The Storm Sea. The battle continued.
The Wild Bull Brothers’ blood had turned the waves that battered them a deeper red. They went flying — and the Dragon Emperor, fighting to keep himself above the waterline, could do nothing but watch. No strength left to reach them.
Gray Wolf was the one who moved. Bleeding from wounds that hadn’t stopped, teeth bared against what was clearly considerable pain, it lunged upward and caught the Elder Brother in its jaws, hooked the Younger Brother with its tail, and pulled both of them — fully unconscious, combat capability gone entirely — into the Grimoire World before the next wave could finish the question.
Taotie was doing the same for the Underworld Emperor, using its body as a brace while the Underworld Emperor continued vomiting blood with the grim persistence of someone who refuses to acknowledge that the situation has become untenable.
Of everyone who had been fighting, only Tianzhu was still standing upright.
From the Revenge Domain Emperor at the start, through the Lion King and Golden Crown King now — he had been the absolute core of his group’s fighting capacity throughout. The Domain Emperor had been dropped in a single exchange by the most powerful opponent, rendered unconscious in moments. That opponent had apparently not considered Tianzhu and the others worth further attention, and had left — taking the Revenge Domain Emperor — without engaging them again.
This was not mercy. It was a delegation.
The Lion King and Golden Crown King had received their instructions: eliminate everyone. Leave nothing.
The Lion King alone was sufficient for that task, given the condition of everyone present. The Golden Crown King standing at the periphery, relaxed, ready to deliver a finishing blow at any moment he chose — that was extra.
“You cannot win this. Surrender. You all have genuine potential — given time, there’s no reason your achievements couldn’t rival ours.”
It was the Lion King’s third pause to offer terms.
He meant it. The war beasts — the uncanny intelligence of Gray Wolf operating without a formal contract, the unusual form of Taotie — and Tianzhu and the Dragon Emperor themselves, all showed cultivation quality that warranted something other than disposal. Enemies were sometimes worth converting. Capable people, redirected, often became the most devoted subordinates. A leader of standing needed to be large enough to hold that possibility.
“The only Tianzhu that exists is one that dies standing,” Tianzhu said. Simple. Unambiguous.
“Then I’ll help you do that.” Something moved in the Lion King’s gold eyes — genuine appreciation, the kind that doesn’t change what comes next. He respected the principle. He found the person who held it admirable.
He was still going to kill him.
The Lion King threw his head back and roared.
Something happened to the Storm Sea.
The waves stopped.
Not slowed — stopped. As though the sound had hit every surge and swell and column of churning water and told them, firmly, that they were done. A momentary stillness spread across the entire expanse.
Then the sea moved again.
The waves had become a mouth. An enormous lion’s mouth, open wide, and Tianzhu and the others were standing at the center of the tongue, looking up at teeth made of water and power and the Lion King’s absolute certainty that they were about to be swallowed.
The Lion King could do this. He could shape the entire Storm Sea to his purpose — an environment of complete energy chaos, and he was reshaping it.
Tianzhu, for the first time in the fight, felt small.
Inside the star world, the danger was quieter and worse.
The two ordinary-looking men had entered. Everyone else was occupied. The two men were not occupied. They were walking — directly, without looking at anything along the way — toward Yue Yang.
Not toward Ming Rihao. Not toward the assembled domain emperors. Not toward the Generals or the national rulers or the Freedom Queen or any of the other people in the space.
Toward Yue Yang.
The one holding the Revenge Domain Emperor in one hand and the snake-haired sorcerer in the other crossed the space and stopped in front of Yue Yang. He set the snake-haired sorcerer down — gently, the way you’d set down something that might break — and then looked at Yue Yang with the quality of attention that belonged to someone who has been looking forward to something for a long time and is now confirming that the reality matches the expectation.
A long moment. Long enough that it became notable.
Then a slow, certain nod.
“An unparalleled genius. Calling you a monstrous talent — that’s not an exaggeration at all.”
“Are you the Solar King?” Yue Yang felt it before he framed the question — the sensation of something’s full attention arriving on you, the specific weight of being noticed by something that could end you if it chose.
“If I’m speaking, I’m clearly not the Silent King.” The man’s tone was pleasant. But Yue Yang still couldn’t be certain — the Heavenly Eye of Wisdom was returning the same reading from both ordinary-looking men, which was no reading at all. If the Solar King had reached the point where he could maintain a perfect outer facade that defeated an ability that saw through everything — then what was the Silent King, at the same tier, capable of? That can’t be right. Something is wrong. Find the flaw. Stay cold.
Ming Rihao watched the man settle his attention on Yue Yang and felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time move through him.
He had no more room to stay out of this.
He stood up.
Let the concealment go.
Let himself be what he was.
The Two-Faced King registered the new power signature and moved with the reflexive speed of someone reacting to a threat — appearing behind Ming Rihao, the black scythe curling around to his throat, voice carrying the cold amusement of someone who thinks they understand what they’re dealing with: “Big man. This is a conversation for a higher tier. You don’t have a seat at this table. If you’d like to keep busy, I’m available — just stay out of the way of the important people.”
Ming Rihao’s power came out.
Not gradually. All of it, immediately — decades upon decades of suppressed cultivation detonating outward in every direction at once. Lightning in numbers that made counting irrelevant erupted from his body. His figure blazed with a luminance that was not metaphorical — not spiritual brightness, actual light, the kind that forced eyes away, that made the space around him into a second sun.
The Two-Faced King had not finished being astonished when Ming Rihao’s counterattack arrived. The scythe — a quasi-divine artifact, the thing that had cut the Still Sea into sections without disturbing its equilibrium — failed to penetrate. Ming Rihao’s defense held it, and then Ming Rihao hit back.
One strike.
The Two-Faced King traveled approximately ten thousand meters, embedded himself and his scythe into the stone floor to a depth of roughly a hundred meters, and stopped making sounds for long enough that people began wondering.
The shockwave from the exchange didn’t wait for anyone to process the main event. It covered the entire stone world in the span of a single breath — the kind of force that made the domain emperor combat look like a local disagreement. National-ruler-tier cultivators inside the Star Realm Stone’s protective space felt it pass through them like a verdict. Outside that protection, it would have reduced them to components.
Even the Rage Domain Emperor and the Radiance Domain Emperor, standing at the epicenter zone, couldn’t hold their footing. They were swept sideways — a hundred meters each — by a force that hadn’t even been directed at them.
Ming Rihao extended one hand.
The shockwave stopped. Completely. The way a wave stops when someone reaches into it and closes their hand — the rolling destruction simply ceased to exist, and what was left was silence and Ming Rihao standing at the center of it, blazing, ten meters of radiant presence that made direct looking uncomfortable.
He took one step forward.
His body at full power was something the space found difficult to contain — light pouring from every surface, the quality of a star that has decided to be present at a specific location. He positioned himself between Yue Yang and the Solar King and pointed.
“Lie Changkong.” The name landed with the weight of someone who has been carrying it for a long time. “You came for me, didn’t you. Your planning is really something. If you want to move against the Ming clan, just say so — no need for all this indirection.”
The Solar King — the ordinary-looking man — stood in front of Ming Rihao’s full output and did not shift. Not a fraction. The light hit him and he stood in it the way someone stands in a mild breeze, and the smile that appeared on his face was the genuine kind, the kind that wasn’t performing anything.
“The Divine Hall has always supported the three great powers. The Ming clan has always been our loyal ally. We would never move against the Ming clan — Ming Rihao, you’ve misread us entirely.” A beat. “In truth, Lie Changkong came today partly to see an old friend — Ming Yueguang’s escape from her seal and return to the celestial realm is a cause for celebration, and the Divine Hall could hardly fail to extend its congratulations. But more important than celebrating a friend’s freedom is this: welcoming the new generation’s Prison Emperor to the celestial realm.” He turned his gaze — steady, warm, impossible to resist — to Yue Yang. “Welcome, new-generation Prison Emperor Yue Yang, Titan. Lie Changkong holds no authority in Tianhua Domain, but the welcome is sincere.”
Ming Rihao’s expression went through three changes in the time it took to breathe twice.
His sister had told him: below the Divine Hall Supreme, Dongfang the Grand Hall Master was the most intelligent; Ji Wuri of the Sacred Hall was the most powerful; and the Solar King, Lie Changkong, was both — the most difficult opponent of all.
She had understated it.
Lie Changkong continued.
“Lie Changkong first heard Yue Yang’s name years ago — at the time of the initial battle at the Prison Emperor’s Divine Palace. A single person, using Innate-tier power, breaking through the Palace’s seals — inheriting the Prison Emperor’s will and divine artifacts completely. Powers of the caliber of the Nine-Radiance Lord and the Void Sovereign were forced to retreat in considerable disarray. When word reached Lie Changkong, the surprise was genuine. A young man who, operating at the Innate tier, had managed to push back figures of that magnitude — whether in terms of mind or ability, the achievement was extraordinary enough to disturb the celestial realm’s equilibrium.”
He wasn’t rushing. His manner throughout was that of someone delivering a carefully considered account to people he respected enough to be honest with.
“Lie Changkong invested considerable effort in gathering further intelligence. The results were limited. The Titan who carried both the Conquest Queen’s will and the Prison Emperor’s will — moving between the Sky Tower and the celestial realm in ways that defied prediction, appearing in the southern celestial realm, then the western, strength advancing each time beyond what the previous reports had estimated. The Nine-Radiance clan attempted a full-clan assault on the Sky Tower and was comprehensively defeated. Each development forced Lie Changkong to revise his assessments upward.” A pause. “The turning point came when the Dugu clan’s young master Changfeng arranged to meet the Titan in White River City — Changfeng came out of honor, to fulfill an old promise; the Titan came out of trust, setting aside a good opportunity in the Trial Grounds to travel a great distance. Both said something true about their character.” He looked at Yue Yang with something that was not quite admiration and not quite calculation — some combination that had no clean name. “Today, in person — the new Prison Emperor exceeds every prior report. Among the upper realm’s countless exceptional young cultivators, not one approaches this. The concerns of the Nine-Radiance Lord and the Void Sovereign were not unfounded. At this growth rate — to say that challenging the Divine Hall Supreme in time is possible is not an overstatement.”
A small, pleasant pause.
“And finally — how is the Conquest Queen, the Titan’s teacher? I trust the dear old friend has broken free of her seal and is enjoying her freedom?”
Silence.
Ming Rihao’s face had changed three more times while Lie Changkong was speaking. He had lost count of how many total now.
This man is worse than anything my sister described. By a significant margin.
He turned to Yue Yang with the expression of someone who has just realized that the one remaining option is to find out what the person next to him is going to do, because his own options have been comprehensively exhausted.