Qianye stood there for a while, thinking about what had just happened. It was just that he could hardly recall the details no matter how hard he tried.

How could he not know that this was the serpent’s doing?

That being said, he couldn’t approach the source of the river with the shadowy creature in the way. Considering his power of sight at the moment, he had long since noticed that the creature wasn’t a part of the river. It was more a foreign ent.i.ty than anything.

If it really was the river’s guardian, why would the vampires—the river’s reflection in the Evernight World—get attacked？

Qianye could actually see hints of demonkin attributes on the creature. That was why he didn’t stop the soaring serpent instinctively, allowing it to succeed.

Now that the two giant creatures had vanished, the path to the source of the river was clear. Qianye activated his chaos origin power and set up numerous defenses around him before moving forward.

Qianye was already prepared, so anyone who wanted to attack him would have to get through several layers of chaos origin power. Only after reaching the last checkpoint would they discover his true hidden ace.

Qianye moved forward after completing his preparations and soon arrived at the pond.

This was the source of the River of Blood.

Gazing at the sparkling ripples, Qianye couldn’t help but feel curious. What exactly was behind these ripples? What was the source of the river?

It was because he had eyes that he could see the pond, and this pond was in its current form because he could sense the system. In other words, it was because Qianye believed the source to be a pond that the pond was a pond.

If Anwen were here, he might see something else, or he might be able to see right through to the core.

Unfortunately, Anwen wasn’t as strong as he was smart. Without sufficient strength, the rapid expansion after entering the river would tear him apart.

Only the top great dark monarchs would be able to withstand this damage.

As Qianye fixed his eyes on the place, seals gradually began to appear in the pond. The Sperger clan’s flaming crown, the Reagan clan’s seven-star array… apart from the Morway clan, all the other twelve clan seals were here.

Qianye also noticed the Monroe clan’s seal.

The datura flower seal wasn’t at the edge of the pond but near the exit. It was moving away at a steady pace and seemed like it would soon join the outflow.

Another seal was being driven away, and it was the Monroe clan’s!

Qianye lowered himself and reached out to touch the seal. Just like with the Morway clan’s seal, a different path of blood energy utilization appeared in Qianye’s mind.

He could learn the contents of the seal, but he couldn’t affect its trajectory.

He simply flew around the pond and scanned all of the seals. Then he stood there with his eyes closed as he digested the contents.

The twelve seals represented twelve pathways. They were all related but different from one another. One would need to put all of them together to reach the true interpretation of the river.

In Qianye’s consciousness, the twelve different pathways merged into the Book of Darkness and began evolving rapidly. Tens of thousands of years seemed to have pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye. The twelve pathways merged into one, forming a single, scaled-down version of the river.

However, Qianye discovered that there was something missing in the river—it simply couldn’t get past the last checkpoint. Could it be that the twelve seals weren’t complete yet?

It was then that Qianye recalled the thirteenth ancient clan of legends. However, no one knew how and why this clan had vanished. According to the Demon King, the thirteenth clan’s bloodline was the closest to the darkness origins, but they were eliminated after the river was tainted by daybreak origin power.

Was there really a thirteenth clan?

He glanced at the pond again. This time, the pond became clearer in his vision, allowing him to see deeper into its waters.

There seemed to be a seal in the depths of the ponds, but the imagery was unclear.

The object gradually came into focus as Qianye gazed at it. This seal seemed like it didn’t exist, but it also felt as though it had been there since the beginning of time. It had only appeared after Qianye noticed it.

The seal was an eye with a full moon for its pupils. Qianye immediately realized the path it represented—it was extreme darkness and pure destruction.

This was the seal of the thirteenth clan, the frozen mooneye.

After seeing it, Qianye’s eyes began to undergo a transformation. One of them turned dark blue, while the other, dark red. The eyes of control and destruction had appeared in the same person for the very first time.

However, Qianye blinked a couple of times and restored his eyes to a blue tint—the Eye of Control was more suited to him after all. The Eye of Destruction required pure darkness origin power, growing stronger as one moved closer to the darkness origins. Qianye’s origin power was now of the chaos attribute, somewhere distant from both daybreak and evernight. That was why powers that required extreme attributes no longer suited him.

He could now confirm that the frozen mooneye was made for Nighteye, or rather, it existed only because Nighteye existed.

The name of the thirteenth clan appeared in the ancient river—Moonsong.

Compared to the Perth clan, the Moonsong’s strength leaned closer to the darkness origins, while the former favored pure blood energy. That was why the Moonsong clan was the most affected by the river’s transformation and the first to be destroyed. It was only when Nighteye completed her second awakening that it appeared once again.

Having learned of the thirteenth clan’s secrets, there was only one mystery left. What was that at the source of the river?

The Queen of the Night, Lilith, was the second drop of blood from the river. Then what was the first drop? And where was it?

Qianye was overcome with pure curiosity at this point, eager to explore the profundities of the River of Blood. The wars between humans and the dark races felt insignificant before the vastness of the boundless world.

Qianye could see right to the bottom of the pond, so there were no secrets left. So, where was the source?

He suddenly glanced up at the void where a river was flowing into the pond.

He soared into the sky and moved up along the river. Yet, the river was unexpectedly long—Qianye flew for one day and one night, yet there was still no end to be seen.

Sensing that something was off, Qianye glanced down and saw that the pond was right beneath his feet.

Qianye was sure that he had been flying for a long period of time and that he had moved a vast distance. His Spatial Flash could carry him thousands of kilometers at this point.

The river’s appearance indirectly proved one thing. The river was everywhere in this special s.p.a.ce, but it would only appear when Qianye wanted to see it.

So what did this first drop of blood represent?

Only then did Qianye discover that he had never actually thought about this problem. With a single thought, the thirteenth seal joined the evolutionary process in the Book of Darkness and merged with the other twelve.

When Qianye opened his eyes, he saw boundless darkness in the depths of the pond.