Song Zining only came to when Bai Kongzhao was far into the depths of the wilderness, hardly able to believe what he had just experienced. Not only did this murderous young girl not attack him, but she even left a pouch of spoils for him?
Although she didn’t say it, Song Zining instinctively knew that it was for Qianye.
The relationship between Qianye and Bai Kongzhao was far from good—it was much closer to deep enmity, in fact. Song Zining knew about their entanglement during the bloody battle, so he was actually ready to fight her to the death during both encounters.
Qianye couldn’t handle Bai Kongzhao very well, but that didn’t mean Song Zining couldn’t. In fact, divination experts like Song Zining were the most terrifying enemies for instinct-dependent fighters like the young girl. Before the seventh young master at least, the girl would lose most of her ability to seek and grasp opportunities in battle.
However, there were simply too many secrets surrounding her, and she had also received the full support of the Bai clan at one point. This forced Song Zining to be cautious around her. The foundations of the four major clans stood extremely deep. As someone who had come from the Song clan, the seventh young master knew this all too well. Just the two chapters of the Song Clan Ancient Scroll was proof enough of this.
Song Zining wasn’t about to attack without absolute certainty. Who knew what kind of extraordinary things she had gotten from the Bai clan? That was also why he had no intention of going after her even as she moved further and further away.
Weighing the pouch in his hand, Song Zining suddenly became curious. What exactly was it that Bai Kongzhao wanted to give Qianye? It couldn’t be a token of love, could it?
This pouch still contained the Wolf King’s aura. It was sealed with a simple button that could be opened easily, and there were no secret locks or traps. This made sense since it was the Wolf King’s personal item. Why would he need hidden traps or locks to protect it? Perhaps even the king himself wouldn’t have thought his purse would fall into someone else’s hand one day.
Song Zining had the urge to open it up and see, but he felt bad about it. He tried to scan it with his perception, but the pouch—made from the hide of an unknown beast—could insulate his senses. The heavy, bulging pouch was calling to him, exciting his curiosity.
“Yes, there might be some kind of trap inside. An honest person like Qianye won’t think too much, he might actually suffer. That won’t do, this young master can’t just stand by and watch!” Song Zining murmured to himself.
Just as he had finished convincing himself to open the bag, a hand reached in without warning and snatched the pouch away, snapping it open in a few moves.
The seventh young master was dumbfounded as he looked on at Ji Tianqing, not knowing what to say. The lady said righteously while opening the bag, “Qianye is too honest, what if there’s some kind of malicious trap in here that will harm him? You might not worry about him, but this young lady can’t be that heartless!”
Song Zining couldn’t help but sigh in admiration at Miss Ji Tianqing’s confident proclamation of justice regarding her peeking. In truth, Song Zining was also curious to know what Bai Kongzhao wanted to give Qianye. Since Miss Tianqing had already taken the initiative, he decided to join the shameless party.
Song Zining’s expression became peculiar as he peered at the contents.
The pouch was filled with stones, crystals, and rocks of varying sizes. They were rare minerals, energy crystals, and uncommon ores, each of them worth a small fortune. The dozen high-purity black crystals at the bottom were nothing in comparison.
The problem was that these minerals looked extremely familiar, and there was really no mistaking the blade marks on some of the ores.
Ji Tianqing’s eyes narrowed as she picked up one of the ores and weighed it in her hands. She said in an evil voice, “Song Seven, isn’t this the ore I found? Didn’t I tell you to take it back to Southern Blue back then? You told me it’s been deposited in the warehouse.”
“This…” Even the shameless Song Zining felt his face burning up.
Ji Tianqing had no intention of letting him off. “This is the one I gave you, this too, and this, this, this…”
In the blink of an eye, she had flipped through half the bag, and then she said to Song Zining, “There’s only half of it here, where’s the other half?”
Song Zining said in embarrassment, “It was a huge backpack back then, this little pouch doesn’t make up half, does it?”
“All the valuable stuff are here, so this makes up half! Where is the rest?”
Song Zining knew he could no longer hide things. He had no choice but to explain how he had been robbed by Bai Kongzhao and a bunch of ragtag mercenaries.
Ji Tianqing’s eyes widened as she listened, breaking into a guffaw by the time Song Zining had finished narrating his story. She laughed until she was hugging her stomach and could no longer stand straight. The young miss would’ve started rolling on the ground if she wasn’t concerned about her image.
Song Zining’s expression turned ashen—he hadn’t spoken about this because it was one of the few embarrassments of his life. Who would’ve thought the secret would be revealed by a pouch that was meant for Qianye?
Ji Tianqing hadn’t finished laughing when a silent Song Zining began walking toward Southern Blue. The former caught up while holding her abdomen. “What’s the rush? Let me finish laughing, haha!”
Song Zining replied without looking back, “I’m going to mobilize the army and attack the Wolf King’s main army.”
Ji Tianqing’s smiled disappeared. “Isn’t that too risky?”
“The Wolf King has been injured, and there’s no one else in his party worth fearing. If we don’t take this opportunity to attack him, how long are we going to wait?”
Ji Tianqing was admittedly inferior to Song Zining in terms of military strategy. She nodded, saying, “Okay, let’s do it your way then. I’ll go with you.”
“Let’s hurry then.” Song Zining hastened his steps, drifting away like a leaf.
Ji Tianqing also raised her speed until she was traveling shoulder to shoulder with Song Zining. “It’s not hard if you don’t want others to know about this matter, just get the tab for our drinks in the future.”
“Our?” Song Zining felt something wrong.
“Me, Li Kuanglan, and that dummy Qianye.”
“Wait a minute, Qianye is an exception!”
“No! I haven’t had a drink with that dummy yet, it’ll be fun to see him drunk.” Ji Tianqing looked quite expectant.
“… You want to swindle him while he’s drunk, don’t you?” Song Zining saw through Ji Tianqing at once.
The young miss laughed heartily. “Is this lady that kind of person?”
“Oh yes you are!”
At this moment, Qianye was lying in bed back in Southern Blue, his body freezing all over. Meanwhile, Li Kuanglan sat at his side with her sword on her legs—her eyes were half-closed, and there was a wisp of icy air circulating around her nostrils.
Qianye lay silently like a lifeless statue, and in the depths of his body, his blood core would pulse weakly every once in a while.
Li Kuanglan seemed extremely patient, refusing to move for as long as Qianye remained still.
There was no telling just how long this had gone on when the Book of Darkness appeared on Qianye’s blood core and flipped itself open. The essence blood stored within poured out in an endless torrent and duly flowed into his blood core.
The fully contracted blood core began to expand, bulge up, and gradually recover its original size. Then, it began beating strongly for the first time.
Li Kuanglan suddenly opened her eyes as she sensed Qianye’s aura strengthening. This rate of recovery startled her—from what she knew, even the twelve ancient vampire clans didn’t have this kind of power.
Auric flame blood emerged along with the beating of his blood core, rushing to every part of his body and igniting his vitality.
The dark golden blood energy drifted out of Qianye’s blood core, almost as though it had woken up from a long period of hibernation. It was fairly curious about the Book of Darkness—it kept swimming around the tome but didn’t really dare approach it. Meanwhile, the Book of Darkness’ flow of essence blood gradually dwindled, and it vanished after the last drop was absorbed by the blood core. It was as though the book never existed, just like an illusion.
Qianye’s consciousness finally returned, but his body couldn’t move just yet. He had no choice but to lie quietly, observing the changes to his body as he waited for his mobility to return.
Having lost its aim after the disappearance of the Book of Darkness, the dark golden blood energy began swimming around his blood core. After observing the blood energy for a short while, Qianye recalled something all of a sudden. The dark golden blood energy was actually in its original form—where did the Wings of Inception go?
At the thought of the wings, Qianye was overcome by a vague sensation. The dark golden blood energy struggled for a couple of times and then landed immobile on his blood core. A bulge appeared on its surface and enlarged rapidly, finally bursting to reveal a pair of even larger dark golden wings!
In a split second, Qianye and the Wings of Inception established a new connection—they were vivid, lifelike, and much larger than the first pair. Each side of the luminous wings contained seven feathers, but they were all dim at the moment.
As his connection to the new wings grew deeper, Qianye became clearer about its characteristics. Firstly, its empowerment effect on origin weaponry had become more evident, and its Shot of Inception capacity had increased significantly.
At this point, Qianye had mostly come to understand the mechanism of its upgrade. There was a chance that the Wings of Inception would receive an upgrade when the feathers representing the Shot of Inception reached a certain number. It might, perhaps, transform again when the fourteen feathers had been fully filled or used up.
The Black-Winged Monarch never had the chance to nurture the Wings of Inception after producing them, and neither did he figure out how to upgrade them. The trigger for the upgrade this time was probably him firing the Shot of Inception with every ounce of power he had.
The Wings of Inception was still shrouded in mist, but nothing could be better since it was still there and growing stronger. Heaving a sigh of relief, Qianye slowly opened his eyes to see a handsome young noble dressed in blue. “How come it’s you?”
