Qianye’s eyes landed on those eggs and coc.o.o.ns produced by the worms. The ferocity of the underground worms had left a deep impression on Qianye. They were already capable of injuring a werewolf count before evolution. Now that they had transformed, there was no telling how violent they would be. Qianye put the eggs into Andruil’s s.p.a.ce, and then moved some stuff around to barely fit a coc.o.o.n. Surely, there would be people interested in them after leaving the underground world.
After putting away the spoils of war, Qianye thought back on his experiences before his loss of consciousness. He vaguely recalled that the Book of Darkness had absorbed a large amount of essence blood at the critical moment, saving him from explosion and forming a new page in the process.
Qianye fished out the Book of Darkness and flipped through it in detail. As expected, there was a new line on the t.i.tle page that read: Chapter 2, Engrave。
A new page appeared after flipping the first one over. Entirely dark red with faint traces of gold, its hue was gentle and clean, with an aura of pure essence blood gus.h.i.+ng out from within. This page was actually holding all that essence blood and of the highest grade to boot. In terms of amount, it was roughly the same as Qianye’s essence blood capacity.
With a move of his will, a drop of essence blood emerged from the book and entered his blood core. Then, it slowly transformed into power for Qianye’s use.
This Engravement page could store large amounts of essence blood and also refine them in the process. Such pure essence blood no longer needed to be refined by the Mystery chapter and could enter the blood core directly to become auric flame blood. With this “Engravement”, Qianye’s blood energy would double, essentially increasing his battle endurance.
This giant rhinoceros could be considered a moving treasury. Of course, great profits came with huge risks—if it wasn’t for Qianye’s self-destructive behavior and decisive combat style, he would’ve only injured the monster at most, while falling into mortal peril himself. He would’ve chosen to flee under normal circ.u.mstances.
Qianye’s harvest at this point was truly bountiful, but the journey wasn’t yet at its end. A glow flickered through his eyes as he glanced at the depths of the cave. Since he was already here— and his combat strength had improved significantly—he naturally had to explore this Earth Dragon’s lair and see what this legendary blood was.
Perhaps he might accidentally “run into” Bluemoon again.
There was no way the Spider Emperor wouldn’t know of the earth-shattering battle between Qianye and the giant rhinoceros. It was precisely because of the ma.s.sive commotion that they tried to avoid this location as much as possible.
No one was willing to face a terrifying fierce beast like the giant rhinoceros. Moreover, numbers were useless against the sea of strange worms and pegmat.i.te crocodiles. Only a lone expert like Qianye could render them useless and even turn them into an inconvenience for the giant rhino.
With the giant rhino’s intimidation lingering even after its death, other fierce beasts didn’t approach, either. They would only come to fight over the territory after its aura had completely disappeared and they were sure that there was no longer a master in this area.
Qianye naturally couldn’t determine his direction in the giant, maze-like underground world. However, his senses were sharp enough to follow the fluctuations of the Earth Dragon’s will as it swept periodically over the land, allowing him to make out the heart of the lair. There could be no mistake as long as he kept going in that direction.
Qianye discovered two more blood altars and some traces of battle along the way. Judging from the markings, it would seem the Spider Emperor’s forces and the Moonlight demons had fought against the Earth Dragon’s army. The scale of the battles wasn’t that large, at most involving creatures at the level of the pegmat.i.te crocodiles.
He noticed that the Spider Emperor’s experts were quite restrained and clever in their fighting style. They relied on superior fighting skills and good cooperation to bring down the fierce beasts and avoided the use of excessive force, lest they alarm the Earth Dragon.
That giant rhinoceros wouldn’t have appeared if it wasn’t for the werewolf count raising his origin power and drawing the Earth Dragon’s attention.
He found no clues of Bluemoon along the way. It would seem she was indeed quite familiar with this underground world and managed to avoid all conflicts.
An entire day had pa.s.sed at this point—both the Spider Emperor’s forces and Bluemoon should’ve had a significant lead on him. But from the traces they had left behind, it was noticeable that their progress wasn’t fast at all and would better be described as a crawl.
The closer they were to the Earth Dragon’s body, the more dangerous it became. Entire squads would be annihilated if they somehow drew out marquis-level beasts like the giant rhinoceros.
Qianye came to a sudden halt after half a day of walking, and his gaze fell on the stone pillar beside him. Hidden within a natural gap in the stone surface was an intricate little trap, seemingly to warn the owner of intruders.
Qianye revealed a cold smile—this was probably a warning device left behind by the forces of the Spider Emperor and Moonlight Demons. Since it was a warning device and not a destructive one, it meant that their men were either nearby or that there was an important location they needed to guard, a blood altar for instance.
Qianye observed the surroundings, and then gave it some thought before burying some origin grenades in key areas. After he had set everything up, he returned to the stone pillar and stood in front of the alarm.
The trap exploded with a bang, emitting an ear-piercing whistle that spread into the distance. This sound was enough to travel dozens of kilometers in the silent underground world.
Moments later, extremely soft footsteps echoed around him as dozens of high-ranking soldiers sealed off the connecting tunnels. Afterward, an arrogant-sounding voice said, “We’ve finally caught you, Highbeard s.h.i.+eldmaiden. Your craftiness is truly admirable!”
Highbeard s.h.i.+eldmaiden? Qianye immediately thought of Bluemoon. It would seem her position in the tribe was even higher than he had expected. In this warlike tribe, the status of s.h.i.+eldmaiden was probably equal to the holy daughter of other races.
They had wanted to trap Bluemoon, but the one they managed to surround was Qianye.
A pale, lanky man walked out of the cave. He dressed like a young man, but upon closer inspection, there were undisguisable traces of hards.h.i.+p on his face. He was indeed quite powerful—a rank-fifteen origin power was extraordinary even in the neutral lands and just the right level under the limited conditions of the Earth Dragon’s lair. A person of higher level might not be able to bring out his full strength.
There were rank-seventeen experts in their tribe, but Bluemoon had only brought two rank-fifteen elders, and even those two never used their full power in battle.
This man looked around but found no traces of Bluemoon or the Highbeard elders, only Qianye. Startled, he asked, “Where is that little s.l.u.t, Bluemoon? Where did she go?”
“No idea.”
That man’s face turned gloomy. “Ungrateful wretch! Try to keep up that hard tone when you fall into my hands, keep saying you know nothing.”
At that point, someone arrived from behind and said, “Isn’t this Zhao Ye? Someone saw him together with Bluemoon in Southern Blue City.”
“Zhao Ye!” The pale man’s expression changed drastically and his eyes became bloodshot. “You’re Zhao Ye?”
Qianye said calmly, “That’s me.”
“Good, good, very good! You’re the one who killed over four hundred armored puppets in Port City. That’s not important, though, they have nothing to do with me personally since they belong to the Moonlight Demons. But, you killed Grey Shadow!”
That ethereal grey-shadow a.s.sa.s.sin didn’t really die in Qianye’s hands, but he was already certain that the mysterious killer back then was Nighteye. Only a sacred-mountain level like hers could pull off such a miraculous kill with limited power.
“Yes,” Qianye said calmly. Nighteye’s kill was the same as his kill.
“Good, good, very good! Do you know my relations.h.i.+p with Grey Shadow?”
Qianye laughed. “I’m not even interested in knowing who you are, much less your bulls.h.i.+t a.s.sociation with that grey shadow.”
“Good, good!” The man was livid as he slowly raised his hand and made a cutthroat gesture. The moment his hand reached the end of its slas.h.i.+ng motion was when everyone would take action. The reason he was doing it so slowly was to let Qianye experience the terror of his impending doom. It would be even better if the latter would struggle somewhat on his deathbed.
As expected, Qianye wasn’t willing to give up just yet. He produced an unbelievably weak grade-four pistol and opened fire at a corner of the cave.
The man felt his ears ringing as the shot was fired but recovered soon enough. “Making this seat dizzy is indeed an outstanding feat, but that’s just a grade-four weapon and its firepower is limited no matter how much you upgrade it. I wonder whether it can even break my old skin...”
His words were interrupted by a sudden rumble as one explosion after another erupted from all directions. In the limited s.p.a.ce of the underground tunnels, the additive impact of these origin grenades was magnified countless times in the blink of an eye.
A terrifying wave of explosions swept through the cave. Dozens of supportive pillars were destroyed, and the chaotic impact sent shattered rocks flying in every direction with the momentum of a cannon sh.e.l.l. Even high-ranking warriors were badly bruised when struck.
The man’s figure staggered about in the explosion and the origin power on his body flickered on and off. His combat robes had been shredded into little b.u.t.terflies, and the origin barrier around him was also growing weaker and weaker with each destruction.
The tempest and flames lasted for ages before gradually calming down. The man had somehow managed to survive the calamity. He lowered the hands with which he was covering his head and was just breathing a sigh of relief when two origin grenades rolled toward his feet.
“No!!!” He was sent flying amidst miserable cries, first cras.h.i.+ng into the cave roof and then back onto the ground.
As the dust settled, Qianye stretched and shook the dust off of his body—he had remained crouching with East Peak pierced into the ground for stabilization. He then went over to the man and poked him with his blade.
The man was motionless and had long since lost his life. His origin power had been drained from the concentrated explosion of twenty origin grenades. With nothing left to protect himself, the final two promptly ended him.