The Sky Stairway’s fifth floor. White River Valley. The blood altar.

When Yue Yang proposed the wager and the duel, none of them, not the Black Terror clan, not the Sky Dragon clan, not the Nine-Headed Clan, answered right away. Going up first did not mean being the first to eat the crab. On the contrary, the first one to make a move was usually a stepping stone for everyone else. The bird that sticks its head out gets shot. The Sky Tower and the Heavenly Realm might not have the saying, but everybody understood the principle.

Just as every one of them was gazing up at the sky at that forty-five-degree dork angle, pretending not to have heard Yue Yang, someone stepped forward.

He had been sitting on the blood altar the whole time, silent.

Whether they knew him or not, not one of them had expected it: the man who ought to have made his move last, to snatch the fruits of victory, was going to make his move first.

Why?

That question baffled not only them, but even Yue Yang, who had prepared himself thoroughly, and the middle-aged scholar, who held the pearl of wisdom in his hand and had the whole field under his control.

The one man who least ought to make a move, and was least likely to, had stepped out first of all.

He had asked for the fight himself, to take on Yue Yang.

What for?

Everyone there turned to look at him.

The man was imposing and handsome, rather martial, and however you looked at him his face was not the face of a brain-dead fool.

He had thick brows and large eyes, a square face, and a head of short hair that stood up like steel needles and did not stir in the wind, and the effect on the eye was striking. Above all, the lines of his whole frame were sharply defined, as rough-hewn as if carved out with ax and chisel, radiating masculinity. If time could flow backward and you could look at him as a young man, he might well have been a handsome one who set young girls’ hearts pounding. His face carried the maturity and endurance of a man long weathered by wind and frost. Those resolute eyes, those hands as if cast in bronze and iron, that body standing like a fortress, all showed one fact at every moment: strength!

As they watched this man, whose presence could stay hidden and unreleased and yet would swallow heaven and earth the moment it burst out, step by step walk out from beneath the broken statue, Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon and the rest of them could not help feeling they were suffocating.

The beautiful queen with flames burning all over her body watched until her little heart was trembling, and the words in her throat burst out before she could stop them.

“You are the Golden Emperor. You, you are the lord of the Three-Legged Golden Crows of the Tang Valley!”

The Golden Emperor!

The moment the name was spoken, the air over the whole field grew several times heavier.

Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon and the others had been able to guess it, but they had not wanted to mention it lightly, because it was a name so strong it was frightening, so strong it made people despair. Now that the beautiful queen had let it slip, everyone who heard it could not help shuddering as one.

Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon could not understand it at all. Why wouldn’t an existence as strong as the Golden Emperor wait quietly for the war to end and simply sit back and collect? He had no need at all to make a move. Whether he did or not, once every dispute had been settled, whoever won would give a share to the lord of the Tang Valley of his own free will. Nobody would dare shortchange the sovereign of the Three-Legged Golden Crow Clan, or swallow his share.

Nobody in the Heavenly Realm or the Sky Tower would dare do that.

Even the Divine Hall Supreme, the strongest in the Heavenly Realm, would surely not want to fall out with this Three-Legged Golden Crow sovereign who bore the name of the Golden Emperor.

The Golden Emperor had no need to make a move to take the final fruits of victory. Why would he step out first, to fight Yue Titan to the death? There was no need for him to do it at all! With his standing and position, with his power and strength, he could have sent any expert of his clan he liked and taken the final spoils, rightfully and at his ease… And yet he had come in person, and was even vying to make the first move. What, what on earth did it mean? Did the Golden Emperor have some blood feud with the Sky Tower that nobody knew about?

Yue Yang was just as puzzled.

Wasn’t the big boss supposed to wait in its own territory for everyone to come and farm it?

What was it doing running into the starter village? And hunting players on its own initiative, what the heck, was there no justice in the world? Nobody plays people like that!

“Do we know each other?” Yue Yang decided to ask and get it straight.

“We do not,” the Golden Emperor said.

“Then did I once set fire to your family’s house, or carry off your family’s front door to trade for malt candy?” Yue Yang, for his part, scratched the back of his head. He didn’t seem to have done anything that bad!

“No.” The Golden Emperor shook his head.

“Then was I born with a face that just begs to be taunted?” Yue Yang was getting depressed. Could it be that this little face of his was born to draw aggro?

“I cannot see it,” the Golden Emperor said, indicating that this was not the reason either.

“Then what’s the reason you rushed out in such a hurry to duel me? I haven’t provoked you or gotten in your way, and my little face isn’t exactly asking to be punched. You’re a stylish, dignified old gentleman with standing and status. You can’t pick on someone smaller than you, that’s no way for a gentleman to act!” Yue Yang was nearly frantic, and put on a shameless face that said if you dare bully me, I’ll cry.

“I am very sorry.” The Golden Emperor suddenly apologized to Yue Yang, and his manner was quite sincere. “In truth it has nothing at all to do with you. It is only that I owe someone a very great favor, and I have no choice. That is why I am forced to do this.”

“You owe somebody a favor, but you can’t pay it back by beating me up!” Yue Yang felt utterly wronged.

“It may be something of a blow to hear it, but I expect that this ‘favor’ really will be about paid off once I have given you a beating,” the Golden Emperor answered very honestly.

“Wait. If we’re talking about favors, I saved your son, your daughter-in-law and your grandson and granddaughter! How does that count?” Yue Yang had suddenly remembered that Eighth Prince Wuhai seemed to be this old fellow’s son. Back then, it had been he and Bao’er who saved Wuhai, the beautiful Queguan and that pair of twin eggs. Asking for something in return for a good deed was a little like trading on your kindness, but Yue Yang had not reached the Lei Feng level of doing good and leaving no name. Now, with the Sky Tower’s survival at stake, if a personal connection could be worked, it had to be mentioned. What was face? He could do without it!

“I have heard of this, and I am grateful for your righteous help. My disobedient son is one thing — death would be too good for him — but those two adorable little ones, if you had not stepped in to save them, might have become a delicacy in someone’s mouth, or been made into lowly battle beasts, enslaved for life by some coarse mercenary.” The Golden Emperor nodded to Yue Yang, acknowledging his righteous act.

Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon and the rest heard this, sensed trouble, and immediately looked at the middle-aged scholar.

Was the wind changing now?

This Golden Emperor set great store by favors and kindness. He had been invited here to conquer the Sky Tower, and yet his sons and grandsons owed Yue Titan a great debt that had never been repaid. Could it be that he had stepped out first so that he could make peace with this Yue Titan and end the fighting? If that was really so, it would be too great a pity. The Golden Emperor was one of the Heavenly Realm legions’ greatest assets. With him here, their certainty of victory rose by at least seventy percent.

And if it went the other way, if the Golden Emperor took Yue Titan’s side, that would be even worse.

What to do?

Once again every eye turned to the middle-aged scholar.

They hoped that he, called the Central Divine Hall’s foremost strategist, would say something, give them all a sure word, and hand everyone a pill to settle their hearts.

The middle-aged scholar said nothing. He kept smiling as before, as though he had not heard a word the Golden Emperor and Yue Yang had exchanged. His unexpected confidence left Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon and the others thoroughly startled, and each of them thought privately: could Grand Hall Master Dongfang be this calm because he had some other secret move?

“I did your family a kindness, I never provoked or offended you, and we all know each other now. Why not turn enemies into friends?” Yue Yang pushed the boat along with the current.

“Turning enemies into friends is not very likely.” The Golden Emperor slowly shook his head. “But if this old man kills you, my sons and grandsons can grow up and avenge you, and so repay the life you saved that day.”

“Damn it!” Yue Yang, for his part, was so angry he nearly hurt himself inside, and all but coughed up blood.

This young master beats you to death, old man, and then your grandkids come after me for revenge — that’d make more sense! How did you even come up with that!

When Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon and the rest of them heard the Golden Emperor say this, they could not help roaring with laughter. At the same time their faith in the middle-aged scholar’s scheme grew a hundredfold. He truly deserved to be called the Central Divine Hall’s foremost strategist. He never did anything he was not sure of, and once he had done it, he was certain to win! However great a kindness Yue Titan had done the Three-Legged Golden Crow Clan, it seemed the Golden Emperor’s resolve to fight for real was not going to change. With a formidable enemy like the Golden Emperor against him, this Yue Titan could not turn things around even if he could defy heaven itself. He was dead for sure!

Yue Yang had never been bullied like this in his life. It had always been him bullying other people. When had there ever been a day like today, with people ganging up to bully him, and the kind of bullying he could not even cry foul about!

He had been made to swallow his loss in silence.

What came next? Would he quietly accept it, or tear the enemy to pieces and swallow the lot?

But Yue Yang had never been the kind to quietly accept anything.

He was absolutely not someone who would be bullied for nothing and not make a sound.

Better to die standing than live on your knees.

He would fight.

He would fight with everything he had.

That was who he was, the one the Sky Tower called Third Young Master of the Yue family.

Yue Yang slowly drew the Crescent Blade and gripped it tight in his hand. He breathed deeply, let the negative feelings in his heart out in one long breath, and steadily raised his hand.

He leveled the blade straight at the Golden Emperor, who stood before him like a mountain, and issued his challenge, decisive as a nail driven home: “Come on! Sovereign of the Three-Legged Golden Crows of the Tang Valley, Golden Emperor, if you think bullying a junior can satisfy that self-righteous superior’s mentality of yours, you’re dead wrong. Let me, the Sky Tower’s new-generation Prison Emperor, tell you. Let me, the disciple of the Conquest Queen, tell you. Let me, the future master of the Ruins of the Gods, tell you what’s right and what’s wrong! What you’re holding on to is nothing but a ridiculous excuse you built yourself to satisfy your own twisted mind. Don’t think that just because you’re an elder you can let your words and deeds run wild. In this world a ridiculous excuse will always be a ridiculous thing, and it will never make anybody agree with you or believe in you.”

“All I know is that what a god says is truth.” The Golden Emperor raised his head. Golden Crow divine flame burst out of him and sent Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon and the others falling back a good long way at once. The radiance pouring off him was a thousand, ten thousand times brighter than the sun in the sky.

The Golden Emperor gazed at Yue Yang with eyes that had turned gold as his divine power came fully into view.

He stretched out his right hand, which gave off the sun’s own brilliance too, and pointed it at Yue Yang. “Young man, let me tell you a fact as well. I am a god, a true god. And so what I say is truth, and whether you think it right or wrong does not matter at all. It is a truth that belongs to me alone, one that takes my Divinity as its measure and my divine power as its reach, a truth that can never perish and can never be erased. Young man, have you heard me clearly?”

Under the radiance of the Golden Emperor’s divine power, Yue Yang could not look his opponent in the face at all.

He raised a hand to shield his eyes.

Even with the Heavenly Eye of Wisdom, he could not keep his eyes open in that radiance.

This was the might of the Golden Emperor’s divine power, the Golden Emperor’s unique Divinity, and the will of his law!

“If you have heard me clearly, then go and die! You who defy my will and exist against it cannot go on living in this world, because you are not a god, not a true god with a Divinity and a law of your own!” The Golden Emperor’s voice spread far like rolling thunder. The moment he finished speaking, his right hand shot out a radiance of endless day a thousand, ten thousand times stronger than the sun.

Everything in front of him, the indestructible ground of the blood altar, the space of the Sky Stairway where the laws of heaven and earth held, and Yue Yang holding his blade up to guard with everything he had, was vaporized and annihilated in an instant by that divine power.

Extinction.

Before the Golden Emperor, a true god, anything that existed against his will perished in an instant, and perished forever.

(End of Chapter 1259)