Having stuck with Song Zining for some time, Qianye now understood a bit about divination arts. He had even tried using it twice and displayed a bit of talent in that regard. According to the seventh young master, Qianye was a finger joint compared to his finger. This meant that Qianye could still make a living with divination even if he didn’t have the dark golden blood energy or Venus Dawn.

Those who practiced divination paid great attention to the karma of their mental realms. Hence, Empress Li would have to give Qianye a reward of equal value if she had obtained benefits from him. Only then would she be able to maintain a clear conscience. They would no longer owe one another thereafter, and there was no need to think about it again.

Qianye thought back and forth but still couldn’t figure out what he had done for Empress Li. His thoughts went down the wrong track after repeated attempts. Could it be that there was enmity between Empress Li and Luo Bingfeng? Or perhaps the white-fruit wine he had shared with Li Kuanglan was highly useful for her? Maybe it was those Silken Lotuses?

If this really was about the Silken Lotuses, Eunuch Zhang would’ve asked for them when they had met. Now, Li Kuanglan seemed to have forgotten all about them, and they were still in Qianye’s storage. A couple of lotuses shouldn’t hold any value for an empress.

Qianye sighed softly. He decided to stop thinking about it, but he still couldn’t get rid of the shadow in his heart. The attention of a divination expert wasn’t a good thing, especially someone of Empress Li’s caliber.

He put away his thoughts and glanced at Zhuji. “Come, let’s try one more punch.”

The little fellow grimaced. “No!”

“This will be the last one.”

“You said so yesterday.”

Seeing that he could not coax her anymore, Qianye said with a stern face, “Come!”

Little Zhuji was ultimately afraid of Qianye getting angry. She approached unwillingly and arched her back to accumulate power. A deep green glow appeared beneath her feet as she finished accumulating power. With a single step, she charged toward Qianye and swung her tiny fist at him with great ferocity!

The entire house was filled with the echo of thunder as she moved. She was so fast and powerful that every movement of hers was accompanied by rolling thunder.

The area beneath Qianye’s feet was filled with formless clouds of nothingness. He stood there as eight resounding thunderclaps rang out around his body. Then, he threw a punch to meet Zhuji’s attack.

The little lass flew back with a muffled thud but was quickly bound in place by an invisible origin power. Otherwise, the impact would’ve sent her smashing through several walls before stopping over a hundred meters away.

But this made it extremely uncomfortable for her. Her little face turned pale, her eyes dazed, and it looked like she was about to vomit. As a young arachne, eating was her primary goal every day. Vomiting was beyond difficult for her.

Qianye’s body drafted backward slightly before the image of a star appeared behind him, and he quickly found his footing.

He raised his left hand and looked at it. This simple movement caused his bones to crackle loudly, and he only regained free movement gradually.

“Even eight layers of Excavator is barely enough. Could it be that her body is comparable to a high-ranking divine champion?”

The thundering sounds just now was a sign of Qianye channeling Excavator. Seven layers used to be his limit, but now, he had pushed it one level higher. That wasn’t something an ordinary divine champion could do.

Despite the eight layers of Excavator, Qianye himself never went all out with his attack. Otherwise, no matter how strong her body was, there was no way the girl could withstand the blast.

Qianye put down his hand and said, “That’s enough for today. Go and eat.”

Little Zhuji was pale as she dragged her feet toward the kitchen. Even food couldn’t quite attract her anymore, which went to show just how much discomfort she was in.

“Come back when you’re done eating.”

The lass went pale. “You said that was the last time.”

“The last time before bedtime, go eat your food!”

The little fellow bit her lip, and tears almost rolled down her face. However, she knew resistance was futile, so she ultimately entered the kitchen with red eyes.

Only when she was gone did Qianye reveal an expression of heartache. He sighed softly, muttering, “There’s no helping this, it’s all for your own good.”

Back when handing Zhuji to Qianye, Nighteye had explained to him certain things to pay attention to in the future. Combat was necessary during her growth phase. Moreover, it had to be high-intensity or even life threatening combat.

A developing arachne’s physical strength would decrease relatively because its growth was so much faster. Arachne would use combat to strengthen themselves and force out their true potential, aiding their overall maturation. The arachne were a battle-hungry race since ancient times. They were never outstanding in terms of intelligence and origin power utilization, but their bloodthirst allowed them to kill their way into the four major races.

Qianye naturally wouldn’t allow Zhuji to go about killing people. He had more than a few ways to train this little fellow—fighting him, for instance. In truth, the girl was also a fairly good target to test secret martial arts on. She was so durable that even a divine champion might not be able to compare. Hence, Qianye could try new powerful moves while training her at the same time.

This type of training seemed fairly effective. Little Zhuji’s growth sped up once again, as proven by a doubling of her food intake. Appetite was the only standard to measure an arachne’s growth. An increased desire to eat was a sign that her growth was speeding up—this simple and coarse method was in line with their race’s philosophy.

Qianye went back to reading the Book of Darkness while waiting for Little Zhuji to eat. Unable to comprehend the universe’s evolution, Qianye switched to the formation of star systems. Failing to understand that, he changed to the nebulas, and then to the interior of the planets. Only when reaching a frost-covered continent did he grasp some things.

Unlike the Founding Ancestor, Qianye couldn’t observe the flow of heaven and earth or invent a series of secret arts like the Combatant Formula. However, observing the evolution of the universe held great meaning to him for now and in the future.

After crossing the divine champion threshold, one of the standards for measuring one’s combat strength was to see how much origin power they could mobilize from the surroundings. The more origin power they could utilize, the stronger their attacks would be. The method for this utilization was equally as important—understanding of the universe’s rhythm would allow for more subtle methods.

This Book of Darkness was simply spoon-feeding Qianye with knowledge on how to control his strength after reaching the divine champion realm. Naturally, that was just the continent part of the imagery. Even a high-ranking divine champion would have some trouble comprehending the evolution of the entire star system.

As for the entire cosmos, it was probably a path for the heavenly monarchs.

No wonder Qianye was immediately injured when he tried to sense the evolutionary process of the cosmos. The vast amount of information wasn’t something he could withstand at the moment.

The sound of loud chewing came from the kitchen, a telltale sign of the little fellow eating her meal. She chewed carefully in the beginning, but she would lose control of her eating speed over time.

The wild beast meat was so tasty that she couldn’t resist. Eating small mouthfuls was just as enjoyable as wolfing it down.

Similar situations had played out several times in the past few days. Qianye knew that the girl would stuff herself full in about ten minutes and return obediently for her next lesson.

It was at this point that Qianye sensed someone approaching. The person didn’t stop after approaching the courtyard—they merely hesitated for a moment before knocking on the gate.

Qianye’s expression turned sour, apparently displeased at being disturbed during cultivation. His mood was far from calm these days—he was easily angered and in low spirits most of the time. Only training with Zhuji could calm him down temporarily. This person from Dark Flame had arrived despite the taboo, so they had to have important news.

Qianye walked into the courtyard and opened the gates. “What’s the matter.”

The one standing outside the gates was a mercenary leader, also one of Song Zining’s trusted aides. He passed Qianye a letter, saying, “Two people claiming to be from the empire wish to see you. This letter is for you, and they claim you’ll meet them once you see it.”

Qianye opened the canvas and fished out the letter inside. There were two insignias on the paper, and one of them was the emblem of Ji Tianqing’s family. This secret mark was simple and abstract, unlike the soaring snake of the Imperial clan. One couldn’t tell that this emblem, on its own, was from an Imperial bloodline, but Ji Tianqing had shown it to Qianye before and explained the origins to him in private.

Qianye knew from this secret mark that the guest was somewhat related to Ji Tianqing. His brows relaxed a bit.

The other insignia was much more complicated and formal. Above it was a coat-of-arms representing the Imperial military, and below was a diagram of mountains and supply crates. This was the emblem of the military’s armaments division, a department in charge of the entire army’s logistics and armaments development. In addition to power, this was the most profitable department in the entire army.

It was beyond Qianye’s expectations that people from the armaments division would seek him out personally. His relationship with the Imperial military wasn’t good, to begin with, and it could only be worse now that he had destroyed one of their agents in the neutral lands.

But Ji Tianqing’s secret emblem changed Qianye’s attitude. He said, “Have them wait, I’ll head over soon.”

Qianye was in no rush. He first cleaned up and changed into a new set of clothes before heading over to the parlor at a steady pace.

The hour-long wait expressed his attitude regarding this meeting. This was something he had learned from Song Zining.

The two people in the parlor had been waiting for a good while. The tea before them had been re-steeped eight times and had already lost all taste.

A short-haired muscular man slammed the teacup with a bang. “Goddammit, we’ve been waiting around for so long. What posturing!”