodying people's hopes for a better future.
Mountain Patrolmen rarely carried much Day Gold with them into the mountains, totaling only eleven coins in this case.
But for ordinary people, this was already a fortune.
This wasn't the first time Qin Ming had "found" Day Gold.
Before he contracted the strange illness, he had seen several corpses near a fallen fissure.
He had not only discovered Day Gold but also a bottle of extremely valuable mineral essence liquid.
Day Gold was rarely used in Yinteng (Silvervine) Town, so he had never spent any, fearing it would draw too much attention.
He had also left the exquisitely crafted crystal vial, with its intricate carvings, untouched.
After recovering from his illness, he had achieved Awakening on his own.
Moreover, he knew little about mineral essences and needed to understand them thoroughly before using them, to avoid wasting their true value.
Most importantly, the current events would soon erupt, so it was best for him to maintain a low profile as a First Awakener.
"I've only awakened once. I don't have the strength to deal with the Mountain Patrol Group. But after this 'incident' simmers down, if I Awaken a second time, I'll be fine."
Qin Ming continued searching the mountain for loot.
"Fine armor, a hundred-refined longsword... all good stuff!" He sighed in regret, caressing the armor and weapons.
He decided to bury them separately across the mountain, digging them up later when he needed them to explore the Blood Bamboo Forest.
He was so simple and straightforward.
He'd thoroughly searched every person from head to toe, not even sparing the Golden Mastiff. He lifted the Golden Mastiff, tempted to hack off a large chunk of Golden Mastiff meat and cook a hearty Golden Mastiff meat stew back at the cabin.
He'd emerged in the middle of the night, waiting in the forest until the night mist dissipated.
Then he'd fought the Mountain Patrol Group until now, expending a tremendous amount of energy.
His stomach had long since begun to growl.
But he sighed and abandoned the idea, dropping the mastiff in the snow.
For safety's sake, he couldn't linger here.
He had to clear the battlefield quickly.
Qin Ming entered a wooden cabin.
He found it comfortably furnished, with a thick animal hide rug covering the floor.
A silver dining set and a delicate carving knife for roasted meat adorned the table.
Each jar in the row, when opened, released a rich, intoxicating aroma, clearly superior to the spicy, aged wine Xu Yueping's family had long finished.
His search here yielded little, but in the collapsed wooden house, toppled during the fierce battle, he found a Sword Manual. Its ancient leather pages were worn and curled at the edges.
It was evident that someone had often studied it, as it was filled with dense notes and annotations in various hands, bearing the mottled patina of age.
As Qin Ming flipped through the manual, he recognized familiar sword techniques.
Fu Entao's swordplay was merely a fraction of what the manual described.
Later sections mentioned "Heavenly Light" and offered deeper insights.
He quickly closed the manual without reading further, tucking it into his belongings.
This ancient leather-bound book was far more valuable than the Day Gold.
After thoroughly searching the area, golden ripples appeared on Qin Ming's skin.
With each punch and kick, the remaining wooden houses exploded one after another.
The wind was fierce now, swirling fragments of wood into the air, where they were swept down the mountain by the storm.
The snow on the ground was constantly whipped up, mingling with the goose-feather flakes falling from the sky, making it difficult to leave any trace at the scene.
"What a pity about my chopping knife," Qin Ming muttered, examining the blade.
It was riddled with nicks and dents, though forged from fine iron, it couldn't compare to the Mountain Patrol Group's weapons.
"It's still usable, though," he decided, finding a whetstone nearby.
He quickly ground away the damaged sections, then re-sharpened the blade, leaving it slightly narrower than before.
Qin Ming carried all the corpses down the mountain and dumped them deep in the forest, watching as wild beasts emerged to drag them away.
When he returned to the spot where he had ambushed the four men earlier, he found not even bone fragments remaining.
Qin Ming moved aside a heavy stone and retrieved his bundle from a snow cave.
He stripped off his tattered, blood-stained outer robe and armor, replacing them with clean clothes he usually wore.
He burned what needed to be burned and buried what needed to be buried, including the Day Gold and the Sword Manual, which he left hidden in the mountains.
Soon, he vanished into the dense forest.
Qin Ming returned quietly, dragging a piece of prey.
No one knew that this gentle-looking young man, who seemed no different from usual, had just been through a bloody battle.
He boiled a pot of water, unusually using hot water instead of cold.
He luxuriated in a hot bath, his tall, well-proportioned body gleaming with a crystalline sheen.
His muscles flowed smoothly as he meticulously rinsed away any lingering traces of the recent bloody battle.
Shortly after, he appeared at Lu Ze's home.
"Uncle, what kind of meat is this?" Wen Rui asked, peering closely.
Qin Ming held up a large slab of fresh meat and chuckled. "This is a delicious! They say Dragon meat is best in the heavens, and donkey meat is best on the earth. Uncle hunted a wild donkey today."
He had been haunted by the memory of the Golden Mastiff meat stew, deeply regretting his failure to eat the Golden Mastiff.
Now, he planned to compensate himself with a donkey meat stew.
Soon, laughter filled the air.
"Uncle, this donkey meat is really delicious!"
Sitting before the steaming copper pot, Lu Ze, still nursing his injuries, spoke up.
"Xiao Qin, you've already established a Golden Foundation. It's time to seriously consider your Second Awakening."
Qin Ming nodded. "Don't worry, Brother Lu. I have a plan."
After the meal, Qin Ming returned home, pondering how to subtly inquire about the Blood Bamboo Forest from Old Liu.
If he could advance his Second Awakening, he wouldn't delay.
He was eager to venture into the mysterious Blood Bamboo Forest as soon as possible.
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END OF CHAPTER
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