The place above the clouds was desolate, but it wasn’t entirely without life. There were some strange giant trees with pillar-like trunks and leaves that spanned dozens of meters. These dark green leaves were large, thick, and had countless feelers stretching out from their ends.
These trees grew sparse, with thousands of meters between one another, almost as though they had their own territories.
These trees reacted the moment Qianye arrived. The leaves arched up ever so slightly, almost as though they were about to attack and capture something.
Qianye instinctively activated his bloodline concealment, upon which the leaves relaxed and went back to their normal state.
Had they sensed the changes in origin power? Qianye activated his origin power vision to observe carefully.
There was almost no origin power above the cloud layer, almost like a vacuum of energy. According to reason, this kind of environment wasn’t suitable for any living being. Those with origin power would find their energy leaking out under the pressure.
Then again, nature was full of miracles, just like how these trees were able to grow here.
As for Qianye, his body was so strong that this bit of vacuum was negligible before his chaos origin power.
After a moment of observation, a feeble wisp of origin power appeared in his vision. This shred of energy seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and simply began drifting along in the air. It had just arrived near one of the giant trees when the tentacles on the edges of the leaves swooped down and absorbed it, then returned to their normal state.
Qianye finally understood. It turned out that these giant trees survived by capturing stray origin power in the air.
Since they could capture origin power, they naturally could capture creatures with origin power. In that sense, these trees were carnivores that were more dangerous than they seemed.
Qianye arrived underneath one of those giant trees and released a bit of origin power from his outstretched hand. Sensing the energy, the leaves swooped down at lightning speed and engulfed half of his body with its tendrils.
The giant tree absorbed origin power to sustain itself, but Venus Dawn was no ordinary delicacy. Ingesting this blazing origin power was more like swallowing fire than eating.
The trees nearby immediately sensed the emergence of Venus Dawn. This time, they weren’t hungry for it but rather fearful. The tendrils withdrew into the leaves, which rolled themselves tightly until they looked like sharp thorns.
Qianye reached out to touch the tree trunk and stretched his consciousness inside.
The giant tree was hard and firm, with a small cavity at the center. This cavity was actually filled with liquid origin power!
The origin power inside the tree was neutral, perhaps even a bit toward the daybreak side. Most importantly, this origin power was extremely pure and showed no signs of life. Anyone could just absorb it as is.
Qianye drew his azure blade and stabbed at one of the trees, producing a deep hole in the trunk. The sword energy drilled into the bark until the hole had reached the depths of the cavity.
Faint green sap flowed out from the hole as Qianye pulled out his sword. This green sap was fairly viscous and had a silvery shine to it. Qianye cupped the fluid with his hand and, after some thought, drank it straight up.
Within moments, he felt as though a fire had lit up in his c.h.e.s.t. The sudden surge of origin power kicked the Glory and Mystery chapters into motion, ready to devour the incoming food.
Since Qianye surpassed the glorious marquis and divine champion ranks on either side of his cultivation, the Glory and Mystery chapters seemed to have gained a bit of spirituality. They would start moving whenever they encountered suitable origin power. That being said, it was rare to see them both so restless at the same time.
This simultaneous operation went on naturally without a hitch, moving several times faster than they would on their own. Qianye suddenly realized that this was the true face of the Song Clan Ancient Scroll. The two chapters working in tandem was the true path.
However, the world was always either Daybreak or Evernight, how could there be energy that could activate both chapters? That was why the Song Clan Ancient Scroll—or the Scroll of Primal Chaos as it was known in earlier times—was eventually forgotten and no one knew how to cultivate it. It certainly didn’t help that training in just one aspect was a sure path to demise.
Only the Song clan with its vast riches would dabble in the collection of ancient tomes. That was how some ignorant curator ended up paying a large sum for the Song Clan Ancient Scroll.
Only after arriving in the inner world and coming into contact with the strange tree sap did Qianye realize that he could activate both chapters at the same time.
The Glory and Mystery chapters revolved faster and faster in a clearly demarcated balance. This process produced an increasing supply of Venus Dawn and dark golden blood energy.
The two top-grade origin powers entered the front and back covers of the Book of Darkness, nurturing the blood core and heart. The two organs began growing and evolving at a near-visible rate. At this point, a single thought from Qianye would send the origin power into the book to produce chaos origin power. However, he felt that it was better to upgrade his blood core and heart at this point. A better foundation would allow him to accommodate even more chaos origin power.
This origin power was extremely powerful, heavy, and resilient. Qianye would need to modify his body once more in order to wield it at will. It was rather taxing for him to channel chaos origin power with just his ancient vampire physique.
Qianye lost track of time while cultivating. Two days had passed by the time the two chapters came to a stop and he had finished digesting that sap.
Qianye slowly opened his eyes and sensed the changes to his body. Two days of cultivation had brought about benefits equalling several months of work in the past. This speed was shocking!
This speed wasn’t without its limits, and the restriction was the giant tree’s sap.
After two days and nights of cultivation, Qianye understood more about the origin power in the tree sap. This unstable energy was at the midpoint between Daybreak and Evernight, and the slightest nudge would send it off to one side.
In essence, this strange origin power and chaos origin power were both at the midpoint between the Daybreak and Evernight. Yet, they were at opposite ends of this neutrality.
Chaos origin power was heavy, resilient, and immovable once formed. The domain formed from it could be as light as a feather or as heavy as a mountain, even going so far as to suppress other domains.
On the other hand, the strange origin power was at the extreme of transformation. It was constantly shifting between darkness and daybreak depending on the environment.
The two were comparable in power, just standing at different ends of the spectrum.
Qianye had only managed to condense chaos origin power with the help of the Book of Darkness. This strange origin power relied on the giant tree to exist and could only be stored in liquid form.
Each and every tree here was a priceless treasure to Qianye. As long as he could keep absorbing the sap here, he would gain several decades worth of cultivation in just one month. With the Glory and Mystery chapters in hand, he simply had no fear of bottlenecks. All he needed was acc.u.mulation.
This cloud layer was a priceless treasure land that could make up for his shortcomings. The only pity was that there were only a handful of such trees on this massive mountain.
Qianye still needed to deal with Medanzo, but after finding this secret realm, he felt that there was no rush. Considering his skill in stealth and assassination, he could easily kill the vampire after acc.u.mulating enough power to break through to the heavenly monarch realm.
He had spent two days cultivating. With only one day left, there was no way he could finish three origin bullets. He would be able to produce one at most, so his chances of killing the Lightless Monarch weren’t very high.
Just as Qianye was pondering on his options, a familiar voice echoed behind him. “You’ve already discovered how to use the mirage moon origin power. That was fast! Although it’s a bit of a waste to absorb it like that, you already have chaos origin power anyway.”
This voice came out of nowhere and without prior notice. What surprised him the most was that he hadn’t sensed the man appear at all. Qianye’s perception could be considered equal to the heavenly monarchs and great dark monarchs, even if not the most powerful in Evernight.
Few experts could leave him completely helpless at this point.
Turning back with a serious expression, Qianye saw a slender man standing there. His heart jumped wildly the moment he saw the person. “How come it’s you?!”
The man stood with his hands behind his back. “Why can’t it be me?”
“You… weren’t you…” Qianye didn’t know how to put it. There were countless theories about the man’s fate, but two were the most prominent. One was that he had left to explore the void, the second was that he had fallen.
“What does the world say about me?”
The man laughed. “It’s fine if other people don’t recognize me, but you? Haven’t you already met the consciousness I left behind? Seeing how well you’ve raised the wings, almost to the point of great success, I can tell that my decision was not wrong.”
“Andruil!” Qianye finally called out his name.
“I have many names, but Andruil is the name that accompanied me all this time. As for the Black-Winged Monarch, that title is not entirely necessary. If you wish to address me according to the law of the River of Blood… you should call me Lord of Evernight.”
