The old man disappeared in a flash, completely devoured by the Scarlet Palace. Instead of leaving, the black-robed man remained standing at the center of the hall. He asked in a rather concerned tone, “Master, are we going to sit aside and do nothing? After all, the tunnel is in Zhang Buzou’s hands.”
“Why should I pay any attention? In the past, it was fine to give the tunnel to Zhang Buzhou because it was useless. Now, its value is so great that he cannot handle it alone. Even in the neutral lands, Zhang Buzhou won’t be able to stop the Empire and Evernight working together.”
The black-robed man said, “Master, that might be the case, but perhaps we should help him a bit for the sake of the neutral lands overall.”
The voice snorted lazily. “The bigger picture means nothing. Zhang Buzhou claims to be a.s.saulting the heavenly monarch realm. I want to see just how close he is to the realm.”
Failing to convince his master, the black-robed man sighed. “Perhaps the Empire and Evernight will fight among themselves like before.”
“Unless it’s the same idiots from last time, they’ll wait until the pa.s.sage is in their hands before fighting among themselves. That means they’ll destroy Zhang Buzhou first before anything.”
“Master is wise.”
The black-robed man eventually withdrew, and the great hall once again recovered its calm.
Qianye had just completed his cultivation for the day. The night was deep, dark, and full of stars. He looked up into the distance where the ma.s.sive body of the Martyr’s Palace was lying across the land, much like a mountain range.
There were lights flickering all throughout its body as ant-like workers climbed up and down, installing pieces of the new lattice body armor.
During this period, this was the scene he saw every time he woke up from cultivation. It was at this time that Qianye suddenly noticed something drifting across the starry sky. He looked up and realized that it was a deeply-colored autumn leaf, but it vanished entirely when he looked over.
Qianye understood that this leaf didn’t exist and that it was his own perception being affected. Needless to say, it was one of Song Zining’s tricks. This seventh young master seemed to have become less fathomable after a period of absence. That was fairly strange because he was rarely ever seen cultivating, yet his drinking and revelry never fell short. Despite that, his cultivation never fell behind compared to the likes of Qianye and Zhao Jundu.
Qianye understood that this flying leaf was Song Zining reminding him that the time was nigh.
Qianye got up and walked toward the Martyr’s Palace. Under the summoning of his consciousness, the palace responded and began trembling lightly.
Bluemoon ran over to him rapidly. “Sire, are you going out?”
“Yes, it’s time. How goes the outfitting?”
“The main cannon has been installed, along with four auxiliary cannons. Most of the outer walls have also been completed and will be done in a few more days. It’s just that the origin array in charge of energy supply isn’t strong enough. You can only fire the main cannon twice at most before having to recharge for half an hour.” Clearly, Bluemoon had long since made preparations for a swift report.
“Very good, continue the unfinished work along the way. Have the crew board the airs.h.i.+p, we leave in half a day.”
“Yes, Sire.”
At this moment, the Northern Continent was populated by elites and thus the preparatory work went on in an orderly manner. Although half a day was quite short, all the work was duly completed in the end. The necessary materials had been loaded onto the s.h.i.+p, and the construction would continue along the way.
The functional areas in the Martyr’s Palace had already been planned out. Although it could be said that materials were piled up like mountains inside the vessel, the hold actually felt quite empty. The palace was simply too big, big enough to fit a small town inside. No one knew how long it would take to finish building everything. At this point, even the framework hadn’t been completed just yet.
The only area that had been properly constructed was the fuel storage chamber. Qianye was rather astonished by the area, which was close to a hundred meters wide, and it also served to remind him of how great the Martyr’s Palace’s consumption rate was.
Bluemoon wouldn’t be following them as she needed to oversee the construction work on the ground. The entire Highbeard Tribe would only be able to call the Northern Continent home after the ancestral land had been fully constructed and their people moved over. Having to shoulder such a heavy burden affixed a look of worry and exhaustion on her face. With the arrival of more and more people from Ningyuan Heavy Industries, she quickly realized that this was a difficult opponent. Be it on the future Northern Continent or in the system under Qianye, the Highbeards’ position would never be as high as she had expected.
The Martyr’s Palace rose slowly into the sky at dawn and left the Northern Continent.
Qianye kept the Martyr’s Palace in the void around the edge of the continent and flew toward Southern Blue alone. This short pa.s.sage through the void could be considered a perilous chasm for someone below the divine champion realm. Qianye, however, was able to resist the erosion of the void for a short period of time due to his ancient vampire const.i.tution.
There were already three hundred men on the Martyr’s Palace at this point. Most of them were technicians who would continue with the installation of the outer walls.
After pa.s.sing through the protective layer, Qianye swooped down like a falcon and shot straight toward Southern Blue. While he was still in the air, Qianye noticed several weird airs.h.i.+ps around the city’s port.
These airs.h.i.+ps looked like cargo vessels, and they were also packed to the brim with goods. But from high-above, Qianye found their outlines quite familiar—they were clearly corvettes from the imperial military. And the larger one nearby, also carrying goods, was one of their cutting-edge destroyers.
As an ex-member of Red Scorpion, it was a necessary subject to be able to differentiate Imperial and Evernight airs.h.i.+ps.
These imperial airs.h.i.+ps were fairly well-disguised and almost identical to ordinary cargo s.h.i.+ps. It was just that the disguise didn’t quite take into account the possibility of a spy coming in from above, much less one that was formally trained in the empire.
Qianye was a bit startled upon seeing these airs.h.i.+ps. He hadn’t expected that the empire would come so quickly. The appearance of these regular wars.h.i.+ps in the neutral lands meant that war was just over the horizon.
He glanced up into the void with True Sight and saw that the flow of origin power was gradually becoming gentler.
Qianye retracted his aura as he landed in Southern Blue and made straight for Dark Flame headquarters. There were a fair number of people with profound auras inside the city, some with overflowing killing intent. There would be a couple of experts around every street block. These people were oblivious of Qianye’s presence, not even glancing back even if they were to brush past.
The headquarters was also different from before. The entire base seemed to be on high-alert with double the sentries at the gate. After stating his ident.i.ty, Qianye entered through the main gates without a hitch. Barely one month had pa.s.sed, yet there were already unfamiliar faces in the headquarters. These people were markedly different from the people born in the neutral lands, and some areas in the base were completely under their management.
Judging from the interaction, the old Dark Flame members did not seem receptive to the newcomers at all. The gazes being exchanged were far from friendly, and misfires might’ve already happened if Dark Flame’s rules weren’t as strict as the imperial regular army.
Qianye frowned as he walked up the central command building. He had just taken a couple of steps when a rude voice came through from the side. “Halt!”
Qianye paid it no attention and kept on walking. A voice roared once more from behind him, “I told you to stop!”
This time, Qianye realized that the man was addressing him. He turned back with a sneer—he wanted to see who dared to talk to him like this inside Dark Flame headquarters.
There was a courtyard to the rear where two warriors were staring at Qianye with their blades drawn. It looked like they were tasked with guarding this courtyard but, for some reason, had set their eyes on the pa.s.ser-by that was Qianye.
The two were clad in mercenary uniform, but the sharp killing intent and arrogance were different from the people here. Qianye could see faint shadows of the imperial elite in their demeanor.
One of them pointed at Qianye, shouting, “Who are you? How come I’ve never seen you before?”
Qianye broke into a laugh instead of feeling angry. “I’ve never seen you people before, either.”
The soldier’s expression sank. “Nonsense! Who do you think you are to see me at will? Don’t ramble when I’m asking a question. I’ll have you come inside if you don’t reply.”
Qianye smiled spuriously. “You really want me coming in?”
The soldier revealed a sinister smile as he reached out to grab Qianye. “You asked for it!”
However, his companion grabbed ahold of his hand. This experienced-looking soldier seemed to remember something as he gazed at Qianye. “This area of the base is forbidden. Stay clear in the future, got it? You can go now.”
The young warrior couldn’t yet calm down. He stared at Qianye with burning eyes, much like a fierce beast on the verge of pouncing over. Nonetheless, the experienced soldier’s firm grip stopped his idea of teaching Qianye a lesson.
Qianye didn’t budge, however. “There are places in Dark Flame where I can’t go? Who made these rules?”
Furious, the young man struggled free from his comrade and swing the stock of his gun at Qianye. “You’re asking for a beating!”
There was no way Qianye would get struck by this blow, but no amount of good temper was enough in this kind of situation. He sent the two guards flying with a kick, flinging them dozens of meters away, through the door behind them and into the courtyard.
The change attracted dozens of warriors from the courtyard, as well as the sound of an alarm.
Standing at the door, Qianye let out a deep roar, “Who’s the leader? Get out here this instant!”
The soldiers rus.h.i.+ng at Qianye felt as though they had been struck in the chest by a sledgehammer. They fell to the ground in quick succession, unable to get up no matter how hard they struggled. The people preparing to rush out of the building also tumbled down the stairs.
A loud cry emerged from the building, “Who dares behave so atrociously in my domain?”
A burly middle-aged man with coa.r.s.e hair and large eyes rushed out from the building. His expression was fierce, and his facial hair was as hard as steel needles. He arrived before Qianye in two steps and swiped a claw toward his throat.
Qianye sneered inwardly. The opponent could be considered fairly careless, considering him to be an ordinary second-rate champion. Not to mention a rank-fifteen expert like this person, even divine champions would suffer from treating Qianye this way.
This time, Qianye had no intention of holding back. His blood core pulsed strongly, almost as though it had woken up from a long dream—he was ready to heavily injure the opponent in one go.