With his plans all messed up, Anwen said after some thought, “Your Highness, it’s your turn.”

“I won’t leave anything for them.” The Demoness’ voice appeared out of nowhere.

Her tone was as calm as still water, and it sounded as though she was unmoved. However, everyone could feel that it was a bit forced. The Demoness was indeed outstanding, but as a Demonkin, she couldn’t absorb daybreak star power. There was nothing else she could do apart from doing her best to absorb the dark star.

After Qianye left the well, everyone crowded over for a chance to see the dark golden origin crystal in his hand. Such a crystal was unprecedented, and even Ji Tianqing, Song Zining, and Zhao Yuying were baffled. They would need to observe carefully before deciding on its grade.

Since there was nothing to do for the time being, Qianye decided to rest and recover his energy.

After a round of cultivation, Qianye began to think about things in idle leisure. Since even the dark golden blood energy could condense an origin crystal, what else was there on him that he could use? According to Song Zining’s explanation, it seemed certain special arts would also produce similar effects.

Speaking of arts, Qianye felt that the Wings of Inception could also be considered one. If the Wings of Inception counted, what about the Eye of Truth?

It would seem anything was possible in the Constellation Well.

And indeed anything could happen.

The Demoness finally returned from her prolonged disappearance, and even then, she was hidden in a dense mist. No one could see her appearance or figure clearly.

Doubtless, this would add to her drain. The gravitational power of the Constellation Well affected not just her body, but also origin power of various attributes as well.

After entering the well, the Demoness activated a couple of large stars related to the demonkin and began absorbing their star power. Who would’ve thought she was just getting warmed up? These large stars couldn’t sate her appetite at all.

As expected, the Demoness’ demonic energy expanded before long and began creeping toward the dark star.

Unlike Anwen, the Demoness utilized three streams of demonic energy in one go, having them advance along different routes. This display proved just how shocking her control capabilities were.

Of the three demonic energies, two of them vanished halfway, and only the last one reached the borders of the dark star before it was destroyed.

The first attempt came so close to success that all the Evernight experts became spirited. The Demoness didn’t let them down, either. She went out again with five streams of demonic energy that marched toward the dark star from different directions.

Ultimately, three out of the five demonic energies were routed. The last two reached the dark star and started drawing upon its star power.

The human method placed the operator at the center of the process, allowing star power to accumulate toward them. Anwen’s method was to attack proactively, overcoming all obstructions to reach the stars. Both methods had their pros and cons. The human method was stable, and even the weaker people would be able to condense origin crystals. Its weak point was that the product would contain impurities and be of a lower grade.

Anwen’s method was more ambitious, charging straight for the large stars and dark star from the get-go. The origin blood produced via this method would win out in quality, even though the blood rod and white spider egg were inferior to the Storm Pearl in quality. The final product would improve exponentially once the catalysts were improved later on.

This method had its drawbacks as well, in that it posed great requirements upon the user. Ordinary experts would likely find themselves failing. Even Anwen himself couldn't say for sure that he would succeed every time.

This method, however, was the most suitable for the Demoness. She had communicated with the dark star during her first entry, and judging from her momentum, she might even be able to aim for higher-ranked ones.

Anwen’s eyes landed on some evidently special stars. Their star powers were either scorching or dark, but the common quality was that they were all akin to the raging seas. Their radiance flickered constantly because they were so powerful that the space around them was severely warped. Even without Anwen’s knowledge, one could tell how difficult it would be to communicate with them.

The empire possessed seven such stars, known as the seven polar stars or the seven primal stars. No matter what they were called, they each represented a dream for everyone who wished to one day absorb their star power.

Since the Demoness had succeeded in drawing upon the dark star, the seven primal stars were no longer just a dream. Anwen became spirited as he began to calculate a method to reach these stars. Hundreds of complicated formulas and diagrams appeared around him, with numbers flowing down like rain. The diagrams became more complicated and the numbers increased, but there was no sign of the deduction being completed. After a good while, Anwen turned pale and broke out in sweat.

After holding out for a while longer, the diagrams and formulas around him became distorted and disappeared. His expression was gloomy, apparently quite exhausted.

At this moment, the Demoness had flown out of the well with a faint, ink-colored gem in her hand. Her demonic mist was fairly thin now, so much so that her figure was faintly discernible within. One could see that she had nearly hit empty.

She tossed the gem to Anwen, saying, “You can play with that for a couple of days, I'll come and get it the day after tomorrow.”

Anwen caught the gem, and the Demoness vanished without a trace. From the words she had left behind, it seemed she would need one day and night to recover her demonic energy.

All Evernight experts crowded around with greedy eyes, staring at the black gem in Anwen’s hands. This was an origin blood the Demoness had condensed from the power of the dark star. Its quality was so high that it had taken the form of a gem. Using this drop of origin blood would make a duke out of anyone but a complete idiot.

And any duke had the qualifications to found a large family that could live on for many years.

The only unfortunate thing was that this origin blood had the Demoness’ energy mixed into it. It was naturally a peerless treasure for the demonkin, but the effects were vastly inferior for the other races. After accounting for the drop in efficacy, the gem would be at the marquis-grade at most for the vampires.

Anwen felt that the gem was rather heavy in his hands. The Demoness had sent a clear message by giving him this item—that her ambitions wouldn’t stop at the dark star, that she was interested in the seven primal stars. It was just that she would be hard-pressed to contact them at her level of strength. Hence, she wanted Anwen to calculate a possible route by referencing this piece of origin blood.

“She thinks so highly of me.” Anwen laughed wryly.

He waved the crowd away, saying, “I need some peace and quiet. Don’t ask me who should enter the well tomorrow.”

With that, he returned to his tent and started waging a war of numbers and formulas.

On the empire’s side, everyone returned to camp in silence and sat down in Qianye’s room.

“Fortunately, Qianye managed to plunder a small part of the dark star. Otherwise, they would’ve gained two more dukes.” Wei Potian looked apprehensive.

Zhao Yuying glared at him. “Origin blood only grants the potential of a duke. The Evernight species grow at a much slower rate, and it’ll be a decade or so by the time they’re actual dukes. What’s the rush?”

Wei Potian shook his head. “You can’t say that. We’ll still be alive after the decade passes by. Even if we do die in battle, it’ll be a calamity for the next generation.”

These words were so righteous that Zhao Yuying had nothing to say. She simply snorted, saying, “How come I’ve never seen you loving the empire and its people so much?”

The others kept gazing at the origin crystal while the two bickered among themselves. In truth, they were still clueless after observing for a good while. Ji Tianqing finally looked up at Qianye. “What exactly is this?”

“An origin crystal.” Qianye had always spoken short to the point.

“Of course I know that! But who has ever seen an origin crystal like that? Do you even know how to use it yourself?”

This origin crystal was formed with the dark golden blood energy as a foundation, filled with plundered energy from all the large vampire stars and a portion of the dark star. In terms of quality, it was doubtlessly a top-quality origin crystal. But its attribute was clearly leaning toward Evernight. Who would dare use it without knowing the effects?

Even knowledgeable people like Ji Tianqing, Li Kuanglan, and Song Zining could only figure out part of its function after studying it for some time. They didn’t dare draw a conclusion just yet.

Qianye picked up the origin crystal and closed his eyes. “The main function of this origin crystal is to raise one’s constitution.”

“Raise one’s constitution?” Everyone was puzzled. After stirring up such a commotion and even robbing part of the dark star’s power, it could only raise one’s constitution? If that was the only ability, then it could barely be considered a high-grade origin crystal, let alone top.

Ji Tianqing was more thorough. “That’s not all, right? Are there any conflicting abilities that were canceled out?”

Qianye said with an awkward expression, “No other abilities at all, just an upgrade to constitution.”

“This…” Just as Ji Tianqing was at a loss about how to assess the situation, she heard a bark from behind her. Shocked out of her wits, she turned back to see that a snowy white dog with a golden mane had appeared behind her.

Considering her skill, it wasn’t natural for a large dog to approach her from behind without her noticing. Even if she was focused on the origin crystal, it still shouldn’t have been this bad.

But she recognized that the canine was Zhao Ruoxi’s pet, and it was likely some divine breed. Just in terms of demeanor, it was majestic and beautiful, a king among dogs.

The Imperial crowd no longer existed for the dog as he stared fixedly at the crystal. His tongue came wagging out, dripping saliva all over the place.

Qianye said unceremoniously, “What are you looking at, dog? There’s no share for you in this!”

“Woof!” The large dog was furious.

“Stop messing around, I’ll give you some bones later on.” With that, Zhao Yuying grabbed the large dog by its scruff and tossed it to the side. Everyone was busy studying Qianye’s origin crystal and in no mood to play with a dog.

The dog, unwilling to leave, came running back after a while.

Ji Tianqing still couldn’t figure things out. She glared at Qianye, saying, “Tell us, what exactly are its uses?”

Qianye hesitated for a while. “It can improve one’s constitution. It’s just that the magnitude of it is quite big.”

“How big?” Ji Tianqing was a bit nervous.

Qianye said, “An ordinary human expert using this crystal will raise his constitution to the level of a virtuous count… I guess.”

“What!?” Everyone was shocked.

Li Kuanglan said, “Doesn’t that mean they can cultivate all those peerless arts, except the handful of secret ones.”

Ji Tianqing understood more in this regard. “Correct!”

Wei Potian took a deep breath. “T-This… if that’s true, then even a divine champion can use this piece of origin crystal!”

The Empire—throughout the thousand years of its history—only had a handful of its secret records left behind, with many peerless secret arts vanishing into the river of time. Although there were ancient tomes, no one could cultivate them because humans lacked the physique to do so.

If it could really allow one to take on the massive drain imposed by the inherited cultivation arts, even the most outstanding of divine champions would desire this origin crystal. Apart from peak characters like Zhang Boqian, no one would lament having too many secret arts.

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