This shout resounded in the air and spread to every corner of the residence, yet it couldn’t be heard at all outside of the compound. One could tell Xue Ding’s standards just from this move.
A stone-cold voice arrived from behind the courtyard. “Come in, no need to shout so loud. It’s not like you’re going to die.”
Greatly delighted, Xue Ding ran through the hallways into the rear residence. Apparently, he was quite familiar with this place.
What greeted him after pa.s.sing through the courtyard and entering the rear compound, was a large drill grounds filled with all kinds of weaponry. There was a half-naked male standing in the field with a large battle axe in hand. Tanned and well-built, the man’s muscles were like pieces of steel, containing explosive amounts of power within them. Xue Ding ran over to that person and stood respectfully before him, “Big Brother!”
The man finally looked up and said coldly, “You’re the Wolf King’s foster son, I really don’t dare to accept this address. Say what you must, I’m about to cultivate.”
“It’s like this. I met a person, and he actually provoked me. So, I exchanged a couple of moves with him. I wasn’t his match, however, and had to pay with one of my subordinate’s legs to escape.”
The man sneered, “He provoked you? I’m more inclined to think you’re the one who picked a fight. I told you before that the neutral lands are full of hidden experts. There are countless powerful experts all around. You think you can do whatever you want just because you’re hugging the Wolf King’s thigh and calling him foster father?”
Xue Ding’s face turned red. “I had no choice. If I didn’t recognize him as my adoptive father, the Wolf King might not let our family go.”
The man’s face turned gloomy. “Not let go? No matter how powerful the Wolf King is, do you think he dares kill all the races in the Eastern Sea? Humph, if he dares to do that, the one to die first will be him.”
Xue Ding laughed along. “The Wolf King is crazy, why would you want to contend with him? I only wanted to help the family in my own way. I’m no use, either way, and the family has you, doesn’t it?”
“Enough excuses. Since you’ve recognized the Wolf King as your adoptive father, you’re no longer a member of the Xue family.”
“Even if I’m no longer a Xue family member, you’re still my big brother!”
The man responded with a snort, but his expression softened somewhat. “The Wolf King has so many sons, grandsons, and foster children. All of them are your siblings, why not go to them for help?”
Xue Ding let out an embarra.s.sed laugh. “How can those people count as my siblings? They can’t wait to see me die early. Of course, the same goes for me. If they know of this matter, they’ll surely report it to foster father, I mean, the Wolf King. When the time comes, he might kick me out for being useless, and all my efforts will be wasted.”
The man placed his axe back on the weapons rack. “Your inferior skills have naught to do with me. If you can’t beat him, why not cultivate more and go back for a rematch? Even if you have learned nothing from the Wolf King, I’ve taught you at least three of our family’s nine secret arts. Yet you still managed to lose? Is his origin power a lot higher than you?”
Xue Ding whispered awkwardly, “He only has two origin vortices.”
“Rank eleven? You can’t even beat someone who’s at rank-eleven?” The man was astonished.
“This… yes, it would seem so.”
The man stopped on his way into the building and mumbled, “Interesting, but do you really want me to go and challenge someone at rank eleven?”
Xue Ding replied hurriedly, “How can it be called challenge? It’s merely teaching him a lesson, helping me vent my anger against this arrogant fellow. One of my subordinates lost a leg, how can I convince my men if that brat isn’t beaten up?”
The man pondered for a moment. “Fine, I’m a bit interested too. I’ll pay him a visit.”
Xue Ding was delighted. “With Big Brother taking the scene, it’ll be a piece of cake.”
Thousands of kilometers away, on the edges of the continent, was an ancient castle. Facing the endless void alone, it looked nothing short of bleak and desolate.
The structure, with its thick, tall walls, was built entirely of large stones. The windows were long and narrow, and the outer walls were mottled from the many years of exposure to the wind and frost.
The Eastern Sea was one of the biggest islands in the neutral lands, yet it was far smaller than any of the twenty-seven major continents. It was even less stable than the floating continent where the two factions were currently at war due to the lack of a protective layer.
Not far from this castle, one could see the dense rolling clouds and flashes of lightning. At times, a thunderbolt would streak across the skies and strike at the cliff, sending pieces of stone drifting into the void.
Perhaps due to the many years of lightning strikes and raging winds, the stones on the precipice had turned dark and contained pieces of crystals within them. This kind of crystalline object born from the invasion of void origin power would fetch a sky-high price in external markets.
Since the castle was built on the cliff, its mottled walls also suffered from the wind and lightning.
On the higher floors of the castle, a young man with long, hanging hair was standing before the french window and admiring the scenery outside. After a long while, he said with a sigh of satisfaction, “Only destruction lies at the end of the world. These words are so well-spoken!”
As he returned to his seat, the flash of lightning outside clearly outlined his facial features. He picked up a gla.s.s of wine and said while slowly savoring the contents, “Anything of note recently? Speak!”
There were a few people waiting on him in the room. They each stepped forward and began reporting the major happenings throughout the Eastern Sea. Apparently, they had their respective a.s.signments because the things they recounted were all from different fields.
The young man listened carelessly and without much interest, even more so for things outside of the Eastern Sea. Moments later, it was an old man’s turn to speak and his topics were all related to the Wolf King.
As he listened on, the young man suddenly became alert and interrupted, “Wait, so you’re saying Xue Ding went out for a while, but instead of returning to Wolf King Castle, he went to the Xue family instead?”
The old man replied, “Yes, he went to visit Xue Wu.”
Another person snorted. “Don’t tell me the Xue family isn’t content yet?”
The young man stopped him by raising his hand. “This is probably unrelated to the Xue family. This convenient brother must’ve suffered a loss and wanted his big brother to help him regain some face.”
“Why didn’t he seek out Your Highness, instead? Xue Wu isn’t your match at all.”
The young man revealed a charming smile. “You can"t be sure about that. The Xue family’s secret arts are fairly powerful. In my current state, I might not win against Xue Wu in a fight. However, the fragility of the human body is their fatal weakness. After my body matures in a few years, Xue Wu? Heh heh, he won’t even have the qualifications to fight me.”
The people at the scene immediately offered their praises. “The longer the maturation period of the Wolf King’s inheritance, the greater one’s potential. Your Highness’s growth has reached thirty years. This kind of talent is no different from His Majesty the Wolf King’s back in the year.”
The young man waved his hand. “I’ve told you people so many times to stop calling me highness. According to Evernight tradition, even my father can’t be addressed in such a way, let alone me.”
“Your future prospects are not below the Wolf King, it’s only right to call you Your Highness.”
The young man sighed while covering his forehead, almost as though he was feeling helpless. “Whatever, do what you want. Sigh!”
He stood up after the men had completed their reports and stretched his body. “It’s too boring here, time to go out and about. Check where that brat Xue Ding is headed, I’ll follow him and see how things go.”
The old man replied, “I’ll arrange a guard squad.”
“What guard squad?!” The young man waved his hand impatiently. “Even if there’s someone in the Eastern Sea who can defeat me, do you think I can’t escape? Besides, who’ll dare attack me after finding out my ident.i.ty?”
“But…”
The elder wanted to say something but was cut short by the young man. “I’m the son of the Wolf King, one with the right to hold an Evernight t.i.tle. If I don’t even dare to travel alone in my father’s territory, wouldn’t that be a huge embarra.s.sment for His Majesty? Am I no better than those convenient siblings?”
Seeing the prince furious, the men no longer dared to offer words of persuasion and left the room one after the other.
...
Qianye’s life was just as peaceful and calm—after consolidating his realm for a couple of days, he began cultivating once more. This time, he chose to go into the waters of the Eastern Sea instead, and began cultivating the Profound Combatant Formula on one of the rocks jutting out of the sea.
Qianye noticed the difference once the formula came into effect. Vast amounts of void origin power were pulled into the just-formed origin vortex, forming a small origin storm around him. The energy around him was drained in the blink of an eye, but more of it gushed out of the ocean to fill in the gap.
The speed of absorption was already faster than on the sh.o.r.e even without pus.h.i.+ng the origin vortex very hard. At this moment, the vortex was far from the point where it would tear the void apart.
Qianye suspected that the Eastern Sea was a peerless holy land for cultivation. People must’ve discovered this throughout the years, so why wasn’t anyone cultivating in the ocean?
What Qianye didn’t know was that the void origin power here was extremely violent—even the dark races couldn’t absorb it, not to mention humans. Qianye’s body had been remodeled by the auric flame blood and was at the count-level even by ancient vampire standards. As such, he sensed nothing special after absorbing the energy here. Any other ordinary vampire count would burst apart with a shattered blood core after absorbing such void origin power.
The expansion of his origin vortex became much harder in the sea as pus.h.i.+ng the vortex into rotation felt like he was pus.h.i.+ng against the actual seawater. One could imagine the force required to drive a hundred-meter vortex inside the water. However, Qianye also benefitted in the form of insights into domain control.
The first cultivation session in the sea filled him to the brim in less than an hour. Qianye thus retracted his Profound Combatant Formula and opened his eyes—he was shocked by the scene before him.
The seawater in a ten-meter radius around him had disappeared and the seabed, revealed. Meanwhile, the displaced water had acc.u.mulated into a ten-meter wall around the empty s.p.a.ce and was slowly revolving around it. The moment he retracted the formula, however, the force rejecting the water quickly disappeared and the wall of water came cras.h.i.+ng down on Qianye.
Moments later, a dripping wet Qianye crawled onto the sh.o.r.e. In a moment of carelessness, he had been swept into the depths of the ocean and had to rely on East Peak’s weight in order to reach the bottom and walk back to the beach.
Qianye wiped away the water from his face and plucked a starfish that was stuck on his head. Before he could even open his eyes, however, he heard someone say, “It’s him!”