Three good days of freeloading on food and drink went by. Hei Zhou entertained him warmly enough, but there were attendants at Yue Yang’s side at every hour of the day, which amounted to surveillance. Never mind getting word to God-Slayer — he couldn’t have sneezed quietly without somebody taking an interest.

Compared with Yue Yang’s Southwest Divine Sovereign “Shafeng,” North Divine Sovereign Zhaoxi had a great deal more freedom.

Even Northwest Divine Sovereign Shuanghan had it considerably better.

After all, the Shafeng that Yue Yang was impersonating was the cannon fodder Hei Zhou intended to spend in the swarming of God-Slayer. A single-use article, to be discarded once used. Who was going to care how he felt? So long as Shafeng didn’t back out before the killing, whether the cannon fodder lived or died afterward was of no importance at all — and if it proved necessary, then even if Shafeng survived he would have to be removed, to save carving the spoils into one more share… Sharing his humanity but not his fate was North Divine Sovereign Zhaoxi, whom Hei Zhou courted from the bottom of his heart.

Zhaoxi, who held the Zhenmiao Divine Mirror, could not be killed — he would know the instant the thought was formed — and besides, he was an important asset in getting rid of God-Slayer.

Without Zhaoxi, killing God-Slayer was very nearly impossible.

Under certain conditions.

Zhaoxi mattered a good deal more than Tianchou, the hidden piece currently embedded undercover.

In Hei Zhou’s estimation, North Divine Sovereign Zhaoxi was the most useful of them all, and letting him die in the swarm would be the greatest waste and the greatest failure. The administration of both Mountain Beyond the Mountain and Earth Valley, and the absorption of East Camp territory after the war, could all be handed to Zhaoxi. Of all the god-tier experts, this North Divine Sovereign was unquestionably the ablest administrator and the best suited to the work.

Once God-Slayer was killed and Hei Zhou had made himself the first man, he would certainly go after a higher realm, with no leisure to spare for administration.

The same went for South Divine Sovereign Tianchou.

So from the very beginning, Hei Zhou had sought Zhaoxi out and settled terms.

Hei Zhou wanted the position of first man of Mountain Beyond the Mountain, and everything God-Slayer possessed; Mountain Beyond the Mountain and Earth Valley would be administered by Zhaoxi personally, and Hei Zhou would never interfere. The other one, South Divine Sovereign Tianchou, had asked for sole use of the God-Slaying Mystic Realm for ten years, to devote himself to uncovering the secrets of the ancients, after which he would hand it back to Zhaoxi and Shuanghan.

Only the tragic “Shafeng,” fated to be cannon fodder, was nominally promised the divine artifact Lihen out of God-Slayer’s own hand, along with every hovering mothership of the Eastern Divine Nation, the Kunpeng included.

Hei Zhou would have to be brain-dead to hand over the divine artifact Lihen.

Taking possession of everything God-Slayer had held in life was exactly what Hei Zhou wanted. How was any of it to be parcelled out to cannon fodder like “Shafeng”?

In Hei Zhou’s eyes.

Shafeng was already a dead man.

And a dead man can be promised anything at all.

Dead men don’t come round asking the living for what they were owed, and a promise costs nothing but a movement of the lips.

To make the Shafeng that Yue Yang was impersonating fight all the harder, Hei Zhou even thumped his chest and promised him the Dragon Eagle, the largest ship of the Western Divine Nation.

“My brother, once this fight is finished, your old elder brother’s heart will finally be at rest, and I’ll give myself to pursuing a higher realm. Ha! The war’s over — what would I want with hovering motherships? They’re yours. The whole fleet is yours, crews and all, and the stores laid up in every port besides. All of it. Yours.” Hei Zhou went so far as to instruct the counterfeit Shafeng, with great ceremony, in his own hard-won insights on building and handling hovering motherships — the very picture of an honest gentleman dealing sincerely with a friend. Set the finest actor alive beside him and the man wouldn’t be fit to carry his shoes.

“Building hovering motherships is a real slog, and that fellow wants ten years for his business besides… I’d rather have the ready-made fleet. Dragon Eagle and Kunpeng, both of them mine to ride from here on. Hahaha! Lihen in my hand and the Kunpeng under me — I’ll get to enjoy being God-Slayer, first man of Mountain Beyond the Mountain, for once myself.” Yue Yang played along obligingly.

“Excellent! Brother Shafeng, what magnificent spirit. Come, come, let’s drain the cup.” Hei Zhou sneered inwardly. If you’re the first man of Mountain Beyond the Mountain, then who does that make me? On the surface, naturally, he pressed the drink on him with delight.

“Cheers. To knocking God-Slayer flat.” The “Shafeng” Yue Yang was playing had well and truly got into the part by now.

Perform away, then. Perform away.

Your acting is good. Mine isn’t bad either.

We’re all here to make the ending a good one. Where’s the harm in playing off one another a little?

North Divine Sovereign Zhaoxi smiled and said nothing. He had spoken very little across these three days, rarely putting in a word unless the matter touched him personally, and simply drank.

Northwest Divine Sovereign Shuanghan had stopped making trouble for Yue Yang’s “Shafeng.” Partly he judged this piece of cannon fodder as good as dead and couldn’t be bothered arguing; partly, intelligence had come in that Northeast Divine Sovereign Qingyun, avoiding the Divine War, had already left Mountain Beyond the Mountain for Earth Valley — and that Eastern Divine Sovereign God-Slayer had appeared in person to see him off. Which proved, a hundred percent, that this “Shafeng” was neither Qingyun nor God-Slayer. Since he wasn’t an enemy in disguise, Shuanghan stopped paying him any attention whatever, and met even Yue Yang’s verbal provocations with disdainful silence.

It took Yue Yang three full days to work out that this icy Shuanghan was in fact a stubborn man who went his own way and decided things for himself.

It had nothing to do with evil, or black-heartedness, or a thick face — nothing even to do with self-interest. He was backing Hei Zhou and joining the attacks on Chiqiu and God-Slayer because he had resolved to end Mountain Beyond the Mountain’s instability as fast as possible… Shuanghan considered that neither God-Slayer nor Chiqiu was a good Divine Sovereign, and considered Northeast Divine Sovereign Qingyun far too idle to bring any development at all to Mountain Beyond the Mountain or Earth Valley — a man who had held the seat for nothing. He foresaw that a war would come sooner or later, and reasoned that if he threw his weight behind God-Slayer the two sides would be evenly matched, which would only produce a thousand-year war, wasting all that time for nothing, and leave Mountain Beyond the Mountain and Earth Valley in ruins from the length of the fighting.

So he had decided to support Western Divine Sovereign Hei Zhou.

In Shuanghan’s eyes, Hei Zhou was unquestionably the best leader available.

Beyond raw strength, God-Slayer contributed almost nothing — not in administration, and not in helping the other seven Divine Sovereigns grow stronger.

Hei Zhou was the opposite in every respect. Across ten thousand years he had given the other six Divine Sovereigns a great deal of help — including Chiqiu, killed on the spot in that encirclement, who had received Hei Zhou’s guidance and assistance in the building of hovering motherships.

When it came to choosing a camp, Shuanghan had chosen the West without a moment’s hesitation. He had chosen to support Hei Zhou.

There was no good and evil in it.

Shuanghan supported Hei Zhou.

Simply because he judged Hei Zhou most likely to win, and the best outcome for the future of Mountain Beyond the Mountain and Earth Valley.

Yue Yang felt no instinctive resistance to Shuanghan’s reasoning or his actions, and didn’t think them necessarily wrong. God-Slayer really wasn’t the best of leaders, and if Hei Zhou became first man of Mountain Beyond the Mountain, he might well do the job better. The problem was that this Divine War had a Ji Wuri in the middle of it, and a Central Divine Hall behind him, and with those two meddling Yue Yang could not simply stand by and watch… An enemy’s companion is an enemy; an enemy’s enemy is an ally… And he had accepted Chiqiu’s Tunlong and his divine power besides, which naturally put him on God-Slayer’s side.

Besides — standing with the weaker side, defying heaven, turning the whole thing over: wasn’t that a great deal more satisfying, and a great deal more of an achievement, than pushing the boat along with the current?

And the most, most, most important point of all.

If Yue Yang helped God-Slayer, then whatever the man was or wasn’t as a Divine Sovereign or a leader, he wouldn’t put a knife in his back later. Help Hei Zhou and Ji Wuri instead, and unless your head had more holes in it than a honeycomb you were doomed — those two birds would kill the donkey the moment the grinding was done, guaranteed.

When it comes to friends, better one who won’t stab you in the back.

Even if the friend is an idiot.

Even if he’s a useless wretch.

Better that than a capable, clever man with a thousand calculations running, who’ll put a blade in your back for profit at any moment at all.

However it went, Shafeng’s ending was cannon fodder, fixed and settled. And Yue Yang, impersonating him, smiled very happily, ate and drank his fill, and passed the days in carefree, drunken, dreamlike indulgence.

The more he behaved that way, the easier Hei Zhou’s mind became.

“God-Slayer is back.” The latest intelligence came in, and Hei Zhou took it seriously.

“Where?” Yue Yang, counterfeiting Shafeng, performed excitement and concern, stopping just short of rubbing his palms together, rolling up his sleeves and reaching for a weapon.

This so-called Divine War — the East Camp’s soldiers and the West Camp’s soldiers going at one another — was in truth a garnish. Whichever camp won, the other side’s soldiers couldn’t win; they were never the force that would decide the outcome, only bait, and stakes on the table. From the very beginning Hei Zhou’s target had been God-Slayer and nothing else. Once God-Slayer fell, all the rest was so much drifting cloud.

“Our hidden piece has stirred something up behind Storm Fortress. He used forbidden power as the lure, deliberately killed close to ten thousand men, turned nearly a thousand soldiers into idiots, and left over a hundred half-finished ones raving — slaughtering their own comrades, killing anyone they lay eyes on, bloodthirsty as beasts. It has already reached God-Slayer’s notice. Intelligence predicts that if his subordinates can’t put it down, he’ll take the field himself and wipe that valley off the map. And that will be our chance to surround and kill him.” Hei Zhou and Ji Wuri had conspired over this lure long ago, and had war-gamed every subsequent variation, setting it in motion only once they judged it foolproof. Let God-Slayer take the bait, and this Divine War would certainly break open.

And once it broke open, it would settle who stood higher.

God-Slayer would fall from Mountain Beyond the Mountain, following Chiqiu.

Ji Wuri’s side handled the luring and the laying of every trap, waiting for God-Slayer to take the hook; Hei Zhou’s side would strike when the moment came.

“Is this intelligence reliable?” The instant God-Slayer came up, Shuanghan’s expression turned unusually careful — and not only his. Yue Yang noticed that even North Divine Sovereign Zhaoxi had gone grave.

Eastern Divine Sovereign God-Slayer. Who exactly was this man?

That Shuanghan and Zhaoxi should take him this seriously? And this wasn’t four against one any longer, it was six against one. Tianchou the hidden piece would bring devastating force to bear, and Ji Wuri wearing Chiqiu’s face, if he went unseen through, was a vicious stroke in his own right… And under those conditions Shuanghan and Zhaoxi were still going over the plan with the greatest possible care, as though the smallest slip would bring the whole thing down. Could Eastern Divine Sovereign God-Slayer really be that strong?

One against six, and he might still turn it around?

Was the man even human?

Yue Yang couldn’t stop the running commentary at the back of his mind.

He knew perfectly well that the first man of Mountain Beyond the Mountain was no simple matter. But one against six, powerful enemies outside and a mole within, and still commanding this much awe from his enemies — there was only one thing to be said about it. The man was genuinely, seriously strong.

No wonder Hei Zhou was shoving his ally “Shafeng” out to be cannon fodder. Killing an opponent like that without taking losses was frankly a joke.

But why did it have to be Shafeng who was sacrificed?

Shafeng was the most loyal little brother Hei Zhou had. So he was a shade weaker than the rest — and for that, without a word said, he was pushed out to die? Was there any justice left in the world? Counterfeit though he was, Yue Yang felt in his heart that Shafeng had been badly used. Shafeng, you poor fool, you followed the wrong boss… Next life, learn to judge people better.

If there is a next life.

(End of Chapter 1180)