Chapter 237: The Great Monarchs Treasure (1/2)

Chapter 237: The Great Monarch's Treasure [Volume 4 – Perpetual Conflict]

Bai Aotu nodded in agreement at the old general’s theory and had the chief-of-staff put away the military intelligence map. However, something continued to weigh persistently on her mind as if it was being pressed down by a huge rock.

Similar misgivings arose in several other theatres and even back at the expeditionary army headquarters. Those in charge of the war on Evernight Continent, Duke Ding and the expeditionary army commander-in-chief Marshal Luo Mingji, were also constantly discussing this matter but to no avail.

They had exhausted every method at their disposal and had even destroyed a certain arachne count’s consciousness with cruel torture in order to obtain a confession. However, the results were disappointing. The dark race count was never made aware of the reason behind this war. The order he received was merely to rush toward a certain battlefield and kill as many human warriors as possible.

From this, it was obvious that only those at the duke level would know whether or not there really was a certain conspiracy in the background. It was also possible that the authority level of this secret was even higher and perhaps only the Evernight Council members were privy to the details of the plan.

Finding no clues even after repeated discussions, the major human characters on the battlefield drew similar conclusions. And that was to continue fighting and observe.

Qianye carefully made his way through the war-torn Evernight Continent. He traveled, fought, and cultivated—half a month passed by in the blink of an eye. As the battles in all regions turned white-hot, he no longer dared to intervene so casually. This might easily draw fire from both parties at the same time.

Qianye had killed off two dark race patrol squads on the way. It took him quite some time to gradually refine the blood essence into darkness origin power, over half of which was devoured by the new-born dark golden blood energy. The remainder was shared between the purple blood energy, the seven dark red blood energy, and the two advanced dark red blood energy.

Qianye immediately discovered that the darkness origin power he had refined from the Song Clan Ancient Scroll had actually boosted the evolution of his blood energy a great deal. Within a short period of time, the number of ordinary blood energy had recovered to nine strands and two of them had been upgraded to rank two. The upgraded purple blood energy had also become more abstruse and seemed as if it would advance once again.

The dark golden blood energy had inherited the golden blood energy’s characteristics but was growing at a much slower rate. It was only slightly stronger than its new-born state even after consuming so much darkness origin power. However, Qianye felt that two more illusory runes had appeared within the trail it left behind while roaming about.

Qianye had coexisted with the blood energies for a significant length of time and was already quite familiar with their uses. Ordinary blood energy would increase in number or upgrade, granting Qianye a slight boost in constitution while at the same time protecting and repairing his internal organs when they receive damage.

The purple blood energy was clearly the source of his vampire constitution ability rune. Its growth and upgrade would bring about a significant strengthening in Qianye’s body. Additionally, the highly damaging “toxicity” of his blood to the dark races and especially vampires could probably be attributed to it.

The golden blood energy was originally the source of his eye ability rune but also came to possess strengthening properties after its upgrade. The extent of this effect fell between that of the ordinary and purple blood energies.

As for the new-born dark golden blood energy, it had apparently taken over the runic ability of the golden blood energy. It wasn’t quite evident how it would develop in the future, but one thing was extremely evident—its strengthening effect on Qianye’s constitution was even greater than the purple blood energy.

Its origins were also quite puzzling. Qianye still wasn’t quite certain whether the golden blood energy advanced after engulfing the dark vortex or if he had assimilated the golden blood energy after cultivating the Mystery chapter of the Song Clan Ancient Scroll.

However, Qianye was slowly beginning to form a system after fumbling about with his cultivation. Daylight origin power was still dependent on the Combatant Formula for accumulation and then purified by the Song Clan Ancient Scroll’s Glory chapter.

Since gaining an abundant supply of darkness origin power, the blood energies in Qianye’s body no longer devoured daybreak origin power. Although he would have to waste some time circulating the Mystery and Glory chapters of the Song Clan Ancient Scroll, he would no longer lose daybreak origin power. Thus his cultivation speed, as a whole, wouldn’t be affected.

Qianye would sometimes laugh ruefully at his weird origin power system. However, this newly-constructed equilibrium based on the Song Clan Ancient Scroll felt much more dependable than anxiously fumbling around for ways to make daybreak origin power and dark blood energy exist together.

Qianye’s somewhat relaxed mood was once again enshrouded in a layer of darkness after he entered the county seat of the Shadowhill County.

This city, located in the hinterlands of Evernight Continent, was also a famous black crystal production zone under human control. This place was always heavily garrisoned. Although the whole of Evernight Continent was in a strained situation, the flames of war hadn’t reached this place. The city was still in good order and bustling with heavy traffic.

Qianye had planned to cross the Profound Jade Peak, a branch of the mountain range running through this area, and head toward the next battlefield to check on the situation therein. As such, he had chosen to enter this city and replenish his supplies. There was a small business here run by a vassal family of the Song clan and also one of Song Zining’s secret contacts.

There wasn’t even a signboard on the storefront of this small manual workshop which specialized in weapons repair. Qianye’s original plan was merely to head over and replenish his physical origin bullet supply, however, he unexpectedly found out that Song Zining had been trying to get in touch with him via each and every branch organization since seven or eight days ago.

The message was disseminated akin to casting a fishing net, and thus, its contents were naturally quite vague. Qianye could only determine that Song Zining had a matter he needed help with and it was quite urgent.

This kind of situation was absolutely abnormal!

The haze in his heart grew even thicker after recalling the fragments he had picked up from Song Zining’s letter last time. The latter likely wouldn’t seek out Qianye like looking for a needle in a haystack if he hadn’t encountered a problem for which he couldn’t even mobilize his own men.

This tiny contact point wasn’t able to provide much more information. Qianye hurriedly finished resupplying and immediately headed toward Weiyang City through the night. That was the empire’s largest city in Evernight continent. Not only did it boast airship bases connecting toward the empire, but it was also home to the branch organizations of virtually every influential major power.