Chapter 1370: Book of Darkness: Flourish and End (1/2)

Below the eye on the book’s cover, there was now a large dark-colored crystal. Upon closer inspection, it was made up of countless minuscule particles. The strange thing was that the fist-sized crystal felt multi-dimensional in Qianye’s perception, with each crystalline granule linked to his flesh, blood, and solidified dark golden blood energy.

Even in the inheritance from the River of Blood, Qianye had never heard of the dark golden energy solidifying, let alone other types. Then again, the knowledge he had obtained up to this point was at the level of a vice-duke. Perhaps he would gain more in the future.

The Book of Darkness flipped open when he willed it. It would seem the transformed book could be opened.

The first page depicted a pair of eyes, each side giving off a very different feeling to the observer. One of them was blue and the other, red—they were the Eye of Control and the Eye of Destruction respectively. The two eyes weren’t exactly symmetrical, as though there were two more eyes that weren’t visible at the moment.

After the title page, came the genesis chapter. The Book of Darkness seemed to have returned to its original form after this transformation. The pages with other abilities had completely disappeared.

A different feeling came over Qianye as he observed the genesis chapter once more. The contents were fairly easy to understand—it didn’t take much effort for his understanding of the Evernight World to reach the next level.

This type of understanding might not translate immediately to combat strength, but Qianye now had greater confidence in drawing upon the power of the world. In other words, the Book of Darkness had granted him power for the Heavenly Monarch realm.

A new chapter emerged after Genesis, and it was called Flourish.

In this chapter, the world had evolved to near perfection. The continents were filled with living creatures who had formed powerful races and factions. These people were all surrounding a tall mountain in worship.

Qianye instinctively realized that this was the Sacred Mountain.

How was such a large mountain moved into the hall of the Evernight Council?

The next scene was that of war as the various races began killing one another. Perhaps in the world within the Book of Darkness, this was the meaning of prosperity.

There were seven strong races in this chapter, which was in line with the legends passed down in Evernight. Three of these races Qianye had never seen before but he was quite familiar with the rest, the four races of Evernight.

The demonkin looked the same as they were today, and the same went for vampires. It was just that the vampires in the Book of Darkness looked bigger and fiercer. The arachne, however, were quite different from their appearance today. They were slim, elegant, and possessed intricate crystalline scales on their body. These scales formed natural patterns that were highly pleasing to the eye.

The werewolves were in their primitive state. The Summit of Peaks hadn’t appeared during that era.

There was no telling if the arachne and vampires had gradually transformed into different forms over time or if the Book of Darkness believed this to be the correct form. The depictions Qianye had seen in Andruil’s ruins and the Azure King’s ancient hall were somewhere between the two forms.

There was actually another chapter after Flourish, the End.

As the name implied, this was the end of the world. Qianye flipped through the End chapter and saw that the world had returned to an era of darkness. It was there that he saw a speck of powerful light, which slowly expanded and propagated. As more and more light appeared, the world’s silhouette gradually became visible—it was actually the shape of an asymmetrical pagoda.

Countless motes of light emerged at the edges of the world, gradually linking together to form a line. Radiance and heat surged into this world through the gaps and burned everything, including the darkness itself.

There was light and heat everywhere outside of this world. Just like an apocalyptic tide, they soon engulfed the entirety of Evernight. Although he couldn’t see it, Qianye could feel the pained cries of countless lifeforms as they turned to ashes. Almost every living being was destroyed in that world-ending moment. Only a handful of experts with powerful auras charged out of the border and vanished into the unknown.

The world finally became silent, and the flames gradually faded away. It would seem the light and flames couldn’t last without darkness to burn as fuel.

This was a long process but the Book of Darkness had compressed it into mere moments. Within that split second, the pain from all living beings was so strong that Qianye couldn’t breathe! He had never imagined that living beings would undergo such misery before death.

After the End, the world became a lifeless and homogenous grey. Perhaps a new world would grow upon the remains of the old one after countless years. And by that time, the previous era would’ve faded away into the river of time as though it had never existed before.

Qianye heaved a long sigh as he struggled free from the End Chapter. He finally felt a bit better.

As he closed the Book of Darkness, Qianye noticed that there was something under the cover. He flipped the book over and found that it was actually a live, beating heart. The organ wasn’t big and there were glistening golden crystals embedded within it.

Two origin crystals appeared on either side of the heart, still growing by the looks of their size. One of them was fairly close to maturing, only waiting for the daybreak origin power inside to merge with the heart and the first origin crystal.

Qianye found this to be quite incredulous. Was this his heart and origin crystals?

In response to his thoughts, the second origin crystal erupted in bright light. The daybreak origin power inside broke through the restraints and merged with the heart. The heart was full to the brim with daybreak origin power, almost like a burning ocean.

When the second origin crystal was newly formed, Qianye felt strength welling up in every part of his body. His consciousness also grew stronger and stronger. The second crystal appeared in his mind, growing increasingly distinct until a new origin imprint also appeared.

When he willed it, several diamond-shaped screens of light appeared and began revolving around him. These light barriers were made of pure Venus Dawn origin power, seemingly fragile but actually quite robust.