Bluemoon said softly, “You’ve seen my concealment ability. This is the origin array used to activate the stealth forcefield.”

“A genius idea.” Qianye couldn’t help but sigh in admiration. He had never seen an implantable origin array with such miraculous effects. As people who had dominated the mercenary world for hundreds of years, the Highbeards possessed their fair share of unique technology.

Qianye’s evaluation reminded Bluemoon of the past. Her body trembled ever so slightly as she said, “Not everyone can receive such an implant. The process is incredibly painful, and most people won’t live long afterward.”

This surprised Qianye. “How about you then?”

“It’s the same for me.”

Caroline cut in at this moment, “Highbeards will only undergo major modifications toward the end of their life, as a means to increase their fighting power. This kind of transformation apparently shortens their lives, otherwise, the Highbeards will be G.o.ds.”

Bluemoon said, “Divine champions rarely appear among us Highbeards. In order to preserve our way of life, all we can do is raise the fighting power of each tribesman and work in unison.”

Toward the end of this sentence, Bluemoon’s expression became quite dejected.

Qianye inquired further and formed a rough idea of the mechanical parts on her body. Afterward, he removed all of her weapons and the high-purity black crystal from her chest, replacing it with a half-drained ordinary black crystal. With this black crystal as her energy source, Bluemoon wouldn’t be able to raise her speed to escape. Even if she somehow did get away, she would run out of fuel after a hundred kilometers. It was no easy feat to find a refueling place within a hundred kilometers in the vast neutral lands.

After doing all that, Qianye returned Bluemoon’s clothes and walked over to Claudia.

Caroline’s figure appeared in Qianye’s path. “You want to kill her?”

“What else? Must I wait for Mask to come knocking on my door?”

Caroline sighed lightly. “Mask and I go way back, I also watched this girl grow up. I can’t stand by as you kill her, at least not this time. Let her swear not to disclose what happened here, then let her go.”

“Swear?” Qianye didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. If swearing was of any use, why would there be so many disputes in this world?

Caroline’s silhouette flickered once more and returned with Claudia in her arms. “You heard what I just said, right?”

Claudia was quite stubborn. “What if I go back on my oath?”

Caroline replied, “That will be the end of the friends.h.i.+p between His Excellency Mask and I. I will stand on Qianye’s side on the battlefield and fight the Moonlight Demons to the death.”

Claudia’s expression changed slightly. “Your confidence is indeed different from before.”

“That’s a given after coming to this place and walking out of it alive.” Caroline smiled.

This verified Claudia’s guess. Caroline had definitely obtained great benefits from this place and would break through very soon. If that were the case, the difference between Mask and her would shrink evidently, at least to the point of contending with him.

If Caroline could keep Mask in check, there would be no one to stop Qianye. Claudia understood—after fighting him personally—that the combination of his heavy sword, physique, and domain was indefensible. Even a divine champion would have to treat an all-out slash from Qianye seriously. She really couldn’t think of anyone below that rank who could fight head-on against him, except perhaps the inherently strong arachne and werewolves.

This meant the Moonlight Demons would suffer grave casualties if they wanted to take Qianye down. The most important part was that Qianye was in possession of the Dragons.h.i.+p. Even though it was just a sh.e.l.l, how were they going to chase after him?

Claudia gave it some thought. “Fine, I’ll take the oath, but I also want some benefits.”

Qianye frowned. “Speak.”

“A drop of Earth Dragon’s blood.”

Qianye said after some thought, “Okay.”

Claudia was really surprised. “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll scam you?”

Qianye said indifferently, “Well, what difference does it make?”

Claudia spoke no more. She took the medicine Caroline had just pa.s.sed her and then sat down to heal her injuries. Whether it was a subconscious action or otherwise, she chose a spot quite a distance away from the Earth Dragon’s heart.

“Let’s leave this place.” Qianye walked over to the engine and began to control it.

The Earth Dragon’s heart began beating slowly as the engine began operating at high speed. The giant s.h.i.+p formed of the Earth Dragon’s remains seemingly came to life, ascending, speeding up, and eventually flying away.

Gazing at the distant island, Caroline said softly, “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Thank you for letting Claudia off, I know you did it because of me.”

Qianye said, “If we must talk about grat.i.tude, I should be the one thanking you. Actually, I still don’t understand why you would suddenly give up on the opportunity to kill me and obtain all of this.”

This problem had been lingering in Qianye’s heart for a long while. He only brought it up after Caroline had clearly expressed her goodwill and even a bit of charm. He had never once believed that he was attractive enough to make a divine champion switch sides in battle.

Caroline sighed lightly. “I don’t know, either. If I must give a reason, I guess it’s my admiration for that person."

Qianye nodded, thinking that it made sense. Martial Ancestor once said that one would only know the immensity of heaven and earth after reaching the top. Only those closest to the peak would truly understand how frightening the Pointer Monarch was, and the shock Caroline had gone through should be much greater than Qianye’s. Now that he had received a part of the Pointer Monarch’s inheritance, Caroline must’ve transferred a part of this emotion onto him.

Martyr’s Palace finally left the isolated island and flew toward the closest Eastern-Sea landma.s.s. It couldn’t be considered a complete wars.h.i.+p since it didn’t even have a real engine. Nonetheless, it could still float through s.p.a.ce by virtue of the void colossus’ power. Although the vessel’s speed wasn’t anything to write home about, it could still cross the void with relative ease.

It took an entire two days from the lone island to the Eastern Sea. This journey was neither close nor far, quite suitable for traveling to and fro. There were no other landma.s.ses near the lone island, and it was clear of airs.h.i.+p flight paths. Hence, very few people ever came here. Even if there were pa.s.sersby, they simply couldn’t see the forcefield around this island—and the fact that it could support life—without getting close enough.

Later on, when the time was ripe, this island would also make for a fairly good estate.

Claudia spent these two days in silent cultivation. After obtaining the Earth Dragon’s blood, she chose to absorb and refine it immediately. In two day’s time, most of the Earth Dragon’s blood had been absorbed. It would seem she was intent on completing the absorption process before going back.

Bluemoon seemed to have resigned herself to her fate of following Qianye. She was far from used to moving about without her kinetic equipment, but she inspected the Martyr’s Palace sector by sector, drafting numerous diagrams for the planning. These diagrams were fairly complex; one could see at a glance that it came from a professional. Qianye picked up a couple of them and studied them for some time, but he found himself unable to make heads or tails about it. He could only put the papers back and admit that he wasn’t made to work on s.h.i.+ps.

Two days later, the Martyr’s Palace arrived on the borders of the Eastern Sea Continent. Caroline and Claudia both got off here and set out on their own return journey.

Caroline was eager to go back and absorb the Earth Dragon’s blood and attempt one more breakthrough. The advancement of a divine champion was no small matter, and it was likely that Qianye wouldn’t be seeing her for a while. Claudia said nothing as she left—she neither said goodbye nor displayed any killing intent. She looked at Qianye as though she would a stranger, making it difficult for the latter to guess her thoughts.

Be it in the empire or Evernight, Claudia was destined to rise among the geniuses. Petty-minded people might find it difficult to allow such a person to mature. To Qianye, however, a genius he had caught up to was no longer a genius—the distance between them would only grow larger. Besides, Qianye had already promised Caroline, and he certainly wasn’t willing to break his promise to the lady who had, in a way, saved his life.

After Claudia and Caroline were out of sight and the Martyr’s Palace had taken to the air once more, Bluemoon arrived beside Qianye with a thick stack of drawings. “The basic sketches have been plotted out, but we need to work on each section in greater detail. It’ll take two year’s time if you rely on me alone to complete the designs.”

This rate of progress surprised Qianye a fair bit. Not to mention a giant void airs.h.i.+p like the Martyr’s Palace, even an ordinary battles.h.i.+p’s upgrade designs required close to a thousand people working for two years. If Bluemoon wasn’t bluffing, that meant she was truly a genius.

Qianye felt somewhat of a headache as he glanced at the stack of papers. Bluemoon was going to hand him the sketches at first but tactfully put them away after noticing his expression. Instead, she pointed at Claudia’s direction and said, “Are you really letting her go like that?”

Qianye raised his brows. “What do you mean to say?”

“I just feel that it’s a dumb method to put your hopes on her being able to keep this secret.”

“Then how do we make her keep this secret?”

“Simple, dead men tell no tales.”

Qianye laughed. “It’s fine even if she talks about it.”

Qianye had already given this matter repeated thought, and releasing Claudia was actually the result of deep contemplation. Whether Claudia kept her words or not, it would only deepen Caroline’s position at Qianye’s side. As for the Moonlight Demon’s retaliation, Qianye didn’t need to be afraid because he had the Martyr’s Palace in his control. Actually, the Pointer Monarch had left a couple of secrets in the Martyr’s Palace that Qianye hadn"t even told Caroline about.

One of them was the power left behind on the Earth Dragon’s heart that hadn’t been activated to this day. The energy was still intact thanks to the power of the Earth Dragon’s heart and had even grown a bit stronger. If someone were to approach the heart and try to seize the control rights, they would suffer an attack from the Pointer Monarch. The man had only just reached the heavenly monarch realm back then and his power would be discounted during storage, but that wasn’t something an ordinary divine champion could take.

Only Qianye, who possessed a top-grade daybreak origin power, could control the Earth Dragon’s heart without activating the Pointer Monarch’s trap. He already understood that the reason for him obtaining the Pointer Monarch’s inheritance was actually due to his Venus Dawn.

He was told that Venus Dawn stood proof of Qianye’s temperament and confirmed that he wouldn’t turn to Evernight. Actually, Qianye didn’t quite understand this logic—could it be that those with inclinations toward the dark races wouldn’t be able to inherit Venus Dawn?

The other important secret was the one Qianye planned to use now. It was a set of coordinates carved in the depths of the Earth Dragon’s heart.