Tianyao got to his feet.

For a moment he simply stared — watching the crimson-haired Tiangui’s body split in two, fall through the air, and plunge to the bottom of the Stargazing Fortress crater. He didn’t need his eyes. Through the soul-link between twins, he already knew: Tiangui had died the instant that blade fell. Nothing to do with the body being split — what the blow had severed was Tiangui’s soul.

The outcome had been sealed in the moment the sky cracked open.

When Xiao Wenli turned and flew toward him, he snapped to his senses.

At a speed he had never achieved before.

He turned. He ran.

Tianyao could make an enemy of anyone in the world — but like Tiangui before him, he harbored a deep, unshakeable terror of this serpent demon loli. Ten thousand years ago, the image of that serpent demon war god had burned itself into his soul, leaving a mark of dread that not a single year had diminished.

Nanpei appeared from somewhere, throwing himself at Xiao Wenli in a frenzy.

With a loyalty that had no concern for self-preservation, he was trying to spend his own life buying Tianyao time to escape.

“Hah!”

Xiao Wenli leveled her blade with a single gesture. Nanpei froze in midair, suspended.

Under the Lion Heart King’s quietly shaking head and watchful eyes, the serpent demon loli dispatched the endlessly scheming, brilliantly calculating Nanpei with the simplest of cuts. In the face of absolute power, all strategy and cunning amounted to nothing. After growth beyond counting — after breaking the sealing laws within the Black Void Space itself in an attempt to rescue Vivienne — Xiao Wenli was no longer something a single Nanpei could hope to stop. The distance between her now and the serpent demon princess who had once swept the Heavenly Realm before her was closing — not yet there, but not far either.

What stunned the Lion Heart King most, however, was not the serpent demon loli who had made her entrance and instantly ended Tiangui.

It was the Third Young Master — who still hadn’t made a move.

The Lion Heart King knew Yueyang was the most powerful of all of them. He simply hadn’t acted, which made his true strength impossible to gauge.

Above, a twin-star constellation blazed with radiant light, and more and more stars seemed to answer some unheard summons — falling in streams, weaving together into a vast and boundless stellar labyrinth.

To the eyes of onlookers, Tianyao was moving at extreme speed — and yet he never once broke free of the star labyrinth’s boundary.

No matter how firmly he committed to flying in a straight line.

He curved.

When Tianyao eventually stopped, the Lion Heart King found the situation almost poetically ironic — Tianyao was standing in exactly the same spot he had started running from. No matter how long or how hard he had fled, he had never left his starting point.

Xiao Wenli chose not to pursue further. She returned to Yueyang’s side. In Luohua’s company and Xiao Wenli’s, under the Lion Heart King’s astonished gaze, Yueyang reached up into the sky and caught a handful of stars.

He flicked them away.

More carelessly than a child flicking marbles.

But the moment those stars left his palm, they accelerated — ten million times over — streaking through the star labyrinth toward Tianyao at speeds that went from a pinpoint of starlight to a long blazing column, until even the Lion Heart King’s eyes could no longer track them.

No matter how Tianyao dodged and weaved, those high-velocity stars found him with perfect accuracy every time.

Tianyao roared.

He threw caution away completely, pushing himself past his usual Sky-rank Level 7 early-stage ceiling and up to the absolute peak of Level 7, summoning a level of raw power he had never used before to fortify his body, using the Ripple Talent as a full-body shield — hard-tanking the stars Yueyang had flicked at him.

The Lion Heart King watched in disbelief. It made no difference.

Tianyao’s body crumpled like cardboard against those stars — each one drove through him like an arrow through paper. Star after star punched through his body in dense succession, each impact making a dull thudding sound. The expression on Tianyao’s face was one of complete and utter incredulity — even as his arms were pierced, his body riddled, he still wore the look of someone who simply couldn’t accept that this was real.

Yueyang raised his hand and condensed a Star Vortex — a swirling galaxy that seemed to contain the light of a billion stars.

He tossed it casually.

The vortex landed on Tianyao’s head. As it spun, everything it touched — flesh, bone, energy, and soul — was dragged in, ground down, and swallowed in wave after desperate wave until nothing remained, consumed entirely by the absolute darkness at the vortex’s core.

Watching this, the Lion Heart King couldn’t stop himself from shuddering.

God.

That was the word his mind produced, unprompted and involuntary.

Seeing Yueyang end Tianyao with a casual gesture, the Lion Heart King finally understood the nature of the gap between them.

It was the distance between human and divine. A realm that could never be approached, let alone crossed.

And yet the Lion Heart King understood, even as he thought this, that everything Yueyang had done to reach this last moment had required immense preparation — recognizing the enemy’s talents, domains, and war beast weaknesses; devising the method of suppression; spending a long time weaving the star labyrinth domain; waiting for the exact right moment before acting. Only then had the instant kill been possible.

And that alone was terrifying enough.

The Lion Heart King was honest with himself: even throwing everything he had, he could never have defeated Tiangui or Tianyao. Without breaking the Shockwave Domain, he couldn’t have even managed a draw. But the one who broke that domain was Yueyang. The ripple talent and war beast weaknesses were identified by Yueyang. The divine beast that delivered the final killing stroke on Tiangui — that also belonged to Yueyang. Without the Third Young Master tonight, they would all have spent their last moments in despair inside the Tiangui brothers’ Shockwave Domain, dying one by one without a grave.

“Third Young Master — Qianhu is here and willing to serve as ox and horse, to be commanded however you see fit.” City Lord Qianhu came flying over in a rush, eager to make his position clear before the Lion Heart King could get in first.

The Lion Heart King gave him a withering look.

Did the Lion Heart King need to lower himself to that?

A servant was always a servant. A friend was always a friend. Those two positions would never switch places.

Though he understood Qianhu’s thinking — seeing a powerful backer, of course you rushed to show eagerness. With Qianhu’s Sky-rank Level 5 cultivation, wanting to be friends with the Third Young Master was simply beyond his standing. In the Lion Heart King’s private assessment, Qianhu barely had the qualification to stand alongside someone like Yonghui, Flower Panther, or Flying Locust — those lower-tier subordinates — let alone consider himself a peer to someone like Tianzhu or the Dragon Emperor, much less the Third Young Master himself.

The Underworld Emperor came flying back from the far edge of the sky, along with the Demon Kings returning from all directions.

Each gave Yueyang a brief nod.

The fleeing enemies had all been cleaned up.

Yueyang waved his hand to signal them to sweep the battlefield and not let anything valuable go to waste — then turned a light smile to the Lion Heart King: “There will be many more opportunities to work together in the future. I hope the Lion Heart King will continue to cooperate with the same wholehearted spirit as tonight — fighting side by side.”

The Lion Heart King’s heart settled back into his chest with enormous relief.

He had genuinely been worried for a moment that things might turn hostile.

Because if it did — he had no confidence he could escape the star labyrinth, and no confidence he could dodge those impossibly fast stars. Never mind his current injuries. Even at his peak, the Lion Heart King was privately certain he couldn’t defeat this incomprehensible young man. Setting aside the Dragon Sovereign Supreme entirely — even if the Demon Dragon somehow learned of any aggression against Yueyang, there was no running from that. The Demon Dragon was a being that gave even the Central Divine Temple a headache.

Seeing Yueyang openly invite him as an ally against the Central Divine Temple, the Lion Heart King straightened through his injuries and returned the gesture with full formality: “Without question. The Lion Heart King follows wherever the Third Young Master leads.”

He couldn’t help letting his gaze drift pointedly toward Qianhu as he said it.

See? I’m his trusted friend. You’re just a hired hand.

Qianhu wisely chose not to register the slight. He knew his own measure — the famous and celebrated Lion Heart King was naturally fit to be a friend. Getting himself a respectable post would already be a grace beyond what he deserved. There was no comparing himself to someone called the strongest King-level Sky-rank in the Southern Heavenly Realm.

The Tairen Queen arrived to offer her thanks.

Beside her was the Tairen King — severely wounded, near death.

He had been ready to die before — but that was before. Now that the Tiangui and Tianyao brothers who had imprisoned and kept watch over him were dead, what exactly was there still to sit in a cell for?

After a brief and genuine exchange, Yueyang learned from the Tairen King the location of a spacetime rift with a reasonable chance of serving as an entry point into the Dark Realm. He then entrusted the Tairen royal couple temporarily to the Lion Heart King for concealment and protection, gave City Lord Qianhu a task to carry out, and departed with Tianzhu and the others.

When the Lion Heart King and his group rose into the air to leave, they noticed that the star-rune arrays on the surface of Stargazing Sky Island were still active — and as they watched, the formations grew brighter, more brilliant, more unstable, the energy readings fluctuating wildly. Everyone broke into an immediate cold sweat.

They all pushed themselves to maximum speed and fled dozens of kilometers away.

Behind them, an enormous explosion.

The vast and mighty Stargazing Sky Island — for reasons no one could immediately explain — completely collapsed, detonating in its entirety into countless fragments, thundering down toward the earth below. The shockwave of the collapse chased them across dozens of kilometers and still arrived with enough force to send the Lion Heart King and the others stumbling in a very undignified fashion.

“The Third Young Master is simply beyond comprehension,” said the Tairen King — battered from head to toe by what the brothers had put him through — with a long, exhaled sigh.

The Lion Heart King said nothing.

He very much wanted to tell the Tairen King: if you had seen Tianyao trapped in the star labyrinth, running for his life for what felt like an eternity and never moving an inch from where he started — and then the Third Young Master ending him by casually flicking stars — you would find this even more incomprehensible. Blowing up a sky island was practically nothing by comparison. The Third Young Master’s true power, in all likelihood, had barely been shown tonight.

A descendant of the Dragon Sovereign Supreme. Incomprehensible barely covered it.

The Lion Heart King said nothing. This secret — whatever the reason — he instinctively felt was better known by as few people as possible.

Back at the Sky-Reaching Tower, the joy of killing Tiangui and Tianyao broke loose from the pressure Tianzhu, the Dragon Emperor, and the others had been carrying — they threw back their heads and let out long, rolling roars of release. All that brutal training against Temple Elders had finally paid off. They hadn’t killed Tiangui and Tianyao alone, and they hadn’t fought alone — but to have faced opponents of that caliber and stood until victory came, no one could honestly say they felt no pride in that.

Even the Underworld Emperor, Demon King Barut, and the others who had been running down the scattered Temple guards were filling the air with triumphant noise.

In the midst of the celebration, Elder Nangong smiled quietly.

And wrote.

The new legends of the Sky-Reaching Tower, set down in stillness.

With each increment of Yueyang’s growth, ever more records that had once seemed impossible appeared beneath his pen. These were more than just honors that could never be erased — they were wealth passed to the generations that would come after. With predecessors’ paths to follow, those who came later would find their own forward goal all the clearer. The rise of the Sky-Reaching Tower — under Yueyang’s influence — was unstoppable.

Heaven’s Web Imperial Palace.

“Is that so? Defeating Tiangui and Tianyao — very well done! Xiao Wenli has grown so much — I’m truly happy!” The only one who could stroke Xiao Wenli’s small head and watch her light up with joy at the praise was Fourth Elder Sister.

“What about me, what about me?” Shuang’er also wanted her share of compliments.

“You — the day you stop plastering yourself to your brother all the time will be the day you’ve grown up,” Fourth Elder Sister said, laughing, and gave the little rascal an affectionate swat.

“Then I won’t grow up!” Shuang’er decided that being draped over her brother was the best feeling in the world, and growing up was entirely optional.

“Ha!” Luohua burst into laughter, unable to hold it back.

“I want to go to the Dark Realm for a look — but I also want to see the Sacred Grimoire first,” Yueyang said, raising the topic with Fourth Elder Sister again.

“Going to the Dark Realm first isn’t a bad idea — just pay close attention to how the spacetime rift shifts and fluctuates. It can be very unstable, so be especially careful. I don’t know as much about these things as I should. As for the Sacred Grimoire — that’s not something you form a covenant with easily. Xiao Luohua, come help me chop these bones — I’m making a proper feast tonight, to celebrate you all properly!” Fourth Elder Sister sidestepped the Sacred Grimoire topic again — but she was, remarkably, supporting Yueyang’s plan to go to the Dark Realm.

She knew about the Dark Realm?

She seemed quite familiar with it, actually.

Yueyang had long since stopped feeling surprised by this. He didn’t know why Fourth Elder Sister kept her identity and her past hidden — but he knew she had reasons, and since she didn’t explain, he didn’t ask.

He believed that one day she would tell him the truth.

Or maybe even without the truth, it didn’t matter.

As long as the family was together and happy — that was enough.