Chapter 698: Awakening
[V7C015 – In Life and In Eternal Rest]
Moments later, Song Zining stood before Zhao Jundu with an exhausted face.
Zhao Jundu’s gaze was like a sharp blade stabbing into Song Zining’s eyes, and it wasn’t very friendly.
Song Zining waved the black box in his hand and said, “This thing is extremely important, any delay might produce a lot of variables. Does the fourth young noble really want to waste time here?”
Zhao Jundu didn’t move aside immediately. “It’s rare to see the seventh young noble so tired. Isn’t your Three Thousand Flying Leaves Art known to be even comparable to the Art of Heaven’s Mystery? How did such an oversight happen?”
Song Zining smiled wryly. “The heaven’s will is difficult to gauge, how can anyone grasp it completely? Even Marshal Lin himself makes mistakes sometimes, not to mention a small fry like me.”
Zhao Jundu’s eyes fell on the box in Song Zining’s hand. “What is this thing?”
Song Zining replied, “With the fourth young noble’s current status, it’s best you do not know. You only need to know that I definitely won’t harm my brother, Qianye.”
Zhao Jundu stood aside to make way, saying, “Yuying’s inside right now.”
Song Zining nodded and entered.
As he was passing by, Zhao Jundu suddenly said, “A friend of mine died due to your carelessness.”
Song Zining sighed lightly. “I’ll definitely get to the bottom of this matter afterward.”
Zhao Jundu said nothing else. He didn’t look back, either, and merely allowed Song Zining to enter the hall beyond.
Within a lofty side-hall, Qianye was lying atop a jade platform. He looked fairly peaceful with his hands in front of his chest, almost as though he was in a deep slumber. Only those at the level of Song Zining and Zhao Yuying could sense the flow of vitality in Qianye’s body—it was extremely weak and would only pulse once in a long while.
Zhao Yuying was seated beside the platform, her eyes deep and serene. No one knew exactly what she was thinking. Only Song Zining’s arrival breathed some life and hope into her expression.
The seventh young master arrived in front of the platform. There, he removed Qianye’s hands and unbuttoned his shirt, baring his chest underneath. He ran his fingers over Qianye’s thorax and sighed. “I remember he had a frightening scar here during our days at Yellow Springs, yet now it’s completely gone. Sigh, it has been so many years but the training grounds feel just like yesterday. We’ve all grown up in the blink of an eye.”
Zhao Yuying didn’t say anything. She watched as Song Zining opened the wooden box and produce a blood-red crystal the size of a fist. He kept the crystal suspended with an origin power vacuum, not daring to touch it at all.
There was a wisp of purplish-black blood energy at its center swimming about like a live creature.
Song Zining held his breath as he kept the crystal above Qianye’s chest and slowly made to put it down.
“Wait a minute!” Zhao Yuying called out to him all of a sudden.
“What is this?” she inquired with an expression full of trepidation. The pressure from this seemingly sentient crystal made her reluctant to approach it. Yet, Song Zining was about to put it on Qianye’s body?
“Ancient origin blood, the core of an ancient blood pond,” Song Zining replied calmly.
“Ancient origin blood?” Zhao Yuying wasn’t as calm as the other fellow. “Ancient origin bloods have their own consciousness. How can Qianye suppress its will in his current state? Won’t he turn into a monster if you give him such a thing!?”
“I believe in Qianye.”
“Believe?! It’s hard to tell if he even believes in himself! Song Seven, you aren’t joking, are you?”
“There’s no other way, is there?” Sighing lightly, Song Zining removed his origin power and allowed the blood-red crystal to fall upon Qianye’s chest.
“But…” Zhao Yuying wanted to stop the man, but she was wracked with hesitation.
It was just as Song Zining had said, there was no solution to Qianye’s current condition. Even Zhao Xuanji could only sigh after checking on him. Perhaps a heavenly monarch level character might have some way to save him, but with Qianye’s special situation, how would they dare show him to one?”
The ancient origin blood had already fallen onto Qianye’s chest while she was hesitating. It softened up immediately upon contact and produced numerous tentacles, all of which piercing into his body. The ancient origin blood actually unleashed a bestial roar, almost as though it had tasted just how delectable the flesh and blood was. It then transformed into dozens of sanguineous threads that drilled into Qianye’s body in the blink of an eye.
A shocked Zhao Yuying subconsciously reached out to grab it but was one step too late. The mass of ancient origin blood had vanished into Qianye’s body, leaving naught but a few red spots on his skin.
“This…” Zhao Yuying had no idea what to do. Song Zining hadn’t expected the ancient blood to be so terrifying, either, and his face was ashen. Nonetheless, the origin blood had already entered Qianye’s body and would soon attack his blood core. At this moment, there was nothing they could do but wait for the results.
Qianye seemed to be in pain as his entire body shook violently. Within his body, dozens of sanguineous threads had nailed themselves into his blood core and were looking to make their way inside. Even though the core was studded with countless crystalline fragments, the threads kept pushing in little by little.
Song Zining’s expression grew increasingly tense. It was at this moment that a bleak, ancient aura appeared in the chamber, causing the duo to feel as though they were on a desolate continent that was devoid of all life. The image of a thick, black book materialized above Qianye, and a faint cry of a dying ancient beast echoed through the void the moment this tome appeared.
After the anguished wail trailed off, the image of that old black book also dispersed and Qianye’s pained expression regained its previous calm.
“What was that?” Zhao Yuying asked with cold sweat hanging from the tip of her nose. The aura from that book caused her to palpitate even more than the ancient origin blood.
Song Zining shook his head. “How should I know? Apparently, it’s not a bad thing. It must be one of Qianye’s secrets.”
Qianye’s expression was now calm. Moments later, a thunderous beat of a drum reverberated through the side hall, and Qianye’s chest heaved wildly as he slowly opened his eyes.
“You’re awake!” Zhao Yuying cried out in joy and threw herself onto Qianye, squeezing and kneading him from head to toe. “Now tell this mommy, do you feel unwell anywhere? Ah, right, are you hungry?”
Qianye extricated himself from Zhao Yuying’s grasp and clambered up with great difficulty. He glanced vacantly at his surroundings and said, “Where is this? Is the battle over?”
“It was over long ago! You’ve been unconscious for nearly one month!” Zhao Yuying glared at Qianye and said furiously, “You, why would you need to risk your life like that?”
Qianye composed himself and slowly recalled the battle that day. He said after seeing no one else in the chamber, “It’s not completely intentional. It’s just that I’m different from you guys, I might not necessarily die if I take the Demoness’ attack, but Jundu would’ve perished without a doubt.”
“You call this not necessarily dead?” Zhao Yuying wanted to say something, but her words turned into a sigh toward the end. Qianye’s vampiric constitution made his body much stronger than that of an ordinary person. Despite her higher origin power cultivation, even Zhao Yuying was far below him in terms of physical tenacity. Zhao Jundu couldn’t compare with Qianye, either, if he were to discard the power of the Omniscient Seal.
A muffled drumbeat echoed through the room yet again, almost causing the entire side hall to tremble.
Song Zining shot him a glance. “Can’t keep the ancient origin blood in check?”
Qianye shook his head. “No, the consciousness of the origin blood has been wiped away, but I need to adapt to this newfound power. Wait… did you say ancient origin blood? Where did you get one?”
Qianye had inherited much knowledge from the River of Blood and knew that the ancient origin blood was the core of an ancient blood pond. There were two ways to obtain this precious blood. One was to take it from the River of Blood—this was an extremely difficult endeavor even before the river disappeared. Today, perhaps only a handful of the most powerful clans like the Perth and Monroe possessed such a blood pond. The other method was to use a bit of ancient origin blood as the primer and have a high-ranking vampire extract his own origin blood into the pond. Then, after many years of integration and purification, it would gradually evolve to become ancient origin blood. The cores of most ancient blood ponds today were made in such a manner.
Regardless of the method, ancient origin blood was the most precious treasure of the vampire race. It was absolutely priceless. Why then did Song Zining have ancient origin blood in his hands?
Qianye sensed his blood core once more. At this moment, he had completely absorbed the ancient origin blood that had its consciousness wiped out by the Book of Darkness. The crystalline bodies in the blood core had grown to the size of a finger. The entire blood core had now become a framework of flesh and crystals, and the power within it had risen by an order of magnitude. That lingering ancient aura proved that the blood he had absorbed just now was indeed ancient origin blood.
Song Zining’s expression was somewhat odd. “This matter is very complicated, I’ll tell you in detail after a while. You should check on your body first.”
Qianye glanced suspiciously at Song Zining before lying back down on the jade platform. After the absorption of the ancient origin blood, the transformation of his blood core would also induce a corresponding physical upgrade. Qianye indeed required some time to reforge his body anew.
As Qianye activated his blood core, streams of auric flame blood poured out from the blood core and rushed to every corner of his body. Wherever it passed, his muscles and bones would begin to grow madly while the old tissue died out in large patches. Qianye’s entire body seemed to be undergoing a complete transformation from head to toe.
At this moment, strands of dark golden blood energy seeped out around Qianye and his skin was wiggling continuously, almost as though countless insects were crawling beneath it. His eyes were shut, his brows were locked together, and his teeth were clenched tight—apparently, he was in extreme pain. Yet, his aura was climbing constantly and becoming more and more intimidating.
Zhao Yuying stared blankly at the blood suffused Qianye with complicated emotions. She had beheaded countless vampires throughout her life, and it had already become a reflex to attack on sight. Yet now, her brother was before her, surrounded by a blood energy of unprecedented terror. Although she already knew this as a fact, Zhao Yuying was still overcome by a feeling of disillusionment. It was as though the only reality she had ever known was shattered completely.
Song Zining shot a glance at Zhao Yuying and said firmly, “Qianye is a human at heart, this has never changed before!”
Zhao Yuying forced a nod and suppressed those feelings.
One day and night passed by as the setting sun rose once more. When Qianye woke up a second time, he was no different from a normal person, only his eyes had grown more abstruse. He duly circulated Bloodline Concealment, sweeping away all the blood energy around his body and storing them into his blood core. Now, no one could find even a vampire shadow around him.
Qianye stood up and said while flexing his body, “Sis, tell me what happened during this period.”