As a vice-duke, Caroline’s strength was comparable to the Wolf King and not so far off from the Whitebone Duke. She had unveiled her full power to bring about a quick, decisive victory. She was almost like a god of lightning, shrouded in electricity and flames.
She wasn’t alone, either. Surrounded by beams of lightning, four Thunderfrost Temple Guards followed her closely on the assault. These attendants weren’t here to fight, though. Their entire focus was to transfer blue lightning to Caroline.
The Thunderous Whip had extended to several dozen meters at this point. It was like a flying dragon as it rampaged through the battlefield, sweeping large areas at times and targeting a single expert in others.
The blue lightning was extremely fast and powerful. The Whitebone Duke didn’t even spare a glance below, so despite their numbers, no one in the Jade Sea army could stop Caroline. Even their strongest warriors couldn’t stand three lashes from her whip before falling with broken spines.
Caroline ignored the army of hundreds of thousands as she shuttled through the air, focused entirely on hunting down experts. Every move of her figure would only leave behind a lightning afterimage; no one could see where she had gone. She was even faster than an origin bullet.
Xu Jingxuan felt no relief from the victorious momentum of the ground battle. Most of his attention was up in the air, his head drenched in sweat. “Why are they fighting like this? Why not gang up against the enemy?” He hadn’t noticed how many times he had repeated these words, showing just how tense he was right now.
As Xu Jingxuan saw it, someone as strong as Caroline should be helping Qianye attack the Whitebone Duke. Only by defeating the duke would they be able to take the Jade Sea. Now that the two were fighting on their own, wasn’t this giving the werewolf duke an opportunity to defeat them? What was the use of killing ordinary experts?
He didn’t dare to think about their fate should Qianye fall in battle.
Eiseka was a bit faster. He woke up all of a sudden and roared, “Everyone, charge!”
His voice hadn’t faded just yet when he jumped out of the fortifications, dragging his wounded body in a charge against the enemy formation. Although the werewolves of the great corridor had no idea why he would give up the defenses, there was no reason for them to remain while their leader was charging. All the werewolf soldiers, at least those who could still move, clambered up and charged at the giant enemy army—one that far outnumbered them.
A chaotic battle ensued.
In the air, Qianye suddenly opened his crystal-clear eyes. His demeanor was calm and profound, entirely different from the sorry, blood-stained figure he was cutting.
He gazed at the Whitebone Duke and said softly, “As expected of a duke. Unfortunately, you’re too old.”
Flames lit up in the duke’s eyes, and his killing intent grew so intense that it was about to gush out. He said nothing, but the strength in his hands increased further.
What blocked the fist this time wasn’t Qianye’s inconceivably strong body, but a faint barrier or light.
Qianye’s origin defenses were just as strong, but it still couldn’t keep up with the continuous barrage of attacks. The Whitebone Duke took a deep breath as he threw a torrent of punches on Qianye’s shield, leaving afterimages everywhere in the process. This wasn’t the first time he had blasted this shield apart.
In the blink of an eye, the Whitebone Duke had slammed Qianye’s shield several times and brought it to the brink of collapse. Just as the shield was about to break, the duke shot back several dozen meters in surprise. He clearly remembered that he could break the opponent’s shield with a few heavy blows. How come it wasn’t breaking now after so many attacks?
Careful observation showed him that there was a blinding white light hidden within the scarlet shield, a glow akin to the last moments of the rising sun. It looked like it would shoot out at any moment!
The Whitebone Duke was able to stand as a ruler for hundreds of years because of his talent and experience. He immediately knew that something was off, so he began going over the process of their entire battle in his mind.
He quickly caught on to an abnormal detail that he had largely ignored. Every time Qianye reactivated his shield, it was a bit stronger and brighter than before, almost as though it was hiding something within.
If he had to describe it, the entire process was like a tempering process. The impurities within Qianye’s origin power were being expelled little by little. But the purity of this young man’s origin power was at a level he had never seen before. Could such an origin power have any impurities in it?
Qianye was also rather surprised by the Whitebone Duke’s sudden retreat. He said with a smile, “It’s completed. Thank you, Your Excellency.”
The origin barrier around him erupted with radiance, the scarlet gold flames almost dying the sky with its hue. When the color of dawn clouds reached its peak, a scorching luminescence burst into the sky with great elegance—much like the sun rising over the sea!
This sun grew brighter and brighter until it formed a pillar of light connecting heaven and earth. Even the Whitebone Duke could barely discern Qianye’s figure against the backdrop of boundless light and heat. No one else was able to see a human silhouette.
Finally, the pillar of light receded and was duly absorbed into Qianye’s body. He was still standing in the air just like before, his armor in tatters and his body riddled with wounds. Only the glow in the depths of his eyes was dazzling, just like a revolving red sun.
An indescribable aura spread throughout the battlefield. The Whitebone Duke’s domain and aura would disappear immediately upon contact with it. A battle of domains had broken out once again between the two parties, but the results were vastly different.
Back during their entrance, Qianye and Caroline had worked together to tear the Whitebone Duke’s domain. The sensation of laceration was extremely clear back then, but his domain remained in place over the battlefield; it still held a clear advantage and wasn’t defeated.
This time, however, the duke’s domain seemed like it had been incinerated, melting away at the slightest contact with the new domain energy. This new power was formless and intangible, yet it was scorching hot and capable of melting almost anything. At this moment, all the dark race members felt as though they were standing on the surface of the sun, that they would be completely incinerated at the next breath, not even leaving ashes behind.
Fortunately, this sensation lasted but a moment before the new domain power faded away. The scorching sensation receded, leaving only restlessness and anxiety. Many experts suspected that they would’ve burst into flames had it remained for the next second.
Even experts felt this way. The ordinary werewolf experts within Qianye’s domain broke into miserable screams, the stronger ones trembled all over, while the weaker ones collapsed to the ground. The fierce heat seemed like it had originated from the daybreak origins, causing agonizing pain to all creatures of darkness.
Having suffered a crushing defeat, the Whitebone Duke’s domain only survived on the edges of the battlefield.
Those standing at the border all ran forward at the same time, even though the firm walls and swords of the great corridor were waiting for them. Their current location was simply too terrifying. That scorching heat was completely opposite of their darkness attribute and a hundred times more terrifying than the threat of enemy swords.
The duke glared at Qianye with eyes full of shock, disbelief, and mad jealousy. He clenched his teeth and said word-by-word, “You… have become a divine champion?”
Qianye nodded with a smile. “Without your help, I don’t know how long it would take.”
“You used me!?” the duke roared.
Qianye laughed indifferently. “You just didn’t have the ability to kill me.”
The Whitebone Duke snorted. “You think you can defeat me just because you’re a divine champion?”
Humans who had just stepped into the divine champion stage were only about equal to a glorious marquis. Calculating from the Evernight system, there was still a major rank’s gap between them. Only a mid-ranked divine champion like Caroline could contend against a duke, while ordinary divine champions would have no choice but to retreat in defeat.
The werewolf himself didn’t have much confidence while saying this.
Qianye nodded as though he was in agreement. “It’s not supposed to be, but there’s no problem since it’s me against you.”
The Whitebone Duke felt his vision darken for a split second as anger filled his head. The werewolf’s violent nature and the many years of bad temper that he had acquired made him want to charge at Qianye. However, the outcome of that contest of domains just now allowed his caution to claim victory, and he ultimately managed to restrain himself.
Defeat meant the collapse of his throne, the end of everything he had in the Jade Sea.
He observed Qianye carefully, rapidly calculating his next move. However, all he could see was a sea of light and heat—he simply couldn’t discern anything underneath.
Seeing that the Whitebone Duke had managed to restrain himself, Qianye smiled. “Your Excellency, don’t forget that this is a battlefield.”
“Battlefield!?” The duke couldn’t figure the meaning immediately. Only when he sensed a sharp pain from his back did he remember something as he turned around immediately.
Caroline was charging at him, shrouded in lightning.
This was a battlefield, one where there was no rule against using a numbers advantage. Now that Qianye had succeeded in his ascension, there were two divine champions on his side. The Whitebone Duke, on the other hand, only had himself.
The werewolf made an immediate decision, rushing into the sky with a loud cry and fleeing toward the horizon.
Three black feathers appeared in the air and flickered out of existence almost immediately, all of them sinking into the duke’s back. The werewolf’s body froze in the air for a moment before falling to the ground.
Caroline appeared beside Qianye. “Ah, you’ve been fighting with him for so long. Didn’t you tell him that he can’t flee from the Shot of Inception?”
Qianye shrugged. “Too busy, forgot.”
The Whitebone Duke’s demise came all too sudden. The entire battlefield fell into silence, almost as though time had frozen. Be it those from the Jade Sea or the great corridor, all the werewolves remained in place and gazed at where the duke had fallen.
At this moment, something that had been passed down and kept intact for three hundred years was broken.
That was tradition, an indescribable emotion—reverence, terror, worship, and mysteriousness. All of these served as a support for the werewolf psyche, and also formed an unerasable part of their history, yet everything had come to an end at this point.
All werewolves from both factions felt a certain dejection. The gap in their hearts was so big that it could not be filled. Even the werewolves of the great corridor and Eiseka himself felt as though they were in a dream. He had imagined the collapse of that high throne countless times, but who would’ve thought it would be so easy? It was almost like a children’s game.
He was likely one of the few who had barely noticed the three black feathers, but he couldn’t sense their power at all. How powerful would they have to be to kill the Whitebone Duke in a single blow? There was only one explanation for him to not sense anything. It was that the power difference between the two was too great.
Eiseka was fairly confident about his own abilities. Even in the Jade Sea, he would be able to squeeze his way into the upper echelons. It was just that his tribe was driven into the great corridor much earlier on, leaving him stuck with that humble label.
While he was stunned, Xu Jingxuan poked his waist and asked, “Erm… is he dead?”
Eiseka said with a wooden expression, “I… think so.”
“Then, shall we go and take a look?”
“The enemy…”
“They’re gone.”
The werewolves of the Jade Sea were still in a daze, but their bodies moved faster than their thoughts, opening up a path to where the Whitebone Duke had fallen.
That place wasn’t too far behind the Jade Sea army, but the werewolves nearby remained nailed to the ground, not daring to approach. Two divine champions were still standing in the air. Qianye’s domain, specifically, refreshed their memory and definition of fear.
Whoever dared to approach at this point would be challenging Qianye, and that in and of itself was no different from courting death.
Xu Jingxuan suggested it and Eiseka also seconded the motion, but the two glanced at one another without taking the first step forward. It was still a scary thought to walk through hundreds of thousands of werewolf soldiers to where the Whitebone Duke was.
Seeing someone flagging them, the two turned about to see Song Lun shaking his head. “It’s not a good idea to go.”
The duo came to their senses.
The Whitebone Duke’s body was full of treasures, each of his equipment was probably priceless. Going over now would probably give them a bad name for having untoward intentions.
In the sky, Caroline glanced at Qianye who was standing there calmly with his hands behind his back. “Aren’t you going?”
“You go and see,” Qianye said with a smile.
“That’s a duke we’re talking about, and not a fake one, either. Aren’t you curious about what he has?”
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