The young girl’s appearance was exquisite and flawless. Even that faint scar across her porcelain countenance could hardly subtract from her pure beauty. Those beautiful eyes of her looked quite perplexed as she gazed blankly at her surroundings, seemingly oblivious to the greed and evil in the eyes of everyone around her.

She was clad in a pair of flat-soled shoes, and the exposed parts of her legs were as fair as suet jade.

Her white dress was a bit dirty and torn in many places. This was normal for a travel-worn passenger who had just completed a long journey inside a dirty cargo ship. Everyone coming out from the ship looked dirty and ragged.

On her, however, the dress was immediately different. Its hem fluttering in the wind could draw out the beast hidden in the deepest parts of one’s heart.

The young girl was holding a small bag with no weapon or armor whatsoever. At this moment, she was like a small delicate blossom in the wilderness, besieged by raging storms and rumbling thunder.

Everyone in the small town exchanged glances, their eyes full of violent intent and deterrence. Most of them were defeated in this invisible battle of glares—they no longer dared to keep eye contact and merely turned back to drool at the young girl. A number of ruthless characters, however, weren’t willing to yield. In the end, they walked toward the young girl, effectively separating her from the others.

The young girl, with her puzzled large eyes, seemed not to have noticed the danger in her surroundings. She simply walked on and, at one point, turned into a small alleyway to the side.

The burly men following her glanced at one another with meaningful expressions and followed her into the dark alley. The last one among them turned back to glare at the crowd and performed a cut-throat gesture. His meaning was clear—whoever dared to follow them in would be forfeiting their life.

The jobless hoodlums of the town stopped in front of the alley since all of them combined wouldn’t be a match for that group of violent experts. But according to the rules of the town, it would be their turn after the leaders had their fill—assuming the girl wasn’t dead yet.

Dozens of people surrounded the alley, gazing in with hopes of seeing something. But the alleys in this town were dark and convoluted. The entire group, as well as the girl, had completely vanished around the corner. The people weren’t satisfied, but they didn’t dare go in, either. All they could do was try to listen for some suspicious sounds and imagine things on their own.

A miserable cry rang out from the depths of the alley. Even though the people in town were used to this kind of cruelty, the wretched scream still sent a chill down their spines—it was simply too miserable. The victim’s desperation and terror were evident from the cry.

Soon afterward, tragic cries echoed here and there throughout the dark alleyway—it was almost as though a beast of unprecedented brutality was hunting for prey.

People outside the alley couldn’t see a thing. They could only hear the constant hysterical screams, almost as though the people inside were putting all their efforts toward wailing instead of fighting or running away.

The atmosphere in the small town froze up and everyone’s consciousness came to a standstill. No one dared to move, afraid that the slightest motion would draw this terrifying demon upon them.

The cries inside the alley lasted for a good half-hour, and the townspeople stood there for just as long.

Finally, the victims’ lives came to an end and the blood-curdling screams faded away. Nonetheless, the dozens of people at the alleyway remained stationary, not daring to move in the slightest.

The little girl in white exited from the other end of the small town and slowly walked away into the wilderness. Her dress was drenched in blood, decorating it with a dazzling mixture of white and red. Her ten fingers were dripping with blood, but her eyes looked just as bewildered, almost as though she had no idea what she was doing.

At this moment, there was an old woman sitting on the other end of the town, watching the young girl, the town, and everything that had happened just now with a wooden expression.

The old woman rubbed her eyes hard as the girl was walking away because her figure had turned somewhat blurry. The receding figure came into view after a careful second glance, her dress fluttering in the wind as before. Her fair skin was dazzling, and the bloodstains had vanished entirely, almost as though they were never there in the first place.

In the small town, the petrified crowd at the alleyway finally gained the courage to walk into the dark alley after a long while. After turning around a corner, the people walking at the front suddenly fell to their knees and began to vomit.

It was a different world in the depths of this alley, a realm of blood and fragments of flesh and bones. There wasn’t even an intact limb to be found.

Even though most of the people in town were familiar with bloody sights, they had never experienced such an impact. This scene was even crueler than a Blood Feast.

Those who had survived felt fortunate that they weren’t strong enough to get a share of the bounty. Otherwise, they would’ve become a decoration for this sanguineous world.

…

Meanwhile, on the Northern Continent, a small village had arisen in an area between the mountains and coastline. The Martyr’s Palace was parked close to the village, where dozens of Highbeards were unloading boxes toward the village. Some of the Highbeard tribesmen were busy opening up the crates near the village and assembling different types of machines and vehicles.

The mountain range that served as a natural barrier was just over ten kilometers away. A small creek ran down from the snowy mountains, converging into a stream that flowed past the village. On the distant hill, some Highbeards could be seen surveying for ores amidst the rocks.

Atop a small hill nearby, Bluemoon was showing Qianye the map she had just drafted, explaining to him her future plans.

“The flow of this stream isn’t very powerful and can only support ten thousand people at most. The water supply will decrease even more after we’ve set up the mines, refinery, and weapons factories. We must, therefore, expand toward the sea. There’s a larger river there, beside which we can build another city. For now, we need the village to be here for easier construction work.”

She pointed at a distant group of mountains. “There’s definitely black crystal and iron ore there, we don’t need to worry about our supply of steel. It’ll take further surveying to find out whether or not there are rare metals. With such a density of void origin power on the summit, there’s sure to be a lot of ore veins inside, but that’s a discussion for next time.

“The sequence of workshop construction is naturally refinery, mechanical, and then weaponry last. In my opinion, we should import all key components or even entire ballistae. What we plan to produce here are big mechanical and structural components, not technically demanding parts. This will maximize the Martyr’s Palace’s fighting power in the shortest time.”

Bluemoon was holding a fairly complete plan, something she had spent a great deal of effort on. Those black rings around her eyes stand proof of that.

“Okay, let’s do it like that.” Qianye nodded.

Bluemoon breathed a sigh of relief and became much more relaxed. What Qianye had agreed to wasn’t just the current plan but the long term plan she had hidden in her message. Expanding this territory toward the sea would provide the Highbeards with a vast, resource-rich land. There were several fertile lands on the Northern Continent, enough to feed hundreds of thousands of people by means of agriculture.

With this land in their hands, the Highbeards would have a thriving ancestral land for many generations to come.

At this point, Qianye was prompted by a sudden impulse and broke into a frown.

“What’s wrong?” Bluemoon asked concernedly.

“Nothing, I have a bad feeling about things.” Qianye looked up at yonder horizon. Far in the distance, he could feel something bad happening, almost as though there was a danger slowly approaching him.

Bluemoon said, “Do you need more men?”

“No, this is enough for now. Have your men unload the cargo quickly, I need to leave for a while.”

Bluemoon wanted to follow Qianye, but seeing as the latter had no intention of bringing her along, she made a clever decision to remain silent. She ordered all her tribesmen to pause their current work and start moving things down from the Martyr’s Palace.

It took dozens of Highbeard men roughly an hour to move everything down. The number of purchased goods was rather considerable.

It was evening by the time the Martyr’s Palace was cleared out. Qianye stood on top of the Earth Dragon’s head and drove the massive warship up into the air. Five origin sails unfurled one after the other as the Martyr’s Palace flew toward the vast Eastern Sea.

Qianye wanted to pay a visit to Nighteye first, just to confirm that the feeling of restlessness wasn’t from her. This journey was quite long. Even though the Martyr’s Palace now had kinetic sails installed on it, a mere five of them was simply too insignificant compared to the output of the Earth Dragon’s heart. They only managed to raise the palace’s speed by ten percent.

Despite the sense of urgency, he suppressed his emotions and continued to cultivate in the Martyr’s Palace, collecting whatever Venus Dawn origin power he could.

Recently, he had been cultivating whenever he had the time. It was likely that his daybreak origin power would take a step forward after another half a month of training and finally condense his fourth origin vortex.

Several days passed by in a flash, and Qianye once again arrived at Nighteye’s dwelling. He left the Martyr’s Palace hovering at the border of the void, flying alone through the void tempests to reach the crash site of the duke’s airship.

Jared was already waiting for Qianye outside of the airship. “Master will only give you three minutes.”

Startled, Qianye could only laugh wryly in response. Three minutes wasn’t so bad, so he simply followed Jared inside.

There was a dark red glow flickering in the main hall of the warship. There were drops of blood floating slowly in the air, each resembling an unblemished ruby infused with specks of starlight.

Nighteye was hovering at the center of the tilted hall. With her eyes closed and her arms crossed in front of her, it looked very much like she was asleep. At this moment, her aura was ancient, weary, and ephemeral, almost as though she had traversed the great vicissitudes of time. It felt like she was there, yet she was not.

Qianye stood at the door, merely gazing at her in silence. Two minutes thus went by.

“You have one more minute.”

Qianye sighed. “It’s nothing, I only came to see you.”

“You’ve seen me.”

Qianye shrugged. “Fine, I’m leaving then.”

Before departing, Qianye suddenly looked back and asked, “What about next time.”

Nighteye remained silent for a moment before replying, “Three minutes.”

A smile appeared on Qianye’s face as he turned and left.