The enemy had come sweeping in like a tidal wave, blotting out heaven and earth.

But they had withdrawn just as quickly — up and gone the moment they decided.

Once Left Marshal Guhai and Right Marshal Wan’e, along with Poison Maggot, Flying Corpse, Netherfire, Wraith and the other Five Great Villains, had departed, Yue Yang noticed that the “god” who had been hidden in the sky and watching everything from above had also vanished without a trace. The enemy’s withdrawal did not mean the fight was over — on the contrary, this was merely a prelude, a pause for them to catch their breath, reshuffle their strategy, and rally their forces. The next wave of attack would surely be fiercer, and far more deadly.

Of course, being able to land a solid blow that had defeated the enemy head-on was not without its rewards.

Of the enemy’s strongest, the Five Sense Generals —

Four out of five were now gone.

Only Snaggle-Toothed Rat, the eldest brother of the Five Sense Generals and the champion of running away, had come out alive. The rest — Big-Eared Bat, Evil-Eye Monkey, Long-Tongue Lizard, and Slug — were either dead or captured. Add to that Hungry Ghost, whom Yue Yang had bagged earlier, and the Western Divine Nation had lost a full five divine-general-tier powerhouses in this single engagement.

Without Yue Yang’s “unexpected” appearance, the Southeast Divine Nation’s losses would have gone far beyond several tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians. Griffin Marshal, Golden Eagle Great General, Mao Podi — none of them would likely have survived. And the Star Pirates, played from behind by the Western Divine Nation all along, would never have escaped their pitiable fate as pawns.

By the end of the fight, Winged Tiger, Wind Hawk, and Flamingo had been running on their last breath.

The moment Guhai and Wan’e withdrew, they collapsed on the spot, too exhausted to carry on any further… Though the Tange’s interior had been reduced to a hellish, blood-soaked slaughterhouse, no one had any better option, and they had come back inside to find some clean corner and rest. In this fight, neither the Star Pirates nor the Southeast Divine Nation could claim victory. The Southeast Divine Nation had lost tens of thousands of border troops and nearly ten thousand merchants, and had almost lost the entire Tange. As for the Star Pirates, apart from a handful of their leaders and the few Flower Duck and company whom Yue Yang had saved, they had been all but wiped out. Griffin Marshal, Golden Eagle General and the three Star Pirate leaders — Winged Tiger, Wind Hawk, and Flamingo — sat facing one another, but none of them could summon any fighting spirit anymore. Everyone knew that the real killer, the one who had orchestrated the entire theater of war, was the Western Divine Nation.

“Who exactly are you?” Wind Ear Marshal of the Eastern Divine Nation — the one who had called himself a passer-by “just picking up soy sauce” — asked Yue Yang the question on everyone’s mind.

“Does it really matter who I am?” Yue Yang shrugged breezily. “One thing I can be sure of — I am not your enemy. Star Pirates, Southeast Divine Nation, either way, I am not your enemy.”

“That much, none of us are worried about,” Wind Hawk laughed heartily. “We’re just curious. If you don’t even recognize Marshal Wind Ear, it means you’re not from the Eastern Divine Nation. And if you’re not a disciple of Southeast Divine Sovereign Chiqiu, nor a clansman of Eastern Divine Sovereign God-Slayer, and certainly not one of us Star Pirates — then who on earth are you?”

“You come from Human Valley, don’t you? And you were planning to borrow a road through Mountain Beyond the Mountain to reach Heaven Beyond the Heaven, am I right?” Griffin Marshal put forward his guess.

“Not quite, but close enough,” Yue Yang admitted. “I came here entirely unprepared, and I’m not yet sure how to get back. As for Heaven Beyond the Heaven — I really would like to see it, someday, if the chance comes up.”

“So you really are a proper passer-by then!” Wind Ear Marshal of the Eastern Divine Nation laughed.

“You wiped out Hungry Ghost in one fight, took out four of the Five Sense Generals… You’ve offended Western Divine Sovereign Hei Zhou to the bone. What do you plan to do next?” Golden Eagle General had, in truth, wanted to invite Yue Yang to join the Southeast Divine Nation, but with Wind Ear of the Eastern Divine Nation right there, it was awkward to say so openly. The Eastern Divine Nation was stronger, and moreover Wind Ear had come to their rescue — however much he wanted Yue Yang for himself, he couldn’t just come out and ask.

“I’ve offended more people than I can count. My enemies are as many as ox-hairs. A few more won’t bother me,” Yue Yang pretended he could not hear the meaning behind Golden Eagle General’s words.

“The enemy has withdrawn, but I’m afraid this business isn’t over…” Griffin Marshal quickly cleared his throat, steering the topic elsewhere.

With Wind Ear Marshal of the Eastern Divine Nation right there, he did not dare open his mouth.

And he was even more afraid Yue Yang would flatly refuse.

He was certain that Wind Ear, his old friend, was staying silent right now only out of politeness to the whole table. Should Yue Yang decline the offer, Wind Ear would surely use every means to convince this young Yue Titan to join the Eastern Divine Nation. Compared to the Southeast Divine Nation, the Eastern Divine Nation had too many advantages — its strength could stand up to the Western Divine Nation, for one, and on top of that, Eastern Divine Sovereign God-Slayer bore a striking resemblance to Yue Titan; the two were almost certainly of the same clan.

The first condition was already imposing.

But the second — that God-Slayer and Yue Titan were of the same lineage — was an incomparable, innate advantage.

Thankfully, Yue Titan, a young man of limitless potential, had not flatly refused, leaving the Southeast Divine Nation a sliver of theoretical hope… Griffin Marshal knew perfectly well that the reason Wind Ear Marshal had insisted on staying as a guest rather than sweeping off in the wind was that he too wanted this young man for his side.

Wind Ear Marshal was not opening his mouth yet because he had not yet gathered enough confidence.

And to preserve a bit of face for everyone at the table.

That was why he did not push.

Winged Tiger, Wind Hawk, and Flamingo no longer harbored any hope that Yue Yang would join their Star Pirates. Who in their right mind would turn down the marshals of the Eastern and Southeast Divine Nations to become a notorious pirate chief?

The three of them only wanted to grow closer to Yue Yang, one degree at a time.

If they couldn’t be partners, then surely they could be friends? No competing with the Eastern and Southeast Divine Nations. Purely personal camaraderie, all right?

Holding that thought, Winged Tiger and the others were, without question, staunch allies standing behind Yue Yang. As for Griffin Marshal’s concern — well, Winged Tiger and Wind Hawk had thought about it too. Winged Tiger mulled it over, then frowned. “The Five Sense Generals are all but wiped out. That’s a stinging slap across Hei Zhou’s face. I’m afraid this Western Divine Sovereign will unilaterally tear up the agreement and step in personally… Guhai and Wan’e already had us reeling. If this Western Divine Sovereign takes the field, we could be ten times stronger and still have no way to stand against him.”

“If Hei Zhou dares to move, my sovereign Chiqiu will not sit by and watch,” Griffin Marshal thought the possibility was slim — after all, Hei Zhou was a Divine Sovereign; instigating war was one thing, but stepping in personally was another.

“The likelier scenario is all-out war,” Wind Ear Marshal quietly revealed a secret.

It turned out that, tens of thousands of years ago, the mighty Western Divine Nation had already made a pact with the Eastern Divine Nation — to split Mountain Beyond the Mountain evenly between them.

Of course, all of this was kept secret.

It was not established on the plane of open warfare.

Through tens of thousands of years of courtship and bribery, of swallowing whole and nibbling piecemeal, the two nations had built up Mountain Beyond the Mountain into a place with two clearly distinct camps. On one side, the East Camp, headed by the Eastern Divine Nation, with the South Divine Nation and the Southeast Divine Nation as allies; on the other, the West Camp, headed by the Western Divine Nation, with the West, North, Southwest, and Northwest — four Divine Nations in all. Even the Northeast Divine Nation, the one nation supposedly staying out of it, had lately been wavering, quietly leaning toward the Western Divine Nation.

If the Northeast Divine Nation truly decided to throw in with the Western Divine Nation and join the West Camp, then Western Divine Sovereign Hei Zhou, holding a “five to three” advantage in strength, would surely declare war and move to crush Eastern Divine Sovereign God-Slayer, who had for tens of thousands of years intangibly stood one head above him, and seize the seat of Mountain Beyond the Mountain’s foremost powerhouse.

The Tange incident had been nothing more than a probe.

A small pebble tossed to test the road.

More follow-up moves from the Western Divine Nation were surely on their way.

The men and generals lost in this battle amounted to a minor setback, one that did nothing to shift the overall picture. On the contrary, it would only fan Western Divine Sovereign Hei Zhou’s rage and hasten his resolve to declare war.

“The Divine Sovereigns making a move against people like us is indeed unlikely, but after ten thousand years of the peace pact, that peace has walked its final mile. A Divine War between the eight Divine Sovereigns is very much likely to erupt. When it does, Mountain Beyond the Mountain and Earth Valley are certain to face a cataclysm. Collapse and ruin will be all but inevitable,” Golden Eagle Great General did not believe a Divine Sovereign would strike at lower cultivators either; what worried him more was that the Divine War itself would destroy the whole world.

“Perhaps Hei Zhou won’t move against you personally. But there is one person you must all be careful of. He may be even more terrifying than Hei Zhou,” Yue Yang’s heart stirred. He had a feeling that Ji Wuri might seize the chance to stir up the situation in Mountain Beyond the Mountain and profit from it.

“What?” Everyone at the table gasped. Someone more terrifying than Western Divine Sovereign Hei Zhou?

“That man is called Ji Wuri,” Yue Yang decided to give them the situation up front.

“…Ji Wuri? He’s not dead yet?” At the name Ji Wuri, everyone’s faces changed as if they had just heard the most horrifying thing in the world. Wind Ear Marshal shot straight to his feet and blurted out, “He’s shown himself? This, this can’t be — wasn’t he killed by my sovereign? Where did you see him?”

“At the Reception Platform. I saw the Western Divine Nation’s Ji Zhong leading people to receive him, and even setting him up with an identity as a trainee divine envoy,” Yue Yang recounted everything he had seen that day in detail.

“This is bad!” Griffin Marshal could not stay seated either. “That demon really didn’t die. He’s back!”

“Ji Wuri has been to Mountain Beyond the Mountain before?” Yue Yang was, if anything, even more shocked, though he kept it off his face. The confusion he had been carrying now made perfect sense. Why Ji Wuri had been able to leave Human Valley, make his way here to Mountain Beyond the Mountain, and have a loyal servant like Ji Zhong on hand to greet him — it was because he had long ago been to the eighth stage’s Earth Valley and Mountain Beyond the Mountain.

“This Ji Wuri you speak of — he is in fact Hei Zhou’s nephew. Before Hei Zhou attained godhood, his name was Ji Ye. Only later did he take Black Day as his divine name,” Wind Ear Marshal clenched both fists, straining to keep his emotions in check. “What you don’t know is this: Ji Wuri was, in his day, the most terrifying schemer in Mountain Beyond the Mountain. With his stratagems in hand, Hei Zhou’s Western Divine Nation grew so unchecked… The forbidden power that the Five Great Villains and the Five Sense Generals have fused with — that was Ji Wuri’s original invention. He alone, single-handedly, forced the talents of all eight Divine Nations of Mountain Beyond the Mountain into second place. It was precisely because of how terrifying he was that my sovereign, God-Slayer, in his rage killed him — smashed him to pieces and hurled him out of our world. Never did we imagine that he could actually have survived, or come back.”

“Without him, the Western Divine Nation’s development stalled, and Hei Zhou reined in his ambitions for a long stretch. Now that he’s back… no wonder Hei Zhou can’t wait to move. So it’s because Ji Wuri has returned!” Golden Eagle General’s expression turned grave, his brows knit tight.

Wind Ear Marshal, Griffin Marshal, and Golden Eagle General wore one kind of expression.

Winged Tiger, Wind Hawk, and Flamingo, on the other hand, looked mildly puzzled. It was as though they had never once heard of a name like Ji Wuri.

They were the sky-bandit chieftains of the meteor belt. Secrets known only at the highest tier of the Divine Nations were, naturally, beyond their reach. Yet the abnormal look on Wind Ear Marshal’s face — and the earlier phrase, “originator of the forbidden power” — was enough to make them feel, in their bones, just how strong and how terrifying this Ji Wuri, whom they had never met, must be.

A man who had completely mastered the forbidden power, and could at any moment turn anyone into a powerhouse of the class of the Five Great Villains or the Five Sense Generals.

That man was Ji Wuri.

With him at hand, the Western Divine Nation would as good as possess innumerable Five Great Villains, innumerable Five Sense Generals!

Even Winged Tiger and the others could not help but suck in a cold breath at that thought — and Yue Yang, for his part, was doing the very same in secret.

(End of Chapter 1156)