Despite finding Yue Yang’s endless curious questions rather exhausting, both the one-eyed powerhouse and his subordinates — the bull-headed North and the four-armed Four-Limbs — turned a blind eye to his obvious coasting.

Several times Yue Yang suggested he was just passing through, just a bystander, and really ought to head back to camp and rest.

But North and Four-Limbs felt that letting a directionally hopeless newcomer wander off on his own, without making sure he was looked after, would genuinely trouble their consciences.

So they kept insisting Yue Yang stay put and not go wandering, worried he’d accidentally stir up a pack of ancient demonic beasts and create problems for the team’s advance. Besides, it wasn’t as though Yue Yang was the only one riding along without contributing — the pudgy Fortune and others like him weren’t front-line fighters either, and they were quite happily drifting along in the rear of the main force too.

Yue Yang followed this challenger group for three days.

And over those three days, in the gaps between fighting, he managed to piece together a modest amount of intelligence on the five leaders.

The great leader’s name was Ren Tiange. Rumor had it he carried blood from the Eastern Immortal Clan — though that was a matter of distant ancestry, and by the time it had passed down to him today, it was extraordinarily diluted. But the noble lineage and formidable strength it had produced still inspired a kind of deep, instinctive respect, which was why so many had been willing to elect him their leader.

Perfect Innate Sovereign tier eight.

In the eyes of ordinary challengers, that was essentially quasi-divine — a level of power beyond imagination, made even more imposing by Ren Tiange’s noble Eastern Clan bloodline.

When Ji Wuri had been wreaking havoc, Ren Tiange happened to be in closed-door cultivation.

He’d never forgiven himself for missing that ultimate confrontation.

But he was also genuinely clear-headed about it — not so arrogant as to assume he could definitely have stopped Ji Wuri. The fact was, the Hall of Light Master Zhonghua, who had arrived in the Angel faction first, could already outmatch Ren Tiange. Zhonghua’s arrival had been what first challenged Ren Tiange’s dominant position as the undisputed leader of the alliance, driving him into his urgent closed-door session in the first place. And barely had he entered cultivation when the far more terrifying Ji Wuri arrived, teaming up with Zhonghua to stage a spectacular theatrical clash of “justice versus evil” — a performance that nearly wiped out the cream of the Angel Alliance’s challengers entirely.

If it hadn’t been for the urgent need to rebuild the Angel Alliance’s strength, Ren Tiange would never have organized this team sweep of the ancient passages in search of ancient ruins.

He genuinely hoped to find an ancient treasure and restore the Angel Alliance to its former glory.

Ren Tiange had the greatest raw strength, and he consistently carried himself with the bearing of a king — yet without arrogance or bluster, the kind of leader who listened to dissenting views with genuine openness and treated capable people with sincere respect regardless of rank. By his status, he had every right to look straight past ordinary challengers. And yet Ren Tiange had a gift for winning people’s hearts — within just three days, he’d already made several attentive gestures toward the small team Yue Yang was with, whose members topped out at Sky-rank tier five. The one-eyed powerhouse, North, and Four-Limbs, none of them actually under Ren Tiange’s command, were practically howling with excitement, half a step from dropping to their knees and calling him their chief.

Unlike Ren Tiange, the silver-eyed man rarely spoke with anyone — and yet everyone around him instinctively felt moved to show their respect without being asked.

Even the money-obsessed Fortune was no exception.

This kind of overwhelming personal charisma left even Yue Yang privately impressed.

The silver-eyed man’s real name was known to very few. The five leaders kept it to themselves, and what Yue Yang had managed to gather from overheard conversations was that most people addressed him as the “Silver-Eyed Great Sage.” The silver-eyed man himself had never corrected the title — he simply smiled slightly and let it stand.

This Great Sage with his nearly incomparable personal presence had been a pillar of the Angel Alliance for thousands of years. He had never sought the role of great leader; before Ren Tiange arrived, he had served in support of several successive leaders across generations. For reasons no one could explain, the Silver-Eyed Great Sage had spent a very long time living in the Demon Valley world, rarely if ever bringing up leaving — even though his point total had long since been more than sufficient. The challengers around him had their own interpretation of this: the Great Sage’s compassion prevented him from watching the Angel Alliance collapse, so he stayed on in the Demon Valley world, maintaining the alliance and keeping the Dark faction from swallowing it whole.

In practice, when Ji Wuri had gone on his killing spree, it was indeed the Silver-Eyed Great Sage who had led the defense. Without him, Ji Wuri and Zhonghua working together from inside and out might have wiped every last Angel Alliance challenger from existence.

The giant axe-wielding warrior with blazing-red demon hair went by the name Hauge. His strength also stood at Perfect Innate Sovereign tier five, but placed him last among the five leaders.

Yue Yang figured Hauge was without question the most straightforward of the five.

Because this man had no secrets whatsoever to speak of.

The jaw-droppingly handsome young swordsman was called Qian Chong. Despite ranking second from the bottom in strength among the five leaders, Yue Yang kept feeling something wasn’t quite right about him, though he couldn’t pin down exactly what… Maybe it was just his own jealousy at someone being that ridiculously good-looking, Yue Yang told himself. He’d have to accept that his own envious heart was distorting his perception.

The masked lean figure, ranked third in strength among the five leaders, went by the name Blue Demon.

He was reportedly someone with an extreme bloodlust and a pathological obsession with killing — and yet, inexplicably, a psychologically warped individual like this had ended up joining the Angel Alliance’s side.

Blue Demon made the entire Angel Alliance uneasy. Nobody dared approach him casually.

But contrary to everyone’s expectations, when Ji Wuri had nearly wiped out an entire Angel Alliance stronghold, it had been Blue Demon who stepped forward, holding Ji Wuri off in single combat at the cost of near-fatal injuries, buying nearly ten minutes that allowed his allies to retreat safely and saving close to five thousand challengers’ lives. Even now his body hadn’t fully recovered. That act alone had earned Blue Demon the acceptance of every last person in the Angel Alliance — and among all the alliance’s leaders, after the Silver-Eyed Great Sage, Ren Tiange valued Blue Demon most.

Something about this Blue Demon gave Yue Yang a faint, nagging sense of familiarity he couldn’t quite explain. He couldn’t confirm anything about his identity, but his gut said this person had to have come from the Sky Tower.

Maybe one of the Heavenly Realm’s remnant clansmen forced to stay behind, or maybe a Sky Tower defector.

Either way, through Yue Yang’s Heaven’s Eye, Blue Demon read as someone “somewhat familiar.”

The group advanced steadily into the ancient passages.

With the five leaders anchoring the formation, nearly a thousand elite challengers cutting a path forward, and over two thousand ordinary challengers rotating through on the flanks, the fighting was brutal every step of the way — but nothing actually managed to stop this force once it had found its cohesion. The monsters in the ancient passages took terrible casualties, their fierce early resistance gradually crumbling, until a handful of the more cowardly underground creatures began to flee, setting off a chain collapse of the entire resistance line…

The challengers had braced themselves for a bloody, desperate fight to breach the Dark Sky Nest underground city ruins.

What they found when the five leaders arrived at its entrance was nothing.

Not a soul. The Dark Sky Nest — which should have been crawling with countless ancient demonic beasts — was silent as death.

The five leaders cautiously ordered the main force to hold defensive positions for a full day. Only after confirming that the ancient demonic beasts really had vanished without a trace did anyone quietly breathe out in relief.

The whole thing felt like two boxers trading brutal blows, one on the verge of exhaustion but still pressing forward to land a finishing strike — only to find the opponent had already collapsed before that last punch was thrown.

The outcome couldn’t have been better.

And yet there was an undeniable, unsatisfying feeling of something left unfinished.

“Everyone split into groups of a hundred, squads of ten, and search the ruins for anything of value. Any treasures we find will be divided fairly based on contribution.” Ren Tiange issued an order that drew loud cheers from the challengers. The five leaders weren’t keeping the treasure for themselves — that alone was incentive enough for everyone.

“……” Everyone was cheering. Yue Yang was frowning.

The five leaders clearly hadn’t come here for treasure. Their real target had to be the Demon God Hall.

That much was within Yue Yang’s expectations. But the Dark Sky Nest ruins being completely deserted, silent as a tomb — that was outside it. Ordinary challengers couldn’t see what was off about this, but Yue Yang felt strongly that it wasn’t that simple. Even the weakest creatures had the instinct to fight to the death when cornered — so why had creatures this powerful chosen to retreat entirely? By Yue Yang’s estimate, the ancient demonic beasts living in these underground city ruins should have been far stronger than the Angel Alliance’s current force — otherwise, after tens of thousands of years of challengers coming through, they’d have been hunted to extinction long ago.

If they were that much stronger, why retreat from the challengers at all?

And it wasn’t even the Angel Alliance at full strength that had shown up — thanks to Ji Wuri’s slaughter, the elite force available to the five leaders barely numbered a thousand. How could a force like that possibly have frightened off countless ancient demonic beasts?

The whole thing was laughable.

The problem was — it had happened.

The Dark Sky Nest underground city ruins felt to Yue Yang like a trap. Someone was definitely going to get caught in it. The only question was how many.

“Ji Wuri’s already gone. Who in the Dark Alliance has the ability to set up something that could trap the Angel Alliance’s five leaders? And if it wasn’t someone from the Dark Alliance, could the ancient demonic beasts’ ruler actually possess this level of cunning and intelligence?” The more Yue Yang turned it over, the more uneasy he felt — until a terrifying possibility flashed through his mind, and an involuntary chill ran through him. “Could it be that the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord, sealed inside the Demon God Hall, has already broken free?”

If that were the case, it wouldn’t just be the five leaders at risk — Yue Yang himself would need to tread very carefully.

Otherwise, even he might end up caught in whatever trap the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord had laid.

A cold feeling kept spreading through Yue Yang’s chest.

Every hair on his body prickled upright. For the first time, he felt the visceral sensation of having walked into a predator’s lair.

Ancient beings who’d lived for tens of thousands of years really were not to be taken lightly. Best case was that the Heavens-Splitting Demon Lord was still sealed — because if he’d broken free, the death toll was going to be significant…

“What are you standing there staring at? Have you heard of the Dark Sky Nest? Ancient city ruins? There’s supposed to be treasure everywhere in a place like this — what are you waiting for? Go look!” The dark-skinned one-eyed powerhouse gave Yue Yang a firm clap on the shoulder and snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Treasure everywhere?” Yue Yang heard this and felt another chill run through him. He swallowed once and asked, “Treasure everywhere in here — where did that come from? Who was first to say it?”

“Who said it? The Silver-Eyed Great Sage. Don’t tell me you think a person like him is lying? As far as I’m concerned, you don’t need to ask why, you don’t need to waste words — the only thing you need to do right now is act!” The one-eyed powerhouse criticized Yue Yang severely. If he hadn’t been dealing with a completely clueless newcomer, he’d have been tempted to give Yue Yang a good punch, because in front of him, no one questioned the Silver-Eyed Great Sage’s word.

“What—” Yue Yang went still.

He’d already had some quiet reservations about the Silver-Eyed Great Sage. Hearing this only multiplied them.

As if sensing Yue Yang’s silent inquiry about him, the Silver-Eyed Great Sage suddenly turned his head and looked at Yue Yang with an expression somewhere between a smile and something else entirely…

Yue Yang’s scalp crawled. He immediately made himself smaller, tucking into the crowd and hoping his concealment talent would get him through this undetected.

Ren Tiange noticed the Great Sage turn and asked, “Something wrong?”

The Silver-Eyed Great Sage’s answer this time was different from before — he gave a slight nod, a faint smile on his lips. “There’s a newcomer here who seems rather… interesting.”

That single remark.

Drew four distinctly different reactions from the other leaders.

Ren Tiange looked startled first, then broke into a delighted grin. “If you call someone interesting, haha, then he must be. I like that — interesting newcomers are exactly what I enjoy.”

Hauge, the demon-haired axe-wielder, gave a dismissive snort. He had no interest whatsoever in some weakling newcomer.

The proud, handsome swordsman’s brow furrowed slightly.

But he quickly shifted his attention elsewhere, dismissing it entirely.

The masked lean figure called Blue Demon, however, swept his gaze toward Yue Yang’s section of the crowd with unusual intensity, scanning it multiple times as if intent on locating this interesting newcomer within the press of bodies. His eyes held nothing but killing intent — wall-to-wall killing intent. If Ren Tiange hadn’t called him away, Blue Demon looked likely to keep searching until he’d found Yue Yang no matter what. Whatever it was about a newcomer that had triggered this much bloodlust in Blue Demon was difficult to say.

“Sometimes,” the Silver-Eyed Great Sage offered, “life needs a little entertainment.”

The words reached Yue Yang’s ears carrying the distinct feeling of a double meaning — as if each layer of the sentence pointed somewhere different.

(End of Chapter)