The fifth floor of the Sky Stairway. The blood altar.

When Tu Wan of the Heaven-Devouring clan arrived here, he discovered that crossing a few thousand kilometers had taken him several hours.

Never mind a divine-tier power — even a crawling island-turtle, a creature famous in the Heavenly Realm for its slowness, probably would not have taken that long. Tu Wan did not even need his head for this; his toes could have worked it out. He had been made a fool of!

The only question was: who could make a fool of a divine tier?

Without a doubt, there was only one standard answer in the world. Nothing could do it except another divine tier, a stronger one.

“Excuse me — where is your Nine-Headed Clan’s Demon Emperor?” Tu Wan was impulsive and arrogant, but at least he was not brain-dead. Or perhaps he was a little brain-dead, but not hopelessly so. Faced with a divine tier who could make a fool of him without his noticing, what Tu Wan needed to do now was not to roar out loud, curse and swear, or recklessly challenge the other party to a fight. Nor was it to lash out and knock the Nine-Headed Clan warriors in front of him flat without asking questions. What he needed to do was carefully confirm the facts, not turn hostile.

The Sky Realm was no different from the Sky Tower.

In truth, whether in the Heavenly Realm, the Sky Realm or anywhere else in the world, real peace had never existed.

The strong eat the weak, and the strong are honored — that was forever the theme and the foundation on which the world was built. Only those with the greatest strength held the highest will, and the greatest power to decide and to act. The Sky Realm was naturally no exception.

Tu Wan was a notorious thug in the Sky Realm, and the Heaven-Devouring clan was a notoriously savage clan, but that did not mean he could do whatever he liked.

In the Sky Realm there were, of course, not many people who could make Tu Wan lower his head — a head he considered noble — and speak quietly. But the Nine-Headed Clan’s “Demon Emperor” happened to be one of them. Tu Wan had never met the Demon Emperor, nor ever crossed him, but the Demon Emperor’s name carried such weight that even he had to bow to it. Nor did Tu Wan see anything wrong with that. Bowing to the strong, showing respect to a stronger divine tier — that was the natural law and order of heaven, just as the world’s other weaklings bowed to him.

“When the Demon Emperor ought to appear, he will appear. Those with insight can see him at the edge of the sky; those who are blind will not see him even standing before their eyes.” The Nine-Headed Serpent laughed loudly.

“Since you are here, why not sit quietly a while? Perhaps something more entertaining will happen later!” Another of the Nine-Headed Clan did not think much of the divine-tier power’s arrival either. It was the Sky Dragon clan across from them — Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon, the gorgeous queen “Bonemelt” and the rest — whose faces changed. A divine-tier power’s arrival was the last thing they wanted to see. It meant that their share of what could be taken from the Ruins of the Gods was going to be cut again.

“Hmph. You’re obviously a golden beetle, yet you go strutting around in human shape. If you want to make a fool of yourself, there are better ways!” The swaggering young man with the arrogant face gave a cold laugh.

“You’re not much to look at yourself!” If not for his wariness of the Demon Emperor hidden somewhere, Tu Wan would have turned on him long ago. Reason told him it was best not to provoke anyone from the Eastern demon race. Those guys had always been famous for being nothing but trouble.

“This is my true form. If you’ve got the guts, change back into your original shape and let’s have a look.” The swaggering young man spat on the ground.

If he had not just taken a quiet beating from the Demon Emperor’s trickery, Tu Wan would have turned on him on the spot. Swatting this swaggering guy dead with one slap would have been the least of it. If he really got vicious, frying the skin off this obnoxious brat, pulling his bones apart, then burning him to ash for fertilizer would not be out of the question… Tu Wan felt he had mastered the art of patience, treating himself as a turtle with its head pulled in for the moment.

No matter. He was a divine tier — a few sarcastic words were nothing. Once the Demon Emperor left, there would be time enough to turn hostile. He could crush every one of these people put together with one hand.

Tu Wan forced down the anger in his chest and swept his eyes around. Besides the Nine-Headed Clan, the Sky Dragon clan was here too, though somebody had killed a few of them, and from the look of it they had died pretty horribly. As for the swaggering young man, there were two demon-race leaders beside him, of middling strength. They seemed a little afraid of him, completely unlike the swaggering young man, so they were probably not his companions — just people who had come the same way.

“What’s been happening here?” Tu Wan felt a bit muddled and decided he needed to sort everything out.

“In there is probably the real world of the Sky Stairway. That Yue Titan may be hiding inside too. A whole pack of his war beasts and a crowd of Sky Tower women ran in there, and we have been guarding this place the whole time, as agreed with Mr. Dongfang.” Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon of the Sky Dragon clan hurried to show that he was neutral.

He had no wish to offend the Heaven-Devouring clan, and even less to offend a divine tier.

He had long since heard of Tu Wan’s savage reputation. Of course, what Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon truly feared was not the Tu Wan in front of him but the truly powerful divine tier behind him, his elder brother — Tu Shi, the Heavenly God-Butcher! That man was a mighty being who held up the entire Heaven-Devouring clan by his own strength alone. In the Sky Realm, Tu Shi the Heavenly God-Butcher was a divine tier who stood on the same level as Dongfang, the Demon Emperor, the Golden Emperor, the Immovable Supreme and the rest. Only the Divine Hall Supreme, Tianyu, dared to say he could truly keep him down.

Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon secretly guessed that the reason Grand Hall Master Dongfang had tricked this Tu Wan, who was not quite right in the head, into coming to the Sky Tower was most likely to get the dimwit killed by the Sky Tower’s powers, and so stoke Tu Shi the Heavenly God-Butcher’s fury.

So why had the Demon Emperor used his mysterious demon art just now to get Tu Wan “lost” halfway here, so that he never met Yue Titan’s war beasts? To save the fool’s little life.

Among the war beasts that had just charged into the Sky Stairway, two were divine tier, and killing Tu Wan would probably have been no great trouble for them. So when the Demon Emperor led Tu Wan astray, it was not mockery but a kind of protection. Of course, Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon was sure that, with Tu Wan’s intelligence, he would never think of it or figure it out.

The sorrow of the slow-witted!

At the thought, Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon suddenly felt a sense of intellectual superiority, and an urge to burst out laughing.

“Let’s go in and have a look. So what if it’s the Sky Stairway? A backwater like the Sky Tower — there’s no place in it we of the Sky Realm can’t set foot.” If Tu Wan had not been showing the Demon Emperor a little respect, hidden who knew where, he probably would have charged straight in without another word. He found it strange himself that he could keep such a low profile now. Could it be that he had some trait called “low-key” stored away inside him?

“We of the Nine-Headed Clan do not wish to break our agreement with Grand Hall Master Dongfang for now.” The Nine-Headed Worm shook his head and refused.

“…” Gu Ang said nothing. But he felt that whether they could get in was one thing; even if they could, there were at least two divine tiers waiting inside, and being beaten to pulp was the certain result.

Unless Dongfang came, unless the Divine Hall Supreme Tianyu came, he would not go in there however great the reward.

Tu Wan was a divine tier, but his intelligence was clearly his weak spot!

The gorgeous queen “Bonemelt,” on the other hand, was a little tempted to cozy up to this Tu Wan, so obviously short on brains. A divine tier with real strength who was also a moron — under her training, how much fighting power could he bring out?

But she also knew that fooling Tu Wan was easy, and fooling his elder brother Tu Shi behind him was hard. Better not to do anything suicidal.

The temptation of controlling a divine tier was great, but however great, it was not greater than her own little life. She let out a regretful sigh.

A divine tier this dim was hard to come by… It was probably a rarity you might not see once in a thousand years, or ten thousand ages. To say she felt no regret at all at missing out on him would be an outright lie!

When nobody answered him, Tu Wan felt this divine-tier business of his was going a little poorly. He was about to do something to win back the face he had dropped on the ground and not picked up — when suddenly, a streak of comet-light came from far away.

Like an immortal descending, a beauty came stepping on the moon through the void, in white robes whiter than snow.

As if she could not see anyone there at all, she drifted down and, before everyone’s eyes, walked on, neither hurried nor slow, along the passage at the foot of the broken goddess statue’s base. Her lovely form moved lightly and slipped silently into the mysterious entrance to the world of the Sky Stairway. Not until she had vanished from sight did anyone manage to react in any way at all.

“A divine tier — another divine tier.” When Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon came to his senses, the first thing he did was wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.

“Hmph!” “Bonemelt” was very unhappy. She hated it more than anything when someone was better-looking than she was, and the goddess who had just passed could not even be described as merely beautiful. Before that peerless face, even the most beautiful woman in the Sky Realm could probably do nothing but sigh.

“No lesser than that ‘Night Empress,’ Yeyu, from before,” the Nine-Headed Demon gave his verdict.

“That little beauty’s little face is just too tempting…” Tu Wan’s drool very nearly came cascading down like a waterfall three thousand feet tall.

“That is Yue Titan’s fiancée, is it not?” one of the Nine-Headed asked, not entirely sure, while the Nine-Headed Worm pulled out a little booklet, flipped through it, found a picture to compare against, and exclaimed, “It really is! She’s Yue Titan’s fiancée, Xue Wuxia. Huh, that’s strange — how can she be divine tier? Her strength is clearly that of an Innate… Dongfang’s information is way off! Did Dongfang really gather this? If he did, then I dare say Dongfang has miscalculated a whole lot this time. This battle — tsk, tsk — really, hard to say, haha!”

“Excellent. I love mistakes like this!” What the swaggering young man with the arrogant face loved most in life was other people making mistakes or having bad luck. Doing bad things was also, of course, close to his heart.

“Yue Titan’s fiancée?” When Tu Wan heard that, his eyes suddenly lit up. “I don’t want a share of the Ruins of the Gods anymore. I just want that little beauty!”

Everyone chose to ignore this guy with his brains in his pants.

Never mind whether Yue Titan would come out and beat him to a pulp, then chop him into mincemeat to feed the dogs. Even the “Xue Wuxia” who had just passed — a divine tier herself, and setting aside whatever strength she was hiding — could annihilate this lust-addled guy a hundred times over with just the small part of her strength she showed on the surface. Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon reckoned the fellow would most likely go on to exist in the Sky Tower in the form of dog poop, and so he forgave Tu Wan for what he had just said and done. The guy was short on brains, after all. Who could expect anything from him?

Holding him to normal standards would just be picking on him, honestly!

Word had it that Yue Titan had a hobby of beating his enemies half to death and then throwing them to his mutt, Gray Wolf, to eat… It had not happened yet, but even the swaggering young man across from them seemed to agree with Gu Ang’s bold prediction.

“Since I don’t want a share of the Ruins of the Gods anymore, the Demon Emperor shouldn’t mind what I do next. Like I said, all I want is that little beauty. If you have an agreement with Dongfang, keep guarding this place. I’ll go on ahead. I’m going to drag that little beauty out, then go back to the Sky Realm and hold the wedding…” The only one Tu Wan worried about was the head of the Nine-Headed Clan, the Demon Emperor. Since their interests no longer clashed, he was sure the Demon Emperor would not make trouble for him, and so he was free to act.

“I do not think the Demon Emperor will mind what you do — but are you sure you really want to do this?” The Nine-Headed Demon frowned and tried to talk him out of it.

“The little beauty’s too beautiful. I have to have her, and I’ll give up everything else.” Tu Wan suddenly found he seemed to be a romantic at heart, and was a little startled at himself.

“Going in to snatch somebody — that’s not off the table. But it seems to me you ought to ask me first, no?” someone said.

Nobody knew when this person had arrived at the blood altar. Maybe he had come along with Xue Wuxia just now, or maybe he had arrived while everyone was talking. Nobody could make sense of it. It should have been impossible. How could anyone arrive unnoticed in front of a divine tier like Tu Wan? And yet that was exactly what had happened!

Tu Wan looked, and saw that the newcomer was a man in black, very ordinary-looking. He had no towering, powerful body several meters tall like Tu Wan’s, no gleaming golden light all over, and none of the signs of talent, divine power or a domain. He looked like any one of the ordinary mercenaries you could find by the handful in the Sky Tower. The only thing about him a little different from a human was that this heavily bearded man had two fleshy whiskers on either side of his nose that humans did not have, very graceful and lively. The bearded man’s whole air was faintly like that of the arrogant, swaggering young man — the sort of born brawler who never knew what was good for him, went around picking fights with the whole world and never cared about the consequences.

Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon frowned as he looked. He could not tell the bearded man’s strength.

On the surface, the bearded man was only at Sky-rank. But apart from that moron Tu Wan, nobody would believe that a bearded man at Sky-rank could slip past everyone’s eyes and arrive among them without anyone noticing.

The Nine-Headed Clan exchanged looks, and every one of their faces turned very grave. The Nine-Headed Demon most of all: his pupils shrank sharply, and a shock surged deep in his eyes like a current at the bottom of the sea.

The swaggering young man with the arrogant face, meanwhile, had taken to the bearded man instantly, like two oddballs clicking on sight. The more he looked at the bearded man, the more he liked him. He could hardly wait to throw himself into handshakes, hugs and every kind of bro bonding with him to cement the friendship.

“Who are you?” Tu Wan spared the bearded man a contemptuous fifth of a sideways glance, as if he were looking at a little bug.

“Demon Dragon.” The bearded man scratched his head, having taken some effort to find his own name again.

“…” The Nine-Headed Demon’s whole body jolted, but he quickly composed himself, and his face went back to its earlier indifference.

“Hm?” Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon seemed to catch a flash of something, as though he were remembering some memory from long ago, but for the moment he could not pin down what it was. He looked a little troubled and a little puzzled. The name was fairly unfamiliar, yet he felt as if he had heard it somewhere.

“Never heard of you. Little bug, who the hell are you?” Tu Wan had no such feeling at all. In his eyes, Sky-rank was simply another word for weakling.

“I think I’m that little girl’s big brother just now! Ah — to be precise, I should be her husband’s big brother. You dumbass, you want to snatch my sister-in-law, and you don’t think you need to ask whether I agree?” The bearded man casually dug around in his ear with a finger for a while, then wiped whatever was stuck to his finger idly onto Tu Wan’s clothes.

“Die!” Calling a divine tier a dumbass was already a crime punishable by death. Digging out earwax and smearing it on a divine tier’s clothes was an insult worthy of ten thousand deaths. As for big brothers and little brothers — who cared about that load of nonsense about family ties?

The five-meter-tall Tu Wan furiously raised his huge leg, ready to stomp this guy, who had only Sky-rank strength, to death like a little bug!

He had seen arrogant people, but never one this arrogant. A Sky-rank warrior, and instead of hiding somewhere trembling, he dared to provoke a divine tier? Wasn’t his nerve a little too big for him? He was simply asking to die!

(End of Chapter 1295)