Qianye stood atop the Earth Dragon’s skull, his will connected to the dragonship and fully engaged in attacking Brock. Since obtaining the Martyr’s Palace, this was the first time someone had managed to fight one-on-one against it.
This allowed Qianye to discover his airship’s weaknesses. An attack from a duke-grade airship would indeed cause damage to the palace. The skeleton might not fear such attacks, but the equipment and crew inside were nowhere as strong. The impact from the hits caused quite a bit of damage.
Targeted reinforcements and the installation of defensive arrays were things he needed to do later. He was, at the moment, focused on an entirely different scene, made possible with the aid of the Earth Dragon’s perception. He could see vast amounts of demonic energy surging within the duke’s flagship. This energy was being transported to various parts of the airship by some unknown means, forming a rune that was almost as big as the airship itself. This was the source of the airship’s inconceivable mobility.
Qianye sighed in amazement at this method of energy utilization. This was an entire level beyond the normal origin array applications humans were used to seeing. No wonder the demonkin were famous for their research and technology. It was just that their advanced technology never appeared noticeably in factional wars.
Even during the fierce battle, watching the different distribution of demonic energy made Qianye feel as though a new door had opened up to him.
The runes themselves were priceless treasures, and the airship’s corresponding tactics only served to confirm its power. This was akin to Brock demonstrating how to utilize the power of the Evernight World.
Qianye’s acc.u.mulated strength was bordering the grand duke level at this point, but his lack of a system was giving him problems. There were signs that his rapidly growing power was escaping his control, and the tactics he had used in the past had limited effect. He needed to learn how to channel the worldly origin power in order to fight like a true duke.
After watching yet another rune from its formation to extinction, Qianye felt as though he had actually seen this process before somewhere. He searched through his memories and finally recalled a segment from the Book of Darkness’ projected evolution, one that had lasted less than a second.
The Book of Darkness could do that?
If it wasn’t for the ground forces reaching a casualty level that could only be described as cruel, Qianye really did want to comprehend a bit more. Brock was different from the weak dukes he had met before, an expert befitting of the saying that demonkin were half a rank stronger than their counterparts from the other races. At the very least, his utilization of the laws was only a hair’s breadth away from the level of crown princes and great dark monarchs.
There were already signs of an ultimate attack in the making. This was akin to Brock showing how a real Evernight duke fought, albeit in airship combat.
After a period of observation, Qianye said, “I’m going to board them.”
Howard looked spirited. “Be very careful.” He raised his staff, sending two beams of sanguine light onto Qianye’s body.
A set of blood-red armor appeared around Qianye. Its style was magnificent, and there was a pair of sanguine wings at its back. The wings moved to Qianye’s thought, carrying him into the air.
The luminous wings of inception were only projections brought about by overflowing origin power. The sanguine wings Howard had given Qianye possessed true flying power. He would be able to fly freely until the blood energy added to it had been used up.
Howard’s aura fell sharply after reinforcing Qianye with the armor and wings. “That’s all I can do for you at this point.”
Without further delay, Qianye jumped off the Martyr’s Palace and made a beeline for Brock’s airship.
The Martyr’s Palace made a swift turn and launched a feint with its tail, forcing the duke’s flagship to make a sudden evasive stop. This moment’s pause gave Qianye enough time to appear right above the objective. Instead of attacking immediately, he acc.u.mulated some energy and laid down a wall of blood energy.
Nighteye didn’t enter the airship after this strike. That attack just now contained her full power—it punched through the defensive barriers as well as the ship’s armor, gravely damaging the flagship. This used up all of her blood energy, so she needed to head back to the Martyr’s Palace to recover.
Qianye flapped his sanguine wings and entered through the opening Nighteye had just produced.
In the bridge, Brock shuddered as though he had taken a strong hit. The other two dukes also cried out from their positions. One of them was even flung out of his seat, his nose bleeding and his aura, weak. The other was also pale. It was clear that he wasn’t having an easy time.
Nighteye’s strike just now was practically a fight with Brock and the two dukes using the airship as the medium.
“How did she punch through my warship? How is this possible?!” Brock roared in shock and fury. Even though her identity was special, she was just a duke—this was the undeniable truth. Brock had never imagined her strength would be sufficient to blast through his defenses.
“Lord Brock, Qianye has boarded the airship,” the duke who was still in his post reminded.
Brock’s expression darkened. “Youngsters these days are so presumptuous, my flagship isn’t that easy to board. You take over control, draw away from the Martyr’s Palace. I’ll have to see what’s so special about this Qianye that even His Majesty is impressed.”
“As you wish.” The duke bowed as he took over control authority.
Qianye glanced around as he entered the airship. Row upon row of cabin rooms lay on each side, each grander than the last. Apparently, the place he had arrived in was the living quarters of high-ranking officers.
A single strike turned a ten-meter area around him into rubble. Superheated steam gushed out from the damaged kinetic pipeline and even ignited a fire! The steam contained vast amounts of demonic energy, which was probably the reason why the area turned into a death zone. No ordinary life forms could survive here.
The steam also gushed over Qianye’s body, but his sanguine armor managed to keep the superheated gas from touching him. There was no need for him to expend blood energy for defense.
Just like before, Qianye rushed forward and launched yet another Sweeping Calm. This time, he heard a furious howl from behind, “Stop!”
Of course, Qianye didn’t care about him at all. He launched eight rapid strikes and finished up with a Nirvanic Rend, destroying yet another cabin section. Only then did Qianye turn around to face the grand duke.
“How did you know where my airship’s kinetic engine is?”
Qianye only gave Brock a simple reply before slashing at the kinetic area.
Even with the Nirvanic Rend’s power, all he managed to do was leave a deep gash in the wall.
This duke-grade airship was made up of solid materials. Even the walls in ordinary cabin rooms had been processed by specialist experts.
The cabins were nothing compared to the airship; no amount of destruction here could make Brock’s heart bleed.
“How dare you?!” Brock was furious. His figure flickered over between Qianye and the kinetic chamber of the aircraft.
Holding his sword with both hands, Qianye took a step forward and channeled all of his might. Sweeping Calm!
Brock’s expression was as gloomy as a still lake. He attacked with lightning speed, actually taking on all eight of Qianye’s strikes. However, he couldn’t avoid paying a price as the demonic energy around his body weakened.
Actually, Qianye still couldn’t combine all eight strikes into one yet. At least five of these strikes wouldn’t have found their mark if it weren’t for the fact that the kinetic chamber was right behind the grand duke. Evading or missing a single strike would damage the cabin wall, perhaps even cleave it open. This deprived Duke Brock of any leeway and forced him to take on the attacks head-on.
The flow of battle was now in Qianye’s hands. The flagship’s kinetic chamber was like a hostage.
Having seen through this, Qianye understood what he should be doing next. He gave no thought to what the duke thought of him or what he was planning; he always followed his own battle tempo. He fished out some special origin grenades from Andruil’s Realm and tossed them behind.
These grenades were produced with Qianye’s Venus Dawn origin power. After leaving Andruil’s space, the daybreak origin power grew so strong that it was practically overflowing. The explosives rolled along the ground after landing, dripping origin power along the way. Every drop of energy would eat through the cabin floor and produce small holes therein.
The flagship’s floorboards were made of alloy metal and processed with demonic energy for extra protection. Yet this overflowing origin power could dissolve through them.
Duke Brock’s eyes locked onto the rolling grenades, his expression growing more and more unsightly. He suspected that they were divine champion grenades, but he quickly realized that they were so much more. The bastard who had made the grenades had actually injected more origin power than was necessary, almost as though he wanted to show off his abundant origin power.
