Qianye looked down with a smile. “Old thing, you sure talk big. It looks like I need to teach you a lesson. Issue the order, slaughter that monster!”

The battlecruiser moved slightly backward and lowered its head. Then, with a thunderous rumble, a giant flaming bolt shot toward the war elephant!

The creature seemed to have sensed the threat. It let out a loud cry, raising its front legs and swinging its trunk in an attempt to block the attack. However, the giant ballista bolt wasn’t something the giant creature could react to on time. The projectile struck the elephant’s head and erupted in an earth-shattering explosion, blasting the bone armor into fragments. The detonation left behind a wild blaze that sent the elephant into a frenzy. The creature shook its head and stomped about, killing countless werewolf warriors around it. The palace on its back also fell apart, flinging several drivers and shamans from within.

The battlecruiser was the Empire’s newest technology. Its main cannon could badly damage or even sink a cruiser. The war elephant’s white-bone armor looked terrifying, but ultimately, it was not made up of origin arrays and steel. The bone armor couldn’t compare to the warship’s armor plates, either. Under the battlecruiser’s attack, a single shot caused it to lose all fighting power.

The captain didn’t stop there. The main cannon locked onto the war elephant and fired once again!

He was intent on destroying that war elephant under Qianye’s orders.

The Whitebone Duke was halfway in the air when he saw the second blast coming in. Roaring furiously, he moved to intercept the projectile. A giant white-bone claw appeared in the air and swiped at the giant ballista bolt, igniting it halfway.

The duke’s body jolted violently, and with a loud pop, several cracks appeared on the bone armor on his hand. It would seem that intercepting the main cannon forcibly came with a price.

The battlecruiser had once again recharged at this point and another blast arrived!

At the moment, the battlecruiser was on the verge of entering a critical state. The crew hurried about in the bay, ensuring that the cannon was firing at its top speed without hitting the overheating point.

Qianye smiled coldly as his eyes turned blue, and the Whitebone Duke’s image appeared within. A black feather was faintly discernible at the tip of his fingers.

The duke immediately sensed a chill throughout his body, and his movements slowed down slightly. The delay caused him to miss one of the bolts; all he could do was watch as it struck the side of the war elephant. This armor-piercing bolt nailed itself deep into the war elephant’s head, which had already lost the protection of the bone armor. Then, it detonated in an earth-shattering explosion, producing a terrifying wound that was several meters in diameter. Even the bones inside were now visible!

The Whitebone Duke finally stopped and focused his attention on Qianye. With him prowling on the side, there was no way he could protect the elephant. The Imperial battlecruiser’s firepower was also far beyond his expectations, requiring his full effort to intercept. He would have to force his way into the airship in order to escape this passive situation.

In the several hundred years before this, he had never faced an airship of this grade. Be it in the sky or on the ground, he used to be the king of the Jade Sea, a title he could claim with a clear conscience. Now, however, his throne in the air had been toppled.

The Whitebone Duke clenched his jaws. “You’re courting death!”

His figure appeared before Qianye with a flicker as he clawed at the latter’s throat. Qianye responded in kind, swiping at the duke’s throat instead of evading.

Furious, the Whitebone Duke hastened his movements slightly, grabbing Qianye’s palms mid-air and locking him into a wrestle.

This was the most primitive clash of origin power and strength. It was also a favorite first-battle stance among werewolves and arachne. Due to their physique, the demonkin and vampires leaned more toward speed, technique, and domains. Hence, the arachne and werewolves became synonymous with crude violence. It was, however, a fact that the werewolves held an advantage in strength against the vampires, let alone against humans.

This unknown brat actually dared to wrestle with him! This was simply courting death! Feeling deeply insulted, the Whitebone Duke erupted with power and increased his strength thrice in a row. He wanted to crush Qianye’s hand, or even his entire arm!

An invisible shockwave erupted from the two combatants. The impact was so strong that even the massive battlecruiser dipped several dozen meters. It was as though a hurricane had crashed into the deck, sweeping away all hanging equipment. Two auxiliary cannons fixed to the deck were sent rolling into the distance, crushing over a dozen werewolves as it landed on the ground.

Qianye and the Whitebone Duke appeared as the storm subsided. What surprised everyone was that Qianye had actually withstood the successive impact from the duke.

Although he looked a bit pale and the impact had sent him leaning backward before regaining his posture, he had ultimately withstood the attack. At that moment, the Whitebone Duke fell from his divine altar, a position he had held firmly for three hundred years.

As the two separated, Qianye’s silhouette flickered and appeared several hundred meters away, evading the duke’s attack to the head. The Whitebone Duke moved abruptly after the missed strike and appeared in front of Qianye once again. His movement wasn’t that much slower than Spatial Flash. The duke threw another punch to Qianye’s face, which Qianye blocked with crossed arms.

A clap of thunder reverberated through the air. This time, Qianye was sent flying several dozen meters backward, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He had finally sustained a bit of injury. This result was already far beyond everyone’s imagination. Eiseka and Xu Jingxuan from the great corridor’s side believed Qianye would be able to contend with the duke, but they never imagined he would charge into a head-on collision like this.

Greatly surprised, the Whitebone Duke was almost spewing flames from his eyes and his killing intent grew deeper. This time, he finally put away his arrogance and was no longer in a rush to attack. He accumulated all of his origin power in his claws, preparing to deal a fatal blow in one strike.

Qianye was young, so young that it made him fearful. If he couldn’t destroy this opponent today, his throne in the Jade Sea would surely fall into the young man’s hands—at least after a few years if not today.

The duke had just finished gathering his power when a flash of lightning appeared behind him. A long whip lashed ruthlessly toward the back of his head. The Whitebone Duke didn’t dare underestimate this powerful strike, so he had no choice but to turn about and deflect it.

The werewolf’s expression was serious. “Who are you?”

Caroline swung her Thunderous Whip, drawing large swathes of lightning along with it. “You don’t need to know that, but it’ll be too late if you don’t run now.”

“With just you two?” The Whitebone Duke laughed wildly.

Caroline sneered. “You’ll know once you try.”

Just as she was lifting her whip for a second attack, Qianye called out to her and pointed downward. “I’ll keep him busy, you dispose of his subordinates and offspring down there.”

Caroline glanced at Qianye. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Don’t worry, such a weak duke can’t do anything to me.”

“Very well, take care, don’t get yourself killed while playing.”

“I don’t want to die just yet.”

Fast and decisive, Caroline’s figure shot toward the Jade Sea army that had just arrived in a swirl of dust.

At this moment, the Whitebone Duke’s hair was flying about, and his body was engulfed in faint green flames. He was so angry that his hands were trembling. Caroline’s rank was fairly close to his, and that lash from just now contained great strength. If the two of them were to work together, it was likely that he would fall.

Qianye was indeed unyielding, but how dare he claim that he could fight alone. After all, there was still a major rank’s gap between the two. The Whitebone Duke had never suffered such humiliation since he started ruling the Jade Sea three centuries ago!

The duke’s expression was still hidden behind his mask, so no one could tell his actual mood. He simply stood there in silence, allowing Caroline to leave.

After she was a good distance away, the duke locked onto Qianye with overflowing killing intent.

In the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of his target and threw a ruthless punch, one containing boundless might! Just as before, Qianye chose to take the blow head-on and was sent flying dozens of meters away.

The duke followed his prey like a shadow. Punches, elbows, knee strikes, and kicks—his attacks were as wild as a tempest. All of a sudden, Qianye could only defend and had no power to retaliate at all.

A series of thunderous rumbles erupted in the air, each explosion representing a collision between Qianye and the duke. There was nothing fancy about these clashes, nor was there any room for them.

Qianye was at a disadvantage, like a candle in the wind as he barely held out under the werewolf’s assault. The glow of his defensive origin power grew dim and looked like it would be extinguished any moment.

Seeing that Qianye was about to fall, the duke reduced the speed of his attacks, but the power behind his strikes only grew stronger. Each strike was like a hatchet, a chisel, and a mountain-splitting sledgehammer, ruthlessly striking an obstinate piece of metal on the anvil.

Qianye had shrunk down his defensive zone to its smallest extent, leaving only a palm’s space around his body. He could and was still defending every part of his body from head-to-toe, pushing his fighting techniques to their limits.

However, that still wasn’t enough—the enemy he was facing was the Whitebone Duke, whose every punch and kick was extremely fast and heavy. Even though he had slowed down, that was just relative to before. Qianye couldn’t find any gap to take advantage of.

This battle allowed everyone to understand why the Whitebone Duke could rule over the Jade Sea for three hundred years. It wasn’t just a suppression in rank and brute strength—this dark duke was simply an inherent genius in combat!

Qianye’s origin power barrier was punctured time and again, causing him to sustain injuries from time to time. Even his ancient vampire physique could hardly take this degree of punishment. Every time he was struck, his origin power would fluctuate wildly. His dark golden blood energy remained inside his body, focused on strengthening and repairing his muscles and internal organs.

Every time Qianye’s flickering barrier was shattered, another would appear moments later, only to be crushed again.

Venus Dawn was pure and fierce. The origin power barrier formed from it was also extremely durable. Even a thin layer, one so dim that it was hardly visible, would take the Whitebone Duke several focused attacks to break.

In this manner, the shield was destroyed, reborn, and destroyed repeatedly. Qianye remained at a constant disadvantage—it seemed like he was being beaten so badly that he couldn’t even retaliate. Each of the duke’s attacks came with a full accumulation of his power, almost as though he would tear the figure in front of him to pieces. Yet, each time, Qianye would miraculously get through the assault.

Slowly, the showdown in the air revealed a different kind of meaning. Qianye was focused solely on defense and never counterattacked even while his shield was up.