[V7C011 – In Life and In Eternal Rest]

“General Jundu, please don’t joke like this.” The brigadier general was drenched in cold sweat.

The lieutenant colonel, on the other hand, was full of vigor. “Zhao Jundu! Don’t think you can do whatever you want just because you have the Zhao clan supporting you!”

The lieutenant hadn’t even finished speaking when the brigadier general dragged him back and reprimanded, “Shut up! This is no place for you to speak!”

Zhao Jundu wasn’t grateful, however. He revealed a spurious smile as he said, “When have you people heard me joke? Besides, why would I need to rely on the Zhao clan to deal with you little fellows?”

The brigadier general had sensed the weird atmosphere and dared not say anything despite the taunt. With a bow, he left hurriedly with the lieutenant in tow.

After the dazed personnel from the military had left, the woman asked in puzzlement, “Those two are just small fries. It’s no use making things difficult for them, is it?”

“Of course it is. No matter what reply I give, it means that I’ve read the urgent missive. As a member of the empire, I have the duty to obey the order regardless of its dogshit contents. But now, since I’ve not read this order, then whatever I do is up to me. Heh heh, if I didn’t need them to go and report back, I’d even make it so that I never saw them.”

“But this won’t bring back Qianye’s quota, will it?”

“That is true, but I’ll remember whoever tries to swallow Qianye’s quota and repay him ten times over in the future.”

The lady sighed. “I wonder when young noble Qianye will wake up.”

“There’s always hope. Hasn’t Song Zining made the necessary plans already?” At this point, Zhao Jundu stood up with a frown and said, “This won’t do, his resources are limited, and he doesn’t have that many experts to mobilize. It might not be enough even with the Wei clan. You go and investigate what his latest arrangements are and keep watch nearby. Give him a hand when needed, no need to hold back this time!”

The lady left with a bow.

The room quickly turned cold after her departure. For some reason, Duan Chengpeng’s face appeared in his eyes. By the time this subordinate was sent back, he had already become a cold corpse. Although his expression had been restored, one could still see the extreme anger and unwillingness before his death.

Zhao Jundu reached out subconsciously to grab his gun, but there was only empty air therein. Only then did he realize that this new firearm he had yet to name was undergoing nourishment at the moment and not at his side. He silently retracted his hand but couldn’t quite suppress the vague anxiety in his heart.

It was just that the Li family had stated clearly that they would punish Li Tianquan according to the law and give the Zhao clan a satisfactory answer. At the same time, they had also dispatched experts to investigate and found that Duan Chengpeng was killed by another person. There was both proof and reason to this response, and moreover, Li Kuanglan had also delivered the medicine first. Hence, Zhao Jundu had no choice but to wait patiently for the Li family’s next move.

Mister Liao had calculated well, but he hadn’t expected the Li family—as proficient as they were in medicine and divination arts—to see through his arrangements. The family’s attitude also far exceeded his expectations.

In the depths of the Twilight Continent—that vast region where no human had ever set foot—stood a tall peak jutting into the clouds. Atop a mountain so straight that it looked to have been carved out with a knife stood a majestic castle. It was somewhat of a miracle even in the Evernight world where experts were as abundant as the clouds.

The long years had painted this castle with intense black color, with a hint of shiny gold peeking out on the well-worn corners of the walls and steps. Apparently, this castle was made of metal.

In the depths of this fortress, there was a single throne at the end of a giant hall. Moonlight shone in from the stained-glass windows and illuminated the seat, highlighting its singular existence.

There was an ancient-looking elder seated upon the throne—he wore a tall crown and his body was as shriveled as a skeleton. Eyes closed and his head propped up on his hand, it almost seemed like he was dozing off. There wasn’t a single person within these cold, desolate halls. The tightly shut doors were covered in rust and locked together with chains as thick as a beast’s leg.

Time itself seemed to be stagnant within this hall, almost as though no power could produce any change therein.

Just when it seemed like everything in the chamber was eternal, a quake spread through the hall. The tremors were gentle at first but grew more intense as time went on, causing dust and rust to fall down from the roof. From time to time, the swaying chains would strike against the main doors amidst startling rumbles.

The skeleton-like ancient monarch sensed the trembling and slowly opened his eyes. There were no pupils in his eye-sockets, only two pools of turbid blood. He looked down slowly after waking up, and his gaze pierced through every obstacle as it scanned the castle below. He flew into a rage with a single glance, and his roars echoed throughout the entire mountaintop. “Blood pond! Who destroyed my blood pond!?”

He pulled on a chain beside the throne, and an ear-piercing bell echoed throughout the castle. However, there was a sudden cracking sound on the third pull as one of his fingers broke and fell to the floor. Only then did he look down at his hand and realized that he must’ve used too much force; even his arms were starting to crack. Only a thin layer of skin and flesh remained.

The ancient monarch had no choice but to slow down his movements, lest his shriveled up body receives more injuries. He tried standing up, but his creaking leg bones deprived him of the courage to do so. The man unleashed a long, shrill scream in order to summon his clansmen.

Moments later, the chained door began to retract into the walls along a complicated path. This process was both complicated and long, causing the ancient monarch to feel extremely anxious, yet he was helpless to do anything. This step was to ensure that no one could harm the ancient being during his deep slumber and wasn’t something that could be skipped.

The doors finally opened and several dozen vampires entered while carrying a bronze coffin. The old monarch’s tone changed after seeing the container. “That’s it? This level of origin blood will take me seven days to recover!”

The leader of this group, a marquis, fell to one knee. “Your Majesty, that’s because the ancient blood pond has been destroyed, and the highest-level of origin blood are now gone. This is the only back-up origin blood we have in the castle.”

“Then, why are you all here instead of chasing down the culprit!?”

“Your Majesty, this matter is extremely odd, the timing of the attack was just too perfect. I felt that my top priority wasn’t to chase down the invader but to protect your safety.”

The old monarch began to ponder after his anger subsided. “You mean the one who destroyed the blood pond isn’t from the other races?”

“Yes, the invader was wounded during the escape and left some blood.”

The ancient monarch stretched out a shriveled hand. “Bring it here!”

The marquis passed a black cloth stained with drops of blood. The old man sniffed the object briefly, and his voice immediately turned gloomy. “This is the scent of the Monroe clan.”

All the vampires in the hall wore different expressions. It was a fact that the Monroe had been suppressed by the Queen of the Night, but it was still a behemoth to the twelfth-ranked Carlton clan. Moreover, it was rumored that the Queen of the Night was back in deep slumber after the war for the floating continent. This meant that the suppression on the Monroe clan would lighten, giving them greater freedom of movement.

The marquis replied, “Perhaps it’s not the Monroe clan. Maybe another clan hired someone with Monroe blood to do it.”

The ancient monarch’s voice was frosty. “Someone with a top-grade Monroe bloodline with the ability to sneak into the depths of our castle... What level of character do you think this person is? How can someone like that be working for another clan?”

The marquis couldn’t reply.

The ancient monarch said in a deep voice, “The blood pond has been destroyed, and this matter can’t be hidden for long. Since that’s the case, we should simply cause a big fuss about it. The Queen of the Night isn’t asleep just yet.”

The marquis replied, “Yes, Your Majesty. I’ll make arrangements to go after the culprit and inform the other ancient clans. Do you think we should push back the schedule for two days?”

“Why!?” The monarch’s tone was somewhat angry again.

“Your Majesty, your recovery time is a bit longer than usual. It’ll be bad if someone were to grasp the time and ambush you during that time.”

The ancient monarch was a bit surprised. He looked on with narrowed eyes and said after a good while, “Send people from our clan for the time being. Afterward, inform all the powers after three days.

Three days later, a certain news shook the entire core region of the Twilight Continent. The Carlton family’s ancient blood pond had been destroyed, and the ancient origin blood therein, stolen.

Before long, all the clans began to react, expressing great anger toward this behavior. It went without saying that the ancient blood ponds were highly important to people beyond the marquis rank. It was the best way to recover when wounded, and it was also the only method to survive at the end of their life-span.

Powerful clans like the Perth and the Monroe possessed more than one ancient blood ponds, while the Carlton could only maintain one. Reconstruction would probably require several decades. The clan would weaken significantly during that period, and they wouldn’t be much stronger than the big non-ancient clans.

Due to the importance of these blood ponds, all the ancient vampire clans—including the Monroe—responded in a uniform manner, and even dispatched their core members to join the search. Naturally, the Monroe clan denied all the allegations.

Just like that, a great net covered the core region of the Twilight Ccontinent and expanded rapidly to cover half of the land.

There was a faintly discernible figure moving rapidly across the vast plains of the Twilight Continent. Nighteye kept her body bent among the swaying grasses and shrubbery as she ran into the distance.

Her black tight-fitting clothes were torn in many places—her skin under some of them had healed completely, while others were still a bloody mess. Even a person of her constitution could hardly hold on after running continuously for several days, not to mention the several battles along the way. Nighteye simply had no strength left to heal those wounds. Even so, some of the smaller ones had regenerated on their own, a clear indication of how powerful her bloodline was.

All of a sudden, her legs went limp and she nearly fell to the ground. Nonetheless, that fiery ancient origin blood in her arms gave her the strength to continue running further away.