Origin array explosions always involved a big ruckus, not to mention Anwen had drawn this one personally. It was a fairly brilliant product even in the entirety of the Evernight world. The outstanding genius was covered in dirt and a part of his brows had been singed.
Bai Kongzhao looked on with widened eyes, puzzled as to what had just transpired.
“It’s nothing. It has been some time since I used it, so I made some mistakes in the drawing,” Anwen said self-deprecatingly.
“You didn't draw wrong,” the girl replied with certainty. How could someone at Anwen’s level make mistakes in drawing arrays?
“Perhaps this array isn’t suitable for this place.” Anwen shook his head with a wry smile. “It’s almost night, let’s get ready to pass the night.”
The girl nodded and then lay down close to the stone wall. That position was safe, well-hidden, and great for spotting incoming enemies—the best choice for passing the night in the wilds.
It was just that Anwen felt a wave of pain upon seeing her choice. Sighing, he began drawing a new origin array. Halfway through the work, however, he suddenly fished out a dagger and began digging into the soil. The ground was made up of firm rocks, but it gave way like rotting soil in the face of Anwen’s blade. In the blink of an eye, the demonkin had dug over a meter into the ground and it was then that the blade struck empty air. He had actually dug his way into a secret chamber.
Anwen expanded the opening with his dagger and jumped down to explore the room.
The secret chamber was fairly dark and devoid of all light, but that wasn’t a problem for the demonkin. The room wasn’t big, but there were numerous storage shelves in the walls, lined with earthen jars.
There was also a mound of dirt at the center of the secret chamber and a sapling was growing from it. The secret chamber had existed for god knew how long and the insides had never seen the light of day. Perhaps because of that, the tree only had a few branches, but there were two leaves hanging at the very top—there was still vitality in them even after so many years.
Anwen couldn’t recognize what this sapling was but it definitely wasn’t ordinary considering how long it had survived in the secret chamber. As such, he dug into the earth with his dagger and placed both plant and earth-mound into his spatial storage. He then moved down one of the big earthen jars and stabbed the seal, releasing a dense, fishy alcohol scent into the air.
The demonkin broke into a frown. This scent wasn’t something just anyone could withstand. As someone who had always been fussy about cleanliness, there was no way he would’ve experienced something like this before. He quickly put the jar down and sealed it again. Anwen looked delighted despite the pungent assault on his nostrils. According to clan records, there was a type of native spirit with miraculous effects. It would seem he had found it, and judging from the state of the room, they were of significant age as well.
Anwen picked up another jar but found it empty. Frowning, he shook the jar around and then opened the mud seal to check before finally giving up. Perhaps due to a bad seal or insects, the contents had all but evaporated. Even the dregs stuck to the jar had already turned to stone and no longer possessed vitality-stimulating effects.
He tested all the jars one by one but most of them were empty. In the end, he managed to find a mere three and a half jars of wine, and this harvest was already quite satisfactory for Anwen. Stowing the jars in his spatial storage and carrying the last one in his hand, he jumped out of the secret chamber. “Look what I found!”
There was no reply.
Anwen was startled when he realized that it was already dark, and the temperature had fallen to freezing point. Bai Kongzhao was curled up near the wall and trembling incessantly, her face pale and her lips turning blue.
“I’m… cold…” The young girl’s voice was quite feeble.
Anwen’s expression shifted drastically as he sensed the gloomy chill of the frigid night. Although he had read about things related to the Great Vortex, none of the records had ever described such a degree of coldness. Their vitality was already stagnating so early in the night, almost comparable to the midnight condition stated in the clan records.
Anwen never paid too much attention to the frigid night because he could easily get through it with his constitution. As for the young girl, she would survive with his help.
Who would’ve thought the frigid night would be so much harsher than he had imagined? It was well over ten times stronger than stated in the records.
Anwen revised all related information in his head, hoping to find a suitable solution. There was still some leeway at this point—it wasn’t time to panic because only by grasping all information would he be able to find a suitable solution. A single mistake and there would be no salvaging the situation.
According to intelligence from the demonkin race, the frigid night would appear only after entering the depths of the Great Maelstrom, and the deeper one went, the stronger it would become. A certain thought flashed through Anwen’s mind—considering how strong the frigid night was, didn’t this mean the two of them were in the extreme depths of the Maelstrom?
At the thought of this, Anwen’s relaxed and frivolous attitude completely disappeared, replaced by due seriousness. According to the information at his command, there were numerous sources of danger he would have to be cautious about after reaching the borders of demonkin-explored land. The place they were in had to be even more dangerous, and a single mistake would cost the young lord his life.
Just as he was lost in thought, Anwen felt his hand lighten. The girl had snatched the jar of wine, unsealed it, and was pouring the contents down her throat. She was like an endless pit despite her small frame, emptying the entire container in the blink of an eye. Even Anwen didn’t have the time to stop her.
“Wait! You can’t drink that, it’ll make you…”
Anwen hadn’t finished speaking when the wine was all gone. The girl said with a satisfied look, “Now that feels good, I’m no longer cold.”
“Just now, you…”
“It was so cold that I thought I was about to die. After seeing that thing in your hand, I felt that I would heat up after drinking it, so I did.” The girl spoke naturally.
Anwen opened his mouth but couldn’t find any words to rebuke her. After interacting with the girl for a good while, Anwen knew that she survived based on instincts, much like a wild beast roaming the heaven and earth. Her survival-instincts would kick in whenever she encountered a life-threatening situation—the frigid night for instance. In her current state, the girl would do anything just to survive.
Feeling pained at heart, Anwen sighed. “I’m not blaming you for snatching the wine, but this type of alcohol… you can’t drink it just like that. I need to process and remove some unnecessary components from it before it’s safe to drink. But now you… sigh, don’t blame me for whatever happens later.”
Anwen sighed regretfully while saying this—obtaining the girl in such a manner was no different from a cow chewing on peony. It would all but destroy his mood.
“What will happen?” The girl’s puzzled face slowly turned red. She staggered briefly before collapsing to the ground, clearly drunk.
A startled Anwen sat down beside her to wait for that moment.
Moments later, Bai Kongzhao started snoring softly, like a small panther in deep sleep. She slept just like that, without the slightest of motion, up until dawn arrived.
…
At this moment, a great battle was raging in the Eastern Sea.
Imperial airship wrecks dotted the landscape outside of Tidehark. The war camp constructed by the arachne was in flames—their soldier corpses were strewn across the city and servspiders burned down in large swathes.
Just by looking at this warzone, one could easily tell that the empire had claimed absolute victory. Originally, the Evernight alliance forces held some advantage over the attackers, even after the demonkin’s departure and the vampires’ retreat. Only the arachne were unwilling to leave—their commander wasn’t impressed by the so-called future god-strategist of the empire and was adamant about fighting it out with him.
In actual battle, however, the arachne fleet was never able to unravel Song Zining’s diversion tactics. The man would appear here and there, harassing the enemy until they were suffering from unspeakable misery. Countless times, they would charge over only to find a small decoy force. The entire day went by, and the arachne fleet managed to devour numerous small imperial squads, but they never found Song Zining’s primary fleet.
Just as the exhausted arachne fleet was preparing to return, the main imperial fleet suddenly appeared.
The result of this airship battle was decided the moment the vampire warships suddenly broke off and left the battlefield. The well-rested imperial fleet utterly defeated the arachne forces, turning the battle into a one-sided massacre. Finally, the battle ended with all the top-arachne experts fleeing on a powerful high-speed warship. All the damaged warships and ground forces were left as expendables.
A steady stream of Imperial transports started landing on the battlefield, releasing mercenaries to scour the battlefield. Warships stood guard in each direction, watching for every possible enemy movement.
The experts from each and every party arrived at Song Zining’s flagship to congratulate him. This fleet battle was fairly sizable among the recent battles, and it also carried great significance as it involved the control of the Great Maelstrom. Song Zining had revealed extremely high standards in airship command and would likely be placed in charge of a squadron in no time.
The nobility was different from the Empire. Few aristocratic families could maintain their own airship fleet due to the steep costs involved, and even then, the forces were fairly small. The greater warship fleets were all under the control of the Empire, the army, and the Imperial clan. It was also the most important tool for the imperial army to restrain the nobles.
Fleet battles were different from ground combat in that experts below the champion realm made little difference in the fighting. Due to the unique nature of aerial battles, a commander would require many years of training before obtaining the qualifications to conduct one.
Now that Song Zining had displayed such a talent at a young age, all those old fellows with sharp noses realized what would happen. The aristocracy found, in him, the best opening to influence the imperial fleets. Meanwhile, the Imperial clan felt that they could win him over, mainly due to his complicated background and connection to Empress Li.
Hence, people from all parties had arrived to sound Song Zining out even before the battle had concluded. Some came to improve their ties with him, while others wanted to toady up to him in advance.
However, the complete victory didn’t quite delight the seventh young master. On the contrary, he looked worried, and it was as though he was just forcing out a smile.