Bandari Continent was the youngest among the demonkin continents.

Its sky wasn’t as colorful as the Twilight Continent’s, but it was filled with dynamic beauty. Countless streaks of light would gather and spread out slowly in the sky, forming circles, curtains, and arcs.

The demonkin continent possessed different landforms and flora compared to the middle continents. The further one went into the continent, the more of an ancient aura one could sense in the air. The place looked quite a bit different from the other dark race continents.

The large sea of crystalline flowers before them reached the ends of the plain, almost as though there was no border to it.

An ancient castle could be seen sitting on a gentle slope, almost occupying the entirety of the hill. This castle did not possess the austerity of an ordinary fortress—every corner, every line, and every carving was complex and elegant. It was like an intricate work of art against the sea of crystal flowers.

Habsburg stood before the floor-to-ceiling window on the second floor, gazing out at the scenery. An unfinished board of chess sat silently on the nearby tea table.

In the air outside of the window, the Demon King Kane was standing with his harp, entirely focused on playing a tune.

The music pouring out from the fourteen chords was as clear as the crystalline flower petals beneath him. The unhurried melody was like an aurora reflecting upon flower petals, merging into a hazy mist as it swept across the land.

Habsburg listened in silence. This was a joyous tune popular in the Evernight World, a song about how a traveler found enlightenment during his travels… the purest, most majestic, and eternal darkness.

A variation appeared just as the song was about to end—the boundless darkness transformed into a world of many layers that opened up into a sky full of glorious stars.

The harp came to a sudden stop here.

The Demon King stood there with the harp in his arms and his head slightly lowered; only his silhouette could be seen from the side. Only when a fluctuation appeared from the main building did he look over. He then reached out and pulled a parchment paper out of thin air.

He scanned the contents briefly before sending it away with a flick of his finger.

The Demon King appeared in the lounge afterward. Habsburg was already in his seat beside the table, arranging the chess pieces on the board.

The Demon King said, “The black flames in the new world are about to die, but the remainder seems to be burning at a much slower rate and releasing a lingering mist in the area. The gravity in the area has risen so much that both the Empire and our forces had to pull back. It looks like we’ll need to wait a couple more days.”

Habsburg said, “That place is too chaotic.”

The Demon King shook his head. “It’s the laws that are chaotic. This is an extreme manifestation of a compressed origin power, just like how a low-ranking expert collapses in the face of a high-ranking expert.”

Habsburg understood after some thought. “What exactly is inside?”

The Demon King said, “A substance, or rather, an energy that can repair our darkness origins. We cannot guess its form just yet.” He laughed while explaining, “There’s something else that’s interesting.”

Habsburg glanced at him. “Something that interests even you?”

“Nighteye and Qianye have appeared.”

Habsburg looked up, waiting quietly for the continuation.

“Qianye has recovered his strength so quickly, looks like I underestimated him.”

Habsburg said indifferently, “Regardless, he’s just a glorious marquis, no? Even if he has the strength to contend against higher ranks, you have more than a few people of the same caliber. Is he worth paying attention to?”

“Qianye should be a duke by now, and he has Nighteye with him. Even Progia suffered against the two of them combined, that’s no unimportant character.”

The Demon King broke out into a laugh. “You don’t need to remind me. Even if I didn’t promise you, I’m not about to head over to Twilight and bully those kids.

“Twilight Continent?”

“Yes, they rescued the Dark Gospel and some vampires. It looks like they intend to take them away from Twilight.” The Demon King seemed pensive.

Habsburg’s words interrupted the demonkin’s thoughts, “Howard can’t wake up Her Majesty anymore, and you’ve already purged the blood ponds. It probably won’t affect your plans even if they join Genesis or New Moon, will it?”

The Demon King shot Habsburg a glance. He said while waving his hand in a friendly manner, “The Book of Darkness is with Qianye.”

“The Book of Darkness?” Habsburg was startled. “This holy relic’s legends have spread far and wide. It was rumored that Andruil’s power rose by leaps and bounds after obtaining the ancient secrets recorded within. We, on the other hand, know that none of those things are true. What makes you so interested in the book?”

After reaching the prince rank, vampires could no longer see the path forward by external means. Having become a primogenitor, Habsburg had, of course, walked part of the path himself.

Communicating with the River of Blood, obtaining the race’s inheritance, sensing the blood seal, and igniting it were just some of the paths based on one’s bloodline. Observing, contemplating, and understanding the nature of this world was a different path.

Among them, comprehending the laws of the world was the more proactive route because racial inheritance wasn’t a certain thing.

Then again, the former was more dangerous. People believed that the best way to understand the laws was to explore the upper continents. To do this, they would have to traverse the boundless void and contend with suddenly appearing void colossi.

Experts from every race above the prince level would have to walk this difficult path.

That was why Habsburg didn’t believe in any secret method to skip the prince bottleneck, and someone at the Demon King’s level had no use for the Book of Darkness.

The Demon King said, “Actually, I have seen the book as well, and it’s definitely not a secret art. The Book of Darkness is also called the Book of Genesis, a treasure born together with our world. Its actual function is to record and evolve, in addition to some minor uses that aren’t worth mentioning.”

Habsburg asked, “Is this evolution a display of the laws of this world? That would be rather interesting if so.”

The Demon King shook his head. “You’ll know if you see it. The Book of Darkness’ evolution is quite different from the real Evernight World we know today.”

Seeing that Habsburg was puzzled, the Demon King said, “The records in the Book of Darkness date back to the moment the Evernight World was created. Its evolution is a deduction of how the world should’ve progressed and prospered.”

At this point, the Demon King paused for a bit. “That means the world derived from the Book of Darkness is how this world should be, a world that is truly pure.”

After a momentary daze, Habsburg suddenly recalled a problem, “Did you say the world in the Book of Darkness is different from this world?!”

…

Qianye had no idea what a pure Evernight World looked like, nor did he care. However, he sensed something as the Demon King said those words. He suddenly turned back and gazed into the distance.

Nighteye noticed the change. “What’s up?”

Qianye’s face was somewhat pale. He quietly channeled his concealment powers for some time before he managed to cut off the mysterious intent that had locked onto him. This short period of contention resulted in his aura dropping a bit.

Nighteye was surprised. “Who is it?!”

Qianye shook his head. “I don’t know, but I think they’re onto me.”

Howard arrived. “The airships on my side are ready. The direct descendants of all the clans have reported in. When will your airship arrive?”

Qianye glanced into the distance and saw a dark fleet of transports driving over at full speed. The vampires in the secret realm emerged from their tents and gazed at the incoming airships, their faces full of excitement.

The trio’s rescue operation went off without a hitch, completing almost one day early. For some reason, the council withdrew on the second day, almost as though they were conducting a normal mission.

Whatever the reason was, it made things a lot less troublesome for Qianye’s group. Their main objective was to save people, so they avoided the territories that hadn’t been invaded lest they fall into a trap like at Marquis Lynch’s place.

The three of them only encountered council members twice during the entire process. Medanzo never showed his face, and dukes were the strongest among those the council had left behind to maintain order. The council squads did try to hunt down Qianye’s group later on, but they couldn’t so much as grasp the trio’s movements.

Just like that, tens of thousands of vampires had gathered at the secret realm.

Hearing Howard’s question, Qianye replied, “It’s already here.”

The clouds over the distant horizon gushed upward as an airship of unimaginable size tore through the skies and appeared above Twilight Continent. That city-sized airship could only be the Martyr’s Palace.

The palace drove straight toward the secret realm and landed before the other transports. It looked as though the Earth Dragon had made a dive toward the ground before switching to a gentle descent at the last moment.

The vampires in the valley were stunned. How could they have ever seen such an airship?”

Qianye said, “Board the airship! Leave the useless stuff. We can’t hide the Martyr’s Palace for long.”

Howard also regained his composure and immediately left to oversee the boarding procedure. All of these people had just escaped from the clutches of death, so it wasn’t too difficult to make them board faster.

On the other side, the massive transport fleet had just arrived and was landing one after another. They would be in charge of delivering ordinary vampires to Fort Continent. Tens of thousands of vampires were crowded near the landing site, filling each airship soon after it had landed. Those vessels didn’t linger in the area afterward and quickly set out on their journey to the Fort Continent.

Qianye felt relieved to see that the process was rather efficient despite being messy. He had just turned around when a black shadow shot toward him at great speeds, kicking up gusts of wind in its wake. Qianye did not have enough time to dodge and was smashed right into the ground from the impact.

This slam was extremely heavy. Even with his ancient vampire constitution, Qianye was seeing stars afterward. Most importantly, this attack came out of nowhere.

Qianye shook his head and saw a child clinging onto him like an octopus. Her strength was so great that it felt as though he were in the jaws of a void colossus; even his modified bones were creaking.

A beautiful little face appeared in front of his eyes, and the girl smiled radiantly as she planted several big kisses on Qianye’s face.

“Papa!”

Trying hard to suppress a counterattack, he gazed at the girl for a good while. “Zhuji?”

“Yes, it’s me! I look better now, don’t I?”

“Wait, get up first, you’re about to break my ribs.” Groaning, Qianye reached out and grabbed Zhuji by the neck.

Fortunately, the little lass’ weakness never changed despite growing a lot taller. She would go limp once she was lifted up from the nape of her neck and curl up into a ball.

Qianye climbed out from the pit and shook the dirt off his clothes. Only then did he have enough time to observe Zhuji.