A wave of terrifying sword energy tore through the falling roof. Qianye was standing amidst the chaos with his sword pointed at the sky. His expression, however, was fairly strange.

“How come it’s you two?”

“We didn’t feel easy letting you go alone, so we came to help.” Ji Tianqing was the first to speak.

Not expecting otherwise, Qianye nodded. “The goods are in hand, let’s go.”

Qianye rose into the air and flew out of the city. Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan also followed suit after exchanging glances.

The two fell behind a fair distance. Li Kuanglan bundled her origin power into a fine line and directed a whisper at Ji Tianqing, “Didn’t you say your secret art can hide us from weak divine champions? Which part of him looks like a divine champion?”

“The nerve! You’re the reason we were discovered,” Ji Tianqing said.

“What does that have to do with me? You think I can’t beat you?”

“You can’t.”

“Fine, let’s find a place to fight once we get back.”

Qianye kept on accelerating, unaware of the smell of gunpowder behind him. He did nothing to hide himself from the countless gazes of astonishment and malice as he approached the city walls. The boundless wilderness was just behind that last cannon turret.

Ji Tianqing, on the other hand, had long since activated her secret art to cloak herself and Li Kuanglan. To everyone else, there was only a slightly distorted empty space behind Qianye.

Just as he was about to cross the wall, Qianye felt his hair stand on end. An indescribable sensation of danger gripped his heart! A faintly discernible bullet was darting toward him at insane speeds!

This shot was so true, so fast, that Qianye had no time to evade. He raised East Peak at the moment of danger, gripping the hilt with one hand and pushing the opposite end of the blade with another.

A ball of dark flames erupted on East Peak, its flames surging into the air to form a black rose. Qianye himself fell on one knee atop the wall and coughed out a mouthful of blood.

That was the extent of the shot.

Qianye swiped a finger on the blade’s edge and caught a small wisp of the black fire, allowing it to burn on his fingertips. The sheer purity of darkness origin power allowed him to guess who the assailant was—Eden. This was an old friend. Who would’ve thought his strength would increase so much during this short period? The shot was already at the level of a marquis.

Qianye looked up in the direction of the shot, raging flames flickering in his eyes. It felt like he had returned to the days of repeated hunting and being hunted in the Misty Wood.

A figure leaped up from the empty wilderness at the speed of lightning, preparing to flee into the distance.

Eden was just as decisive as before. He made to flee immediately after discovering that Qianye wasn’t seriously injured. He already understood back in the Misty Wood that it was extremely dangerous to be entangled with Qianye.

Seeing Eden rise into the air, Qianye knew he could no longer catch the sniper. Eden was still so difficult to fight even after all this time.

The demonkin didn’t forget to wave at Qianye through the air, a greeting of sorts. His arrogance and ostentatiousness hadn’t changed in the slightest.

Just as he was about to escape, however, a stream of invisible origin power appeared out of nowhere. The force bound him firmly, reducing his speed for a brief moment. The band of power then erupted with terrifying strength, tightening around him like a giant python and threatening to crush his bones.

Eden was greatly astonished as this ambush had appeared out of the blue. In the blink of an eye, his bones were creaking and groaning. He unleashed a loud roar as dark flames burst out around his body, burning away the fetters. The demonic power inherited from the Dark Abyss was one of the highest grades in Evernight, and it had just gotten a chance to prove its might at the moment.

But bad things never came alone. The origin bindings hadn’t disappeared when a beam of blue sword energy shot toward Eden from afar. The latter drew his dagger—he barely managed to deflect the attack, but he couldn’t help but spit out a mouthful of blood in the process. “Qianye, how despicable!” He then turned to flee, his figure flickering in and out of view as he vanished into the wilderness.

Qianye stood up and glanced at Ji Tianqing and Li Kaunglan. The timing of Eden’s shot was perfect, and he had started fleeing the moment he realized that the shot had missed. He had left absolutely no opportunity for Qianye to counterattack, but he never expected the duo hiding behind. The retaliation after his location compromise came from them.

Although it was a ranged attack, Li Kuanglan and Ji Tianqing were extraordinary people. The latter’s attack restrained and damaged the target at the same time, stopping Eden from evading Li Kuanglan’s attack. All he could do was block by force. The demonkin couldn’t hold out against the two and ended up wounded even more badly than Qianye.

Gazing in the direction Eden had escaped, Qianye’s brows knitted into a frown. He didn’t feel that much pressure even when he was facing the Wolf King. After all, the Wolf King was alone and none of his subordinates was a match for him. Eden was different—he came from a famed demonkin family, a clan with numerous experts under their wing. With his talents and combat strength, there was no way he would be alone in the neutral lands. There had to be reinforcements from the family.

Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan arrived beside Qianye, and they felt relieved after seeing his aura on a steady rise. Ji Tianqing said, “This demonkin is so powerful, who exactly is he?”

“Eden, used to operate in the Misty Wood on the void continent.”

“Eden? That demonkin who almost crippled the Li family?” Li Kuanglan’s expression turned ugly upon hearing Ji Tianqing’s words. This was the Li family’s disgrace—a stately high-ranking aristocratic family seeking to compete with the major clans was actually beaten black and blue by a young demonkin. All of this had happened despite the presence of numerous families helping them out. Combat squads from numerous parties suffered grave casualties back then, many of them losing lineal scions in the Misty Wood.

Although these combat squads had come willingly to vie for the Storm Pearl, aristocratic scions weren’t casually expendable commodities. Since they were murdered on the Li family’s home ground, the clan could hardly escape being accused of insufficient protection.

Bombarded by the various families, the truth about the Li family elder driving Qianye away could no longer be hidden. Having driven away the only person who could suppress Eden in the Misty Wood, the Li family naturally became the center of everyone’s criticism.

These families didn’t dare to fall out with the Li clan due to the empress, but discussions for future cooperation were either delayed or canceled. This still caused significant damage to the Li family.

Hence, the Li family felt even more hatred toward Eden’s name than Qianye.

Ashen faced, Li Kuanglan’s hand went for her sword, making ready to chase down Eden. However, Qianye placed East Peak in her way and said while shaking his head, “It’s too late to chase after him. He’s probably not alone, there might be an ambush if you go.”

Li Kuanglan frowned. “When have I ever been afraid of anyone!?”

Ji Tianqing butted in at this point. “Empress Li!”

Li Kuanglan’s aura faltered at the mention of that name. By the time she had come to, everything was too late—Ji Tianqing was already bent over in laughter.

Killing intent flickered in Li Kuanglan’s eyes. She was just about to draw her sword but slowly lowered her hand when she saw the pensive look on Qianye’s face. Ji Tianqing didn’t go too far, either. She quickly stopped laughing, lest Li Kuanglan flip out and really start attacking.

Qianye felt highly distressed. “Let’s go back to Southern Blue first and discuss things with Zining. Now that Eden is here, there’s no telling who else from Evernight has come.”

The duo had no objections to this, and they duly followed Qianye back.

Back in Seagaze, the rubble inside the ruined courtyard suddenly exploded and Old Cat jumped out from within. He seemed completely unharmed as he removed the debris to observe the situation around him. The four burly men were mediocre at best—they were fairly useful for intimidating ordinary mercenaries, but how could they withstand the force of Qianye’s domain? At this moment, they were lingering on their last breaths, not far from death.

Old Cat frowned as he noticed the four had suffered fractures in countless places and their injuries were no longer salvageable. Even if they were saved, their combat strength would decrease sharply owing to the foundational damage. Seeing this, Old Cat stomped down on the chest of one of the warriors, shattering his heart in the process. The other three were shocked upon seeing this and did their utmost to beg for mercy. But Old Cat mercilessly stomped them all to death.

He let out a long sigh after doing this. “I don’t keep useless people around.”

He then looked up in the direction Qianye had left, sneering, “You think you’re so smart, but you still took the bait in the end.”

Back in Southern Blue, the Dark Flame headquarters had been completed. There were some small courtyards in a corner of the headquarters, reserved as residences for the higher-ups. Most of these compounds were still dirt and mud at this point—there were gardens being laid out in some of them while others were just empty space.

There was a single courtyard completely different from the others. The yard was a scenic painting of water and nature, a rare sight in the harsh environment of the Eastern Sea. Song Zining was lying on a reclining chair beside a lake, rocking it gently with his eyes closed. The gentle wave of his fan was indescribably poetic; all he needed to do was hum a few classics.

Qianye walked in through the courtyard doors, and wherever he went, the beautiful scenery would ripple and turn back into muddy walls. Apparently, the beautiful scenery wasn’t real. It was an illusion brought about by Song Zining’s domain, one that was difficult to discern.

Qianye frowned ever so slightly. He would always feel unnatural after walking into this kind of environment. He naturally didn’t need to hold back against Song Zining. Dark golden flames erupted from his body, melting away the illusions like the sun rising over snow.

Qianye’s dark golden blood energy was highly effective against domains made of daybreak origin power. Hence, even the Three Thousand Flying Leaves Art was destroyed the moment these flames appeared.

Qianye arrived beside the recliner and dragged Song Zining to his feet. “You sure know how to enjoy life.”

Song Zining slapped away Qianye’s hand with his fan. “What do you know? I’m training my domain. I have to use it frequently to improve its realism.”

“I don't have to argue with you. The dark races have arrived in the neutral lands.”

“The dark races? The population of dark races in the neutral lands isn’t smaller than humans. What’s so strange about that?”

“I’m not talking about the local ones. Evernight experts are here. Do you remember Eden? I met him in Seagaze.”

“A famed demonkin clan member, here?” Song Zining’s expression was serious.