The giant whale moved its body slightly, stirring up massive waves as it lowered itself into the water. It said while huffing and puffing, “I can’t, I need to rest. I’ve been floating for too long.”

Qianye felt helpless as he gazed at the hurricanes forming between the sea and sky. “Your Elderly Grace, please pant slowly…”

“Can’t help it, I’m panting at the slightest movement these days.”

The creature seemed to feel more comfortable as its massive body slowly entered the water. “That’s strange, I can usually sense a whole lot of divination experts searching for me whenever I turn in my sleep. Why are they so silent today?”

“The Divination Pavilion might be a bit short-handed at the moment.”

“Short-handed? They claim to have ninety-nine masters inside and hundreds of reserve candidates waiting to enter. The spares need only three to five years of training to become qualified diviners.”

Qianye laughed. “That’s quite unfortunate, then. I had planned to take out some hateful divination experts a couple of days ago, but unexpectedly, there were quite a few of them trying to scheme against me. I didn’t hold back enough and ended up killing over half of their numbers. I don’t think they have time to scry you at the moment.”

The void whale was delighted. “That’s good news! These diviners are really quite irksome. I didn’t want to kill them out of consideration for Xuansi, but these bastards just wouldn’t give up even after several hundred years. You could even say they got bolder! Do they think I have no way to deal with them? I just couldn’t be bothered, else I can drown several just by spitting at them.”

Qianye was speechless as he gazed at the whale’s thousand-meter mouth. A mouthful of its spit would drown ten thousand people.

The conversation was coming to a close at this point. Qianye said after some thought, “I’ll say it first. I might’ve accepted that item, but that doesn’t mean I’ll help the human race. If you think that’s inappropriate, I’ll return it to you now.”

“No need! Just do what you think is right, even if that’s to destroy humanity. That brat Xuansi wanted you to follow your heart.”

“Why me?”

“Well, I like you. That’s all.”

Qianye said, “The Empire has stood for a thousand years and produced countless geniuses. We don’t need to look too far, my adoptive father and Prince Greensun are probably better candidates, no?”

“Being better or not isn’t the issue here, I need to like that person. Let me tell you, one of Xuansi’s descendants came to the Eastern Sea a while ago. He wanted to see if he can find that item I just gave you. He could’ve done a thousand other things, but he just had to fish! I’ve been hiding here in this tiny space, enduring the pain of hunger for hundreds of years. Yet he’s here fishing on my turf! Is he trying to starve me to death? Humph, how dare he rob food from the whale’s mouth?! I would’ve blown him ten thousand kilometers away if it weren’t for Xuansi.”

Qianye didn’t know who was so bold as to fish in the Eastern Sea. After listening to the void whale’s words, he now had a general understanding of what had happened to the experts who had vanished over the Eastern Sea.

There was no use overthinking about this.

After confirming that neither the void whale nor the Martial Ancestor had any demands, Qianye put away the item.

The void whale slowly sank into the depths of the sea and went back to sleep. Qianye, on the other hand, had some old scores to settle.

He flew high up into the sky and stood there with his hands behind his back. “Zhang Buzhou, come out and meet me.”

His voice wasn’t all that resounding, but it somehow spread to every corner of the Eastern Sea.

However, there was no response.

Qianye raised his voice once again. “Zhang Buzhou.”

This time, half of the neutral lands heard Qianye’s voice. Countless experts stopped whatever they were doing and looked up at the sky, trembling uncontrollably. They could sense a bit of the speaker’s aura, and that was enough to make them go limp. They simply couldn’t muster up the notion to resist.

The only thought in their mind was, “Who is this person? How can there be someone so powerful?”

Qianye waited for a while. Seeing as there was no response, he said with a sneer, “Get over here!”

His voice covered the entirety of the neutral lands. Ordinary people couldn’t hear his call, but those with cultivation above the champion level could do so. Those powerful marquises and champions were sent into a daze, almost as though a peal of thunder had erupted right next to their ears. The handful of dukes present in the area collapsed to the ground, injured by the voice.

The void not too far from Qianye began to stir as a majestic mansion appeared vaguely in the air. The doors flung open and a fierce-looking man in his middle-ages walked out. “Why would you force people so?”

Qianye stood there with his hands behind his back. “Zhang Buzhou, did you think I wouldn’t find you? Or did you think I have no way to deal with you?”

A hint of terror flashed in Zhang Buzhou’s eyes as he bowed with cupped hands. “So it’s Lord Qianye. I’ve been focused on cultivation, hoping to break through to the heavenly monarch realm and become a guardian of the neutral lands. I hope you will forgive my slipup.”

Qianye sized the man up. “You’ve indeed put in a lot of effort, you even prepared a speech that would move me. There’s one thing, though, that you didn’t understand.”

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Zhang Buzhou seemed restless. “What do I not understand, please instruct me.”

Qianye gazed into the distance. “My adoptive father brought me out of the dumpster and laid out a path for me. I had a father, brothers, and sisters to protect me. If I die today, I die without regrets. It’s only because of certain sentiments that I give way to the Empire at times. It’s not for the Empire but for humanity, and for the people I care about.”

Qianye turned back to Zhang Buzhou and said coldly, “Who do you think you are to use humanity as an excuse? Cultivating, huh? You never fought for the human race even at such a juncture, what’s the point of keeping you alive?”

Zhang Buzhou pulled back rapidly, crying, “I’m about to reach ascension! You can’t touch me. It’s for the human race!”

He turned around the next moment and saw Qianye standing right behind him!

Scared out of his wits, the man glanced left and right only to find that the scenery hadn’t changed. Apparently, he hadn’t moved at all after all that flying.

Zhang Buzhou gazed at the black intent in Qianye’s left hand as a look of utter horror unraveled on his countenance.

“W-What is that?!” Zhang Buzhou discovered that he was drifting toward that darkness. No matter how hard he struggled or what secret art he used, there was no way to resist the gravitational force. The closer he was, the greater the force became and the faster he moved.

“Spare me! I’m still useful to the human race!” Zhang Buzhou cried hysterically.

“Someone like you will bring more harm than benefits.”

“No, you can’t touch me! I have a secret agreement with the Imperial Clan. If you kill me, it will ruin the human race’s plans. You will become a sinner!” Zhang Buzhou cried out.

Qianye smiled. “Rest in peace, leave it to me to worry about whatever the important plan is.”

“No!!!”

Amidst miserable screams, Zhang Buzhou’s figure grew longer and longer as he was dragged into the black intent. He tried to execute all kinds of secret arts, but even the radiance from those abilities couldn’t escape the pull of the darkness. Everything was devoured.

The only thing that happened was a ring of light appearing around the darkness. No one could tell that the number one expert of the neutral lands, the man who was just one step away from the heavenly monarch realm, had just fallen here.

Qianye closed his palm and put away the dark intent. He gazed into the distance, toward the Throne of Blood.

At this moment, the legendary vampire on the throne was busy throwing clothes into a case. His entire abode was in a state of utter mess.

It was at this moment that he heard Qianye’s gentle voice. “Packing already?”

His body froze.