Monarch of Evernight - Chapter 594

Chapter 594

Chapter 594: Storm Pearl [V6C124 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]

Qianye’s daybreak talents had suffered greatly after the theft of his origin crystal . Lin Xitang had evaluated him comprehensively—his inherent talents were first-rate but dropped to fourth-rate after taking his body into account .

Presently, all the hidden injuries in his body had been healed, and his talents were widely believed to be Venus Dawn . Qianye himself had always been doubtful, however . He had no confidence that such a Venus Dawn could defy the assimilation of his primogenitor bloodline .

The only method Qianye could think of was to raise his daybreak origin power as much as possible and use it to suppress the darkness . Optimally, the former should be one level higher than the latter to be free from the influence .

This meant that he would have to find a way to use up the present store of essence blood instead of assimilating it . Fortunately, the Wings of Inception and Book of Darkness were both major consumers . It was just that their usual source was the essence produced from the Mystery Chapter . Qianye had no idea whether they could directly absorb essence blood .

Qianye tried to establish a connection with the Book of Darkness and Wings of Inception in his consciousness . Then, he split the essence blood in his body into two parts and channeled it toward them .

The Wings of Inception immediately devoured half of the essence blood like a whale swallowing the river . Its current feathers materialized even further as a new one began to form . The Book of Darkness, on the other hand, was much slower . It absorbed the essence blood strand by strand as though it were picking out the best parts .

Qianye was in no rush, either, and waited patiently .

An entire hour passed by before the Book of Darkness managed to absorb the remaining half of the essence blood . Qianye opened his mouth and shot out a stream of dense black energy, almost comparable to a splash of black ink . It actually sizzled and eroded the purple substance after landing, and soon, even the ground underneath had come into view .

It didn’t end there—the scope of this black mist’s corrosion continued to expand, turning everything it touched into a pool of black . A large pit—two meters deep and several meters in radius—appeared before Qianye in the blink of an eye .

This corrosive power was twice as powerful as that of the impure toxins usually expelled after cultivation . This alarmed him quite a bit .

One had to know that this purple substance wasn’t so simple since it possessed powerful corrosive properties of its own . Apart from some extremely rare metals, there was virtually nothing it couldn’t devour . It went without saying that its natural resistance to erosion was also powerful . But now, it was completely helpless against Qianye’s black energy, and a large area of substance was destroyed in mere moments .

The black energy was born of the Book of Darkness . The essence blood he had provided the book came from thousands of dark race warriors of differing levels—it was nothing less than a mish-mash of blood . Moreover, it hadn’t been purified by the Mystery Chapter . In the end, the Book of Darkness turned out to be quite picky and continuously spat out the impurities during the absorption process . At times, the book would even remove half of a low-grade essence blood in the form of impurities .

But Qianye had never imagined that this black mist of condensed impurities was so toxic . Judging from its present destructive power, even an Evernight count would be badly wounded if struck .

Beads of sweat appeared at the tip of his nose after recalling how the black energy had stayed in his body for an entire hour . He suddenly thought of something—could he have gained a killing move? If he could store the black energy for a period of time and shoot it out during battle, even a high-ranking dark race expert might suffer if caught unprepared .

Qianye soon discarded this attractive thought, though . The reason being that such a toxin was no different from a ticking time bomb . If for some reason Qianye lost control of it, even his vampiric constitution might not be able to endure the corrosion, and he would melt into a puddle of black liquid just like the purple substance .

He shook his head and continued observing the situation inside his body . The Wings of Inception wasn’t as picky as the Book of Darkness, and neither did it care whether the incoming essence was pure or mixed . It accepted and devoured all the essence blood thrown at it .

The wings on the dark golden blood energy became more vivid, and a third feather was starting to form . A little bit more essence blood, and he would be able to form the third Shot of Inception, which would equate to three lifesavers in the battles to come .

After temporarily getting rid of the excess essence blood, Qianye placed his attention back to the Book of Darkness . He wondered if there would be any changes to the book after absorbing so much essence blood .

The Book of Darkness trembled slightly as his consciousness arrived and gradually flipped open .

…

In the southern territory of the imperial mainland, a magnificent city stood near the coast—its name was Waterfront City . A great number of sails stood towering over the harbor, and a steady stream of airships was shuttling about the four airship ports to its side .

There was an independent district to the southwest of Waterfront City . This dazzling and inexplicably luxurious section of the city was occupied by a continuous array of mansions .

At this moment, several people were seated around a table in a peaceful courtyard, enjoying the tea and scenery . However, there seemed to be a hidden storm brewing around them .

A man in his thirties placed his cup down and said in a deep voice, “Things don’t look good over on the void continent . The Evernight Council’s reaction was faster and fiercer than anticipated . Fifth brother, your current office is with the imperial fleet, right? How is the situation there?”

Across him was a man of similar age . He was tall and strong, but his countenance was stained with traces of hardship that made him look even older than his elder brother .

At this moment, he said with a grave expression, “My sixth fleet was originally the reserve force among the reserve forces . We aren’t at full strength at all and only have one-third of the troops and ships stated on paper . But I just received orders to transfer capable personnel, form a sub-fleet, and head toward the floating continent battlefield . ”

Everyone’s expression shifted . The calm and handsome leader muttered, “Even Old Five’s fleet is being mobilized . That means the war on the floating continent is doing quite badly and that the news of the main force suffering grave losses is true . We should also prepare accordingly . ”

Someone to his left said, “Has Eldest Sister sent any news?”

The leader shook his head . “The imperial harem cannot interfere in politics, even the empress can’t pry into state secrets . Moreover, there are eyes and ears everywhere in the palace, and our previous move against Lin Xitang has alerted them . It’s best for her to avoid arousing suspicion at such a time, lest someone gets ahold on her . ”

With that, he glanced at everyone and said proudly, “Besides, our Jingtang Li Clan has so many talents, and our fortune is improving by the day . Why would we need to trouble the eldest sister? Although the battle on the void continent is bound to be difficult, it’s a good chance for us to break the deadlock and take a step forward . As long as we do well here, the status of major clan isn’t out of reach!”

This person was the Li clan’s current lord, Marquis Wanghai, Li Tianshi . The man was only in his forties and still full of youth and vigor . Being able to sit here in this courtyard also meant that he was a core member of the Li clan . At a glance, these people were all in their thirties and forties—Li Tianshi could be considered the eldest here . A scene like this wasn’t common in aristocratic families .

The main executives of the aristocracy were mostly made up of people from two generations . It was already quite rare for someone to become a clan lord before fifty . There was usually no lack of people in their sixties, seventies, or even some centenarians . Song clan’s Song Zhongnian, for instance, was actually the nominal clan lord, but most of the rights were still in Duchess An’s hands .

If one were to discuss this matter in earnest, Zhao clan’s Zhao Weihuang was considered a young expert because he was less than fifty years old . Even so, he was still a couple of years older than Li Tianshi . In addition, the Zhao clan’s authority had to be shared between Duke Yan and Duke You, so the clan lord’s power was clearly weaker . Even Zhang Boqian had inherited the title of Duke Dan only several years after he became a marshal—even so, he was notorious for ignoring common administrative affairs .

As such, a family like the Jingtang Li Clan was indeed rare in the empire .

These people sitting in the courtyard possessed different temperaments . They were all handsome and elegant . The Jingtang Li Family was prominent in neither politics nor military before becoming the empress’ family . In truth, only the upper echelon nobility knew that this family was famed for its divination arts and one of the most ancient inheritances . Their descendants were slightly different in that they possessed a somewhat transcendent demeanor about them .

Perhaps it could be said that this was why the Li family had thrived amidst the outstanding people since antiquity .

Li Cunjian, who was in charge of the 6th Fleet, felt inspired by the clan lord’s words . However, he laughed wryly and said, “Eldest Brother, you have a point there, but the void continent isn’t so easy to conquer . That Misty Wood we’ve occupied is connected to many major battlefields . It’ll surely turn into the main stage for experts during the latter parts of the war . ”

Li Tianshi’s expression was unchanged . He said calmly, “It doesn’t matter, we can depend on independent hunters to calm the situation during the early and late stages . Our family will take over during the late phase . We’ll surely be able to hold out through these difficult situations . ”

At this moment, someone else sighed . “These outsiders aren’t just arrogant, the resources they’re consuming is also significant . It’s only been one month, but the numbers are already quite sizeable . At this rate, our family coffers will be emptied in half a year . ”

Li Tianshi also seemed quite distressed at the mention of this . He sighed . “Spending all this money is still better than paying with the lives of our Li clan descendants . The number of experts willing to join our Li clan is less than expected even though we offered such a high reward . ”

Li Cunjian cut in, “A place like Misty Wood isn’t for normal people . If it were me, I’d rather go and dig around the central maze instead of staying in that accursed place . ”

“That’s true . ” Everyone here possessed impressive strength and naturally had the same thoughts .

Li Tianshi pondered for a moment . “Since that’s the case, we should pay even more attention! We’ll offer an additional choice in the three-monthly prize offered to the top-ranked expert . Put the Storm Pearl up for grabs in addition to the Stillwater Rebirth . The same goes for the next three months!”

“Storm Pearl!” Li Cunjian blurted out . “Our clan managed to refine only twelve of them in the past ten years, and we only have three of them left . Are we really going to take two and put them on the rankings?”

“Why not?” Li Tianshi’s eyes lit up with an eerie glow . “Stillwater Rebirth is used to save lives and has no immediate effect on those independent experts . Holding onto it will inevitably cause a calamity one day . The Storm Pearl, however, is different . It can break any bottleneck below the divine champion level and raise one’s cultivation rank . Who wouldn’t desire it?”

“Moreover, there are too many people in the clan seeking the Storm Pearl . We’ll be offending people no matter who we choose to give it to . Why don’t we just release it like this? Those who want it can fight for it on the rankings! That’ll save us a lot of trouble . ” Li Tianshi’s tone contained a trace of unhappiness . It would seem being pressured from all sides wasn’t a good feeling .

Everyone glanced at each other, and even the usually extreme Li Cunjian didn’t know what to say .