Three days later, word of Bi Lv’s whereabouts finally came back.

She wasn’t in the Jade Domain at all — by all accounts, she had traveled to a place called the Tairen Continent. The intelligence report, delivered in secret, said that the local Tairen King had been arrested by the Central Divine Temple’s Crimson Warden Tantai Tumie on charges of colluding with evil forces, and was being transported to the Divine Punishment Execution Platform to be put to death. Every member of the Tairen King’s family and his nine clans were to be thrown into the Central Divine Temple’s Eternal Grievance Redemption Prison, condemned to atone through a life of suffering.

“What a terrible injustice — even three-year-old children in the Southern Heavenly Realm know the Tairen King is a good man,” Baogu said with a heavy sigh.

“Is that so?” Luohua’s interest was suddenly piqued.

“City Lord Mistress, Baogu speaks only the truth,” Niugen added earnestly. “I can’t vouch for other rulers, but the Tairen King — he’s genuinely a good man. Under his rule, the people lived in peace and safety, crime was essentially nonexistent, and the kind of ruthless predation you see everywhere else in the Heavenly Realm almost never happened there. Even the powerful magical beasts that claimed territory in the region signed agreements with the Tairen King — accepting his offerings and pledging not to disturb the populace. To many people, Tairen Continent is something close to a dream. Its only real drawback is that most of the land sits on a high plateau tens of thousands of meters above sea level, where the gravity is at least ten times that of other regions, making it all but unlivable for ordinary people — and the cold doesn’t help either. Otherwise, you can only imagine how many would have emigrated there.”

“So what you’re saying is that the Tairen King being arrested for colluding with evil forces is a false charge?” Luohua pressed.

“Absolutely,” both Baogu and Niugen confirmed without a moment’s hesitation.

“Then why would the Central Divine Temple publicly execute a ruler who has the love of his people?” Yueyang felt there was more to this than met the eye. The Central Divine Temple weren’t fools — publicly executing the Tairen King without solid evidence wasn’t something they would do carelessly.

And if they didn’t need the spectacle, they could simply have disposed of him quietly. Why make it public? Why invite the populace to watch?

The fact that they were confident enough to do it openly meant they had evidence in hand.

Whether that evidence was real or fabricated was another matter entirely.

But at minimum, one thing was clear: whatever they had was enough to make the charges stick.

Baogu and Niugen had no answer to that. They were capable men for what they were, but their judgment of the world operated at a basic level. Expecting them to think through the hidden machinations behind all this the way a strategist would was asking too much.

Yueyang waited out the rest of the day, and a second intelligence report came in — this one gathered personally by Yanzao, his most skilled shadow operative.

Yanzao had other assignments and hadn’t been able to return to Eternal Night City in person, but through their unique underground network of thieves and informants, he had delivered what Yueyang needed. According to Yanzao’s intelligence, the Wilderness King Moye Changqing, the false Jade Domain Lord Pang Pei along with his most formidable subordinate Yu Qianjun, had already departed for Tairen Continent. Most significantly, Yanzao had learned that Chou had taken the Chou Squad there as well. Of the surrounding rulers and notable factions, the only one who hadn’t yet made a move was the Lion Heart King.

A man with nothing is harmless — a man with treasure invites trouble.

As far as the Tairen King’s arrest went, Yueyang had a theory: the Tairen King possessed either some valuable treasure or knowledge of some secret — something the Central Divine Temple’s Warden wanted, and that he had refused to give up, which had led to this.

Or perhaps it was a secret the Central Divine Temple had long coveted, and the Tairen King had refused to surrender it for reasons of his own.

If Chou, the Wilderness King, and the false Jade Domain Lord hadn’t been so eagerly rushing off to “witness” the Tairen King’s execution, Yueyang might not have been so certain. Seeing that they had, he put the odds at several notches above a reasonable guess. Furthermore, he suspected this might involve a treasure that couldn’t be retrieved by one person alone — otherwise the Central Divine Temple would never have made the execution public in the first place. They would have quietly disposed of the Tairen King and claimed the prize themselves.

“We should go take a look,” Luohua said. Treasure or no treasure, this was too good an opportunity to pass up for causing chaos across the Southern Heavenly Realm.

“If the Central Divine Temple were to lose a Warden in the process…” Yueyang’s mind was already running ahead at full speed. Taking out someone called Tantai Tumie would send the Central Divine Temple into a fury — the Southern Heavenly Realm would erupt into full-scale upheaval.

“Third Young Master, killing Tantai Tumie is going to be very difficult,” Niugen said carefully, afraid of giving offence but feeling he had to say it. “Even people like us at the bottom of the ladder have heard of how fearsome the Crimson Warden is. Among the entire Central Divine Temple, he ranks just below the Three Hall Masters — on par with the Light Hall Master Zhonghua himself. He’s said to possess an undying body, and wields the divine artifact known as the God-Slaying Blade. Sky-rank King-level cultivators get one-shotted in his presence — he’s executed plenty of them in the Southern Heavenly Realm alone, and no one has ever been known to escape him. Even his two chief executioners under him — Tiangui and Tianyao — are both Sky-rank Level 6.”

“How do you know all this?” Yueyang asked, genuinely curious.

“Once, our captain Wild Bull got his hands on a priceless treasure and was about to take us out to celebrate — when out of nowhere, the false Jade Domain Lord Pang Pei showed up in the middle of the night and demanded Wild Bull hand it over immediately. Apparently it was a treasure that belonged to a relative of Tiangui’s. Tiangui went to the Lion Heart King about it, and even the Lion Heart King couldn’t refuse — he personally compensated Tiangui with an enormous amount of valuables and sent Pang Pei to get the treasure back. Wild Bull told me about it later, still shaking — that episode cost us everything we had, stripped us completely bare. I’ve never forgotten it.” Niugen had an excellent memory, and a habit of filing away important information wherever he found it.

“Good intelligence.” Yueyang patted Niugen on the shoulder to show his appreciation.

In truth, Yueyang didn’t take the report entirely at face value.

If Tiangui and Tianyao were genuinely only Sky-rank Level 6, the Lion Heart King would never have bowed his head to them. Either the Lion Heart King was concealing his true strength — or Tiangui and Tianyao were considerably more powerful than the rumors suggested.

As for the Warden Tantai Tumie himself — ranked just below the Three Hall Masters, on par with Light Hall Master Zhonghua, wielder of a divine artifact. That was a terrifying résumé by any measure.

The Heavenly Realm was vast — and how many people in all of it actually possessed divine artifacts?

Light Hall Master Zhonghua — Yueyang suspected he was the same figure who had commanded over ten thousand fallen warriors from the Dark Realm during that incident. Setting aside Ji Wuri, Zhonghua was the strongest individual Yueyang had ever witnessed in the Heavenly Realm — that figure radiating light in all directions, seeming almost like a god made flesh.

If Tantai Tumie matched Zhonghua in power, Yueyang had to concede that going after the Crimson Warden alone would be a stretch.

But one breath of frustration wasn’t going to stop a living man. If he couldn’t handle it solo, he’d bring reinforcements. Supreme and Night Empress could step in if it came to that. He could even put his mind to recruiting Mingyueguang.

At the very least, writing her a letter to warm up relations couldn’t hurt.

“I’ve been thinking of you, my Moonlight Beauty. Word has it the Central Divine Temple’s Warden carries a divine artifact — I intend to claim it as one of my betrothal gifts. I wonder whether Moonlight Beauty would be willing to help me make that wish a reality? Tairen Continent. I’ll be waiting. Don’t make me wait alone.”

Yueyang composed the love letter in Heavenly Realm runes, placed it carefully inside a lacquered box, and personally took it to the Mercenaries’ Guild to have it dispatched to Mingyueguang — one of the three great powers of the Western Heavenly Realm.

He had written to her a few times before, but this one was different.

This time, the invitation to cooperate was explicit.

For a delivery of this significance, the Mercenaries’ Guild would throw every resource they had into getting it there as quickly as possible.

Whether Mingyueguang would actually show up in Tairen Continent and join Yueyang in taking down Tantai Tumie — that wasn’t the outcome he was most counting on. He also had a gut feeling that killing Tantai Tumie in Tairen Continent specifically wasn’t going to be easy. A better opportunity would need to present itself — a moment when the man’s guard was completely down. This partnership didn’t need to happen immediately. As long as Mingyueguang agreed in principle, the timing could be worked out later.

Besides, Yueyang wasn’t sure how much of her strength Mingyueguang had recovered. Without knowing whether she was anywhere near her peak, it was hard to say what she’d actually be capable of bringing to the table.

“Are you sure she’ll agree?” Luohua looked at the letter with open skepticism. It was far too short, in her opinion. Never mind whether the sentiment was genuine — a few scant lines wasn’t going to move anyone. A love letter worth its name needed pages of heartfelt writing, dense and devoted, tens of thousands of words at minimum. How else was anyone supposed to be swept off their feet?

“She’s isolated and without allies right now — who else is going to work with her? This is me offering warmth in the cold!” Yueyang declared, thoroughly satisfied with his own magnanimity.

“I give it zero chance of working,” Luohua said bluntly, not particularly concerned about sparing his feelings.

“If one letter doesn’t do it, I’ll write more. Water wears through stone — it’ll work eventually.” Yueyang had clearly mastered the true art of romantic pursuit: relentless persistence, absolute shamelessness, deployed without limit.

“That’s more likely to have the opposite effect…” Luohua burst out laughing. If a few letters were all it took to win over one of the great powers of the Heavenly Realm, the Prison Emperor would never have had to fight so hard for so long. Though Yueyang had his own logic — you never know unless you try. And the biggest difference between himself and the Prison Emperor, he firmly believed, was that he was smarter. Well — more shameless, at any rate.

With all the intelligence gathered, Yueyang and Luohua sat down to assess the situation.

Neither of them felt this was a trap.

The decision was made: head to Tairen immediately, link up with Bi Lv and Yanzao who was already there gathering intelligence, read the situation on the ground, and move from there.

Going to Tairen Continent directly wasn’t an option — the Central Divine Temple’s soldiers had already taken control of the area. Without a legitimate cover, if anyone started asking questions, Eternal Night City — the Sky-Reaching Tower’s forward base in the Southern Heavenly Realm — risked being discovered and destroyed by the Central Divine Temple.

They would need a plausible identity.

One day later.

At the teleportation array leading to Tairen Continent, a luxurious airship arrived.

The name painted on its side read Lieyan — the personal vessel of the Lieyan Bandit Squad.

Captain Lieyan, still technically in the middle of her Sky Stairway training, had been conscripted by Yueyang into serving as cover. In her capacity as bandit squad captain, she presented the observation invitation to the soldiers guarding the teleportation array. The invitation itself had been relieved from a local domain lord mid-journey — it bore no name, only the Central Divine Temple’s distinctive seal, making it impossible to verify or dispute. Lieyan used it without a seam showing.

Yueyang stood behind Lieyan, posing as part of her retinue. His projected strength was masked to Sky-rank Level 3 — just barely sufficient standing to attend an execution ceremony of this scale.

“Didn’t the Lieyan Bandit Squad disband?” one of the guards muttered, looking faintly puzzled.

“Doesn’t matter. As long as the captain’s still alive, they can rebuild whenever they feel like it,” the squad leader said with a bored grunt. Bandit squads in the Heavenly Realm were as common as weeds — most only had the captain to show for it in terms of real power. If the captain survived while the rest were wiped out, it meant nothing. Recruit new members and you were back in business. Lieyan was not only alive but had clearly had some fortunate encounter that pushed her strength considerably higher — rebuilding the Lieyan Bandit Squad was a formality.

“The Warden has issued standing orders — no weapons of any kind within range of the Divine Punishment Execution Platform. Please be aware of that, Captain,” the guard performing the check reminded Lieyan, while deftly accepting the money pouch Yueyang had passed over as a bribe. Once identities were confirmed and Lieyan and Yueyang had boarded the airship and departed, he opened the pouch — and nearly fell over from the weight of it. He shoved his way to the squad leader, practically shouting with excitement: “Captain — the Lieyan Bandit Squad must have hit a serious windfall recently! You know how much that guy slipped us? A full thousand gold — and on top of that, a cat’s eye gemstone worth three thousand more!”

“Then what are you standing around for? You’re off duty — go find my cousin right now and tell him to set up the best accommodations available for the Lieyan Squad. Generous spenders like that are not people we can afford to let slip away!”