This world was vast and empty. The soil was filled with gravel and covered in short grass as sharp as blades.

Qianye walked out of the white mist and onto the grass. The moment he pulled back his foot, the grass bounced back to its original posture with only some marks left on the blades.

Qianye picked up a blade of grass and crushed it into a ball between his fingers. The process looked simple, but he actually had to use a lot of force. This grass was so strong that it could easily be used to make armor.

The distant land also gave one a feeling of emptiness, with mountain ranges billowing over the yonder horizon. Qianye glanced about with narrowed eyes and confirmed that he had never been in such a place or experienced such scenery.

This was definitely not the blessed land.

On the other hand, this world felt inexplicably surreal. It was as though everything here was an unnatural illusion. That grass from just now, for instance, there was no way such a plant existed. Be it the Daybreak faction's records or Evernight’s, there was no such plant on the explored continents. It was almost like a steel spring sheet in terms of physical attributes.

The world had its own laws, governed by the effects of origin power. A good example would be the wind, rain, and snow—the reproduction of nature. Although there would be differences based on different origin power attributes, living things would never change in such a manner. No creature would be able to eat such grass, and that would destroy the food chain.

Just as he was thinking, a ripple spread out from the distant mountain, and everything he had seen just now turned into a painting-like existence. Immediately afterward, dozens of strange beasts shot out from the ripple and charged at Qianye.

Qianye stood firmly, East Peak planted in the ground beside him. With a casual swipe, he pinched the creatures lightly on the neck and immediately knocked them out. Soon, there were beasts strewn all across the ground near him. The creatures’ attack and defense were unreasonably strong and posed somewhat of a threat in the beginning. After understanding their nature, however, they quickly became characters that could be easily destroyed.

After cleaning up these creatures, Qianye glanced at the peaceful mountain in the distance and began walking toward it. As expected, the scenery changed again after he had taken a couple of steps and the mountains got closer than before. He had arrived in just a few more steps.

Qianye reached out to touch the curtain of this theater and felt as if his hand had passed through water. There was a strange coolness on his skin, but there was also a powerful heat coming from it, almost as though there was a flame burning constantly in the water.

Considering his constitution, Qianye, of course, wouldn't mind a mere scorch to his skin. What surprised him was the intense daybreak origin power coming from it. The world behind this curtain seemed to be bountiful in daybreak origin power. It would be a good source of energy for humans if the initial dampness could be removed.

It was at this time that he felt a sharp pain from his hand. It seemed he had been bitten by something. This bite was extremely powerful—a mouthful of fangs tore through Qianye’s skin and nailed into his bones. If it wasn’t for Qianye reaching the duke rank and the consequent strengthening of his bones, the bite would’ve taken off half his palm.

Qianye closed his fist and grabbed onto the creature’s mouth, pulling it across the curtain in one move.

This was a small beast the size of a wild horse. It wasn’t very big, but its biting muscles were exceptionally well-developed, and its sinister-looking teeth shone with a metallic gleam. It swung its body about while maintaining a powerful bite on Qianye’s hand, hoping to tear his flesh off.

Qianye pressed the creature underfoot and nailed it to the ground with East Peak. However, it would seem the chest wasn’t the creature’s weak point. It remained flailing about after the stab and seemed largely unaffected. Qianye drew a vampiric blade and planted it in the creature’s neck, then used his vampiric powers. In the blink of an eye, the creature’s essence blood flowed into Qianye’s body, and the creature soon fell limp.

The vampires’ absorption powers were the bane of all fleshly life-forms. It would seem this creature was no different.

This wild horse creature was bigger and stronger than the ones he had encountered before. The previous ones could hardly injure Qianye even if they managed to slam into him. This monster, however, managed to leave damage on his bones. This also meant that it could bite through grade sixteen armor as well.

Qianye drew back his vampiric blade and gazed at the withered corpse. The essence blood it could provide wasn’t plentiful, a far cry from the creatures of the Great Maelstrom. This essence blood, though, contained a large amount of foreign origin power. The mixture of daybreak and darkness origin power was almost like a poison to the dark races. A vampire would never absorb such blood unless he was on the verge of collapse.

Fortunately, Qianye had the Song Clan Ancient Scroll, the Mystery Chapter of which could easily extract the unwanted portions.

Qianye moved his right hand about and channeled his blood energy, quickly healing the wound. Without even waiting for the wound to close completely, Qianye took a large step forward and passed through the curtain.

A real world appeared before him this time.

This was a real valley area, filled with stones, thorns, and thistles. Intense dampness hung in the air, but the ground seemed fairly arid. The only plants in sight were brambles and cacti, plants that could only survive in dry environments.

Qianye had no spare time to observe the geography as several wild horse-like creatures locked onto him the moment he stepped out of the curtain. The speed and momentum of their charge were truly worthy of admiration—just a few of them could rival the march of a thousand-strong army. However, they didn’t seem very intelligent and a straight charge like that could pose little threat to Qianye. A few slashes of East Peak and a short while were all it took to kill all of them.

Although he still had no idea where their weakness was, no creature was strong enough to survive after being cut into pieces.

After the short fight, a commotion suddenly broke out in the valley below. The entire ground seemed to have come alive and was moving. Qianye drew a breath of cold air as he looked on.

What looked like rocks and withered trees at first stood up, growing arms, legs, and tails in the process. There were at least tens of thousands of beasts in the valley in front of Qianye!

These creatures split into squads depending on their species, drawing a clear and undisturbed line between one another. Every beast fell into a square formation where they stood and proceeded to rest. The two types of beasts Qianye had seen were among them, with dozens more that he had never seen before.

These formations would form an unbelievable battle array when stitched together.

A thought flashed through Qianye’s mind. “This is an army camp!”

How had these unintelligent creatures managed to form such an army and formation? After some thought, the servspiders of the Evernight arachne came to mind. These critters weren’t exactly intelligent, but as long as one could command and communicate with them, they could turn into fearless warriors.

Commanding officer!

Qianye’s hair stood on end as a consciousness fell upon him. A genuine chill ran down his spine—cool and moist but also containing a scorching will. In the blink of an eye, he was plunged into a sea of ice, then into a pool of fire, and this agony rotated endlessly thereafter.

If even someone of Qianye’s strength could not resist, it was easy to imagine how terrifying the owner of this consciousness was!

He looked up all of a sudden and locked onto the other end of the valley. There was a platform therein with a stone chair upon it, a white mist shrouding the seated humanoid figure. This silhouette opened its eyes and its pupil-less gaze landed upon Qianye’s body.

A sudden voice echoed in Qianye’s consciousness. Although he had never heard of this language, he understood what it meant: “Outsiders!”

This voice belonged to the humanoid creature on the platform, who stood up and stretched its six arms!

A shrill cry stirred all the creatures in the valley. The first species Qianye had encountered rose into the air and shot toward Qianye!

Qianye was stunned. No matter how easy it was to kill the beasts, how was he to deal with the tens of thousands that were coming for him? Moreover, there were all kinds of other creatures and the commander.

Although that was his judgment of the situation, Qianye didn’t retreat immediately and cautiously raised East Peak. He wanted to try his best to see what these creatures were capable of before making a decision.

The tens of thousands of beasts seemed to have crashed into an invisible barrier as they reached the edge of the valley, falling to the ground and spinning about in a daze. Only a couple dozen of them managed to get through the barrier and pounce at Qianye.

This number wasn’t Qianye’s match at all. He released his domain and forced the creatures in the air to the ground. At this time, East Peak flew past like a dragonfly touching the water, rupturing their brains in an instant.

A bigger type of strange beast charged at Qianye from the ground but was also stopped by the barrier. These violent creatures threw themselves at the barrier with no regard for their safety. Finally, two of them found a weak point and managed to squeeze half their bodies inside. They exerted their full force with loud roars, but their bodies were soon blown up into many pieces.

Their deaths did nothing to deter their comrades, though. They were even more angered than before and started ramming at the barrier with all their might.

The six-armed creature emitted a long howl, which caused all the other beasts to quiet down. Their eyes were fierce and full of enmity.

The six-armed creature’s voice rang out, “T-The door’s opening… cannot be stopped. You have nowhere to run.”

Qianye looked back and found that he was on a platform as well, a stage akin to the six-armed creature. The mist gushing out from the stone crevices formed a wall, and giant pillars connected the earth and sky. Was this the door?