The Red Spider Lily!

This kind of visual phenomenon belonged to the Red Spider Lily’s ultimate skill, the “River of Forgetfulness.”

Medanzo was shocked. He remembered that the Red Spider Lily’s owner for this generation was a little girl with no origin power. How could she be in the new world?

The environment in the Blacksun Valley happened to be her greatest enemy, so she wouldn’t be able to last beyond a few minutes here. Moreover, the Red Spider Lily’s power was rather limited in her hands. There should be no problem injuring a duke, but she would be hard-pressed to injure a great dark monarch.

That was precisely why Medanzo was furious and humiliated. A little girl with no origin power had caught him off-guard… This was a massive humiliation for someone who wanted face more than anything else.

A black moon appeared above Medanzo’s head, with only a red edge forming its outline. The moon then erupted in the air, dying everything in the mirror pitch black.

This black hue was actually a darkness so thick that not a shred of light could pass through. All tangible and intangible objects would crumble under its corrosive properties. This was the Lightless Monarch’s most powerful stance, a move he didn’t use even when he was at a disadvantage against the Radiant Emperor.

Medanzo might not think too much of Zhao Ruoxi, but he was cautious enough to know that being locked onto by a Grand Magnum was no small matter. This was especially true for the Red Spider Lily and its strange appearance on the battlefield. The vampire had relied on caution to remain standing after a thousand years and had no intention of taking risks. So, he unleashed his strongest power to break free from the binding immediately. However, the mirrors were merely cracked but not shattered when the darkness receded.

Medanzo looked utterly surprised because his all-out attack had actually failed to shatter the Red Spider Lily’s lock on him. Surprise soon turned to shock as he recalled something.

At this moment, an origin bullet flew in from the distance. The lofty aura surrounding the projectile could only belong to a heavenly monarch. It struck the cracked mirrors and shattered them completely.

Medanzo appeared in the air, faltering momentarily before finding his footing. He glanced around with a cold expression. “Who is it?!”

His gaze landed in a certain direction from which Qianye was slowly walking over.

“Medanzo, you’re a traitor to the vampire race. This is just a small advance payment,” Qianye said.

Medanzo wanted to say something, but his face went pale all of a sudden. The dark moon appeared briefly, but it dimmed down again as the great dark monarch failed to hold on. He grunted deeply as two streams of purple blood flowed down from his nostrils.

Medanzo looked panicked at this point. He glanced left and right but did not find the expected reinforcements. “Damned arachne!” he roared as his figure faded away from the spot.

With a cold expression, Qianye immediately fired a black feather, but the projectile merely shot through Medanzo’s afterimage. It circled around the area a couple of times, searching for a target before finally dispersing.

Qianye was surprised as this was the first time the Shot of Inception had failed.

The Radiant Emperor, who had just escaped the River of Forgetfulness’ range, stood quietly to the side. He didn’t take part in the fight at all.

“Great dark monarchs have all sorts of escape methods. Their understanding of space is also on a different level compared to divine champions. It will be rather difficult to keep them locked down unless you have the speed and destructive powers of Greensun. The true showdown is inside, no need to waste your energy.”

Qianye had never seen the Radiant Emperor before. He merely glanced at the person speaking to him and nodded in response. Qianye had no intention of avoiding the Imperial expert when he used the Red Spider Lily’s ultimate power to lock Medanzo down.

The other party’s reaction did impress him, though. Not only did the man move one step ahead of Medanzo, but he also refrained from trying to take advantage of the situation. In a fight of this level, keeping a safe distance was the best way to make sure there were no misunderstandings.

The Radiant Emperor said, “There’s actually one more person in the world who can wield the Red Spider Lily.”

Qianye was suddenly overcome by a strange sensation. The other party was saying the Red Spider Lily’s name, but he didn’t even glance at the gun once. He had kept his attention entirely on Qianye.

“You are Qianye?”

“It is I.” Qianye didn’t ask who the other person was. Who else in the Empire had reached this level and who else possessed such a demeanor? The answer did not make sense from a military strategy point-of-view, but it was rather obvious. There were things he wanted to call the Emperor to account about, but at the same time, he didn’t have much to say to him. His mind was surprisingly calm at this point.

The Radiant Emperor seemed a bit dazed, as though his gaze was fixed upon a point in the void. For some reason, Qianye felt a bit uncomfortable when he saw the man’s expression.

The Radiant Emperor shook his head. “Did you come for the Darkness Origins as well?”

“Yes.”

“The Emperor tossed an object toward Qianye. The slender bronze item hovering in the air looked rather familiar; it was a standard command token used for equipment distribution. The origin array on it would decide its level and authority.

The Radiant Emperor said, “No matter where you are in the future, you can use this to withdraw divine-champion-level resources at Imperial stations.”

Qianye put away the token after some thought. “Why?”

The Radiant Emperor said, “An enemy of an enemy will make for a good ally.”

Qianye gazed at the Radiant Emperor. That question from just now meant many different things, and the Emperor’s reply touched on most of them.

Qianye chuckled. “I know a saying, not sure which faction it’s from, though: there’s no eternal enemy in this world, nor are there any unchanging allies.”

A bit of warmth appeared in the Emperor’s eyes. “The source isn’t reliable, but Marshal Lin once explained this to me.”

Qianye was a bit surprised. “Did he agree with it?”

“The terms enemy and ally are decided by people’s stances. Besides, fate is constantly changing, the most important factor is whether we are going with or against its flow. There is no right or wrong before the heavens, all we can do is hold on without forgetting our aspirations.”

Qianye nodded contemplatively.

The Radiant Emperor said with a sigh, “You must be careful when you meet the Lightless Monarch in the future. You managed to injure him only because he was caught off-guard and failed to destroy the Red Spider Lily’s binding in one go. He’s a crafty fellow, with many tricks and schemes up his sleeve. He’s also ranked toward the top in life-saving powers. He won’t slip up like this next time, so I’d be more cautious if I were you.”

“Thank you for the pointers.” Qianye replied politely, “I have something else to ask, can Evernight and Daybreak not coexist?”

“Good question.” The Radiant Emperor said after some thought, “This is just like how tigers and lions will always fight when they meet. The only reason for this is territory and food. Even wild horses and cows will fight for pasture and water. The two factions might be able to coexist, but the world is only so big, so there will come a time when we can no longer fit. There will also never be fairness in how resources are distributed. That and the thousand years of enmity, along with too many things outside of one’s allegiance… love, for instance, is not something one can just escape from.”

The Radiant Emperor laughed. “I heard your territory on the Fort Continent welcomes a mix of all races and is a land of harmony. That’s truly a rare feat. As for me…” he paused for a moment before continuing, “wait until our general is dead and gone, the next generation can decide for themselves.”

Qianye was moved after hearing this, yet he also felt a bit of pain in his heart. This sent him into a contemplative silence. This conversation had surpassed his expectations, largely because the frank Radiant Emperor wasn’t how he had imagined the man to be. His undisguised sharpness in his speech was probably the actual, unadulterated truth.

On the other battlefield, the Eternal Flame gradually reigned in his attacks. The Pointer Monarch was at a slight disadvantage, but that was also because he hadn’t gone all out the entire time. The Tempest wasn’t a great match for him, either, so he also stopped attacking after noticing the situation.

The Eternal Flame shot Qianye a glance. “Just a slight oversight and we’ve let you mature to this point. But you must know that what His Majesty wants, he will always get. Even the Red Spider Lily can’t save you.”

The Eternal Flame was still thousands of meters away, but his voice rang true in Qianye’s ears. The latter’s brows didn’t even move as he replied, “We’ll talk when the Demon King is standing before me.”

The Eternal Flame stepped back a certain distance and pointed downward. “Since we’ve failed to hold you back, you can enter now. We’ll settle the score inside.”

The massive sinkhole was the size of a city, so surrounding it completely would take a hundred and fifty thousand soldiers. Even Evernight would have trouble getting so many troops into the new world on such short notice. The allied Evernight forces had suffered massive casualties by this point, with tens of thousands of them losing their lives to the effects of the monarchs’ battle. The Empire had also lost thousands of men.

Qianye paid no attention to what plans the experts of the two factions might have as he was simply acting to accomplish his own objectives. Seeing that neither side was moving, he said his farewells to the Radiant Emperor and jumped into the bottom of the sinkhole. The closer he was to the bottom, the more restless the Book of Darkness became. It was almost urging him to enter the inner world.

None of the experts seemed to have any intention of stopping him. After Qianye had disappeared, the Eternal Flame said, “I’ll be entering now if you two have no more plans to fight.”

The Radiant Emperor raised his hand. “Go ahead.”

After the Eternal Flame’s departure, the Evernight army regrouped and fell into formation. Then, a large batch of experts moved into the sinkhole. The Radiant Emperor and the Pointer Monarch simply stood in the air, watching the near-bottomless pit.

“Everyone will be scattered after entering, so there’s no need to worry about an ambush. What I worry about is the so-called will of the new world. What exactly is it?” the Pointer Monarch said.

“Perhaps it’s a void colossus like Sky Demon, just a bit stronger,” the Radiant Emperor said.

The Pointer Monarch frowned. “Whose judgment is that?”

“The Empress.”

The Pointer Monarch shook his head. “She’s still a bit inferior to Xitang. The feeling I get from it doesn’t feel like the instinctive intelligence of void colossi.”

The Radiant Emperor sighed. His expression dimmed down, but he said nothing.

The Pointer Monarch gazed at the sinkhole. “Profundity and I will go in. You and Greensun are still young, you have to watch the younger generations grow up.”