Qianye muttered to himself, “Yet he’s alive, and his strength…”
The Whitebone Duke wasn’t too bad in terms of skill. At the very least, it was worthy of someone who had ruled the Jade Sea for several hundred years. Yet, the advantage common to strength-type races wasn’t prominent in him. As a werewolf duke, his attack was only at the average standard for his rank, not so different from the Wolf King.
Otherwise, Qianye wouldn’t have been able to withstand the attacks and use them to temper his origin power. The process had condensed the origin power in his nine vortices and transformed them into a single crystal, allowing him to step into the divine champion realm.
He was able to reach the fighting power standard of a duke although there was nothing to write home about his strength. Perhaps this proved that there was something to learn from his methods?
Caroline seemed to have noticed Qianye’s thoughts. “It’s not like that.”
From her explanation, Qianye finally realized why the Whitebone Duke hadn’t collapsed despite absorbing the bloodlines of numerous young werewolves. That was because, at the same time, he was absorbing daybreak origin power from humans. The existence of this opposing element allowed the conflicted bloodlines to stop attacking one another, maintaining a delicate balance within his body.
This could be considered a genius idea, but judging from the outcome at hand, it was ultimately a failure. It wouldn’t even be feasible anywhere outside of a place like the Jade Sea.
Without the destruction brought about by external forces, a duke’s body would remain immortal throughout the years. That was why the Sacred Mountain of Evernight was also the burial ground of numerous experts. From the Whitebone Duke’s final condition, it would seem that the true state of his body was close to complete decay. It could even be said that he was a walking corpse.
The reason he was able to maintain his calm appearance was likely because he hadn’t encountered a proper challenger in the last couple of centuries. Even without Qianye and Caroline, the duke’s body would crumble some time in the future and turn into a puddle of pus.
Defective secret arts like this involved a great price and the ones who had been robbed of their bloodline were naturally young geniuses of the race. Who knew how long the duke had lived in this manner? Was it a hundred years, or two hundred? It probably didn’t matter at this point. Just looking at the vast population of the Jade Sea and the great corridor, there was only a pitiful number of dukes among them. The one Qianye had encountered at the great corridor was one who had used up his potential and had no hope of another breakthrough.
Qianye realized that the adverse environment might not be the sole reason for the lack of marquis-rank experts. Instead, the true geniuses of each generation had died in the hands of the Whitebone Duke!
The dark race’s inheritance lay in their bloodline, so there were instances where people would rob and absorb another’s bloodline under extreme circumstances. However, a case like the Whitebone Duke’s would be impossible in the upper continents, a case where the future of an entire clan was cut off to extend a single person’s life, let alone just a zombie-like extension. The other top-experts of the clans would never allow anyone to kill the proverbial golden goose for its eggs. Who would’ve thought someone would be doing this in a corner of the Fort continent?
Looking at the corpse that couldn’t even maintain its shape, Qianye didn’t know what to say. In the end, he sighed. “Well, this is a good thing to the human race as well.”
Although the Whitebone Duke had killed a fair number of his clansmen, he had also helped to cut down the number of werewolves reaching the marquis rank. Otherwise, Zheng might not be able to hold out if there were a certain number of marquises overseeing the war.
At this moment, almost all secrets had been dug out from the duke’s body. Qianye shot a wisp of fire from his fingertip, seeking to incinerate the Whitebone Duke’s body with his dark golden energy.
The fire would normally reduce everything in its wake to ashes, but it wasn’t entirely true this time.
Qianye watched in surprise as a squirming mass of flesh appeared from the scattering ashes. He looked at it carefully and, before Caroline could stop him, reached out to grab it.
The ball of flesh was only the size of a fingernail, probably left over from the duke’s heart judging from its vestiges. Being able to withstand the fire of the dark golden blood energy proved just how strong it was.
The feeling it gave Qianye was actually a bit similar to that of the Earth Dragon’s heart—a terrifying life force that had lost its consciousness. If that were the case, this little ball of flesh would have great uses if developed appropriately.
“You dare to touch every unknown object, it seems!” Caroline moved closer while saying this, reaching out to touch the flesh and even flicking some lightning onto it. The flesh could even stop Qianye’s dark golden sanguine flames; what was Caroline’s lightning to it? The mass of flesh remained completely unharmed.
Caroline sighed. “Who would’ve thought such a treasure would appear at the end of decay? Unfortunately, the duke’s entire body is already breaking down. Even if he didn’t die, he would never be able to control this flesh. It might even retaliate and devour him if it grows stronger, turning him into a different creature.”
Qianye said while looking at the flesh, “Do you think those void colossi were born this way?”
Caroline was stunned. She had no answer to this question, nor did she know how Qianye had associated the two.
The flesh that had been forged from the duke’s decaying body was definitely a treasure, but no one knew how to apply it. In addition to that, the duke had naturally accumulated quite a bit of wealth over the years. But there weren’t any dazzling resources on the Fort Continent and the Jade Sea. The werewolf tribes possessed no high-end technology to process raw materials, either. As such, the duke’s possessions were mainly natural materials and beast bones.
His bone armor was extremely sturdy—it was likely comparable to grade-eight equipment and far superior to ordinary metal alloys. This kind of defense-attribute beast bones could only come from void colossi. His helmet was even more wondrous; there was a faint trace of life-force flowing within it. This meant, from a certain perspective, that the helmet was still alive.
The craftsman had made use of the natural shape to produce a helmet and add numerous intricate arrays to make use of the vitality within. The most prominent use of this helmet was to expand the area of one’s domain. That was the reason why the Whitebone Duke was able to suppress Qianye and Caroline in range.
Every part of a void colossus’ body was a treasure, and parts with vitality were even more so. The most representative was Qianye’s dragonship. Recently, the giant vessel had not only begun to regrow flesh on its own, but its weak consciousness was also growing clearer over time. It was slowly regaining the earth dragon’s past demeanor.
In addition to his bone armor, the duke also owned a number of rings that could strengthen the body’s different attributes. There were also some bone blades and various stone weapons. With East Peak in hand, Qianye had no interest in the bone blades, but some of the stone equipment caught his attention. There was a certain dark green dagger with brown spots that he actually couldn’t see through.
Caroline was much more experienced regarding treasures and resources. Lightning flames lit up on her fingertip as she grabbed the dagger, but the weapon wasn’t affected at all by the fierce energy. There was no sign of it melting, either. The blade arced slightly when she tried to bend it, but it promptly returned to its original state afterward.
Caroline passed the dagger to Qianye, saying, “It’s not very sturdy, but it can withstand high temperatures and insulate lightning fire, and that’s just in its raw ore state. It’ll probably be even stronger when refined.”
“Is this thing useful?”
“Of course, it’s useless as a weapon, the duke never even took it out. But the material itself has a lot of uses. Just the high-temperature tolerance alone would make it a great material for warship engines.”
Qianye understood that Song Zining’s alloy formula possessed similar characteristics. That alloy was considered a top-secret of the Empire, and its manufacturing process was extremely difficult. Even now, it could only be produced back in the Empire.
If this new material could be used in warship engines, their performance would be improved to the next level. There was no need to explain what this meant to the Empire. If he could control the production of this material, it would give him a powerful hold on the other party’s vitals. Although Qianye had no plans to make use of this position, it wasn’t a bad leverage to have for self-protection.
Qianye took the dagger back and put it away carefully. It wouldn’t be too late to investigate the source of this material after the situation around the Jade Sea had calmed down.
The duke had nothing else that could impress Qianye.
All in all, the gains weren’t too bad, but in terms of net worth, the Whitebone Duke was far inferior to the dukes on the upper continents. At the very least, he couldn’t even bring out grade-nine gear.
After looking through the spoils, Qianye had recovered enough to continue his glorious image. Hence, he decided to head to the command room.
All the generals were already seated in the room. The chamber was currently a mixture of humans and werewolves, with the latter occupying a third of the forces. This made the atmosphere subtly strange.
The human generals sat to one side, while the werewolves occupied the other, drawing a clear line between them. The only exception was Eiseka and Xu Jingxuan, who were sitting next to one another. The duo was wrapped in blood-stained bandages, almost like brothers in hardship.
The mercenary generals were clad in uniform equipment and armor. Xu Jingxuan and his two aides were also dressed similarly, using Zheng’s weapons and armor. The werewolves, on the other hand, came in their individual clan attire—some garish, some dull, but no two alike. There were also some with feathers on their heads who, despite looking like giant turkeys, were feeling pleased about their height.
Qianye found this scene helplessly comical.
