By the time Yue Yang had taken the little girl into the Grimoire World, Raven and Pelican were still standing there in a daze.

They couldn’t recognize that this was a Sacred Codex, either. They had wrongly assumed that all summoning grimoires were this glorious, this dazzling… And when Yue Yang laid the Giant’s Shadow upon them and both men felt their strength surge dozens of times over in an instant, their astonishment deepened. Raven stared in disbelief at his own two hands — so strengthened by the Giant’s Shadow that he could scarcely control them — and murmured to himself: “This is the might of a summoning grimoire? This is the might of a life-guardian war beast?”

Pelican, coarse brute that he was, wore the same look of soul-scattered shock.

Yue Yang was at a loss for words.

It’s only a summoning grimoire. Is that any reason to be frightened out of your wits? If you saw a Divine Codex — ten million times more powerful — you’d go mad on the spot.

“Only a divine son possesses a summoning grimoire. Whose divine son are you? Which divine lord’s?” Raven now understood a little of why this Yue Titan feared no enemy at all: he was himself a divine son, a divine lord’s darling, and naturally could not fear ordinary foes.

“I’m not. I’m an ordinary man.” Yue Yang asked, puzzled: “Does no one in Earth Valley or the Mountain Beyond the Mountain have a summoning grimoire?”

“How could an ordinary man possibly possess a summoning grimoire…” Raven and Pelican didn’t believe him for a moment.

What Yue Yang didn’t know was this: exceedingly few warriors ever left Human Valley and entered Earth Valley, and those who did were powerhouses of tremendous strength. Such a person, once inside Earth Valley, would be known almost immediately to the eight divine lords’ secret agents, who would approach and assign them the status of a divine son — or some other covering identity. And if such super-strong warriors had no wish to remain in Earth Valley or the Mountain Beyond the Mountain, the eight divine lords had, ten thousand years ago, deliberately opened a shortcut leading to the ninth gate — Heaven Valley’s “Heaven Beyond the Heaven.” A gate-challenging warrior with a grimoire could never hope to compete against the eight divine lords in Earth Valley or the Mountain Beyond the Mountain, so leaving Earth Valley — returning to the Heaven Realm, or proceeding to the ninth gate — became inevitable.

In Earth Valley and the Mountain Beyond the Mountain, holders of summoning grimoires almost never appeared. And those who did invariably held the status of a divine son, or some other covering identity, which ordinary people could scarcely ever come into contact with.

For that reason, a warrior possessing a summoning grimoire was, in these two places, an especially mysterious and especially venerated thing — even to men of such strength as Raven and Pelican, who likewise believed that anyone with a grimoire must be a divine son, second only to a divine lord himself.

If they had found it hard to credit at first, the Giant’s Shadow Yue Yang laid upon them convinced them utterly.

Apart from the forbidden power, what force could raise a man’s strength dozens of times over in an instant?

It could only be a summoning grimoire’s life-guardian war beast.

And this strengthening, unlike the forbidden power, was not terrible at all. It was entirely harmless.

Witnessing it with their own eyes and feeling the change in their own bodies, how could Raven and Pelican still doubt the legends? On the contrary — they believed them now beyond all question.

“Roar! You filth — all of you, die!” With his strength multiplied dozens of times over and no backlash to fear, Pelican — who had been so badly beaten — finally found an outlet for his rage. He charged the mutant maggot-men like a tiger plunging into a flock of sheep, sweeping all before him. His strength had already far exceeded these creatures’; their numbers, advantage though they were, could not have stopped his charge. And now, with his power surging dozens of times higher still, how could the maggot-men possibly withstand him?

“No need to trouble yourself — leave these lowly maggot-men to me!” Just as Yue Yang was about to act, Raven saw it and hurried to rush ahead of him, joining Pelican in the slaughter and venting all the frustration he’d been carrying.

Yue Yang glanced back.

The soldiers and merchants had, it turned out, run off without a trace while the three of them held back the maggot-men.

That being so, he couldn’t be bothered to concern himself with these selfish creatures’ lives or deaths any further. If even one of them had been willing to turn back and lend the young mother a hand, she would not have died so wretchedly here… Of course, Yue Yang had no right and no reason to demand it of them. People are entitled to be selfish. But since they were selfish people, Yue Yang wouldn’t go out of his way to meddle in their affairs either. Let them go.

Perhaps the next second they’d be devoured by another wave of maggot-men.

Perhaps they’d be lucky and escape.

But none of it had anything to do with Yue Yang.

Everyone has a way of choosing his own fate. One may be selfless, and one may be selfish. On the surface, a man is powerless against heaven — but in truth, all fate rests in a man’s own hands. It’s only that, more often than not, from the very beginning a man fails to make the best choice for himself.

One step wrong.

And every step after it is wrong — the more he does, the more he errs; the more he errs, the more he does — until at last there is no recovering it.

Yue Yang kindled a spark of Nirvana Flame on his fingertip and burned away the body of the young mother who had died protecting her daughter. In his spiritual perception, it seemed he could feel the young mother’s soul bidding him farewell — ascending with the utmost serenity toward some mysterious world he could not name… Yue Yang knew he could not save everyone aboard this ship. But when he truly came upon such a thing, he would judge by the circumstances — and if there was real need, he would absolutely not stand by and watch a person die.

“The little one’s asleep. Mistress Yu will look after her for now — set your mind at ease!” Hong drifted out of the Grimoire World with this message, and at the same time requested permission to fight: “In Human Valley there was never any way for us to take the field. Since Earth Valley has no strict ancient Law binding us, all the sisters would like to come out and temper themselves.”

“Very well!” After a few seconds’ thought, Yue Yang agreed to the request.

It was a good opportunity. If they could fight some real powerhouses in Earth Valley, then Hong, Aman, Future, and Ika would grow far faster. Without formidable enemies and without challenge there is no tempering, and advancement slows to a crawl…

And Hong and Aman were life-guardian war beasts, unlike Princess Qianqian; they need not worry at all about the question of mortal danger.

The one thing that gave Yue Yang pause was that Ji Wuri had come to the Mountain Beyond the Mountain. It would not do to expose his strength to Ji Wuri too soon.

Of course, with Duoduo, Jiang Ying, and Xiao Wenli all having grown as they had, Yue Yang no longer feared open war with Ji Wuri. And if it truly came to it, he still had the phoenix sisters as a secret trump. He only wanted to find the very best moment to finish off that arrogant windbag Ji Wuri — and on no account let the “chicken” catch wind of anything and flee, which would waste the chance entirely!

Hong, Aman, Ika, and Future all came out — and behind them, even a Chaos Phantom came trailing along!

They did not appear before Raven and Pelican. Hong and Aman went one way, Ika and Future another, vanishing instantly into the ship’s corridors.

Pelican sensed nothing of it, but Raven felt something odd. He seemed to sense several powerful forces appearing and vanishing in the same instant. Could Yue Titan be performing some kind of summoning ritual? But by the time he hurried back to look, Hong and Aman were long gone without a trace — and even the Chaos Phantom, the slowest of them and the least skilled at concealing its aura, was already a thousand meters away.

“Did something just happen?” Raven couldn’t quite get a grip on it; the energy had vanished so fast he couldn’t be certain he hadn’t imagined it.

“No.” Yue Yang shook his head and waved a hand.

Could it be a hallucination from not yet being able to fully control my body after the strengthening? Raven had no other explanation and could only settle on that one. Neither he nor Pelican was well adapted to the Giant’s Shadow — a strengthening that not only multiplied one’s might dozens of times in an instant, but would continue to rise as the body adapted and one’s willpower melded with it.

Raven estimated that the Giant’s Shadow’s upper limit was a hundredfold strengthening.

After some adjustment, the increase he could presently control was under fiftyfold; Pelican’s was under thirtyfold.

Which meant that if they could go on adapting, the final ceiling would far exceed his present fiftyfold and reach all the way to a hundred!

While Raven was pondering how to hasten his adaptation, another great wave of maggot-men came surging in — and Raven’s blood positively boiled with excitement. These monsters had come at exactly the right moment. He’d just been fretting that he couldn’t find enough sparring partners, and here was a pillow delivered to a man who wanted to sleep!

Kill!

Pelican, roaring like thunder, was in the full flush of slaughter, and charged straight in without waiting for Raven to come and fight beside him.

Yue Yang watched a while, and noticed that neither Pelican nor Raven summoned any war beast — nor did either possess combat techniques worthy of his own strength. Their fighting had a certain method to it, but compared to the combat arts of the present-day Sky Tower it fell far, far short, to say nothing of the peerless secret techniques handed down from the ancient era.

What in the world happened in Earth Valley and the Mountain Beyond the Mountain? How did it come to this? No summoned beasts, no combat techniques — nothing but fighting on something close to instinct. Never mind the cultivation of the Sky Tower’s warriors; this is utterly out of step with the warriors of the Heaven Realm as well… Is this something the eight divine lords engineered deliberately? Or was it all lost after that battle between Taiyan and Bingli, back in the day?

He was still turning this over when he suddenly noticed the little metal beast — accompanied by the Taotie, the Heaven-Devouring Beast, and the Star Scorpion — creeping along on tiptoe, preparing to slip away right in front of him.

Honestly. Who exactly do they think I am?

Do they imagine sneaking about like this will get past me?

The little metal beast was very small — but had they never taken a look at what size the Taotie was? A colossus of a dozen tons or more, comparable to a tank, and it too meant to tiptoe past him! Could you people possibly be any more idiotic? Yue Yang was furious. Running out to cause mischief was one thing, but did they truly dare deceive their superior and hoodwink him like this? He was certain the little metal beast hadn’t gotten Princess Qianqian’s or the Sick Beauty’s permission — otherwise there’d be no need for all this furtiveness!

“You’re all a pack of fools!” Yue Yang gave the little metal beast, the ringleader, a hard smack on the rump.

“Ooo!” The little metal beast feared him more than anything. It immediately put on a piteous face and gazed up at Yue Yang with big, tear-filled, adorable eyes, wearing the look of a creature that would burst into tears if he didn’t agree. Behind it, the Taotie and the Star Scorpion played along, arranging their expressions into I’m-well-behaved-and-obedient — only the Heaven-Devouring Beast, newly born and not yet schooled in cunning by Gray Wolf, retained a trace of genuine innocence.

“Careful, or I’ll report you for malicious cuteness!” Yue Yang was no Luohua and no Inan; he wasn’t about to go soft merely because the little thing put on a pitiful act.

The little metal beast had no recourse and could only lower its head and take its scolding.

Eyes brimming with tears.

Fortunately, Yue Yang didn’t lecture for long: Raven had finished off the maggot-men and was returning. With no time to put them away, Yue Yang waved his hand and told them to get lost, quickly, before anyone saw them. The little metal beast and the rest were overjoyed, and vanished one after another like lightning — several times faster than their usual top speed — leaving Yue Yang torn between anger and laughter.

Raven returned wearing a face full of bafflement.

He wanted to ask whether something had happened just now. But looking around, he found nothing at all, and could only stifle his curiosity by main force — a most uncomfortable business.

The mutant maggot-men had suffered dreadful losses, and their master, Poison Maggot, naturally sensed it. He rushed toward Yue Yang’s position at top speed, wanting to see for himself what kind of enemy could have killed so many of his underlings in so short a time…

Most unfortunately, he took the wrong route. Before he could reach Yue Yang’s battlefield, he ran into the little metal beast — which had just slipped away to go make mischief.

Having been scolded by Yue Yang, the little thing had resolved to make a real showing of itself, and to seize the throne of number-one enforcer from Gray Wolf.

And so Poison Maggot was astonished to find a tiny creature standing before him, swaggering with martial pomp.

Issuing him a challenge!

Had the little metal beast not been standing on the Star Scorpion’s back, with the Heaven-Devouring Beast serving as a scabbard in one small claw and the Taotie as a war-blade in the other, Poison Maggot would have laughed until his belly split.

“What is this? Am I — am I seeing things?” Poison Maggot had never dreamed, even in sleep, that he would meet an opponent like this.

“…” The little metal beast wanted to deliver a long, grand declaration of war, just as its master would have done. But after posing for a good long while, it couldn’t get a single word out. It scratched the back of its head with a small claw, decided to forget it, and let the blade do the talking instead. So, imitating Yue Yang’s bearing with its tiny body, it drew the Taotie blade, used the Star Scorpion as its mount, leapt into midair, hefted that blade of a dozen-odd tons in its little claws — and brought it down in a heaven-splitting, earth-cleaving stroke.

This, precisely, was Yue Yang’s habitual move: A Single Cut, and the Mountains and Rivers Are Rent!

The little thing didn’t wield it as well as Yue Yang — but it had at least three-tenths of the mastery. And whatever the technique, being on the receiving end of the Taotie’s blade was no pleasant thing.

At least, that was how Poison Maggot felt about it.

(End of Chapter 1149)