“Hahaha!”

Dongfang was laughing with real delight. He, who had always been so calm and composed, had cast off all his depth and deliberation and was laughing out loud to his heart’s content.

He was not the only one laughing. There was someone else, hidden in the darkness. At first that person had stayed quietly where he was, slowly absorbing the frenzied power of faith and the war-beast power that Dongfang had stolen in Yue Yang’s name, slowly digesting it, drawing those vast, highly compressed energies into his body and turning them, bit by bit, into his own divine power.

Unlike Dongfang’s open laughter, the man in the darkness laughed softly — like the rings of ripples a light breeze leaves on a still lake at night.

He not only laughed but clapped, praising him: “Grand Hall Master Dongfang truly lives up to his name as the foremost strategist of the Central Divine Hall. Wisdom and skill like this, controlling the whole board, are simply breathtaking.”

“Tu Shi, Heavenly God-Butcher, are you still worried that something might go wrong with the Sky Tower’s fall?” Dongfang had recovered his usual calm, and his wise eyes were as deep as the sea.

“I have decided. I will attack, and hasten its ruin.” The man in the darkness, Tu Shi the Heavenly God-Butcher, suddenly asked with some curiosity, “Before I launch my attack and wash the Sky Tower away, will you satisfy my curiosity? I would very much like to know: before Yue Titan and his friends and family moved to bear the power of fate, why were you so sure they would do it? This is not my imagination — from the very beginning, you laid out the final design, and every single thing served this victory now. Dongfang, why were you so confident? With your divine power and your Game talent, you should not have been able to fully control the whole situation in the Sky Tower… I have been here watching you, step by step: from the Heavenly Realm legions’ invasion and pressure at the start, to the game you played in person, to luring them into bearing fate, to stealing a name to profit from it so cleverly, and finally to having every one of Yue Titan’s friends and family sacrifice themselves in the bearing. Without the slightest effort, you have strangled the Sky Tower’s hope in the palm of your hand and knocked its future into an abyss it will never climb out of. Tell me, my friend — how did you do it?”

“The tide.” Dongfang was silent for a long while after hearing that, then suddenly gave this answer.

“You mean the way the tide is running?” Tu Shi the Heavenly God-Butcher still did not quite understand.

“Yes. The Sky Tower’s fall was an ending settled ten thousand years ago, or even earlier. No one can reverse it. Back then, the Conquest Queen Vivienne, the Prison Emperor Zhanfeng and the rest only pushed the date of its fall back a little, nothing more.”

When Dongfang finished, he fell silent again for a while, as if remembering the brilliant past of his life, or calling up old memories long since gone and sealed away.

It was a long time before Dongfang came back to himself and went on explaining to Tu Shi the Heavenly God-Butcher: “All I did was go with the current and stamp down hard on a Sky Tower that was already sinking. I did not do very much. There is no need to do very much. In a tide like this, adding just a little force is like the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It is enough to knock the whole crumbling Sky Tower into the abyss.”

“As for why Yue Titan and his friends and family would choose to bear fate — that is how people are. They are bold enough to try anything they do not understand, and they believe in empty things like hope and miracles. The younger they are, the more they believe! I was once one of them, so I understand perfectly — or, to put it another way, if I stood where they stand, I might well choose the same. I do not need to crush them with my own hands. Many of the Sky Tower’s warriors are extremely resilient; pressed to their limit, they easily spring back. They also have a spirit of sacrifice that Heavenly Realm warriors rarely have — they will throw away their own lives, without reason, for someone else, or for some ideal or goal. That sacrifice is completely different from a Heavenly Realm warrior’s offering. The method may look similar, but they excel in giving of their own free will, and their spirits are full of pride. They call this kind of sacrifice a great act, though many Heavenly Realm warriors cannot understand it.”

“If I forced my way to killing Yue Titan, he would certainly strike back with everything he had. He would surely do as the Prison Emperor Zhanfeng did — sacrifice himself and, with his companions, forcibly seal some target he was able to seal. If that happened, it might bring some unforeseeable change to the whole situation.”

“That is not what I want to see. So I did not use violent means. I relied much more on a contest of wisdom. Under heavy pressure, faintly, I created the illusion that there was still hope, so that they would not fall into instant despair and blow themselves up together with the enemy in a fit of passion. Back then, one Prison Emperor Zhanfeng bought the Sky Tower several thousand years. I do not want to see a second one appear, and still less do I want to see a second Yue Titan born… Human warriors grow very fast. A thousand years is enough to produce many powerful warriors, even divine tiers! If we had not found him early, and Yue Titan had been allowed to grow unhindered, the ending would not be what it is today.”

“Long ago, I swore I would destroy the Sky Tower with my own hands, and I have done it.” Dongfang threw back his head and laughed. “What I cannot have, I will not let go on existing. Besides, to watch it slowly slide, step by step, into an abyss it can never return from — is that not one of life’s pleasures?”

The man in the darkness, Tu Shi the Heavenly God-Butcher, listened quietly. When he had heard it all, he was silent for a long, long time.

He had noticed that Dongfang, for all his laughter, was not as happy as he looked. If anything, the Grand Hall Master before him, a divine tier with wisdom as deep as the sea, seemed to carry a faint, unspeakable regret. He could not help asking, “Dongfang, did you really destroy the Sky Tower to gain the Ruins of the Gods? Are you really so satisfied, so happy?”

Dongfang was taken aback, then shook his head. “No. To tell you the truth, I want nothing. There are certainly many treasures in the Ruins of the Gods — hold one and you would not trade it for anything in the world — but I do not want those things. I am sure you understand, too: there are things that people like us can never have. Is that not why you asked me for the power of faith? As for whether destroying the Sky Tower has brought my heart satisfaction and happiness… I cannot say there is none at all, and I cannot say I am entirely satisfied and happy either! It is a very complicated feeling. There is joy in it, and a great sense of accomplishment, but also a little melancholy and confusion. This was my home, after all. I left a great deal of laughter and tears here. But whatever it was, none of it will ever come back! What is lost is lost forever, and I no longer dream of having it. On the other hand, what I have gained, I will hold tight in my grip and never let slip easily through my fingers — like my position and power today as Grand Hall Master of the Central Divine Hall! Like the wisdom and the ability with which I have knocked the Sky Tower into the abyss today!”

Tu Shi the Heavenly God-Butcher, in the darkness, suddenly agreed. “I understand very well, because I did the same thing long ago. For the sake of what I already had, I buried my past with my own hands. Just as you destroyed the Sky Tower with your own hands, I did the same thing — and I did it even more ruthlessly than you.”

“Is that why you now carry the name Heavenly God-Butcher?” A faint smile appeared at the corner of Dongfang’s lips.

“The name does not matter. What matters is that no one in the Heavenly Realm or the Sky Realm dares to look down on the man behind it anymore!” Tu Shi the Heavenly God-Butcher laughed too. His laughter was like the earth trembling deep, deep down, holding the power of an eruption, waiting in its faint tremors for the perfect moment to explode and shake heaven and earth.

“If you can, do not kill that Yue Titan,” Dongfang requested.

“Oh?” Tu Shi the Heavenly God-Butcher was surprised.

“His bearing of fate has failed, all his friends and family are dead, his war beasts and divine artifacts have collapsed, his lovers and wives are gone. He will surely live in endless regret. An existence like that is a torment worse than death. I want him to weep in that pain forever… What could be more wretched than endless regret inside an eternal seal?” When Dongfang said this, even Tu Shi the Heavenly God-Butcher could not help shuddering.

Sometimes death really is the best choice — especially compared with waiting slowly for an endless future in despair worse than death…

The Sky Stairway.

Lying at the starting point, Yue Yang was on the edge of madness.

Pinned under a thousand meters of the power of fate, he could not move a single finger. Struggling was impossible.

If he could have, he would never have wanted Sea Fatty, Ye Kong and the others to choose to bear it this way. He would rather everyone bore it the way Yan Pojun or Yue Tian had. He did not need everyone to give their lives — to sacrifice themselves, to make offerings of themselves! There had to be a better way to bear fate. It could not be that this was the only method there was.

There was still plenty of time left of the three days they had agreed on. It was not the end yet.

Why? Why had Sea Fatty and the others chosen to bear it by going beyond death?

This was not what he wanted! Even more frightening, everyone was doing it this way — all his family and friends, teachers and classmates, allies and subordinates. Even Princess Qianqian, Xue Wuxia and the others in front of him would probably end up on the same road… Did reversing fate really have to cost such a terrible price? If so, how was that any different from not reversing it at all?

No! This was not true hope at all!

Who would tell everyone? Who would turn this mistake around? Who would lead everyone back onto the true, eternal, beautiful road?

Never before had such a powerful wish welled up in Yue Yang’s heart. At his most despairing, most heartbroken, most remorseful moment, his heart longed for an enlightenment far beyond his own wisdom, a guidance far beyond his own ability.

Who will help me?

I’m only a weak little transmigrator. I never even got the chance to look after Fourth Mother properly. I couldn’t even protect my little sister. I can’t even hold the women I love in my arms… How am I supposed to bear the fate of reversing the whole Sky Tower and everyone who stands behind me? I’m the Sky Tower’s once-in-ten-thousand-years genius, I’m the freakishly gifted Yue family third young master — but I’m too young. Next to old ghosts like Dongfang and Tianyu, I’m only a child. Who can tell me what I should do?

Xue Wuxia and the others were still praying.

Yue Yang, though, felt an urge to throw away everything in the world and just hold them tight in his arms… Even if heaven and earth were destroyed the next second, that would be better than this — being right beside them and only able to watch, helpless, as they walked toward their sacrifice!

“My darling, remember: no matter what, Mommy will always be behind you!” A voice far lovelier than any heavenly music rang out in his heart. Perhaps it came from the edge of the sky; perhaps it was a resonance of the soul. Not only Yue Yang, but Xue Wuxia and the others in their prayer — even Her Majesty and Fourth Mother, who had been silent all this while — heard this “familiar” voice at the same moment, and cried out in surprise. It was purer than anything, and washed away every dark feeling in the heart with ease. Under that lovely voice, fury and despair simply evaporated and vanished without a trace. Yue Yang’s and Xue Wuxia’s inner worlds were made completely clean; the interference and the shadow of death that Dongfang and the other Heavenly Realm powers had sent, on purpose or not, had long since been annihilated. New hope, like a seed sprouting, was created by that voice, then grew into something like the World Tree and entered eternity. “No matter what, never give up — because, my darling, you are the seed of hope Mommy left for this world! As long as you are here, this world has hope. As long as you are here, this world will never be covered by pain and sorrow. Laughter and joy are what you will bring to this world, and happiness is what you will bring to everyone… And you, my darling, will reap sweetness from the happiness you bring to others!”

“Bless you, my darling. Mommy will always love you!”

A mysterious power, carried from who knew what world, effortlessly took up three thousand six hundred meters of the power of fate.

Was this a mother’s strength? Was this the guidance and the hope she was bringing him?

In that instant, Yue Yang finally felt it — what kind of love this mysterious woman had for him. She who had always guarded him in silence from behind; she who had once given boundless things for him without ever showing herself or saying a word. Was this the motherly love he had heard of? A mother — when had he ever had a mother of his own? Not one borrowed under the Tragic Man’s name, but one truly, really, wholly his own — his, the transmigrator’s; his, the self his mother was said to have prayed for on the life-flower tree, who had somehow, for reasons no one knew, become a transmigrator. A mother’s love of his very own!

He had felt it in Fourth Mother before, but never as truly as today.

Only now did he understand. Mother had always been here, always by his side. He had simply never known!

“Mom, is it really — really you? Do I, a lonely wanderer like me, have a mom of my own too?” Yue Yang wanted so badly to shout it at the sky, but at some point tears had begun streaming down his face…

“Mom…”

(End of Chapter 1299)