Song Zining stared at Qianye, hardly able to contain his shock.

Qianye said with a smile, “Don’t worry, I won’t throw away my life. If I can’t defeat Greensun, I’ll keep running around the capital. I heard the formation at the capital was designed to target the dark races. I’m a human heavenly monarch, so its effects should be limited.”

One could easily imagine what it would be like to have a heavenly monarch hawking around the capital, waiting for the opportunity to strike. No one except Prince Greensun would be able to leave the capital freely. The Radiant Emperor was a newly ascended powerhouse and evidently not Qianye’s match. After all, the latter’s accomplishments went far beyond just killing great dark monarchs.

Song Zining glanced at Qianye. “Is there no other way?”

“One out of three, and that’s already me holding back. Don’t tell me you want to hand over the leader?”

Song Zining sighed. “What can you do even if you had the leader?”

“Nothing much, just behead him publicly and wipe out his clan! That’s about it.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes.”

Song Zining said, “Then you probably don’t need to head to the capital.”

“Don’t tell me you’re the one behind this? Haha!”

“Of course not, but the person has already fallen. And his descendants, you cannot touch.”

Qianye was stunned. “Don’t tell me…”

“It’s the elder monarch.”

This time, Qianye was silent for a long while.

Ji Wentian had dedicated his entire life to the human race and faced his death vehemently in the end. Someone like him would never allow a new Evernight supreme to appear. Qianye was the only one who knew that Nighteye’s present and past self had merged into one after the awakening. In fact, the present Nighteye held the advantage. Normally, the awakened supreme would crush the present consciousness and restore their past ego.

To a supreme atop the Sacred Mountain, humans were no more important than ants. It was only natural that Ji Wentian would try to remove this potential threat.

The man was now dead, and most of his descendants were mediocre people. Only Ji Tianqing and her daughter, Ji Yuan, were an exception.

Qianye finally understood how difficult it was to tell which party was in the right.

Daybreak and Evernight would always be separated, even as neighbors.

Qianye closed his eyes. “What should I do?”

“Do what you want, conclude all unfinished business, and then go pick her up.”

“I think there’s something important.”

“What is it?”

“What is the Chronicle of Glory?” Qianye asked.

“I don’t know, either. Only the Radiant Emperor will be able to answer that question for you, perhaps Lord Riverglance might know a bit,” Song Zining replied.

“Let it be, it has nothing to do with me anyway.”

Qianye walked onto the deck and gazed out.

“What’s your plan?”

“Just like you said, I’m going to go around tying up some loose ends. Then, I’ll go and pick her up when I’m ready.” Qianye glanced at the darkness energy surging out from the passage, saying, “I’ll wait and see how far the fight will go between the Empire and Evernight.”

“We might not even fight.”

Qianye pointed at the tunnel. “Are you going to let them funnel darkness origin power into this world?”

Song Zining shrugged. “That small portal will take a good while to produce any effect. We have enough time to make a choice, there’s no need to engage in a big battle now.”

“If that is so, have it your way then.” Qianye glanced at the void and said all of a sudden, “Did you notice? The stars feel rather glaring recently.”

Song Zining came to stand beside Qianye and gazed in the same direction. He looked carefully, but he couldn’t figure out what was different.

Qianye narrowed his eyes. “I have a feeling that there are new stars.”

Song Zining peered attentively, but he simply couldn’t see anything. Astronomy was not his forte, to begin with.

Qianye felt a wave of discomfort come over him. A faint glow washed over his body like a ripple, illuminating countless fate threads along the way.

Qianye glanced down and saw a new thread forming a connection with him.

He gently grabbed the thread with a smile. “Looks like my divination talents aren’t bad. I can now tell when people are scheming against me. These threads come from divination techniques, right?”

“Indeed.”

“I suddenly have a better idea, what do you think?”

Qianye broke the thread with a flick of his finger. A plume of dark fire danced along the thread, following it all the way into the void.

…

The Imperial Capital. In an underground hall below the Divination Pavilion, there were several dozen divination experts hard at work. They sat in their respective positions with their eyes closed, focused entirely on their calculations.

A miserable cry broke the silence. A young divination expert collapsed, his eyes popped out and blood flowing out of his nostrils. He spasmed several times while clutching his throat, but eventually, all movement ceased.

“What’s going on?” A middle-aged expert ran over quickly and knelt down at the victim’s side. He opened the young man’s eyelids and saw nothing but blood; his eyes had burst open.

He gasped in fright. “What a powerful backlash!”

It was at this moment that another cry rang out, and a divination expert collapsed behind him. Blood began to pool up on the ground.

The middle-aged man was just about to help the second person when people began dropping one after another.

The man felt a chill wash over him. Through the corner of his eyes, he noticed the divination tokens of one of the victims. “Everyone! Stop all calculations related to Qianye and Nighteye! Drop everything even remotely related to them!”

However, it was too late! Several more divination experts fell, bringing the number to almost half of the experts in the hall.

The middle-aged divination expert felt his hair stand on end, his mind completely blank. He knew just how long it took to train these people and how many resources had gone into them. The diviners who could enter the pavilion were all geniuses in the field. Now that almost half of them had died from the backlash, it was truly difficult for him to explain this matter.

It was at this moment that he felt extreme pain in his head, almost as though someone had thrust a steel bar into his brain. And the pain was still hitting him in waves, as though the person was stirring the steel bar!

The divination expert felt the world spinning around him. Noticing that there was something wet on his face, he touched it and found his hand covered in blood.

He realized what was happening but found it difficult to believe. “Even those who did the divination three days ago weren’t spared? What exactly is this Qianye?!”

His footing grew unsteady, just as his vision and consciousness blurred out. A brief moment of clarity visited him amidst the great pain, during which he realized that the end was near.

Gazing at the utter mess in the hall, he roared at the sky, “Are the heavens ending our Empire?”

A pair of deep, blue eyes suddenly appeared before him. He knew these eyes all too well as he was familiar with Qianye’s characteristics.

He saw Qianye smiling at him, saying, “I’m only ending you.”

…

Back in the void, Qianye cut yet another fate thread with his finger. “What do you think about that?”

Song Zining sighed. “These people were only following orders. Why go so far?”

Qianye said indifferently, “None of these sinners deserve death, Nighteye is the only one who should die, huh?!”

Song Zining smiled bitterly. “What do you want me to say?”

“Simply go back and tell everyone that I have become a heavenly monarch. I am now the bigger picture, so what if several divination experts give their lives for this cause? Nobody likes them anyway.”

Song Zining didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. “Where are you going next?”

“Fort Continent. I want to take a look at how my followers are doing.”