Yueyang had been inside sealed spaces before. More than once.

None of them, in truth, compared to the Black Void Seal where Vivienne was imprisoned — that remained in a category of its own. But he had made a careful study of the others: the evil dragon pit where the Crimson Emperor had been contained, the blood-pool interrogation chamber holding Wusu, the black tower in the water world on Sky Stairway Floor One where the Peerless Emperor had resided, the hourglass world of fire and water inside Buried Sword Valley where the Inferno Sovereign and Qiluo Immortal had fought their long stalemate. He had combined those observations with Fourth Mother’s inherited knowledge and the accumulated insights of the powerful figures whose imprints the World Tree preserved.

The conclusion he’d reached was this: every seal was a set of law-restrictions built around specific conditions and specific attributes.

Which meant that if someone were foolish enough to walk into a seal voluntarily — and managed, while inside, not to trigger the law-restrictions — they would be perfectly safe.

No one in recorded history had ever done this. Not because the principle was unknown — because walking into someone else’s seal for no obvious reason was, by any reasonable assessment, an act of profound idiocy. Even people who understood it saw no scenario in which it would be useful.

“Nice ambiance in here,” Yueyang said, taking in his surroundings with apparent satisfaction.

“What are you doing?” Chitian River stared at him. “Are you a fool?”

“I can explain, actually.”

He made no attempt to resist. The seal’s law-force registered his presence, wrapped a few symbolic bindings around him to prevent departure, and then — with nothing struggling against it — stopped there. The contrast with Chitian River, who had been fighting the seal for tens of thousands of years and currently resembled a man wrapped in several hundred glowing ropes, was striking.

Then Yueyang produced the remaining chicken wing from earlier and resumed eating it.

He ate with complete contentment. He came very close to licking his fingers.

By the time Chitian River had reached the outer limit of its patience, Yueyang raised one finger in a wait gesture. “Don’t. We’re going to be spending some time together regardless of your feelings on the subject, so there’s no point in raising your blood pressure. And before you start — I know it’s not your fault you look like a large primate. That’s genetics. We don’t need to dwell on it.” He paused. “Anyway. I want to be transparent with you: I’m not here because of any inappropriate interest in your posterior. My personal inclinations are conventional and, more relevantly, I am surrounded by exceptional women who occupy my attention completely. Also — crude language reflects poorly on the speaker and proves nothing except a limited vocabulary. Just something to consider.”

He dropped the chicken bone. The seal’s law-force promptly bound it too. Law-force, before law-force, made no exceptions for bones.

He produced a paper napkin, wiped his mouth with measured care, and continued: “Now that you’ve calmed down slightly — I’ll tell you why I’m here. I came to help you.”

Three full seconds of silence.

Chitian River had genuinely not heard that correctly.

This creature was here to help it?

Yueyang produced a toothpick, inserted it at the corner of his mouth at a rakish angle, and elaborated: “You heard correctly. I’m here to assist with your escape. Just now, while you were busy announcing yourself to the universe and generously demonstrating your insecurities, I was patient enough to give you space. Still upset? People need to work on listening. Listening is actually a key marker of successful evolution — somewhere between walking upright and the development of abstract reasoning. Where were we? Right — I didn’t attack when you were baiting us. Wasn’t that cooperative of me? You wanted to get out, I was in favor of you getting out, your efforts were entirely aligned with my interests. Similar situation to the time at the zoo when I threw a banana to one of the great apes and it bowed at me. Genuinely moving. Speaking of which — do you want a banana?”

Chitian River’s face was doing something that muscles weren’t entirely designed to do.

“You are asking for your own death.“

Yueyang peeled a banana and took a thoughtful bite. “Can’t let the primates have everything. That would be wasteful.” He chewed. “Good banana.”

Chitian River was, in point of fact, not an unattractive being. Its form was imposing, and what appeared to be reddish fur across its face was presumably the equivalent of a beard — a species marker, perhaps even a point of pride at its level of cultivation. Any being that had reached Chitian River’s realm could shape its appearance into something commanding. Its actual form was no exception.

This made the banana commentary uniquely effective.

The only reason it wasn’t destroying Yueyang where he stood was that combat inside a seal worked against the fighter — every discharge of power tightened the bindings, made the walls more solid. Chitian River knew this. It was why it had been careful. It would not throw that away for the satisfaction of tearing this particular human into small pieces, however strongly it felt the desire.

No one had ever called it a primate before. No one had ever offered it a banana. The category of experience was entirely new.

Yueyang yawned. He closed his eyes. He appeared, for a short interval, to fall asleep.

When he opened them again, Chitian River had exhausted itself roaring and gone quiet.

“Right. So — you were trying to provoke us into attacking, and we didn’t, and I understand that must have been frustrating. My deepest sympathies. Our hesitation was actually consideration on your behalf — we didn’t want to accidentally damage something in the wrong order and ruin your escape. Also you weren’t being friendly, which made accepting our goodwill difficult. We don’t hold it against you. One doesn’t stay angry at an incompletely evolved primate. That would be unreasonable.”

Chitian River had stopped trying to produce responses. It just wanted to understand what was actually happening.

Why had this human entered the seal? Why now, specifically — not earlier, not later, but at the exact moment one arm had broken free?

Yueyang, perhaps reading something in its expression, became suddenly helpful: “All right. Plainly: I came in because I wanted to take your place. I came in so you could get out.”

“What?” Chitian River genuinely could not process this.

“I know, I know — with your processing speed, even simple questions take time. That’s fine. Evolutionary progress is uneven.” His expression was one of patient forgiveness. “Let me say it again more slowly—”

“You waited until I had freed one arm,” Chitian River said. The pieces were assembling themselves against its will. “You waited until I was half in and half out. Unable to advance and unable to retreat. And then you came in.“

Its thoughts continued past the words: which meant someone outside was doing something to the exposed arm right now.

It pushed its divine sense through the seal to check.

Sure enough. The woman with the divine sword had returned. She was attacking the arm that protruded into the outside world with considerable enthusiasm.

The full picture settled into place.

This human had been running a scheme the entire time.

The provocation that Chitian River had been so confident was bait for Yueyang — had itself been bait. The long patience, the deliberate non-aggression, the comedy, the chicken wings — all of it buying time, buying the exact conditions needed.

Not that it mattered. Mortals could scheme all they liked. Mortals were still mortals, and gods were still gods.

Chitian River began laughing.

It laughed until it was shaking. It laughed the laughter of something that had just remembered a fundamental truth it had briefly, embarrassingly, lost sight of.

Yueyang watched this with the patient expression of a person observing someone else’s private crisis.

The laughter went on for a while. It kept restarting whenever Chitian River recovered its breath and then was struck again by the absurdity of a mortal imagining it had outmaneuvered a god.

When it finally finished, its voice had shifted to something cold and absolute: “Pitiful insect. Even if your little scheme worked — what then? Can you attack me? Can you kill me? Can you stop me from leaving? While I remain in the seal, your companion can’t harm me — she only weakens it faster. When I leave the seal, you stay here forever, and I walk out and kill your companion at my leisure, and then I dismantle this entire Sky Stairway. Yes, you’ve created a small complication. That’s the ceiling of what a mortal can accomplish. You cannot oppose a god.“

Yueyang used his finger to clear something from his ear. He smiled the smile that never failed to make people want to hit him.

“Chitian River. If I’m reading you correctly, you’re actually a quasi-god at most. A quasi-divine sovereign at the ceiling of what you’ve reached. I don’t know your cultivation history, but I’m fairly confident it involves a substantial quantity of divine blood running through you — blood that isn’t your own achievement, but something you were born with or acquired. Without that blood, you’re significantly less than what you appear. Your actual attainment and your apparent power are not the same thing.”

“You want to steal my divine blood?” Chitian River’s scorn was immediate. “You couldn’t damage my divine body.”

“Outside, you’re right. Defeating you out there isn’t straightforward.” Yueyang smiled differently now — not the infuriating smile, but something quieter and more certain. “But in here — inside this sealed space — I don’t need to defeat you. I just need to reach out my hand.”

“Keep talking.“

“All right. I’ll prove it instead. Once I’ve absorbed the seal’s core ancient rune formation—” The Eternal Wheel materialized beneath Yueyang’s feet. Chitian River’s divine fire hit its outer surface and stopped there; the seal’s law-force, reacting to Chitian River’s own energy fluctuation, immediately added several dozen more binding threads to its collection. “—you have approximately three days before you break fully free. Enjoy what remains of your time.”

He stepped onto the Eternal Wheel.

And then, in full view of Chitian River, his body passed through it — sank into the depths of the seal formation — and was gone.

Not destroyed. Chitian River could still sense him in there, somewhere. The Eternal Wheel was there too. And that was precisely the problem — it couldn’t attack what it couldn’t reach, and it couldn’t reach through the Eternal Wheel’s barrier without fighting the seal at the same time.

Was he actually attempting to absorb the core ancient rune formation?

If he succeeded—

For the first time since acquiring a divine body, Chitian River felt something it didn’t have an immediate name for.

It sat in the back of its awareness like a pebble in a boot.

Very much like foreboding.