According to the notes, this was a project the empire had been working on for decades, and the resources invested in it could operate a county for three years. It represented the empire’s highest achievement in the field of origin battleships. The engine didn’t look very big, but it could operate the highest-grade imperial airships and still have power to spare.

What made Qianye and Caroline speechless was the fact that the engine required Earth Dragon’s blood as fuel!

A drop of Earth Dragon’s blood was enough to make numerous powers fight tooth and claw for it. Three of them was enough to give Caroline some hope of advancing by a level. Such a precious material was being used as fuel? Although according to the booklet, a single drop could drive the engine for three years, this kind of breakthrough-aiding treasure really shouldn’t be used like this. Just what kind of battleship would be worthy of such an engine?

Caroline and Qianye were both lost in thought. There was no way Elder Wei wouldn’t know the value of the Earth Dragon’s blood. The empire was full of talented people; there was no way they would do something so dumb. They had spent so much resources and time to build this engine, yet they had also specified the Earth Dragon’s blood as its fuel and traveled tens of thousands of kilometers to this place. They had to have a good reason for this.

As Qianye continued reading the booklet, a paper dropped out from within. On it was an outline of a void colossus with a symbol and note on its abdomen. One of the labels caught Qianye’s attention: Engine made for the Martyr’s Palace, fuel should be sought out at its home.

Martyr’s Palace? Home?

Neither Qianye nor Caroline understood what these symbols meant, but Qianye thought of something according to the sketches in the book. Could it be that this Engine was placed on the Earth Dragon’s remains, and Martyr’s Palace was the name of the Earth Dragon battleship?

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that it was possible. Caroline never obtained the Pointer Monarch’s inheritance, so she didn’t know that the Earth Dragon had, in fact, died. It was only natural that she wouldn’t think of this possibility.

No matter the locale, it was obvious that the value of this engine was far beyond a few drops of Earth Dragon’s blood. How they would split the loot had become a problem at this point. Caroline was, after all, a divine champion—if she were to turn hostile, all Qianye could do was go all out and hope for mutual destruction. This wasn’t an acceptable outcome for either of them.

Caroline caressed the engine lightly. “Looks like it won’t be a problem to get a piece of land in the empire if we return this thing. What will you do if I change my mind? Would you rather give me all of the Earth Dragon’s blood?”

After a moment of silence, Qianye replied, “This thing is ownerless, to begin with. But even eight drops of Earth Dragon’s blood might not be as valuable as this engine.”

Caroline smiled faintly. “You’re quite honest. Fine, let me tell you something, it won’t be that easy to get me a piece of land in the empire. You might not know, but I have werewolf blood flowing through my veins. I don’t think I can hide that for very long once I go to the empire.”

“A hybrid?” Qianye was surprised.

Everyone knew that dark race bloodlines were stronger than human ones. A union between them would almost always result in a miscarriage or a dark race descendant. Scions with dominant human bloodlines were quite rare. The interbreeding between the dark races, however, wasn’t a certainty—sometimes, the offspring would be stronger than the parents, but those were quite rare.

If Caroline hadn’t admitted to it, Qianye really couldn’t see that she had a werewolf bloodline. Additionally, having reached the divine champion level proved that her human bloodline talent was quite powerful. This kind of situation had basically never happened in the empire.

Caroline nodded. “It’s something from my grandfather’s generation. Hybrids are a common sight in the neutral lands, almost none of the bloodlines here are pure.”

Qianye inquired further and found out that many races lived together in the neutral lands, so there were many offspring between humans, vampires, and werewolves. Perhaps due to the chaotic origin power here, human bloodlines didn’t always fall to a disadvantage during the process. Hence, a large number of mixed-breed descendants were born.

However, those receiving a noble rank in the empire had to undergo a bloodline inspection. Only pure-blooded humans would be bestowed aristocracy to prevent infiltration from the dark races. To most humans, this kind of inspection was but a formality, but Caroline would probably fail this checkpoint on her way to obtaining land and title. The nature of the entire business had changed.

Qianye remained in a silent frown. Caroline said, “My initial terms still apply. I’ll let you go and let you have this engine in exchange for a territory.”

Qianye sighed. “But what you want is an independent territory.”

“Of course. Otherwise, I can simply join the empire.”

Qianye let out a long sigh. “Fine, I promise you, but I need time.”

Caroline nodded. “Of course, but how long are you going to make me wait? Ten years? Twenty? Or even longer?”

Qianye said after some thought, “Ten years.”

Caroline whispered, “That’s a relief. I thought you were going to make me wait three decades. It looks like you’re quite confident!”

At this point, she looked meaningfully at Qianye. The latter said frankly, “I'm confident in myself and in you.”

Caroline weighed the Earth Dragon’s blood in her hand, saying, “Three drops of Earth Dragon blood can only bring me one level higher.”

“The gap between rank nineteen and twenty is a difference between lower and middle rank.”

Qianye’s words moved Caroline visibly. “You can tell?”

Qianye nodded. Caroline had the urge to ask about it, but she controlled herself. It was best not to ask about each person’s hidden aces if the other party didn’t want to talk about it.

The divine champion said after a moment of contemplation, “I have some confidence in you right now, but that’s not enough. The power of a divine champion is related to utilizing the origin power in the surroundings, crystallization of their origin nodes, and using origin power to conjure weapons. Most divine champions will form either shield or armor, and my specialty is Lightning Shield. Use your strongest attack on my Lightning Shield and let me see your combat strength.”

With that, Caroline tapped several times in the air, leaving crystallized origin power wherever her fingers went. The crystals then linked to one another and turned into a lightning-suffused shield in the blink of an eye.

“Careful, my Lightning Shield will discharge electricity to counterattack,” Caroline warned.

This was the first time Qianye had seen a divine champion’s weapon. Back in the empire, he had only blocked a single blow from that old man before fleeing with Spatial Flash. And during his battle against Elder Wei, the latter had already spent most of his origin power and had no energy to conjure his weapon. Besides, Elder Wei’s strength was mediocre at best. Most of his capability was reliant on those scrolls and sacred seals.

Elder Wei was like a tiger with wings when surrounded by powerful subordinates. The more people there were in his unit and the higher their level, the more effective Elder Wei’s power would be. Nonetheless, he was like a tiger without claws by the time he met Qianye. Additionally, Caroline chose to stand by and watch with folded arms. That was why the old man had died an unwilling death in this place.

At this moment, the Lightning Shield in front of Caroline was in a semi-translucent state, almost like a mirage. This shield would become more tangible and realistic once she had become a divine champion.

This shield was formed of Caroline’s origin power. In order to break this shield, one would need to consider its own defenses in addition to the quality of Caroline’s origin power. If the assailing power was inferior to Caroline’s own, the attacker would have to spend even more origin power.

“Come, go all out. I’ll keep my power in check so that it doesn’t wound you,” Caroline said.

Qianye’s expression was calm. East Peak appeared in his hand as he arrived before Caroline with a flicker. Sweeping Calm erupted in full force, throwing four strikes at the Lightning Shield in rapid succession.

A beam of scarlet origin power surged in the air, and Qianye took three solid steps backward. Meanwhile, to Caroline’s great astonishment, countless cracks crept over her shield and shattered it into many pieces!

“Careful!” Caroline had never imagined that her shield would be shattered in one move. The violent origin power went out of control—she could only watch the fragments turn into thick thunderbolts as they struck Qianye’s body!

The divine champion was inwardly alarmed. Knowing very well how powerful the backlash from the Lightning Shield was, she immediately arrived beside Qianye to save him.

The glow of lightning had subsided at this moment. Qianye was charred black from head to toe, and there were little arcs of lightning jumping along his body. However, he took only three steps back before standing firmly once more. A sheen of scarlet origin power flickered on his body, immediately extinguishing the lightning.

“You actually…” Caroline only spoke half a sentence and couldn’t continue the rest.

This was a clash between origin power. It could be said that her Thunderfrost Origin Power had lost miserably against Qianye’s Venus Dawn. As a divine champion, she had long since heard about the legendary Venus Dawn, but it still felt more or less frustrating to lose like this.

Having swept away the lightning, Qianye shook off the charred parts of his skin. Perfect new skin grew back to replace the injured parts, only leaving some of the deeper wounds to heal slowly. “How’s that? Are you confident now?”

Caroline stared deep into Qianye’s eyes. “You’re really a monster! I have no idea why the empire would let go of someone like you.”

Qianye laughed, “The stronger I am, the more restless those people become. It’s the same no matter which side I’m on.”

Caroline shrugged. “I’m too lazy to study politics. Fine, I feel like I can trust you.”

Qianye laughed wryly. “Actually, I’m not that confident about myself.”

The kind of half-independent territory Caroline wanted was like a vassal nation. They were merely subservient to the empire in name when, in fact, they were an independent state, only paying the empire a token tribute each year. This kind of land was different from that of the aristocracy—the empire didn’t include them in its territorial map. Throughout history, the establishment of each vassal nation was always the result of battles both in the light and in the dark. There was really no telling how much blood there was on the empire’s foundations.