After the Hundred Blossom Sweet Dew Pastry incident, every instructor at the Heavenly Pride Wanderer’s Academy came to know about this simultaneously brilliant and devoted Titan student.

Every day, beyond the mandatory group lectures, each instructor made a point of coming over to provide guidance — or rather, to assist with the development of Yue Yang’s three new research areas. Each had their own strengths, and once they all threw themselves into it with full force, the development pace truly soared. The principal was undoubtedly the happiest of all. In the first place, he considered himself a fine judge of talent — he was the one who had discovered this Titan student, a thoroughbred of limitless future. And more importantly, after tasting Grandma Doluo’s specially made Hundred Blossom Sweet Dew Pastries, the Titan student’s melancholy from missing his mother had visibly lifted, and smiles had begun to appear on his face.

The principal watched and felt his own heart grow younger by decades.

A sense of accomplishment that no words could quite capture.

Rising warmly within him.

“Child — what you need is rest. Even if I never use that Sacred-tier quill pen in my lifetime, I simply cannot watch you sitting here completely still for three months doing nothing but research. I know how much heart and soul something like this demands — ‘blood and tears’ is not an exaggeration. Listen: you must take three days’ rest. I’m granting you leave. Not another word — I know what you’re worried about. Time is not the issue. The instructors here are all getting up to speed on these projects now. Put your mind at ease and leave it to them. They can and must take on more of the burden for you.” The principal made his concerned criticism and, in an entirely unprecedented move, specially approved three days of leave for Yue Yang — he was to do nothing, and his only obligation was to rest and rest some more.

“Leave it to us!” Instructor Oumon, who was supposed to be teaching the battle construct operations class today, had already effectively dismissed his students to do as they pleased. He’d abandoned those young men with their dim futures and poured himself entirely into the flying battle construct that Yue Yang was developing.

Instructor Oumon’s father had been a widely renowned battle construct craftsman in his day.

But he’d carried one regret to his grave.

That he had never seen a battle construct take flight.

He’d died with eyes that wouldn’t close.

Instructor Oumon was himself a devoted son, one of nine brothers. Twenty years ago, all nine had begun carrying on their father’s unfinished research — and had made no progress whatsoever. Just as despair was setting in, Instructor Oumon suddenly heard that a prodigiously talented student had already succeeded in designing a gliding battle construct prototype, needing only battlefield test data and the fabrication of a finished product. It felt like a new life had been breathed into him.

When the principal assigned him to participate in and assist Yue Yang’s research on the flying battle construct, he was overcome with joy.

In front of Yue Yang, Instructor Oumon kept his composure and said nothing.

But once he ducked into the restroom, he wept with full abandon, crying like a child.

Because they were short on manpower, Instructor Oumon summoned all nine brothers from the family. He put up his own funds and, following Yue Yang’s design specifications, began constructing a full-scale mock-up of the flying battle construct.

A wooden mock-up, for now.

A one-to-one scale model.

The actual materials needed for proper fabrication couldn’t all be procured on short notice.

Even so — even knowing that flight was only theoretically possible at this stage — the nine brothers threw themselves into the work day and night, not stopping for sleep or meals.

The result was that the specially established flying battle construct laboratory regularly featured nine master battle construct craftsmen moving about like apprentices at Yue Yang’s direction. Whatever he asked them to do, it got done.

The only instructor at the academy who harbored any resentment was Instructor Oup, who was responsible for the rune array research.

Because the academy’s focus had shifted entirely to the flying battle construct, the rune array research he was overseeing had been pushed to the side, and even the other instructors preferred to go help with the battle construct rather than assist him here. If Yue Yang hadn’t mentioned that the rune array research would eventually be integrated into the flying battle construct — and that without it, the battle construct would be significantly inferior — he’d have lodged a formal complaint with the principal already. But if the rune array was going to be used on the flying battle construct, then the focus would inevitably shift back his way eventually. Instructor Oup thought it over and made his peace with it.

Which was more illustrious — being part of a collective achievement, or being the individual credited with a singular honor? Even a fool knew the answer to that.

Besides, he felt that working with the student one-on-one on the rune arrays meant he’d have access to more secrets, and a closer relationship with the boy than anyone else. Second only to the principal, perhaps.

“Goodbye, Principal — goodbye, Instructor Oumon, goodbye, Instructor Oup…” Like a well-behaved child leaving school for the day, Yue Yang walked out the front gate of the Heavenly Pride Wanderer’s Academy with the principal and instructors watching him go.

“That child.” The principal sighed. What a pity he wasn’t his own grandson — if he were, he’d die without regrets.

Back at Star Diamond Castle, Steward Duli presented Yue Yang with several letters.

From Zhonghua, the Silver Maple City Lord, and the two township mayors respectively.

The two mayors reported that the sea monster had been eliminated, the bandits cleared out, and pledged their absolute devotion as subjects. Yue Yang barely finished reading before tossing the letters aside. Taking loyalty pledges from weathervanes at face value was something only idiots did. If he hadn’t demonstrated a little ability at the City Lord’s manor, both mayors would already be attaching themselves to Zhonghua’s coattails. The City Lord’s letter, clearly written after learning something of Yue Yang’s background through Zhonghua, struck a more conciliatory tone than expected — phrased quite delicately, mainly as an invitation for Yue Yang to attend another banquet, with assurances of a personal appearance at the Life Assessment Ceremony to cheer him on, along with early congratulations for Star Diamond Castle’s new master on what the writer clearly anticipated would be a winning performance.

Due to the principal’s strict orders, and because the academy’s instructors had realized they were sitting on the best opportunity of their careers to make a name for themselves in Human Valley, not a single detail of Yue Yang’s three research projects had leaked out.

Otherwise the Silver Maple City Lord would never have managed to stay in his seat — he’d have been at the Heavenly Pride Wanderer’s Academy “inspecting” long before now.

Zhonghua’s letter was more warmly worded than anyone else’s — sincere in tone, with repeated references to an instant kinship, a meeting of kindred spirits, and a desire to become brothers. If Yue Yang hadn’t known from the start what this man actually was, he might have been genuinely moved by it. For Zhonghua, the honors of Human Valley were never his ultimate goal. No matter how hard he competed, he couldn’t outcompete Ji Wuri.

But if he could form a genuine alliance with the Upper Heavenly Realm’s most mysterious Eastern Immortal Clan, both Ji Wuri and the Divine Hall Supreme would be in for significantly more headaches.

In his eagerness to win Yue Yang over, Zhonghua would have pulled out his own heart and shown it to him if he could. Sea monsters, bandits, wolf packs, financial shortfalls — Zhonghua handled every last one without a word of complaint. If Yue Yang hadn’t been required in the early period to attend the Heavenly Pride Wanderer’s Academy, Zhonghua would probably have been visiting every single day. The Silver Maple City Lord, in his determination to support Zhonghua, was equally unstinting — many rare and valuable items arrived at Star Diamond Castle under Zhonghua’s name.

“You terrible liar — you’ve really done a number on people!” Back in the Grimoire World, the beautiful Luohua, snuggled in Yue Yang’s arms, pinched his nose with playful reproach and, while nobody was looking, flicked a quick kiss onto his lips, light as a dragonfly touching water.

“I generally don’t encourage deception, but when it comes to Zhonghua, the more thoroughly he’s deceived the better.” Princess Qianqian brandished a small fist.

She had zero goodwill toward anyone connected to the Central Divine Hall.

Whether Ji Wuri.

Or Zhonghua.

Besides, the more furiously these two competed against each other, the better it was for the Sky Tower.

Yue Yang noticed Qianqian was in unusually good spirits today and couldn’t resist teasing her: “Hey, tiger girl — something good happen today? Big breakthrough with fusing the Divine Sword?”

Princess Qianqian lowered her head immediately at that. When it came to cultivation, she was undeniably one of the most dedicated among them, and she’d set the goal of catching up to the still-sleeping Xue Wuxia who was fusing her divine nature. How could someone like her accept defeat? But the final integration of the Prison Emperor’s Divine Sword remained stubbornly out of reach — at Perfect Innate Sovereign tier one, it had been like this; now at tier two, it was still the same. The repeated setbacks had taken their toll.

Yue Yu quietly signaled her little brother with her eyes to change the subject — pointing out that you didn’t bring up a sore spot when someone was finally in a good mood.

Princess Qianqian was in rare good spirits today.

And now it was going back to this.

“Tiger girl, let me help you with it. Three days, I guarantee we sort it out.” Yue Yang knew this was the moment for him to step in. Left stuck at the same bottleneck too long, it would start affecting her cultivation progress.

“Who asked you?!” Princess Qianqian punched him in the chest with some feeling. Stubborn as she was, she couldn’t possibly accept his offer publicly, however much she might privately want to. The bigger concern was this: getting his help to fuse the Prison Emperor’s Divine Sword would inevitably require the kind of intimate proximity that happened in paired cultivation. And if he got that close and then pressed further, she had absolutely no confidence she’d be able to stop him. Before Xue Wuxia woke from her fusion and revival, Princess Qianqian felt she had to show some backbone — the last thing she could afford was that snow girl having something to mock her about, and losing self-control to anyone else was something she absolutely could not accept.

“Hey — I genuinely am trying to help you…” Yue Yang wiped a bead of cold sweat, wondering if he really looked that much like someone who’d take advantage of any opening.

“Third, shhh.” Yue Yu signaled Yue Yang to stop, raising one slender finger with an expression that was half-secretive and half-embarrassed. “Actually, I already talked it over with Qianqian, and she agreed — you just can’t mention it in front of everyone. You know how thin-skinned she is — if you bring it up now she’ll probably change her mind.”

“Thank you, sis!” Yue Yang, in his excitement, put Luohua down and threw his arms around Yue Yu, spinning her around.

This particular knot — Princess Qianqian’s ongoing struggle to fully fuse the Prison Emperor’s Divine Sword — had been quietly weighing on him too.

He hadn’t expected Yue Yu to have already sorted it out.

With Luohua and Inan both watching, Yue Yu turned red and flustered, her small fists flailing against his shoulders: “Third — put me down right now, you’re making me dizzy!”

Only then did Yue Yang realize what he’d done — breaking into a cold sweat, wondering how he’d ended up hugging Yue Yu of all people. And in front of everyone, no less.

“You’re still such a child sometimes.” Yue Yu extricated herself with some difficulty, deeply flustered — thankfully Yue Bing and Baobei weren’t here, otherwise the awkwardness would have been unbearable. She gave Yue Yang a reproachful look, then fled to her room, her heart hammering like something inside her was trying to escape.

“That really wasn’t intentional.” Yue Yang caught Luohua’s sidelong look and hurried to explain himself.

“Oh? Did anyone say they didn’t believe you? Or could this be a case of protesting too much? Hahaha!” Luohua was thoroughly amused.

Laughing until her shoulders shook, graceful as a flower in a breeze.

Utterly irresistible.

Yue Yang decided that this evening’s agenda included enforcing household rules on a certain beautiful young lady.

But first, Yue Yang decided to recruit an accomplice, reaching out to take Inan’s hand. “My little Inan is always the sweetest — how about you and I enforce household rules together tonight? Give a certain princess a good smack on the bottom?”

Inan’s heart went soft with the praise, though she was sensible enough — under Luohua’s daggered glare — not to nod along, only covering her mouth and giggling.

Luohua drew herself up with aristocratic dignity: “Outrageous — a mere head of the personal guard, daring to act against your superior?”

Yue Yang went completely unimpressed: “Worst case, you dock my pay — not that I’ve ever actually collected it. The law can’t stop me at this point.”

What could you do with a shameless person like that?

Caught and unable to escape, Luohua deployed her ultimate weapon: “You actually dare to go through with it, and I’m done cooperating with you — forever. I’ll wear you to nothing.” This threat struck at Yue Yang’s lifelong happiness, and even someone as formidable as him had no choice but to immediately concede defeat. The raised offending hand came gently down, drifting softly over a certain young lady’s perfectly rounded form. “Little fool — I can barely keep myself from adoring you. How could I bear to actually hurt you?”

Luohua, having won a round for once, knew when to stop pressing her advantage.

Particularly as wandering hands were already exploring further, seeking out hidden territory.

Her body going softly boneless, all resistance failing her, she wrapped her arms around him and gave his ear a light nip. “And this so-called head of the personal guard still wants to talk about pay?”

(End of Chapter)