Song Zining sighed as he placed an origin grenade at her side. “You know what to do when necessary.”

His personal guard nodded.

As a member of the Imperial family, her corpse must not be defiled even after death. They also had to prevent the dark races from conducting research on her bloodline or using it as a medium for divination and other secret arts.

Song Zining glanced at her again with a sigh.

The Nineteenth Princess wasn’t of age yet. She wasn’t particularly outstanding among the princes and princesses, but she had her own innocent charm. As for why she would appear on the front lines, Song Zining had his own guesses but there was no way to confirm.

True divination powerhouses were unfathomable in their actions. It was the same with Lin Xitang, and so was it for Empress Li.

Song Zining’s initial arrangements for her protection were solid. If something were to happen to a princess, he would be accountable to a certain degree. However, Princess Nineteen wasn’t willing to stay on the Martyr’s Palace and had, instead, snuck into Whitetown by some unknown means. To sum it up, she had brought about her own death. Even in Whitetown, Song Zining had assigned his most trusted personal guards to protect her from close by.

But at this point in the battle, Song Zining was already hard-pressed to protect himself. How could he spare any attention for her? The guards he had assigned to her had been wiped out entirely, and there was really no one left to blame.

Song Zining left for the front lines as the roar of dark race soldiers rang out once more. Without his support, the mercenaries and Zhao clan soldiers would not be able to withstand the assault of the dark race forces and the many titled experts in their midst.

The moment he arrived at the front lines, subtle changes immediately took over the area around him. For some reason, the dark races’ attacks would deviate from their targets, and their movements were slowed down when trying to evade.

This was due to Song Zining’s domain interfering with the enemies’ perception. As long as he was present, the defending side would find their fighting power increase many times. That was why, out of the three, he was tasked with defending the largest area and had the most soldiers assigned to him. Comparatively, Qianye was more suited for fighting alone. His Life Plunder couldn’t differentiate between friendly forces and the enemy. Zhao Jundu could perform just fine whether or not he had men assigned to him.

It was at this moment that Song Zining’s body was jolted by a powerful force bearing down on his domain from above. He couldn’t help but cough up a mouthful of blood from this attack. He quickly wiped away the blood from his mouth and looked up.

There, he saw the dark race soldiers parting like the tides and Doer’s majestic figure walking out from their midst.

Song Zining sighed with a wry smile. “What a pity.”

“What about?” Doer asked without attacking immediately.

Song Zining glanced at him and said, “You actually dare come here despite your injuries. If it wasn’t for your overwhelming advantage in numbers, you probably won’t be able to walk out.”

Doer remained unmoved. “I find it quite regretful as well. If the situation today never happened, you and I could’ve had a satisfying battle a decade or two later. Blame your human race if you must blame something. What else need be said when even people like you three can be placed on the table as chips? Time is running out. The three of you are probably out of origin power and can’t escape even if you wanted to. So, just be on your way in peace.”

Song Zining let out a long laugh. He reached for his spear out of habit, but there was nothing there. He looked back to find that there was no one left around him. The only personal guard left alive was guarding the Nineteenth Princess’ body.

It was at this time that Bai Aotu suddenly appeared and pressed a spear into Song Zining’s hands. “Just make do with this, I'll trust you to guard my back.”

With that, she walked toward Doer with a swing of her long sleeves.

The werewolf shook his head. “You’re a spent force, what’s the use?”

Bai Aotu spread her arms out in an odd posture, saying, “I have a sure-kill move that I’ve been training for ten years but never had the chance to use it. It’ll make a fitting gift for your distinguished self.”

Doer’s expression was serious. He had immediately realized that Bai Aotu was about to ignite herself and launch a mutually-destructive blow. She was only one fine line away from reaching the divine champion realm. If she was ready to attack with her life on the line, how terrifying would it be?

Bai Aotu wasn’t about to give Doer the time to think, nor for anyone to stop her. She arrived before the duke with a crisp whistle and launched a punch at his chest, accompanied by myriad visual phenomena.

Doer’s hair stood on end as he morphed into his werewolf form and clawed fiercely at Bai Aotu’s fist!

A muffled thud shook the entire Whitetown. In the blink of an eye, the distant Qianye and Zhao Jundu glanced in this direction at the same time.

Bai Aotu and Doer froze in place for a moment as one circular shockwave after the other spread out in all directions. Everything in their wake collapsed layer by layer, almost as though they had experienced countless passing years. Those affected by the shockwave—be they mercenaries or dark race soldiers—would be frozen in place, their faces suffused with a deathly grey color.

Blood vessels surfaced on Bai Aotu’s face three times. With a sudden loud roar, a mist of red erupted from her body, and blood flowed out from her ears and nose. Great strength flowing into her fist, she deflected Doer’s claw and smashed his chest squarely!

Doer let out a muffled groan as his entire back exploded into a fountain of spurting blood. Soon after, a black luminous feather shot out. It turned out that the Shot of Inception never dissolved inside the duke’s body; he was merely suppressing it.

He retreated with a long howl and vanished in an instant.

Bai Aotu stood drenched in blood, the austerity of her presence prevented anyone from approaching her.

The shockwave from her exchange with Doer had cleared out everything within a hundred meters. No one survived apart from Song Zining and a couple of Evernight experts who were above the count rank. Fortunately, the dark races made up the majority of the people around her, with only a dozen or so mercenaries and Zhao clan soldiers.

Song Zining walked over to Bai Aotu to support her, but his hand froze halfway in the air. Bai Aotu’s eyes were shut tight, blood trickling down her eyes. She was also listening intently, but how could she hear clearly with all that blood flowing out of her ears?

Her expression shifted all of a sudden as she looked up at the sky. Song Zining looked up as well, also sensing something.

Far over the horizon, a dark race airship was descending through the layer of clouds. There were several long ribbons dancing around the vessel, pushing the airship forward with each movement.

The warship’s speed was shocking. It arrived outside of Whitetown in the blink of an eye, whereupon a dozen or so majestic silhouettes flew up from the deck. Shockingly, all of them were experts above the count rank!

Song Zining lost his composure upon seeing the insignia on their robes. “Sword-bearers!”

The strongest force under the Evernight Council was Black Sun, and these sword-bearers were the strongest in the organization. Eden was once a five-star sword-bearer, just like this batch of experts that had appeared!

The entire state of affairs had fallen into despair with their appearance. These Evernight experts couldn’t be judged from their rank alone, as they were all geniuses like Eden.

The number and rank of these sword-bearers proved that they had almost mobilized in full-force. The shadows of the council chairman, or even one of the supremes could be seen behind this operation.

The sword-bearers came from different races. Even though they had arrived aboard Evernight’s most advanced high-speed warship, it would take a good while for them to travel from their main camp to the void continent. Perhaps they were already on the way when the war began.

To a certain degree, one could say that the value of these sword-bearers wasn’t inferior to Doer himself, and definitely greater than Digger. Passing the council’s strict star screening meant that they possessed immense strength as well as future potential. Whether they continued serving the council or shouldered their own racial duties, they would form the top-tier backbone of the dark races.

Why was the Evernight Council making such a big move?

The sword-bearers arrived with great speed. Before people could figure out the answer, they had already charged into the city center. They were intent on occupying the central command, to divide the defensive forces and annihilate them.

It was just that only a handful of mercenaries remained in Whitetown, and the Zhao clan’s private soldiers had mostly fallen. So, it was obvious who these sword-bearers had come for.

Without waiting for them to land, Qianye’s eyes flickered with radiance. Each of his pupils reflected the silhouette of a sword-bearer, both marquises. These experts found the flow of their origin power immediately become stagnant.

It was at this moment that Qianye stopped holding back. The Twin Flowers appeared in his hand as luminous wings unfurled behind his back, and two inky feathers shot into the sword-bearers’ foreheads!

Even Doer could not dissolve the Shot of Inception immediately and could only suppress it. How could a marquis withstand the attack? The two sword-bearer marquises descended to the ground without so much as a grunt. It was just that their comrades remained hovering while the two of them collapsed to the ground, never to move again.

Qianye’s vision dimmed after firing two shots of inception. His body was entirely drained of energy, and all he wanted to do was sleep. He couldn’t react even when a sword-bearer slashed at his throat.

At the moment of peril, Qianye suddenly heard Zhao Jundu’s voice, “Qianye, come to me. Spatial Flash!”

Without time to think, Qianye activated Spatial Flash out of instinct, and his flickering body appeared beside Zhao Jundu. That sword-bearer ended up slashing empty air.

Zhao Jundu slapped Qianye’s shoulder. Eight streams of violet energy pulsed briefly as Qianye felt his entire body numb and immobile!

Shocked, Qianye immediately began to struggle, but the bindings around his body showed no signs of giving way. Zhao Jundu’s Omniscient Seal, even though it was just a simple pat, wasn’t something an exhausted Qianye could break.

“You’ll injure your foundations if you keep moving about.” Zhao Jundu roared sternly, forcing Qianye to calm down.

The fourth young master glanced at the sword-bearers who were scouting their way forward. “These people are likely here for me. There’s no way I’ll feel good letting them go back empty-handed. So yeah, there’s no need to go back anymore.”

Zhao Jundu grabbed Heartgrave from Qianye’s back and fired without even aiming! A sword-bearer fell down immediately.

Zhao Jundu moved the muzzle without waiting to see the results. The timbre of gunshots echoed through the air. Whoever was within firing range would find it impossible to evade the shot, regardless of movement arts or domains. One swordbearer after the other fell, unable to escape the one-shot-one-kill streak empowered by his True Shot ability.

Shocked out of his wits, Qianye began to struggle and flail about. Heartgrave was a superior grade-nine weapon, how could it be used like this!?