[V6C168 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]

After losing the power of the tempest, Qianye fell straight down like a stone in the water. At this moment, his palpitation intensified and his entire body froze up—he actually couldn’t move!

Any other person might’ve been knocked out under the earth-shattering suppressive might. This wasn’t related to strength. It was akin to how myriad beasts would be overcome by fear when meeting the beast king.

However, Qianye’s body only froze up for a few seconds before the dark golden blood energy and Venus Dawn were awakened at the same time. His blood core began pulsating with great power, pumping the auric flame blood to every part of his body. His two origin vortices also spun rapidly in a bid to spray out a steady stream of crystal-infused daybreak origin power.

“Bang!” The flexible armor on Qianye’s body was torn to pieces and his combat robes, reduced to tatters. However, the golden blood energy was roaming throughout his body amidst the strands of surging sunlight-like origin power. This forcibly shattered the suppressive might binding his body.

Qianye spat out a mouthful of blood the moment this invisible pressure was broken. This mouthful of auric flame blood was mixed with countless crystalline granules. The auric flame blood ignited after coming into contact with the daybreak origin power crystals, quickly turning into a mass of flames which shot into the sky.

Qianye immediately felt relaxed after spitting out blood, and the mountainous pressure upon him disappeared. In truth, the pressure was still there, but Qianye’s rolling blood energy and origin power had isolated him from it. The pressure could no longer affect him.

Under the sweeping invisible pressure—perhaps in order to deal with the immediate mortal peril—the dark golden blood energy and Venus Dawn were actually showing signs of merging together. They seemed to be working together to resist the formless suppression.

Qianye flipped about and landed lightly on his feet. He suddenly thought of something and glanced far into the sky.

All he saw was a beam of white light coming in from the distance and speeding toward the horizon. It crossed the firmament all of a sudden and vanished into the center of the storm.

That was precisely where the Arachne Grand Duke and Duke Wei were engaging in battle.

Everything in the path of that white light, be it the dense clouds or flying debris, would shift to the side. The scene was akin to commoners retreating frantically upon seeing the emperor.

They weren’t destroyed but merely pushed back to make way for the beam of light. This formed a natural realm around the path of this radiance.

Qianye was both puzzled and shaken as he observed this scene which defied all common sense. Qianye was also helpless before this supreme majesty which seemed to be on par with the heaven and earth themselves. If he were in the path of this light, there was no doubt that he would also be pushed back involuntarily. The only reason Qianye was able to break through the restriction was because he was far away from the source and needed only to deal with the remnant waves. Even so, he had to activate the entirety of his blood energy and origin power in order to break free.

A sudden clap of thunder assaulted the world. The tremendous sound wave became the only sound left in this realm. As the sonic waves arrived, Qianye was sent into a stunned daze despite the attenuation offered by his blood energy and origin power. Blood trickled down from his mouth and nose.

Qianye staggered back but remained on his feet. He couldn’t quite tell whether that was a clap of thunder or the roar of the Evernight expert inside the tempest. Qianye was both shocked and delighted because that roar was filled with pain and anguish, hysterical even. Apparently, that expert had been gravely wounded.

Could that white light be...?

Qianye suddenly recalled a legend about the imperial family.

At this moment, there was a lone boat floating on the distant horizon. With an azure body and black tent, it looked no different from any ordinary vessel. Yet, the naturally elegant contour gave away its extraordinary qualities.

The storm had reached where it was, yet the lonely boat wasn’t affected in the slightest. The flying gravel and sand couldn’t land on it, either. Once close by, they would circle around the boat, reconverge behind, and continue their original trajectory—it was incomparably mysterious.

It was as though this lone boat didn’t belong to this world. It remained untouched by the storm and undiscerned by the people.

There were several people on this boat. The one standing at the foremost was a young man with a dignified countenance. He was holding an astonishingly long origin gun which was aimed at the center of the tempest. The white beam of light just now was fired from it.

That origin rifle was over two meters long with the vivid relief of a flying serpent, the emblem of the Great Qin imperial family, coiled around it. However, the diagram therein was different from those widely-known in the common world. The flying serpent on the firearm had nine large scales on its back and none on any other part of its body.

Five out of the nine scales each displayed a human figure—some glaring furiously, some in deep thought, others inherently dignified—everyone had a different bearing, but all of them possessed facial features somewhat similar to the young man holding the gun.

The white light had already receded at this point, but the young man remained stationary. It was as though the river of time had stopped flowing.

After a moment of silence, a middle-aged man with a long beard sighed. “Repelling all evil and revered by myriad life! Such might is indeed worthy of the name ‘Mortal Emperor’!”

The young man had a smile on his lips. “All of this is due to the all-out efforts of the ancestors.”

Another old man spoke, “The past emperors’ efforts indeed formed the foundation of this Mortal Emperor. However, the fourteenth prince is actually able to activate it at such a young age. This is truly rare throughout history. One day in the future, the person to appear on the sixth scale is very likely to be your highness.”

Everyone was shaken by these words, and a dazzling light shone in the fourteenth prince’s eyes. Only the emperor had the right to wield Mortal Emperor and use his grand origin power to nurture it. The implications in the elder’s words were self-evident.

But the glint in the fourteenth prince’s eyes quickly receded, his gaze becoming as gentle and peaceful as before. “I only barely activated Mortal Emperor by a lucky fluke. How can I dare compare myself to the ancient ancestors? Please make no more mention of leaving my imprint on the flying serpent.”

The old man didn’t quite agree, however. He stroked his beard and said with a laugh, “Everything will happen naturally when the conditions are right. Those with intentions will know even if we don’t mention it. Moreover, your highness launched an attack at the critical moment and saved Duke Wei’s life. Such a contribution cannot be suppressed. Being modest alone isn’t enough during this important war of national fate, one must forge ahead with boldness and vigor.”

The fourteenth prince laughed wryly. “Ignoring the future for now, today’s deed was only possible because of Marshal Lin’s planning and the protection of everyone here. How can I boast about it like so?”

‘Mortal Emperor’ started to tremble just as the group was going back and forth with their modest arguments. The flying serpent's eyes, which hadn’t opened even during the shot into the tempest, blinked slowly and proceeded to stare at a point on the ground below. Soon, boundless imperial might surged up from the serpentine body and formed an illusory image of a large snake overlooking the earth below.

It was full of combat intent and poised to engage in a fight to the death, almost as though it had encountered its arch nemesis.

Mortal Emperor’s unusual change alarmed everyone on the boat. However, none of them had witnessed such a scene before and knew not what they should do.

The fourteenth prince let out a sudden cry the moment the serpent opened its eyes—all he could feel was his origin power being drained. He had already expended the greater part of his origin power when he activated ‘Mortal Emperor’ a while ago. Now that he was being drained once more, it felt as though his origin vortices were about to be dragged out of his body. Who could withstand this? Soon after crying out, his vision darkened and he fell down unconscious.

Mortal Emperor lost its source of origin power after the fourteenth prince’s collapse. Soon, the giant flying serpent in the air let out an indignant roar as it gradually dispersed.

Greatly shocked, the people on the boat quickly lifted the fourteenth prince to examine his condition. They felt somewhat relieved after finding out that he had fallen unconscious due to over-exhaustion. Such an injury was an incurable disease to an ordinary person, but the imperial family possessed both capable people and spiritual medicines. It wouldn’t be too hard to heal the prince.

The bearded middle-aged man wore a deeply concerned expression. “Just now, Mortal Emperor seemed to be confronting something.”

Everyone’s expressions changed.

Mortal Emperor was one of the ten Grand Magnums of the generation. Its firepower had been increasing little by little with the successive upgrades by the emperors. Although the imperial family hadn’t announced it openly, many people privately believed that this firearm was the most powerful in the world.

The old man was the leader of this group. He pondered for a while and said, “With His Majesty unconscious, there’s no one capable of using the Mortal Emperor. We shouldn’t remain here for long, let us leave.”

No one voiced their dissent. As such, the boat made an agile turn and vanished over the horizon in a flash—it was almost as though the vessel had never appeared here.

At this moment, Qianye was standing amidst the boundless rocky wasteland, his luminous wings spread out behind him as he gazed at where the flying serpent had appeared before.

Qianye had sensed an indescribably powerful suppressive might just now. The difference from before was that this might contained an intent to do battle and kill. Moreover, it was directly targeted at Qianye. Although he couldn’t see the illusory image of the flying serpent in the air, Qianye could feel a primordial giant creature staring at him.

This wasn’t a contest of levels at all. The aftershock from the suppressive might nearly injured Qianye a while ago. Now that he was being directly targeted, the formless suppression shattered his origin power and blood energy, sending him paralyzed to the ground.

It was at this time that the hiding Wings of Inception unfurled behind him. A faint radiance engulfed Qianye and actually resisted the invisible monstrosity in the air.

The contest lasted mere moments before the suppressive might in the air dispersed, followed by an angry roar full of discontent. The voice was akin to rolling thunder.

What was going on?

The series of events was too much for Qianye to take in at once, but the inexplicable change in the Wings of Inception gave him a faint idea. He didn’t get the time to ponder in detail before a large shadow appeared in the air and came whistling down toward him.

Shocked out of his wits, Qianye flashed over ten meters to the side.

The black shadow smashed into the ground with a loud bang, sending dust and gravel flying everywhere. The object carved out a shallow pit in the ground. After the dust had settled, Qianye found a huge arachne lying inside the hole. Judging from its sizeable frame and powerful darkness origin power, it was at least a count.

It was just that there was something wrong with the arachne. It had completely reverted to its spider body with its eight stiff limbs moving about randomly. It simply couldn’t clamber up because the darkness origin power in its entire body was in chaos. It looked up at Qianye and gasped uncontrollably. “Y-You, how can you still move?”

These words reminded Qianye. He recalled how he had nearly lost the ability to move when the suppressive might descended upon him. The arachne before him didn’t have auric flame blood, Venus Dawn, nor the Wings of Inception. Hence, it had lost the ability to move and fallen straight down beside Qianye.

Qianye’s expression became somewhat abnormal as he looked at the arachne count who had just fallen down from the sky.