With nearly a thousand elite mutant fishfolk guards, priests, and their commanding Marshal Old Iron Anchor — all stationed inside the steel fortress to revive the cursed clan’s ancestor — cut down by Yue Yang, the Sky Tower’s claim on White River City was no longer in any doubt.

The current city master of White River City, who had so often used the legend of the “Hidden Fog” to prey on outsiders, was captured after a joint strike from Fengxian and the Southern Wilderness Demon King.

Even with a fog domain that let him move about as freely as a ghost, the present master of White River City — Mist — found no way to escape the Divine Punishment Empress Fengxian, let alone with the now far more formidable Southern Wilderness Demon King boxing him in alongside her. With the strongest, most elusive city master defeated, and the most cautious, most cunning Marshal fallen, nearly a thousand elites and priests swept up in a single net, the remaining defector higher-ups still outside — Steel Guild Master Guding, the city master’s personal guard captain Blue Whale, and the city’s chief warden Hidden Gate — were all toppled in turn under strikes from Tianzhu, the Dragon Emperor, the Underworld Emperor, and other Sky Tower powerhouses. None escaped; all either surrendered or were captured.

Leaderless, White River City’s mutant fishfolk, despite their sheer numbers, had no will left to fight. Once they realized escape was hopeless, and word spread of Fengxian’s domain-ruler decree — surrender and live, resist and the city burns — they sent representatives to surrender almost immediately, with no need for any persuasion from the captured city master Mist, Guild Master Guding, Captain Blue Whale, Warden Hidden Gate, or any of the other fallen defector leadership.

White River City had officially fallen.

But this victory didn’t mean every Sky Tower defector had been swept away. It was only a beginning. Many more Sky Tower defectors remained scattered across other regions of the Heavenly Realm, hiding their tracks. The strongest among them, in fact, still held an important post within the Central Divine Hall itself — far too powerful for the Sky Tower’s current strength to challenge.

As for how to deal quietly with the rest of these mutant fishfolk, Yue Yang washed his hands of the whole matter.

He simply couldn’t be bothered.

Given the choice, he’d rather spend that time exploring the ancient treasure site with Liuye, seeing what surprises might be waiting inside.

What’s more, throughout this entire purge, Tianzhu and the others hadn’t acted in the name of Sky Tower warriors at all — they’d done it all under the banner of the Divine Punishment Empress’s conquest of the Tianhua Domain. To the outside world, it looked simply like the newly arrived Divine Punishment Empress, soon to take over the Tianhua Domain, making an example of White River City’s disobedient leadership who’d dreamed of independence. No one suspected, no one could have guessed, that this was in truth a war between Sky Tower warriors and the old defector clan. The mutant fishfolk of White River City believed the same fiction — convinced their city master and the rest of the leadership had simply offended the Divine Punishment Empress and brought this disaster on themselves.

Only the captured city master and his circle knew the truth.

And, of course, they would never get the chance to tell anyone — what awaited them instead was a public trial that would satisfy everyone watching. The various Sky Tower clans were abuzz; beyond sending representatives to attend or observe the trial, they also treated the occasion as a chance to formally vindicate and welcome home the Heavenly Realm’s scattered remnant clans.

After thousands of years adrift in the Heavenly Realm, the remnant clans could finally return home as a whole people.

And with that, they received their long-overdue vindication.

They were no longer rootless exiles with nowhere to belong, but sworn executioners pledged to wipe out every traitor, soldiers who had never once forgotten their loyalty to the Sky Tower.

Representatives from every clan held the most lavish ceremony to welcome the Heavenly remnants home, and for those warriors who’d originated from their own bloodlines, the various Sky Tower clan rulers traveled great distances in person, coming all the way to the Dragon-Soaring Continent to receive these heroes returning gloriously to their homeland.

“Tens of thousands of old geezers all bawling their eyes out at once — that’s a genuinely terrifying sight!” Yue Yang had wanted no part of any of it, but since he was the only one who could actually bring the Heavenly remnants home, attending wasn’t optional no matter how much he didn’t want to. Especially given he nominally carried the title of new-generation Prison Emperor — if he skipped out, how could those old-timers, who’d been stranded in the Heavenly Realm all these years because of the previous Prison Emperor’s expedition, possibly feel any joy at their homecoming? So no matter how much Yue Yang preferred to slack off, carving out time to receive the remnant clans was simply necessary.

Many of the warriors who’d marched on the Heavenly Realm all those years ago were still alive, now turned into old-timers.

When the various clan rulers arrived and recognized one another, discovering brothers, sisters, fathers and sons, grandparents and grandchildren among the crowd, the inevitable result was a great wave of embracing and weeping.

Fortunately, these old-timers — who’d earned Yue Yang’s recognition and commendations — held him in enough respect and understanding as the new-generation Prison Emperor that they didn’t press him too hard. Once Yue Yang promised to build a “War Spirit Monument” and a “Hall of Remembrance” at the center of the great plaza on the Sky Tower’s sixth level, they let him off the hook of their own accord.

Their respect for Yue Yang still carried the same devotion and loyalty they’d once held for the previous Prison Emperor — they hadn’t yet realized just how different this new-generation Prison Emperor was from the last. Not only was he a slacker, he showed no sense of duty whatsoever befitting the title.

“What little Yue Yang needs most right now is room to grow.” Elder Nangong made excuses on his behalf.

“True enough, the new Prison Emperor still has quite a gap to close compared to the last one. Diligent cultivation is a good thing.” Hearing this, the old-timers from the Heavenly remnant clans all nodded approvingly at the thought of Yue Yang’s diligent training. If they’d known that Yue Yang spent the bulk of each day chasing women, a smaller portion treasure-hunting, and only occasionally found time to actually cultivate, they probably would have yanked out their own beards in fury.

Regardless, their hopes for Yue Yang ran extraordinarily high.

Especially after hearing of his miraculous growth, they hoped this once-in-ten-thousand-years freak of a genius could surpass the previous Prison Emperor, catch up to the Conquest Queen herself, and lead them all on a third expedition into the Heavenly Realm.

Yue Yang didn’t have the heart to dampen these old-timers’ enthusiasm — after all, they’d only just returned and had no idea how dire the Sky Tower’s actual situation was.

A third expedition into the Heavenly Realm, with the Sky Tower’s current strength?

They wouldn’t even qualify as cannon fodder!

If they actually tried something like that, it would be asking for a beating… the folks over at the Central Divine Hall would be having the time of their lives laughing about it!

“Treasure hunting? No, I’m not interested right now.” When Yue Yang proposed exploring the ancient treasure site, the Southern Wilderness Demon King — usually so eager — shook her head and turned down the invitation, an uncharacteristic first.

“I don’t have any free time these days either.” Fengxian likewise claimed to be busy, what with Tianhua Domain affairs eating up nearly all the time she’d normally spend on her beauty sleep.

“You two used to love treasure hunting.” Yue Yang was caught off guard.

“If it were that easy, it wouldn’t be called an ancient treasure.” After seeing the unsealed crimson energy crystal pillar with her own eyes, the Southern Wilderness Demon King had given up entirely on the idea. If merely breaking the seal was already this difficult, exploring whatever lay beyond it would surely be worse. With the Solar King example fresh in mind — defeated, yet still locked out of the Divine Codex’s space, utterly helpless before its door — Fengxian and the Southern Wilderness Demon King had both grown cautious about ancient treasures in general. There was certainly something there, and it might well be extraordinary, but whether anyone could actually walk away with it was another matter entirely.

“Sounds like you two want me, your humble laborer, to go in alone and grab the treasure, then come split it with you afterward?” Yue Yang had caught the look in their eyes.

“My lord, always joking. What kind of woman do you take little me for?” The Southern Wilderness Demon King flatly refused to admit it.

“If it’s not something we could actually use, we wouldn’t want it anyway.” Fengxian, this Divine Punishment girl, phrased her excuse with no less cunning — claiming that since they couldn’t use it even if they wanted to, naturally they had no interest. Just how sly did you have to be to put it that way? Yue Yang had to admit, he was learning.

“I’ll go with you! Maybe my Barrier-Piercing Deer can be of some use.” It was Liuye, sweet and sympathetic as ever, who decided to set out with him.

“Wouldn’t want to intrude on your little world for two.” The Southern Wilderness Demon King wrapped her arms around Yue Yang, planted a giggling kiss on him, and slipped away in a flash, clearly worried he might catch her.

“Best of luck, my lord — may you strike gold and come back with a full haul.” Fengxian stretched lazily and went off to catch up on her beauty sleep.

“When I do come back with a full haul, if I don’t find two smooth-skinned slave girls kneeling at my feet, begging prettily for me to whip and ravage them, I am absolutely not forgiving either of them!” Yue Yang flared up, blurting out his innermost thoughts without meaning to, which left Liuye standing beside him blushing furiously, mortified beyond words.

Though the Southern Wilderness Demon King and Fengxian refused to come along, denying him the chance to treasure-hunt and enjoy a little romantic bliss at the same time, he still had one obedient disciple tagging along.

So it wasn’t too dull, after all.

Once every seal had been broken in turn, the crimson crystal pillars’ energy surged straight up into the heavens.

Those beams of light intertwined and wove together high above, forming a colossal, almost unimaginably intricate ancient formation across the sky. Looking up at this formation — spanning at least a thousand li across — Yue Yang couldn’t help drawing in a sharp breath. This treasure hunt clearly wasn’t going to be something he could simply waltz in and claim. But with the seals already triggered, it was far too late to back out now.

If he wasn’t the first one in, the first one to retrieve the secret treasure, and word reached the Central Divine Hall before he managed it — once they came swarming in, there’d be nothing left for him at all.

With a sky-spanning phenomenon this massive, this impossible to hide, Yue Yang knew it wouldn’t stay secret for long.

Adventurers from every corner would come flooding in.

Strike first, strike fast!

Yue Yang took Liuye with him and flew straight toward the center of the sky-spanning formation.

He didn’t expect his Heaven’s Eye to be able to take in the entire formation at a glance — even with his Heaven’s Eye, fully mapping out this vast, impossibly complex ancient diagram would likely take a year or two at minimum.

Yue Yang had no patience for that, and there was no way he could wait one or two years to figure things out before treasure hunting — by then, the vegetables would have long gone cold.

The central region of the sky-spanning formation was extraordinarily intricate.

It wasn’t a single-layer rune array at all, but a three-dimensional structure, woven from what looked like hundreds or even thousands of layers of ancient rune-arrays stacked one atop another, each layer rotating independently, each forming matching patterns with its neighbors while simultaneously shifting into entirely different configurations. After staring at it for a few seconds, Yue Yang simply gave up trying to parse it — what he’d thought might take a year or two to fully map out now looked like it might take a hundred or two hundred years to fully understand. With a sky-formation woven from ancient runes like this, Sick Beauty was probably going to be thrilled — she’d finally found something worth spending an eternity studying.

“My head’s spinning.” Trailing behind Yue Yang, Liuye stared up at the sky-formation, dazzled and overwhelmed, with no idea where she should even begin looking.

“Wait out here. I’ll signal you, then transfer you in.”

Yue Yang naturally wasn’t going to let her take any unnecessary risks.

After all, Liuye’s strength was still nowhere near comparable to the Southern Wilderness Demon King’s or Fengxian’s. If something dangerous happened inside the sky-formation, Yue Yang worried she might get hurt.

Liuye nodded.

She’d wait patiently outside, she assured him — he shouldn’t rush on her account.

Yue Yang raised the Creation Domain and slipped through the gaps in the ancient rune-formation, sliding into the endlessly rotating, impossibly strange sky-formation within. Just the central region alone, with its hundreds or thousands of layers of ancient runes, spanned a full thirty square kilometers, with a height of at least ten kilometers from top to bottom — utterly magnificent. Sneaking inside, Yue Yang felt smaller than an ant scaling a five-tier birthday cake. Liuye, lips pressed tight, hadn’t tried to stop him from going in, but she couldn’t help the worry gnawing at her.

At the very heart of the central region sat a core, blazing with light like the sun itself.

The sheer power radiating from that core felt, simply put, more overwhelming than divine will itself — for the first time in his life, Yue Yang found something he genuinely struggled to approach.

Harder than even the Gate of Life and Death’s trials, this was a place that raw insufficient strength simply could not breach. The pressure it radiated made anyone who tried to approach feel small, unworthy, ashamed of their own insignificance — as though they had no right to draw near it at all.

“Whatever you are, I’m touching you, no matter what.” Yue Yang had always had the stubborn, donkey-like temperament of someone who’d rather break than bend, dragging himself forward even while being pulled back. The towering power of this core tried to keep him out — which only made him more determined to reach out and touch it. The Nirvana Flames roared to life, and from within the Creation Domain a Nirvana Fire Phoenix took shape. Yue Yang leapt onto its back, riding the Phoenix as he raised Black Returning Burial in one hand and White Frost Bloom in the other, unleashing the greatest power of his life as he surged toward that colossal, skyscraper-sized core blazing like the sun.

Power more terrifying than any divine pressure came crashing down like a mountain.

Yue Yang felt his body grow impossibly heavy, as if some massive unseen hand had pinned down even his soul, leaving him unable to move.

If not for the Nirvana Fire Phoenix and the two swords shielding him, he suspected this power alone would have blown him away as easily as a single piece of straw in a hurricane! The gap was simply too vast. For the first time in his life, Yue Yang felt how truly insignificant his own strength was.

Could this be the lingering divine sense left behind by some ancient titan deity?

Or the will guarding this ancient treasure?

Whose was it, really?

Was it the Dragon God Supreme, whose name alone had once made demon dragons tremble? Or whoever it was that had sealed away Her Majesty Vivienne? Or someone else entirely?

The closer Yue Yang got to that core, the slower he moved. By the time he was less than a hundred meters away, his advance had slowed to ten times slower than a snail’s crawl, and every centimeter forward made his body feel ten times heavier.

Impossible — there was simply no way to approach this core…

Even Yue Yang, with his unshakable Sovereign Intent, couldn’t help a flicker of self-doubt creeping into his mind.

“Crimson Dawn Tempering—”

Yue Yang roared, hands coming together as he condensed his third sword anew: the Crimson Dawn Tempering Blade.

But even fully condensed and poured into with everything he had, the sword only managed to push him forward half a meter before grinding to a complete halt, suspended in midair — without the Creation Domain’s help, that crushing pressure would likely have already flung him tens of thousands of meters away.

Xiao Wenli burst out from the Grimoire World on her own, condensing in the sky a hundreds-of-meters-tall avatar of her serpent-demon war goddess form, raising both hands high to strain with everything she had to push Yue Yang forward. Even that avatar — capable of shattering the void itself, nearly able to punch through a black hole — only managed to push Yue Yang three meters before grinding to a complete, unmovable stop.

Now, the surface of the core region was still at least ninety meters away.

Those ninety meters formed an uncrossable chasm before Yue Yang.

“Orange Vast Radiance Blade—” Yue Yang let out a roar that split the heavens, and a golden sword massive enough to shatter heaven and earth materialized before him, dragging both Yue Yang and Xiao Wenli — straining with everything she had behind him — forward by one more meter… just one meter, and the Orange Vast Radiance Blade had already hit its absolute limit, unable to advance another inch. In the instant Yue Yang, nearly spent, began to slip backward, Duoduo — the Gold-Crowned Thorn Queen, who’d been resting unnoticed inside the Grimoire World — suddenly snapped awake and burst out of it.

“Bloom!” Duoduo released a wave of heart-soothing fragrance, and countless flowers burst into bloom all around her body, transforming the entire Creation Domain into a world of blossoms.

Yue Yang felt his strength surging back without limit, his abilities sharply rising.

A wave of fierce joy swept through his heart.

Duoduo, who usually kept such a low profile, never showing off her strength — her assistance right now was proving no less than Xiao Wenli’s, which genuinely took him by surprise.

With the Gold-Crowned Thorn Queen Duoduo’s help, Yue Yang slowly pushed forward another three meters toward the core.

Xiao Wenli, perhaps sensing just how massive Duoduo’s assistance to Yue Yang had been, couldn’t bear — competitive as she was — to let anyone else’s contribution outrank her own. She fell silent for a moment, thinking through her options, then summoned her Grimoire, and with the support of Petrifying Medusa, Storm Mermaid, Thunder Naga, and Frost Serpent Demon, reached out and pressed her small hand against Yue Yang’s back.

A beam of world-purifying white light shot out from her small palm.

It pierced clean through Yue Yang’s body, shining straight into his very soul.

Yue Yang let out an uncontrollable roar, his body surging madly forward five more meters — but Xiao Wenli and Duoduo couldn’t keep pace any further, left to watch helplessly, unable to offer even the smallest sliver of further help… everyone had already given everything they had, and yet this distance still stretched over eighty more meters.

Should he give up?

Yue Yang’s heart refused to. He had never once been the type to abandon something halfway through.

But glancing back, he saw that Xiao Wenli and Duoduo had both pushed themselves to the absolute limit of their limits — especially Xiao Wenli, who’d already overextended herself twice in a row and could collapse unconscious at any moment.

“Fun! Let me try too!” A voice he hadn’t heard in quite a while rang out, and the next instant Yue Yang felt something slam into him, sending his whole body flying several meters forward against his will. Wincing through the pain, he turned to look and found it was Bingyin, the little troublemaking Qilin girl, charging at him a second time, ramming the small horn on her head straight into his back again. Yue Yang cried out in pain — this girl was basically committing murder, did she have any idea how much it hurt to get rammed by that horn?

Bingyin the Qilin girl charged a third time, knocking Yue Yang forward another five meters.

Then she ran completely out of strength.

She retreated back to Xiao Wenli and Duoduo’s side, panting hard, and waved at Yue Yang. “You’re on your own from here, I’m exhausted — this isn’t fun at all!”

Yue Yang had nothing to say to that. If he could’ve pushed forward any further on his own, why would he need her ramming him with her horn in the first place? Did she think getting his back bruised up like that felt good?

But giving up now, after all this, didn’t sit right with him either.

Not just Xiao Wenli and Duoduo — even Bingyin the Qilin girl, who rarely lent a hand for anything, had come out to help. He was now at most seventy meters from the core. After closing this much distance, was he really going to give up over this last little stretch?

“Burn, Cosmos!” Yue Yang bellowed, his fighting spirit flaring back to life. He wasn’t some anime saint warrior, so of course there was no actual cosmos to burn — but he did have one last trump card: going berserk. Once he abandoned all reason, he could unleash power several times greater than usual. It was reckless, but at the very least, it was worth a try.

“This guy’s about to lose his mind — let’s get out of here, fast!” Bingyin the Qilin girl hurriedly dragged the worried Xiao Wenli and Duoduo back to safety.

Yue Yang’s eyes gradually lost their clarity. He felt some hidden power deep within himself erupting forth like a volcano.

It felt as if something was being summoned out of him.

A talent he’d never sensed before stirred awake within him.

At the same time, Yue Yang heard the heavenly cry of a phoenix, and in the last flicker of his fading consciousness, thought he glimpsed two small figures standing atop a phoenix, arms linked with his own, carrying him forward toward the core region… sixty meters, fifty meters, forty meters, thirty meters…

Just as their combined strength reached its absolute limit, in the very instant Yue Yang’s mind slipped completely into berserk rampage—

he felt, somehow, as though a sword had pierced straight through him.

That blade seemed to pass through his very body, carrying him forward along with it, driving itself deep and fast into the ancient rune-formation’s energy core… Yue Yang could no longer think. Every shred of reason gone, all that remained was a destructive, savage fury. Driven purely by bodily instinct and a mind utterly out of control, he made one decision: he was going to swallow this colossal ancient rune-energy core whole, in a single bite!

(End of Chapter)