Caroline smiled. “How so?”
“Once I pour my blood in, it won’t be an easy matter to erase. There might not be any person capable of repairing this thing in the neutral lands.”
“Isn’t it fine to just give it to you? We’ve agreed on it before.”
“Don’t tell me you’re not moved by the Martyr’s Palace?”
“I’m not that interested, otherwise, I would’ve formed my own power in the neutral lands.”
Qianye only watched her in silence.
Caroline avoided Qianye’s eyes and laughed self-deprecatingly. “Fine, I admit I was indeed shocked and tempted after getting here. But I could sense a mortal peril when I tried to approach the heart. I guess that person doesn’t want me to dip my fingers into this.”
Qianye gave Caroline’s surprising honesty a nod of approval. Then he slit his wrist with East Peak, sending a gush of blood into the opening. The hum of the engine grew louder and louder as his blood invaded the machine. Moreover, Qianye’s consciousness connected to the machine and gradually extended toward every part of the Martyr’s Palace. Wherever the silver threads from the heart stretched was where Qianye’s consciousness would reach.
This was a fairly wondrous feeling, almost as though he had become the Earth Dragon itself. It was just that there were so many damaged parts on the dragon that it felt exceptionally heavy.
However, this feeling only lasted a brief moment before Qianye was evidently overcome by exhaustion. The Earth Dragon’s body was too strong—its burden on the current Qianye was too great despite the control and regulation afforded by the engine.
As the engine spun faster and faster, a silver luster began flowing over the heart. The entire mountain started to tremble, sending mud and gravel rolling off of it. At this moment, the Earth Dragon’s heart was in the process of recovering its vitality, and the Martyr’s Palace finally woke up from its deep slumber.
The mountain ridge on the summit began to shake. Cracks appeared all over the mountain and expanded rapidly as sheets of rocks began to slough off. It looked nothing short of a natural disaster, almost as if the entire mountain was falling apart. Amidst the eruption of stone and soil, a giant beast rose into the air and hovered silently therein.
Only at this point did the Martyr’s Palace truly reveal its external appearance. From a distance, it was like a colossus that had lost most of its flesh, leaving only an intact skeleton. The internal space was over a thousand meters long, but the external length was over three thousand including its head and tail!
Only some parts of the body were covered in flesh—mainly the keel—while the rest was an empty skeleton, through which one could easily see outside. Under the control of the silver strands stretching out from the heart, the Earth Dragon’s skin was covered in a thick layer of rocks. This was the Earth Dragon’s unique power, the ability to control rocks and soil—the thick layer of stone outside its flesh acted as a form of natural armor.
Merely maintaining this kind of constitution and keeping it afloat in the air required terrifying amounts of kinetic energy. A battleship at full-output would barely be able to keep the Earth Dragon’s skeleton afloat, and even then, it wouldn’t last very long.
Qianye had already let go of his control over the Martyr’s Palace. It was just that the short moment of bringing the palace into the air already made him feel giddy.
At this moment, the Martyr’s Palace was nothing more than a framework; even the outer shell was incomplete. Flight was currently dependent on the void colossus’ inherent ability. Fortunately, there was a natural defensive barrier around its body, protecting it from the cold wind and turbulence. Despite the airship’s simplicity, those sky-piercing spine bones stood in silent display of the void colossus’ might when it was alive.
Qianye flew around the inside and outside of the Martyr’s Palace and took note of its size and scale. The Earth Dragon possessed a pair of short wings which, when spread out, would make for the perfect weapon platform. The rows of spine bones formed natural masts from which to hang the airship’s sails. The Earth Dragon’s skull was extremely sturdy. It could easily support the ship’s main cannon while acting as a control room and protecting the commanding officers of the ship.
As for the other parts of the airship, Qianye didn’t have any clue as to their uses. The Martyr’s palace was simply too big, so big that it could hold a mothership inside.
“Where do you plan to go now?”
Qianye hadn’t even replied when he felt his entire body tremble. Streams of chaotic winds kicked up, gentling rocking the Martyr’s Palace.
Looking down from the side, he could see that the many layers of space around the peak were collapsing. The Heartseeker Path had been destroyed, and so was the gate to and from the underground maze. From today on, this place would truly become an isolated island.
With the Martyr’s Palace, however, Qianye could come back to this land at will. He was actually safer now that the passage to the underground maze had been blocked.
Two figures flew out of the origin tempest all of a sudden and broke through the force field surrounding the Martyr’s Palace. They rushed into the vessel at about the same time and appeared stunned upon seeing one another. Qianye was also quite surprised—who would’ve thought Claudia and Bluemoon would survive these adverse circumstances? Moreover, they seemed to be in fairly good shape.
Bluemoon and Claudia were filled with killing intent, but they didn’t start fighting one another immediately. Instead, they looked around and finally saw the giant silver heart, as well as the engine installed upon it.
Even an idiot would know that it was a key location here, to speak nothing of the fact that these two knew quite a bit. They erupted with power at the same time and rushed for the Earth Dragon’s heart. At the same time, Bluemoon aimed a large-caliber origin gun at Qianye’s head, and Claudia stabbed at Qianye’s waist with a dagger.
Both of them had the same idea and they were equally ruthless. If Qianye decided to take their attacks in order to fight for the control-rights, they really didn’t mind killing him in passing.
Bluemoon’s shot was so well-timed that Qianye had no choice but to lean backward to evade. However, this movement reduced his speed, allowing Bluemoon to pass by and head for the heart.
Qianye lowered his right hand and slapped away Claudia’s dagger, but the latter also managed to overtake him.
The two girls literally flew toward the Earth Dragon’s heart, but Qianye wasn’t worried in the slightest. On the contrary, he sneered in secret and watched on with cold eyes.
The Pointer Monarch’s trap on the Earth Dragon’s heart was still in place. It was, at first, meant for people like Elder Wei and Caroline, so using it against these two girls was fairly excessive.
Just as they were about to reach the Earth Dragon’s heart, Bluemoon’s hair suddenly stood on end. She let out a shrill scream and ran backward at an even greater speed. Claudia was slightly slower, but she held her steps without any hesitation after seeing Bluemoon’s actions. Soon afterward, she turned pale from the terror of imminent destruction and also backtracked.
The sharpness of their senses surprised Qianye quite a bit. Caroline sensing the Pointer Monarch’s set up was no surprise, but these girls sensing the lethal danger was a clear indication that their talents weren’t bad.
They could escape one calamity, but not the second. Qianye stopped their path of retreat with East Peak in hand, asking with a spurious smile, “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Move!” Claudia’s expression sank as she roared with a stern voice.
“Why must I?” Qianye broke into a laugh.
Bluemoon shot Claudia a glance and stepped closer to her. “What do you want?”
Qianye laughed. “That’s what I should be asking you.”
Bluemoon’s expression sank. “Does that mean you’re intent on robbing our dragonship?”
Qianye’s expression was one of mockery. “Your dragonship? What makes it yours?”
Bluemoon said furiously, “Our tribe’s ancestor was one of the first people to enter the Earth Dragon’s lair. This place was discovered by my ancestor, so this dragonship belongs to our tribe!”
“Does that mean everything your ancestor lays eyes on belongs to your tribe? Besides, your ancestor is not the only one who found this lair. As far as I remember, there were quite a lot of people, and your ancestor is merely a mercenary following them.”
Bluemoon said with a cold voice, “Are you sure about going against us Highbeards in the neutral lands?”
Qianye’s expression also turned serious as Bluemoon’s rudeness infuriated him. “So what if I am?”
“You think you’re a match for us?”
“Us?” Qianye’s eyes shifted toward Claudia. “If I remember clearly, there’s a vendetta between you two. Now you’re referring to yourselves as ‘us’?
Claudia said expressionlessly, “Of course, we have to kill you first before discussing how to split the dragonship.”
Qianye sighed in the end. “You guys don’t even know the history of this Martyr’s Palace, yet you dare to say such things. How embarrassing.”
Claudia replied indifferently, “This is the neutral lands, and prestige means nothing here. You must fight for whatever you want, and you have only yourself to blame if you fail.”
“Indeed, it’s all on you if you can’t seize the prize,” Qianye replied.
Claudia felt something strange about the situation. Qianye was too calm, so calm that it didn’t feel quite right. It was at this time that her eyes wandered around and finally saw Caroline in the distance.
The divine champion was leaning against a rib bone with her arms folded, seemingly pondering something. She had actually been standing there this whole time, but it seemed like she had vanished from this world after retracting her aura. Neither Claudia nor Bluemoon had noticed her.
This feat wasn’t easy to accomplish, even for a divine champion like Caroline. Claudia’s expression turned quite unsightly for a moment as she realized that she had underestimated Caroline.
Claudia reacted rapidly. “Your Excellency Caroline, I wasn’t expecting to see you here. This is wonderful! We’d like to invite you to kill this brat, and after that, the dragonship will be ours.”
Caroline smiled indifferently. “I’m not sure it’ll be ours. It’ll more likely become the Moonlight Demon’s, am I wrong?”
Claudia replied, “If Your Excellency Caroline gives up on the dragonship, we’ll naturally offer ample compensation. The vessel has no major use for a true expert, right?”
