Despite having the Tempest in hand, Saniel saw that there were comrades all around him within the area of effect. Ultimately, he decided to keep the weapon strapped to his back as he flickered toward Qianye and launched a sword-strike.

As the inheritor of a top vampire bloodline and a true expert, he sported an intricately crafted sword as his weapon. The duke managed to find a gap through East Peak’s airtight assault and tore open a wound on the target.

Saniel was shaken as the armor split open and the criss-cross of wounds on Qianye’s body came into view, many of which hadn’t fully healed.

Qianye ignored the slash entirely, almost as though he knew not what pain was. If anything, bathing in blood was more like a release for him.

Qianye erupted in a long howl which echoed into the sky and seemingly pierced through the nine heavens.

Even though Saniel felt that the pressure was still bearable, he still found the pure heat of Venus Dawn extremely irritating. This caused him to reflexively narrowed his eyes in a bid to shield himself from the daybreak sun that was Qianye.

At that split second, Saniel immediately realized that he had made a mistake. How could such a delay be forgiven in a battle of his level?

Through the corner of his eyes, he suddenly noticed numerous sanguine threads shooting toward him and countless more stretching out in every other direction.

Life Plunder!

Most of the dark red threads shooting at Saniel’s body were blocked by his armor. As a duke, his current gear had been passed down for five hundred years. The defensive power of an armor made from void colossus bones was beyond words.

However, there were a number of dark golden threads hidden amidst the red. These invisible filaments pierced right through the armor and made straight for the blood core!

There, they were blocked by the crystalline structure that had condensed in the core. However, the impact also left some cracks.

Saniel felt dizzy all of a sudden. In his daze, he saw the other experts falling to the ground. Qianye’s Venus Dawn domain and Life Plunder might not be enough to take the life of all the marquis, but they could do little to resist the attack, either.

In the blink of an eye, Saniel was left alone in the air.

The duke felt a chill run down his spine, overcome by an inexplicable sense of danger. He activated his blood core by reflex and cleared away the sanguine threads, entering a state of blood boil in the process. He flashed a hundred meters away and drew the Tempest!

It was at this moment that his vision went blank. All he could see was a pair of eyes.

Those were Qianye’s eyes.

The moment he looked into those eyes, Saniel felt as though the world had slowed down. His blood energy, thoughts, and even time itself had stagnated.

Wait, there was no way time could be changed!

He finally saw Qianye and the pair of luminous wings behind him. Each and every feather at the tip of his wings was shrouded in a grey hue. There was a feather on each wing that was pitch black, much like the deepest parts of the world. Simply beholding them shocked one to the core.

Qianye fired four radiant feathers with a shake of his wing, the two grey ones first, followed closely by the two pitch-black ones. All of them sank into Saniel’s body in the blink of an eye. Just like that, the Azure King’s descendant, pillar of the Morway clan, and member of the Evernight Council, Duke Saniel’s consciousness went blank.

The duke’s body fell from the sky and crashed to the ground, bounced a couple of times in an unsightly fashion, and stopped moving.

Qianye slowly landed beside the duke’s body and glanced at the collapsed experts nearby. “Here’s a big stack of contributions, is no one coming for me?”

The dark race experts glanced at Saniel’s body, but no one dared to take action. No one seemed interested in taking back the duke’s remains, either. Their faces were full of shock and bewilderment.

Qianye picked up the Tempest and roared thunderously, “Tell her! If she refuses to see me, I will keep fighting until she’s willing to!”

His words echoed hundreds of kilometers as a pillar of dark golden radiance shot into the sky!

Qianye’s blood energy had recovered at this point. The short window of opportunity to kill him was now gone for good.

The Evernight experts had long since extinguished any notion of achieving victory. Saniel’s troops—most of them vampires—gazed at the dark golden flame pillar with expressions of awe. They came before Qianye in succession, going down on one knee with a hand on their chest. After the reverent salutations, the experts left in a single file.

Ten thousand dark race soldiers dispersed to each side of Qianye, no one daring to come within a hundred yards of him.

The great battle thus came to an end.

The three divine champions arrived around Qianye, filled with shock and awe as they gazed at the dead Saniel. Their eyes were filled with greed when they glanced at the Tempest, but the thought quickly vanished. They knew full well that it wasn’t a weapon they could use. Even without considering the wastage during origin power conversion, the gun would still suck them dry within a minute.

Liu Chengyun sighed, “The Empire has gained one more Grand Magnum.”

Duke Wenyuan said, “Sire Qianye has gained a Grand Magnum.”

Liu Chengyun nodded awkwardly, saying, “Yes, it is indeed Sire Qianye’s.”

Fact is, the possession of a Grand Magnum had always been an earth-shattering incident. It was difficult to say whether the Empire would just sit by and watch as Qianye took possession of the gun.

The werewolves would certainly not ignore this. It was possible that either the Wolf Sovereign or the Wolf Ancestor would attack in person and reclaim the Magnum. Once outside of the new world, the great dark monarchs would no longer be bound by any limitations. Hence, it was doubtful whether Qianye would be able to hold onto the gun.

Qianye paid little attention to Liu Chengyun’s thoughts. He merely gazed at the receding dark race army and said, “You guys heard what I said just now, right?”

The three divine champions nodded, a sense of foreboding filling their hearts.

Qianye said, “I’m thinking how to beat those dark races into a corner.”

The three divine champions exchanged glances. He had defeated six dukes, killed one, and even robbed a Grand Magnum—how was this not beating the dark races into a corner?

The thought went unvoiced as they waited for Qianye’s continuation.

“You guys have followed me for a while now and accumulated a fair amount of contribution. Now, I’ll give you a choice. Will you follow me into the central region for a fight to the death, or turn back from here?”

Duke Minghai was surprised. “You’re going to fight a decisive battle with these troops?”

There were only fifty thousand men left under Qianye’s command, while the Evernight army was four-hundred-thousand strong. There was no telling how many more troops they had replenished during this period. Charging in would be no different from tossing eggs at a rock.

Although Qianye had defeated numerous experts along the way, those dukes were neither dead nor gravely injured. Most of them were merely scared off. Even Qianye would not be their match had they swarmed forth together. Besides, it wouldn’t make much of a difference even if Qianye could beat all the dukes. The real overseer was Nighteye. As long as she remained undefeated, the dark races would never truly lose this war.

The Tempest might’ve fallen into Qianye’s hand, but she still had the Awakening Dream. The Evernight side possessed four other Grand Magnums. Since she could borrow the Tempest, who was to say she wouldn’t pick up the Sable Blessing next?

Qianye ignored Duke Minghai’s question and merely watched the trio.

Having followed him for some time, the divine champions understood Qianye’s thoughts quite well. They knew that something he had decided would hardly change; it was only a matter of choice now.

Liu Chengyun was the first to speak. “The Empire’s soldiers came here to fight, not throw their lives away…”

“Make your own choice, do not preach.” Qianye cut the man short.

Liu Chengyun seemed furious, but he didn’t dare act up. “I choose to withdraw.”

Qianye nodded, then said to an aide, “Very well. Record his cowardice in the face of battle. Remove all of his contributions and send him back to the Empire.”

Liu Chengyun was livid. “I risked life and limb to fight for the Empire, how could you treat me so? Do you think you can do anything you want?”

“I most certainly can in the new world.” With that, he said to the subordinates, “Seal his origin power.”

“Don’t you dare!” Liu Chengyun glared furiously at the soldiers, but the men would only listen to Qianye. The old man might be a divine champion, but he didn’t dare put up any real resistance. He knew that Qianye would not hold back if he were forced to take action.

After watching how Saniel was defeated, Liu Chengyun knew that he would never be able to escape Qianye’s hands.

In the blink of an eye, the old man had been pressed to the ground and bound tightly. The guards nailed an entire set of sealing equipment into his body, effectively shutting off the flow of origin power.

Then, some aides carried Liu Chengyun away for his trip back to the Empire.

Duke Minghai sighed after Liu Chengyun was gone. “The only reason we’re here at this age is to win the clan some protection with our final contributions. We never planned to go back alive, so why cower at the last moment and suffer such humiliation. This old man Liu is so muddle-headed.”

After the emotional sigh, he said to Qianye. “I leave my old bones in your hands!”

Qianye nodded. “Double Duke Minghai’s contributions, use Liu Chengyun’s share first and take mine as well if it’s not enough.”

Duke Minghai was surprised. “This won’t do!”

Qianye replied calmly. “I don’t plan to go back alive, either, so what’s the point of keeping these contribution points?”

Duke Minghai was startled. “How can you say such words? You’re still so young, the heavenly monarch realm awaits you in the future!”

Qianye shook his head. “I won’t see that day.”

Duke Wenyuan said all of a sudden, “Since you’re prepared to die, I’ll join you on the way.”

“Oh?” Qianye was surprised, not expecting Duke Wenyuan to be so proactive about joining the fight.

Duke Wenyuan said, “I’m already a dead man, to begin with. I won’t escape punishment even if I go back, so why not die in battle? All I ask is that you ensure my family is cleared of all punishment and that my contributions reach them. I’m sure it’s not hard considering your connections.”

“Very well, I promise you that.” Qianye nodded. He planned to hand this task to the Zhao clan and Zhao Jundu. It wasn’t difficult to make some arrangements for a divine champion who had died fighting for the Empire.

Next in line were the champions. Their attitudes were different—they were willing to fight, but not all of them were willing to die in battle. A small number of them withdrew, but Qianye allowed them to return without removing their contributions.

Then came the officers and the soldiers.

Many high-ranking officers withdrew, and it was actually the lower-ranking officers and the warriors who stepped forward. There were so many who wanted to go back that Qianye had to make them draw lots, picking only one out of ten, in order to keep the majority in the army.

At dawn the next day, Qianye led the thousands of suicidal soldiers toward the gateway to the inner world.