Qianye muttered a curse, grabbing the sword by his side, and leapt into the adjacent building. Then, with utmost speed, he dashed through the room and leapt out of the window on the other side.
Two origin grenades exploded almost simultaneously, turning the narrow alleyway into a zone of death. Just as the peak blast dissipated, Li Zhan, piercing through the smoke, appeared at the entrance of the building where Qianye had entered, charging in as well.
The moment he stepped into the room, he felt as if he had sunk into a quagmire. The ground beneath his feet was solid, yet he found no foothold, and every move required immense effort. Moreover, a stinging pain spread from his skin, soon becoming unbearable.
Li Zhan’s heart filled with dread. Even his mouth and nose felt obstructed, giving him a suffocating sensation. With a sudden roar, he unleashed a blinding light of origin power, and something around him seemed to shatter, freeing him from the invisible restraints. He staggered out of the room.
Standing on the street, still shaken, he looked back into the room. It was empty, devoid of any anomaly. Glancing down at himself, Li Zhan saw that his hands and arms were red, with blood seeping out, and the metal fastenings on his armor had rusted in an instant.
Li Zhan was certain that if he had stayed in that room for a few more seconds, his flesh would have dissolved, possibly leaving nothing but bones. The city’s structures were becoming increasingly dangerous. Previously, they only trapped people like quicksand, posing little danger to someone of his ability. Now, they were actually digesting flesh directly.
His face darkened, and he clenched his fist tightly, striding around the corner to continue his relentless pursuit.
Qianye, who had already passed through the room, didn’t feel much. Only when he leapt out of the window did he sense a sticky force pulling him downward. But he was prepared, and each time he touched the ground, he did so with unusual strength, landing smoothly on another street.
Without pausing, Qianye sprinted forward, passing through several blocks in the fog before slowing down to find a place to rest.
But at that moment, two blood warrior soldiers emerged, one on each side.
Damn it! Qianye charged, sword in hand.
The battle ended in an instant. Both blood warriors were now corpses, sinking into the ground. Qianye, however, had a new wound, and two old injuries had reopened.
Leaning against a wall, Qianye gasped for breath, each exhalation feeling like a burst of fire. He reached into his pocket, finding no healing potions, but he did have two more origin grenades.
At that moment, Li Zhan’s figure appeared from the mist.
Qianye stood up silently. This time, he didn’t run. Instead, he advanced, bringing his heavy sword down in a straightforward, unadorned strike. Li Zhan sneered, blocking with his blade, and at the same time, his left hand reached out to grab Qianye’s chest.
The two sharp blades clashed, creating a chilling light. Qianye bellowed, his sword suddenly accelerating, and with tremendous force, he struck Li Zhan’s long knife dead center.
A resounding boom echoed, like an ancient bell. Blood streamed from Qianye’s right hand, and his sword was flung high. Li Zhan, pushed backward, stumbled, blood streaming from his ears and nose.
The force transmitted by the strike was terrifying. Li Zhan only stopped his retreat by leaning against a high wall. With a roar of anger, a massive serpent formed in the origin power behind him. However, just as the illusion took shape, his face turned pale, and he spat a mouthful of blood.
Li Zhan cursed the strange city in his heart.
He, too, was affected by the spatial restriction, but the ways in which humans and blood race powers operated were fundamentally different. Blood warriors could only suppress their bloodline power with blood shackles, so those vampire viscounts had to resist the spatial suppression with their own strength. Li Zhan, however, found that he could use the dawn origin power from the nodes without triggering the restrictions, as long as he didn’t activate the vortex.
Yet, even without using his warlord abilities, Li Zhan’s strength was at least equal to a third-tier blood viscount. He never expected to be forced back by a single strike in a direct confrontation.
Suppressing the surge of blood in his chest, Li Zhan was about to pursue when a strange whistling sound filled the air. Alarm bells rang in his head, and he saw a long sword flying towards him—the other sword Qianye had held earlier.
The sword flipped erratically in the air, its approach and sound eerie. Li Zhan didn’t want to intercept it directly and teleported to the side, escaping the sword’s range. But at that moment, two origin grenades, as if guided, rolled toward him along the ground.
“You madman!” Li Zhan cursed, curling up just in time to be thrown away by the explosion. He crashed into a wall, barely standing up, and saw only thick fog, no sign of Qianye.
“Madman, truly a madman!”
At that distance, Qianye himself was within the explosion radius. This was practically a half-suicidal act. Even if Qianye managed to escape again, he would undoubtedly pay a price.
Meanwhile, Qianye was already running down another street, holding onto an anchor-shaped sculpture, slowly regaining his breath. In fact, his condition was better than Li Zhan thought; his resilient blood race constitution had absorbed most of the explosion’s force.
Suddenly, Qianye heard a sound behind him, like the flow of fine sand. Turning, he saw a pair of carved double doors not far away.
The door creaked open, and a blood warrior stepped out.
Qianye’s pupils constricted. He stepped forward, raising his heavy sword high, and brought it down like lightning.
The blood warrior, though sluggish and somewhat stiff, lifted his sword in time to block Qianye’s attack.
However, Qianye’s sword, already immensely heavy, glowed with a light silver array, activating its heavy strike characteristic, slicing the blood warrior and his sword in two.
The blood warrior, split in half, slowly fell, but there was no flesh, only fine sand inside. The corpse dissolved into a pile of sand, quickly sinking into the street.
Qianye was stunned, then remembered the voice—kill the intruder and the guards. Was this a guard?
If they were only level seven or eight, they wouldn’t be too difficult to handle. But how many were there?
Something glittered in the spot where the sand had disappeared. Picking it up, Qianye found a crystal the size of a fingernail. Examining it, he tossed it into his pocket. This was the first time the city had left anything after devouring.
Just as Qianye was about to leave, he heard the familiar sound of sand. Turning, he saw another guard emerging from a long window. Qianye strode forward, sword swinging, and beheaded the half-climbed guard, gaining another crystal.
After picking up the crystal, Qianye’s pupils contracted. Within his sight, three guards appeared simultaneously! And noises came from the buildings on both sides of the street, indicating more guards.
Qianye sucked in a breath, but then gripped his sword with both hands, striding forward. Every guard that approached was met with a deadly strike.
In his dictionary, there was no word for giving up. He had survived the crisis of black blood contamination, and this was just another battle. A true warrior never gives up until the very end.
The once ordinary street now seemed endlessly long, and the guards seemed endless. Qianye lost count of his strikes, but the crystals in his pocket kept increasing. Each fallen guard added to the weight.
After what felt like an eternity, Qianye paused. In front of him, the long street finally changed, revealing a towering, temple-like structure.
It stood over a hundred meters tall, supported by twelve colossal pillars, each several meters thick. In front of such a grand building, a person felt as insignificant as an ant.
The Primordial Wings vibrated again, and the insight from the True Vision Eye was within.
Stepping over the threshold, Qianye found himself in a vast, breathtaking hall.
The walls and ceiling were covered with murals, depicting scenes of creation, battles between dark races and ancient beasts, and several wars among the dark races themselves. The murals depicted unknown monsters and dazzling skills, and if they could be copied, they would be invaluable historical records, filling in the gaps of the dark ages before the Millennium War.
But now was not the time. Qianye refocused and continued forward.
At the very end of the hall, thirteen coffins, reminiscent of ancient blood race resting places, were arranged.
Before the coffins was an altar, strewn with rare treasures and bones from various races. The display of wealth and remains created an eerie atmosphere.
On a stand in front of the altar lay a large, black book, its cover adorned with a dripping eye.
The sensation from the Primordial Wings was tangible—it was this mysterious, ancient tome.
Qianye hesitated for a moment, then placed his hand on the black cover. Pain shot through his palm, and blood immediately stained the cover, which the book absorbed entirely.
Countless black lights radiated from the book, like tentacles reaching out and enveloping Qianye.
Suddenly, Qianye lost control of his body, and all his senses faded.
In the next moment, he found himself floating in a void, the black book hovering before him. The heavy tome began to flip pages, and with each page, his mind was filled with content.
Finally, it reached the last page, and Qianye slowly opened his eyes.
He now knew what the book was.
One of the lost ancient texts of the dark races, the Book of Black: The First Chapter.
The Book of Black wasn’t a single book, but a set. This volume, the First Chapter, had vanished long before the Dawn War, leaving only a name in the memories of later generations. No one expected it to appear in Anduia’s ruins.
The First Chapter described the world’s origin system. Qianye saw the world’s birth, with boundless darkness exploding from the void, spreading at unimaginable speeds to vast distances.
This was the original darkness, the source of all dark origin power.
The world, originally, was dark.
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