Chapter 993: A Counterfeit Codex?

Wulan had been watching from a distance, hidden.

When she saw what happened to the Solar King, tears came immediately — and with them, something she hadn’t felt in years. Relief. The particular freedom of a weight being lifted.

She didn’t wait another second. She shifted back into her true form — the great golden crow — spread her wings to their full span, and flew at the fastest speed of her life.

Princess Qianqian’s group knew Wulan was there. None of them moved to stop her. Right now they had exactly one concern, and it was Yue Yang. An enemy who had clearly lost her will to fight — from a clan that had old and loose ties to Sky Tower, no less, one the Three-Legged Golden Crow Clan with whom Yue Yang had already had friendly dealings — wasn’t someone Princess Qianqian had any interest in pursuing. The Solar King was dead. The greatest threat had fallen. Everything else was secondary. And a grudge worth starting with the Tang Valley? When the Central Divine Hall existed? No.

The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady grabbed Yue Yu’s hand with both of hers, voice tumbling out in a rush. “How did you know the Solar King was going to die when he touched the Codex?”

Whether someone could form a covenant with a Divine Codex — no one could say for certain. The Codex was a conscious thing that chose its own master. Even Yue Yang, for all his confidence and extraordinary gifts, had no guarantee of success. But failure to covenant wasn’t the same as dying from the attempt. The Divine Codex wasn’t malicious. If it didn’t acknowledge someone, it simply ignored them. It didn’t kill them.

Yet the Solar King had exploded.

They had all seen it.

How had Yue Yu known?

Everyone’s eyes moved to her, genuinely curious.

“Because that wasn’t the Divine Codex.” Yue Yu’s attention was on the brother in her arms — heart beating now, strong and steady, the terrible color slowly returning to his face, the broken ribs beginning to knit themselves back under the combined energy the group was feeding into him. She allowed herself to exhale fully for the first time in what felt like hours. She settled down onto the floor, pulling Yue Yang half into her lap, accepted a small cup of spirit spring water that Jiang Ying handed her, drank a sip, and continued: “Yu mentioned there was a Grimoire on the throne table that looked like it might be Sacred or might be Divine. I didn’t think much of it at the time. But when I was in that fog, when my mind was completely tangled, something suddenly became clear — that book on the table was definitely not a Divine Codex. Being able to think that through — I have to thank Future for that. She’s the one who brought me back.”

“I didn’t do anything,” the Death Reaper Mantis said immediately, turning red and waving the credit away. Being praised made her deeply uncomfortable.

“Not the Divine Codex?” The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady frowned.

“Then it was just a Sacred Grimoire?” Princess Qianqian wasn’t satisfied with that either. Yue Yu hadn’t even gone up to look at it. How had she known?

“No — definitely not a Sacred Grimoire either.” Yue Yu shook her head, a small smile coming through. “Everyone’s thinking has been running down the wrong path. Let’s go back to the beginning. When we first formed our Grimoire contracts — what did our teachers and elders tell us? Every person’s Grimoire is unique. One person, one Grimoire. Anyone who tries to force a second contract, out of greed, will be harmed by the Grimoire’s own protective force.”

“But the protective backlash from a Grimoire attempt is headaches and maybe a temporary power loss,” the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady said. “Not — not exploding.”

“Right. Which is why I said what destroyed the Solar King wasn’t a Sacred Grimoire, not a Divine Codex, and not actually a Grimoire of any kind.” Yue Yu let the pause land. “What was on that table was a counterfeit codex.”

“A counterfeit codex?” Hong and Jiang Ying exchanged a blank look.

“A counterfeit codex is not a Grimoire — or rather, it stopped being one. It’s what a Grimoire becomes, eventually, when its master has fallen far enough.” Yue Yu gathered the right words. “There are people — in Sky Tower, in the celestial realm — who started with real talent. But something in their circumstances, or in themselves, warped them. They became something genuinely corrupt. The things they did were in direct, irreconcilable conflict with the fundamental Laws that Grimoires embody. When that happens — when someone goes that far — the Grimoire stops recognizing them. The Grimoire can’t leave. It can’t say goodbye. But what it can do is release its own laws, abandon itself, let its own purified essence dissolve away rather than remain contaminated. The Grimoire as an object doesn’t vanish. The life-guardian war beasts, the talent abilities, the protective forces — all of it fades, piece by piece, until only a corrupted shell remains. On the outside it looks like a Grimoire. But the actual Laws are gone. What’s left is something different — something the ancient Laws no longer acknowledge. A counterfeit codex.”

“Do the war beasts and talents still work?” Jiang Ying asked.

“The original Grimoire structure doesn’t disappear — it mutates. Life-guardian war beasts and talents, the Law-forces that support a master’s growth, various protective elements — they gradually all vanish, leaving the husk. Some very primitive functions remain — war beasts that haven’t fled can still reside inside, some abilities gained through the Grimoire’s early enlightenment might linger, though they’ll be twisted and distorted. But the true Grimoire is gone. What persists is a shell that the ancient Laws no longer recognize. That’s the counterfeit codex.” Yue Yu had learned this from pieces she’d gathered over the years — her teacher, some offhand comment from Fourth Mother, things she’d witnessed alongside Yue Yang.

“Why would a counterfeit codex be sitting in the Purple-Gold Divine Hall?” Princess Qianqian pressed. “And how did you know it was one?”

“The reason is simple.” Yue Yu glanced down at Yue Yang’s slowly breathing face, watched the color settle further back into it, watched the sternum the Solar King had shattered beginning to rebuild under the healing energy. She breathed again. Then she looked up at Princess Qianqian’s confused expression and felt something almost like warmth — because she understood the confusion, and she understood where it came from. “You could have worked this out too. You’re not thinking clearly right now because you’ve been carrying all the worry by yourself, picking up what Wuxia would normally carry, not missing a single detail so everyone else can afford to. But the signs were there early. I missed them too — I was too anxious to see them.” She paused. “The Purple-Gold Divine Hall in front of us isn’t actually the Purple-Gold Divine Hall. This whole space — everything we’ve been moving through — is only the outer layer of the Divine Codex. We haven’t entered the Codex itself.”

“What?” The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady’s voice went flat.

“Oh — oh.” Princess Qianqian’s face changed entirely. Understanding arrived all at once. “I understand.”

“We walked in from the outside,” Hong said, still working through it. “Yue Yang defeated the Water Palace Master outside and brought us in. The Laws inside and outside were clearly different — we can summon Grimoires in here. How can this be the exterior?”

“Outside, no one could summon a Grimoire. No one could use their talents. War beasts had to be carried in physically.” Princess Qianqian’s eyes were bright now. “In here, everything works normally. Which should have told us something was off. But more than that—” She pressed her palms together, suddenly completely alert. “We’ve seen what a real Divine Codex’s outer shell looks like before. Remember when the Prison Emperor was pounding on that golden shell, trying to get in? A being the Codex doesn’t acknowledge can barely enter at all. We spent enormous effort just to get Xiao Wenli through the barrier — Yue Yang had to use his sword qi, and even then it was just a one-person transfer. And then there was the whole approach with the deer and the body-transfer technique. Outside of Bingyin — the qilin girl — I can’t think of anyone who walked into a Divine Codex easily. This space is a Divine Codex space. But it’s only the outermost layer — like the exterior space we entered before, the first time. The real core, the real center — we haven’t reached it.”

Yue Yu nodded. That was exactly it.

“No wonder it felt so strange,” the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady said softly. “I kept thinking — why is it so easy to enter a Divine Codex? I just assumed each one had different Laws.”

“So the real Divine Codex, the real Purple-Gold Divine Hall — they’re further in?” Jiang Ying hugged Hong and Ika, something relieved and excited in the gesture.

“I don’t know the exact reason — probably something the ancient deity intended. This outer space is extensive and deliberately confusing, and traps have been set throughout it to test the nature of those who enter. What we should have recognized much earlier: a being of divine wisdom doesn’t leave their inheritance sitting on a table for whoever walks in to pick up. There is always a test.” Yue Yu paused. “And I remembered something else. Fourth Mother once warned Xiao San not to try contracting the Divine Codex carelessly. She definitely knew it was more complicated than it looked. Think about Ji Wuri — he has spent untold years working through Trial Grounds at genuine risk to his life, and still hasn’t obtained what he’s looking for. If the Divine Codex in this outer hall could simply be contracted by whoever arrived first, why would Ji Wuri bother with trials that could kill him at any moment? Ji Wuri is not stupid. He would never choose the harder path if an easy one existed.”

When she finished, the whole group sat with the quiet that came after understanding.

The Divine Codex could not be obtained this easily. The Solar King had found exactly that out. Whether what destroyed him was the counterfeit codex’s backlash or simply a broken body that couldn’t survive the attempt — it no longer mattered. He was gone either way.

The truth was that even without the counterfeit codex, he wouldn’t have survived what his body had already been through.

At the very end, the Solar King had gone somewhere beyond reason. Fate had eliminated him — not as condemnation, but as consequence. He was a man who had climbed from the very bottom of the world by will alone, rising to become the master of the Sun God Palace through nothing but refusal to accept his own limits. In all the celestial realm, there were very few like him. But the thing he refused to accept at the end was too large for any life to contain. He had stood at his peak — and rather than remain there, he had tried to leap from it to somewhere higher, and the fall from that kind of height is not survived.

If he had simply remained the Solar King — if he had not set his mind on Yue Yang’s death — none of this would have come to him today.

Ambition and defiance had carried him from nothing to the top.

And then carried him off the top into an abyss.

“There are still two loose pieces outside,” Hong said, bringing herself back to the practical. “The Jester, and Lady Zhiguang.”

“That’s not our problem.” Princess Qianqian had no energy for it. “If you want to go check — go ahead.”

The Jester and Zhiguang and their tangle of revenge and betrayal and sacrifice — that was the Tianhua Domain’s own story, with its own causes and its own endings. No one was entirely innocent. No one was entirely guilty. Princess Qianqian’s approach to other people’s stories of this kind was to let them reach their own conclusions. Grudges on the Longteng Continent between people who had been enemies for generations were resolved and set aside constantly — enemies became allies, and moved forward together. What was different about the Tianhua Domain? In truth, everyone tearing each other apart in Tianhua Domain was some degree of family, blood related in some direction or other. Kin killing kin, a family at war with itself — what business was that of outsiders?

“Aman — let’s go.” Hong had decided she’d rather be useful than wait. She wanted to help secure Tianhua Domain for Yue Yang — even without obvious strategic value, territory was territory. Something to give him.

“Mm.” Aman was always the most agreeable. Less talking, more doing.

“I’m coming — Duoduo, I’ll bring you back lots of fertilizer!” The Death Reaper Mantis came shooting in after them. More battles, more growth, more learning — the only way to get stronger and actually help protect the people she cared about.

“I wonder how Inan and Bingbing are doing,” Yue Yu said softly, settling Yue Yang more carefully. Then Xiao Wenli and the others guided them back toward the Grimoire World.

“I’m not worried about them,” Princess Qianqian said. “It’s Tianzhu’s group facing the Two-Faced King that has me slightly anxious. But with Gray Wolf there — well, difficulties always come with opportunities. If they manage the Two-Faced King, it’ll push them all forward significantly.” She stopped, suddenly exhausted. “I can’t think about any more of it. So tired. I need to sleep. Xiao Nu — can you rub my shoulders?”

She was asleep before she finished the sentence. Jiang Ying and Duoduo found their own quiet corners.

In the end, only Yue Yu remained awake, holding Yue Yang.

She was exhausted too. But she couldn’t set him down — couldn’t just leave him lying there covered in blood and grime. She sighed, shifted him in her arms, and began carrying him toward the bathing pool. She couldn’t sleep until he was clean. That was simply how things were.

Something from a past life I owe him, probably.

It was fortunate that everyone else had already gone to rest. The alternative would have been excessively embarrassing.