At the imperial military department, a simple-looking car had just come to a stop before Song Zining.
The seventh young master was now a marshal in terms of strength and authority, so his transportation was also fairly grand. Even in the capital, a jeep would lead the way and serve as an escort. There were a total of ten guards assigned to him at all times.
These ten guards weren’t there to defeat enemies as they were far inferior to a divine champion marshal. Their duty was to take a bullet for him at the critical moment, earning him a split second to act.
The motorcade slowly left the capital under Song Zining’s orders and headed toward the suburbs where they entered an elegant courtyard district. The independent compounds here were neatly arranged—they were well-knit but not crowded, and the area was secluded and peaceful. It was definitely a great place.
The entire district was rather quiet. There were few cars and people on the streets, and there weren’t any checkpoints or guards at the entrances. Instead, there were military police standing guard.
Song Zining’s entourage entered without any obstruction, all the way until they arrived at a small courtyard. The aide checked the number plate and said, “Number 67. We’ve arrived, Sire.”
“You guys wait here.” With that, Song Zining left the car and entered the compound.
The courtyard wasn’t big, but it still had a front and back entrance. Song Zining walked through the central hall and arrived at the rear courtyard. Wei Potian was standing beside the pond, lazily scattering fish feed into the pond.
Wei Potian never sensed Song Zining’s arrival. He picked up another handful of fish feed with his left hand and tossed them clumsily into the water.
After watching for a while, Song Zining said, “General Wei, you’re living quite the comfortable life, aren’t you?”
Shocked out of his wits, Wei Potian flickered away almost immediately. After seeing that it was Song Zining, he patted his chest, saying, “Goddammit you scared me, why do you always like to play this game?”
He hadn’t finished speaking when a hard slap landed on his face! The slap was so strong and swift that even the Thousand Mountains couldn’t stop it in time. All he could see were stars.
“What are you doing man?!” Wei Potian was both shocked and angry. Half of his face was swollen all of a sudden.
Song Zining roared with a cold expression, “How can I be in the mood to play with you?! Qianye is gone now, yet you’re living comfortably here!”
Wei Potian was stunned. “Gone?” Realizing something, his voice started to tremble. “What?! Qianye’s gone? How is this possible?!”
They were currently in the Imperial Hospital’s recuperation district. Wei Potian had just received a new arm and was currently under observation. The place was serene, but there was no way to obtain battle reports firsthand. Moreover, all records about the last battle in Blacksun Valley had been wiped away, so Wei Potian still had no idea what had happened.
Song Zining immediately realized this and understood that Wei Potian wasn’t acting. But this did little to ease the anger in his heart. The scenery in the courtyard shifted with a wave of his sleeves, locking all sounds inside his domain.
After setting up the domain, Song Zining said through gritted teeth, “If you hadn’t gone to Qianye, there was no way he would’ve gone to battle! Now he and Nighteye have died together in Blacksun Valley. Are you satisfied now?”
Wei Potian stood frozen in place, almost as though he had been struck by lightning. “Died together? H-How did this happen? I only wanted him to stop her for a bit.”
Song Zining’s eyes were red as he roared, “What the f.u.c.k do you know about all the strings being pulled in this matter? You bumbling idiot! What else do you expect Qianye to do after pushing him onto the battlefield? You forced both of them off the cliff! I wronged Nighteye in many ways because of the things I did for Qianye, and I’m willing to die for that. I woke up so many times in between, did I go and find Qianye?! Zhao Jundu almost died in her hands, did he call Qianye? Even we didn’t speak out, do we need an idiot like you to meddle?! Is losing an arm that important?!”
At the mention of this hateful topic, Song Zining grabbed the sword at Wei Potian’s waist and shouted, “You ran over to Fort Continent with a lost arm. Of course, Qianye wouldn’t just sit by and do nothing. You actually dragged him back with that lost arm of yours, I’ll make sure you lose it forever!!!”
Song Zining slashed at Wei Potian’s left arm!
The latter stood there, ashen-faced, and didn’t try to evade.
Song Zining stopped the swift strike as soon as it had entered the flesh, cursing Wei Potian to his face. “Goddammit! Dodge, come on! What are you doing?”
Wei Potian said, “You’re right, Qianye wouldn’t have come back if I hadn’t lost an arm. He came back for me. I killed him. Please cut me down!”
Song Zining’s hands trembled, causing the blade to cut through the flesh and drawing a stream of blood. He drew back the blade and said, “Qianye lost his life for you, losing an arm is letting you off too easy. I have my reasons as well. Wait until I’ve cleaned up all the bad karma. I will come to find you and take your worthless life, then we’ll all go and meet Qianye!”
Wei Potian remained silent. He reached out to grab the sword and dragged it down forcibly. Ignoring the massive flow of blood, he twisted the sword and dragged it toward his heart.
“What are you doing?!” Shocked, Song Zining grabbed the man’s wrist.
Wei Potian struggled a few times but to no avail. “It’s my fault, I killed him. I’ll go see him now and kowtow in apology!”
Song Zining glared at Wei Potian. “You idiot! You’ll just make him angrier if you go see him. Since you want to die so much, help me do some things so that you don’t die in vain.”
“I owe Qianye, not you!” Wei Potian didn’t have any good impression of Song Zining.
The latter said, “Qianye has just left, but someone’s already eyeing his land.”
Wei Potian was furious. “Who’s so bold?! I’ll kill him!”
“Kill? How?” Song Zining sneered. “The other party is a heavenly monarch!”
“So what? At most I’ll die!”
“That’s why I say you have no brains! What’s the point of dying like that? All you’ll get are some positive comments about brotherly loyalty.”
Wei Potian finally calmed down. “What do you need?”
Song Zining said, “I heard your Wei clan has a few suicidal soldiers. Transfer a thousand of them over to Fort Continent and have them contact Caroline. I’ll give them their orders later on.”
Wei Potian said, “These soldiers do not fear sacrifice, but their death must be worth it.”
Song Zining said coldly, “They’re all unfamiliar faces, so it’s easier to clean up afterward. Just send the men over and tell me how to give them their orders.”
“Don’t I need to go?”
“What for? To let everyone know it’s your doing?”
“Then what do I do?”
“Stay here and recuperate.”
Wei Potian knew he was far inferior in terms of strategy, so he fished out a command token and said, “This is the Wei clan’s secret command token. You can use it to command the suicide soldiers.” He then explained how to activate the origin array.
Song Zining picked up the token and left.
…
In the depths of the endless darkness of the void, a faint voice echoed, “Qianye, Qianye…”
The call reverberated through space, spreading far and wide.
A consciousness slowly awakened in the darkness and listened intently at the distant summoning. After an unknown length of time, a single thought emerged: “So dark…”
He thus opened his eyes and saw that it wasn’t just endless darkness before him. There were small specks of light floating in the air, but his reactions were so sluggish that he couldn’t see what they were or how far they were from him.
That calling grew clearer and clearer.
And just like that, a second thought emerged: “I am Qianye…”
As though he had woken up from a dream, everything before him became clearer. He saw the endless void before him. However, the void wasn’t entirely empty; there were many strange things floating around. There were mountain peaks, giant skeletons, and what looked like the remains of mechanical fortresses, their damaged surfaces revealing the warped steel beams within. It was as though a certain giant had torn it apart.
Qianye wanted to move over to examine the ruins. This fortress was even bigger than a mountain range; the Martyr’s Palace was like an ant compared to it. It could probably fit a small chunk of the Empire’s population if it were complete.
With this thought, Qianye soared into the air and flew toward the ruins. He looked down and saw that he was still in the void and only then did he realize that he had no physical body.
He raised his head again and saw that the ruins were moving away rapidly. The distance between them was even greater than before. The giant rock, the skeletons, and the mountain peaks, everything was moving at unimaginable speeds. How could he ever catch up?
After some hesitation, Qianye gave up any thought of flying over. He had a feeling that things would go really bad if he were to crash into anything.
