Caroline’s words woke Qianye from his dream.
Ordinary airships couldn’t enter the new world because their key kinetic systems were too fragile to stand the corrosion of the strange origin power.
The environment there was even more adverse than the neutral lands, and only the sturdiest old models could operate there. Trucks could hold out fine, but airships would have to be scrapped after one week in the new world. Another consideration was the adaptation to the new origin power—even without considering wear and tear, it was still unknown whether or not the origin arrays could function normally.
The Martyr’s Palace was different. Its body was the skeleton of a void colossus and thus should be able to withstand the environment of the new world. Furthermore, the remnant consciousness allowed the dragonship to form a protective layer around itself, protecting the equipment, weaponry, and origin arrays from being affected.
Perhaps, he could try?
At noon the next day, when the origin power of the new world was at its most stable, almost all of the experts under Qianye’s command gathered outside of the “door.” A fair number of werewolf chiefs and shamans had rushed over to witness this historical moment.
Qianye stood on a tall platform with the Storm Duke and Caroline at his side. The duke was recuperating at first, but he rushed over immediately after hearing about the event. On a lower level of the platform were the werewolf experts. Some of them were new faces that Qianye didn’t recognize, but it just so happened that they were all a fair bit stronger than the werewolves of the Jade Sea.
The Storm Duke had led these experts here from the Storm Territory, all of them important characters in their land. He wanted them to meet Qianye and express their loyalty.
An attendant ascended the stage and whispered, “Sire, it’s time.”
Qianye nodded and pointed at the door. An alarm blared loudly in the base as the kinetic towers spouted large clouds of steam. The cannon turrets were on full alert and pointed in different directions.
A shadow appeared in the sky and slowly grew bigger and bigger until the massive silhouette of the Martyr’s Palace slowly descended.
Even those who had seen the palace several times felt as though they couldn’t breathe. That feeling of having a city floating above their heads was too shocking.
The werewolves of the Jade Sea had it better, but the chiefs and shamans from the Storm Territory were all flabbergasted. They had never seen anything remotely close. One of the shamans was so confused that he fell to his knees and began praying.
The shamans of the Jade Sea looked at him in disdain, but Qianye and the Storm Duke were in no mood to laugh. Qianye’s gaze landed briefly on the white-haired shaman, saying, “What a pity.”
The Storm Duke said, “Can’t help it, this is the Fort Continent. He comes from a small village, so it’s a miracle that he’s still alive.”
The werewolves of Fort Continent matured early, constricting their life to the shortest in order to survive the harsh environment. The effects were even more pronounced in smaller tribes. Children who grew up too slow were simply abandoned. As for whether they might be geniuses, that was a problem to consider if they could grow up.
This old shaman praying to the Earth Dragon wasn’t funny. It wasn’t that he had mistaken the airship for something else. He was in prostration because he had sensed the earth dragon’s will, a display of reverence toward a void colossus.
In truth, void colossi were worshipped as gods in many parts of the lower continents. As the master, Qianye knew that the remnant will did not possess an opinion. To others, however, it was already a rarity to sense the Earth Dragon’s will.
At this moment, the Martyr’s Palace had arrived in position. Even the “door” seemed a bit narrow before the massive airship.
Qianye stood on the platform with a wooden expression. In truth, his consciousness was connected to the Martyr’s Palace, so whatever the dragonship saw, he did as well.
Only the most basic crew members were aboard the Martyr’s Palace. These were all strong people who had taken the holy tree sap—they were in charge of observing the changes inside the airship and driving it. The hovering dragonship looked more like a giant monster than a human-driven warship.
Under Qianye’s urging, the vessel waved its tail and slowly drifted toward the door in the misty region.
Qianye sensed a burning pain in his consciousness as the Earth Dragon entered the mist. Even the Earth Dragon couldn’t adapt to the strange origin power of the new world. Without the need for an order, the pained Earth Dragon activated its protective barrier and isolated itself from the origin power. The sensation of pain also vanished thereafter.
Feeling relieved, Qianye drove the airship forward until it finally entered the “door.”
The Earth Dragon’s vision was different. In the white mist, it could clearly “see” a tunnel formed from the strange energy, surrounded by turbulent void origin power. Qianye felt quite alarmed upon witnessing this scene. This passage seemed quite fragile, yet it remained intact amidst the violent tempests.
Qianye’s vision changed entirely as the Earth Dragon sped up and exited the tunnel. That eternal sun of the new world appeared in his sights.
Startled, he stared at the sun for a moment.
Through the Earth Dragon’s eyes, that sun was a burning mass of origin power. It emitted scorching daybreak origin power at all times while absorbing the strange energy. After the latter entered the sun, all that came back out was daybreak origin power. No one knew whether they had disappeared or if they had been converted.
Most importantly, Qianye discovered through the Earth Dragon’s will that this sun wasn’t real. At least, it wasn’t a massive tangible body like the sun back in the Evernight World.
It was a ball of nothingness, burning with origin power. Qianye could vaguely sense that this sun likely held the secrets to this world.
However, even the Earth Dragon had no way to approach the sun, let alone fly inside to study it. This sun in the new world was spitting out raging daybreak origin power, something that could burn down any physical object. Let alone the dead Earth Dragon, even Sky Demon—the colossus that had laid down the iron curtain back on Evernight Continent—couldn’t get too close.
Qianye drove the airship forward after a momentary daze. The massive body of the Martyr’s Palace passed through the door and arrived in the new world!
A roaring cheer broke out from below. Qianye slowly shifted the Earth Dragon upward and looked down, where all the soldiers had come out from behind the fortifications in a boisterous fashion.
This was Qianye’s first base in the new world. It was currently quite large with a complete array of facilities. Not only did it possess a large-scale hospital, but it also housed a sizable warehouse, research facility, and training infrastructure. New recruits would be trained here for a week and only dispatched to the front lines when they were fully accustomed to the environment.
Hence, this base was big enough to accommodate a hundred thousand soldiers, most of them werewolves.
The base wasn’t too far from the door, so the Martyr’s Palace covered up the entire sky above the fortress as it appeared. Many of the werewolves were shaken to the core—all of a sudden, a shaman fell to the ground in loud prayers, followed by all the other werewolves.
This scene was rather familiar. Qianye soon felt a mysterious energy land on him, slowly raising his bloodline powers.
Qianye was startled as he gained a new understanding of this mysterious power. It couldn’t be insulated even by the difference in worlds. What was it exactly? A million werewolves simply sang praise in his name, and the blessing was delivered to him across such distances and barriers. This was simply miraculous.
There were too many secrets in the new world that he needed to explore.
After entering the new world, Qianye received a message in their shared consciousness. The Martyr’s Palace was feeling suffocated. This was an entirely new sensation because void colossi didn’t need to perform any routine breathing. The Earth Dragon had been dead for so many years, with only the skeleton, heart, and some flesh remaining. Why would it feel suffocated?
Qianye didn’t try to stop the Earth Dragon’s reflexive attempt to breathe. He watched as the dragon opened its mouth and took a deep breath. A yellow tornado appeared as boundless origin power was drawn into its body!
A gale kicked up in the base, with many of the weaker soldiers being blown about. The interior of the Martyr’s Palace, on the other hand, was wrecked by a storm. Many of the equipment inside were uprooted and blown about; some of the walls were even destroyed.
Fortunately, the palace had been modified once more before entering the new world. Everything inside had been reinforced to stop interference from the strange origin power, and that was what stopped a full-blown disaster from taking place.
The origin tempest rushed to the dragonship’s chest and was largely absorbed by the heart and muscles. A small amount broke through the airship walls and exited the body from what seemed like natural air-vents.
After drawing in the origin power, Qianye felt as though he had inhaled a mouthful of smokey air. It was a bit irritating, but it also served to relieve the suffocating feeling; the Earth Dragon’s entire body was now full of energy.
Every part of the body? Qianye was startled. He had never sensed any other body part except the heart when he shared consciousness with the Earth Dragon in the past. Now, he could even sense the bones. If not for the fact that he could see the Martyr’s Palace personally, he might’ve mistaken the vessel for an actual Earth Dragon.
The Earth Dragon seemed to have undergone a mysterious change as it entered the new world. There were actually vague signs of it reviving. It would be a complete miracle if that were the case. When Qianye first saw it back in the underground world, the dragonship was nothing more than a skeleton and a heart.
Now that the Earth Dragon had regained its energy, Qianye drove it slowly around the new world. He slowly sped up, went deeper in, and tried to fly higher as well. The Martyr’s Palace flew faster and faster, even more so than when it was in the void. And this was without activating any of the auxiliary engines and kinetic sails. The palace was flying just from the Earth Dragon’s instincts.
Qianye felt suffocated again after roughly half an hour of flight. He allowed the Earth Dragon to move according to its instincts again. The dragon opened its mouth and exhaled a mass of murky origin power, kicking up another storm in the air. It then breathed in again—the feeling of suffocation vanished, and its body was once again full of energy.
Qianye thus flew the airship for a good while, even circling above the first forest before turning back and passing through the door into the Evernight World.
Qianye finally woke up from his distracted state when the airship returned.
“How was it?” Caroline and the Storm Duke asked.
“There’s a bit of a problem, but it can indeed enter the new world,” Qianye replied.
“Then there should be no problems with the expansion!” Caroline was delighted.
With the Martyr’s Palace, they had the equivalent of a mobile fortress. There was no longer a need to fear the beast armies.
