White Kongzhao hurled forth a silver canister, which upon splitting open released a surge of milky fluid. This liquid swiftly exuded a rich scent of Dawn’s Primordial Qi. On close examination, it turned out to be秘银 solution, with a fairly high concentration no less!
Though swift to act, the vampire viscount currently couldn’t open his eyes. Hence, he was drenched completely all over his head and body—his flesh instantly smoked, with his muscles and physique eroded at great pace. This was the real scream this time, indeed.
After being pushed back, Aiden had kept sitting against a stone wall, observing coldly. Suddenly, he opened his mouth and exhaled a puff of black mist. While the vampire was writhing across the ground, this black haze precisely flew straight into where his blood core stood, issuing hissing noises. It began to eat through it at once—before long, a massive cavity opened, breaking through even the chest to leave visible openings, as the blood core disintegrated into nothingness along the way. All the while hiding it deep under his sleeve, Aiden finally unveiled this trump card he’d reserved up till now.
Having emitted the puff of black energy, Aiden’s breaths grew clearly feeble. Facing White Kongzhao, he managed a bitter smile as he spoke, “You must be 白空照, yes? Damn me, I never envisioned it’d end being you! Anyway, if you intend to finish the job, you might as well be done quickly—you won’t extract any important intelligence from me… as for torturing—you’d get the chance only after I’ve done it myself and met my end.”
After tossing the canister away, 白空照 hadn’t once moved, keeping silent with her ethereal, large pair of eyes as Aiden disposed of that vampire noble, her expression seemingly rather stunned. As Aiden’s voice reached her, 白空照 blinked, almost disbelief filling her, “Do you really consider me so frightening?”
“What’s your take?” queried Aiden.
白空照, quite pensive for an instant, earnestly thought the issue through before confirming, “Hmm, well, what you said sounds reasonable, indeed. Most of those around me do greatly Fear my presence, truth to be told… Then again, just then while dealing with the last strike, Why didn’t you use it directly on My own self? Is it, perhaps, your detest for that vampire ran much deeper than it does me?”
With hearty softness, Aiden chuckled, responding, “Oft times ancestral hate lingers sharper in men than divisions born of faction and field!”
White Kongzhao, seeming deep within thought and nodded earnestly, then added curiously, “But why might this be my thought? Was it that you thought this strike powerless against me, therefore reserved only him as the mark?”
“Just knew your wits’d not miss out.” Surprise flashed briefly across Aiden’s iris before he laughed once more, openly admitting this.
Remaining pensive yet, White Kongzhao sauntered about the now disfigured vampire corpse until spotting a droplet of origin-blood among the carnage—then lugging closer with great struggle to bear movement that enormous bag of hers, rummaging out thrice to quintice ancient bronze caskets, intricate patterns adorning every panel’s surface detail, and tossing them straight at Aiden.
He caught them with a changed air on his face, noticing these particular carvings quite well acquainted—belonging distinctively now to numerous noble demon-kind bloodlines. The boxes’ inner contents, without question must be high-quality potions meant for healing the demon kin’s wounds—and the expression even as stoic a man as Aiden bore, bore hints now of genuine astonishment. After slight contemplation, without any further delay, he consumed the entirety, origin blood included into his system.
Indeed the elixirs bore a greater effect if they hailed from demon kin—brief minutes later, and color flushed anew upon Aiden’s visage, and that badly scorched right hand clenched a few time more, cracked skin flaked and shed—exposing the tender new skin beneath. With such recovery he turned once more, locking glances squarely on Bai Kongzhao, asking, “Say, what, then are you here hoping gain from me?”
She answered quite simply, “Ancient Essence I want. Help me seek that forth.”
Aiden mulled over quietly before finally saying with care, “Then I shall only try to the utmost of what fate allows.”
“Great!”
Observing White Kongzhao’s swift assent, Aiden found slight puzzlement arising uninvited within, finally inquiring, “Do the words ‘regaining my powers and taking revenge upon you there afterward—perhaps even attempt ending your mortal form in that act’ stir zero hesitation in you?”
Bai KongZhao looked sweetly innocent upon her childish face. Yet as she answered, chill unconsciously climbed back upon Aiden:
“You are very much at freedom to exact retaliation—but I, at very least you’ll fail to dispatch so soon… and given the guarantee of my remaining still within realm living, for all life thereafter you may never escape that haunting specter born from your deepest, restless dreaming.” She paused, her eyes shining like innocent dreams as she said gently, “Besides, you’re not that foolish person.”
Aiden looked into that gaze for some time longer and said with a faint chuckle:
“Yes. Indeed, this is precisely how I find reason enough here to keep faith. So then—let us have trust unspoken, I grant my assent without need for vow bound on talent or totem.”
In an action, Bai KongZhao hurled to the floor earth-side that massive bag of lethal tools behind her. She simply proclaimed, “Pick any one of them you fancy… as an added deal, you are to help carry these burdens as well.”
As Aiden unfurled and opened up the sack’s contents, seeing many peculiar weapons stored within, involuntary twitchiness danced behind his eye lids. Before him, lay arrayed armaments aplenty, unknown how many souls had already fallen to those innocent, sugared smiles in youth’s visage.
He cast about an assessing gaze and suddenly furrowed at a detail—how the majority were marked clearly in their designs as high-kin craftsmanship, then turned eyes upward again. White Kongzhao was just looking with childlike curiosity her direction toward where he focused.
The two exchanged this gaze in silence momentarily longer still.
Then Aiden turned attention down once again to complete his selection. Not soon after he hauled the pack onto back—plucking within his hand from within a double-barrel pistol he deemed fitting as he stepped forward towards passage through a tunnel shaped within crystaline cavern.
Behind him followed Bai KongZhao. Step by steady step.
Her silhouette thinning further by shadow as she advanced, ghostlike and pale.
A certain loneliness always accompanied her presence to all who viewed on—severely hollow and sorrowful. It came clear:
They stood now entering the final length—the last leg of the journey.
The various masters drew near the ultimate abyss hidden deep beneath crystaline worlds of underground—however, now more than ever before, deadly and perilous dangers peaked.
This was the very end stretch, which appeared impossibly dim, never-ending even more.
Qian Ye slowly rose, a giant form of spider demon fallen lifeless at his boots. Clearly, this opponent possessed tremendous fighting strength for its monstrous bulk—yet in end still lost its final gasping breathe at Qian Ye’s hand. However—within caverns vast as these, the creature’s once-great natural enhancement in power became ironically, a deadly hindrance in itself.
All the pure quintessence essence blood residing within that foe’s flesh has now found a new dwelling within Qian Ye’s own body—but the conversion had been maddeningly slow, for one after another, Qian lost essence supply recently.
Now, following such continuous deprivations:
That Purple mist once dancing ever-so-actively in his circulation, fell into hibernation entirely—Golden Qi as well turned sluggish by measure, his blood core still bore that raw and open scar, and with the total depletion of Flaming-blood nutrition—the recovery from each and every past clash dragged longer by far, leaving lingering exhaustion that would not easily dispassion, nor wane with sleep…
And yet his heart was no longer steeped in sorrow. It now only braced for struggle with steeled clarity more certain than ever before. Out flew Qianye’s hand pulling free a vials from supply pocket—instead of rolling it in tobacco for a smoke, he directly injected every last drop straight into his bloodstream.
Exorbitant quantity at once caused Qianye’s body-wide nerve-endings suddenly burst aflame in a rush of chemical blaze. Rushing torrents of Origin energy erupted ceaselessly from energy whirl pools hidden deep within. Euphoric sensations bloomed across his consciousness to extreme bliss—an almost omniscience-fantasy overtook him for fleeting moments.
Even now, lost in an ocean of drug-induced joy,
Still QianYe’s pair Black Obsidian Gazed unblinkingly forward.
Through that tunnel’s further depths beyond—a darkness with zero reflection, no glints of gleam within. But based merely on experience—Qian knew how, that uttermost void usually signaled only the terminal point of such tunnels devoid entirely of alternative branching passages.
Yet as he studied, something moved in perception. It shifted with slow emergence—as darkness took living breath of its very own in a creeping undulation.
He plunged Eastpeak’s heavy point down to stick upright within rock, then drew twin flowers—loading a Solar bullet, carefully—lining his iron sight directly into that dark expanse:
Suddenly—a low deep chuckled arose amidst the dark, a sheet of black mist peeled from darkness’s veil, slowly flowing forward—shape-shifting ceaselessly as it did:
Once, the mist embodied humanoid.
Other times took a form—beast-like shape of savage teeth and claw—no matter form taken its oppressive, immense might unfailing, unwavering remained. Though Qianye stayed distant even so—he could already clearly and distinctly feel its terrifying aura enveloping him in its pressure.
Qianye nearly buckled—knee popping aloud from joint lock as both knee bent involuntarily, near collapsing.
However—
Gnashing his teeth so hard that grinding came audible from force,
he slowly, stubbornly, rose inch-by-inch, against that terrifying suppression that smothered him like mountain crushing spine, unrelenting, until he stood fully erect once again:
From the sheer might of this pressure and sense of familiar essence,
QyanYe knew—what confronted him in shadows’ grasp must be none other than…Tian Gui’s Diversion—Fragment soul in form of dark mirror self!
And encountering exactly that being at this point—misfortunes’ lot fell upon this man with brutal clarity once more. Truth be told—if one could exclude a couple of the top masters present on either camp in this Great War,
Encountering this Divided Self of Tian Giu counted always under the most ill-favored signs of terrible fortune—no exception.
Yet just as Qianye regained full posture,
Intent on firing a sudden shot regardless—another, a completely alien voice, sounded abruptly inside his thoughts—a warped tone:
Submit, bow to I.
Slave thy Will to mine. Grant Thee both power—yes, and Eternalliving!
A Tian Gui’s own voice?
Puzzlement flickered briefly as QianYe blinked.
For this marked his first conscious brushing alongside true consciousness belonging to a Tian Gu.
Yet he momentarily drifted off—thought of wandering the forgotten ruins back in Andua, during that same exploration, a spirit once betraying—trying in a like fashion lured in by promises of Eternal Life—and similar offers that twisted and tempted. Did they—every single of such monstrous consciousness—indeed regard Eternal power alongside Ever-Lasting Life as their Absolute Final Pursuits?
“This……” QianYe made a show of hesitation.
Impatience lanced forth immediately from TianGui’s Divided Presence. It intensified its suppression aura with a command thundering:
KNEL! Or perish by decree!!
At that precise moment, lightning flashed within Qian’s mind.
Gun roared upward into a rapid aimed shot like a flash of thunder. From QianYe’s shoulder behind, wings flared and blazed, suddenly the channel overflowed entirely golden luminescence.
Tian Gui Divisively sensed a life-threatening moment—emitted in one howling shriek its alarm—a swirl of darkness instantly expanded outward to absorb everything—seek to consume the very universe as that golden feather raced across with its radiant burning tail blazing, and the blackened mist of its being swallowed it whole.
In the blink of but one eye—
From its internal depths erupted all consuming blazing infernosis.
In a blink transformed into a blazing sphere glowing white hot with fire beyond imagination!
QianYe moved with lightning reflex—plunging Eastpeak into ground, bodily ducked completely behind, gripping hilt like dear life and driving whatever remanning Dawn energy existed into that sword shaft to its utmost extremes!
Eastpeak quivered like tuning string, emitted feeble flickers that shielded Qian beneath. Then came torrentially the wall of flames.
Upon reaching QianYe’s defenses—the infernal waves first dipped ever lower for a moment due to the subduing force of the Great Sea. But the Domain, hastily raised at the limit of capability lasted not the briefest instant—the glowing protective aura failed before those consuming fires even for less than just an one-second moment, the blade glow only barely able to lend any shielding—reduced now to depend entirely by the physical blocking from blade mass itself.
Sensing danger approaching fast from this very inferno,
the Black Tome invisibly awakened—unfolding a veil faintly seen, like presence unseen yet felt, wrapped its guardian about its wielder’s fragile standing…
A silhouette blurred to un-grasable distortations under this protective veil—it had become… ungraspable in being.
As this fiery torrent from Tian Gui’s self immolation reached—
The veil split all impact away from two directions aside as they passed around the veil and merged back post curtain with no slowing or hesitations evident—One, upon mere glimpse would absolutely conclude that the flames remained entirely unperturbed.
Tian_gui’s self destruction flared with unimaginable might and speed—as fleeting as a blink’s duration—then the final flame vanished—QianYe slowly raised his face from crouch.
What stood around before hadn’t only tunnels anymore—it stood transfigured—a hall hundreds of paces in span across had emerged in that place of once winding mazeways:
Now, standing within its heart-center,
Not far off from Qianye’s figure: marked the origin point for flames of TianGui’s burning form to first erupt—
Ceiling—Walls—And Flooring,
Each turned uniform in crystalization.
Even with knowledge of titanic powers present from all assembled masters within these endless subterrane cavern worlds…none managed erasures upon those crystalline spired columns during combat and strife as the titanic battles waged. Damage yes—Shifting of form? Even so, complete dissolving annihilation none could achieve previously…
From comparing the scene, how powerful in life Tian_Gui’s divided form had been was laid open before—its terrifying might beyond comprehension even beyond what many had imagined.
Surveying this scene, thoughts whispered within Qianye of how narrowly he’d narrowly dodged death.
Had he not made the correct judgment, and unleashed his sole remaining Ancient Lance upon the moment without even the breath of reluctance—QianYe feared that he’d not have held out for even the first full strike of this fragment ghost of the true Titan’s wrath.
Furthermore—the blood core dormant meant QianYe’s own primordial darkness currents were weaker now versus his dawn-light power—when pulling upon his essence reserves, the Ancient Lance left this portion Dawn power entirely untouched instead.
Had it instead pulled from darkness or mixed with dawn?
His defensive Domain technique would surely collapse from internal incompatibilities and disconnection.
Wiping beadlike sweat off his brow, he found himself still unsure how best harness the complete power behind this Legendary relic—the Origin Lance—itself,
Yet this time around,
He could sense an oddity—a certain unique damage it wrought.
The lance did not merely pierce—it set the TianGui internally aflame… igniting within the dark miasma’s own depths.
That aspect had proven intriguing indeed.
QianYe now found himself wondering,
Did the creator known once in Andu’yas time have this very beast—the虚空巨型 monster—explicitly prepared in mind, when designing and forging the legendary winged origin lance? Would An DuYa have intended them, from inception, as specific counters meant just for such as these voidborne titans to match only the most ancient horrors of existence? A question to mull over when next there would be a lull.
For now—grasping Eastpeak like a cane to bear his own weight, after much effort of standing—
His sight locked onto something flickering in the now voided ground where only moments prior the fragment had stood, he pressed forth step-by-willed-step, dragging weakened self until he arrived, picking up a small fragment—a shard, a black crystal irregular and jagged in edges.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage