Chapter 995: The Guard

When Yue Yang woke up, a full day had passed.

“Hm?”

When the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady told him the Solar King was dead — not killed by his own hand, technically, but destroyed by the counterfeit codex he’d tried to contract — Yue Yang felt genuinely good about it. A rival that dangerous was gone. That counted for everything. But then he turned the situation over in his head and felt the familiar frustration rising.

You take down a boss this powerful and he drops absolutely nothing? No level up either? What kind of garbage game design is this? Where’s the GM? I want to file a complaint.

Ten battles. Multiple moments where his life had genuinely been in question. Cross-tier combat. And then the boss explodes and leaves behind — what, exactly?

Princess Qianqian had seen this reaction before. If he came out of something like this without complaining about the rewards, that would be strange.

“Xiao San,” Yue Yu offered gently, “didn’t you get half a divine body before all of this? That alone is extraordinary. How many people in the history of the world have received any part of a divine body?”

She was right and Yue Yang knew it. His mood improved slightly. “Still — a boss that powerful drops nothing? What a letdown.”

“Who said nothing dropped?” the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady said. “The Solar King’s Grimoire came out when he exploded. Hong already picked it up for you. Whether you can get anything out of it is your problem to figure out.”

“Besides a Grimoire that’s already gone dark — any weapons? Artifacts? Sub-divine artifacts?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“There’s no way the Solar King was this broke,” Yue Yang said suspiciously.

“He probably had things,” the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady said, keeping her face very serious while thoroughly enjoying herself. “But he didn’t get to use them before your destiny giant stomped him into a panic, and then he scrambled up to the counterfeit codex and exploded before anyone could stop him. Try looking in his Grimoire.”

“The Grimoire is a lost cause.” Yue Yang shook his head.

A Grimoire wasn’t a storage ring. Whatever was inside couldn’t simply be removed — you needed the original master, or a new master to form a contract. And if a new master contracted it without sufficient power or compatibility, the Grimoire would revert to its original Bronze state and everything inside would simply cease to exist. Yue Yang suspected the Solar King hadn’t been carrying his most valuable possessions anyway — anything truly useful he would have deployed in the fight, and he hadn’t. Which suggested either he didn’t have much, or what he had couldn’t have helped.

Though the idea of the Solar King — a figure of this level, occupying this position — having accumulated nothing worth noting over his entire career was frankly difficult to accept.

Maybe the qilin girl Bingyin, once she woke from her prolonged sleep, could be persuaded to try entering an ownerless Grimoire. She’d done it before. But not now — she was in the middle of what seemed to be an important breakthrough and had not responded to anything.

Hong handed Yue Yang the Prayer Pearl and recounted what had happened between Ming Rihao and Lady Zhiguang.

Yue Yang put on his best surprised expression. “Wait — Zhiguang is a giant woman? Ha. I’m starting to feel some sympathy for Ming Rihao. No wonder the poor man kept dragging his feet for so long. Though thinking about it — Ming Rihao has exactly that miserable-uncle energy, and honestly, without someone as imposing as a giant woman, who else would be a proper match? They suit each other perfectly, haha.”

Princess Qianqian gave him a look that communicated volumes.

“Careful,” the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady said, barely suppressing a smile. “Say that again in front of Lieyan and see what happens.”

“Commander Lieyan and I have a completely pure — ahem — friendship.” Yue Yang began composing his defense.

“Xiao San.” Yue Yu’s voice carried a warning. Even as a joke, that topic was dangerous — if Lieyan heard it, how would she feel?

Yue Yang surrendered his hands immediately.

The subject was gracefully set aside. Everyone who knew the full situation understood the unspoken courtesy they were extending — some things were better left where they were.

Not fully recovered yet, but already restless, Yue Yang went back through the fake Purple-Gold Divine Hall looking for anything the Solar King might have left behind. The golden coffin and similar items aside — he needed to find actual drops, otherwise the psychological ledger would never balance. Someone as formidable as the Solar King had to have been carrying something. Not a weapon, fine. But a necklace? A ring? Anything?

After a thorough search, he sighed at length.

“You go through all this trouble clearing a dungeon and the boss has less loot than a standard trash mob. At least trash mobs drop potions.”

Princess Qianqian gave him a look. “Whatever he had was probably vaporized in the explosion. You’re wasting time.”

Yue Yang held his chin thoughtfully. “Does anyone else find it odd that even though we won — nobody leveled up? Every time we’ve beaten an opponent that strong before, the ones who fought hardest would gain something, even without a formal Law reward. But this time — nothing?”

The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady said slowly: “Could it be that the battle isn’t technically over yet?”

That landed on everyone like a drop of cold water.

Even Yue Yang felt something uncomfortable move through him. One Solar King had nearly been enough to end everything. If something equivalent was still pending —

Yue Yu’s voice came in gently: “Don’t panic. It might just be that Gray Wolf and the others are still in a fight somewhere, or there’s some other condition — like the fact that we’re still inside the Divine Codex space, which keeps us classified as mid-battle. As for the Solar King’s level — someone like him, the Central Divine Hall isn’t going to have many of. We killed one, and that’s a serious blow to them. In the short term, they won’t be able to field someone equivalent. Xiao San, when we’re out of here, you can focus on the Trial Grounds without worrying too much. The Solar King was hoarding this mission for himself — he wouldn’t have reported up to the Divine Hall. Now that he’s dead, we’ve bought ourselves time.”

“Yue Yu’s right about the Solar King,” Princess Qianqian said, then added a qualification: “But I’m worried about the Jester. Even if Duoduo turns him into fertilizer — he’s the type who leaves pieces in motion long before the end. Somewhere, something has been pre-arranged. If he’s gone, someone else might carry out whatever he left behind.”

Yue Yang nodded. That was a fair concern. If the Solar King had won, the Jester’s backup plan would have amplified the victory. If the Solar King lost and the Jester didn’t survive — a contingency for that outcome had almost certainly been built in, with someone positioned to report to the Elder Council.

“We don’t announce anything for now. The Jester’s hidden pieces can’t confirm the deaths immediately — they’d probably assume the Solar King and Jester were still working on contracting the Divine Codex or something similar. Before the Elder Council starts noticing the Solar King is missing and asking questions, we have a window. We use it to get stronger, and we gain two significant allies in Ming Rihao and Ming Yueguang. Most importantly — Vivienne won’t need much longer to come out. And if we can prevent Ji Wuri from clearing the Trial Grounds and getting his Divine Codex, we’re actually in a reasonable position.” Yue Yang’s assessment, thought through: time existed, and it should be used well.

“Tianhua Domain needs to be handled quietly,” Princess Qianqian added. “Any noise draws attention we don’t want yet.”

“All of that can wait until we’re outside,” the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady said, already pulling Yue Yang by the arm. “For now — why aren’t we going to see the actual Divine Codex? Even if we can’t contract it, we can at least look at it!”

The counterfeit, meanwhile, could stay exactly where it was. She didn’t even want to look at it again — something that had vaporized the Solar King didn’t need a second viewing regardless of how impressive it appeared on the surface.

The group passed through the gardens, through the gate tower, into the rear of the false Purple-Gold Hall, and looked ahead.

Beyond it, rising into the clouds, was another Purple-Gold Divine Hall. Taller. The same kind of ceremonial gate arch at the front. The only difference was the absence of any golden shell — the shell here covered the hall itself, not the approach to it.

They climbed the white jade steps. As Yue Yang looked up at the gate passage, he revised his sense of scale: this structure was at least three times the size of the one before it. The passage that had stood a hundred meters high now ran several hundred. And the passage itself was extraordinarily long — halfway through it, a space opened up that was larger than several football fields combined, splitting the corridor into two halves.

When Yue Yang’s group entered that central space, something that had been lying flat on the ground stood up.

Yue Yu startled backward — she had taken it for a motionless artifact, and finding it capable of movement was a genuine shock.

In life, whatever had become this construct had been a titan — or something of equivalent scale in a human-adjacent form. Even without physical substance, the presence it projected made everything nearby feel small. It was a form of energy, something adjacent to a ghost but constructed rather than lingered. It wore the battle armor it had died in — armor so massive that the walls of a city could have been built from the same material. In one hand it held a blade as wide as a road. In the other, a shield whose face could have covered a city square.

It simply stood in front of them and filled every route forward entirely.

More significantly: this energy construct’s will had entered into resonance with the entire passage, producing something similar to what Yuequi did when guarding the World Tree of the Sky Stairway — a Law-will that went beyond and above Yuequi’s. Without this guardian’s recognition, no one who wasn’t a deity was going to pass. Not through force.

Yue Yang was not going to waste energy fighting it.

Smart people found other approaches. Diplomacy, for instance.

He composed his expression into one of respectful sincerity and offered a bow: “Sleeping Giant — we are adventurers. Called by the Divine Codex’s summons, we have traveled through countless trials, overcome unimaginable obstacles, and defeated the most powerful of our enemies to stand before it at last. Loyal and devoted guardian — perhaps you have sensed already that your faithful watch nears its end. Welcome the freedom that comes with its completion. We are the Divine Codex’s new masters. Most admirable of sentinels — allow us to express our reverence. Your steadfast loyalty and your honored name will be spoken of in this world forever.”

Princess Qianqian very nearly fell sideways. When did you become the Divine Codex’s new master? You’re telling it to clear out and calling that freedom. I have never seen anything like you.

The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady was purely admiring. My little husband. Talking someone into handing over a Divine Codex without breaking a sweat — that’s real skill.

Yue Yu was sweating a little. This brother of hers — whether coaxing young women or talking his way past ancient guardians, the technique was always equally smooth.

All three of them kept quiet. Let him perform.

If Wuxia had been here, she would have backed him up without hesitation — she was the only one who consistently agreed that intelligence was always the first tool to reach for.

“Adventurers?” The colossal energy construct’s voice was a thunderclap that made the entire passage tremble. It bent somewhat, bringing the immense head down to look at the tiny human figures below it with something that might have been warmth. “There are adventurers here? Babu is very happy. Babu used to be like you — traveling everywhere, fighting, chasing an ideal, honing his strength across all the celestial realm, until…”

It paused.

“…until an arrow hit me in the knee.”

Yue Yang’s brain processed this.

He sat down.

A guardian with that particular backstory. I can’t even.