Qianye stared at Medanzo through the mother tree, almost unable to contain the killing intent welling up inside. Why had the Lightless Monarch suddenly entered the new world? Had the vampires outside been completely suppressed?

One thing he did know for sure. Since Medanzo had arrived here, he would have to remain here for eternity.

Luck was on Qianye’s side as well. Medanzo’s arrival happened to coincide with Qianye’s ambush on Progia. The council had lost too many of its core experts, so Medanzo did not have much manpower to mobilize.

There wasn’t a single duke near Medanzo, and the strongest subordinate he had was a vampire glorious marquis. Qianye could restrain any vampire with his dark golden blood energy, making it impossible for them to bring out their full power.

Qianye quickly calmed himself down despite the killing intent. No matter how weak Medanzo was, he was still a great dark monarch who had enjoyed great fame for hundreds of years.

Just like with Progia, Qianye understood that he only had one opportunity. Without sufficient damage, he would not be able to force Medanzo into hiding.

The Monroe tribe elder also saw everything through the tree. He was visibly shaken upon setting his eyes on Medanzo. “Is this a black demon of destruction as well?”

Apparently, the word "destruction" was somewhat equivalent to "great dark monarch" in the Attawa tongue. Only great dark monarchs could render the Attawa tribes completely helpless and bring utter destruction.

“I’m… afraid so.”

Qianye realized that this wasn’t good news, especially to the Monroe tribe who had lost a large number of elites.

Unexpectedly, the elder said after some silence, “If their objective is the holy mountain, our guardian tribe will pay any price to keep them out!”

“I will help as best I can, but I need time. At least three days.” Qianye could only give them such a promise.

“It won’t be a problem if he’s not approaching the holy mountain. If he does, we will do our best to give you three days’ time.”

After some thought, Qianye felt that he should let the Attawa know a bit more. “I’m going to prepare a weapon during this time. With it, we might just be able to put this black demon of destruction to sleep in this land. Without it, we will only be able to injure him, and he’ll surely return once he has healed, just like that previous one.”

The elder bowed deeply. “We thank you for your trust. We will pay any price to get you three days’ time! Even if the holy guardian tribe is wiped out, it will be worth the sacrifice if we can kill the black demon.”

“Is there a need to go that far? You can withdraw from the holy mountain temporarily if you cannot hold out, then think of another way.” Qianye was fairly tactful with his words.

Qianye had no absolute confidence against a great dark monarch, but he might be able to escape with Spatial Flash and Bloodline Concealment even after missing the shot. Medanzo would not be able to capture every Attawa if they were to scatter, but he could take them down little by little if they dug in at the holy mountain. Experts at that level could not be killed with numbers alone.

However, the elder was firm with his decision. “We aren’t just the guardians of the Attawa race, but also the guardians of this world. Our Attawa soldiers were born to protect this world. Those black demons are destroyers, devourers that leave nothing alive in their wake. No soldier of ours can allow this to happen. This world nurtured us to destroy these otherworldly locusts!”

These vehement words left Qianye speechless.

He did feel a bit awkward after hearing all that. With his understanding of the vampires and Medanzo, the Lightless Monarch was not a tyrant who would destroy everything in sight. On the contrary, he was a man who reveled in the finer things in life like wine, women, and food.

The first thing on the mind of such a monarch would be to occupy and develop the territory. He probably wouldn’t destroy everything and leave this world lifeless as the Attawa believed.

Judging from the elder’s expression, this was clearly a belief that spanned many generations. Qianye knew that it was useless to explain, so he kept silent.

Three days of time wasn’t enough for Qianye to explore the holy mountain, but it was possible for him to search for Rex’s secret. Since the man had instructed him to go there, he must’ve left clear markings.

Additionally, Qianye would use this time to fill the three bullets with dark golden blood energy. Qianye’s bloodline was, after all, superior to Medanzo’s. The effects of bloodline suppression were quite evident among the vampires, so this bullet would come in handy against the Lightless Monarch.

No matter how strong Medanzo was, he definitely wouldn’t be able to take three shots of dark golden blood energy. If he didn’t die from that, Qianye would still have the opportunity to close in and finish him off.

The first thing in his mind was to head to the holy mountain and find Rex’s secret. What were the darkness origins? Only then would he know what to do next.

While Qianye was lost in thought, Medanzo’s expression in the projection shifted noticeably as he turned to face the elder.

The latter let out a pained cry, tears flowing out constantly as he closed his eyes. Meanwhile, Medanzo’s image became greatly distorted and almost indiscernible.

The elder cut off the projection and fell limp to the ground. Qianye went over and asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I won’t be able to see things for a few days, but the mother tree will be my eyes.”

“Can you still monitor him?” Qianye said with a frown.

“No problem. He might’ve discovered that we were watching him, but not how we did it. It’s useless even if he does, the mother tree can see through every tree, every plant, every bird, and every stone. He cannot destroy everything, so we will always find him.”

Feeling a bit calmer, Qianye went on to discuss where they would meet up upon his return. He then picked up the food and water the Attawa had prepared for him and left for the main peak.

After leaving the holy land, Qianye stopped holding back with his speed. He immediately channeled Spatial Flash and vanished into the distance.

After his departure, two giant wargods walked out from the ancient trees and exchanged glances.

“Did he notice us?”

“Impossible. The mother tree granted us the power to merge with the ancient trees.”

“Regardless, we cannot catch up to him. He’s too fast.”

“Yes, this is the first time I’ve seen a creature move faster than the Attawa.”

“Let’s return and report to the elder what we saw.”

Conversing in the local tongue, the two giant wargods merged back into the tree.

At this point, Qianye was already flashing across great distances, covering several kilometers with each move. The holy mountain was massive—everyone could see it from a distance, but the distance up the mountain was much greater than expected. Qianye spent an entire hour just to reach the base of the main peak.

Standing below the main peak, Qianye finally came to appreciate just how tremendous and grand this mountain was. His vision was completely occupied by it. It was almost as though the earth had surged up at this point and pierced into the sky.

Anyone could tell that this mountain was at least hundreds of kilometers tall; there was simply no end in sight.

Qianye took a deep breath and began his ascension.

Part of the main peak was hidden above a layer of clouds, and it looked like the dividing line between two worlds.

Back in the Evernight World, Qianye could’ve reached the cloud layer in the span of a single breath, but things here were not the same.

The higher he went, the greater the pressure he experienced.

An immeasurable amount of living darkness origin power assailed him from all directions, almost like a congested road. All he could do was push through little by little until he was less than a hundred meters from the cloud layer. At this point, the density of darkness origin power was at a terrifying level.

Qianye could even feel the darkness origin power become tangible. He could reach out and grab a handful of this cotton-like energy.

The biggest issue here was that this origin power wasn’t inanimate. It was alive and moving, much like a dense crowd of insects. This made the environment rather terrifying.

From a certain perspective, this soft darkness origin power was extremely resilient and almost impossible to destroy. Moving through this environment felt like countless steel wires cutting into the flesh.

Simply cutting in wasn’t that much of a problem, but this living darkness origin power was no different from a powerful poison. Once inside, it would transform or activate the victim’s tissues, turning them into dozens if not hundreds of different microscopic lifeforms. Even Evernight experts would find their bodies breaking down under such circumstances.

Giant wargods could also no longer survive at this point. Their massive but relatively frail bodies happened to be their weakest aspect. Speed and strength provided little help.

Qianye didn’t dare test out the waters with his body. Even if he could hold out against the origin power, his armor and clothes would break down. With a single thought, he unleashed his chaos domain—the greyish origin power pushed the living darkness energy away in a domineering fashion.

With his domain opening up the way, Qianye passed through the terrifying energy region and entered the layer of clouds.

The other side of the cloud layer was like a completely different world. The place was cold and desolate, without a single shred of origin power. The cloud layer was like a barrier that kept the darkness origin power out.

This cloud layer was less than ten meters thick. Qianye shot through it in the blink of an eye and finally came to witness the real face of the holy mountain.