Chapter 1317: Persuasion
The Genesis Continent held a mysterious attraction for the vampire race. The landmass was in the shape of a circle, the center of which was occupied by a boundless sea of clouds.
The vampires had established a circular string of cities here. The environment was raging hot because of its proximity to the upper continent layer, and there was a mysterious attractive force coming from the depths of the sea of clouds. That was why the ordinary clans could only build establishments in the periphery; none but the twelve ancient clans possessed the right to build cities close to the center.
Closest to the center—where the sea of cloud’s calling was the strongest—there was a small castle called Noctiluna.
The Queen of the Night, Lilith, had built this castle personally when she first set foot on the Genesis Continent. It was little more than a stone house back then, far from the castle it was today. One after another, the subsequent second-generation primogenitors would upgrade the structure once they were strong enough to set foot on the continent.
These people were just minor characters when they came to work on the castle. Their talents were high, but they had yet to bring them out at that point. It was already quite the struggle for them to remain near the sea of clouds, let alone build a majestic castle.
The expansion of Castle Noctiluna stopped after the fall of the first second-generation primogenitor and was kept in the same shape thereafter. Each generation of vampires would only do maintenance and repairs, no longer building new structures. This was a form of respect for the Queen of the Night and to commemorate the fallen primogenitors.
To this very day, only those with the highest bloodlines could approach the castle.
At this moment, there was a black-cloaked vampire walking slowly along the plains. He pulled back the hood to reveal a pale, sallow face. The handsomeness of yesteryears had been ruined by the black, sunken eyes and pallid lips. There was no longer an ounce of spirit and vigor in him befitting of a vampire holy son.
He paused to look up at the sky, narrowing his eyes at the overly fierce sunlight and revealing a disgusted expression. This place was too close to the upper layers; vampires did not appreciate sunlight this strong.
Edward put his cloak back on to block out the annoying sun and gazed into the distance. He could vaguely see the sea of clouds at the ends of his vision.
His face flushed red, his breathing hastened, and his blood core began to beat faster. The calling from the depths of the cloud sea was so strong that he wanted to jump down.
As a core character of the vampire race’s newer generation and a primo who had accepted Medanzo’s origin blood, Edward was someone with both talent and willpower. Even someone of his caliber found it difficult to handle the attraction from the sea of clouds.
This wasn’t a bad thing, though. Edward felt quite proud of it in fact because the stronger one’s bloodline, the stronger the attractive force. Now that the call was near-irresistibly strong, it could only mean that his talents had reached the peak.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have become the holy son of the Perth Clan. No one had imagined, though, that the Queen of the Night would refuse to recognize the title that the Evernight Council had granted him. This caused his status among the vampires to drop drastically.
When he failed to woo Nighteye later on and resorted to threatening her, he also sowed the seeds for today’s ending.
He looked up at the distant Castle Noctiluna. Although he wasn’t walking very fast, the end-point was right there, and he would get there sooner or later. He had already thought back to his entire life—the good things, the bad things, the satisfaction, and the regrets, everything.
The conclusion he came to was that it wasn’t because he didn’t try hard enough. It was because this world was too unfriendly. He would never be able to withstand the majestic will of this world even if he were to reach a state of perfection.
If only the Queen of the Night had valued him a bit more, if only Nighteye—then an ordinary primo—had followed him rather than betray the entire vampire race to be with that bastard, if only...
There were too many ifs in his life. These scenarios never happened, nor would they ever happen, but they pierced into his heart like a thorn.
Edward hastened his steps toward Castle Noctiluna, reporting his identity and intention as he arrived.
There were actually two marquises in charge of the castle gates. They were still quite young in terms of vampire age, but they had clearly heard of Edward’s name. Their expressions became rather odd when they heard he was here to see Nighteye; a bit of terror as well as a hint of schadenfreude. It was clear that Edward wasn’t the one they feared.
The holy son didn’t care about these things anymore at this point. His thoughts had drifted to the depths of the sea of clouds, to the summoning call of the parent entity. He had avoided it for all too long, and now, it was finally time to respond.
“Enter! Why are you in a daze?” one of the guards said harshly.
Edward felt anger well up in his heart. A small marquis would never dare talk to him like this under normal circumstances. However, Edward was in such despair that he couldn’t be bothered to bicker with them. Even glaring at them would be an unnecessary waste of energy, so he just entered quietly.
Whispered comments arrived from behind him. “What holy son? Just someone latching onto the Lightless Monarch’s thigh.”
“If he had endured for two more years, the Azure King would’ve woken up and he would’ve gotten a better thigh.”
“Exactly, even Habsburg the Flaming Crown is much stronger.”
These discussions weren’t exactly hushed—it was clear that those marquises didn’t really care about Edward hearing them, but the latter was too dispirited to care. Was this the reason he had offended both Nighteye and the Azure King?
He smiled wryly, ignoring the idle chatter behind him as he passed through the castle and walked toward the sea of clouds.
Nighteye was still sitting there, almost as though she had never moved.
Edward arrived beside her. He had already let go of everything at this point and was no longer afraid to look straight at her like he was a while ago.
At a careful glance, he was able to appreciate Nighteye’s beauty and her utter perfection—she was perfect from head to toe, even with the highest standards of beauty. It was a beauty that had far surpassed stunning and made one subconsciously want to distance themselves from her.
She simply sat there, but Edward had to take a step back.
Nighteye kept gazing at the sea of clouds while in deep thought, as though she never realized that Edward was here. The holy son said after a while, “I’ve arrived.”
Nighteye remained motionless, nor did she seem like she was going to talk.
Edward felt an indescribable sense of defeat. He had to muster his courage to even speak. “I’ve come to convince you to do battle, by request of the Azure King.”
This time, he had learned to be smarter. Without waiting for Nighteye to reply, he kept talking, “I know you’re going to ask me why must you fight, I also know you said you don’t want to fight the humans. You said it’s to suppress the residual will of this body, to make it easier for you to control. We all know that’s just an excuse, isn’t it?”
Nighteye said, “If you think you can say what you want just because you’re about to die, you can go and die now. The Azure King will find someone else to convince me.”
Edward took a deep breath, his face red. He threw caution to the wind and said in a loud voice, “Fine, I’ll give it straight to you! There’s no original will or whatnot, you’ve always been you! You just can’t let go of the human race, of that person, you just don’t want to make an enemy out of him.”
Nighteye said indifferently, “You think you’re so smart, but saying it out loud is where you’re dumb. Do you think the Azure King doesn’t know?”
Edward was livid. “I know I’m stupid, that’s why I’ve fallen to this kind of fate. What I want to say is that fighting humans is different from fighting that person. You have a reason to fight because the human commander is a great enemy!”
“All my human enemies are dead.”
“No, there’s still one alive and well, Song Zining!”
“What do I have against him?”
Edward produced a letter and passed it to Nighteye. “This is from one of the deepest assets we have in the human race.”
Nighteye’s expression changed drastically as she read the short message. She looked up and said coldly, “You’ve been investigating my business in secret. The nerve!”
“That’s the Lightless Monarch…”
“What the hell is Lightless? What is a great monarch to me when countless second-generation primogenitors have already fallen? Does he think himself immortal?”
This topic was too shocking, so much so that Edward didn’t dare continue even under present circumstances. He only said, “Whatever the original intention was, at least we discovered some secrets related to that person. Your former partner already has two children.”
Nighteye was like a stone sculpture. She didn’t move or even blink, almost as though time had frozen.
Edward continued, “Combining all the information we have, we came to the conclusion that the two children were conceived in the Great Maelstrom. That person was with Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan at the time. Li Kuanglan always dresses like a man but is actually Empress Li’s younger sister.”
Nighteye remained unmoved.
“Back then, the Young Lord Anwen had also entered the Great Maelstrom from the neutral lands. According to him, the high-gravity regions of the maelstrom were odd in that people needed white fruit to get through the frigid nights. But those fruits were also extremely potent aphrodisiacs, a tool used by the locals to reproduce. This will explain why he has two children, that person has likely lost control and reasoning under the effects of the fruit. “
Nighteye crushed the paper into powder.
Edward said, “The key is in who arranged for Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan to be at Qianye’s side. It’s Song Zining! Other people might not know about the Great Maelstrom, but he’s different. Song Zining’s attainments in divination are shocking, and that didn’t happen overnight! These human divination experts have a lot of power, at least they have access to certain information and records. It’s impossible for him not to know about this outcome. Also, he made a lot of secret arrangements before entering the Great Maelstrom. From what we know, it was only after he met Empress Li in secret that the empress dispatched Li Kuanglan to the Great Maelstrom.”
“Is that all?”
“I have more, do you want to listen?”
“No.”