Monarch of Evernight

The trunk wasn’t sturdy at all—its cut-section was moist, and a viscous liquid quickly began to seep out. Qianye reached out to touch it and found that it was the same fluid from within the holes. But the unusual part was that Qianye could sense violent void origin power from within the liquid.

It would appear that this large tree was able to extract void origin power from the earth and supply them to the entities within the tree holes. It was precisely the violent and chaotic nature of the void origin power that had affected the gestated creatures, causing them to transform into such grotesque forms.

A process that would require a year or even several years to complete outside had been contracted to the extremes here.

Qianye continued on his way after further examination yielded no new discoveries. This time, he would carve a mark on a tree every ten meters or so to prevent himself from getting lost.

But Qianye suddenly heard a faint rustling through the air as though something was flying toward him from behind. Every little movement in this quiet forest was magnified—the sound seemed to be some distance away, but it was fairly hair-raising in this extreme silence.

Qianye immediately confirmed that the sound was true and not his hallucination. He thus flashed behind a big tree and hid himself instantaneously.

Moments later, a man actually appeared from the direction he had come from. An inexplicable peculiarity came over Qianye at the sight of a normal man appearing in such a crazy place.

The person stopped before a large tree and reached out to touch those meaningless lines. Qianye’s heart trembled as he realized this person must’ve followed these symbols.

His gaze fell upon the man’s clothes and equipment but found no indication of his identity from the outside. However, Qianye noticed the insignia of the Nangong family on an exposed corner of his holster as he began to glance at the surroundings after he had finished inspecting the symbol.

A Nangong family expert!

Qianye took the risk to scan the other party and actually found three origin power vortices—he was a rank-twelve champion. Qianye might not be able to prevail over this opponent even in his peak state, to speak nothing of his current physical condition.

Qianye immediately retracted his aura and slowly backed away. The senses suffered great interference within this forest, so it wouldn’t be easy to track him down as long as he could keep his distance.

However, he had just taken two steps back when the Nangong family expert turned toward him and shouted, “Who goes there?! Come out!”

Qianye was shocked, but he immediately noticed that the other party was able to follow him through the Black Forest with great accuracy just from the symbols he had left behind. This could no longer be explained as a mere coincidence. Apparently, this fellow had also gained the power of the Iron Curtain.

Qianye no longer made any attempt to conceal himself and shot up to flee at full speed.

The man’s eyes lit up when he saw Qianye. “It’s you! Haha, it seems coming in here wasn’t a complete waste of effort! Still trying to run?!”

He started running swiftly like an unbridled wild stallion and slowly began to close the gap. Originally, speed wasn’t his forte, but Qianye was heavily injured at the moment, and his movements were greatly affected.

“Brat, you can’t escape. I promise to spare your life if you stop now and listen to my instructions! Let’s leave this accursed place first.”

“Still not stopping? Do you really think this Master Nangong has no way to deal with you?”

“Hey, you’ll die if you waste origin power like that!”

Qianye’s heart was resolute no matter how the person behind him threatened or tempted him. He maintained the highest speed he could endure and ran frantically all the way. He suddenly thought of another problem during the chase, and that was whether there were predators in this forest.

Just how terrifying would the adult chaotic entities be if their new-borns were already rank five or six. And sound was the best way to sense prey within this incomparably silent forest.

As he ran, Qianye saw an intense, almost boiling origin power fluctuation in the distance. He immediately shifted his direction and ran toward it. Presently, the distance between Qianye and that Nangong champion had shrunk to an extremely dangerous point—whatever that thing in the distance was, it would make little difference compared to falling into hands of the Nangong.

Qianye heard a sudden increase in the running footsteps behind him and leapt forward instinctively without a second thought. A rumble ensued just as expected, followed by an origin bullet whizzing past Qianye. The bullet landed on a large tree and produced a bowl-sized defect with muddy fluids pouring out from within.

Nangong Jiancheng fired two more shots, but they were duly evaded by Qianye. The man couldn’t help but curse loudly, “To hell with it!” Presently, it would seem he had no other way but to chase all the way to the end.

As he was running, Qianye felt the ground beneath his feet turn soft—he looked down and found that one of his feet had sunk into the earth. Quite mysteriously, this ordinary-looking soil was actually a mere top layer, and the area below it was actually filled with sludge.

Qianye heard a plop behind him. Nangong Jiancheng had sunk almost to his knees before he leapt straight up and extricated himself. The man had also encountered a pothole—his was apparently even deeper, and being much less agile compared to Qianye, he had taken a small loss for no good reason.

Qianye took advantage of this good opportunity to draw several dozens of meters away.

At this moment, the forest floor was already full of muddy holes, and ponds of varying sizes started appearing after a couple hundred meters. Qianye ran with greater caution and started leaping between the intersecting tree roots. Nangong Jiancheng also raised his speed after he had grasped the lay of the land and started closing in on Qianye.

At this point, Qianye’s breathing suddenly became labored. His chest tightened as he coughed out a mouthful of fresh blood. Its color was exceptionally garish and even dotted with glowing specks of light. He only felt a burst of weakness as his footsteps immediately turned leaden.

It was when Qianye had worsened his internal injuries that an ordinary blood energy suddenly emerged from his heart. It dispersed on its own and managed to stabilize the injuries, preventing them from worsening.

Qianye gritted his teeth and charged forth as Nangong Jiancheng’s loud laughter approached quickly from behind. He suddenly felt a gust of wind past at this moment and was immediately startled.

Since entering the forest and up until now, the entire world here appeared to be frozen—even the air seemed to be stagnant, to speak nothing of a breeze. Wherever the wind was blowing from might be the exit!

However, Qianye soon sensed more than just the wind here—the earth itself was trembling, and a shadow was descending upon them from above. A towering giant beast was soon looking down at Qianye and Nangong Jiancheng.

Its head resembled a crocodile, and its mouth was full of sharp fangs. The body below seemed to be constructed from a pile of meat supported on eight irregularly distributed limbs. The monstrosity appeared to be trembling and seemed as though it would crumble at any moment.

This massive beast was over ten meters tall when standing. Qianye and Nangong Jiancheng were like two little insects before this enormous entity, likely not even enough for a single mouthful.

The two halted their steps in the face of this dangerous situation and didn’t dare act rashly. With such a gigantic main body, it would be extremely terrifying even if it didn’t have any odd abilities. The impact of ordinary origin guns would only be enough to make it itch—perhaps only weapons at the level of Blue Firmament and Mountain Splitter would be able to injure it.

The enormous beast was clearly intrigued by the sudden appearance of the two humans. It lowered its massive head, the dozens of eyes upon it moving about individually as it glanced at the two. The monster sniffed a couple of times and afterward decided to abandon Qianye and go for Nangong Jiancheng.

“What the hell?!” Nangong Jiancheng had almost gone mad. Qianye was apparently closer, but the giant beast had decided to ignore him and go for the former instead. Could it be that he was tastier?

Qianye, on the other hand, had guessed the reason. Nangong Jiancheng was indeed more appealing in comparison. He had observed the chaotic entities as they devoured each other and found that the most important criterion was having exuberant vitality.

Qianye was badly injured and his aura was weak, needing to rely on his remnant blood energy and vampiric constitution just to remain standing. Meanwhile, Nangong Jiancheng was a spirited rank twelve expert with extremely powerful vitality within his body. This, to the chaotic entity, was a peerless delicacy.

Qianye naturally wouldn’t let such an opportunity pass by. He immediately turned tail and ran.

It was just that he hadn’t even taken two steps when the earth trembled once again. Surveying the area, he found several holes appearing on the bumpy, uneven ground, and countless chaotic entities of all shapes and sizes were crawling out of them. The giant beast didn’t want Qianye, but he was still a big feast to these little ones.

Qianye would soon be surrounded. He moved beside a big tree in a flash and stood with his back against it. This way, he could at least block the attacks from behind. An idea suddenly popped up in Qianye’s head as he tried releasing a wisp of blood energy.

The foremost chaotic entities paused for a moment. Apparently, these beings made of chaotic void origin power were similarly indisposed in the presence of darkness origin power, but they only paused for a moment before gradually pressing on, urged by their hunting instincts.

A spider-like entity suddenly shot up and pounced toward Qianye’s face at lightning speed. Qianye was able to easily deal with such random attacks. He simply held the Scarlet Edge before him and allowed the spider to impale itself.

The Scarlet Edge pierced through the spider in a flash, but Qianye’s arm was shaken and even turned slightly numb. The force behind this charging arachnid chaotic entity was extremely powerful, even comparable to a cannon shell. It would have produced a big hole if it had struck the tree trunk.

Qianye increased his vigilance. He was just about to cast off the chaotic spider from his blade when a surge of hot essence blood poured in through his blade. Qianye trembled all over as the blood energy in his body bubbled up and almost entered a state of blood boil. Fortunately, he was fully prepared and immediately restrained the feral blood energy.

This chaotic spider’s essence blood was dense beyond expectations and contained strong vitality. It immediately brought about signs of activation throughout Qianye’s body. He had never expected that a mature chaotic entity’s essence blood would be so strong that even he could hardly withstand it.

Qianye didn’t even get the chance to circulate the Mystery Chapter. As though it had sensed danger, the purple blood energy rushed out of its rune and galloped through his blood vessels, continuously releasing specks of purple light. Wherever these purple specks landed, his physical growth would become stable and compact once more.

But even the purple blood energy could only delay the activation process—the terrifyingly active vitality was still finding a way out within Qianye’s body.

But the time it had bought was enough for Qianye to circulate his Mystery Chapter. A giant vortex started revolving slowly like a grinding stone, drawing in and crushing the chaotic spider’s essence blood one by one.

It was just that the process wasn’t as easy as absorbing the new-born chaotic entity’s essence blood. A strand or two of overly active essence blood would attempt to struggle free from their shackles. Qianye had no choice but to split his attention and suppress them when needed.

He still had to pay attention to his internal battle while fighting outside. This made dealing with the chaotic entities quite a strenuous effort. After evading several attacks in succession, Qianye was finally struck by a calf-sized beast. He was sent flying for tens of meters, demolishing several large trees along the way before finally falling down.

This crash wasn’t light. The blood energy in Qianye’s chest rolled and crashed, almost causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood. It was at this time that a large tree trunk fell from the sky and landed right in front of him, smashing an odd beast that was chasing after him into the ground.