To the arachne, the appearance of the next Spider Queen was undoubtedly a matter that surpassed everything else. It was doubly exciting because this new queen possessed a completely different bloodline, which meant the start of a new line of inheritance.
If a second Spider Queen could appear on the Sacred Mountain, they would be able to suppress the Queen of the Night. No one would be able to stop the rise of the arachne race. They would be able to surpass the demonkin and vampires to step onto the apex of the Evernight World.
It was a given that they couldn’t let the demonkin or the other races know about this.
Hence, even though Basil was unwilling, he had no choice but to take the pile of treasures and try to keep Little Zhuji around. As for the shadow in his heart, he would just have to deal with it.
Soon afterward, Pedro applied for permission to return to base. He had sufficient reason because he needed to recuperate. The current situation was clear—Predica couldn’t pinpoint Qianye’s location even if he were to go down personally. They would need a lot more experts in order to capture him.
That was why Minica didn’t react all that strongly after hearing this news. Basil would remain here anyway. Predica’s gaze made the arachne feel a bit uneasy, but they would have to hold fast for the new Spider Queen.
Basil’s journey wasn’t smooth. He went through the forest for several days without finding the young robber girl.
Qianye and Zhuji had long since left the woods and entered the central mountain ranges.
Qianye would cover hundreds of meters with each leap, almost as though he were flying. Zhuji was keeping up close behind him, shooting from point to point with great strength. Qianye was holding back a bit, but even so, not getting left behind proved that she was swifter than most experts.
The little lass seemed to have endless stamina as she followed Qianye for half a day without any sign of fatigue. The two only came to a stop when Qianye saw that it was almost dusk.
“Why are we running so far away?”
“A lot of enemies will be arriving soon, and even I can’t defeat them.”
“They don’t seem so powerful, though.”
“But they have the advantage in numbers,” Qianye replied with a smile.
The girl nodded earnestly after some thought. “You’re right.”
Qianye lit a fire and started roasting a giant piece of beast meat for the lass. Then he watched her fall asleep. He started thinking about Nighteye once again after everything was quiet under the night sky.
She needed to break through; that was one reason. On the other hand, she needed to split up with him so that the demonkin would have to divide their pursuit efforts.
“She’ll be fine,” Qianye comforted himself.
Actually, she could easily escape from a great dark monarch even before reaching the prince rank. Not many people could capture her unless the Demon King himself were to appear.
Ultimately, he decided to calm down and focus on cultivation. The origin power within a thousand-meter radius around him was drawn in wisp by wisp. Some of them were harmful and others were not, but Qianye simply swallowed everything.
He was no different from a black hole that would absorb any kind of origin power without end.
The Profound Combatant Formula modified by Zhang Boqian himself was operating at full capacity within his body, forming a giant whirlpool. This attractive force drew in a steady stream of origin power from the void, which was then broken down into daybreak origin power.
There was just one problem after his body was modified by the Azure King—no matter how much origin power the profound combatant formula absorbed, it would all be sent into the Book of Darkness. There, it would wait for further purification by the Song Clan Ancient Scroll.
The origin power from the Profound Combatant Formula wasn’t pure; its only advantage was the vast amount it could harvest. The output from the book was much purer, so much so that it somewhat hastened the Song Clan Ancient Scroll’s processing time. The resultant Venus Dawn origin power would be thoroughly absorbed again and stored in the Book of Darkness. When he needed origin power for use, the energy that would come out was a hazy stream of chaos origin power.
Now, Qianye finally had enough time to observe the chaos origin power. This energy could be divided into Venus Dawn and dark golden blood energy, or it could be used as-is. The chaos origin power could be used to operate both human arts and vampire secret arts. It would also affect the might and efficiency of said arts.
For instance, Qianye’s original domain, Oceanic Strength, was transformed into Dawn Domain by his Venus Dawn origin power. The marriage of extreme heat and gravity became a terrifying killing weapon against the dark races. Channeling chaos origin power deprived the domain of its burning powers, but the gravity became extremely powerful. Just a couple of wisps were enough to make movement quite strenuous for Pedro, so he had no choice but to flee.
Another power it possessed was suppressing other domains. In the past, his domain would be at a slight advantage at best when going against other dukes. A grand duke like Pedro could fight Qianye’s domain with his own.
Ignoring those with upward potential, even experts whose limit was the grand duke rank possessed extremely pure origin power. They were only one level inferior to Venus Dawn, a gap that could be bridged with rank.
The Book of Darkness, with its two sides, could absorb Venus Dawn as well as dark golden blood energy. Whatever the input, it would transform the energy into chaos origin power.
Qianye lost track of time while cultivating, and soon, it was morning again. With a single thought, he sent a wisp of chaos origin power through every part of his body for strengthening and repairs.
Qianye’s body and skeleton had been largely remodeled at this point. The composition of his bones was neither metal nor jade, yet they were glistening with a dark golden hue. After the transformation, his blood energy started repairing his blood core. Once his blood core had advanced to the next level, he would become a grand duke. This final step was not difficult at all, and it was only a matter of time.
Wherever his chaos origin power went, the faint golden glow of his skin, blood, and bones would fade away. The golden particles in his auric flame blood also precipitated into roaming wisps of grey origin power, an energy that couldn’t be limited by the physical body.
This modification came like the spring rain, gentle, quiet, and hardly noticeable. Qianye carefully sensed the changes and found that his blood had become more viscous after being modified by the chaos origin power. It almost looked like solid jade when completely still and would flow normally only when pumped forward by his blood core.
The same went for his muscles and bones. Their strength had taken a leap forward, so much so that Qianye himself couldn’t say for sure what was happening.
His previously-strengthened internal organs also saw some changes; they were now even more solidified. Qianye could sense that his internal organs were much denser than before, each weighing dozens of kilograms. It was just that the weight wasn’t obvious since they were being supported by the chaos origin power. And this was just the beginning of the process.
Such a state of strengthening was comparable to a great dark monarch. True monarchs possessed the same level of strength inside and outside, with no weakness to speak of. Sousa, for instance, could take Qianye’s Shot of Inception and suppress it within his body. It was nothing to him.
At the current level, the ancient vampire knowledge imparted by the River of Blood was no longer useful.
That was also the reason why the Profound Combatant Formula’s unreasonable characteristic became the most suitable for Qianye. Its absorption power was ten times greater than any other cultivation art.
As for the terrifying pressure brought about by its use, Qianye could bear it by shielding himself with chaos origin power.
At this level of cultivation, Qianye had already realized that the founding and the martial ancestors probably had other secret arts to purify their origin power, arts not inferior to the Song Clan Ancient Scroll. The Book of Darkness saved him most of the purification effort and hastened his progress.
Qianye would’ve needed a couple of years to pass the grand duke threshold, and then he would have to spend some time stabilizing his realm and upgrading his body and blood core. Now with his chaos origin power, the entire process would be completed in less than a month’s time.
Comparatively, the Evernight aspect of his cultivation was now lagging behind. Fortunately, the Book of Darkness was a coin with two sides—the endpoint was always chaos origin power no matter what he cultivated.
Qianye was training during this escape journey, so there was little delay in his growth. Thinking about Nighteye, the vampires, and the demonkin hunting them down, the killing intent within him grew stronger and stronger.
He suddenly produced the azure sword and cut his palm twice. It took such a sawing motion in order to leave a shallow cut, from which a drop of blood seeped out.
This drop of blood immediately congealed into a spherical pearl. Qianye flipped his palm sideways and allowed the pearl to drop, watching as it sank halfway into a rock. This drop of blood was even heavier than steel or mercury.
Qianye touched his hand and found that it was just as smooth and soft. Without trying to cut through it, no one would’ve imagined its defensive power would be so strong. Qianye’s skin was even stronger than armor by this point.
With his strong body as the foundation, there was no longer a limit to what cultivation arts he could practice. He would also be able to utilize the Profound Combatant Formula at will, especially on the battlefield.
Qianye’s go-to strategy against the demonkin was to trade blows and wounds. Now that his body was stronger, the hunters would surely be in for a great surprise once they caught up to him.
