Monarch of Evernight (Web Novel)
chapter-285

[Volume 4 – Perpetual Conflict]

Zhao Jundu shook his head and said, “I’ll pass. These are troubled times. The dark races are maneuvering troops on a large scale, while the rebel army is becoming restless after getting their hands on a large number of weapons from an unknown source.”

Zhao Junhong shrugged. “Fine, those are indeed major developments. Heh, heh… you’re the one becoming clan lord in the future, so who else can these burdens fall to? Fighting on the front lines will only take a week or so. Can’t you even make time for that?”

Zhao Jundu revealed a helpless smile. “Father is in the army all year round and doesn’t like to handle these trivial affairs. You, Third Brother, and Eldest Brother aren’t willing to work on administrative duties either. So, who else will do all of this if not me? These matters, regardless of importance, can’t be left to outsiders. One has to know that the other two branches are eyeing this position! Someone has to work hard if we want to keep the clan master position within the Duke Chengen lineage.”

Zhao Junhong raised his hands and laughed. “Say no more, I get it. In any case, I don’t plan to join administrative duties before I break through to champion rank.”

Zhao Jundu only shook his head.

Among the three brothers, the eldest and third’s temperaments were completely unsuited for administrative work. Zhao Junhong, on the other hand, possessed moderate talent in this aspect. However, he was fascinated by martial arts all year round and would join the battlefield at the first chance. He simply couldn’t set his mind on common duties.

Zhao Junhong casually picked up a provincial report and flipped through it. He then said with some surprise, “Lone Ghost’s regional headquarters in serenity was burnt to the ground? Who is it that left Elder He with no face at all?”

Zhao Junhong was quite keen regarding the movements within the clan even though he refused to take part in them.

Elder He, from the Duke You lineage, was someone who usually campaigned quite actively against Zhao Weihuang’s administration. Most of the affairs under his administration were grey matters. An organization like Lone Ghost, which couldn’t appear in public eyes, was inevitably linked to him in countless ways. Losing any number of people while fighting wasn’t considered a big deal, but having one’s foundation razed to the ground would definitely result in great animosity.

Zhao Jundu said without much interest, “I heard Lone Ghost messed up a certain transaction point and was destroyed in retaliation.”

After hearing this, Zhao Junhong felt that the incident had little to do with his clan and thus tossed the folder to one side. He was just about to leave when he suddenly recalled something and said, “Oh right, Fourth Brother, when do you plan to break through to champion rank?”

Zhao Jundu continued working through his documents and said without even looking up, “I’ll decide after consolidating my foundations. There’s no particular hurry.”

“I’m having a hard time restraining the urge to rank up.” Zhao Junhong sighed.

Zhao Jundu put down his pen and said seriously, “Your foundations are still not solid enough. You won’t get very far even if you break through to champion rank in this state, so why the rush?”

“Sigh, I still have a rematch with that fellow. It’s almost been half a year now.”

After hearing this, Zhao Jundu’s expression didn’t change but a cold gleam suddenly flashed through the depths of his eyes.

Zhao Junhong suddenly became vigilant and said, “Fourth Brother! Don’t touch him.”

Zhao Jundu’s character was extremely protective. There were some people within their community who had mocked Zhao Junhong’s defeat back during the Profound Heaven Spring Hunt.

Zhao Junhong, at this point, recalled that Zhao Jundu seemed to have sent people to search for Qian Xiaoye back then, but the person had already left the Yin family. Later on, Evernight Continent was engulfed in a total war and the situation on the other continents was also quite tense. The matter was thus dropped, and he no longer paid it any more attention.

Zhao Jundu smiled while shaking his head. “Since Second Brother has said so, this little brother naturally must obey.”

After Zhao Junhong left, Zhao Jundu’s eyes fell upon a certain grey portfolio buried under the pile of documents. With the flames of war rising all across Evernight Continent, a tiny hunter was no different from a needle in a haystack. That was why he had dispatched people to keep an eye on the seventh young master of the Song clan.

Although he hadn’t obtained any solid leads, he believed that person should have been in touch with Song Zining all this time. However, Song Seven was in a fair bit of trouble himself and the internal affairs of the Song clan weren’t that easy to pry into. Zhao Jundu didn’t want to reveal this news to his second brother at the time.

After leaving the trading company, Qianye took a leisurely stroll around the city since he was in no hurry to return to the hotel. He arrived before a courtyard with a hint of ancient elegance to it and looked up to find a horizontal board inscribed with the characters, “West Suppression Dojo”.

The calligraphy wasn’t bad, but the words West Suppression were rather grandiose and felt somewhat comical placed atop a small dojo.

Fortunately, Qianye wasn’t here to trouble them, but rather to seek a cultivation chamber. Although any quiet location would suffice for cultivation, a specialized chamber capable of applying medicinal supplements was still the first choice for increased cultivation speed.

The empire was founded upon battle, and thus within its borders, there were all sorts of armament stores, armories, and even dojos. In addition to accepting disciples, teaching them combat skills, and accepting certain violent missions, renting cultivation chambers was also a primary service offered at a dojo.

Qianye entered the dojo and said to the disciple in charge of receiving customers, “I want to rent a top-grade cultivation chamber for 20 hours.”

The disciple wore a well-trained smile and replied with respect, “One gold coin for every three hours.”

Qianye couldn’t help but sigh at the price—Zhao clan domains were indeed wealthy—even the prices in such a small border city was ten times higher than on Evernight Continent.

But after being brought to the place, Qianye discovered that this so-called top-grade cultivation chamber was actually hundreds of square meters wide and came equipped with all the necessary facilities. There were medium-sized law arrays for origin power condensation on the walls, not just ordinary arrays. This in and of itself was a big investment.

Afterwards, a female disciple with delicate facial features appeared carrying a censer of origin construction incense to aid with cultivation. After seeing all of this, Qianye felt that the money spent could be considered worth it, albeit barely.

Qianye sat down cross-legged without any delay right after the door to the cultivation chamber was pushed close along the steam rail. First, he circulated the Combatant Formula—his constitution had taken a step forward after the successful advancement of the dark golden energy. Once again, an increasingly strengthening blood energy barrier emerged to protect his internal organs, allowing his cultivation of the Combatant Formula to forge head with great ferocity and finally reach a shocking 45 tides.

During the later parts of the Combatant Formula, the more powerful the origin tides that were brought about, the more rapid the increase in origin power growth. Beyond the 30th, every increase of origin power tide would increase cultivation speed by ten percent. After the 40th, each tide would increase cultivation speed by twenty percent. This also meant that Qianye’s actual daybreak origin power cultivation speed was now twice as fast compared to when he was at 40 tides.

At this rate, he would be able to ignite his ninth origin node within a month and would only be one step away from becoming a champion. At that time, he would need to purify his origin power and consolidate his foundations while searching for the perfect opportunity to break through.

After the Combatant Formula tides gradually calmed down, Qianye activated his True Sight to confirm a certain suspicion.

Under the effects of the eye ability, he could see that the air was still pervaded by darkness origin power, while the origin law arrays would spray out a mist of daybreak origin power. It was relatively sparse and was soon neutralized by the darkness origin power.

But compared to the outside world, the chamber was indeed a better cultivation environment.

Strands of white daybreak origin power were flowing out of the incense burner in the corner. The Origin Construction Incense actually helped cultivation by increasing the density of daybreak origin power. From this, it seemed that the incense burning within the censer was one of high quality. This West Suppression Dojo could be considered quite conscientious in its business.

After the qi vortex was formed, the daybreak origin power in Qianye’s body suddenly reacted to the darkness origin power outside. Suddenly, the originally formless darkness origin power around him seemed to have gained weight, making Qianye feel as if he was at the bottom of the ocean—his every movement would stir the seawater and become incomparably sluggish.

The ocean formed from darkness origin power was much denser than ordinary seawater. Even punching and kicking felt fairly exhausting to Qianye despite the fact that his strength was comparable to a vampire viscount. The more intense his daybreak qi vortex grew, the stronger the pressure exerted by the surrounding ocean of darkness.

After accumulating almost all of his daybreak origin power, he utilized at least eight parts of his strength to gradually perform a punch. Every time the striking edge of his fist pushed through, the ocean of darkness within a meter of his body would tremble slightly, and a fine strand of darkness origin power would leap out to wrap around it.

The current fist didn’t just carry his own formidable power but also drew upon the origin power in the surrounding air.

Qianye’s fist struck toward a steel dummy near the wall. The dummy, made of crude steel and covered in a thick layer of rubber, was provided for warriors to practice their martial arts.

The strand of origin power urged on by Qianye’s fist had impacted the steel dummy before his hand actually came in contact with the target. The target area immediately caved in like a giant wave crashing onto the shore!

Qianye’s instinctively withdrew his strength, but the fist attack was like a boat amidst the waves and couldn’t be easily controlled.

A clack rang out from the steel dummy—suddenly, it collapsed as if it were trampled by a giant beast and transformed into a piece of sheet metal. Its edges curled up as it was pierced through in the air.

The remnant force behind the attack didn’t stop there and slammed into the wall behind the dummy. A crack rapidly traversed the entire wall, and with a boom, the sturdy wall collapsed into a pile of rocks right in front of Qianye.

The dojo absolutely didn’t skimp on materials while building this cultivation chamber and had offered their services to many a high-ranking fighter. Yet, it couldn’t withstand a single blow from Qinaye’s fist.

The fundamental principle behind the secret combat arts of the aristocratic families was to utilize the origin power within one’s body to attack. Some high-grade combat arts, however, were able to draw upon the origin power in the environment and were thus much more powerful than ordinary ones. As such, most of them required one to be at the champion level to cultivate them successfully.

Condensing qi into a vortex and drawing upon the origin power of the heaven and earth. This was a champion-level ability and also the main reason why a fighter and champion were worlds apart.

Qianye being able to execute a champion-level method despite not knowing any special combat art or igniting all of his origin nodes had to be attributed to the mass of pure daybreak origin power.