“Actually, I don’t know much,” the vice duke finally spoke after a long moment of hesitation.

“That’s fine, just tell me what you know.” Qianye knew this would be the case.

The vice duke produced a palm-sized box from his armor. “My primary mission is to bring this little thing into the inner world and hand it to the Eternal Flame.”

Qianye took the item and studied it for a bit. To his surprise, this item was a spatial gear. Qianye opened the box without a hitch and scanned the space inside, only to find that it was filled with all kinds of machinery parts. The item that attracted his attention the most was a transparent tube, inside of which Qianye could see a row of black crystals.

“What are these?”

The vice duke pointed at the tube, saying, “I only know this one. This is a new energy source developed by the Evernight Council. The purified black crystals inside contain ten times more energy than ordinary ones.”

“It must be quite expensive,” Qianye said.

He had set up an entire industrial system on the Fort Continent, so he had naturally developed an eye for quality. The price of a product that had been condensed ten times would rise by hundreds of times. These high-density power sources were luxury items through and through.

“Well people like us can never afford it,” said the vice duke. These words contained some answers to the question. If even people like him couldn’t afford it, the items had to be at the strategic resource grade.

“Then what are these parts for?” Qianye went through the parts. He couldn’t piece them together, but judging from their shape, they seemed to be parts of a bigger machine. Perhaps these parts didn’t form a set.

“I have absolutely no idea what they are.”

Qianye frowned slightly but didn’t pressure the man. “How many sets of these parts are there?”

“From what I know, everyone at or above the marquis rank is assigned a transport mission. The only difference is the quantity and value of the goods. The true core equipment is likely in His Majesty’s hands.”

Qianye nodded because that was likely the case. These parts seemed rather important; unfortunately, he could do nothing since the main machinery was in the Eternal Flame’s hands.

At this point, he could only take the initiative to hunt down the Evernight Experts and get his hands on the parts.

Qianye removed all of the vice duke’s equipment and left him with only his undergarments. The vice-duke didn’t try to bargain, either. He simply cut off some branches and fashioned them into a staff before leaving in a hurry. The inner world was full of danger; his chances of escaping in one piece were still unknown, but the demonkin was determined to struggle for it.

Qianye only turned to the Imperial divine champion after he was done with everything.

The scholarly middle-aged man had been standing silently all this time. In terms of demeanor, this person looked more like a noble than the Radiant Emperor himself. Unfamiliar divine champions who looked like this could be narrowed down to a small handful.

Qianye didn’t want to pay him more attention than necessary. Before he could do anything, however, the other party cupped his fists respectfully and said, “Thank you for the help, Duke Weiyuan.”

Qianye turned away with a frown.

The divine champion was caught off guard. Not hiding his embarrassment, the man quickly changed his address. “Lord Qianye, your fame definitely precedes you. Today, I realized that your reputation is not excessive at all, understated even.”

Seeing that the other party was lowering himself so, Qianye paused his step. “You need not be humble. You were able to fight two enemies on your own, and you could’ve retreated with ease even if a victory wasn’t possible. How should I address you?”

“My name is Ji Sujin, a prince of the Empire and titled Xuanwei. It has been a long time since I left my territory, so you might not have heard of me.”

The Imperial Clan was massive, boasting princes of varying strengths and ranks. This title, however, was that of a border lord. It would seem the Empire had started dispatching its hidden aces.

“The Imperial Family… has invested much in this campaign.” Qianye wasn’t trying to be polite. He had first run into the Radiant Emperor himself on the front lines, and now, there was this Prince Xuanwei. He might be prejudiced against the Empire, but that didn’t stop him from praising the Ji clan’s might.

Ji Sujin said, “Sigh, I do regret not trying enough. I’m not even one ten-thousandth as capable as my forebears.”

The two exchanged pleasantries before Ji Sujin tried probing Qianye. “Sire, what are your plans from now on? Why don’t we work together?”

Qianye replied with a question, “What is the Empire’s objective here?”

Ji Sujin replied with a wry smile, “What can there be? Well if you must have an objective, there’s only one… whatever the dark races want, we must disrupt it.”

Now those were honest words.

Qianye nodded. “Since that’s the case, we’d better act separately. The Evernight Council must have a major plan to have mobilized with such fanfare. Traveling with me might not be a good thing for you.”

Ji Sujin tried to persuade Qianye a couple more times but gave up after seeing that he wasn’t willing. He passed Qianye a piece of signaling equipment, saying, “The Ji clan’s communication signal will travel great distances under any circumstance. The origin power environment here is odd, but there shouldn’t be a lot of interference. You can use it whenever you feel the need. Of course, I hope you can also help others using this signal if it’s convenient.”

Qianye was stunned. Just how many of the Ji clan were here? He put away the signal device, saying, “Naturally.” He then said farewell to Ji Sujin and vanished into the depths of the forest.

After leaving Ji Sujin’s reach, Qianye went in the direction of the two Evernight experts.

There had to be a reason why the arachne and demonkin vice dukes had chosen to take the same route in general. They had probably gotten some sort of information on where to assemble. Perhaps that was where the passage back into the outside world was situated.

The sinkhole in Blacksun Valley was basically a one-way tunnel, so the people inside would need to find another way to go back. The Empire had no information regarding this, so even heavenly monarchs who entered had to be ready to die.

There was also a bit of hope. The tunnel into the inner world was something the three supremes had opened together, so it was reasonable to think that the three supremes would be able to open another tunnel back out. Opening a second tunnel between the two worlds would be much easier than the first.

Qianye wanted to see what the dark races were up to since they couldn’t be aiming for a one-way leisure trip.

Before long, Qianye discovered the tracks of the arachne and demonkin vice dukes. The latter had lost both legs, so his tracks were quite obvious, and he seemed to have no intention of hiding them. He didn’t even perform the most basic cover-up procedures.

After reaching the deep parts of the forest, the demonkin vice duke left a clear marking on one of the giant trees before heading into the distance. He also left some of his aura on it.

At this point, Qianye decided to follow the arachne.

Having lost the important cargo and his legs, the demonkin was now half a useless cripple. His fate would not be pretty if he were to return just like that. The best way was for him to find a place to hide and recuperate. He would reappear when the situation was stable or the demonkin had found a way back.

Qianye didn’t understand the meaning of this vice duke’s marking, but he knew that there was no point in following him.

Following the arachne might lead to new discoveries. More importantly, he should also have a set of components on him.

This meant that Qianye could rob the arachne of parts and supplies even if he couldn’t find the council’s mysterious base.

Qianye traversed the woods like a crouched panther. In his vision, a wisp of dark green origin power would appear from time to time—those were traces of the arachne vice duke’s origin power.

After a while, he came to a sudden stop and glanced up. There, he saw a small segment of spiderweb stuck to one of the giant leaves.

The spiderweb was only the size of a finger, something most people would just overlook. Qianye flew up to observe the web and noted how the leaf was tugged. He glanced in the direction he had formulated from these findings and saw more traces a couple dozen meters away.

The traces there were even smaller, but no detail could escape Qianye’s notice. With these two points as a reference, Qianye quickly found a third, then a fourth spiderweb.

Standing under the fourth spiderweb trace, Qianye revealed a cold smile.

The arachne vice duke’s traces seemed faint, but they were highly noticeable to the trained eye. It looked like the spider was making sure even an unskilled hunter could follow him.

This could be explained by the fact that arachne do not specialize in concealment, but cutting off spider webs intentionally was a bit too excessive. Also, Qianye knew that there were no spiders here in the inner world.

Other experts might keep chasing after the arachne even if they discovered something wasn’t quite right. After all, this was the only lead. Even if the arachne wanted to mislead them, he would have to set things up manually. They would still be running along the same route, the only difference being who was faster.

Qianye, however, possessed the Eye of Control and origin power vision. He wasn’t relying solely on physical traces to follow the arachne; all he needed was the lingering aura.

The stronger an expert was, the more difficult it was for his lingering aura to be assimilated by the environment. The arachne vice duke had fled just a while ago, so the aura was fairly noticeable to Qianye. With his Eye of Control, Qianye simply didn’t need those intentional traces. He could just follow the origin power aura.

The arachne vice duke made several turns and circled around twice before finally heading in a different direction. Qianye was in no rush—he simply followed the target from a consistent ten-minute distance along the way.

The arachne vice duke started changing his route after he was confident that he had thrown his pursuer off. There was now a clear direction to where he was heading.

Qianye, who had been following the target’s origin power aura along the way, suddenly looked up into the air. There, he saw a mass of dark origin power that had more or less faded away. This was what remained of the Evernight Council’s signal flare, something that had been fired half a day before. The arachne vice duke must’ve had a secret art that could follow the direction of this signal.

This proved that the demonkin had indeed left out some information.

Since he had found the arachne vice duke, Qianye didn’t really care about small matters like that. He retracted his aura and began making his way toward the dark race rendezvous point.

Hours later, Qianye saw a tall tower on a distant hill. Only the top parts of it remained incomplete. Several dark race experts were delivering a batch of components to the top of the tower, where a group of technicians was waiting to install them.

These technicians were all at the marquis rank.