Chapter 751: Eve of War (1/2)

All of this, though, was only Bloodyshirt’s guess. It would be even more problematic if his conjecture was correct. Both the Crystal Spider Corps and Assassin Legion were giant, corps-level entities that were beyond Qianye’s capacity to handle.

From a different perspective, however, there was no need to worry about Cui Yuanhai’s safety now that his arms-building skills had been revealed. No power in their right mind would kill such a master.

Seeing that Bloodyshirt knew no more than this, Qianye could only sigh. All he could do was wait for the right moment to find Cui Yuanhai.

At this point, Bloodyshirt said, “You were talking about a type of creature. Show me, perhaps I’ve seen it before.”

Qianye produced a translucent lobster shell from his backpack and placed it on the table. “Have you seen this before?”

This was a part of the shell Zhuji had removed from the lobster. Qianye had also asked some of the people from the little town back then, but none of the mercenaries and merchants there could recognize it. They hadn’t even heard of it before.

Bloodyshirt’s expression changed drastically upon seeing the lobster shell. His voice was trembling, almost as though he had seen a ghost. “This… the Nightmare Legion!?”

It was yet another name Qianye had never heard of before. Judging from Bloodyshirt’s attitude, however, it would seem this Nightmare Legion wasn’t something the Crystal Spider Corps or the Assassin Legion could match.

After a good while, Bloodyshirt gritted his teeth and picked up the shell to examine it. After inspecting it carefully, he muttered with an ashen expression, “There’s no mistake, this is the armor of the Nightmare Legion… Nightmare Legion.”

Qianye waited quietly for Bloodyshirt to calm down. The latter eventually placed the translucent shell back on the table and said, “Where did you get this? Can you tell me?”

“I got it by chance. What is this Nightmare Legion, though?”

Bloodyshirt collected his thoughts. “The Nightmare Legion is the symbol of calamity, the beginning of all destruction.”

After a long string of prophesy-like words, Bloodyshirt explained everything he knew.

In the neutral lands, there were battles not only between the newcomers like Evernight and the Empire, but there was also a continuous war between the natives and outsiders. Throughout the long history of the neutral lands, the Nightmare Legion had only appeared twice, both times in great battles between the outsiders and natives. Back then, countless fantastic creatures suddenly appeared out of nowhere, many of which people had never seen before. Even the creatures belonging to existing species seemed to have been deformed by an invisible hand; it was inexplicably odd. These entities poured out of the void in vast numbers and swept over the entire battlefield. Even the most elite of corps couldn’t stand their charge and were soon drowned out.

By the time they had left, there was no longer any life left on the battlefield. The armies from either side and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers under their command were reduced to corpses—even their spirits had dispersed entirely.

No one knew how the Nightmare Legion had appeared, and no one understood how they left. The only clues they had left behind in the silent battlefield were these odd pieces of broken armor.

After the legion’s disappearance, an expert proficient in the divination arts exhausted his entire life-force in order to visualize some fragmented scenes from this battle. That was the only reason people discovered the Nightmare Legion’s existence. People named it so because the scene of its battle was nothing short of a nightmare.

The appearance of the Nightmare Legion brought about a calamitous effect on the neutral lands. In both major battles, the natives and the outsiders had gathered their most elite forces and a large number of experts. Yet in the end, they were all destroyed in the tides of the Nightmare Legion.

Despite having arrived here not long ago, Qianye knew that the neutral lands were full of danger everywhere. Every expert was the foundation of a new pioneered land and a shield to the weak civilians. For instance, the small town Qianye had first arrived in wouldn’t be able to survive the rampaging wild beasts and sudden natural disasters without Iron Bear’s champion-level combat strength.

In the neutral lands, a champion signified a new small town, a new cluster of homes.

The two historic appearances of the Nightmare Legion caused a great blow to the outsiders, losing three-quarters of their territory and countless civilians to wild beasts and natural disasters. Countless border areas were abandoned, and the people living there gradually shifted toward the core regions. Without sufficient experts to protect them, the road back to civilization could only be paved with flesh and blood. Out of a hundred people setting out, no more than a handful would arrive at their final destination.

There was no distinction of race on this bloody road. Be it humans, vampires, werewolves, or arachne, everyone was a victim. The werewolves and arachne possessed inherently strong bodies and thus enjoyed a higher chance of survival. But it just so happened that such strong prey were the favorites of wild beasts. Comparatively, the weak humans didn’t quite attract their attention.

Bloodyshirt couldn’t stay calm while recounting the history of the Nightmare Legion. He had to pour himself a glass of strong wine in order to make himself feel better.

“According to you, the last appearance of the Nightmare Legion was a couple hundred years ago? How did you know this is the legion’s armor?” Qianye revealed the doubt in his heart.

Bloodyshirt sighed. “My ancestors were on the battlefield during the second appearance of the Nightmare Legion. There’s a shard of such armor in our ancestral home, a fragment of armor we found on our ancestor’s body.”

After hearing this, Qianye gazed at the translucent shell and fell into contemplation. If the Nightmare Legion was so terrifying, why was that lobster Zhuji had captured so easily captured and killed?

Bloodyshirt regained his wits. “Can you sell me this shell?”