Qianye left abruptly, leaving the host of divine champions and dukes angry, apprehensive, and, indignant. One of them said, “The Emperor raised him and Marshal Lin treated him like his own son. Yet he spouts insolence instead of fighting for the Empire. This kind of person should be executed!”
Another person said coldly, “His willingness to join the vampire race itself is a crime worthy of punishment. Even with a sinful body, he’s still not willing to repay the Empire. How ungrateful!”
Duke Wei could no longer stand and watch. “You should’ve spoken to him while he was here, now he’s gone and no longer able to hear you.”
The blatant ridicule caused the two men to turn beet red. One of them shouted in embarra.s.sment, “Duke, are you standing on the vampires’ side?”
Duke Wei sighed. “I’m just thinking when our Empire reached such a state.”
The Profundity Monarch coughed. “Duke Wei need not worry, the Empire’s fortune is like the midday sun. You might not know some important things, so it’s only natural that you’d worry.”
The Pointer Monarch sent the divine champions away with a wave of his hand, leaving only the two heavenly monarchs at the scene.
“Shunxuan, why go so far?”
The Profundity Monarch said seriously. “I came into this world prepared to die for the Empire, you know that.”
The Pointer Monarch nodded. “I’ve never doubted your loyalty to the Empire.”
“A normal strategy would see us working with Qianye as the best route, but we’re not at that phase yet since the natives here will wear down the enemy for us. Yet, Qianye came to talk on their behalf. Are we to sacrifice the pillars of our Empire, our divine champions, alongside those barbarians? Nonsense!”
The Pointer Monarch said nothing.
Be it in the Empire or Evernight, equality was but an empty word. It was also quite easy to see how much importance the Empire attached to the Attawa. On the other hand, these natives were born powerful and their potential was difficult to gauge. Now that they had begun to serve Qianye, things had indeed gotten a bit complicated.
The Profundity Monarch wasn’t expecting to convince the Pointer Monarch. “If there’s a better chance of survival, I will always choose that path. Your family has gained a qilin of a son, a powerful descendant, but my family is fairly mediocre. They will surely fail to hold onto everything I have built. “The inner world appeared too suddenly, leaving me no time to make the necessary arrangements. I would’ve spread my possessions out if I had the opportunity, leaving my offspring just enough to make a living. Now, I fear they will meet their end after I fall here.”
The Pointer Monarch said, “Don’t think too much about what Qianye said. Judging from his actions in recent years, he has always been kind-hearted. He surely won’t go about slaughtering an entire family. The Empire has other people apart from us, Greensun won’t just sit by and do nothing.”
The Profundity Monarch sighed. “What I truly fear is that they will court their own death.”
The Pointer Monarch had nothing to say to that.
If only the Profundity Monarch had a couple more years, he could’ve given away a part of his possessions to ensure his descendants’ survival. If the monarch were to pa.s.s without such arrangements, his descendants might be inclined to cling to their glory days and bring disaster upon themselves. People might not say anything about the domineering att.i.tude of his descendants while the monarch was still alive, but they would surely come seeking trouble once he was gone.
The Profundity Monarch added, “It was only a faint ray of hope at first, but now that the Masefield Clan Lord has been injured and Medanzo is dead, our chances are much better. If Qianye can engage in another fight against Evernight and wound another great dark monarch, our forces will be able to overwhelm Evernight. No one will be able to stop us.”
Seeing that the Pointer Monarch had nothing to say, the Profundity Monarch said, “What the Empire needs now is time. As long as we can keep the enemy bogged down here, we will have achieved victory. Even people like us need to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good, let alone some natives and a vampire.”
Toward the end, the Profundity Monarch added, “Don’t tell me you want to make an exception for him because of your great-grandchild?”
The Pointer Monarch wasn’t going to let his displeasure show. “The bigger picture is important, but one can hardly forget righteousness. Qianye has sacrificed so much for the Empire. I’d rather question the motives of people who question his motives.”
The Profundity Monarch stroked his beard. “What if I have a way to make Qianye fight Evernight?”
“What way?”
Profundity said, “Duke Qi came in yesterday and brought a new batch of intelligence reports. There’s one among them that’s rather interesting.”
He pa.s.sed the Pointer Monarch a paper.
The latter opened it to find a drawing, depicting a host of Evernight Council members walking out from the great hall. On the other side was an endless formation of soldiers stretching into the distance. The group of princes and grand dukes were led by an arachne prince, Bradley, the Weaver of Nightmares. He was clad in full armor, with a long sword strapped to his waist.
The Pointer Monarch’s eyes landed on the familiar blade, feeling as though he had seen it somewhere.
This drawing was no doubt produced by one of the Empire’s spies hidden in the upper echelons of Evernight. Or perhaps he was more than just a spy. He might be a liaison for making shady deals with the Empire.
While the Pointer Monarch was pondering on it, the Profundity Monarch produced a small box containing some dark race blood. Picking up his brush, he unleashed a bit of origin power—most of the blood evaporated immediately, leaving only a wisp of pure darkness origin power. The Profundity Monarch then used the brush and added a decorative piece to the hilt of the blade.
The Pointer Monarch raised his brows. “Ah, Awakening Dream!”
“Precisely.” The Profundity Monarch put away his pen with a smile.
The Pointer Monarch quickly noticed that the arachne prince’s blade was actually not the Awakening Dream, else the other monarch wouldn’t have needed to take this extra step. It didn’t take too much thinking to realize how venomous Profundity’s scheme was.
Awakening Dream was the Evernight Council’s guardian weapon, granted to Nighteye during the battle of Blacksun Valley. The weapon and Nighteye both went missing after war broke out on the Twilight Continent.
“What are you planning?”
“Nothing much. I’ll just send this to Qianye, then let him decipher it however he wants.” The man seemed fairly relaxed.
The Pointer Monarch said, “Is this painting real?”
“Everything is real except for the final stroke. Qianye can ask any random dark race marquis, and they’ll tell him that the Weaver of Nightmares received a new blade recently. As for the sword’s origins, no one knows because Bradley has never told anyone.”