Stepping through the grand entrance, a deep and wide corridor welcomed him, with meeting rooms and waiting areas on either side. These spaces were immaculate and well-organized, evidently cleaned by dedicated staff daily. Though nothing seemed out of the ordinary, Qian Ye meticulously searched every nook and cranny. After all, this was the flagship of Vice Duke Lin Jiaer, a prominent figure of the demonkin nobility. Even the items she carelessly tossed aside could fetch a handsome price.
In the end, Qian Ye discovered some unfinished documents in the meeting room. These contained mostly current affairs of the Evernight realm, recent activities of the Maysfield family, and details of Lin Jiaer’s personal holdings and military deployment plans.
These documents would be invaluable for those wishing to understand the demonkin, especially the Maysfield family. They would certainly pique the interest of the Imperial military and scholars, but their value was limited. At least, with Qian Ye’s current level of expertise, he couldn’t discern any hidden secrets within them.
Qian Ye gathered these documents, placing them in a box, ready to move them out after his exploration was complete.
At the end of the corridor lay another massive, gray door with hints of dark green. The intricate carvings were deeply etched, making it look both opulent and imposing. The door was tightly shut. Qian Ye tried pushing it, but it didn’t budge. He then struck it with a powerful punch, causing the entire chamber to shake, yet the door remained unmoved. Unlike the previous doors, the walls and frame only deformed slightly, making bypassing them as difficult as breaking down the door itself.
After that punch, Qian Ye realized the door was at least half a meter thick. Such a colossal door would require mechanical assistance to operate, but with the ship’s power lost, the door was locked in place, its mechanisms useless. Even if Lin Jiaer herself were here, she’d have to force it open.
Qian Ye thought for a moment and knew brute force was his only option. He stepped back, summoning Dongyue into his hand. This was the first time he had used it since entering the ship.
Taking a deep breath, Qian Ye entered the Boiling Blood state, his Burning Gold blood surging through his body, flames flaring everywhere, and boundless power erupting from within. In that moment, he seemed to embody an ancient pureblood vampire. With both hands on his sword, he let out a mighty roar, and with a single slash, the door gave way, the entire ship quaking.
The edge of the broken door revealed a deep gray with a tinge of dark green, emitting a faint, ghostly glow. The door was almost entirely made of magic iron, whose value rivaled Song Zining’s chest of alloys.
The door had been bisected, revealing four thick alloy columns arranged in a cross, securing it shut. If not for the forceful cleave, Qian Ye would have had to demolish the surrounding walls to get in. Curious about the material, he gripped a fragment and applied force, managing only to slightly deform it.
Shocked, Qian Ye realized he had used his full strength outside of the Boiling Blood state, enough to crumple half a meter of steel like putty. Yet, this fragment merely bent slightly. By this measure, even with Dongyue, it would take over ten strikes to cut through the door. Now, it took just one.
Not in a rush to enter, Qian Ye pondered, as everything in Lin Jiaer’s quarters was now his. The door, however, warranted further study.
He recalled the slash, deep in thought. Reaching out, he grasped the fragment again, this time igniting his hands with Dark Gold, blood-red flames. The magic iron’s green-gray aura and Qian Ye’s blood flames touched, instantly igniting in a blaze, spitting faint gray fire, clashing fiercely, annihilating each other.
The demonic aura was clearly inferior to Qian Ye’s Dark Gold blood, quickly dissolving like snow in the sun, requiring ten parts of it to neutralize one part of Qian Ye’s blood.
With eight-tenths of his strength, Qian Ye bent the magic iron.
Releasing the fragment, Qian Ye fell into deeper thought.
This was the first direct confrontation between his Dark Gold blood and demonic aura, and the result was startling. They were like mortal enemies, clashing fiercely with no possibility of coexistence. Their opposing natures suggested a yin-yang relationship, with neither clearly superior. While Qian Ye’s Dark Gold blood seemed to have the upper hand, the quality of the demonic aura in the magic iron, even at its best, was limited, topping out at the marquise level. No duke would be reduced to mass-producing magic iron.
Against a foe like a sorceress, the outcome might be different.
Before mastering the Dark Gold blood, Qian Ye had clashed with demonkin using Dawn Origin power, as his blood energy and demonic power, being of the same Evernight essence, negated each other. Using Dawn Origin, which had a synergistic effect against demonic power, proved more effective.
With the Dark Gold blood and Bloodline River inheritance, Qian Ye fought the demonkin, particularly Eaden, using Dawnbreak. As the pinnacle of Dawn Origin, it was almost like poison to demonkin. Eaden nearly perished from one strike.
Now, it seemed the Dark Gold blood was similarly potent. This suggested an intriguing relationship between ancient pureblood vampires and demonkin.
Their opposing nature naturally divided them into camps, like humans who mainly practiced Dawn Origin, standing against the Evernight world.
As he mused, Qian Ye casually molded the fragment into a ball. Seeing the lost magic iron, he regretted it. Without its demonic aura, it was just ordinary iron. The ball, though small, represented a loss of tens of thousands of gold coins.
Tossing the ball aside, Qian Ye entered Lin Jiaer’s core living area.
Beyond the iron door lay a small library, filled with rare tomes. A stack of books, one still open, indicated that Lin Jiaer was reading when the conflict began, unable to close her book.
Circling the library, he moved to her study, also her private office. Planning to survey everything, he continued to the private armory, collection room, and living quarters.
The armory and collection room were of little interest; the items, though valuable, paled in comparison to what he had seen in the Zhao and Song clans’ vaults. But entering the bedroom, Qian Ye froze, his expression turning strange.
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