Curiosity killed the cat.

That Bao’er could now bashfully sneak a peek proved this lively little sprite of a girl was slowly growing up, developing a curiosity about the opposite sex. There was nothing strange in it—if she’d stayed a clueless little thing who never grew up at all, that would have been cause for alarm!

At any rate, a look was just a look; she wasn’t going to lose a pound of flesh over it.

So everyone pretended not to notice.

Besides, the Sprite Empress had agreed to let Bao’er come and temper herself alongside everyone, to grow up together, to live together—wasn’t that itself a kind of entrustment?

On the surface, though Bao’er was forever at odds with Yue Yang, as if she’d pasted her door-gods on crooked and simply couldn’t stand the sight of him, always needing to squabble with him and stir up mischief just to get through her days comfortably—turn it around and think again, and wasn’t this precisely a pair of natural-born sweetheart-adversaries? Perhaps Bao’er herself couldn’t even tell what love was; she was a muddleheaded girl by nature. But everyone could see that the reason this lively, adorable little sprite was brimming with vitality day after day, fresh and bouncing with life, was precisely that she had him at her side to tease her every day.

If Yue Yang went three days without returning to the Grimoire World, this little sprite was guaranteed to wilt, listless and dispirited, lazing about with nothing to do.

Which was to say, the wellspring of joy in her life came entirely from having him around.

Without Yue Yang—

—everyone could say for certain that this little sprite’s life would have none of its present vigorous vitality, would not brim over with happiness, and could never ring with laughter all day long like a little bell.

Ordinarily there was no chance for her to sneak a peek, and that was that; but today’s circumstances were very special, and after Bao’er had, at such close quarters, gotten a look at a certain wicked thing, if she still hadn’t a shred of curiosity, then everyone would have had to worry whether she was normal at all…

Bao’er’s little matter, everyone brushed off with a laugh; no one paid the tiny incident any mind.

About two hours later—

—Qianqian and the others gathered again at Yue Yang’s side.

They all knew what Yue Yang and Fengxian had been doing in this room during those two hours.

One look at Fengxian’s enchanting little face, glowing and radiant with contentment, her delicate frame soft and limp with no strength left in it, and you knew just how fierce the recent engagement had been.

Feigning disdain, Princess Qianqian labored to press down the sour anger welling up in her. Yue Yu, for her part, took the ostrich approach and refused entirely to let her mind go there—though she’d plainly seen the utterly satisfied languor of Fengxian in the afterglow, she hypnotized herself into believing it was merely Fengxian’s temporary maladjustment to having ascended to Supreme tier-8. She simply wouldn’t let her thoughts turn a certain direction, terrified that the moment she did, others would know, and she’d have nowhere to hide her face. The Sick Beauty was very magnanimous; knowing that the Divine Punishment Empress—having risen three ranks in a row and then received everyone’s blessings—had surely been unable to resist a spell of intimacy with Yue Yang, she gave a faint smile to Fengxian, still half-reclining in Yue Yang’s arms.

Luohua, though she hummed out a “lecher” under her breath, secretly winked at Yue Yang.

That secret signal only he understood.

Little Inan was the best-behaved of all: seeing him beckon, she obediently came to sit at his side. Even when Yue Yang, as she sat down, gave her little fragrant bottom a swift squeeze with a wolf’s claw, she only flushed faintly and shot him a reproachful roll of the eyes, warning him not to fool around in front of everyone.

Little did anyone know that her adorable, coquettish reproach was all the more soul-stealing—far from dampening a certain lecher’s arrogant flame, it only fanned his swagger higher.

“With the immortal artifact in hand, and the inheritance of divine light and immortal power gained, if we push a little harder and use the three drops of ancient divine blood to assist, then Her Majesty the Divine Punishment Empress might, within a year, break through once more—straight to the divine realm.” Seeing that Yue Yu had come in, with Bao’er and Yue Bing poking their heads around the doorway, Yue Yang hurriedly put on a good-elder-brother face and turned to serious matters.

“That may be true, but will it be enough to defeat the evil god?” The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady still harbored doubts.

Everyone had benefited greatly and been collectively elevated.

Fengxian, especially, had risen three ranks in a row, straight to Supreme tier-8.

But would that be enough to beat the evil god? Never mind that Fengxian hadn’t yet crossed into the divine realm—even a year from now, once she ascended to the divine realm, she wasn’t necessarily a match for the evil god.

Princess Qianqian replied, “If one Divine Punishment isn’t enough, there’s still Xue Wuxia. That said, I’m against using all three drops of ancient divine blood on the Divine Punishment Empress. I think we should find more ways to break through on Yue Yang’s side—take Xiao Wenli, Jiang Ying, and Duoduo, for instance. All three have potential enough to ascend to the divine tier within a year. If we use the three drops of ancient divine blood on them, then perhaps come the day, the ones facing the evil god won’t be Divine Punishment and Xue Wuxia—but also Xiao Wenli and the other two.”

Xiao Wenli said nothing.

But the chilong dragon girl Jiang Ying hurriedly stood up, her jade-white little hands waving in refusal. “We’re all life-guardian war beasts, bound by the Law’s restrictions—even if we reached the divine tier, we might not be able to leave Human Valley to join the fight. So the ancient divine blood is still best used on Her Majesty the Divine Punishment Empress.”

“If you reach the divine tier, you’ll possess a Law-power all your own—you ought to be able to break free of the Law’s restrictions.” Luohua nodded her agreement with Qianqian’s plan.

“Hm? Where’s Duoduo?” The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady suddenly realized she hadn’t seen Duoduo in quite a while.

“She’s cultivating inside—advancing at miraculous speed. Even without the ancient divine blood, her ascension to the divine realm is just a matter of time.” Jiang Ying was speaking of the situation within the Sacred Codex. Duoduo, Xiao Wenli, and Jiang Ying herself, the chilong dragon girl, had the finest potential, and were the ones the nap-loving qilin girl Bingyin regularly tutored. Xiao Wenli often had to stand guard at Yue Yang’s side, and her cultivation method at present was mainly the awakening of past lives—requiring no excessive practice, only ceaseless comprehension—so she wasn’t as single-mindedly focused on cultivation as Duoduo was within the Sacred Codex world.

“Duoduo’s always been very hardworking. Last time, fighting the Solar King, she had no chance to show her stuff—but this time, battling the evil god in Human Valley, she’s sure to give it everything.” Yue Yu knew, too, that the Duoduo her younger brother had cultivated was now no longer so simple a thing as merely the Gold-Crowned Thorn Queen, but a “Flower Goddess” of limitless potential, forever advancing.

“What a pity our cultivation time is so tight. Otherwise, the evil god really wouldn’t be anything to fear!” Princess Qianqian’s one regret now was that her own strength was insufficient, that she still couldn’t help Yue Yang.

“The evil god’s only the first gate—ahead lie the Earth Valley’s ‘Mountain Beyond the Mountain’ and the Heaven Valley’s ‘Heaven Beyond the Heaven’!” Yue Yang laughed.

Was the tiger-girl afraid of not having battles to fight?

What a joke!

Whatever those three white-clad maidens had said—hinting that the evil god was still only a bit player—did they really take the Trial Grounds to be so simple? The Sacred Codex was absolutely not something one obtained lightly. Otherwise, over tens of thousands of years, why—with no end of formidable figures—had no one been able to win the Sacred Codex’s recognition? At times Yue Yang truly wondered: was the entire Trial Grounds situated within the space of a single Sacred Codex? Was each successive “Valley” equivalent to a successive page’s worth of space within the Sacred Codex? Was passing the ten gates, completing the whole trial’s ordeal, equivalent to “reading” the entire Sacred Codex, so that only at the end did one obtain and form a covenant with the Sacred Codex?

Of course, this was only his conjecture.

What the truth was, Yue Yang had no way at all of understanding for now.

If the space within the Sacred Codex were as vast as ten valleys, then to obtain the Sacred Codex would be to grasp all the life within those ten gates—to hold in one hand the lives of ten gates, the birth and death of all things in a single thought—then… what a mighty, what a formidable god that would be!

“Beyond this, is there any other way?” Yue Yu looked to Pandora, integrated as one with Xiao Nu, hoping this former Goddess of Misfortune might offer some good counsel.

“Because of the enlightenment from the divine light just now, I’ve actually thought of one possibility.” Pandora seemed to have a method after all.

“Really?” Qianqian and the others were greatly delighted to hear it.

“This takes us back to that earlier topic—namely, having us build a ‘god.'” At this from Pandora, everyone was stunned, Yue Yang included, who listened without making head or tail of it.

“Didn’t you just say building a ‘god’ was unworkable, and that the maker would be devoured?” Little Inan asked, puzzled.

“Building one directly certainly won’t do. What I mean isn’t the sort of building from before, but another method. It’s like this: because of the divine light’s enlightenment just now, I’ve recovered some forgotten memories—or perhaps not recovered but awakened; at any rate, deep in my mind, a certain divine thought has awoken. I daren’t claim it’s a hundred percent workable, but if you’re willing to attempt it, you could give it a try.” It wasn’t only Pandora—in the divine light just now, everyone had felt their wisdom immensely enlightened.

“Good—so what’s the method?” Even Yue Yang couldn’t hold back his curiosity.

“At the transport entrance of another Sacred Codex, you obtained half a divine body—that fallen goddess. Her divine nature and will are dispersed among her inheritors. If you were to fuse that inheritor with the divine body once more, and add the ancient divine blood, or those secret arts of yours, then perhaps within the inheritor’s spirit-consciousness you could awaken that goddess—or perhaps not awaken but reshape; at any rate, whatever the case, it would be equivalent to using your power to newly create a goddess! You could call it building, you could call it awakening and reshaping—either way, it means letting that fallen goddess be reborn within the inheritor’s body…” Pandora’s divine consciousness communed directly with Yue Yang’s soul, and in an instant, imprinted the divine thought she’d awoken into Yue Yang’s spirit-consciousness.

“You mean the Freedom Queen, Yingluo?” Princess Qianqian caught on at once, and in wild delight struck her palm with a powder-soft fist. “That’s right—how did I never think of her!”

“No.” Yue Yang, for his part, held the opposing view.

“Objection overruled.” Princess Qianqian struck down Yue Yang’s veto power outright.

“Ugh—look, tiger-girl, you know full well: even if every woman in the world fell for me, Yingluo would never fall for me! She—she feels absolutely nothing for me. And her attitude, you’ve seen it too—courteous and refined, yet keeping people a thousand miles away. So everyone else is fair game for scheming—but not her!” The moment Yue Yang brought up the Freedom Queen Yingluo, all the air went out of him.

“You dolt—who’s asking you to talk feelings with her? If she won’t cooperate, can’t you consummate the marriage first and fall in love after? First turn the raw rice into cooked!” Fengxian’s words rather resembled a bandit chieftain coming down the mountain to snatch a young bride and haul her up to be the fortress mistress.

“My image in her heart is already bad enough as it is—force myself on her, and she’ll probably hate me to death for the rest of her life!” Hearing this, Yue Yang was truly on the verge of inner tears.

“I want results. I don’t care what method you use—just get it done!” If Fengxian were a leader, she’d be a good one.

“Even if I wanted to push Yingluo down, she’s only got an upper half…” Yue Yang expressed his helplessness.

“That’s exactly why you need to attach the divine body to her, and turn her into a brand-new ‘goddess.'” Fengxian gave Yue Yang a slap in the “wishing iron would become steel” spirit, then brought out the Divine Punishment Empress’s full authority, seized the bitter-faced time-crosser by the collar, and huffed daintily, “And another thing, you dolt—how do you know she doesn’t like you? Maybe in her heart she does, but stands on her pride and is too embarrassed to show it. Or maybe she’s a dolt herself, doesn’t understand what love is, and is waiting for you to unlock her heart! Now shut it this instant. What you need to do isn’t argue with me, but go and win Yingluo over. Listen well—tomorrow, at this very hour, I want to see a brand-new goddess, a goddess whose body is fully restored, even flawless and perfect!”

“Sis—save me!” Yue Yang, for his part, could only turn to Yue Yu for rescue.

“They make a very good case. This time I won’t help you—handle it yourself at your leisure. I’m off.” Yue Yu, terrified she’d go soft-hearted if she lingered, hurried away.

“Big scoundrel—actually, you needn’t worry so much.” The Southern Wilderness Demon King, who’d said nothing all this while, spoke up with startling effect, laughing softly. “It’s normal for a girl to be a bit reserved. But so long as she has good feelings toward you and no ill will, once you’ve conquered her body, her heart will naturally belong to you too! In a word—so long as you attach the half divine body for Yingluo and restore her to a complete goddess’s state, then push her down, I guarantee she’ll turn into a docile little lamb, tender as water, obedient to you in all things… Darling, I have every confidence in you, because you are invincible. Where the divine spear points, all before it is swept away—there’s no woman in the world who can resist your conquest!”

“You shameless hussy!” Princess Qianqian was left speechless.

(End of Chapter)