Chapter 64: The Blade of Annihilation

After an unknown amount of time, Qian Ye suddenly sat up, looking around with a dazed expression. It took him a while to remember that he had originally planned to practice but ended up falling asleep again.

He picked up the origin power clock by his side and saw that only about half an hour had passed, allowing him to breathe a sigh of relief. As Qian Ye was about to activate the Song Family’s Ancient Scroll, he suddenly noticed that his essence blood had inexplicably decreased, leaving less than a third of its original amount.

Qian Ye’s heart raced. This time, he knew something was definitely wrong. He immediately settled himself and activated his True Vision, beginning to inspect his body inch by inch. Not finding the reason for the vanishing essence blood would make it impossible to feel at ease.

Ever since obtaining the Eye of True Sight, Qian Ye’s inner vision had become much clearer, capable of capturing even the tiniest changes in origin power. He started to run through each of his cultivation techniques one by one to observe the flow of origin power within his body.

Starting with the Battle Technique and then moving to the Radiant Chapter of the Song Family’s Ancient Scroll, everything seemed normal with no signs of abnormality.

When the Mysterious Chapter of the Song Family’s Ancient Scroll began, Qian Ye finally noticed some details he had previously overlooked. The fine threads of unrefined essence blood were emerging from his heart, guided by the technique, and forming a vortex inside his body.

This vortex acted like an invisible grinding wheel, gradually pulverizing and separating the impurities from the essence blood, leaving behind pure dark origin power, which was then absorbed by his blood qi.

The purple blood qi, after absorbing the dark origin power, mostly enhanced itself and occasionally released a few specks of purple light, spreading throughout his body via the bloodstream. These specks of light significantly increased the activity of his muscles, providing a slight enhancement to Qian Ye’s body.

The dark golden blood qi absorbed more dark origin power than the purple blood qi, but there were no visible changes. Instead, one of the feathers on the Original Wings suddenly became slightly brighter, as if it were tangible, no longer just a pure illusion.

Occasionally, the dark golden blood qi would also release a small amount of light of the same color, which, instead of flowing through the blood vessels, was directly absorbed by his internal organs. Qian Ye immediately felt a slight change in the organs that absorbed the golden light. The change was so minor that it was almost imperceptible, but it was a real reinforcement.

Qian Ye finally discovered another function of the dark golden blood qi—it could directly reinforce the internal organs.

Compared to the complex cultivation systems of the human race, the path of the Evernight faction was relatively simpler, with all races prioritizing physical enhancement. However, for those below the rank of Warlord, the physical enhancement was limited to the muscles. Only after surpassing the Warlord threshold did the dark origin power start to have a deeper effect, penetrating the internal organs and elevating the level of enhancement.

This meant that despite having only a quantity of blood qi equivalent to a Dark Baron, Qian Ye’s combat power could already reach the Viscount level.

When he formally condensed his Blood Core and advanced to the rank of Warlord, his true combat power would far exceed that of vampires of the same rank. This was the strength of the true high-tier bloodline of the dark races.

By now, the Mysterious Chapter had completed its cycle, and the feather on the Original Wings had solidified further. When it fully transformed into a tangible form, it might bring new changes.

Qian Ye took a short rest and then began the second round of Mysterious Chapter cultivation. To find out the cause of the vanishing essence blood, the Mysterious Chapter needed to be thoroughly examined.

Sure enough, as soon as the second round of the Mysterious Chapter began, the flow of essence blood from his heart suddenly stopped. A moment later, a small amount of essence blood began to overflow under the guidance of the technique. During this process, the flow of essence blood was intermittent, indicating that more essence blood was disappearing.

Qian Ye slowly ceased the technique. Now he knew that the essence blood he had accumulated was stored in his heart. The source of the vanishing essence blood should also be somewhere deep within his heart, but ordinary methods of inner vision could not penetrate the internal workings of the organs.

He thought for a moment and tried to activate his True Vision, focusing on his heart. Gradually, the heart became transparent, revealing its internal structures.

The essence blood floated in the heart chamber, condensed into a cluster, about the size of a thumb. It had a mottled appearance, with vivid red and darker red, a result of the mixture of different racial essences.

Above the blood cluster, Qian Ye saw a faint shadow of a book. It was the Book of Blackness he had obtained from Anduya’s treasure!

The book had mysteriously entered Qian Ye’s mental space on that day but had disappeared without a trace after he left Anduya’s lost world. He had thought it was gone, but now it had somehow ended up deep within his heart.

The Book of Blackness: The Initial Chapter, one of the ancient lost texts of the dark races. Apart from the demonstration of the world’s birth he had seen when he first obtained it, Qian Ye had no other information about the book. Even the Song family’s library, which collected some historical records of the dark races, had no mention of it.

The cover of the Book of Blackness, which had once featured a bleeding eye, had changed. It now appeared as a faint shadow, with three distinct runes clearly visible around it. These runes differed from the ones in the current origin power array but resembled the ancient runes Anduya had casually drawn.

Qian Ye gazed at the runes for a while, and suddenly, he naturally understood their meanings.

The first rune represented the Book of Blackness, the second rune signified Origin, and the third rune symbolized dark origin power.

Two of the runes were already lit, while the third was between a shadow and a solid form, needing just a little more to fully manifest.

At this moment, the scenery in this mental space was exceptionally clear. He could see that threads of blood would occasionally overflow from the blood cluster and be absorbed by the Book of Blackness. Could it be that the vanishing essence blood was being absorbed by the book?

Qian Ye turned his attention back to the Book of Blackness. This time, when his consciousness touched the book, it suddenly triggered a strange reaction. A massive, inexplicable suction force pulled the entire blood cluster toward the book.

The Book of Blackness, as if endowed with life, began to pulse, swallowing the essence blood in large gulps. In a matter of moments, the essence blood equivalent to that of a Baron was completely absorbed.

Qian Ye was taken aback and noticed that the last rune on the cover of the Book of Blackness had finally lit up. An impulse struck him, and he instinctively wanted to open the book to see what was inside. As soon as this thought arose, the floating Book of Blackness automatically opened.

On the first page, a table of contents appeared, but with only one entry: Refinement.

As Qian Ye focused his thoughts, the Book of Blackness automatically turned to the next page. This time, the page showed a swirling mass of darkness. At the corner of the page was a small rune, representing Refinement. When Qian Ye tried to flip to the next page, he directly saw the back cover.

This thick Book of Blackness currently had only one page.

Qian Ye flipped back to the Refinement chapter, looking at the swirling darkness, which was a manifestation of origin power.

As he focused, the swirling darkness gradually formed meaningful patterns, constantly evolving. Suddenly, a human-like silhouette flashed, making Qian Ye feel like he had seen it somewhere before.

When he concentrated, the silhouette became much clearer, taking the form of a person thrusting a sword. This figure was familiar; it was one of the basic sword techniques recorded in the Song family’s books. Qian Ye then recalled other sword techniques, and corresponding human figures immediately appeared.

All the human figures were constantly in motion, demonstrating the sword techniques they represented. Each demonstration had slight variations, causing Qian Ye’s heart to tremble. It was an improvement to the basic sword techniques! The changes were exactly in the areas where he had felt uneasy but did not know how to improve.

Was the Book of Blackness automatically deducing martial techniques?

Suppressing his shock, Qian Ye began to recall other martial technique books he had read in the Song family’s library. Sure enough, whenever he thought of a specific technique, it would appear in the Book of Blackness. In a blink, the swirling darkness on the page was filled with hundreds of human silhouettes, appearing and disappearing, floating and sinking, continuously practicing various martial techniques.

During his time with the Song family, because of obtaining the Eastern Peak, Qian Ye had spent most of his time and energy on refining his sword skills. Naturally, he paid more attention to sword techniques.

As his thoughts changed, the human silhouettes in the Book of Blackness blurred and reformed into dark lines, then combined again. This time, all the silhouettes held long swords. Surprisingly, the shapes and styles of these swords were exactly like the Eastern Peak.

Each silhouette represented a sword technique. Upon closer inspection, these techniques were all derived from the dozen or so basic sword technique books he had read.

The swirling darkness moved faster, and all the sword-wielding figures followed, creating a scene where hundreds of people were wielding swords before Qian Ye. Some practiced alone, some sparred, and some engaged in chaotic battles. After a while, some figures disappeared, and others merged, drastically reducing the number. Finally, only a few figures remained.

Qian Ye focused intently. These remaining figures used sword techniques that were not recorded in any basic sword technique book. They were simple and direct but more refined, and most importantly, these techniques were obviously suited to the Eastern Peak, not just in shape and size but also in weight.

During this time, Qian Ye had been deeply studying the use of the Eastern Peak. Seeing these techniques made him feel enlightened, but something still seemed to be missing.

Sensing Qian Ye’s thoughts, the sword-wielding figures in the darkness blurred and gradually merged. During this process, the darkness, made purely of dark origin power, rapidly faded, and the page was left with only one figure.

He held a long sword, and with a strike, a sword beam burst forth, reaching ten meters in length.

Qian Ye was stunned. This sword strike did not seek finesse but pure power, capable of cutting through space—this was the power he had always yearned for!

The figure struck the sword and then remained still. Several ancient runes appeared around him.

A sudden realization formed in Qian Ye’s mind, revealing the meaning of these runes.

Annihilation Slash!