Monarch of Evernight

Fort Continent. Qianye had once again returned to Cerulean Wave City from the new world.

Standing on the balcony of the duke’s residence, the city before him felt somewhat unfamiliar.

The city borders and a large stretch of land outside of the gates used to be a poor, filthy area occupied by small huts. Now, the land had been leveled and was covered in buildings of diverse characteristics.

The neatly plotted street blocks made it easy to see the areas belonging to the demonkin, vampires, and werewolves. The latter race occupied several such areas, with the Jade Sea, great corridor, and Storm Territory werewolves exhibiting their preferences. The werewolves from Evernight’s continents shared a different characteristic altogether.

The same was true for humans. At a glance, there were different styles in architecture between people from the Empire, Zheng, and the neutral lands.

Each district was neatly divided into squares, divided by wide roads. By contrast, the old city area where the chiefs and shamans were staying looked more like a poor district.

How could those proud werewolves be willing to take this? The werewolves of Fort Continent might be primitive, but these important characters were quite wealthy. The resources they had accumulated over the years were only good for show before the influx of foreign trade, but now, they could be converted into money.

Their eyes lit up when they saw the outsiders’ buildings. They soon invited craftsmen from either the Empire or Evernight to renovate their quarters according to their preferences.

As such, Cerulean Wave City turned into a large construction-site with buildings everywhere being overhauled. Before they were finished, Qianye could tell that their styles were different even within the same district. The finished work would surely be a disorderly mess and still inferior to the new districts.

In truth, the planning of the poor district was Song Hui’s work. She couldn’t be bothered to follow the Empire’s tradition of building perfect cities—leaning on mountains, facing the water, and beautiful scenery at every step. She only drew simple horizontal and vertical lines on the map to get the job done. The only thing she contributed to the good planning was making the roads wider.

It just so happened that the werewolf shamans in charge of architecture were fairly limited in their knowledge, and this kind of drawing was their favorite. They implemented it down to the smallest details, bringing about the brand new Cerulean Wave City of today.

In addition to the residential areas, there were also large districts dedicated to trade where stalls and shops were popping up like bamboo shoots after the spring rain. One could almost see gold coins rolling in just by looking at the bustling crowds.

Naturally, Qianye couldn’t be bothered with such trivial matters. He was just about to return to his room when he noticed a familiar figure from the corner of his eyes. Surprised, he flickered out of existence and appeared before that person. Qianye’s movement skills had reached near-perfection at this point, so much so that no one in the bustling street block noticed his Spatial Flash.

Before him was a poor-looking man with unkempt facial hair. It was William.

The latter looked up without much surprise. “Perfect, I was just about to visit you. Treat me to a drink, I’m in a sour mood.”

Qianye said, “Shall we drop into a random tavern or go back to my place.”

William waved his hand. “Let’s look for a tavern. Your place is too empty, there’s no drinking-atmosphere.”

Qianye had no special preference. Cerulean Wave was now a city of many races, but fortunately, everyone’s alcoholic requirements remained the same. Hence, there were all kinds of taverns scattered across the city.

Qianye had retracted his aura and William was safe behind his bedraggled disguise. No one could recognize the duo as they made their way to a crowded establishment and took up a table in the corner.

They hadn’t sat down when William sniffed about, saying, “They actually have Legrange at such a place? Ah, Sherry too… and what’s that? St. Roland?”

His eyes lit up as he named several famous drinks.

Qianye knew little about alcohol as all wine tasted rather similar to him. Since William was interested, he called a waiter over and said, “Do you have the wines he just named?”

The waiter replied proudly, “Sire, don’t be fooled by the small storefront. We’re actually a famous chain tavern with over four hundred branches across three continents. This is our first store on Fort Continent. If you can name a good wine, we’re almost sure we have it.”

Qianye said, “Fine, then bring us two of each.”

“Three!” William stepped in.

Shocked out of his wits, the waiter said cautiously, “Sire, this will require quite a bit of money.”

William patted Qianye hard. “My brother here isn’t skilled in anything else, but he’s rich!”

Qianye laughed wryly; there was no reason for him to be carrying gold coins around. The things in Andruil’s Space weren’t appropriate measures of wealth, either. Finally, his consciousness swept over two crates inside the space. A single thought brought a number of medicines into his hand. “I’ll pay with this.”

The waiter was surprised. “This is the humans’ holy tree sap medicine! And this is the original version issued by the military. It’s more than enough!”

Moments later, several bottles of famous wines piled up on the table. William opened one of them and gave it a taste. “Good wine!”

He then raised his head and gulped down half the bottle. “Who would’ve thought there’d be good wine here?”

“I wasn’t expecting it, either.” Qianye was speaking the truth. The supply of luxury goods was proof of the area’s financial capacity—he never thought Cerulean Wave City would one day surpass the major neutral-land cities in consumption.

“Come, bottoms up!”

William didn’t waste time on chatter and got down to drinking. Since William didn’t want to say it, Qianye wasn’t about to ask, either. He only accompanied the werewolf in drinking, and soon, most of the bottles between the two were empty.

William was definitely strong, but alcohol tolerance was a different story. Without using origin power, he gradually lost out against the intoxication and his gaze began to drift.

Qianye felt somewhat tipsy since the beginning, and he was still feeling a bit dizzy now. It seemed he would still be this way if he kept drinking.

William clearly had a lot on his mind and was planning to knock himself out.

After he was fairly inebriated, William said, “You know, in that damned new world, people are just waiting to eat you up if you’re a bit weaker. No strength, no dignity!”

“I might feel sorry for other people, but you? Save your breath.”

“What’s wrong with me? I’m only progressing a bit faster than others because of my two spiritual awakenings.” William wasn’t satisfied.

“Wait, what did you just say? Spiritual awakening? And twice at that!” As the leader of five million werewolf subordinates, he knew about these things quite well.

Spiritual awakening involved a series of special ceremonies, in which the subject would accept all kinds of trials from their ancestral spirits. They would be granted a part of the ancestors’ powers if they could pass the ordeals.

Only the geniuses among geniuses would be qualified to undergo spiritual awakening. Even then, the rate of success was fairly low.

The werewolf’s strength would increase exponentially once they passed the trial and obtained the ancestors’ blessings. There were even records of someone breaking through two ranks in one go. Unlike humans breaking through with medicine, this process almost had no side-effects at all. The strength they obtained varied greatly as well—some would see a pure upgrade to physical strength, some would gain a more powerful origin power cultivation, while some would even become prophets.

The existence of spiritual awakening was the main reason why the ancestral school had remained strong until this day. It was also why the primitive werewolf tribes could produce a steady stream of experts, maintaining their position among the four major clans.

William spoke as if completing two spiritual awakenings was as easy as having a meal.

“Your current rank is…” Fairly sober by this point, Qianye asked cautiously. It would seem that William’s strength had undergone a thorough change despite his depressed appearance.

After all the drinks, William had no guards up against Qianye. “I’m a duke, but what good does that do?”

He let out a long sigh and emptied yet another bottle.

“Wait, you’re already at the duke rank which is even higher than me. What’s there to complain?” Qianye wasn’t quite satisfied.

William glared at Qianye, saying, “Let alone a duke, even the Wolf Sovereign and Ancestor couldn’t do anything. They still had to lower their heads and give up the werewolf race’s interests.”

“Are you referring to the Sacred Mountain?”

William nodded with a gloomy expression, then kept drinking.

The Wolf Ancestor was one foot in the grave, but the Wolf Sovereign of the Summit of Peaks was in his prime. Even a supreme would find it difficult to make him yield. The likely scenario was that two supremes had worked together to suppress the werewolves. That was why William was so dispirited.

William glanced at Qianye. “Why do you think I came to see you? Guess.”

Qianye leaned back. “Definitely not to compete in drinking, you’re not that dumb.”

William glared at Qianye. His lips moved somewhat, eager to spew out fierce language, but he was sober enough to know that competing with Qianye was a path to sure doom.

But this little interruption eased William’s frustration. He sighed. “Actually, I’m here to lie low and avoid a calamity.”

“Lie low?”

William said, “I’m the only one in a thousand years who has completed two spiritual awakenings. The Wolf Sovereign locked down this information and told me to leave the werewolf territory and roam the outside world. It’s because he’s actually worried that I would be conscripted into the new world. There, my fate will no longer be in my hands.”

Qianye understood the general situation in the new world. “Are you talking about the sacrifice?”

William laughed self-deprecatingly. “Am I not a great target? I’m sure even Prince Greensun will take action if it’s to kill me.”

Qianye sighed. He really didn’t know how to console the fellow. From the Empire’s perspective, William’s value was even greater than that of Jaero. They would never hesitate to kill him.

Yet Qianye had never viewed William as a real enemy all this time. Not only had this werewolf saved him many times when he was weak, but as an Evernight noble, he had never targeted the Daybreak Faction or humans specifically. He was more like a lone-wolf searching for a grey zone between the two sides.

“If they do that, won’t they become archenemies with the werewolves?”

“The Wolf Ancestor and Wolf Sovereign were both worried about that. That’s why they asked me to leave and not give them this opportunity.” There was a hint of misery in his voice.