Volume 4 – Perpetual Conflict, Chapter 74: Escape
“Since you’ve already obtained my inheritance, it’s only natural that you also inherit my enemies. For now, you should remember some names. First on the list is Jasmine; she’s our common enemy as well as the eternal nemesis of our entire lineage. Second is Medanzo, a fellow whose stance is unclear, but the true Wings of Inception is an irresistible attraction to him. Finally, Rex. He was one of my best students, one I took great pride in. He was also the one who betrayed me with the greatest ruthlessness.”
“Kill them, or at least don’t let them kill you. This is your fate. As for the future…”
Andruil’s voice slowly faded away, but Qianye’s emotions couldn’t relax in the least. It felt as if he were being pressed down by a thousand Books of Darkness.
Jasmine, known as the Queen of the Night, was the primogenitor of the Perth clan, ranked first among the twelve ancient vampire clans. She had lived through countless eras. Although she hadn’t made an appearance for hundreds of years now, the empire believed that she was hibernating in a secret location and would appear again when needed.
As for the Lightless Monarch Medanzo, he was the primogenitor of the Dracula clan, ranked fourth among the twelve ancient clans. He had similarly lived for a long time and was a terrifying character from the same era as Jasmine and Andruil. An even more frightening fact was that there had been news of his activity within a hundred years. This signified that a great dark monarch could likely descend upon Evernight Continent at any moment.
Finally, Rex—this was an unfamiliar name. But since he was a student even Andruil took pride in and someone being mentioned alongside Jasmine and Medanzo, he was likely to be a character at the level of a great dark monarch.
If this was to be his fate, Qianye felt that his future was looking quite bleak. Moreover, he suddenly recalled Andruil’s mention of a mission destined never to be accomplished. Was it related to the words the Black-Winged Monarch couldn’t finish saying?
Qianye couldn’t even force out a wry laugh at the moment. It was really just as Andruil said, the first thing he had to do was to ensure his own survival. Thereafter, he would just have to play it by the ear.
The Wings of Inception shook as it brought Qianye out of the great hall. The miraculous palace behind him collapsed amidst loud rumbles as giant pieces of rock and broken pillars fell toward the boundless void. Qianye felt extremely emotional as he watched this drastic transformation.
The return journey was much faster, and the radiant door was within sight in the blink of an eye. He glanced back and saw that the luminous path through the void was gradually dispersing into specks of l.u.s.trous blue which eventually faded away into nothingness.
Qianye didn’t rush through the radiant door in a hurry. Instead, taking advantage of the time before the platform’s complete dissipation, he began to check his gains following the dark golden energy’s advancement.
It had thoroughly broken out of its coc.o.o.n and was swimming in circles around his heart. The eye ability rune, on the other hand, had split into three. One was the Eye of Truth, the other was a Super Vision, and the last one possessed an ability which made Qianye feel a great rush of excitement. It was Eye Ability: Control.
Qianye brought out an origin bullet case and tossed it into the air. Soon, his eyes turned a deep blue color as a spinning bullet case was reflected within them.
“Click!” As if a big invisible hand had grasped the bullet case, it was continuously deformed and slowly squeezed into a metallic ball.
Qianye reached out and caught the falling ma.s.s of metal.
This was the power of Eye Ability: Control!
Qianye deeply exhaled and casually hurled the piece of metal into the distant emptiness before walking into the radiant door.
Outside of the radiant door, Li Zhan and the vampire warriors were standing in silence. They had been waiting for several hours now, and apart from Li Zhan and Twilight, most of the vampire warriors seemed somewhat anxious.
Presently, all of them could feel that the s.p.a.ce was becoming increasingly unstable. The great hall was shaking continuously, and some stone fragments had begun to fall from above. The floor was also beginning to crack, and the fissures therein were gradually growing longer.
Twilight waved her hand and said, “You lot, carry away all the things in this hall and leave nothing. Afterwards, retreat immediately.”
The vampire viscounts were hesitant because they weren’t under Twilight’s command. However, they also weren’t willing to offend this young talent who already had a spot reserved in the Evernight Council. Additionally, Twilight was notorious for her viciousness.
Finally, the viscounts decided to bring their vampire warriors to sweep the hall clean first. Then they went to move the 13 coffins away. They had already checked the items in the hall and knew that these items, although incomparable to Andruil’s inheritance, were extremely valuable for vampires.
Moments later, only a dozen or so vampire warriors remained within the great hall. The expression of that vampire viscount who had stayed behind gradually eased up. It was quite far from being able to make up for their losses in this operation, but now, they at least had something to show for their efforts.
It was at this time that the blue ripples in the radiant door suddenly intensified, like the sea surface during a storm, as the figure of a person rushed out.
“It’s him!”
“Capture him! Don’t let him escape!”
A number of vampire warriors shouted loudly as they charged forth one after another.
Li Zhan let out a sinister laugh as he pounced at Qianye with his dagger aimed directly toward the latter’s heart. It was as if he wanted to vent all of the resentment he had saved up from the long battles. Twilight was one step ahead of him—she charged at Qianye and thrust her twin swords toward his legs. Her plan was to capture this unidentified person alive and interrogate him about the whereabouts of Andruil’s treasure.
Seeing Li Zhan going in for the kill, Twilight suddenly erupted with rage and shouted, “You dare?!”
The sword in her left hand kept on thrusting toward Qianye, while the one in her right turned to hack at Li Zhan’s throat. This change took place within moments. From this, one could easily gauge Twilight"s combat strength.
It was at this time that Qianye’s eyes turned a deep blue with Twilight’s figure reflected within it.
Twilight suddenly felt a chill surge up from her heart and could no longer maintain her offensive. She let out a scream, hugged her knees, and spun backwards at lightning speed. Within moments, she had pulled back dozens of meters. Li Zhan was also astonished by the abrupt change in situation and became hesitant for a split second.
During that moment of hesitation, Qianye had drawn his gun and blasted out an origin bullet.
Li Zhan immediately lost his composure and exclaimed, “A grade-five gun!”
He had fought with Qianye a number of times and knew for certain that the latter’s guns were grade-four, but now, they had suddenly turned into grade-five weapons. It was only a level’s difference, but Li Zhan wouldn’t dare to forcefully resist a blast from a grade-five gun like he would one from a grade-four weapon.
Li Zhan let out a furious roar as he frantically moved sideways and managed to evade the blast by a hair’s breadth.
A pair of luminous wings suddenly spread out behind Qianye during this short gap while, at the same time, a beam of brilliant light shot down from the domed roof. He rapidly ascended along this beam of light, broke through the roof in a flash, and eventually vanished.
Within the mountainous region, Duke Garis and Agnis were standing side by side as they resisted Andruil’s spatial powers.
At this time, a brilliant pillar of light appeared dozens of kilometers away and directly pierced through the night sky! The pillar of light was emitting a faint suppressive might which made it impossible for one to gaze upon it directly.
Duke Garis’ expression greatly changed as he exclaimed, “Great Monarch Andruil!”
Agnis had disappeared at this moment and was rus.h.i.+ng at full speed toward the pillar of light. Duke Garis was just one step slower, but he also flashed away instantly.
Two vampire dukes were charging at full speed—just how powerful was this momentum? Blood power surged out around them as they shot out like two sanguineous meteors. They crossed the dozens of kilometers in the blink of an eye and arrived near the pillar of light.
The radiant pillar had emerged from the empty air, and its other end extended toward the depths of the boundless night skies. Within the pillar of light, Qianye was traveling upward at full speed with his wings spread wide.
The two vampire dukes growled at the same time as numerous beams of sanguineous light shot out like roaming dragons. They extended thousands of meters within the blink of an eye, poised to entangle Qianye.
But the pair of wings behind Qianye suddenly flickered with a blue light, following which a hexagonal spatial door suddenly appeared before him. The numerous b.l.o.o.d.y poison dragons behind him all struck empty air as he rushed into the spatial door.
Duke Garis suddenly turned around and gazed toward his left. There, he saw a spatial door open with a flicker of blue light and Qianye charging out from within. As it turned out, the latter had fled to a point almost a hundred kilometers away by means of a spatial leap.
Duke Garis’ eyes erupted with a spiritual glow and he was about to give chase. However, he was stopped by Agnis.
“It’s too late.” Agnis sighed.
Another spatial door had appeared in the distant night sky and Qianye was already das.h.i.+ng toward it. But this time, he had surpa.s.sed the limits of their vision, and it was unknown where he would next appear.
“This is…”
Agnis said with a sigh, “Spatial Flash, one of the Black-Winged Monarch’s most powerful abilities. Each Spatial Flash can travel hundreds of kilometers. We can’t catch up to it. The great monarch actually left behind such a method behind to protect his descendant.”
Duke Garis glanced at Agnis and sneered, “Who would’ve thought the Monroe clan still possesses such a talented descendant? It seems that Twilight you tossed out just now was merely a diversion?”
Agnis’ expression immediately turned ugly. He knew that Duke Garis had paid an enormous price in order to take charge of this search operation and would face immense losses if the Black-Winged Monarch’s inheritance fell into another’s hand. It was only natural for him to be upset.
But the problem was that Andruil’s inheritance didn’t fall into the hands of the Monroe clan.
Agnis laughed wryly and said, “I’m not certain who that person is, but I can say with great confidence that he’s not a descendant of the Monroe clan.”
Garis’ expression turned even more solemn. “Bloodline inheritance is the most important attribute for a vampire race descendant. Do you expect me to believe that this person who obtained Andruil’s inheritance is unrelated to your Monroe clan?”
“He isn’t necessarily the one to obtain the great monarch’s inheritance.” Agnis’ expression had also turned cold from the overbearing pressure from Duke Garis.
The two dukes flew back to their original position in silence. At that exact moment, Twilight and Li Zhan rushed out of the extremely unstable spatial door, which soon became distorted and vanished into the air.
“What’s the situation inside?” Agnis asked in a deep voice.
Twilight replied with a solemn expression, “This s.p.a.ce is indeed the location of Great Monarch Andruil’s inheritance. But… but my bloodline isn’t pure enough to enter the final s.p.a.ce. However, I saw a young descendant emerge from within. I suspect he’s already obtained the Wings of Inception and the Eye of Truth!”
Duke Garis snorted heavily and said to Agnis, “You’ll explain this matter at the council!”
Agnis replied coldly, “You don’t have to worry about this matter.”
Garis said nothing more. He rushed directly into the sky and vanished into the depths of the night. Agnis, on the other hand, left together with Twilight. There would be other people to clean up the scene.
Although the Black-Winged Monarch’s most important treasure was likely taken away by someone else, the remains itself was extremely valuable. The dark races might actually take a step forward in the study of s.p.a.ce by researching these ruins.