The moment the Golden Emperor made his move, everything in front of him was destroyed.

Never mind Yue Yang, standing at the heart of that radiance of endless day. Even one of the Sky Dragon clan’s huge men, who had not fled fast enough and had been grazed by the very edge of the Golden Emperor’s divine light, was vaporized in an instant. The huge man was only this Sky Dragon power’s outward form. He did not stand as high in the Heavenly Realm as Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon, but he too was an overlord of his own domain there, and his giant dragon body was a thousand times harder than steel. Short of a true god’s power, nothing in the world could have reduced it to nothing.

The face of Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon of the Sky Dragon clan turned iron-blue.

Bonemelt, the beautiful queen with flames pouring off her whole body, was so frightened her teeth chattered.

As for the four others, huge men on the outside and every one of them a Sky Dragon overlord in truth, their souls had all but left their bodies.

The one killed in an instant by that divine light had not been the strongest of the five, but he had certainly not been the weakest. Even in a fight against the pride of the Sky Dragon clan, Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon, who was said to be the clan’s strongest, their fallen companion would never have lost within a hundred moves.

An overlord like that.

A Sky Dragon power like that.

The Golden Emperor had killed him in an instant with one casual move.

And he had only been grazed by the barest edge of that divine power… If it had struck him head on, even someone as proud as Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon had no confidence he could have lived through it.

It was not that they had never heard of the Golden Emperor’s fame, or did not know the strength of the lord of the Tang Valley. But none of them had ever imagined that the head of the Three-Legged Golden Crows could be this terrifyingly strong!

“Old friend, it has been many years. Congratulations on climbing to a new realm.” The only one there whose face had not changed was the middle-aged scholar.

“I have done everything I promised you.” The Golden Emperor looked at the middle-aged scholar.

“Thank you very much. My dear brother, you really do not owe me anything. We are brothers, and there is no need for ceremony between us.” The middle-aged scholar was all smiles, and though he said there was no need for ceremony, he made the Golden Emperor a bow of thanks with great solemnity. The Golden Emperor was silent for a long while. Then he suddenly turned and walked away. When he had gone ten meters, he stopped. “Dongfang, I am still the man I was back then, driven out of my homeland, wandering the Heavenly Realm with no home to go to. But you are no longer the man you were back then, who would give up everything for a friend. This is the last time I will act for you. I hope you will look to yourself. That is the last piece of advice I give you as your brother.”

“Thank you. I will keep it in my heart.” The middle-aged scholar slowly nodded to him.

He watched the Golden Emperor leave, one steady step at a time, and for a long time he said nothing.

Only when the Golden Emperor’s mountain-like figure had vanished completely at the edge of the sky did he let out a soft breath. “You really are still the man you were. That is good!”

The six of the Sky Dragon clan and the three of the Black Terror clan, their color recovered, were all looking at the middle-aged scholar. Among the Nine-Headed Clan, the Nine-Headed Serpent, the Nine-Headed Worm and the others had their heads together, whispering about something.

The Sky Tower’s greatest obstacle, the Yue family’s third son, Yue Titan, the one they called a miracle, had now been wiped out in an instant by the Golden Emperor’s supreme divine power.

So what came next?

How were the shares of the Ruins of the Gods going to be divided?

In this fight none of them had even had the chance to make a move. Instead it was the Golden Emperor, rushing to make the first move to repay an old favor, who had walked off with the biggest credit. Did that mean the division they had agreed on had to be torn up and negotiated again? The Nine-Headed Clan was all right; they had had a share from the start, small but a share all the same. But the Sky Dragon and Black Terror clans had never been among the invited. They had come of their own accord, too late for the original division, rushing down from the Heavenly Realm in a hurry, and if they got nothing and went home empty-handed, that would never do!

“What do we do now?” Bonemelt, the beautiful queen with flames burning all over her, looked at Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon, a little unsure.

“Ahem. We can go on lending our strength to wiping out the Sky Tower’s powers. But as for the shares, we will need at least, hmm, one-fiftieth of the Ruins of the Gods.” Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon had thought it over carefully before putting forward his proposal.

If the Golden Emperor had not shown himself to be so overwhelming, he might have asked for a twentieth, or even a tenth.

But as things looked now, even a fiftieth was a lion opening its mouth wide.

The Golden Emperor was only one man.

But his strength could no longer be measured in numbers.

In other words, though the Sky Dragon clan still had six members standing, their combined strength was simply not on the same level as the Golden Emperor’s. And if the Golden Emperor was like this, then how strong must the Demon Emperor be, who stood shoulder to shoulder with him, and the Central Divine Hall’s First Elder, the Immovable Supreme? And what shares would they take? And above the Golden Emperor and the Demon Emperor there were still two more, Peerless Emperor Wushuang and the Divine Hall Supreme, Tianyu… Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon felt that his proposal of a fiftieth had been a bit too greedy. Then again, you named a sky-high price so that there was room to come down; this was certainly not going to be the final agreement, and starting a little high would make the bargaining easier later.

Weighing every force and every strength involved, Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon reckoned that his own Sky Dragon clan could get a hundredth at the very most.

If that really could not be done, a two-hundredth, or at the very least a five-hundredth, would still be acceptable.

“Tch!” In answer to the Two-Headed Dragon’s proposal, the man in black from the Black Terror clan, the one with defiance all over his face and an utterly arrogant manner, curled his lip in utter contempt and sneered back. “Even our clan’s Taotie hasn’t got an appetite like yours! A tiny little Sky Dragon clan, trash that gets killed in one move, and you dare to open your mouth that wide? Aren’t you afraid you’ll burst? Even if you aren’t afraid of bursting, how about thinking whether everyone else might die laughing?”

“What did you say?” Bonemelt, the beautiful queen wreathed in flame, was furious.

First that Yue Titan slaps me in the face over and over, and now this demon-race brat wants to push me around too? Whatever else anyone says about me, I’m a dragon queen who’s drained a thousand, ten thousand rivers of men dry. One slap in the face after another — do you really take me for a side dish?

Looks like I’ll have to show my teeth!

Let me tell you, boy, I’m no lamp that runs without oil!

Of course, with his strength still unknown, it would not do to act rashly. She had to keep her little life to collect her share of the treasures of the Ruins of the Gods!

With that thought, Bonemelt, the beautiful queen, quietly made an extremely well-hidden gesture to the four companions behind her, signaling them to make a move and test what this arrogant demon-race brat was made of.

“Boy, a big mouth makes for a cheap hide. Take it easy!” One of the Sky Dragon overlords, who was having an affair with the beautiful queen, jumped ahead of the others and stepped out from the group. He planted his small-hill body in front of the swaggering man and looked down on him from above. “If you don’t like it, your granddaddy here will have a go with you, and keep at it till you do! Don’t think your friends can protect you. There are six of us!”

As he shouted, he kept an eye on the faces of the Black Terror clan’s bear demon and boar demon.

He found that neither of the two demon kings made a sound.

He took it that they were afraid of his Sky Dragon clan, and at once his confidence grew a hundredfold.

They had lost one companion in an instant, but they still numbered six, far more than the Black Terror demons.

As for the Nine-Headed Clan, they were not weak, but demons like these, who loved fighting among themselves and never pulled together, ought to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight rather than step in.

As long as the boar demon and the bear demon did not step in to protect him, one demon-race brat, whose true form nobody could even make out, would amount to very little however strong he was!

And with looks as mismatched as his, he might well be a mongrel.

Impure blood was a fatal weakness among the Eastern demon race.

Mongrels were bound to be the weakest, and the old fogeys at the top had no love for juniors who came out of crossbreeding. The Sky Dragon clan, for example, had been thrown out of the ranks of the demon race entirely for betraying the Sky Dragon Emperor and mixing their bloodline with giant dragons and other races. The demon race would not even grant them the most basic nominal standing anymore, and treated them wholly as outsiders.

Otherwise, the Sky Dragon clan could have counted as one of the Eastern demon race too.

“Still wet behind the ears, and you dare come raiding in the Sky Tower? Your granddaddy here can slap the piss out of you with one hand!” The Sky Dragon overlord, as tall as a small hill, glared smugly at the insolent man in front of him.

“You? You and what army?” The swaggering man had been born a fighting fanatic. He had wanted to provoke Yue Yang into a fight in the first place, and when that did not happen he had been ready to find an excuse to take on the Sky Dragon clan instead. Then, once they reached the blood altar and he saw the Golden Emperor, he had reined himself in a little and watched quietly without saying much. Now that the Golden Emperor was gone, if the swaggering man did not go back to his true self now, when would he? Forget an arrogant reply from the other side; even if there had been no reply at all, he would have found some way to start a fight, because fighting was the whole meaning of his life!

“Wait, wait.” The middle-aged scholar hurried to stop them.

He put forward an idea. “About the shares, I know everyone wants more, but the portion of the Ruins of the Gods is fixed, and it truly puts me, the Hall Master, in a difficult position. So why not do this? All of you together will stand guard in front of this blood altar, because this is the exit of the Sky Stairway, and there may still be Sky Tower powers who went in to cultivate and have not yet made it back to join the fighting. If you can hold this place for three days and three nights, then whether or not any fighting happens, whoever is left at the end will get one percent each. What do you think of that proposal?”

Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon heard it and thought: this is good for my side!

They had six on their side.

It was far better than even their highest demand had been.

Of course, he also understood the vicious intent of the Central Divine Hall’s foremost strategist. Grand Hall Master Dongfang plainly meant to kill with a borrowed knife!

Guarding the blood altar was surely a pretext. What Sky Tower powers? Hadn’t the strongest of them, Yue Titan, been killed by the Golden Emperor in one move? If it had been him instead, he reckoned it would have been a fight settled in a few dozen moves, a hundred at most… With Yue Titan dead, could the Sky Tower still have any experts left? Impossible!

Grand Hall Master Dongfang plainly wanted to keep the Nine-Headed Clan, the Black Terror clan and his own Sky Dragon clan here to slaughter one another.

After three days there probably would not be many left alive.

That would make things easy.

Even at a share of one percent apiece, it would be much easier.

“Agreed. We will do as you say!” Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon felt the proposal held every advantage for him and not a single drawback. One percent was certain, never mind the rest, and if more of his companions survived, there would be more shares to divide. When the time came he could get rid of those companions himself and take several shares alone. As for his companions being killed or wounded in the fighting, what did that matter? All he had to do was be alive at the end.

“We have no objection either.” The Nine-Headed Serpent nodded, and reminded the middle-aged scholar: “Please remember, the share that belongs to His Excellency the Demon Emperor must not be any less.”

“Of course!” The middle-aged scholar looked again at the three of the Black Terror clan. He saw that the swaggering man said nothing, while the bear demon and the boar demon both nodded in agreement with his proposal, and at once he put on a warm smile. “Everyone, the task of guarding the Sky Stairway’s exit is very important. You must all pull together, and on no account let private grudges lead you into duels that hold up the real business!”

“N-no, we won’t, hmph!” Bonemelt, the beautiful queen, sneered at the swaggering man, meaning him no good at all. Wasn’t this a plain reminder to seize the chance and settle a private score under a public pretext?

Three days was plenty of time to get rid of the three from the Black Terror clan.

Even if they could not take down the bear and the boar, getting rid of this arrogant demon-race brat would be no problem.

As for the Nine-Headed Clan, there was supposed to be the Demon Emperor behind them, but whether the Demon Emperor had come to the Sky Tower at all was an open question. The Demon Emperor was not the Golden Emperor of the Three-Legged Golden Crow Clan. He was no friend of Dongfang’s, and would probably not come in person. Sending five of his people had been face enough already. As long as those five of the Nine-Headed Clan did not go too far, and waited nicely for their share, there was no need to clash with them for now.

“Tch!” The swaggering man spat on the ground in contempt, his manner as arrogant as could be. It looked as if the boy was a hard case through and through, who had no idea what fear was!

The middle-aged scholar let it be known that he still had some extremely important business to attend to. He urged them again and again to get along in peace, and naturally they all said yes to his face.

Satisfied with that answer, Grand Hall Master Dongfang nodded and drifted away.

As soon as he was gone, the Sky Dragon clan saw that the Nine-Headed Serpent and the rest of the Nine-Headed Clan showed no reaction, and that the Black Terror clan’s bear demon and boar demon were as meek as lambs, and decided it was time to show what they could do. Two of the Sky Dragon overlords turned toward the bear demon and the boar demon, one of them hanging back on the outside to cover, the other with his eyes fixed on the swaggering man, ready at any moment to give the boy a crushing blow to the head.

Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon and Bonemelt, the beautiful queen, meanwhile, turned smiling faces on the Nine-Headed Serpent and the rest of the Nine-Headed Clan, looking as harmless as could be.

None of the five of the Nine-Headed Clan made a sound.

In the end, only the Nine-Headed Demon frowned slightly and suddenly spoke. “You really think Yue Titan is dead?”

The moment he said it, every one of the Sky Dragon clan was dumbfounded, and even the Black Terror clan’s bear demon and boar demon were thoroughly taken aback. That had been a killing blow from the Golden Emperor, at the realm of a true god. The Sky Dragon overlord who had not escaped in time had been annihilated in that divine power, rock-hard giant dragon body and all. How could a mere human, fragile in the extreme, with his little body of flesh, hope to escape with his life under the Golden Emperor’s radiance of endless day?

The will of a god was never to be doubted.

If someone a god meant to kill could survive, could that someone still be human? No one but a god could survive the will of a god!

“If he were not dead, how could he have gotten past Dongfang’s eyes?” Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon was startled at first, but then chose to believe the middle-aged scholar, because Grand Hall Master Dongfang was never wrong. Even if he were wrong, he would never be wrong in front of creatures weaker and less intelligent than he was. Only a god could possibly make Grand Hall Master Dongfang wrong!

“You all think Yue Titan is dead?” The Nine-Headed Demon looked around at all of them.

(End of Chapter 1260)