Volume 8 - Chapter 1056: Ceasefire Time

Wolf and man exchanged a short glance before the giant wolf shook his radiant mane and stepped into the camp behind Zhao Ruoxi. The corners of Qianye’s eyes twitched momentarily, but he retained his silence.

No one noticed this brief interlude. Only Song Zining looked up at Qianye, and then at their surroundings, in puzzlement. After confirming that everything was normal, he went back to arranging the tent flaps. There was no telling what would happen if the tent wasn’t ready when the Young Miss wanted to rest.

The agreement to split the Constellation Well between the two factions was, frankly speaking, a taking of turns to send people in. The Empire would condense origin crystals, while the Evernight side would produce origin blood, each faction happily taking what they required of the well. After all, the energy within the Constellation Well was as boundless as water in the ocean, and wouldn’t dry up no matter how much was extracted.

The well would be useless when each party had used up their stock of catalysts like the Storm Pearls and Blood Rods. Each side would then go on their way and the temporary ceasefire would stop.

The Constellation Well had always been dedicated for the Empire’s use. Now that Evernight had found ways to make use of it as well, the Imperial experts felt uncomfortable after hearing about it. Although the Constellation Well was a traditional Imperial resource, it was only because Evernight had no benefits to speak of here.

If the Evernight side could truly utilize the well and this news reached the outside world, the two factions would once again engage in a series of battles to fight for resources.

In truth, whether or not Song Zining had acted as a catalyst, the vampires and arachne would not give up on an operation they had been preparing for many years. The Red Spider Lily had broken the balance between the younger generation, but it was also an excuse for people of a higher level to intervene.

Despite seeing the potential benefits of this, none of them made use of this opportunity. After all, the price of bringing in a higher level character would have to be paid by all the peak characters of the younger generations.

In a battle between long-lived creatures and short-lived ones, time wouldn’t stand on the latter’s side.

At this moment, the young experts of Evernight were standing near the well. They would be the first to enter and extract origin blood according to the agreement.

Anwen stood at the center, saying to his left and right, “Everyone, do you all remember what I just said? According to my calculations, there are five stars beneficial to the vampire race and seven for the arachne. Additionally, there’s a crucial dark star that’s extremely close to the grand origin of darkness. If you can sense its star power and draw upon it, the origin blood produced will be helpful even for a prince. Even if you can extract a tiny bit of its star power, it will produce a marquis-level origin blood.”

Edward said, “You just categorized the stars in the well into four-grades. Is this dark star the highest?”

Anwen shook his head. “Of course not. The dark star is powerful, but it’s definitely not at the apex in the Constellation Well. There are at least seven points of chaos in the well, and each of them is hiding an extremely powerful star. But it’s beyond my power to determine their attribute.”

A glint flickered in Edward’s eyes. “It’s that powerful?”

If the dark star could produce prince-level origin blood, what would those seven mysterious stars produce? Could they be at the level of a great dark monarch?

This kind of origin blood would be enough to shake the entire Evernight world!

Anwen smiled wryly. “They’re powerful, of course. So powerful that I can’t even figure out anything, let alone analyze their nature. If Your Excellency Edward can sense their star power, you could make an attempt.”

Edward’s eyes flickered for a moment, but he soon shook his head. “Let His Excellency Basil go first.”

Basil was in no rush to get into the action. “Your Excellency Anwen, you said there are stars that benefit the vampires and arachne, but which ones can the demonkin use?”

“There are a total of seven.” Anwen pointed them out without hiding anything.

On the other side of the chasm, the people of the Empire were gathered on a high ground. Li Kuanglan had a star map in her hands as she explained the markings to everyone.

Those who had entered the Constellation Well before just listened casually as they knew just how insanely difficult it was to activate the power of the major stars. Zhao Yuying’s eyes were filled with eager flame, and it looked like she was rearing to give it a try. The most confident person of the lot was Wei Potian, whose scalding glare kept hovering over those big stars.

Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan exchanged a glance. “This is a competition between us and the younger generation of Evernight. Although there’ll be no bloodshed, it is definitely not less dangerous. The Empire has studied the Storm Pearl for many years, so we should have had a slight advantage in materials, but we ultimately can’t surpass the other side. This…”

The production of origin blood was related to the operator’s cultivation and largely dependent on the quality of their origin power. In fact, it was a contest of future potential. The Evernight side was disadvantaged in terms of catalyst and technique compared to the experienced Empire, but the quality of origin blood produced was fairly close or even better. What this meant was self-evident.

Additionally, the origin blood extracted would produce a batch of geniuses, and that would, in turn, affect the future.

Song Zining said seriously, “The Evernight side knew nothing about the Constellation Well at first. How did they suddenly get the secret method to produce origin blood? There’s something fishy about this. If I’m not wrong, someone from our side leaked this information to the Dark Races.”

Li Kuanglan frowned. “This isn’t the time to talk about these things. I’ll ask the elder assembly to investigate once I get back. Small deals with the dark races are fine, but our family won’t let go of anyone who leaked the secret of the Constellation Well, whoever it may be.”

The Jingtang Li Clan had studied the Constellation Well deeply, and they were also the ones who had produced the Storm Pearl. For the dark races to grasp these secrets overnight, these secrets had to have leaked from their family.

Zhao Yuying sighed. “It’d be nice if Old Fourth was here.”

Everyone exchanged glances and sighed in secret. In terms of talent, Zhao Jundu was the number one character of the Empire’s younger generation. If he were here to condense origin crystals, no one except the Demoness would be able to compare.

They had Zhao Ruoxi around at the moment, but she had no origin power in her body and her terrifying power was entirely reliant on the Red Spider Lily. She simply had no way to condense origin crystals.

Wei Potian laughed loudly. “What’s there to be scared of? How can we lose with me, Wei Potian, around?”

“Whack!” Zhao Yuying smacked him on the head, sending him sprawling to the ground. “Stop boasting, everyone here is stronger than you. And do you think all the experts on the other side have assembled? I think less than half of them have gathered. Ignoring everything else, do you see any werewolves on the other side? The Summit Of Peaks has countless powerful experts!”

Wei Potian cowered in the face of Zhao Yuying’s lecture, but Qianye felt fairly awkward and couldn’t help but glance at the big dog. The intelligent creature immediately tucked his head and claws in, pretending to be asleep.

Song Zining was the calm one. “This is a good thing. We can take this opportunity to take a look at how powerful those fellows on the other side are. We’ll be better prepared when we meet them in the future.”

With that, Song Zining looked toward Zhao Ruoxi. “Miss Ruoxi, this is not the right place to be willful. Please go back after things around the well are settled. I’ll escort you back to the Imperial camp.”

“I…” Zhao Ruoxi wasn’t about to take Song Zining’s advice. She was just about to retort when she saw Qianye looking at her. She suddenly became meek and lowered her head in silence.

Ji Tianqing smiled. “Okay, there’s really no need to rush. Let’s just deal with matters here first, then discuss what we should do. We would be running around the mountains without Ruoxi and her Red Spider Lily.”

The Demoness was simply too powerful in this generation. Her domain might be a bit weak against Qianye, but it was indefensible for other people. Besides, the vampires and arachne at the scene weren’t weak at all. If the Demoness could just get off her high horse and work together with them, even Qianye would suffer in her hands.

At this point, Basil had once again entered the Constellation Well. The experts from the Imperial side stopped talking and observed the chasm in detail.

This time, there was no outside interference, so Basil could finally concentrate on producing origin blood. Equipped with his previous experience, he was now quite familiar with the process, and before long, the spider egg in front of him had turned into a greyish white drop of origin blood.

Delighted, Basil shot out a transparent spider web to seal and stow away the origin blood, and then flew out of the well. He looked back reluctantly as he was at the entrance of the Constellation Well. This drop of origin blood was only at the count-grade, an ordinary quality through and through. But success in and of itself could be considered a profit.

Even origin blood of the count-grade would sell for sky-high prices in the Evernight world. There were countless old families among the dark races, and likable people with somewhat lacking talents were bound to appear. Count-grade origin blood was the most suitable for them because they wouldn’t be able to use more powerful ones.

Besides, the greatest benefit here was proving that the secret art was a success. He would gain great merits by just reporting back about the process and his experiences. At the thought of this, Basil shrugged and let out a short whistle, hoping to drink and celebrate his small fortune once everything was over.

Before he could leave, Anwen dragged him back to ask a bunch of questions. The demonkin then stood motionless, surrounded by a large number of complicated shapes and symbols. Familiar people knew that Anwen had begun to meditate on the matter.

On the empire side, Ji Tianqing said, “I’ll go down first. You guys observe carefully and memorize the incantations as quickly as possible, lest you forget when the time comes.”