The atmosphere in the ancient Totemic Castle froze up and plunged into silence. No one wanted to answer.
“Has Bloodbeard returned?” The Wolf King repeated sternly.
This time, an old werewolf took a step forward. “Great Chief, Bloodbeard was dispatched to Southern Blue.”
“I know that! It’s been so long, has he not sent word?” The Wolf King’s voice grew increasingly cold and was apparently at a tipping point. If Bloodbeard had stopped reporting after his departure, it could be that he had other ambitions or that he simply didn’t care about the Wolf King.
The old werewolf was the newly appointed shaman. He hesitated for a moment before speaking cautiously, “Great Chief, there was news from Southern Blue just now, Bloodbeard…”
“Speak!”
“Marquis Bloodbeard was heavily injured by Qianye in Southern Blue. The latter caught up to him soon after he had fled the city, wiping out everyone, including the guards.”
The Wolf King glared furiously, filling the hall with a whirlwind of killing intent. He was well beyond angry at this point. Despite his arrogance and unyielding nature, Bloodbeard was still a member of the tribe, and there was no way he could challenge the throne, either, since he wasn’t stronger than the Wolf King.
But with his death, the tribe had lost a great general and the Wolf King, a capable subordinate. The king was already at a slight disadvantage against the Spider Emperor and Moonlight Demons. Now that he was weakened, the power balance in the future was going to be difficult to manage.
It was that Qianye again! That d.a.m.ned Qianye!
The Wolf King finally managed to suppress his anger. “Has someone gone to check the scene? What’s the situation?”
“The scene… is a b.l.o.o.d.y mess, all the corpses have been dismembered.”
This time, the Wolf King was surprisingly calm as he recalled that mysterious white-dressed girl and the grotesque cleaver in her hands.
The young girl’s strength was mediocre, but her ability to grasp openings was almost unbelievable. Even the Wolf King found it difficult to block her attacks as they would always go for the weakest spots at the most opportune timing. Nonetheless, the Wolf King was even more apprehensive of her than he was of Qianye.
“What did Ji Rui say?”
“This information was relayed by the city lord. He said that he was caught off-guard by the sudden development. Bloodbeard ran out of the city immediately after he was ambushed, summoning all of the guards along with him. Ji Rui himself remained in the city to hunt down Qianye. He proceeded to scour the surroundings once he was done searching the city, and that was when he found Sire Bloodbeard’s corpse.”
The Wolf King snorted deeply. His eyes narrowed with murderous intent as he said in a cold voice, “This Fatty Ji really knows how to avoid responsibility.”
The new shaman said, “Regardless, Sire Bloodbeard was ambushed in his territory, so there’s no way he can escape the blame. Since he doesn’t want to shoulder responsibilities, why don’t we relieve him of Southern Blue?”
The Wolf King’s expression changed slightly. He seemed somewhat moved, but after some thought, he said while shaking his head, “Southern Blue is indeed a gold mine. Fatty Ji was able to build up a fortune because the Spider Emperor, Mask, and I were keeping one another in check. No one was willing to let the other party take Southern Blue. On the other hand, Ji Rui is a genius in business. Any other person in his shoes might not perform that well.”
The shaman said, “Are we just going to let this matter be?”
“Of course not. Bloodbeard was escorted there by Ji Rui, and now, he had died on Southern Blue soil. How can we let him off without bleeding him dry?” With that, the Wolf King a.s.signed two tribesmen to make for Southern Blue and extort the city lord.
At this moment, the Martyr’s Palace had just jumped out of the void and appeared outside of the Northern Continent. The installation of the ballistae and kinetic sails required a large number of technicians. It wasn’t possible for the twenty-some crew onboard to accomplish this.
In the span of a dozen or so days, the Highbeard ancestral land had transformed once again. Many large buildings had begun to take shape, and the road toward the sh.o.r.e had already stretched ten kilometers. At this point, the last batch of imported materials had been used up, and the Highbeards were already starting to draw on the local resources. They were intent on keeping up progress even if they had to mine for materials.
The Martyr’s Palace landed gently beside the Highbeard ancestral lands. Qianye handed the ballistae and kinetic sails adjustment to Bluemoon, while he himself headed back to the Warm Lake Valley to cultivate in isolation.
In this tranquil environment, time pa.s.sed by like a calm stream—a dozen days pa.s.sed by unknowingly.
Qianye cultivated day in and day out, almost forgetting the pa.s.sage of time entirely. Little Zhuji slept by his side all this time. The circulating origin power around Qianye was the most comfortable environment for the little fellow.
She was curled up into a ball, like a dreaming little kitten. From time to time, crisp crackling sounds would emerge from her bones and joints as she experienced growth. This rate was far beyond that of an ordinary human.
Even while cultivating, Qianye could sense that the girl’s location was like a small black hole, absorbing the nearby origin power without end. There wouldn’t be so much energy in the air under normal circ.u.mstances. Her ability to draw origin power and grow while sleeping was something even Qianye felt envious about.
The little fellow’s absorption rate could be considered terrifying. Any other person in Qianye’s place would find his cultivation rate slowed down significantly. This, however, wasn’t a problem for him because he could close this gap with two cycles of the Profound Combatant formula, a mere hour of extra work.
There was no day or night during cultivation, and it seemed like this august period would never end.
On this day, however, Qianye felt his heart skip a beat due to the changes in the surrounding origin power. As such, he slowly opened his eyes.
Moments later, a black dot appeared over the distant horizon. The black dot turned into a fleet of airs.h.i.+ps flying toward the Northern Continent.
These airs.h.i.+ps were intercontinental models with neither insignia nor identification on their hulls.
From afar, Qianye immediately spotted Song Zining standing on the deck.
At this moment, the little fellow clambered up as though she had sensed something. “Is Mama back?”
“Yes, let’s go and welcome him.” Qianye picked Zhuji up, jumped out of the valley, and flew toward the ancestral land.
The fleet was made up of four airs.h.i.+ps: one wars.h.i.+p and three cargo vessels.
The fleet picked an even area outside of the ancestral land and performed a gradual descent. Song Zining jumped down as the vessels were a hundred meters from the ground and laughed loudly. “Your young master is back!”
Qianye punched him in the chest, saying, “That was pretty quick!”
“Naturally!” Song Zining pointed at the three armed cargo s.h.i.+ps and said, “My entire fortune is here, please don’t scam me!”
With that, he tossed Qianye a list. The latter was positively shocked upon glancing through its contents. The three airs.h.i.+ps contained thirty sets of heavy excavation machinery, two sets of refinery equipment, two kinetic tower cores, and an entire metal-processing line. There were also numerous machines for manufacturing fine parts as well.
With these things, a basic manufacturing facility would come into shape. Most of the machinery were second-hand goods, but they were fairly close to the latest models. They were high-quality goods that couldn’t be found in the neutral lands.
Apart from this, Song Zining had brought close to five hundred people, all of them veterans who had followed him for many years. With these men coming in, Song Zining’s forces would surpa.s.s the Highbeard population and reform the power balance.
The duty of receiving the new personnel and settling them in was left to Bluemoon, Red Lotus, and some Ningyuan Stewards. Song Zining selected an area neighboring the Highbeard ancestral land, firmly blocking their northward expansion. To their west was the mountain range, to the east was Qianye’s Warm Lake Valley, and the southern parts bordered the Eastern Sea—this effectively locked them inside a circle.
Bluemoon was clearly not happy, but she was also quite clear about her position, so she didn’t try to dispute. The area currently marked out for the Highbeards had far surpa.s.sed their capacity. Even with their high rate of reproduction, it would take over ten years to fill up this s.p.a.ce.
After the subordinates had gone off to work, Song Zining grabbed Qianye’s shoulder and said mysteriously, “I’ve found a good way to solve the issue of your Martyr’s Palace.”
“What method?” Qianye asked.
The Martyr’s Palace was the key to his future path to the Sacred Mountain. Without this time-traversing wars.h.i.+p, Qianye would be wiped out by the endless stream of Evernight vessels.
But the greatest potential problem with the Martyr’s Palace—and also the strongest defensive mechanism—was the power left behind by the Pointer Monarch, a trap that could kill a divine champion. It was exactly because of this defensive power that Qianye could never touch the core of the Martyr’s Palace, the Earth Dragon’s heart, or learn what kind of mechanism was hidden inside of it.
If the monarch were to find out about the airs.h.i.+p coming into being, he might rush over to seize control of it.
This was what Song Zining was talking about.
But there was one thing puzzling Qianye—as influential as Song Zining was, how was he going to affect the Pointer Monarch? In truth, all the heavenly monarchs were unreachable existences, and being able to stick around Zhang Boqian was already an extraordinary opportunity.
Song Zining only responded with a mysterious smile and said, “You’ll know soon. Bring me to the Martyr’s Palace, I want to see how much it has progressed.”
After boarding and touring the airs.h.i.+p, Song Zining said with a frown, “How come there are only four ballistae? What can you do with this number? I remember you had enough money to buy ten.”
Qianye laughed. “These four are free.”
As expected, the seventh young master became spirited. “Free? How come there’s such a good thing? What happened, tell me!”
“Simple, Ji Rui worked with the Wolf King to ambush me. In the end, I escaped and received four ballistae as compensation for settling this matter.”
“Wolf King!!!” Song Zining was shocked. Countless leaves danced about Qianye, scanning him from head to toe. The seventh young master felt relieved only after finding no injuries.
His expression turned gloomy. “This Fatty Ji is really bold, is there anything he doesn’t dare to do? Does he think this young master is so easy to push around?”
Despite having known him for so long, Qianye had never seen Song Zining so angry—he was even gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth. He quickly patted the latter’s shoulder and consoled him. “As you can see, I’m fine. A mere Wolf King can’t kill me. Don’t forget that I’ve escaped from a divine champion more than once. You guys are not my match in terms of running away.”
Song Zining looked somewhat better. He forced a faint smile, but that didn’t stop his killing intent from spilling out.