Below the eye on the book’s cover, there was now a large dark-colored crystal. Upon closer inspection, it was made up of countless minuscule particles. The strange thing was that the fist-sized crystal felt multi-dimensional in Qianye’s perception, with each crystalline granule linked to his flesh, blood, and solidified dark golden blood energy.

Even in the inheritance from the River of Blood, Qianye had never heard of the dark golden energy solidifying, let alone other types. Then again, the knowledge he had obtained up to this point was at the level of a vice-duke. Perhaps he would gain more in the future.

The Book of Darkness flipped open when he willed it. It would seem the transformed book could be opened.

The first page depicted a pair of eyes, each side giving off a very different feeling to the observer. One of them was blue and the other, red—they were the Eye of Control and the Eye of Destruction respectively. The two eyes weren’t exactly symmetrical, as though there were two more eyes that weren’t visible at the moment.

After the title page, came the genesis chapter. The Book of Darkness seemed to have returned to its original form after this transformation. The pages with other abilities had completely disappeared.

A different feeling came over Qianye as he observed the genesis chapter once more. The contents were fairly easy to understand—it didn’t take much effort for his understanding of the Evernight World to reach the next level.

This type of understanding might not translate immediately to combat strength, but Qianye now had greater confidence in drawing upon the power of the world. In other words, the Book of Darkness had granted him power for the Heavenly Monarch realm.

A new chapter emerged after Genesis, and it was called Flourish.

In this chapter, the world had evolved to near perfection. The continents were filled with living creatures who had formed powerful races and factions. These people were all surrounding a tall mountain in worship.

Qianye instinctively realized that this was the Sacred Mountain.

How was such a large mountain moved into the hall of the Evernight Council?

The next scene was that of war as the various races began killing one another. Perhaps in the world within the Book of Darkness, this was the meaning of prosperity.

There were seven strong races in this chapter, which was in line with the legends passed down in Evernight. Three of these races Qianye had never seen before but he was quite familiar with the rest, the four races of Evernight.

The demonkin looked the same as they were today, and the same went for vampires. It was just that the vampires in the Book of Darkness looked bigger and fiercer. The arachne, however, were quite different from their appearance today. They were slim, elegant, and possessed intricate crystalline scales on their body. These scales formed natural patterns that were highly pleasing to the eye.

The werewolves were in their primitive state. The Summit of Peaks hadn’t appeared during that era.

There was no telling if the arachne and vampires had gradually transformed into different forms over time or if the Book of Darkness believed this to be the correct form. The depictions Qianye had seen in Andruil’s ruins and the Azure King’s ancient hall were somewhere between the two forms.

There was actually another chapter after Flourish, the End.

As the name implied, this was the end of the world. Qianye flipped through the End chapter and saw that the world had returned to an era of darkness. It was there that he saw a speck of powerful light, which slowly expanded and propagated. As more and more light appeared, the world’s silhouette gradually became visible—it was actually the shape of an asymmetrical pagoda.

Countless motes of light emerged at the edges of the world, gradually linking together to form a line. Radiance and heat surged into this world through the gaps and burned everything, including the darkness itself.

There was light and heat everywhere outside of this world. Just like an apocalyptic tide, they soon engulfed the entirety of Evernight. Although he couldn’t see it, Qianye could feel the pained cries of countless lifeforms as they turned to ashes. Almost every living being was destroyed in that world-ending moment. Only a handful of experts with powerful auras charged out of the border and vanished into the unknown.

The world finally became silent, and the flames gradually faded away. It would seem the light and flames couldn’t last without darkness to burn as fuel.

This was a long process but the Book of Darkness had compressed it into mere moments. Within that split second, the pain from all living beings was so strong that Qianye couldn’t breathe! He had never imagined that living beings would undergo such misery before death.

After the End, the world became a lifeless and homogenous grey. Perhaps a new world would grow upon the remains of the old one after countless years. And by that time, the previous era would’ve faded away into the river of time as though it had never existed before.

Qianye heaved a long sigh as he struggled free from the End Chapter. He finally felt a bit better.

As he closed the Book of Darkness, Qianye noticed that there was something under the cover. He flipped the book over and found that it was actually a live, beating heart. The organ wasn’t big and there were glistening golden crystals embedded within it.

Two origin crystals appeared on either side of the heart, still growing by the looks of their size. One of them was fairly close to maturing, only waiting for the daybreak origin power inside to merge with the heart and the first origin crystal.

Qianye found this to be quite incredulous. Was this his heart and origin crystals?

In response to his thoughts, the second origin crystal erupted in bright light. The daybreak origin power inside broke through the restraints and merged with the heart. The heart was full to the brim with daybreak origin power, almost like a burning ocean.

When the second origin crystal was newly formed, Qianye felt strength welling up in every part of his body. His consciousness also grew stronger and stronger. The second crystal appeared in his mind, growing increasingly distinct until a new origin imprint also appeared.

When he willed it, several diamond-shaped screens of light appeared and began revolving around him. These light barriers were made of pure Venus Dawn origin power, seemingly fragile but actually quite robust.

These screens provided Qianye with another layer of defense and could also be used to attack enemies. Such a power would greatly increase his strength, a practical ability for Qianye’s current fighting power.

This was the divine champion ability brought about by his second origin crystal, Azure Rampart.

Qianye had never heard of such a divine champion power before, nor did he possess any foundational power related to it. The first divine champion power made sense because Qianye had cultivated the Excavator before and possessed teleportation movement skills. How did this Azure Rampart come to be? Qianye was never fortunate enough to get a well-balanced skill like this one.

The other question was why the origin crystals were in his heart? Qianye had scanned his entire body but couldn’t find any other origin crystal.

Could it be because the Book of Darkness had absorbed his heart?

Qianye turned the book around and observed the blood core on the front cover, naturally recognizing it as his own.

Currently, his heart, blood core, and the book of darkness had all merged into a single, two-sided entity. By some miraculous and incomprehensible method, the darkness origin power of his blood core had integrated with the Venus Dawn in his heart and origin crystals. Within the boundless space inside the book, these powers had combined to become a new origin power—hazy, chaotic, and indescribable.

As for his body, the entire skeleton had undergone a drastic upgrade and was already close to the great success stage. From a purely physical point of view, Qianye had already reached the level of a duke by ancient standards and was fairly close to that of a grand duke.

This didn’t come as a great surprise since the Pond of Azure Darkness was something the Azure King had prepared for himself. It would be a surprise if he didn’t reach his current stage after absorbing a blood pond of that level.

It was just that Qianye couldn’t get used to his new origin power just yet. With a single thought, a plume of scarlet gold flames lit up in his left hand—the fire of Venus Dawn. Literally, on the other hand, was the dark golden blaze of his blood energy.

Daybreak and Evernight had appeared at the same time in a single person.

Before this, Qianye could only use the two powers alternatively. The dark golden blood energy was in charge of strengthening his body, defense during melee combat, and recovery after each fight. It was also required to activate the Wings of Inception.

But now, his blood energy and daybreak origin power were present at the same time.

He could control this new power at will, switching between Venus Dawn and dark golden blood energy.

Just as he was in a daze, Nighteye’s voice arrived from outside the hall. “You’re awake?”

Her voice was a bit hoarse and her aura was also unstable. Qianye walked out of the stone hall and saw her sitting on a rock near the pond, gazing at the waters.

“What happened?” Qianye asked in concern.

Nighteye sighed. “Reynold… is gone.”

“Reynold?” Qianye was puzzled for a moment before realizing that it was the Azure King’s name.

He had a deep impression of the Azure King from back when he had woken up the first time. The king was just like the spring breeze, without the faintest sign of decline. He could easily live a hundred more years or so if he took care of himself, a thousand years or so if he were to remain asleep in the blood pond.

How could such a great dark monarch fall?

“The Azure King, he…”

“Call him Reynold, he was my friend and that means he’s yours as well.”

“... Very well.”

The Azure King was actually far superior to Qianye in strength, age, and status. But since Nighteye had requested so, Qianye could only accept an equal status.

Nighteye gazed at the fish in the pond for a long while. “I thought you had already died in that battle. I… didn’t intend to live on, either.”

Qianye’s heart skipped a beat. He held her hand and said gently, “Why go so far?”

“That’s what I want.”

After a pause, Nighteye continued, “At the final moment, Reynold activated the Awakening Dream at the risk of angering the new world and brought us to his castle. That Awakening Dream was originally his sword, and I had used it before as well.”