The Tiankui Divine General was one of the finest of the Eighteen Divine Generals. In strength and in intelligence alike, he stood above the other Divine Generals.

The only one who could truly keep him down was the Ziwei Divine General, an elder from the previous generation who had been there since the founding, and whose strength and realm no one could measure.

When his fellow generals, one after another, asked to be sent out to wipe out Yue Titan’s family, clan, teammates, forces and vassal races, he kept quiet and showed no wish at all to volunteer, because he knew a mission like that was a thankless job. Succeed or fail, he would have nailed himself fast to the hatred of Yue Titan, the new Prison Emperor.

From the bottom of his heart, he did not want to make an enemy of an opponent as terrifying as Yue Titan.

A young man whom Grand Hall Master Dongfang had to scheme against with every ounce of his cunning, who had shaken the whole Central Divine Hall before he had even finished growing up — a Yue Titan who was not even at the divine tier yet, and who already struck fear into divine-tier powers… Was it really a good idea for him to offend a man like that, to face an opponent of that caliber?

Perhaps Yue Titan would suffer a setback in this battle. But this battle did not mean it would be the last battle of Yue Titan’s life. Quite the opposite: it could very well be the catalyst that carried Yue Titan into the divine realm and transformed him completely.

If an avenger at the level of a god really became his lifelong nemesis, would he ever know another good day?

You want me to ambush his fiancées? Heh. I’m not brain-dead!

Still, when his superiors assigned him the task of intercepting Yue Titan’s fiancées along the way, the Tiankui Divine General did not say a word against it. On the surface, he carried out his orders obediently and to the letter. Defying Grand Hall Master Dongfang was impossible, but nothing stopped him from making a few tiny changes while carrying them out — such as, say, never happening to run into the targets during the interception?

He tossed a few dozen Heavenly Realm rank-and-file into the spaces of the Sky Tower’s various floors and let those idiots lie in ambush and attack any targets they happened across.

He himself made a show of patrolling, wandering around and cleverly — and coincidentally — avoiding every single target.

He would absolutely not cross swords with Yue Titan’s fiancées. Whether those women were strong or weak, they were not people he wanted to provoke.

Only after Princess Qianqian and the others had cut down the Heavenly Realm soldiers he had planted and pushed up past the Sky Tower’s ninth floor did the Tiankui Divine General take his time following after them. When he reached the Sky Tower’s seventh floor, he decided it was still a little early to catch up, and that he might as well go and “support” that Tianyue fellow instead. Tianyue was no fool, but going off to wipe out the Succubus Palace had definitely been a mistake. The Succubus Palace was where Tianfa, Yue Titan’s lover, came from. If Tianyue purged it too savagely, he was bound to draw Tianfa’s attention. If Tianyue couldn’t beat Tianfa, that would be one thing; but if he killed her, he would probably die a very ugly death later on!

So far, he had not heard of a single opponent who had crossed Yue Titan and come to a good end.

The peerless genius the Sky Tower hasn’t produced in ten thousand years — is he really that easy to push around?

Although Grand Hall Master Dongfang had a Game talent without equal in the world, one that could command even gods who entered his game, Tiankui was not very optimistic about this battle… It was not that Grand Hall Master Dongfang wouldn’t win — winning was certain — but killing Yue Titan was probably beyond him… If Yue Titan were easy to kill, why would Grand Hall Master Dongfang go to all this trouble to invite powers from every direction? Why would he rather give away shares of the Ruins of the Gods just to scheme against Yue Titan? Besides, the Divine Hall Supreme himself was not certain either, and was still lurking in the background without a word, which showed that Yue Titan’s luck was not yet exhausted and that he could not simply be wiped out in a single brutal battle. Yue Titan, the new Prison Emperor and the Conquest Queen’s disciple besides — how could there be no one behind him? What if the Conquest Queen came back out, and Peerless Emperor Wushuang, whom they counted on as their main ally, turned on them in the middle of the battle? The whole situation might collapse on the spot…

So, with the situation still unclear, he must not become Yue Titan’s enemy on any account.

Killing Yue Titan’s women and having Yue Titan hunt him for ten thousand years out of hatred — the Tiankui Divine General figured that was not something he would ever do, not until he had gone brain-dead.

“Huh?”

When the Tiankui Divine General arrived at the Succubus Palace in Dreamhaunt Valley, he was surprised to find that the Tianyue Divine General, who should have been slaughtering everything in sight here, was gone.

Strange. Could that Tianyue fellow have been killed by Yue Titan’s little lover Tianfa? But that timid, careful man was never the impulsive, reckless fool type. I was going to team up with him — who would have thought it’d turn out like this…

What happened here?

On a battlefield that had collapsed everywhere after a fierce fight, there were only a few young men.

The Tiankui Divine General, who had gathered information on them beforehand, could tell at a glance that these were Yue Titan’s teammates. The fat one was Hai Dafu. The sharp, tough one was Ye Kong. The one as cold as ice was Xue Tanglang, younger brother of Xue Wuxia, the most capable and most strategic of Yue Titan’s fiancées. The elegant youth with a face as fair as jade was Hua Ziyu, the young prince of the Tianra Kingdom. And the twin brothers should be the Liqie brothers.

Whatever their birth, high or low, there was no denying one thing: under Yue Titan’s leadership and guidance, they had all grown up, and none of them was an opponent to take lightly.

If this battle had not come so early — if these young men had had a few hundred years to grow slowly — there would truly be no telling what they could become.

It was just that, with their present strength, they should not have been enough to kill that Tianyue fellow… So what happened in between?

“Another golden beetle! Nobody steal him from me — I’ve got this one! Let me blow up his sexy little chrysanthemum!” Sea Fatty charged over, yelling and hollering, and swung his Hippo Meteor Fist, slamming it hard at the Tiankui Divine General!

“Big talk!” The Tiankui Divine General thought that kind of power was good enough, more or less, for beating up a few Heavenly Realm soldiers. Blow me up? What a joke!

He did not look down on his opponent the way the Solar Divine General had, and he did not contemptuously hold out a single finger to block the blow. Even though one finger would have been enough, the Tiankui Divine General stayed alert, held back, and used three-tenths of his divine power, forcing his way through Sea Fatty’s Hippo Meteor Fist and knocking those meteor-shower fists back, one after another, into his opponent’s punch-begging fat face.

One punch, two punches, three punches. Every one of the meteor-shower fists slammed back into Sea Fatty’s own face.

Before Sea Fatty could even fall to the ground in pain, the Tiankui Divine General — still on guard against a combined attack from Ye Kong and the others — thrust out one hand and rained down punches, imitating Sea Fatty’s own Hippo Meteor Fist, returning the favor.

Rat-tat-tat-tat…

Sea Fatty was pummeled so hard he could not even fly off. He was simply buried under the rain of fists.

Compared with Sea Fatty’s, the Hippo Meteor Fist the Tiankui Divine General imitated was faster and denser.

Ye Kong and the others stared dumbfounded. Isn’t that Sea Fatty’s signature move? How can this Divine General who just showed up know it too? Is this guy’s talent a copying talent? The Hippo Meteor Fist was something Yue Yang had created to fit Sea Fatty’s own particular traits. Apart from Sea Fatty, no one could use it well. In all the time they had fought alongside Sea Fatty, they had never seen anyone else attack with the Hippo Meteor Fist. For this Divine General to show up and use it exactly like Sea Fatty — even faster and better — was truly unbelievable!

Had they not seen it with their own eyes, none of them would have believed it.

Sea Fatty had no idea what was going on either. He picked himself up off the ground through the pain, but before he could open his mouth, he saw countless fists coming at him like meteors again, and he was buried under the rain of fists once more.

Who knew how long it went on — Sea Fatty was knocked flat at least ten times — before the Tiankui Divine General stopped for a moment.

“Could you not hit me in the face?!” Sea Fatty’s head had now been beaten into a complete pig’s head.

The Tiankui Divine General’s attack had been aimed at only one target: Sea Fatty, and Sea Fatty alone.

Ye Kong and the others had been standing gaping the whole time. They could not get a hand in, and they were not attacked either. They looked for all the world like a model audience who had just stopped by on their way to buy soy sauce.

“Where is that Tianyue fellow?” The moment the Tiankui Divine General saw Sea Fatty turn to run, he swung again, fists raining down on him from every direction. It was as if he could not get the answer he needed without first beating Sea Fatty to death, and his fists hammered Sea Fatty like rain. Under a pounding like that, even Sea Fatty — thick-skinned enough to be a dead pig that no longer minds boiling water — could not hold out.

Worst of all, the Tiankui Divine General’s main target was that fat face of his!

It had never been much to look at to begin with, and now every punch was landing flesh on flesh.

Running away did no good. Begging did not work either.

“Stop!” In the end, he flew into a real rage. Picking himself up yet again, he suddenly thrust out his chest, planted one hand on his hip, jabbed his right hand at the Tiankui Divine General like a spear, and let loose a torrent of abuse. “Enough! Even if you’re jealous of how handsome this great young master is, this is going too far! I know, I understand how hurt you must be right now, how envious and jealous, but it’s not my fault I’m handsome! How could you do this to me? And just a moment ago this great young master almost thought you were a decent guy! I never would have thought you’d be so petty…”

The Tiankui Divine General showed no reaction at all. It was Ye Kong and Xue Tanglang whose faces changed dramatically, looking as if they wanted to throw up and couldn’t.

A powerful enemy is right in front of us. Hold it in.

Ye Kong clenched his fists tight and decided to pretend he was deaf and had not heard a thing.

But what Sea Fatty said next was more than he could take, because this is what that blockhead Sea Fatty said: “You’ve got no self-awareness! You could learn something from Monkey Ye here beside me, who sets me off like a green leaf — or, more like, a clown! He’s so ugly, so ugly it’s an offense against heaven and earth, and he’s never said a word or held it against me. What’s with all this jealousy? If you’re not good-looking, you should take a hard look at yourself, and you could humbly and carefully learn a thing or two to improve yourself on the inside and make up for what’s lacking on the outside. But no — you go around all murderous like a butcher. If people didn’t know better, they’d be shouting at you, ‘Hey, butcher, give me a couple of pounds of pork belly!’ Who do you think you’re scaring? You think you, looking like that, are the hero of anybody’s story? How can you not have the slightest clue? You’re a pebble by the side of the road. Either people ignore you, or they kick you out of the way. Listen: the greatest contribution of your whole life is to let other people step on your head on their way to the top — like this great young master right now…”

Ye Kong hit the ground with a thud, his arms and legs twitching.

Xue Tanglang had already plugged his ears.

Tianra Prince turned his head to look somewhere else, with an expression on his face that said, I absolutely do not know him.

The Tiankui Divine General, whose face had been as expressionless and cold as a block of ice, was finally moved. With one punch he sent Sea Fatty flying into the air, then leaped high after him, flipped over and brought a whirlwind kick crashing down into Sea Fatty’s belly. As Sea Fatty came plummeting down like a meteor, in the very instant the blockhead was half buried in the ground, the general seized him by both legs, yanked him out of the shattered rock at top speed and slammed him viciously against a boulder beside him.

Without giving Sea Fatty a chance to struggle, the Tiankui Divine General grabbed the scruff of his neck and, with his other fist, gave him a savage beating all over his head.

When he had finished, it still was not enough to let out his anger. He threw Sea Fatty, limp as mud, to the ground and stomped and trampled him wildly a few hundred times.

Only when the heap of mangled meat on the ground looked as though a hundred thousand wild buffalo had trampled it back and forth — too horrible to look at — did he stop, breathing a little hard.

The Tiankui Divine General caught his breath, forced his anger down with all his might, and went back to being cold. “Do you know why I insisted on beating you first? Because you are just asking for it. ‘Big mouth, cheap hide’ does not begin to describe you. You were born asking for a beating. Beating you is nothing less than carrying out heaven’s justice! Not doing it — or hitting you even a little more lightly — would be defying heaven… Never in my life have I seen anyone so oblivious to death and so blind to what is good for him. If someone like you were not beaten to death on the spot, there would be no justice left in the world! Me, jealous of you? Your old man is a hundred times more handsome than you, all right!”

“Don’t get angry. It isn’t worth ruining your health over someone like him!” Ye Kong said sympathetically, trying to calm him down.

“Damn it, you guys just stand there and watch this great young master get beaten to a pulp and don’t even help?” Sea Fatty spat out a mouthful of blood, picked himself up and angrily accused Ye Kong and the others. “What kind of teammates are you?”

“We side with what’s right, not with who’s family!” Ye Kong spread his hands, making it clear that a teammate like him wasn’t worth helping at all.

“Who are you, anyway?” The Liqie brothers came up and looked him over from one side and then the other, and simply could not recognize which of their friends this blood-smeared pig’s head was.

“Jealous — you’re all just jealous of this great young master!” Sea Fatty sneered. He finally understood. What people said these days was true after all: you really can’t count on your teammates. So I’m a tiny bit more handsome than you — and you dare stand by with your arms folded and watch me die?

“Can I cut the fat off him and render it into oil?” The Tiankui Divine General was losing his mind. Just how much shamelessness does it take to make up a person like this?

“Please, help yourself. Don’t stand on ceremony with us!” Ye Kong waved him on quickly.

“Could you give us a couple of pounds of the oil?” The Liqie brothers felt that this was about all the value Sea Fatty’s life would ever amount to.

“You underestimate this great young master! You think a few measly punches and a couple of kicks can knock down me — the one they call the Sky Tower’s foremost pillar holding up the sky, and the Jade-Faced Little Flying Dragon besides? I was holding back just now. You came a long way, you’re a guest, so I let you have three moves. Otherwise, did you really think you had me pegged? Hitting this great young master’s most beloved, most handsome face — you really must be tired of living! Awooo! I have no choice — I’ll have to show you a little of my ultimate move…” A golden light flickered in Sea Fatty’s eyes, and wave after wave of intense aura burst out of his body, with a force that seemed ready to swallow heaven and earth.

“…” The Tiankui Divine General’s heart tightened. He did not dare take it lightly, and he quickly raised his power to the full and focused on meeting it.

Sea Fatty shot up into the sky, as if he meant to come plunging down with a heavy blow that would destroy heaven and earth.

The Tiankui Divine General grew very tense. He now had to concentrate on facing Sea Fatty’s ultimate move while also keeping half an eye out for a pincer attack from Ye Kong and the others. For the first time, the look on his face was entirely serious.

Just what kind of astonishing ultimate move is this dead fatty — who can’t be killed no matter how you beat him — going to use?

Young as he is, he’s already comprehended Sovereign Intent. What will the domain power he’s drawn from it, and the talent he’s unleashed, actually look like?

His mouth may be vile, but this dead fatty does have real strength, and his talent can’t be bad either — otherwise how could he be Yue Titan’s teammate? How could geniuses of the age like Ye Kong and Xue Tanglang accept him? Even if Sea Fatty isn’t a genius, he can at least be called a prodigy of a kind. So this move — I absolutely can’t be careless!

I must take this move without a scratch!

Come on!

Whatever ability you have, you cannot break the divine-power defenses of a Divine General of the Central Divine Hall!

The Tiankui Divine General’s eyes blazed with a towering fighting spirit and will to battle. Of course, inside, he had not lost his reason or his caution either; if things went badly, he was certainly not going to insist on a head-on clash just to save face as a Divine General.

Let me take your big move!

Feeling he was fully ready, the Tiankui Divine General stared at Sea Fatty overhead with one hundred percent of his mind and spirit…

Who could have guessed? Sea Fatty, like a clumsy fat duck, clapped his hands, wiggled his butt, and with a whoosh flew off across the sky, not caring in the least how anyone below might feel about it. Watching this bizarre spectacle, the Tiankui Divine General felt as if a stampede of three thousand legendary cuss-beasts had come thundering through his heart and out the other side, leaving it in utter chaos.

What happened to the big move?

Damn it all, does someone like this even count as a warrior? No — wait — does someone like this even count as a person?

Shameless fatty, could you be any more shameless?

The Tiankui Divine General stood stunned for a good long while. When he finally came back to his senses, he looked at Ye Kong with boundless sympathy. “I… think I am suddenly beginning to understand how you feel. Having a teammate like that really is a painful thing! If I had a teammate like that, I would beat him to death, bring him back to life, bury him alive, dig him up, burn him to ashes, mix the ashes with piss and mud, and finally throw the lot into the sea to feed the fish!”

When he had said it, he thought it over again, and perhaps it still did not seem enough to satisfy his hatred. But he truly could not think of any better way to deal with him, so he could only sigh, a little helplessly, “Maybe I would also cry my heart out for three days and three nights. In short — a real headache!”

“Honestly, what it really feels like is wanting to cry and having no tears left,” Ye Kong said, speaking straight from the heart.

“…” The Tiankui Divine General had nothing to say.

He was secretly glad he had no teammate like that beside him. Otherwise he truly would want to die and not even be able to find a rope to hang himself with.

After this brief exchange, the Tiankui Divine General did not forget his business. He looked at Ye Kong, then at Xue Tanglang and Tianra Prince, who were using the time to recover, and in an instant his face turned as cold as ice. “Could you tell me where the Tianyue Divine General is — the one who should have been fighting you here?”

Ye Kong said nothing.

Instead, Xue Tanglang, who had been sitting cross-legged on the ground, stood up.

He walked over step by step, and with every step he took, a deep footprint appeared in the ground.

With every step he took, his aura grew a little stronger. By the time he stood beside Ye Kong, face to face with the Tiankui Divine General, the whole blood-and-fire valley behind him had become a polar world of white snow and bone-piercing wind!

(End of Chapter 1279)