Gazing down at the inner world from a height would reveal a peculiar scene that was both magnificent and icy.

This painting, however, had been marred with greyish black scars. Such stains would appear from time to time and expand forward, much like an inexperienced painter—or perhaps even a child—scribbling randomly.

If one were to expand this scene, he would discover that those leaking colors were actually battlefields. The battlefields were of varying sizes and intensities, leaving Attawa corpses or beast carcasses in their wake.

In one of these greyish marks, a giant waved his weapon in vain as he let out a final roar and collapsed in a flurry of mud and gravel. Before him, the Masefield Clan Lord Progia stood wiping the blood on his hand with a handkerchief.

He then tossed the handkerchief away, which his subordinates naturally picked up and put away.

The collapsed giant’s head happened to land exactly in front of Progia’s toes, yet the splashing mud didn’t touch the clan lord at all.

Progia gazed coldly into the giant’s glaring eyes. “Where is your holy mountain?”

He had transmitted these words directly into the giant’s mind. This method was different from Qianye’s method of communication in that it would inflict intense pain upon the recipient.

The giant groaned with an expression of pain. He wanted to clutch his head with his hands but his limbs fell down halfway. Afterward, he gave up on resisting and decided to respond via consciousness.

“You massacred… my people. This world… will not let you go… the Attawa, will never surrender!“

Progia said coldly, “Then die.”

He pointed a finger at the giant’s head, which exploded immediately afterward.

“To the next location, until we find the holy mountain.”

Progia slowly took to the air and began flying forward. Wherever he went, the surrounding scenery would change color. The environment slowly lost its color, not unlike a cloth that had faded with repeated washing. All that was left was a silhouette of dark colors. This was how the greyish marks came to be.

The Evernight experts cleaned up the battlefield in due haste and followed their lord. The two dukes among them exchanged glances, feeling somewhat uneasy.

At first, this squad was supposed to search for Leeker’s party but their objective was now the holy mountain. The Attawa’s holy mountain was likely one of the greatest secrets of the inner world. The strength of these natives was enough for the dark races to treat them seriously.

The Demon King’s instructions were for such important objectives to be left to the second phase of their operation. They should complete the towers and wait for all the great dark monarchs of Evernight to arrive before revealing these secrets.

However, Progia was the lord of the Masefield clan. At least no one here had the power to object to his decision, nor did anyone dare.

There was also a different meaning to this.

Despite their primitive state, the Attawa were strong and intelligent creatures. Such a species could be considered priceless to the Evernight council. They would become extremely powerful warriors with some training and equipment.

The way Progia was acting would remove all possibility of communication. In the future, there would only be two ways to deal with these natives—either exterminate them or enslave them. There would be no more room for cooperation.

As the group moved forward, Progia’s domain continued to destroy all life in its wake. He was practically announcing his arrival to this world.

This was a declaration of war, a provocation.

At this point, the environment was no longer icy cold and silent. There were leaves dancing in the breeze, producing rustling sounds that made one palpitate. Creatures big and small were scuttling in every direction, some dropping to the ground before they could take a few steps away. As for the immobile trees, their leaves curled up and the dark red balls at their center squirmed fiercely in what seemed like pain.

Progia ignored all of this as he moved forward. He had transformed into an emotionless god of death, reaping any and all life around him.

Qianye, who had been watching from a great distance away, frowned as he lowered Dragonsgrave. He could vaguely make out the rolling cloud of greyish energy moving forward.

“His injury has healed?” Qianye muttered to himself.

Qianye hadn’t seen Progia directly, else the Masefield Clan Lord would’ve sensed him as well. This also meant that Qianye only had one chance even with a surprise attack from a distance.

At first, Qianye had arrived here by following Leeker. Who would’ve thought he would run into Progia? This great dark monarch wasn’t hiding his aura at all, so it wasn’t too difficult to find him.

Gauging the demonkin’s aura from afar, Qianye could sense his demonic energy raging like the oceans with no opening whatsoever. It would seem that the injury he had inflicted on the man was now completely healed.

Now that this great dark monarch was back in his prime state, Qianye’s original plan was no longer viable. He might not be able to kill the man even if he were to simply stand there and let Qianye do whatever he wanted. If he couldn’t deprive Progia of his fighting power, the counterattack that followed would be the end of him.

This was a difficult situation indeed.

All he could do now was wait for a better opportunity. Hence, Qianye decided to put some distance between him and Progia’s squad.

Fortunately, the demonkin was fully occupied with keeping his domain active and hadn’t discovered the lurking enemy.

Qianye climbed down from the tree only when he saw the greyish dark clouds recede. He was just contemplating whether or not to give chase when he heard a rustling behind him.

Qianye turned around rapidly to find Su Shi walking out from behind a giant tree.

“How did you find me?”

Su Shi pointed at a nearby tree. “The entire world is a living organism, they serve as the eyes and ears of our guardian race. Even the rocks and shrubs will help us if needed. They will tell me where you are if I want to find you.”

Qianye pointed at the black aura. “You know about that?”

“I sought you out because of that.”

“What do you want?”

“Those are your enemies, right? The Mother Tree told me that you killed some of them after you arrived in our world,” Su Shi said.

Qianye admitted, “Correct. Those from the Evernight faction are my enemies. There is a different group from the same world called the Empire. The experts of the Empire are also their enemies.”

“The Empire? The Mother Tree did not mention them. Perhaps their landing points are not within the range of her power.”

“Try not to get into a conflict if you find them, perhaps there is room for cooperation.”

Su Shi nodded. “Work together and face Evernight? I’ll remember it.”

Gazing at Qianye, he finally drummed up his courage and said, “Us holy guardians are in danger, we need your help.”

Qianye didn’t reply immediately. “This isn’t easy.”

“What do you need? Brother from a distant world, I will give you everything we have. Just look at him, he’s leaving irreversible damage in our world, both above and under the ground.”

“That is the lord of the Masefield Clan. He’s… very powerful. Even I will have only one opportunity to attack him, and that won’t be enough to kill him, either.”

“Is it because of the defenses around his body? We have a way to weaken his defensive domain temporarily, or even remove it entirely.”

Qianye’s eyes lit up. “If you can disable his defenses, I can heavily injure him. That might not be enough to kill him, but I can make sure he doesn’t return to the battlefield for a while. Do you really have a way to do this?”

The most terrifying aspect of a great dark monarch was his control of origin power. Wherever they were, they could unleash their domains with a single thought and the origin power in the vicinity would bend to their will. This allowed them to conjure a powerful defensive forcefield in a flash.

For instance, even if Qianye could launch a successful sneak attack, Progia could fill his surroundings with defensive power just as the bullet arrived. Qianye’s all-out attack would barely be able to tear through this force field. There wouldn’t be enough force left to damage the target. At most, it would leave him with some light wounds.

The demonkin were the most proficient race in controlling origin power, so their great dark monarchs were afforded great defensive capability.

The only way to bypass Progia’s defenses was the Shot of Inception. The shot alone, however, wasn’t powerful enough to deal with a great dark monarch. If Qianye were a great dark monarch as well, his Shot of Inception might be able to injure Progia, but he was just a grand duke at the moment.

This problem left Su Shi somewhat hesitant. He had personally witnessed how strong Progia was. No matter how strong the warriors were, they would all die once they stepped into his domain. And up to this point, Progia still hadn’t displayed his true power.

It was at this time that an Attawa female appeared behind Su Shi. “We can dismantle that doomsday demon’s defenses!”

This newcomer was half a head taller than Su Shi. She exuded a heroic aura and wore an expression of determination. The spear in her hand was decorated with strips of red and yellow cloth, colors that were even more vibrant than Su Shi’s. Even with the anger and urgency in her eyes, she didn’t forget to size Qianye up from head to toe.

The latter understood that the Attawa’s weapons were all pretty similar, so they used vibrant decorations to differentiate their status. This young woman’s status was higher than Su Shi’s, and she was probably stronger too.

“And you are?”

“Su Wen, Su Shi’s sister. We can agree to any demand on behalf of the guardian tribe, but I must confirm your strength before that.”

Qianye was unfazed in the face of this forceful lady. “And how do you propose we do that?”

Su Wen assumed a combat stance with her spear. “Simple, beat me…”

She hadn’t even finished speaking when Qianye had arrived before her! Immediately afterward, Su Wen felt the entire world spinning—it felt as though countless colorful patterns were whirling in the air, and as though countless beasts had stampeded over her body. She simply had no idea what was happening.

Su Shi was dumbfounded as he watched Qianye pick up Su Wen and slam her into one of the giant trees.

Su Wen wasn’t weak at all, but the attack left her dazed and barely conscious.

Qianye paused for a moment before retrieving her from the tree. “Does this count as proof?”