Qianye stood there in silence even after Andruil was gone. It was only after a while that he realized how Andruil was truly gone this time.

There was nothing left on the holy mountain as all the trees had been destroyed during the release of mirage moon origin power. There weren’t even traces left.

Even the smallest of sprouts couldn’t have survived this clash between chaos and mirage moon origin power. Everything was destroyed. There would be no more such trees in the new world thereafter, nor would there be any mirage moon origin power. They might grow again after several hundred years, but that was a topic for later.

Right now, he was a heavenly monarch on the daybreak side. The darkness side was also on the verge of assailing the great dark monarch realm. There was still a prince rank in between, but he could skip that if he so wished.

A prince would possess some of the power and characteristics of a great dark monarch, but they hadn’t fully reached the next rank. Considering the rank of Qianye’s dark golden energy, he could easily become a great dark monarch without taking that half-step. All he needed was accumulation—he needed to kill.

As the only one who had married daybreak and evernight in one body, Qianye was perhaps the very first person who could compare the two top powers in detail. The Evernight side utilized bloodline and constitution as the foundation to seek more physical strength than its counterpart. Even in environments where they couldn’t draw on the origin power in the environment, they could still remain peerless by relying on their physique.

The might of a heavenly monarch relied heavily upon the formation of an origin crystal. By the time humans had formed six of them, the invisible boundary between the crystals would break, and they would merge into one. The final crystal was technically not an origin crystal anymore. It was more like a new organ that would give the expert several new powers.

The stark difference between a heavenly monarch and divine champion lay in the difference between their origin crystals. No divine champion could even come close to a heavenly monarch’s abilities. Even a superior divine champion was a long way off.

Qianye had just stepped into the realm. He hadn’t even taken the time to consolidate his newfound powers, yet he could already sense the world changing around him. Everything felt fine and fragile. It only took him eighty percent of his strength to deliver the same blow. As his new crystal became more stable, the power required would drop even further.

Was this the power of a heavenly monarch?

Qianye frowned slightly. He didn’t need lower energy consumption or finer control of force. After his body was modified by the chaos origin power, Qianye’s endurance in battle was now incomparable—few could hope to best him in a battle of attrition. In fact, Qianye’s most terrifying aspect was his ability to instantly crush experts of the same rank.

Be it his Shot of Inception, Excavator, Dragonsgrave, the current Red Spider Lily, or even East Peak, most of the weapons in his arsenal were able to quickly dispatch opponents of the same rank or higher. These moves, however, involved great consumption, so much so that he could only use them a handful of times. That being said, the enemy could hardly withstand this handful of attacks. Most of them would be dead with the first blow.

That was why Qianye didn’t need fine control and reduced strain in the heavenly monarch realm. On the contrary, what he needed was an earth-shattering attack that was as powerful as a falling mountain.

It was rather mysterious how the crystal began to change at a single thought. Qianye’s perception of origin power stopped at the current stage, and the fine details of the world no longer progressed. The only thing that continued in Qianye’s senses was the world growing more fragile.

Qianye reached out and performed a gentle grasp, catching a flickering black shadow in his palm. Bolts of lightning appeared immediately afterward, shooting hundreds of meters forward and leaving charred marks on the ground.

The surrounding space couldn’t even withstand a single grasp.

Qianye looked up and saw a dark spot hanging above him.

The spot was incredibly small, so much so that Qianye couldn’t even sense how small it was. It simply existed, drawing in and assimilating everything around it.

Qianye finally realized that this was the true face of his chaos origin power. The grey on its surface had receded during the fight against the mirage moon origin power.

The true chaos origin power was a tremendous force of existence, yet it was microscopically small.

Having reached this enlightenment, Qianye immediately found a connection with the dark intent. The existence was a part of his chaos origin power, to begin with, so he could control it as he wished.

As Qianye collected the dark speck into his body, all of his chaos origin power gathered around it to form a grey sphere floating within the Book of Darkness. The entire process was quite odd because the grey sphere was so small that it couldn’t be measured, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be tested. One could say the two were inherently different in nature. Qianye could sense that this grey sphere was slowly collapsing and turning into dark specks.

As for why this grey sphere could move about unhindered in the Book of Darkness, Qianye had no answer. Perhaps it was because chaos energy itself was produced by the book.

At this point, Qianye had come to a conclusion between daybreak and darkness origin power.

The new origin crystal was more mystical and gave off a feeling of complete transformation. And this was just its raw form. The level of transformation would rise continuously as more origin crystals formed and merged with the host.

And there was a certain spirituality in the depths of this origin crystal. The spirit was still young and tender, like a child, but there was no telling what it would become once it matured.

Unlike the dark races, human heavenly monarchs would undergo a qualitative transition upon reaching the rank. Did this mean that the human race’s cultivation system was one level higher than the other faction? The dark races were only relying on their great talent, bloodline, and their advantage in darkness origin power to remain superior.

Even though few things could surprise Qianye at this point, he felt deeply shaken at this moment. He had never imagined that such a great secret would be waiting for him at the heavenly monarch realm. Merging the six crystals to form spirituality was a shocking process. How did the Founding Ancestor develop this cultivation art back in the year?

Qianye had thought that the heavenly monarch realm was the absolute ceiling, but now, it would seem that the heavenly monarch realm was but the starting point of a completely new life. It was just that he had no idea what kind of transformations the crystal would undergo after reaching maturity.

This was a great secret of the human race, something no one had divulged for a thousand years. It was only today that someone who was not entirely human had learned of it.

The chaos origin power inside his body sank slightly as his body lifted off the ground and vanished.

Moments later, he was back at the Attawa holy land.

An elder rushed over when he saw Qianye. “There’s a strange person who wants to see you. He looks like you.”

“Bring him over.”

Before long, the elder returned with a grey-bearded man. The latter bowed deeply and said, “Duke Yun, Kong Dusheng, greets Lord Qianye.”

Qianye stood there like an immovable mountain. Only after the salutations were over did he raise a hand and said, “Rise, what brings you here? Let’s get straight to the point.”

This was the attitude of a superior toward a subordinate. Duke Yun immediately felt like lashing out.

However, his expression slowly transformed as he looked into Qianye’s bottomless eyes. The duke couldn’t understand how the person before him had changed completely in just one day.

Could it be...

Before he could finish the thought, he concluded that it was impossible.

The heavenly monarchs of the Empire were different from one another. Prince Greensun, for instance, was inherently tyrannical, while the Pointer Monarch was like a breeze dancing over the rippling lake. As for the Radiant Emperor, he was like a vigorous burst of radiance akin to the rising sun.

All Duke Yun saw in Qianye was a mass of boundless, bottomless darkness. Additionally, there was an indefensible strength emanating from the depths of those eyes. Even a short exchange of glances made Duke Yun feel as though his spirit was being dragged away.

The vastness of this dark intent almost blotted out the skies!

Duke Yun was absolutely startled. By the time he had collected himself, the abnormality was nowhere to be found.

He didn’t think too much of it or lose his composure. He simply produced a piece of paper and passed it to Qianye, saying, “A secret report arrived from the Empire, and one of them is related to you. The two monarchs asked me to deliver it to you for your perusal.”

Qianye leaned forward and took the drawing from the man. The entire process was natural and devoid of any origin power movement. He was almost like an ordinary human. By the time the duke realized the movement, the drawing was no longer in his hands.

Qianye opened the drawing, his eyes pausing briefly on the sword that looked like Awakening Dream.

Duke Yun tried probing Qianye after seeing his expression. “Now that you’ve seen it, this subordinate will take his leave.”

“Wait,” Qianye called the man back.

Duke Yun was excited to see that Qianye had taken the bait. He hid his delight well and merely waited for further instruction.

Qianye crumpled the paper without much thought, reducing the painting to absolute nothingness.

Duke Yun’s heart went cold. He was clearly present, yet he never realized how Qianye had destroyed the painting. Besides, even the most powerful ability would leave some traces behind. How did the painting simply vanish?

“Good brushwork, it’s a bit of a pity to destroy it.”

Duke Yun’s heart began beating fast.

“Oh, and by the way, bring a message to the two monarchs.”

Duke Yun said hurriedly, “Pray tell.”

Qianye pointed at the black sun. “This thing above us is what the dark races call the darkness origins. Their plan is to open a passage between this world and Evernight, drawing the darkness origins to our world.”

As a knowledgeable person, Duke Yun’s expression shifted drastically. “How can anyone be capable of doing that?”

Qianye did not reply.

After regaining his composure, Duke Yun fell to his knees. “Since you have revealed this secret to us, I’m sure you have some advice for us. Please tell us what we should do.”

“Just tell them to do whatever they want.”

Duke Yun was surprised. “How can we do whatever we want regarding such an important matter?”

Qianye said indifferently, “There’s nothing stopping anyone from doing whatever they want.”