Monarch of Evernight

Qianye glanced over at the snake. It was entirely purple and resembled the ground substance down to its irregular shades. One could hardly detect it crawling over the ground, much less Qianye who wasn’t paying particular attention.

This creature wasn’t among the species recorded during the last exploration. Qianye couldn’t recall anything similar either in his memories. Apparently, it was something produced by the Misty Wood. The serpent was so small that dozens if not hundreds of them could be gestated in a single chamber. It wasn’t impossible for tens of thousands of them to appear from a single giant tree.

Qianye squished the snake to death, tossed it onto the ground, and watched it get devoured by the purple substance. His heart grew heavier and heavier with worry.

The wound on his hand didn’t need any treatment. It began closing up on its own and was completely healed after a while. In terms of regeneration, his vampire constitution and auric flame blood were far superior to an ordinary human body.

Qianye scanned his arm unintentionally and was suddenly alarmed, “Poison? Wait a minute!”

He suddenly remembered something else at the mention of poison. He looked back at the giant tree he was leaning on and slashed it open with his military knife. The tree sap began flowing out in a steady stream.

Qianye cupped the clear fluid with his hands and drank it in one gulp. There was a faint, almond-like bitterness to it, but in it was also a hint of fresh sweetness.

A wisp of origin power emerged as the sap entered his stomach, spreading slowly toward every part of his body before being absorbed into the origin vortex—the entire process was inexplicably soothing.

The gash in the tree grew back after leaking several mouthfuls of sap, but this amount was already equal to a high-efficacy stimulant. This meant that a couple of jars of this sap could replace an entire night’s cultivation.

In addition to its special geographical position on the floating continent, this was also one of the reasons why the Misty Wood was so valuable. The sap of these terrifying giant trees could be absorbed directly like diluted origin distillate.

It was just that the imperial research department’s analysis had found that there was a mild toxin within it. Although the low content meant that it would need to accumulate for some time before the effects become evident, there was no direct antidote for it in either faction.

Present studies also showed that human experts below the divine champion level couldn’t expel this poison with their origin power. The effective origin rank in the Evernight faction, however, was unknown. These results meant that ordinary people imbibing this sap would result in a continuous build-up of toxin within the body, and the eventual flare-up of which could be life-threatening.

It was no easy matter to dissect an unknown toxin. The Li clan’s intentions to occupy the Misty Wood was perhaps because they were confident in their family’s medicinal development, and that they could unravel this toxin. At that time, the entire Misty Wood would become a boundless storehouse of origin distillate.

Qianye, on the other hand, wasn’t worried about the toxin. He could feel the liquid break down into origin power after entering his body, and countless minuscule flames would flicker upon it after coming into contact with his auric flame blood. The origin power entering his vortex would become purer after the toxins had been eliminated by the auric flame blood.

Just to be safe, Qianye cut the tree only once and used a canteen to catch the sap, and only when it had closed up did he cut once more. Then, he would finish each canteen after it had been filled. The purification effects of the auric flame blood became more evident this time, likely due to the larger amount of intake. All impurities and toxins had been swept clean, leaving only pure origin power.

The giant tree began healing at greater speeds after repeating this process several times. Qianye understood that the sap loss had reached the tolerance threshold—hundreds if not thousands of beasts would appear if he kept on draining the sap.

But there was no shortage of trees here that he could switch to. Qianye glanced up and felt that the endless stretch of forest had turned into a field of giant supplements.

This nourishment was extraordinary.

An hour later, Qianye rose and left after his origin power was restored. This time, he chose to head back. That dark race expert who could control the shadowguards was too dangerous. Now that he had solved the problem of restoring his origin power, Qianye had no intention of letting the other party walk out of the forest in one piece.

Meanwhile, Eden—in the form of a shadow—was moving quietly past the giant trees. He would circle around the tree at times, while floating over the branches during others. Two dark race squads were advancing rapidly nearby, and one of them was the one Qianye had ambushed. It had suffered heavy casualties but was still continuing its advance after reorganization. Meanwhile, Eden roamed the periphery like a hunter.

Qianye didn’t appear again, either. They were two-thirds of the way to their destination, but Eden’s mood didn’t improve in the slightest.

The four dead shadowguards pressed upon his heart like four giant rocks—the shot had clearly struck the other target’s vitals, so why hadn’t he died? The latter had even killed four of his powerful subordinates. Even in the Evernight faction, he was confident that his shot could injure a marquis.

It wasn’t good news for them if the empire had dispatched a marquis-level expert to hunt in the forest. But marquises of either faction were all well-known figures whose movements were closely watched. Even count-rank experts with extraordinary strength were well-recorded.

Eden continued escorting the army forward amidst the doubt and uneasiness. For a moment, he had wanted to send news back and seek assistance from the experts of the clan.

But he had just lost four shadowguards without gaining any detailed information on the enemy. The internal competition among the demonkin was fierce. Hailing from an orthodox lineage and possessing great talents, Eden’s position in the Dark Abyss had climbed sharply after obtaining the void essence. As his power and resources increased, so did the number of his opponents.

Eden walked on and on but came to a sudden halt before a translucent line. Just one step further and he would’ve stepped onto it. It was a thread belonging to an arachne, but just a single thread could hardly capture anything.

It was just that the function of this trap was highly abnormal.

The abrupt reduction in speed caused fluctuations to appear around Eden’s silhouette, revealing some traces of his position.

“Oh crap!” Eden was greatly alarmed and even his hair stood on end.

A speck of light tore through the air from afar. Judging from its silver body and the lights surrounding it, Eden knew that this was a Mithril Bullet of Exorcism with added special effects.

This shot was so sudden that Eden didn’t have the time to evade—all he could do was twist his body frantically. A handgun appeared in his grasp at the same time, which he fired promptly in the direction of the attack.

The sniper round arrived in the blink of an eye. Eden let out a muffled groan as blood splashed from his shoulder and his entire body flew several meters backward.

He gritted his teeth through the intense pain while rolling behind a giant tree. There, he fished out a medicine tube and sprayed it onto his injury, effectively stopping the flow of fresh blood. Eden once again entered a state of concealment and rushed out from behind the tree.

The Misty Wood was entirely silent and almost as if nothing had happened—only the lingering timbre of a gun echoed through the trees. The two squads a few kilometers away were completely oblivious to the incident and kept marching on.

Eden gritted his teeth and moved in the direction of the assault like a ghost. Moments later, he found the location where Qianye had been hiding. The purple substance there was still squirming. This meant that his counterattack had connected and drawn blood.

“He’s injured, too?” A sharp glint appeared in Eden’s eyes. “Fine, I’ll play a game of attrition with you!”

Eden examined the surrounding areas but, of course, found nothing. He wasn’t disappointed at this, either, and only went after the main army in due haste.

This squad was on its way to take part in a joint operation and was thus carrying a fair amount of special supplies, including medicines for use by experts above the viscount level. There were also specially trained medical staff among them. An hour later, a fully treated Eden once again left the squad to search and hunt.

At this point, imperial forces only appeared sporadically within the Misty Wood without any mobile bases. Moreover, there were no supply bases in this area due to its proximity to dark race controlled territory. Unlike Eden who had the support of an entire squad, Qianye seemed to be acting on his own without any troops or partners. However, this clear advantage didn’t give Eden much assurance.

The two exchanges orchestrated by each of them proved one point—the gap between the two was minimal be it in terms of concealment abilities or destructive power. Neither could kill the other for a while. This made trading blows a viable option. This strategy was naturally risky, but Eden had never been one to fear taking risks.

In the depths of the Misty Wood, Qianye stopped to rest after confirming that he had thrown Eden off his tail. There was also a gunshot wound on his shoulder he needed to clean.

He heaved a sigh of relief after removing his shoulder-guard and picking out the black bullet inside the wound. He didn’t throw the bullet away but, instead, put it away inside a radiation-proof box.

This bullet also contained a fair amount of black titanium. This projectile likely wasn’t cheap—nothing containing black titanium was. Qianye wanted to bring it back because this amount of black titanium could be exchanged for several mithril bullets or one extreme yang bullet.

After cleaning his wounds, Qianye shook his head with a wry smile.

It would seem that the expert had grown more wary of sneak attacks after the death of the four shadowguards. In addition to the extreme defenses of his armor, the weapons he had used were also quite extravagant. It was still within acceptable range for a grade-seven sniper to blast through heavy armor, but for a casual blast from a handgun to penetrate Young Dragon, what grade would it need to be? It might even be at grade eight.

This confirmed Qianye’s guess about the dark race expert’s level. The other party was definitely a count and very likely one with combat strength exceeding his level. Unfortunately, the other party wasn’t entirely revealed even after being injured. The intelligence openly provided by the empire wasn’t that detailed, either.

It was just that each and every one of the assailant’s bullets contained black titanium—that was really too sickening. He was practically spraying out crates and crates of gold coins. Being struck by such a bullet was an ordeal even for Qianye’s vampiric constitution. Any other human champion would’ve been finished by now.

Qianye had finally experienced the extravagance of a demonkin major clan. Even the empire’s richest Song clan dwarfed in comparison. The young masters of the Song clan possessed limited cultivation levels. They couldn’t use a grade-seven gun even if they could afford it since a single shot would drain them completely.

Encountering such an enemy was truly an upsetting development.