Having fought against Bluemoon for so many years, Red Lotus wasn’t someone without schemes. She immediately thought of something. “It’s easy if you want my person, I can’t resist anyway, but my true value is far beyond my body. There’s no need for me to persist since even Bluemoon has submitted, but if you want me to work sincerely with you two, shouldn’t you be expressing some good faith?”

Qianye paid her no attention, almost as though he hadn’t heard her at all. Song Zining, however, seemed rather interested. “What do you want? You want to be his only woman? Then you’ll be utterly disappointed, there’s no need to discuss this topic further.”

Red Lotus turned red and said through clenched teeth, “Am I really worth that little!?”

Song Zining shrugged. “You said so yourself, your value isn’t about your body.”

Red Lotus replied furiously, “Fine, my condition is that my position must be higher than Bluemoon’s!”

Song Zining let out an exclamation of surprise. He patted Qianye’s shoulder and asked thoughtfully, “Who’s Bluemoon? How good looking is she?”

Qianye almost drove the car into a ditch. “Zining, seventh young n.o.ble! Can you think about something else other than women!?”

“Well… I can’t have just one woman in my head like you, can I? Besides, she’s already unrelated to you, you know. Enough, now tell me how good looking Bluemoon is, is she prettier than Red Lotus?”

Qianye replied helplessly, “Bluemoon is a Highbeard.”

His implication was that Highbeards were never a tribe known for beauty since they had traces of modification all over their bodies.

However, Song Zining remained persistent. “Highbeards are also human!”

Qianye could only give a vague reply since he couldn’t get away from this topic. “About the same, I guess.”

However, Red Lotus wasn’t happy about this. “What’s this about us looking the same!? I’m clearly more beautiful than her. How can that thin, flat brat be considered good-looking?”

Song Zining shot Red Lotus an approving glance.

Half a day’s journey amidst all these twists and turns made Qianye feel as though he had just fought a great battle. Only after they had reached their destination on the edge of the continent did he manage to sigh in relief.

He jumped off the vehicle and said, “We’re here, get off the car.”

Song Zining glanced about, but there was nothing apart from the vast snowy mountains and origin tempests. He secretly used his divination arts, but despite his mind being thrown into turmoil, he couldn’t actually glean any useful information. One possibility was that he had run into an ent.i.ty that he couldn’t afford to provoke, or it could also be that the sensation was brought about by the chaotic void origin power here.

“What were you planning to show me?” Song Zining asked.

He had just spoken when he noticed Red Lotus looking up at the sky, shocked witless. Soon, darkness washed over the land as a giant shadow was cast upon the border area.

Song Zining looked up to find a gigantic dragons.h.i.+p that occupied his entire field of vision!

The Martyr’s Palace emerged slowly from amidst the void storms, gliding silently through the skies until it was hovering fifty meters from the ground. The impact of the ma.s.sive airs.h.i.+p at such a distance suffocated everyone!

“T-This…” Even Song Zining was no longer as calm and lighthearted as before. For a brief moment, he couldn’t quite tell what this monstrosity was.

Judging from its external appearance, it looked half-colossus and half-wars.h.i.+p. But how could there be such a giant airs.h.i.+p? Even the largest imperial mothers.h.i.+ps could fit into the hold of this vessel. Perhaps only Apocalypse, Lilith’s legendary airs.h.i.+p that had bathed for thousands of years in the River of Blood, or the Demonkin Emperor’s well-hidden Dark Conviction were its match.

“This is Martyr’s Palace, you can think of it as my wars.h.i.+p, but only a fraction of its construction has been completed, no, not even a small fraction.”

A fraction of such a ma.s.sive airs.h.i.+p was of unimaginable value even if it were to remain on the ground.

Song Zining only lost his composure, but Red Lotus was completely flabbergasted and hadn’t recovered her wits just yet. To a Highbeard, this ma.s.sive war machine possessed an inexplicable sense of beauty that they simply couldn’t resist.

Qianye slapped Song Zining on the back. “Let’s go up and see.”

“Okay.” Song Zining soared impatiently into the air and charged straight into the Martyr’s Palace. Qianye glanced back at Red Lotus and, for the lack of a better option, held her by the waist as he flew toward the airs.h.i.+p.

Whirlwind also activated his flying equipment and slowly followed the others into the palace.

Inside the Martyr’s Palace, there were dozens of Highbeards hard at work, installing numerous equipment at their designated locations. Each kinetic sail required a large number of auxiliary equipment for normal function. The work involved in st.i.tching eight kinetic sails together was exponentially higher and definitely not as simple as eight times the usual work.

In truth, these sails could be made bigger in relation to the Earth Dragon’s spine, but Bluemoon was only at the level where she could design eight pieces together.

Despite having installed only five origin sails, the installation of equipment and calibration was a huge undertaking. Before this, Qianye could only unfurl the sails directly and boost the vessel’s acceleration. However, acceleration was but the most basic function of a kinetic sail.

The Highbeards on the airs.h.i.+p were all loyal to Bluemoon. They were greatly alarmed upon seeing Red Lotus, so much so that two of them even picked up their weapons. From these small details, it was obvious just how aggressive the situation between the two of them was.

Seeing Qianye raise his hand, the Highbeards on the airs.h.i.+p lowered their weapons and returned to their posts to continue working. At this point, Qianye enjoyed a fair bit of prestige among the Highbeards of Bluemoon’s branch, to the point of them obeying him without question.

Red Lotus was livid and seemingly full of worry. Only after personally witnessing the Martyr’s Palace did she realize Qianye’s terrifying potential. Just this ma.s.sive Martyr’s Palace alone was comparable to a small princ.i.p.ality.

Having made an enemy out of this man was admittedly the most stupid thing Red Lotus had done. Her eyes were filled with anger instead of regret, and this anger wasn’t directed at Qianye but at Bluemoon’s Highbeards.

It was at this time that a voice full of joy echoed throughout the chamber, “Mama!”

Song Zining’s expression transformed drastically upon hearing this call. His figure immediately turned illusory as he flashed to the side. But he had just taken the first step when a small cannonball of a body rammed into him, rendering all of his fantastic illusions useless.

“Thud!” A dazed Song Zining fell to the ground. Little Zhuji sat down on his chest with a delighted expression and gave him a big kiss. “Mama!”

“Get off! Immediately, right now, this very instant!” Song Zining’s expression was stern, but Little Zhuji wasn’t about to buy all that. She laughed radiantly and planted yet another familiar kiss on Song Zining’s cheek.

Song Zining struggled repeatedly, exerting greater force each time. But Little Zhuji had grown so much stronger than he had remembered, almost on par with a top-tier beast. A push of her little hands pressed Song Zining back to the ground.

Red Lotus stared at Song Zining with wide eyes, seemingly shocked and almost as if she couldn’t believe what she had heard. Could it be that this young man she had almost fallen for at one point was a woman?

Song Zining saw the changes in Red Lotus’ expression through the corner of his eyes and nearly blacked out from the anger. He struggled with all his might, but Little Zhuji exerted just as much force.

The poor seventh young master was pressed to the ground for the moment and couldn’t turn the tables no matter what.

Nonetheless, he was still an expert with profound cultivation and great expertise in the combat arts. Even if he couldn’t compare to Qianye and Zhao Jundu, he was still a rare genius among the younger generation of the empire. Tossing, turning, and applying various secret moves, it looked like he was about to push Zhuji away pretty soon.

Flushed and worried, the little fellow turned to Qianye. “What should I do, I want to kiss Mommy more!”

Qianye said coldly, “Blow into his face.”

Little Zhuji was startled. “That’s not too good, is it?”

“Just a small mouthful won’t kill him.”

Song Zining instinctively knew that something was off. He shouted loudly at Qianye, “Qianye! Just you wait! Zhuji, don’t listen to him. W-What are you doing!?”

Little Zhuji opened her little mouth and sprayed a mouthful of faint green gas onto Song Zining’s face.

The latter let out a m.u.f.fled groan as all of his strength left his body. His origin power went out of control, and it was fluctuating so wildly that he couldn’t even deploy his domain. Additionally, the gas didn’t even need to be inhaled—it would invade the body upon contact and go straight for the origin vortex.

Song Zining was shocked out of his wits. He immediately activated his origin power to destroy the invading green energy. Fortunately, the poison was fairly thin and weak. It was finally wiped away after just a few waves of origin power.

This short lapse allowed Little Zhuji to hug Song Zining firmly and give him several kisses. Finally, she jumped off in satisfaction.

Song Zining glared fiercely at Qianye and stretched out his hand. “Pull me up!”

Smiling, Qianye dragged the seventh young master to his feet and even patted off the dust on his robes.

Song Zining slapped Qianye’s hand away with a snort and beckoned Zhuji, “Come.”

Little Zhuji cheered joyfully and pounced onto him at lightning speed, once again pinning him to the ground. She opened her little mouth, seemingly about to blow another mouthful of green gas.

Gasping in alarm, Song Zining covered the girl’s mouth and stopped the potential gas attack.

The seventh young master lifted the girl up by the nape of her neck, and only then was he able to clamber up. He placed the girl in front of him and asked with a stern expression, “When did you learn to use poison?”

Zhuji looked puzzled. “I just knew it!”

Song Zining looked distressed. Knowing that he wasn’t going to get any useful information out of the girl, he turned to Qianye. The latter said, “Have you forgotten that Stuka’s innate talent is poison?”

“You call that poison? It’s a far cry from our Little Zhuji.” Song Zining wore an expression of disdain as he praised the little fellow.

“Qian! Ye!” Song Zining uttered through clenched teeth. “Telling her to blow into my face, are you worried that I won’t die fast enough?”

Qianye looked up at the sky. “That little mouthful won’t kill you, you’ll be half-dead at most.”

Song Zining was livid. “Just a bit more and I’ll be in trouble! Why don’t you let her blow into your face and see?”

Qianye chuckled. “No need, I’ll be perfectly fine.”

Only then did Song Zining recall Qianye’s abnormal vampire const.i.tution.

“You two seem to share a fairly good relations.h.i.+p,” Red Lotus interrupted the spat.

“... You, you’ll be a.s.signed as Bluemoon’s a.s.sistant from tomorrow on,” Qianye said emotionlessly.