A fledgling city had already taken form on the Northern Continent, with several small villages scattered in its vicinity. The workshops here were either in production or being constructed rapidly.
The Martyr’s Palace was parked outside the city, its massive frame resembling a city of its own. Hundreds of technicians were moving in and out of the vessel, clearing out the damage and replacing or repairing the malfunctioning parts.
Qianye’s corvette landed in the outskirts of the city. Immediately after landing, a cemetery at the foot of a small, distant mountain caught his attention. From what he remembered, this cemetery used to be a project on paper, but now, it had become a reality. Most importantly, there were numerous tombstones erected within it.
“Let’s go and take a look,” he said as he off toward the cemetery.
The burial ground was divided into many different areas. Each of them possessed a different style; even the tombstones were fashioned according to their tribal designs. For instance, the tombstones made of mechanical parts and weaponry belonged to the Highbeards. The square-shaped ones made of wood or stone were the humans’. There was a different area that was much smaller than the Highbeards’, with only three graves inside. Each of them was made of white stone, with ice and lightning carved upon them. This was the crest of the Thunderfrost Temple, and judging from the make of the tombstones, the ones buried here clearly weren’t ordinary people.
“What happened here?”
The attendant in charge of the cemetery replied, “The Martyr’s Palace returned a while ago, and the many corpses it brought back were all buried here. The division of space was decided upon by Lady Bluemoon and Caroline.”
Qianye nodded. He turned toward the small city and, sensing Caroline’s aura, headed in that direction. The Martyr’s Palace had returned to the Northern Continent after the battle of Whitetown, so Qianye never had much time to talk to Caroline.
In a small, quiet courtyard in the city, Caroline was reading in the yard, wearing a casual dress. She ordered the servants to prepare a new cup of tea when she saw Qianye descending, then gestured for them to withdraw. She sized Qianye up from head to toe, growing more and more surprised as she did so. “I actually can’t see through you anymore?”
Qianye was also a bit surprised. “Really? I don’t think I made much progress. But you…”
Caroline’s aura was evidently weak, not much better than when the war had ended. This meant that her injuries were worse than Qianye had anticipated.
Caroline said with a smile, “That old spider wasn’t easy to deal with. If he hadn’t damaged the Martyr’s Palace, causing the Earth Dragon’s remnant will to counterattack, you might not see me today.”
Qianye replied, “You didn’t tell me your tribesmen were killed.”
“This is our war, a fight to pioneer new land for my kind. For a territory where we can survive, sacrifices will need to be made and are worth making. That’s why I thought there was no need to mention it specifically, it’s enough to give them a good resting place. This place is really nice, I like it.”
Qianye could only sigh.
The fight on the Martyr’s Palace was fiercer than those on the ground had guessed. Qianye and Song Zining had been too careless, it seems, thinking the palace was safe with Caroline and her clansmen on board. Now, it seemed that desperate arachne duke might’ve caused fundamental damage to the Martyr’s Palace if the Earth Dragon’s will hadn’t counterattacked.
If the arachne duke had destroyed the control engine on the Earth Dragon’s heart, the Martyr’s Palace would no longer be controllable—and that was no different from being destroyed. Judging from that arachne duke’s combat strength, his desperate final attack might’ve destroyed the heart itself if Caroline hadn’t blocked it. The Martyr’s Palace was different from other warships in that its heart was alive, allowing the airship to utilize a tiny fraction of the void colossus’ intelligence and power.
Qianye’s mood was heavy, but Caroline seemed to be calm already. She tilted her head and asked curiously, “How come you’re here? Have you finished handling things over at Dark Flame?”
“There’s simply no end to them.” Qianye laughed self-deprecatingly. “I came here to check up on you and cultivate for a period of time. I want to see if I can break through.”
“Break through? Are you going to assail the divine champion realm?” Caroline looked rather astonished.
Qianye thought about it. “Not necessarily, I’m planning to cultivate here until my injuries are healed.”
“And then?” Caroline blinked several times.
“Then we’ll head back to Southern Blue to reform and train the new troops. The equipment should be ready soon. Next, it’s time for me to keep my promise to you.”
Caroline’s eyes lit up. “Then I’d better recover quickly.”
“That’ll be for the best.” Qianye smiled.
Half a month went by in a flash as Qianye immersed himself in cultivation and lost track of time. The Northern Continent was covered in winds and clouds every day during this time.
One day, the leaden clouds hung especially low, and one could hardly see the borders of the vortex. The flashes of violet lightning looked so intense that it looked like there was a violet pond about to pour down any moment.
When the violet electricity had accumulated to its limits, a thunderbolt came crashing down upon the little town—much like a waterfall of lightning.
Just as the calamity was about to strike, a green lightning dragon rushed up into the air and broke apart the violent deluge. Thus, the disaster was resolved. Soon, an uplifting aura shot into the sky and began to roam freely inside the lightning pond, spreading a feeling of inexplicable jubilation.
Sensing the changes during his cultivation, Qianye slowly opened his eyes. As though a bolt of lightning had slashed through the empty room, the walls and roof were suddenly reduced to powder.
Startled, Qianye slowly withdrew his origin power, stood up, and glanced at the direction of the small city. He saw Caroline, with her Thunderous Whip, walking through the air toward him. In the blink of an eye, she was already in front of Qianye.
“Your injuries have healed?” Qianye asked.
“Yes, it healed faster than I expected. I guess it’s because I can’t wait to get started. How about you? How far are you from the divine champion realm?”
“I should be… one step away.” Qianye released his aura. In Caroline’s perception, she could see nine origin vortices emitting an extremely intense radiance, almost like nine small suns.
Qianye’s daybreak origin power was too fierce. Even someone of Caroline’s eye power felt a scorching pain when she looked straight at it, unable to see through what was inside that burning radiance.
Qianye sealed off the condition within his body after a moment of release.
“Why not try breaking through?”
Caroline was curious. Considering Qianye’s high origin power quality, it shouldn’t be too difficult to break through. Qianye’s nine origin vortices were already close to perfection at this point. At the very least, she couldn’t see any obvious deficiency.
As someone who had experienced the process, she knew that this was a sign of having cultivated to the peak. This was also the best time to assail the divine champion threshold.
She felt somewhat envious as she looked at the sun-like vortices. Foundation-wise, Caroline’s was superior to most of those so-called geniuses. She was able to cross the divine champion realm after sparing no effort to jump up. But Qianye’s current starting point was one rank higher than hers. With just a slight jump, he might be able to reach a level most cultivators could only dream of.
Regarding this problem, Qianye replied after some thought, “I’ve been gone for too long. It’s time to head back. As for breaking through, there’s no rush, anyway.”
“No rush, anyway?” Caroline had a sudden urge to choke Qianye.
The two boarded the Martyr’s Palace moments later. The Earth Dragon slowly took to the skies and flew back to Southern Blue. For the upcoming period, Qianye would have the Martyr’s Palace remain on standby in the void. He would come here to cultivate whenever he needed to.
Dark Flame’s dedicated airship port was full of transport vessels. Led by their respective officers, groups of mercenaries were unloading heavy crates and moving them into the warehouses.
The paint on these boxes was new, clearly a recent paint-job to cover up the insignias. Those familiar with the field could tell that these boxes were the standard type used for Imperial army munitions.
There were over a dozen transports in the port. The warehouses adjacent to the landing pads were full to the brim, so the rest of the crates were being carried to more distant storage sites by truck.
Qianye arrived through the air and landed right inside the port. A mercenary general was issuing some orders to the men on the field, but he ran over immediately after noticing Qianye. “Sire, you’re finally back.”
“What’s going on here?”
The mercenary general replied, “These are armaments Sire Zining has sent over from the Empire. They have just arrived this morning. Here’s the list, please take a look.”
Qianye looked through the list of goods and nodded after seeing that the numbers were correct. It went without saying that a dedicated officer would work on the subsequent inspection and inventory. Qianye didn’t need to worry about that.
Another general jogged over at this point and handed Qianye a document. “Sire, this is the intelligence report we have just received.”
Qianye took the envelope and tore it open. He looked rather surprised as he went through the contents briefly. “Unrest in the nation of Zheng?”
“Zheng?” Caroline seemed to have heard of the name before but couldn’t quite recall.
The mercenary who had come to deliver the report immediately explained to her.
The nation of Zheng was a small country on the Fort Continent, populated mainly by humans but also home to a good number of dark races. The ruler of Zheng chose to call himself king instead of emperor and expressed submission to the Empire. It was one of the Empire’s nominal vassals.
The power structure on Fort Continent was complicated. There were many small countries belonging to humans and dark races. The Empire and Evernight had both raised a good number of representatives there, and Zheng was one of them. Neither faction thought highly of the land, but they weren’t willing to abandon the profits there and allow their opponents to gain power. As such, both sides ended up fostering local puppets to vie for power.
That was why the power balance there was even more confusing than the neutral lands. It was fairly lively as the small countries and cities were always fighting amongst one another. Some of the weaker powers would announce themselves as a country, but in truth, they owned no more than a couple of small cities.
The nation of Zheng was in a state of unrest because the king had suddenly fallen ill, and it was very likely that he would pass away. The princes, in order to secure the throne, began lobbying the army ministers—the entire situation was on the verge of ignition. With the only divine champion in the country dead, the dark race powers nearby were also eyeing the nation of Zheng. It seemed like the country would soon fall into turmoil.
Qianye was familiar with Zheng only because of Nanhua.
Caroline understood the situation after hearing that Zheng was on the Fort Continent. She looked up at Qianye who made an immediate decision: “Zheng must not fall into dark race hands! Issue the order! Gather the army, we shall quell the unrest!”
