A blizzard was raging on the borders of the Eastern Sea Continent.

The pieces of ice and gravel in the wind weren’t any less destructive than an ordinary bullet. Even those with good eyesight could hardly see ten meters in front of them, the world beyond being a vast expanse of white. The most dangerous places were the spatial tears since they couldn’t be spotted with the naked eye.

A lone silhouette was traveling on the snowy plains. His steps didn’t look too fast, but they were firm. In just half a day, he had traversed half of the entire white landscape.

The person removed his hood in the middle of the snowy plains and looked about. That near-perfect countenance belonged to Qianye. That ancient vampire face, tainted with a wisp of sad beauty, looked even more touching in this world of wind and snow.

Even Qianye’s True Sight couldn’t do much at the continent border since it was shrouded in a tempest of void origin power. Beyond the blizzard was an expanse of chaos that looked the same wherever one looked.

However, Qianye could sense his direction in this mysterious darkness. He rested momentarily before resuming his journey across the snow-swept plains.

The blizzard was simply too powerful. Behind the snow and wind on the surface was actually a violent turbulence of void origin power. Even Qianye couldn’t speed up or fly under such circ.u.mstances. It wouldn’t feel good if he was swept into a spatial tear.

According to Song Zining, this was an early sign of the origin tide ebbing. There would be a bout of chaos before the great calm.

After walking for an unknown length of time, a familiar airs.h.i.+p appeared at the ends of his vision.

Considering his powerful eyesight, he noticed Vampire Marquis Jared almost at the same time that he saw the airs.h.i.+p. The man was standing in the snow and wind, apparently waiting for him. This didn’t mean the vampire was stronger than Qianye, but it went to show that Nighteye knew of his coming. She had sent the marquis out to wait.

This gesture of courtesy contained a hint of self-evident coldness. Nighteye had sent Jared because she didn’t want to see Qianye.

Jared bowed, saying, “Master asked me to meet you here.”

Nodding, Qianye brought out the office drawer he had obtained from Linken. “I have something for her. I don’t know what it’s used for, just give it to her.”

“I obey.” Only after saying these words did Jared realize that he was more respectful toward Qianye. He looked up cautiously at the latter and asked, “What’s inside?”

“I have no idea, but it looks like good stuff.”

“Then, you mean…”

“Consider it a present.” Qianye finally found a pa.s.sable excuse.

“Very well, I’ll make sure to pa.s.s your words and present to the Master.”

“Thanks.” Qianye smiled. It looked like he wanted to say something. There was much on his mind, but he couldn’t put them into words. In the end, he simply turned around and left with a sigh.

Jared stood in the snow. Only after Qianye’s figure had receded into the snow did he feel relieved. He found, to his great shock, that he was somewhat fearful of Qianye this time. What level of strength had he reached to be able to intimidate a marquis?

It hadn’t been that long since he had first seen Qianye.

A gust of wind sent a chill down Jared’s body and served to remind him that Nighteye was still waiting inside. Not daring to drag things out, he hugged the drawer cabinet and returned to the wars.h.i.+p. He put the object down in the great hall and said respectfully, “Master, I’ve brought it back.”

“Open it.” Nighteye’s voice was calm, cold, and indifferent.

Jared was already observing the cabinet on his way here, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t sense whatever was inside. This piqued his curiosity even more, yet no amount of courage in the world was enough for him to peep at Qianye’s gift for Nighteye.

He had already guessed, back during their first encounter, that the two were somehow related. But, he felt that there was an insurmountable chasm between the two, not something talents could make up for. The intimidation effect Nighteye had on him was even stronger than a prince’s.

However, Jared felt a bit of a shock after seeing Qianye again. The latter was following Nighteye at a miraculous speed, so much so that Jared began to question his own common sense. Was this Qianye really going to close the gap?

But the law of blood was unquestionable. The closer one was to the source of the River of Blood, the fewer seats there were. Tens of thousands of years of history had proven this truth. Actually, Nighteye’s status and her existence itself had already surpa.s.sed Jared’s imagination. If one were to add another Qianye to her side, how would the long River of Blood accommodate so many experts?”

Jared studied the drawer cabinet as he thought about all this but came to no conclusion. He grabbed the handle lightly and tried tugging on it, but it actually opened up just like that.

Just like it was for Qianye, a small black sun rose up in the hall. The lethal black light wracked Jared with pain, and he could see nothing else but a flash of white. He couldn’t tell why staring at the sun had blinded him, but he knew for sure that the black radiance was highly dangerous.

He reached out to close the drawer in his confusion, but a shrill scream echoed beside his ears. It was as though millions of fierce spirits were crying out at the same time. For a moment, he could see nothing, hear nothing, and was drowned in agonizing pain. He simply couldn’t tell where he was anymore.

At this point, the drawer closed with a soft click. Nighteye had made her move.

Although the drawer was closed, the black sun didn’t disperse completely. It shot out a wisp of black light which made to escape through the air, but a string of blood appeared out of nowhere and lashed at the light until it was completely destroyed. The black wisp of light managed to escape Qianye, but it couldn’t avoid being destroyed before Nighteye.

Jared finally regained his senses after the black sun was dispersed. “What is this thing!?”

“What do you think?”

Jared fell into contemplation. Finally, he said, “As I see it, this is an extreme form of demonic steel. As for why the demonic energy being emitted is reacting so strongly with my blood energy, that I cannot explain.”

Nighteye replied, “This is demonic steel inoculated with ancient demonic blood, the apex of a demonkin’s life pursuit. To any demonkin, this is a treasure worth an entire life of effort.”

“Is it useful for us vampires?”

“Perhaps, perhaps not.”

Jared glanced at the cabinet with a complicated expression. This was a priceless treasure for the demonkin but not at all useful for vampires, perhaps it was even harmful. Why would Qianye risk all that danger to bring this thing to them?

Nighteye inquired, “What did he say?”

"Sire Qianye said that this is a present for you."

Nighteye was startled. “Present? This thing?”

“Yes.”

Nighteye was lost in thought, clearly puzzled as to Qianye’s intentions.

Jared seemed to have thought of something at this point. His expression only s.h.i.+fted slightly, but that couldn’t escape Nighteye’s perception. “What are you thinking of?”

“I think I know Sire Qianye’s intentions now.”

“Speak.”

Jared said cautiously, “The demonic steel isn’t useful to our vampire race, but its value is priceless.”

It went without saying that the demonic steel would cause a huge ruckus if brought into the market. Those demonkin families would go all out to obtain them.

Jared continued, “Sire Qianye must have other things more useful to vampires, but they aren’t as valuable as the demonic steel. This present might not be the most suitable, but it’s the best thing he has to offer.”

“Humph, nonsense!” Nighteye didn’t seem that happy.

At this moment, Qianye hadn’t gone that far out. He was sitting cross-legged on a mountaintop, contemplating amidst the wind and snow. It was just that he couldn’t see the wars.h.i.+p at this distance, and neither could Nighteye sense him. To Qianye, just knowing she was in that direction was quite enough.

The raging winds, ice, and gravel pattered onto Qianye’s body, yet he remained unmoving like a stone sculpture. He was fully concentrated on the upcoming fight against Luo Bingfeng.

Countless simulations went through his mind, but all of them ended with a miserable loss for Qianye. The gap in strength was definitely one of the reasons, but the lethal factor was that Luo Bingfeng’s Death Stare was simply too powerful. Calling it Death Stare was a bit of an exaggeration, but Qianye would be frozen for a split second before managing to break free. As for the damage caused by the ability itself, it was almost negligible to Qianye’s ancient vampire const.i.tution.

However, the moment of petrification was enough for Luo Bingfeng to kill him half a dozen times over. In that aspect, it was somewhat similar to Qianye’s Eye of Control.

Qianye had tried using his Eye of Control to counterattack but it was far too weak to restrain the man’s movements.

The results of his simulation proved that someone needed to block Luo Bingfeng at the very moment Qianye was struck with the Death Stare.

However, Qianye also found something wrong during these mental simulations—he would be defeated too quickly for some reason. This simulation wasn’t just pure imagination; he was making use of the memories he had from their previous encounter. Qianye had been struck by Death Stare back then and was saved by Ji Tianqing. Thinking back to it, the city lord’s ability seemed a bit too excessive.

There must’ve been some external interference that Qianye hadn’t sensed back then. This skill was a bit similar to Song Zining’s Three Thousand Flying Leaves art.

Qianye immediately recalled the woman beside Luo Bingfeng. The lady looked weak, but she was probably an extremely capable divination expert. Rui Xiang picking her as a target was probably more than just to distract Luo Bingfeng. Perhaps that old fellow had withheld certain pieces of information.

Qianye did have a good impression of Luo Bingfeng. This Tidehark City Lord was extremely powerful, true to his words, and loyal, a true role model amongst the current generation. Unfortunately, the people of the world were like ants in the face of greater powers. The two sides had no way to avoid a fight to the death. It was despicable people like Rui Xiang who felt more at home during difficult circ.u.mstances, benefitting from different parties.

At the thought of this, Qianye had a sudden idea. If they could work together with Rui Xiang, why could they not work with the city lord and convince him to give up the pa.s.sage? It was already quite obvious that Zhang Buzhou wanted to get rid of Luo Bingfeng. Someone as smart as the city lord should’ve figured out the clues by now.

However, Qianye soon shook his head. He knew the city lord’s character. The man would never turn traitor until Zhang Buzhou had drawn his sword.

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