Fifth Floor of the Sky Stairway.

Even the mighty Tianzhu could no longer stand. He slumped against a boulder, utterly spent.

Within a hundred meters of him, the Dragon Emperor, the Underworld Emperor, Barut, Hasim, and the other powerhouses of the Sky-Reaching Tower lay sprawled across the ground in complete disarray — exhaustion having long stripped away any concern for appearances. The Sky Demon Palace’s Tianjian, Tianjie, Tianzui, Tianu, Tiansha, Tianjian, and the rest had collapsed like dogs, gasping for breath. Only that clever little schemer Tianzai had been smart enough to sweet-talk Yueyang into bringing her inside the Sky Stairway early to train alongside Tianfa, keeping her out of the whole mess. Not that she could hope to keep pace with the skyrocketing Phoenix Fairy at her current level — but at least she had no trouble training on her own below the five-thousandth step.

Old Dragon Turtle and Elder Nangong had also shown up. Without those two lending a hand, finishing off the Divine Temple Elder would have cost the rest of them even more dearly.

In a battle of that magnitude, no one had any sense of how much time had passed.

Every elite powerhouse the Sky-Reaching Tower had to offer — all of them deployed at once.

They had fought until the sun and moon seemed to dim.

They had fought until there was nothing left in the tank.

And all of that… just to take down a single Level 5 Sky-rank Divine Temple Elder. Had that Elder been even a fraction stronger, or had Yueyang not broken his morale beforehand, the outcome would have been an entirely different story.

“That was terrifying. I never realized how monstrous a Level 5 Sky-rank cultivator could be without the Law restrictions in play!” The Demon King Barut still hadn’t fully recovered from the shock.

“How did that kid capture the Temple Elder on his own?” The Dragon Emperor could no longer wrap his head around Yueyang’s true power.

“He’s just a freak of nature. There’s no other explanation.” The Underworld Emperor had given up trying.

“How are you holding up?” Elder Nangong asked while tending to Tianzhu’s wounds.

“Exhilarating,” Tianzhu replied, cool as ever.

He knew, of course, that Nangong wasn’t asking about his impressions of the battle — he was asking whether any insights had come from it, whether there was room for a breakthrough. But honestly, Tianzhu had to admit: this fight had been a rush unlike anything before. That razor’s edge between survival and instant death, the relentless pressure of walking on thin ice every single moment — it was the kind of experience that came along once in a lifetime. Compared to this, their previous battle against the Black Prison King and the Ancient Demon King felt like child’s play. Even the Nine Luminaries Tribe invasion led by the Empress of Heaven hadn’t been this grueling.

Back then, the hardest parts had been shouldered by Supreme, Night Empress, and Yueyang.

Now, with Supreme and Night Empress in the Sky Stairway and Yueyang away training in the Heavenly Realm, all that weight had come crashing down onto Tianzhu as the new leader — and it was nearly suffocating.

Elder Nangong smiled quietly, keeping watch over everyone’s safety while jotting down notes on the battle. He hoped that not only the powerhouses present, but also the generations that would come after, could draw lessons from this kind of life-or-death challenge and use it to grow.

At some point, Yueyang’s figure appeared on the battlefield.

His clear voice rang out before anyone even noticed he had returned. He flashed Tianzhu a grin, then casually tossed two dark figures onto the ground.

“Exciting, wasn’t it? Well, it’s about to get even more exciting! These two are also Divine Temple Elders — and they’re both stronger than the last one. One goes by Red Crane, the other by Scarlet Peak. They each have their own unique abilities. So — keep it up, everyone!”

Tianzhu froze.

Tianjian and Tianjie went pale with horror. They’d just killed one Elder, and now there were two more?

Demon King Barut slammed his head against the stone wall, seized by a genuine urge to end it all. Ever since he’d had the misfortune of meeting this deranged kid, his life had been over!

Even Elder Nangong quietly wondered whether dumping two more Temple Elders on them was pushing things too fast. Pressure was good — life-or-death pressure especially tended to force people to new heights. But right now, no matter how much pressure you piled on, there simply wasn’t much fight left to squeeze out of anyone.

They had already been pushed past their limits.

“These two aren’t pushovers,” Yueyang continued, that sunny, punchable grin still plastered on his face. “In the Heavenly Realm, it took five Sky-rank Level 5 cultivators and one peak Level 4 working in concert — and they still came away seriously wounded — just to bring these two down.” That smile of his, radiant as sunlight and twice as insufferable, made even the composed Dragon Emperor and Underworld Emperor’s fists itch, to say nothing of Barut and Hasim. Yueyang rose into the air with perfect ease under the collective murderous glares of the group, and as he vanished in a flash of teleportation, left them with one final parting gift: “Oh, and by the way — Red Crane and Scarlet Peak recover fast. At least as fast as any of you.”

“That bastard — I’m going to kill him!” Barut exploded.

“Insufferable!” The Dragon Emperor ground his teeth in fury.

“What do we do now?!” Tianjian, Tianjie, and the others panicked, turning to their leader — Tianzhu.

“Exhilarating,” Tianzhu said again. Still just two words. But there was a faint tremor in his voice this time that had nothing to do with his usual icy composure.

On the ground, the two near-death Temple Elders were already rallying — summoning their war beasts for protection and desperately absorbing energy from Sky-rank Demon Cores to recover. Another round of cursing broke out; the two had been hiding reserves that Yueyang apparently hadn’t found when he searched them. Or maybe he’d found them and left them on purpose. Either way, those bastards had been playing dead all along.

Red Crane and Scarlet Peak couldn’t move a single finger at the moment, but they were completely unruffled — because the group across from them was just as wiped out.

They didn’t know what fate had in store for them.

But one thing was certain: a fight was unavoidable.

Tianzhu produced a Spirit Warrior Pill and pressed it between his lips, swallowing it slowly. If not now, when? Never mind breakthroughs for the moment — first, recover enough strength to finish off these two Elders. Besides, if they could take down Red Crane and Scarlet Peak, a breakthrough would practically be impossible to avoid anyway.

The Dragon Emperor, Underworld Emperor, Barut, and the others didn’t hesitate either — each pulling out their own Spirit Warrior Pills and knocking them back without a second thought.

One way or another, they had to strike before Red Crane and Scarlet Peak recovered their full strength.

If they waited, victory would be out of reach.

This would be a contest of time and willpower — and only then, a contest of strength and cultivation.

The Sky Stairway.

The moment Yueyang reached the base of the Sky Stairway, he unleashed every last drop of energy within him — including the unconscious Law energy he hadn’t fully absorbed back in the Earth Demon Divine Temple — and set his mind to comprehending the Innate Sovereign realm, pushing it toward absolute perfection.

He had three reasons for this.

First: to refine and complete himself. Second: to send a signal to Night Empress and Supreme, letting the two women climbing somewhere above know that he had already reached the Innate Sovereign realm. Third: he hoped that by achieving a perfect Innate Sovereign realm, he might finally be able to summon the Sacred Grimoire — a tome that had stubbornly refused every attempt so far.

The Sacred Grimoire had been utterly silent before he reached the Innate Sovereign realm.

After he did, it gave a faint response.

Yet he still couldn’t summon it.

The feeling was exactly like the early days when he’d lacked the energy to instantly summon his grimoire. Yueyang was fairly certain that summoning the Sacred Grimoire was possible now — he just hadn’t found the right method, or his technique was off, or the energy demands were simply greater than what he could currently provide.

So he pushed further — comprehending the perfect Innate Sovereign realm, absorbing more Law energy, and accumulating greater reserves of Innate True Qi.

It wasn’t the golden giant born from the Fate Card’s enlightenment, but Yueyang’s Innate Sovereign realm erupting at full force was something to behold all the same. A pillar of golden energy surged skyward for over a thousand meters. At its core blazed the concentrated fire column of Nirvana Flames, while the Heavenly Fury Red Lotus and Frost Snowflakes spread across the heavens as though intent on splitting the Sky Stairway’s sky in two. Purple lightning and Law energy spiraled around the pillar, continuously absorbing and refining the unconscious energy source.

As Yueyang’s eruption unfolded, Heavenly Realm runes floated into existence one by one.

They wove together into tens of thousands of profound, interlocking patterns — then merged into a single radiant core, brilliant as the Milky Way, slowly revolving with Yueyang at its center.

The involuntary pressure of divine sense he released in that single instant was felt even by Supreme and Night Empress, who had climbed all the way to the two-hundred-thousand-step mark.

On Xiao Wenli, a golden serpent demon image manifested. Within Yueyang’s Creation Domain, it cried out in silence. Her mind resonated with his — helping him absorb Law energy faster, climbing toward higher and more perfect comprehension alongside him.

A perfect Innate Sovereign realm? It wouldn’t be complete without her.

Xue Wuxia and Princess Qianqian were no different. One through her Divine Sense Domain, the other through her Holy Power Domain, both worked to amplify his power — and through the deep, intuitive attunement of dual cultivation, the three of them became one, ascending together toward a higher, more perfect Innate Sovereign realm. Though the two women were only supporting him, their contribution was far from trivial, providing a surge that propelled Yueyang’s progress at remarkable speed.

Here in the safety of the Sky Stairway, Yueyang had no need to spare a single thought for outside threats. He could sink into comprehension with a completely clear mind.

“That’s Big Brother!” Yue Bing, who shared the deepest spiritual connection with Yueyang, reacted first — leaping to her feet in stunned delight. She couldn’t see him, but in the familiar wash of that consciousness and power, she had no trouble recognizing him at all.

“We’re going down.” Yue Yu made the call without a moment’s hesitation.

Yue Bing and Kuafu — unable to wait even a second longer — were already sprinting down the Sky Stairway steps. They knew it would still be hours before they could actually see him, but right now, not even a single second of waiting felt bearable.

“This kid is already so far ahead of me I can barely see his back… I’m jealous, honestly. Every time he trains with Xue Wuxia, he has a breakthrough. Does she just have that absurd a talent for bringing out the best in a man? Looks like the position of First Wife really isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.” Phoenix Fairy, still climbing at a higher level, stopped in her tracks with a look of delighted exasperation.

From the moment they sensed Yueyang’s energy, the women who had been dutifully pressing upward all turned around and began making their way back down, excitement pulling them along.

Even Supreme and Night Empress — currently the highest of them all — exchanged a glance.

Supreme considered it for a moment.

Then shook her head.

Night Empress didn’t descend alone. She simply waited in silence, as if expecting Supreme to change her mind.

After a long pause, Supreme spoke: “Do you really think he can push the Innate Sovereign realm all the way to a perfect state?”

Night Empress’s graceful silhouette shimmered within her Starry Sky Domain, and she seemed to raise a hand to stifle a smile. “If you were willing to lend him a hand… I’d stake everything on it.”