“He is simply… tired.” The Tairen Queen let out a quiet sigh.

“What?” The Redemption City Lord blinked in confusion.

“In truth, he and I both escaped from the Eternal Grievance Redemption Prison. Unlike me — I was known in my time as ‘Wildflower’ — Tairen comes from the Dark Realm.” At those words, Yueyang remained composed, but the Redemption City Lord nearly jumped out of his skin. Wildflower? The most notorious female outlaw in the Southern Heavenly Realm ten thousand years ago — compared to her, the current Captain Lieyan didn’t even come close. Wildflower had been the kind of force that stormed and took down multiple King-level Heavenly Realm territories. Even Tantai Tumie’s most capable enforcers, Tiangui and Tianyao, had taken three full days and nights working together before they finally brought her in.

Wildflower had not been famous in her early years. By nature she was peaceful, disliking conflict — just a wandering female mercenary drifting from place to place.

Something had happened, at some point.

And she had become a bandit queen.

Raiding everywhere she went.

In the days when Empress Vivienne was driving to conquer the entire Heavenly Realm and the threatened Central Divine Temple had summoned champions from all four corners — the great powers of the East, South, West, and North, along with every regional sovereign, all converging on the Western Heavenly Realm to face the Empress of Conquest’s army — vast stretches of the rear territories had been left effectively ungoverned. Many powerful figures had seized the opportunity to rise, particularly in the domains of fallen sovereigns, where countless people competed to fill the vacuum.

Wildflower’s bandit group was of the raiding kind — they had never had any interest in holding territory.

They moved from city to city, seizing them and stripping them of resources, and even King-level Sky-rank cultivators couldn’t put them down.

It had gone on that way until Vivienne was sealed away, the great powers all returned to their posts, the regional sovereigns reasserted control over their domains, and the Central Divine Temple freed up its forces to go around putting out the fires that had broken out across the Heavenly Realm one by one.

As for the Tairen King — if he came from the Dark Realm…

The Redemption City Lord inwardly shuddered, and sensed clearly that some things were simply not his to know. Knowing them would be anything but good for his health.

He made his excuses to Yueyang and retreated promptly. The fewer secrets beyond his station he was privy to, the safer he remained.

“Tairen wasn’t always called Tairen. He was a fugitive from the Dark Realm. It was only after he escaped to Tairen Continent and met me that he called himself Tairen. We met, and we fell in love. Race and creed couldn’t stop the fire between us. But we were both castaways of fate. I was the daughter of a death-row prisoner in the Eternal Grievance Redemption Prison, who only escaped the annihilation of our entire family because our loved ones protected me before the end. And Tairen — a fallen warrior of the Dark Realm, born already a prisoner, destined from birth to spend his life in chains. Even after escaping the Dark Realm, he would have been a fugitive forever, a creature of the underground who could never see daylight.” The Queen’s eyes held a brief flicker of something wistful as she spoke of the past.

“So you formed the Wildflower Bandit Group?” Captain Lieyan asked.

“No. People like us — what we wanted most was for no one to notice us at all. Why would we form a bandit group? That was Tantai Tumie’s requirement. Or rather, the Central Divine Temple’s requirement.” The Queen shook her head, and the answer she gave left both Lieyan and Bi Lv genuinely startled.

“When did Tantai Tumie capture you?” Bi Lv asked, puzzled. What would Tantai Tumie want with two people forming a bandit group?

“About a year after we met and fell in love. I was already carrying a child by then. Tantai Tumie appeared before us with Tiangui and Tianyao. We had no possibility of resistance. We were utterly without hope. He locked us in the Eternal Grievance Redemption Prison, and when the child was born, he took the baby away. We had no choice whatsoever — we followed his orders, formed the Wildflower Bandit Group, raided everywhere, plundered resources for him. And honestly, that’s the way it has always been. We weren’t the first people he did this to, and we weren’t the last. To obtain more resources, to better control the Heavenly Realm, to better maintain their image — the Central Divine Temple uses every means available to them. They’ve formed countless bandit groups, seized uncountable cities and territories across the Heavenly Realm. Nearly every region that hasn’t been invaded is a Central Divine Temple controlled zone. Except for domains under a regional sovereign or great power, any King-level Sky-rank territory that doesn’t fall under Central Divine Temple administration and refuses to accept their covert dominion automatically becomes a target.” The Tairen Queen spoke a secret of the Heavenly Realm that very few people alive knew.

“Then my father — my father was killed because of this.” Bi Lv cried out, the pieces falling into place all at once.

“Yes. As far as I know, the Chou Squad is one of the Central Divine Temple’s instruments.” Yueyang had worked it out now — why Chou could move so freely through both the Western and Southern Heavenly Realms. Behind him was the support of certain figures in the Central Divine Temple.

The Chou Squad operated purely as a destructive force, never occupying any city as a base.

Yet they could obtain supplies in cities where they were officially wanted everywhere.

Without the Central Divine Temple’s reach and connections behind them, the local King-level powers would have wiped them out long ago.

And yet the opposite had happened. Even the Lion Heart King — a figure with ambitions at the regional sovereign level — gave the Chou Squad unusual consideration. Without Central Divine Temple backing, a collaboration between the Lion Heart King and Chou would simply never have happened. Of course, what Chou was being used for clearly extended beyond merely stirring up trouble in the Southern Heavenly Realm — the Central Divine Temple’s true purpose in deploying Chou was almost certainly aimed at the Sky-Reaching Tower. What remained unclear was whether the Prison Emperor’s war with the Western Heavenly Realm’s great powers, years ago, had any thread of connection to Chou.

It seemed that finding the old-generation Sky-Reaching Tower powerhouses — Qianye, Tianlu, Wuse and the others — would be the only way to learn more of the truth.

The Tairen Queen gave a nod, confirming what Yueyang had said.

She turned to look at Bi Lv. “I’ve heard about your father’s case as well. Reportedly, it was a matter of being punished for possessing something valuable. The resources in your father’s territory weren’t extraordinary — but he must have come into possession of a particularly exceptional treasure. The Central Divine Temple sent people to demand it. He refused to hand it over. And that was what ultimately led to the betrayals and the ruin that followed.”

Bi Lv was stunned. “But I never heard anything about my father having a special treasure.”

“If you had known about it, you would either not be alive today, or you would have become someone’s puppet long ago.” The Tairen Queen shook her head slowly, speaking from a place of deep and personal understanding. “Some knowledge in this world — knowing it is a curse. Knowing nothing is the blessing.”

“You and the Tairen King were captured and imprisoned in the Eternal Grievance Redemption Prison, yet you ended up as a celebrated King known everywhere for benevolent rule. Was that Tantai Tumie’s doing as well?” Bi Lv had processed things enough to put this together. The capture made sense — Tiangui and Tianyao being sent to apprehend them was normal enough. But how had they gone from prisoners to rulers of a territory?

“Yes,” the Tairen Queen said with a nod. “With leverage held over us, we had no choice but to obey. We became kings in the Southern Heavenly Realm, administered a region, and spent year after year collecting resources for them. As for treating our subjects with kindness — that was nothing more than our way of easing the guilt over the wrongs we had committed against them. A small compensation to quiet our consciences.”

“If we rescued your children, would that break the hold they have over you?” Lieyan asked.

“Young one, what do you think?” The Queen’s eyes turned to Yueyang.

“No,” Yueyang said without hesitation. He knew it wouldn’t be that simple. People like the Tairen King and his Queen couldn’t be controlled through a child’s life alone.

“The truth is — our child died long ago,” the Queen said, her voice going hollow. She pressed a hand over her face, sorrow radiating from her in waves.

“Then… why have you and the Tairen King continued to obey them all this time?” Lieyan was genuinely at a loss.

“Because of one thing,” the Queen said quietly, a sheen of tears forming in her eyes. “Hope.”

Hope.

The word left both Lieyan and Bi Lv momentarily speechless.

Yueyang was already thinking. He had an inkling of what the Queen meant — hope for the Dark Realm. The Tairen King was someone who had escaped from the Dark Realm. If he died, the people still living there would lose every last vestige of hope. To honor those who had sacrificed who knew how many lives to help him escape — the Tairen King had to keep living.

As for why the Tairen King had suddenly decided to stop cooperating with the Central Divine Temple, why he had grown utterly defeated and now wished only for death — the most likely reason was that he had learned his people in the Dark Realm had been completely destroyed.

Or that the hope had been entirely extinguished.

The Queen looked at Yueyang. “To be honest, Tairen and I stopped caring about whether we lived or died a very long time ago. For people like us, death early is liberation early. Besides — you both know what we are. We were a setup from the beginning. Tantai Tumie used us as a pretext, manipulated us for his own ends. Today it’s this, tomorrow it will be something else. If we die sooner, at least we add a little less to our list of sins.”

Yueyang was quiet for a moment. Then he lifted his gaze to the Tairen Queen. “I can’t make you any promises right now. But perhaps someday — perhaps not too far from now — I will kill Tantai Tumie. If you and the Tairen King can hold on and wait, endure as long as you can. You may have done many wrong things. But as long as the will to make amends is there, you will wash away your sins in time, and reclaim who you truly are. As for the Dark Realm — I don’t know much about it. But in the Western Heavenly Realm, I saw with my own eyes over ten thousand Dark Realm warriors emerge. They can’t yet fully break free from the control placed on them — but there is at least a thread of possibility.”

“Those are only surface improvements,” the Queen said softly, shaking her head. “Without overthrowing the Central Divine Temple, the Dark Realm will never see dawn. Pieces on a board will always be pieces on a board.” Her eyes settled on Yueyang one last time. “Young man — if you are able to speak with the gods, I hope you will pass along a message.”

“What message?” Yueyang asked.

“The Dark Realm has paid with the lives of countless generations to atone for the sins of long ago. It has recovered its morality and its hope — only the Central Divine Temple’s forces have smothered the prayers rising from that place. Tairen and I are willing to swear on our lives and our souls: we ask only that the light of the divine descend upon the Dark Realm at last. This is what they have prayed for across tens of thousands of years.” A single tear formed in the corner of the Queen’s eye and slid rapidly down her cheek, shattering against the ground. “And it is the hope that we have held fast to for ten thousand years without ever letting go.”

“I can’t make you a promise,” Yueyang said. “But I will deliver your words faithfully. And if it becomes possible, I may one day go to the Dark Realm myself and see the truth of it with my own eyes.”

He had been moved — genuinely moved — by the hope the Tairen Queen had never stopped holding onto. To live beneath that kind of suffocating control, with no escape, for ten thousand years — and still carry hope.

What extraordinary persistence.

What extraordinary strength.

Yueyang didn’t always respect his elders. But he deeply respected this — the strength of those who spent their entire lives holding onto a goal, refusing to let it go. Not the strength of power, but the strength of the spirit.

Compared to these people who had clung to hope for ten thousand years waiting to escape the Dark Realm — weren’t the ancestors of Dragon Rise Continent who had passed their struggles down through generation after generation, who had bled and fought to the last for their descendants’ survival — people like Yue Qiu — cut from exactly the same cloth? Different battlegrounds, different ways of enduring, but the same unbreakable heart.

Yueyang was the hope of Dragon Rise Continent. The hope of the Sky-Reaching Tower. He could carry the Tower with him as he rose. And if the Dark Realm was worthy of the same —

Why not bring those people with him too? Why not overthrow the Central Divine Temple’s dominion together?

Yueyang didn’t have that power yet.

But he had set that goal, here and now.

As long as he kept pushing forward — with his gifts, with the endless support of all the people behind him — that day would not be far away.