Edward gradually opened his slender eyes and snorted in apparent anger. He pointed his blade at Qianye from afar, engulfing everything within a hundred meters in dark purple radiance—himself, Qianye, Ji Tianqing, and the other black-robed man.

A deep, profound suppressive might slowly fell upon them. It was as though a supreme being had opened his eyes high up in the void and was looking from therein.

Ji Tianqing wrapped her arms around herself. Her necklace and armbands glowed faintly, forming a light barrier that blocked out the dark purple blood energy. The light was faint, but it wasn’t at all at a disadvantage against the invasive blood energy.

The other black-robed man was in a miserable state. He fell to his knees, trembling, and actually couldn’t stand up anymore.

Edward’s pupils constricted as he scanned Ji Tianqing. His expression became much more solemn and his killing intent increased. His gaze switched to Qianye after just a brief moment because he felt that Qianye was the true danger.

Fortunately, it was great news that Qianye possessed a vampire bloodline. Their race focused so much on bloodline superiority because the more powerful ones would suppress the weaker ones. The closer one was to the source of the River of Blood, the greater the suppression they would exert. Even the one who had founded the Throne of Blood could only kill at will after escaping to the neutral lands because he was apprehensive of the superior bloodlines on the Twilight Continent.

Edward’s confidence came not from his status as the Holy Son, nor his primo bloodline. Instead, it originated from this dark purple blood energy, one that was born of a great dark monarch!

Edward was, after all, a genius. After his punishment via blood ignition, he had actually grasped that thread of opportunity to assimilate the great dark monarch’s blood energy into his body. Although there was only a tinge of the powerhouse’s aura in his blood, his suppression toward other vampires had increased exponentially. Even primos were far from being able to contend against a true great dark monarch.

Within the purple blood mist, Qianye’s eyes were slightly lowered. He stood firmly with his sword in one hand and the other pointing at Edward.

The Holy Son laughed coldly, his evaluation of Qianye dropping several points. Frozen stiff and losing the power to struggle meant that Qianye’s bloodline wasn’t anything to write home about. It definitely couldn’t be compared to the superior vampire races. If he was even slightly close to being a primo, he would have the ability to escape and not be frozen there.

Edward walked forward to remove this insolent vampire’s head, but he suddenly noticed something after the first step. His eyes fell upon Qianye’s left hand.

There was a dark golden flame burning on Qianye’s fingertip, in which was a flickering luminous feather.

Edward’s eyes narrowed as he recalled the battle at Indomitable where Qianye had wounded the Demoness with three luminous feathers. He wasn’t powerless to struggle; he was actually luring Edward closer!

Edward immediately stopped, but he didn’t retreat. Instead, his figure became illusory and unstable, flickering hundreds of times in mere moments. He had utilized an extremely advanced secret art so that Qianye couldn’t lock onto him. Sideways evasion was much more effective against the Shot of Inception compared to retreating backward. Putting distance between them wasn’t the best strategy.

Edward was entirely focused on Qianye’s finger, but who would’ve thought the feather would actually vanish after a couple of flickers?

The Holy Son was highly alarmed. Only at this point did he realize that a wisp of silent sword energy had arrived beside him. Qianye had launched a Nirvanic Rend while Edward was focused on the Shot of Inception.

Edward roared loudly, condensing countless streams of blood energy into shields around him. Yet, he was caught off-guard and unable to gather his full power. The shields were slashed apart by the sword energy and a long, gushing wound appeared on his chest!

The vampire roared furiously as he took several steps back, whipping out an origin handgun and taking aim at Qianye along the way. The wound on his body had closed up and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Qianye stood there, frowning. He didn’t give chase immediately because that origin gun elicited a strong stabbing pain in him. Apparently, it was excessively powerful and probably a grade-nine weapon. Edward’s injury just now looked frightening, but the cut was quite shallow, as evidenced by the speed of its healing.

Edward didn’t attack, either. He gradually retracted his blood mist and stared at Qianye. “You’re not restrained?”

Qianye smirked. “I’ve told you just now. It’s not certain who among us is closer to the source of the River of Blood.”

Edward was surprisingly calm and contemplative. He then stared at Qianye intently. “Can you tell me who granted you your sacred bloodline?”

“Do you think I’ll tell you?”

“It’s fine if you don’t, but you’ve already invited trouble upon yourself, big trouble.”

Qianye smiled coldly once more. “No matter how big the trouble, can it exceed the bloody battle and void continent wars?”

Edward shook his head. “No, it’s not what you think. It’s something beyond your imagination.”

Qianye wasn’t interested in unraveling his deliberate mystification. Instead, he pointed at the origin gun, saying, “Your Excellency, you do know that you shouldn’t fire so easily in the Great Maelstrom, right? Or perhaps you have bigger troubles of your own and wish to die together with me?”

Edward put away his firearm. “This Fading Blossom is an imitation of the Red Spider Lily, crafted by a prince from our Perth clan. Unfortunately, the weapon never gained sentience even after hundreds of years of work and the prince’s subsequent deep slumber. All it could do was imitate the magnum slightly. Even so, it’s a grade-nine weapon and a family heirloom. Shooting it won’t produce a huge ruckus like ordinary guns.”

“Then, why don’t you use it?”

“That’s because I don’t want to trade lives.” Edward glanced at Qianye’s left hand.

While Qianye and Edward were locked in a showdown, Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan left the forest, and the black-robed experts returned to the Holy Son’s side. It was just that all of them were injured, and only that young vampire lady was unhurt.

Ji Tianqing had taken out the other black-robed man right after Qianye pushed Edward back, and then rushed away to help Li Kuanglan. The latter was able to keep the entire group at bay on her own, so Ji Tianqing’s arrival tipped the scales entirely.

The other black-robed man was actually quite strong, but he was unfortunately swept into and suppressed by Edward’s purple blood energy. In the end, Ji Tianqing took him down with a single punch.

At this moment, both sides were evenly matched. “Your Excellency, leave some spoils and you can go.”

Only the loser of a battle would need to pay tribute. Edward said with a gloomy expression, “Are you asking me to surrender?”

“More or less.”

“Insolence!”

Qianye thrust East Peak into the ground and produced Heartgrave. “You can try using that Fading Blossom of yours.”

Edward’s pupils shrank. “A grade-nine gun?”

Qianye replied indifferently, “This gun is called Heartgrave. A blast from it, reinforced with a peerless secret art, should be enough to return you to the River of Blood. Want to try?”

Qianye wasn’t bragging, though. It was impossible to tell whether the Shot of Inception was physical or purely spirit in nature. Even though Andruil had merely completed its initial structure, the weapon’s might was already quite evident. It would also be quite reliable to say that the Shot of Inception was a peerless secret art.

The Shot of Inception, fired through Heartgrave, would surely send the Holy Son of the vampire race back to the River of Blood. Naturally, Qianye wasn’t speaking the entire truth because he wasn’t really sure if he could fire the upgraded black feather via Heartgrave.

Edward was livid. He wasn’t willing to just retreat, but the two parties were just too close. No one knew if an exchange of fire would end in mutual destruction, but it was certain that both parties would suffer severe casualties. Neither of the outcomes was worth it for him, especially since there were people from other families in the Great Maelstrom. He didn't even want to get injured.

At this point, the vampire lady beside him said, “It’s fine if you want stuff from us, but you can’t force us to leave, and you must not attack us again.”

Qianye was so focused on Edward that he never noticed that vampire lady. Only when he glanced over did he realize that it was Twilight from Nighteye’s clan. After the long period of not seeing one another, it would seem her strength had increased sharply to the level of a virtuous count. Who knew what kind of fortune she had stumbled upon or which major character’s favor she had earned?

Surprisingly, the Holy Son didn’t show any evident signs of displeasure at Twilight speaking out before him. It would seem that the girl’s status in the clan was much higher than her strength. It was just that her request was odd and suspicious.

Ji Tianqing said, “The Constellation Well is of no use for vampires, is it? What do you plan to do by remaining here, ambush people?”

Twilight chuckled. “If we were planning an ambush, we would’ve pretended to leave first, and then attack when you’ve entered the Constellation Well.”

These words left Ji Tianqing with no retort, but it also made her even more suspicious. “Then what are your intentions exactly?”

Twilight said, “Our race also has uses for this Constellation Well, and it’s not convenient for us to explain. So how about it, do you accept our suggestion?”

Qianye frowned. He wanted to refuse outright, but he saw Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan weren’t very averse to the notion. They exchanged glances, and then looked up at Qianye at the same time, whereupon Li Kuanglan walked over to him and explained in a whisper.

Both Evernight and the Empire were alone against the many dangers of the Great Maelstrom. Beasts, environment, and the powerful, newly-discovered natives—all of them were lethal threats to these young experts.

For the sake of survival, sometimes, the dark races and humans would temporarily forget their enmity and face the threats together. This would give both parties useful resources, shared among the participants according to their strength. This arrangement also served to reduce casualties, so it became an unwritten rule.

From a certain perspective, this was a temporary cooperation between two weak parties as they fought for resources—on one side was the evernight nobles, while on the other, humans.