[V6C25 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Song Zining replied, “It’s the ancient essence of the void colossus, Chaos, a virtually immortal being capable of living for millions of years. One can imagine how terrifying of a force it is.
“As for what a chaos void colossus is, even the Evernight Faction has very little records, to speak nothing of the empire’s meager knowledge. But other void chaos beast remains have been excavated before on certain continents, and every single one of them is an extremely powerful resource. For cultivators above the divine champion level, it is a path to heaven. In terms of armaments, it is required as a raw material for void forts, heavenly flame battleships, weapons above grade ten, and even grand magnums.”
Their current channel of information was the intelligence dispatched from the expeditionary army, information brokers like Lone Ghost, and Song Zining’s contacts among the nobility. They were able to scratch the surface at most. But just these fragments were enough for one to understand why the bloody battle had led up to this great final battle, even surpassing the war for the Black-Winged Monarch’s treasure.
Qianye finally understood why the two factions were looking to seize this object at all costs.
The Evernight side had even awakened the Queen of the Night. There was no need to talk about how steep a price they had paid. On the empire side, the Pointer Monarch was recognized as the current leader of the Heavenly Monarchs. The day he became a heavenly monarch, the man pointed toward the stars hanging in the southern sky. “To the Southern Dipper in the sky, the Pointer doth ask the way.” This became a sign of the empire’s prosperity at the time and also gave him the title, “Pointer Monarch.”
The Pointer Monarch was one who had gone through three dynasties, but he hadn’t appeared in public eyes for over three decades. Some say he had been cultivating an earth-shattering art in isolation, while others claim that he had been following the 23rd generation emperor’s footsteps toward the summit of this world. Throughout the many years, the only thing people could ascertain was the fact that he hadn’t yet fallen. The price to have him make an appearance probably wasn’t too far off from the dark race’s.
Even with such a powerful lineup and the two factions working together, they weren’t able to gain the upper hand. They only managed to break the void colossus essence apart, causing it to shoot out in all directions. Most of the fragments fell into Sky Demon’s hands, while the dark races and the empire gained some each. From this, it was obvious just how powerful Sky Demon was. Now that the Iron Curtain had descended once again, it was clear that Sky Demon wasn’t about to give up and was still intent on collecting all of the essence fragments.
Qianye said with a frown, “Then I guess the upcoming battles aren’t for people of our level.”
Song Zining said after a moment of hesitation, “I received some secret information. The geography of the continent was transformed after the great battle, and the ancient essence fragment fell into a bottomless abyss. The empire and the Evernight Council will send people in to investigate. Due to the interference of the void turbulence, all who enter will have their origin power dispersed. It’s not accurate to say all of one’s origin power because the dispersal is being measured by standard units. As such, the empire is looking to dispatch experts with combat strength exceeding their level.”
Qianye had a premonition about the words that would follow. As expected, Song Zining continued while looking at him, “Zhao Jundu is among them.”
Qianye didn’t say anything. He gazed toward the large drill ground where the smiths were already dissembling their equipment. Everyone was still immersed in the jubilation of the successful experiment.
Song Zining looked over, and his gaze paused on Nangong Xiaoniao. “Oh, right. There’s also someone else you may know in that group, Xu Lang.”
Qianye’s gaze went blank for a moment. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t recall who it was.
“The first senior brother from our batch to graduate from Yellow Springs. Heh, heh,” Song Zining’s laughter was frosty, “he currently holds a position in Red Scorpion as a brigadier general of the Stinger Camp, a fairly dazzling genius. You’re probably more familiar with the internal structure of the Red Scorpions, so you can probably guess his status and strength.”
Qianye glanced back at Song Zining in surprise. The names Yellow Springs and Red Scorpion had both popped up here, and he might even be a former classmate. Various fragmented names from Yellow Springs emerged in his mind. It seemed as though a corner of his concealed past was about to be revealed under the sun.
Qianye tried hard to bring his emotions under control and pushed the heavy name back into the depths of his memories. He listened attentively about how Xu Lang had appeared in Blackflow for a short while and nodded. It would seem that this senior brother was somehow related to the Nangong family. Meanwhile, Xu Lang was also a present Red-Scorpion Officer—could there be a relationship between him and Nangong Xiaoniao?
“Zining, are there any other Nangong families apart from the Yishui Nangong?”
Song Zining pondered for a while. “Might be some of the more humble families. Why?” He suddenly recalled a past matter. “You asked about a lady surnamed Nangong last time. What was her name?”
“Nangong Yuqing,” Qinaye replied, “someone asked me to find her or her descendants. I’ve inquired through all available channels, but still haven’t managed to find anything. Perhaps it’s difficult for outsiders to find out the interior matters of the aristocracy.”
Song Zining replied after some thought, “I understand. I’ll take note of this matter.”
Qianye nodded and then fell silent once more. Song Zining said after a while, “An area five hundred kilometers around the bottomless vortex has been locked down. If you want to go there, it’s best you visit the Zhao clan base first. Everything is more convenient with their name.”
Qianye didn’t answer for quite some time. Later, he said tartly, “Let’s just wait for more information from the imperial military.”
At present, Sky Demon clearly hadn’t given up on the remaining essence fragments, and the council didn’t seem like it would let things be either. That meant the empire was sure to interfere. It was just a matter of what price they were willing to pay. Members of the major clans and elite corps had already entered, so they would surely recruit outside help if they wanted to expand the scale of this operation. With Blackflow City’s position in the expeditionary army, they would surely be in the first batch to receive information, if not the very first.
The wind and clouds were surging on Evernight Continent, and a certain ancient upper continent wasn’t so calm, too.
Today was an important day for the Evernight Council.
The most majestic building at the center of the council—a thousand meter-tall palace hall—slowly opened its doors. These doors were two hundred and seventy meters tall but had no machines driving them. It took two honored marquises behind each door pushing with all their strength for them to slowly open.
The Eternal Hall was where the entire council convened, but its members would usually enter from the side entrance under normal circumstances. Only extremely important ceremonies or the arrival of an extremely important character would warrant the opening of its main doors. They had remained closed for almost a hundred years now.
The night sky above the great hall was eternal and unchanging. It was said that the seven giants who had formed the council worked together to modify the heaven and earth, causing the sky to become an eternal night.
Presently, only four of the seven founding magnates remained, yet the sky above the Eternal Hall was still unchanging. In the world of Evernight, the hall and its land were among the greatest miracles.
A bolt of blood-colored lightning descended through the night sky. It fell from the firmament and all the way down to the earth, forming a great sanguineous scar in the air. The number of lightning bolts grew exponentially and, very soon, formed a forest of blood-red lightning within a hundred-meter radius.
The countless bolts of dense lightning were akin to a living creature. They condensed and encircled one another to form the outline of a spatial door. A bloody hue fluctuated within as a woman with black hair and black skirt walked out.
All beings seemingly missed a heartbeat the moment she appeared in this world. This was an indescribable woman—even if one were standing before her, it would be hard for him to say whether he had seen her or not.
Almost no one could remember her appearance, or even say whether she was beautiful or ugly. She was clearly there, but looking at her felt like staring into empty space. However, after closing one’s eye, her image would remain imprinted deep in one's soul, never to be forgotten again.
This lady was the only one who had left no memory of her appearance in this world, not even a painting. Even major characters with great powers only remembered her flowing black hair and that everlasting black skirt.
She was the Queen of the Night, Lilith.
Several steps made of blood appeared before her, paving a path toward the doors of the Eternal Hall.
Lilith went down step by step, her every stride seemingly treading upon the heartbeats of all creation. The world was completely silent for everlasting silence was the highest form of respect for the queen.
She arrived before the doors to the Eternal Hall and gazed quietly above the door. The seven totems symbols there formed a circle, each representing an ancient founding clan of the Evernight Council.
It was just that the clan behind one of those totems had vanished forever and two more were already extremely weak, barely struggling to survive on a remote continent. The peerless honor of founding the Evernight Council had long since left them and would likely never return.
She sighed softly after quite a while and proceeded to enter the Eternal Hall.
The hall itself was a thousand meters tall with the roof measuring over eight hundred meters from the floor at its tallest point. Presently, there were only a couple hundred seats in this hall capable of accommodating tens of thousands of people. Naturally, it looked fairly empty.
The seats in the hall were all floating in the air. There were over two hundred seats at the lowest level belonging to the ordinary members of the council. On the next level positioned far away from one another in a circle were another 50 seats—the seats of the senior council members.
There were less than ten seats above them. These seats were different from the lower ones in that there was a platform under each of them several square meters wide, adding to their grandeur. The Evernight Council Lord and the other big shots were seated here. The council lord’s seat only had a bigger platform compared to the others.
But that wasn’t the highest level just yet. There were seven mountain peaks above them with corresponding totem insignias carved on them. These seven mountains represented the seven large founding clans, but at present, there were only four with seats—the other three summits were completely empty.
Not all council seats were full. In truth, only half of them were occupied, and some of the occupants on the highest level weren’t true bodies but projections instead.
All council members stood up when Lilith entered the Eternal Hall. They placed their hands on the chest and lowered their heads in a gesture of respect.
Without any special movements, she rose into the air and arrived before a throne on one of the seven peaks. Her gaze swept through the entire hall before she slowly took her seat.