Monarch of Evernight

[V6C53 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]

The beast roared within the golden light as the ceiling of the cave cracked apart and pieces of rock fell like rain. Even the walls had been split open—many old passages were blocked up, while new gaps opened through the shifting walls.

An unconscious Nighteye fell out from the wall, crashed into the golden wave of light, and was flung away. Qianye was shocked out of his wits. He used his last bit of strength to rush over and caught Nighteye just as she was about to fall into a broken stone pillar. Then, the two collapsed onto the ground.

Qianye lay facing upward and gasped like a fish out of water. It felt as though his lungs were on fire and the air was burning. His vision was blurry, and it felt as though his body had disconnected from his consciousness—he couldn’t even feel his limbs, to speak nothing of moving.

The quaking finally passed by, and the giant beast lying beneath the rubble had completely lost all signs of life. Even its tenacious body seemed to have shriveled up.

At this moment, Qianye could no longer find an ounce of strength. All of his origin power and blood energy had been drained clean by the Shot of Inception. The might of this attack had increased yet again compared to when he had used it in the Black Forest, but the drain on his origin power and blood energy was also terrifying. Even with Qianye’s current strength, he was completely drained in the blink of an eye.

However, the most dangerous moment had just arrived. The colossus’ will had never been more distinct. That was a tremendous existence transcending the entire continent. It felt as though the entire sky had come crashing down upon Qianye. Before the void colossus’ will, each and every individual consciousness was like a grain of sand being gravitated toward its vastness. Once assimilated, Qianye would forever cease to exist.

At this moment, Qianye’s emotions were exceptionally mild, free of all love, hate, blame, and enmity. He felt a certain comprehension flow into his heart as he gazed at that different world in the void—the meaning of existence, the importance of power, and the significance of all the glimmer he had seen through the darkness.

As the all-devouring void was gradually stained with darkness, those glimmering lights were the only existences that refused to be snuffed out. Qianye could even sense a gentle warmth. Although life was bitter and unfair at the outside, he had also gained many precious things through the hardship.

The will to live was born of the things one possessed, and the pursuit of power was so that one could protect them.

It was at this moment that the Book of Darkness appeared and opened of its own volition. Strands of origin power spread out from the pages, containing both darkness and daybreak. The two extreme attributes were entirely different from one another, yet miraculously harmonious—just like that moment at dawn where the eye of daybreak would open upon the dark night.

The book of darkness emitted a deep, abstruse fluctuation which isolated the void colossus’ will and protected the consciousness flickering like a candle in the wind.

Qianye’s entire body was like an arid farmland absorbing every bit of rain and dew with an insatiable appetite. Very soon, his blood core began pulsing anew and pumped out several strands of auric flame blood. The ground was also rippling with the tides of the Combatant Formula. Only at this point did Qianye recover the ability to move.

The cave was completely silent. Qianye turned around with great difficulty and found Nighteye still unconscious in his arms. During the critical moment just now, Qianye had fallen down while shielding her in his embrace. He couldn’t see her face—only the beating of her heart and the rise and fall of her body as she respired. He could sense that she was still alive.

Qianye gradually clambered up, taking care not to jolt Nighteye too much. He shifted himself toward an intact wall and propped his exhausted body upon it before examining Nighteye’s condition.

Her brows were locked tightly together even while unconscious. Apparently, she was still suffering. Her aura was in chaos, and there were traces of fresh blood from her eyes trailing down her somewhat dazzling skin. It was a painful sight to behold.

Qianye reached out and gently wiped off the stains from the corner of her eyes. The blood was bright red and still somewhat warm. Her snow-white skin appeared from below wherever his fingers passed. The lack of an injury meant that all the blood had flowed out from her eyes.

Qianye’s trembling hands grew weak all of a sudden. He didn’t quite dare continue the inspection out of fear that he would see those injuries. He had walked a bloody path through Yellow Springs and Red Scorpion—not a day passed by where he wasn’t embroiled in the flames of war and experiencing bloody spectacles. However, Qianye was still afraid at this moment.

After a moment of pause, Qianye’s hands moved downward to inspect her body. All the problems on Nighteye’s body became evident in his True Sight. She had broken several ribs when she was whipped into the cave wall. There were also some abrasions, scars, and some shallow blade wounds. They were likely caused during the chase or perhaps when she was struck by the energy wave from the Shot of Inception.

These were all minor injuries. Even broken ribs and damaged internal organs would only require a couple days of recuperation for a vampire. Her most serious injury, however, was on the blood core.

Her blood core was currently very unstable and beating erratically. Qianye sensed abnormally dense levels of vitality therein, and with his True Sight, he could see strands of garish blood seeping out continuously from the surface.

This wasn’t a good thing. It was a sign that the blood core had been heavily damaged and could no longer contain the origin blood within. Add to that the injuries to her eyes, it was clear that she had just faced an extremely powerful enemy and suffered a backlash from her eye ability.

It was the same situation back when Qianye had met Zhao Jundu on the Silentflame Steppes. It was just that Zhao Jundu had held back intentionally, so Qianye wasn’t badly injured.

But that wasn’t the case for Nighteye. Her present condition made it clear that her foundations had been injured. Without timely intervention, not only would she suffer a slow death from the damage to her blood core, but her eyes would also be permanently damaged, leading to a loss of her eye abilities.

Qianye’s hands were as cold as ice, and his movements were somewhat rigid as he slowly tidied Nighteye’s clothes. He then produced the origin blood crystal he had obtained from the Perth clan viscount and poured it into Nighteye’s mouth. Nighteye’s face immediately regained some color after the origin blood entered her mouth, and her knitted brows relaxed slightly, apparently relieved of her suffering.

Some hope was ignited in Qianye’s heart. He placed a hand on Nighteye’s chest and sensed that wisp of origin blood seeping into her veins. There, it erupted with vitality in a bid to awaken the innate regenerative abilities in her body.

However, it was like pouring a glass of water into a lake. The tiny ripples produced therein were quickly drowned out. The injured blood core was still beating with great difficulty, every contraction causing some vibrant blood to seep out along with a wisp of her vitality.

Qianye forced himself to calm down as he rummaged through Andruil’s Mysterious Realm. He fished out a dozen or so blood crystals and crushed them one by one, sending the blood energy stored within them into Nighteye’s body. But what could mere blood crystals do when even origin blood couldn’t reverse her injuries?

Qianye slumped down helplessly and buried his face into Nighteye’s hair. If even origin blood was useless, the only effective measure left was the blood pond. But there was no telling how long it would take to even walk out of this mountainous void colossus skeleton, to speak nothing of the vast lands beyond it. How was she to get back to Evernight?

In his restlessness, Qianye glanced up at the giant beast corpse lying beneath the rubble. He carefully removed Nighteye from his knees and walked over with his vampiric dagger drawn. He felt rolling waves of essence blood pour into his body as the blade sunk in.

Although the Shot of Inception had destroyed most of the beast’s origin power, the remaining essence blood was still fairly abundant. The warmth and satiation brought about by the absorption calmed Qianye’s troubled heart.

He didn’t activate the Mystery Chapter, allowing the dark golden and purple blood energies to devour the essence blood in the most primitive way. A sudden notion rose from the depths of his mind—it didn’t belong to his memories, but it felt true.

Qianye was somewhat startled. He instinctively grabbed onto those fragments and pulled them out from his consciousness. It was as though he had opened up a certain valve, and the gushing sanguineous flood almost sent him reeling. There was something in Qianye’s consciousness by the time he had sobered up—something that could be considered an inheritance.

Qianye’s thoughts and emotions were in utter chaos at this moment. He knew without any explanation that this was a memory from the River of Blood, the source of all vampires, as it flowed through the currents of time. He had witnessed it once during Sky Demon’s battle.

A dazed Qianye was jolted awake by a certain fragrant scent. He quickly turned back and saw Nighteye’s chest heaving rapidly. The aura of her breath was gradually burning up, and the fragrance was being emitted from it.

This wasn’t a good sign. Apparently, her injuries were worsening so quickly that her body was attempting to enter hibernation.

She could still restrain her injuries consciously when awake, however, a prolonged period of coma would break the balance of self-recovery, causing all her hidden injuries to erupt at the same time. Hence, the body would initiate a state of hibernation in order to protect itself. This was a natural method of healing for a vampire. But without external aid, such a hibernation might stretch hundreds or even thousands of years.

Qianye walked over to Nighteye and knelt down beside her. He picked up her hands and clasped them in front of her chest—they were just as pale, just as cold. It would be prohibitively difficult to rouse her in such an injured state, and it was likely that her injuries would worsen once awakened. The best external healing force, with the exception of a blood pond, was origin blood—one which belonged to a higher, more powerful bloodline.

The most suitable vampire at the scene was perhaps Qianye himself.

Qianye stared fixedly at Nighteye’s beautiful face, and for the first time, his resolute eyes turned blood-red while fully conscious. His pupils were like rubies of the highest quality, sparkling, translucent, and without the slightest bit of impurity.

His blood core was emitting a powerful and muffled pulsation, every beat seemingly pounding on the heart of this world. The entire cavern was once again suffused with a trembling hum as a drop of origin blood condensed at the center of his blood core. It was garish, spirited, and full of vitality. Moreover, there was a golden crystal floating at its center.

That was Qianye’s origin blood, his very first.

The knowledge he had gained from the River of Blood was vast, but it was largely fragmented. He had obtained the method to condense the blood but didn’t know how to extract it. But that wasn’t important because every problem had a primitive solution to it.

Qianye first reached out to gently touch Nighteye’s face. Afterward, he removed his clothes and armor to reveal a muscular upper body.

Qianye then drew his dagger and plunged it into his chest.