Qianye went out into the wilderness instead of remaining in Southern Blue. There were cracks and pits scattered throughout the land that made for perfect hiding places. With Zhuji around, Qianye wasn’t really afraid of disruption since the little fellow’s aura could drive away all wild beasts within a five-kilometer radius.

At this point, Qianye’s blood energy cultivation had improved by leaps and bounds after fighting in several major battles. His body was beginning to be modified in the direction of the fire-forged physique and had officially reached the standards of an ancient virtuous count. In terms of leveling up, the dark golden blood energy suffered no bottlenecks at all in his current phase. As long as he could harvest enough essence blood, he would be able to break through every gate in a natural manner.

He had already experienced numerous battles in the neutral lands where his all-out attacks filled him with so much essence blood that he was about to burst apart. However, the Book of Darkness could serve as a reservoir, and his blood core could—by means of ignition—turn it into auric flame blood. Any amount of essence blood could be transformed rapidly to become a part of Qianye’s body, free from the limitations of the Mystery Chapter’s conversion rate.

But now, his daybreak origin power had become his shortcoming. The Profound Combatant Formula was unparalleled in drawing void origin power, but turning it into Venus Dawn involved going through the Glory Chapter. The Song Clan Ancient Scroll operated with its own tempo that was neither fast nor slow; one couldn’t speed it up at will. According to the current progress, it would take several months to produce a new origin vortex.

This progress was already quite shocking, but it was almost unbearable when compared to Qianye’s Evernight side.

Hence, he decided to take full advantage of this rare reprieve to cultivate his daybreak side. Perhaps he could form his fourth origin vortex after a month of intensive training.

Qianye looked around the underground area and sat down after finding no signs of danger or potential interruption. There, he began to circulate the Profound Combatant Formula in silence.

As the formula began to circulate, an attraction force appeared on Qianye’s three origin vortices and eventually turned into a slowly revolving whirlpool. The gravitation grew stronger and more evident as the vortex increased in size. After pa.s.sing a certain point, Qianye started to sense the presence of void origin power.

This feeling was fairly wondrous—the originally formless s.p.a.ce seemed to turn tangible and increasingly distinct.

At this moment, the vortex had spread out a hundred meters. The origin power within range spun continuously as it converged into the center and was absorbed into Qianye’s body. Additionally, Origin power was also being attracted to the vortex from a much wider surrounding area.

Wisps of void origin power were also drawn in and absorbed into Qianye’s body.

At this point, there was a fairly heavy pressure bearing down on him, a weight sufficient to crush any ordinary champion into meat paste. This was his limit in the past, wherein he would stop driving the formula onward.

But that was no longer the case today, for his const.i.tution had taken a huge leap forward and was now more than capable of withstanding the force.

Qianye came to a sudden realization as he recalled all of the Pointer Monarch’s wondrous arrangements in the Earth Dragon’s lair. At this moment, he had managed to touch on the profundities of s.p.a.ce by virtue of the Profound Combatant Formula.

In Qianye’s perception, the s.p.a.ce around him was as thin and fragile as a sheet of gla.s.s, almost as though he could break it with a light tap.

He a.s.sessed the burden on his body and decided to accelerate the Profound Combatant Formula. The gravitation became stronger and stronger until, finally, a resounding crack echoed in the air. The fragile s.p.a.ce had finally been torn apart!

In the blink of an eye, several wandering black lacerations appeared in the air above the wilderness, causing everything in their wake to disappear in a flash. Vast amounts of void origin power poured down and formed a giant tornado that drilled into the earth—it was a magnificent sight to behold!

The burden on Qianye’s body increased sharply, growing to almost two times its previous load. Even his ancient vampire const.i.tution could hardly bear the pressure. His bones began to creak and groan, with fine cracks appearing on their surface.

Qianye held on arduously with clenched teeth, unwilling to stop the Profound Combatant Formula. A situation like this—one in which he could clearly sense the fabric of s.p.a.ce being torn and void origin power pouring in—was beyond rare. It was only natural that Qianye wouldn’t want to miss it. In truth, it was akin to comprehending a higher realm in advance. He would rather receive heavy injuries than stop. Who knew when he would get another opportunity like this?

At this moment, the strange phenomena in the wilderness had attracted the attention of the adventurers. Many people stopped to glance at the terrifying origin power vortex in the distance, wondering if they should go over to see. Some veteran mercenaries left quickly after a moment of contemplation. As they saw it—whatever was happening under the ground—a frightening existence that could incite an origin storm wasn’t something they could deal with.

But some greenhorns didn’t think the same. They turned their cars about rapidly and charged toward the storm. The neutral lands was full of legends about how people had made a fortune overnight, the authenticity of which people didn’t quite care. In this world where people lived hand to mouth, there was never a lack of people willing to risk their lives. Everyone was destined to die sooner or later, so why not have a try? Perhaps good luck would smash down on their heads one day.

The number of people with such thoughts wasn’t small. Hence, numerous adventurers advanced toward the center of the storm, braving the sandstorm and lethal spatial tears.

The origin tempest vanished as quickly as it had arrived.

By the time Qianye walked out of the ground, what he saw was a group of red-eyed adventurers.

He was somewhat startled as he looked around. There was nothing in the rocky wasteland around him that looked remotely attractive. How come there were so many people all of a sudden? It looked like all the adventurers in a ten-kilometer radius had gathered here.

There was no conflict between the two parties just yet. Qianye simply made to leave since he had no intention of entangling with them. Some unknown person called out at this moment, “The treasure is on him!”

Everyone was jolted. They recalled how Qianye had appeared at the center of the storm right after it had pa.s.sed. This was too much of a coincidence.

Someone shouted, “Brat, hand over whatever treasure you’ve found and we’ll spare you. We might even give you a share.”

Another person said in a sinister tone, “What’s the point? Kill him first and the thing will be ours.”

“True.” Most people agreed.

In the empire, most adventurers and hunters had their bottom lines. The hunters, in particular, only hunted the dark races, making s.p.a.ce for humanity’s survival. People like Old Two and Yu Yingnan for instance, their hearts were filled with light despite walking in the dark.

In the neutral lands, however, there was no semblance of a lawful nation. Be it adventurers, mercenaries, or hunters, all of them acted the same way. Like a pack of hyenas in the wilderness, they could be savage and cruel for just a bit of food.

Qianye’s eyes grew cold as he watched the adventurers charging toward him. He didn’t even draw East Peak and merely threw punches at them. Following several m.u.f.fled thuds, those struck by him stood dazed momentarily before falling down as corpses.

The slower ones halted their steps in shock, having realized that they had encountered an enemy they couldn’t handle. A few of them began to hesitate, while the quicker ones simply turned and fled.

These adventurers were quite weak, and most of them couldn’t even get into major mercenary corps. Against such enemies, Qianye couldn’t even be bothered to chase them down. There was, however, one target he wouldn’t let go.

Qianye whipped out the b.l.o.o.d.y Datura and fired from the hip, immediately bringing down a certain adventurer. The man struggled to glance back at Qianye, his eyes filled with terror and disbelief.

Qianye’s face was expressionless as he fired once more. With a rumble of the b.l.o.o.d.y datura, the adventurer’s brain burst into many pieces.

This man was the one who had shouted, “The treasure is on him!” After inciting all the other people, he hid himself at the back without leading the charge. Perhaps he had wanted to gauge Qianye’s strength first or maybe he was just used to inciting others.

Qianye could let the other people go, but he wasn’t about to spare such a b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

The other adventurers lost their heads after seeing Qianye’s kill. They fled even faster and soon scattered in every direction.

“Let’s go.” Qianye didn’t go after them, either. He merely picked up Zhuji and headed for Southern Blue.

There was never an end to these hyenas in the wilderness.

Back at Southern Blue, Qianye took up residence at the Highbeards’ base of operations. He cultivated the glory chapter in silence, refining his origin power without ever leaving the room.

The Profound Combatant Formula’s laceration of the void allowed Qianye to absorb enough origin power in a short while. His three origin vortices couldn’t contain this much origin power at all. What he needed to do now was to use the Glory Chapter to convert this energy into Venus Dawn origin power.

There was no rush to this step. Qianye was happy to meditate in peace since it would take several more days for the goods to arrive, and he also had a group of Highbeards guarding him.

As for Little Zhuji, she slept soundly beside Qianye, her nap lasting as long as the latter’s cultivation session, which was several days straight.

After five entire days, Bluemoon came knocking on the door. “It’s time to pick up the goods.”

“Okay.” Qianye picked up the sleeping girl and walked out of the room.

Bluemoon whispered, “There’s been a fair number of suspicious people watching us. They don’t look local and might be from the empire.”

“Empire?” Qianye’s eyes narrowed.

“We might encounter some problems while collecting the goods,” Bluemoon reminded.

Qianye smiled. “It’ll be fine as long as they can deliver the goods to the designated location. Don’t forget that we still have the Martyr’s Palace.”

Bluemoon calmed down immediately.

A person walked into the empire’s secret base in Southern Blue and said to Lu Saobei, “General, they’ve just left. Judging from the direction, it looks like they’re off to collect the goods.”

Lu Saobei’s eyes flickered with killing intent. “Good, I’ve been waiting for this day. We shall set out and prepare an ambush in the void. This time, we must turn him into a corpse!”

The appointed place was a small town close to the Eastern Sea. This una.s.suming little place was home to just a few hundred residents, no larger than a village back in the empire.

At this moment, several dozen trucks were pa.s.sing through the small town and toward an empty s.p.a.ce outside. There was an old airs.h.i.+p parked there—its propellers were stained with rust, and there was steam gus.h.i.+ng out of its engines. This vessel was a bit too run-down even by neutral-land standards.