For a moment, Red Lotus couldn’t figure out what she had spoken wrong. Nonetheless, being assigned as Bluemoon’s assistant was something she couldn’t accept. She immediately began to explain that she was innocent but, realizing that it was useless, began to present a bunch of examples of why she was more valuable than Bluemoon.
However, no amount of pleading or threats could move Qianye.
In the end, she shouted in exasperation, “I’d rather commit suicide if you treat me like this! Think about it, my mother’s branch will fight it out with you if you push me to death.”
Qianye finally reacted. “ Your maternal branch won’t last very long if they make an enemy out of me.”
Song Zining gestured to Red Lotus with a frown, indicating that she should stop speaking. Then, he dragged Qianye off to tour the Martyr’s Palace, effectively pushing this matter aside.
Moments later, the Martyr’s Palace took to the skies and flew toward the Northern Continent.
After the massive airship vanished silently into the void tempests, a little girl in a white dress appeared amidst the rocks at the base of the mountain. She was holding a big, old suitcase as she stood there gazing in the wind.
The strong and frigid gale at the mountain base lifted her long hair. Her small figure seemed lonely and destitute as she gazed at the distant skies, just in time to see the Martyr’s Palace fading away over the horizon.
Her little face seemed full of puzzlement and her eyes, just as lost.
The Martyr’s Palace returned to the Northern Continent. Qianye was bringing Song Zining to see this wondrous land. The latter didn’t remain idle along the way—he first spent the entire day listening to Qianye’s narration of his experiences in the neutral lands, and then called Red Lotus over and listened to her explanation of the powers here. Even that wasn’t enough for him, it seemed, because he went out to chat with almost every Highbeard in the ship, asking them all sorts of questions.
Two whole days passed by in this manner, and he concluded this massive undertaking only as they were about to arrive. Qianye, on the other hand, spent the second day cultivating in silence. Every bit of origin power gained was a good thing for him.
At dawn on the third day, Martyr’s Palace passed over the vast Eastern Sea and arrived at the Northern Continent. Just like Qianye when he first arrived here, Song Zining held his breath to admire the natural masterpiece below them.
It almost seemed like the essence of the entire neutral lands was concentrated here.
After a long while, Song Zining exhaled deeply and said, “This is the foundation of a kingdom!”
“At first, all I wanted was to live a quiet life here.”
Song Zining replied, “There is no real paradise in this world, nor tranquility. Peace is something we have to fight for and win little by little. The peace we have on the Qin continent is something our ancestors had fought for. We should’ve remained on the Qin continent if we only want to enjoy peace, but alas, we are no longer such people.”
Qianye sighed softly.
“Okay, let’s go down. I want to see how much progress the Highbeards’ new ancestral land has made.”
The giant Martyr’s Palace thus descended and remained hovering fifty meters in the air. Song Zining and Qianye jumped down first, but just as Whirlwind was about to descend, he saw Red Lotus shooting him meaningful glances. Her past prestige seemed to have found some use in the end as the Highbeard expert duly helped Red Lotus down from the airship.
When Qianye left the place, the Highbeard ancestral land was nothing but a small village. Now, it had turned into a small town. Although most of the buildings there were only in their foundation stage without any walls, a town capable of hosting a thousand people was beginning to take shape.
Outside of town, the workshop building sites near the foothills had been leveled, and the platform of its three kinetic towers had grown well over two meters.
Yes, three kinetic towers. Bluemoon had proposed an ambitious plan from the very beginning, hoping to build their ancestral city into one capable of housing over a hundred thousand people. Hence, she had left great margins during the initial planning.
A number of Highbeards were operating bulldozers modified from heavy trucks and hard at work opening up new roads. One of them led toward the shore, but there was nothing there just yet.
All of this was completed by Bluemoon and the dozens of Highbeard tribesmen. One could imagine how many hours of labor and sleepless nights had gone into this.
Red Lotus was completely shocked at the sight of their new ancestral land. She stole a glance at Qianye with complicated emotions in her eyes. Only at this point did she truly realize why the proud Bluemoon would submit so willingly.
“Go, let’s take a spin around the area.” Song Zining flew up with Qianye on his tail, and soon, the two of them had sped away in an instant.
At this moment, Red Lotus and Whirlwind were left alone. The Martyr’s Palace was fifty meters above them, and there were no more restraints on Red Lotus apart from the lack of sufficient energy. Meanwhile, Whirlwind was carrying his autocannon on his back. At this point, it seemed like the two of them could suppress all the Highbeards or even hijack the Martyr’s Palace.
Red Lotus bit her lips as she reached out at Whirlwind. “Give me an energy black crystal.”
“Ah! Young Miss, this…”
“Give it to me!”
Whirlwind’s expression was complicated. In the end, he lowered his head and stretched out his right hand. In his palm, a piece of high-purity energy black crystal was glistening brilliantly.
Red Lotus grabbed the crystal and inserted it into her kinetic slot. Soon, all the movement equipment on her body began to hum softly, and she revealed a smile of satisfaction as her long-deprived power returned.
Red Lotus didn’t remain so for very long. Her eyes soon turned cold as she leapt up, glid several hundred meters through the air, and jumped forward once more. In the blink of an eye, she had reached the border of the small town.
Bluemoon was standing on high ground, seemingly deep in thought as she observed the construction work with a map in hand. All of a sudden, Red Lotus’ voice rang out beside her ears, “Let me see.”
Before she could react, Red Lotus had snatched the papers and was studying them seriously.
Bluemoon was surprised to see the latter. She hadn’t really noticed Qianye’s arrival as her thoughts were all on the construction work.
The Shieldmaiden took a step back and wanted to say something, but held back after seeing Red Lotus’ manner.
After several minutes of detailed observation, Red Lotus snatched Bluemoon’s pen and marked several places down on the plans. “This, this, and this, all of them are poorly planned. How can you put this building here? And this road needs to be twice as large or else it’ll be jammed once you have ten thousand people.”
Red Lotus pointed out over a dozen detailed flaws while Bluemoon listened earnestly, nodding every now and then.
Bluemoon was indeed inferior to Red Lotus with regards to planning. The main reason she had seized the Shieldmaiden position was due to her talents in the martial arts.
All the other Highbeards were secretly surprised by the scene playing out before them, but they quickly put their minds back to the construction work.
Perhaps no one else could understand how much these nomadic mercenaries longed for a place to call home.
Qianye and Song Zining zipped around the Northern Continent while discussing the current situation of the neutral lands. Song Zining would ask about everything related to Qianye with great attentiveness.
The two of them arrived at the northernmost edge. The mountains here were the tallest, steepest, and filled with lethal void tempests. Even the sturdiest of alloys wouldn’t last if they were to touch those black patterns in the air.
Qianye and Song Zining, however, weren’t afraid as origin power could be blocked out by origin power. Song Zining’s Three Thousand Flying Leaf domain not only deployed illusions but could also stabilize space and reject the void origin power. The two of them seemed to be standing inside of a painting, a stark contrast to the adverse environment around them.
As they stood hovering in the air, Qianye glanced down to find flowing jade streams, lotuses, as well as the dancing willows on the water bank—even the incoming breeze seemed to be suffused with warmth. What an august scenery it was! If it wasn’t for his Eye of Truth, Qianye would be hard-pressed to find any flaws.
But Qianye didn’t admire this beautiful scenery at all. “The view is not bad, but it must be quite draining, no?”
Song Zining opened his fan with a smile. “It’s a small matter, pay it no mind.”
Qianye stared at his fan. “The weather is so cold, are you really feeling hot?”
Song Zining sneered. “This is called elegance! And the fan is just a symbol!”
“Fine then. Are you feeling the strain on your origin power?”
“A bit…” Song Zining blurted out before realizing that he had slipped his tongue.
Smiling, Qianye unleashed a bit of his own domain, and the sound of crashing waves echoed around them. The moment this domain appeared, the beautiful scenery around them immediately began to waver and distort.
Song Zining glared at Qianye. He then pointed to the ground. “Now this is a treasure! Who knows how many years this place has been soaking up in void origin power? If we dig up the mountain range below us, there should be countless ore veins here. If I’m not wrong, this landmass should be a fragment of the Void Valley Star. If the empire finds out about such a place, they might even send an expedition here.”
Qianye, however, frowned as he gazed at the tall, thousand-kilometer mountain range. “It’ll probably take ten thousand people centuries to dig into this mountain.”
“No need, it can be done in days if you can find a couple of heavenly monarchs to help out.”
“Umm… let’s just find ten thousand people to dig slowly.”
Song Zining seemed distracted as he observed the mountain range. Only after a long while did he sigh. “What peerless beauty!”
Qianye was puzzled but didn’t dare express his views carelessly in this field. He asked humbly, “What’s so beautiful about this place?”
Song Zining waved his hand with the grandeur of a rainbow. “This place, this scenery, if it were a painting, it would be called: Wealth of a Nation!”
Qianye’s domain destabilized and almost fell off the sky. It turned out that the vast mountains and perilous cliffs were nothing in the seventh young noble’s eyes. Only the ore veins underneath held true value to him. This facet of him was truly worthy of a scion of the Song clan.
