Inside the stone world, everything was exactly as it had been.

The Solar King had all but destroyed the stone world — but under the Solar Bell, Time Domain, and Time Law’s reversal, the stone world had once again returned to its original shape. The one difference was that Yue Yang, Ming Rihao, and the Freedom Queen — the three who had been standing across from the Solar King — were no longer there. Had all three been utterly incinerated to ash by the Solar King’s blazing sun, reduced to nothingness?

The Solar King knew exactly how powerful his own strike had been.

But even at near-full power, he did not believe he could annihilate all three of them in a single move.

Neither the Freedom Queen nor Ming Rihao could be killed off that easily.

Severely wounded, possibly.

But when all three silhouettes vanished without a trace, one thought lit up in the Solar King’s mind.

Yue Yang and Ming Rihao have escaped… Right under his own eyes, right in the middle of his annihilating strike, using some method he himself hadn’t foreseen.

Definitely not the Three Realms Compass ability.

Under his own domain and law’s influence, the Three Realms Compass could not function. Yue Yang, this kid, had used some other way.

“…” The Solar King looked at the spot where Yue Yang had been standing. There was a small patch of blood on the floor.

He snapped his fingers.

A strange-shaped war beast with green skin sprang out of a burst of golden light.

It sniffed at the blood for a few seconds and immediately dashed off toward the Star Realm space.

This was the Mudskipper Hound — the Solar King’s most trusted retainer, a non-combat but preternaturally skilled tracking-type special beast. Because its ability was so strong and so rare, in the Central Divine Hall only cultivators of Hall Master rank and above were entitled to keep one. Once it started tracking, it would never lose the trail. The Mudskipper Hound’s own combat power was weak, but its body was half-elemental, half-flesh — no terrain, land, sea, or air, no adverse condition, could stop it. Most importantly, once a Mudskipper Hound was contracted, no one could kill it until its master died. In that respect it resembled a life-guardian war beast, somewhat.

The Solar King’s Mudskipper Hound had already been cultivated up to Sky-rank tier one. In combat that was nothing.

But for tracking, it was more than enough.

Before actually giving chase, the Solar King spent quite some time observing the surrounding stone world. Clearly, despite having a Mudskipper Hound to track for him, he was not going to rely on the result blindly. Only after exhaustively confirming — three times over — that Yue Yang and Ming Rihao had not slipped past his eyes, that they were not hiding somewhere in the stone world, that they had truly and definitely entered the Star Realm Space where the goddess’s remains lay, did the Solar King finally set off, unhurried.

To be honest — even if he had seen Yue Yang’s and Ming Rihao’s corpses with his own eyes —

He would still have had doubts.

Ming Rihao, whatever. But until the Solar King saw Yue Yang’s soul completely erased with his own eyes, he would absolutely not believe that this new-generation Prison Emperor was dead.

Even at odds of one in ten thousand, the Solar King would not allow that eventuality. As the Solar King saw it, if the Central Divine Hall was to shine forever, a threat like Yue Yang Yue Titan had to be pulled up by the roots.

The Star Realm Space was empty.

Even the half-body of the unnamed goddess was gone.

Where the goddess’s remains had been, there was now an ancient rune formation of impenetrable, mystifying complexity.

The Solar King stepped closer, and with some effort identified what it was — a “Divine Wish Formation.”

Through this Divine Wish Formation, one could travel — in accordance with the goddess’s dying wish — directly to the Divine Codex space. That goddess had, in order that her descendants might one day enter the Divine Codex space, used her life and sacrificed herself to open this Divine Wish Formation…

“So earlier, deliberately lifting the goddess’s skirt — that wasn’t lechery. That was reconnaissance on this Divine Wish Formation.” The Solar King’s face grew unusually ugly, and his fist slowly clenched: “Damnation. This crafty little bastard — at that moment, while I had not yet detected him, had already worked out his escape route. Truly, the young man who killed the Nine-Sun Empress deserves his reputation!”

“Woof! Woof!” The Mudskipper Hound did not track by scent — it tracked by sensing. It barked furiously at the Divine Wish ancient rune formation.

However, given its capability and its trained obedience, without a direct order from the Solar King —

It did not dare and would not have been able to enter the Divine Wish rune array on its own initiative.

The Divine Codex space was not a place any life could freely enter.

The Mudskipper Hound had some spiritual awareness.

It could already sense the Divine Codex’s grand power and felt, from the bottom of its being, a genuine reverence.

The Solar King glanced at it and gave his order: “Stand guard here. Until I come back out, no one is permitted to enter. Even if the Lion King, the Golden Crown King, or the Two-Faced King arrive, they wait outside. No one touches this Divine Wish rune array.”

The Mudskipper Hound was intelligent — its comprehension of human speech was, aside from the inability to speak, indistinguishable from a mature Sky-rank warrior’s.

It lowered its head to receive the order.

It crouched down in front of the Divine Wish ancient rune formation and quietly waited for its master’s report.

Golden light shimmered around the Solar King’s body. He stood on the array, and in an instant, he vanished.

Five minutes later.

He suddenly reappeared, flew back out of the stone world to search everything one more time, confirmed with absolute certainty that Yue Yang had taken Ming Rihao and the Freedom Queen and fled into the Divine Codex space, and only then stepped back onto the Divine Wish ancient rune formation and formally teleported in.

The Divine Wish ancient rune formation flared with a silver light — beautiful beyond words — like the Milky Way descending from the sky.

A pulse of divine power was born beneath the Solar King’s feet.

In an instant, it teleported him away.

At the same moment — as though a door had opened, and one person walking in exchanged places with a person walking out — Yue Yang stepped into the Solar King’s spot, standing on the Divine Wish ancient rune formation. The Mudskipper Hound’s eyes went round as saucers.

“Well, damn, are those dog-eyes of yours blind or what? Have you never heard of manners? Did that owner of yours not teach you any?” Yue Yang was irritated by the Hound’s stare, and he kicked the stupid dog straight into the air. The Mudskipper Hound was flung a good hundred meters, tumbling. Its head was kicked; its spine was almost broken in the fall; its mind was reeling. For a moment it could not work out how — how — this enemy could possibly come out of the Divine Codex. And come out at exactly the moment its master had gone in, with not a second’s error. How was that possible?

Of course, if we’re honest — even the Mudskipper Hound’s master, the paranoid, hair-splitting Solar King, had been outplayed by Yue Yang.

The tossed, half-broken Mudskipper Hound gave a pitiful yelp: “Oo-woo-woof…“

Watching Yue Yang about to leave —

The Mudskipper Hound scrambled painfully to its feet.

Do I stay and guard the ancient rune formation, or do I chase this enemy?

Both choices were equally important. Staying would prevent tampering — if its master failed to contract the Divine Codex, he had to come back out this way; if the teleport array here was destroyed, getting out would be extremely difficult. But the whole reason its master had entered the Divine Codex was to kill this dangerous enemy. If the enemy escaped, hadn’t the earlier mission been squandered?

The two directives contradicted each other so hard the Mudskipper Hound almost had a stroke.

It wasn’t human, after all.

However clever — it was still a dog!

As Yue Yang unhurriedly stepped out of the Star Realm Space and was about to leave the stone world, the Mudskipper Hound couldn’t take it anymore. It shot off after him at top speed. With its ability, it could not detain an enemy of Yue Yang’s tier — but it could keep tracking, and leave a trail for its master. A target.

Yue Yang paid it no attention. Just as he was about to enter the spatial corridor, a wounded, blood-soaked country mutt came bouncing in from that same corridor, tail wagging shamelessly.

Head bobbing this way and that, ingratiating as any lickspittle.

The lickspittle grin on its face was so obviously fake that the Mudskipper Hound wanted to slap it.

Damn, even as a guard-dog, this was undignified. It was an insult to the dignity of dogs!

If Yue Yang hadn’t been there, the Mudskipper Hound would have gone over and taught this cheap mutt a personal lesson on what dog-dignity meant.

“Idiot. You think this young lord needs you to save him? Use that brain of yours — this young lord has the biggest luck in the world. When have I ever had trouble? Are you a pig? Being dumb is fine — but you don’t have to be this dumb. A little bit dumb is enough. Get lost!” Yue Yang saw Gray Wolf performing his loyalty routine and immediately rewarded him with a kick. Wait — the pet guard-dog came to rescue his master? Did Yue Yang look like he was starring in one of Auntie Qiongyao’s tear-jerking period soaps? Was the melodrama really that thick?

“Mrew!” Gray Wolf quickly did his cutesy pose and mock-laughed, indicating that no, he’d only come here in passing to worship the master’s mighty display of force.

The Mudskipper Hound wanted to vomit at that transparent brand of loyalty-currying.

What a cheap, undignified dog!

Even I have never grovelled like that!

Yue Yang suddenly turned his head and glanced at the Mudskipper Hound, muttering to himself: “Combat’s terrible, but tracking’s not bad. Quick, too!”

The Mudskipper Hound knew Yue Yang was talking about it. It pulled itself up smugly and bared its teeth at Gray Wolf, sticking its chest out — this was what a proper dog looked like. Not only did you get your master’s praise, you got your enemy’s acknowledgment too… This blood-soaked country guard-dog — unloved at home, hated by outsiders — was the shame of the entire canine class.

Gray Wolf seemed thoroughly deflated by the Mudskipper Hound’s little display.

His whole body slumped to the floor.

Utterly listless.

By the time Yue Yang walked off, Gray Wolf had gone completely flat, splayed on his back and stretched all four limbs out — the picture of a hunger-strike about to happen.

The Mudskipper Hound was on its way to chase Yue Yang. But before pursuing the enemy, it saw no reason not to circle Gray Wolf a couple of times, twitching its hips as it went, to enjoy its win.

Seeing the country mutt so pathetically weak, gravely wounded and barely alive — and, more importantly, in such a dispirited state that his fighting spirit was already broken — the Mudskipper Hound was confident that even if this ran to blows, this lowly rural mutt was absolutely no match for a noble prince of dogs like itself. The Mudskipper Hound lifted its head, glanced off toward where Yue Yang’s back was vanishing in the distance, and — judging from the enemy’s departure speed — was confident it could catch up inside thirty seconds.

Before it did, the Mudskipper Hound hesitated for one second.

And decided to have a little more fun with this dumb, punchable, pity-inducing hick country mutt.

“Woof, woof!” The Mudskipper Hound wagged its tail, wriggled its rump, and swaggered up in front of Gray Wolf, the message very clear: Come on, eat my fart — you can’t even manage that!

Gray Wolf lashed out with an enraged claw-swipe.

But the Mudskipper Hound was too fast.

Couldn’t hit it.

The Mudskipper Hound first ducked back — but once it had measured this country dog’s attack speed and grown even more full of itself, it started shoving its rump close enough to Gray Wolf’s mouth to feel breath on it. At the speed you can manage — ten times faster wouldn’t hurt a single hair on me.

If this country mutt’s attack was “wind,” the Mudskipper Hound thought its own speed was “lightning.”

Wind could never catch lightning, no matter how hard it tried.

No matter how furious it got.

Gray Wolf snapped a few more times. The Mudskipper Hound zipped away each time. He could not so much as brush the Hound.

The Mudskipper Hound was cackling with laughter and rolling on the ground.

But — at the very peak of its own enjoyment — Gray Wolf suddenly did something. He opened his mouth once more… his head expanded a hundredfold in an instant, and in a single bite Gray Wolf snapped the Mudskipper Hound’s entire body into his mouth. The Mudskipper Hound had tried to run; it had used the absolute maximum of its lifetime’s speed. It had not been able to escape Gray Wolf’s blood-basin maw.

Gulp.

Gray Wolf swallowed the Mudskipper Hound in one bite, and immediately the punchable, cheap little grin reappeared on his face.

He imitated the Mudskipper Hound’s dying pose — hips wiggling, tail waving, prancing with cocksure little strides right where the Mudskipper Hound had been alive a moment ago.

Then, for good measure, threw his head back and laughed.

Rolling on the ground…

By the time he was finally done laughing and got back on his feet, he’d once again reverted to the blank, stupid look of a country mutt. All he was missing was the words “I’m a real dummy” carved on his forehead.

(End of Chapter 973)