The sacrificial blood-rune formation had, against all expectation, teleported in a Wind-Breath Seabird.

For a moment.

The whole field was silent, and nobody knew what to say.

There was no telling how long it went on. With every eye on it, the exhausted and thoroughly bedraggled Wind-Breath Seabird beat its wings feebly, put the last of its strength into rising off the surface, and came in over the shore crooked and wobbling. It landed head-first on the sand, and having no strength left to control its body, the small thing turned two somersaults across the beach. Its wet feathers picked up any amount of blood-stained sand. It made a sorry sight.

Still, the little creature had made it ashore and kept its small life.

Had it stayed out on the water, the next swell would likely have drowned the poor half-dead thing.

“Ahem.” The lion-headed leader, who had been staring blankly for a good while, finally came back to himself, coughed twice and forced out a thin smile. “This — this little bird is perhaps the pet of one of the ten kingdom lords. It has come to give us some kind of signal. Ahem. Yes. It must be that.”

He did not dare think about the consequences if his own blood-rune formation had been imperfectly built and the spacetime whirlpools had swallowed ten Heavenly Realm kingdom lords. Getting from the Heavenly Realm to the Sky Tower is no longer a problem, and this “relay blood-rune formation” in particular raises the success rate of the crossing enormously. A spacetime rift and its whirlpools would ordinarily swallow the greater part of anyone slipping through; with the relay blood-rune formation, at least seven in ten get across, and for warriors at the strength of a kingdom lord the safe-passage rate runs above nine in ten.

This should have been the best assignment there was. Get the ten kingdom lords in safely.

And their task would be a complete success.

Their superiors would assess the merit.

Heavy rewards were certain.

But now the relay blood-rune formation had been raised, and all it had teleported in was one small seabird. What was going on?

Every leader assigned to this task felt that this was going badly wrong. Where had the ten kingdom lords gone? If all ten had been swallowed by the spacetime whirlpools, the consequences did not bear thinking about. Far from earning merit, the task would be a failure, the higher-ups would certainly demand an accounting, and every man involved would be severely punished.

The lion-headed leader could not work it out. Something cold went through him inside, and on the surface he forced the smile wider. “The relay blood-rune formation genuinely does not sense that fast. It takes several hours before the ten kingdom lords can come through. What I mean is, our relay blood-rune formation has not failed, it is still working, and I estimate the ten kingdom lords are on their way. We hold this position another three hours at least. Ahem. What I really mean is, our blood formation has not failed, and this little bird was sent by one of the kingdom lords to tell us not to be anxious. Wouldn’t you say?”

“But this little bird…” The leader with the rhinoceros nose and the protruding tusks could not see why a small seabird would teleport in instantly. Even if some kingdom lord had sent it, there was no reason for it to be that fast.

“Could it be a small pet sent ahead by one of the kingdom lords to scout the road?” A leader as tall and thin as a stick floated it as a feeler.

“It must be.” The lion-headed leader confirmed it at once, holding together a situation that was about to collapse.

“If it’s a spirit bird sent to scout the road, then teleporting in instantly does explain itself.” A leader beside him with three heads and six arms wiped sweat and agreed nervously. He did not want the disaster of ten kingdom lords being wiped out landing inside his own assignment either. For a crime like that, no man has heads enough to be cut off.

“I am a hundred percent certain this little bird is from the Heavenly Realm and does not belong to the Sky Tower. I have never seen a light of intelligence like that in a small bird’s eyes. If it isn’t a kingdom lord’s spirit bird, where in this world is there a pet with that much spirit in it? A backwater like the Sky Tower has no local product worth mentioning except bumpkins and country clods.” The shortest leader of them all, but the most powerfully built — a sphere of packed muscle in the shape of a man — saw his companions round the terrible scene off and set down the stone in his chest, and let out a great laugh to vent the fear and unease he had been carrying.

“Ha. Put that way, the ten kingdom lords will certainly arrive on schedule.” The rhinoceros-nosed leader agreed in a hurry.

“Even if they are delayed, the ten kingdom lords are safe and sound.” With his companions supplying the associations, the lion-headed leader’s explanation grew more perfect still. “It is extremely likely to be this. The ten kingdom lords foresaw some possibility, and sent a spirit bird on the spur of the moment to signal us not to wait long, because they may be acting on a new plan.”

“Then do we still wait?” The three-headed, six-armed leader wiped the sweat off his middle head again, nervous, and looked at his companions with hope all over him.

“We wait.” The lion-headed leader settled it with one stroke. “Whether or not the ten kingdom lords arrive on schedule, we do our duty and answer for it. If they have not arrived in three hours, then they have certainly gone off to carry out a new task, and we follow this little spirit bird’s signal and withdraw first, and wait for the ten kingdom lords’ next summons and their next assignment.”

“Yes, yes, yes. Exactly that. Very well put!” The leaders heard it and clapped their approval to a man.

Ten Heavenly Realm kingdom lords dead in a botched teleport.

A thing like that.

Not only must it not be done.

Even if it has been done, it must not be said.

They all in fact shared a vague understanding: whether or not the ten kingdom lords had clearly sensed the relay blood-rune formation, and whether or not they had already set out, the outcome was probably not good. With the interference of this small seabird’s teleport, ten kingdom lords lying a long way behind it would have to find their way accurately through a confused spacetime passage, cross the rift and the whirlpools precisely, and land successfully on this small island. The chance is not zero. But it is far too remote — probably not one in ten thousand.

The fact was that cruel, and it absolutely could not be said aloud, or nobody’s head would be sitting on his neck much longer.

Ten full Heavenly Realm kingdom lords.

Among the Heavenly Realm legions of this first wave, the kingdom lords in command number fewer than a hundred.

One blunder burying ten Heavenly Realm kingdom lords — nobody can carry that crime… Even one of the ten was teleported from the far-off Central Divine Hall to the Heavenly Realm Gate at an enormous cost in resources and lives. To buy the slower punitive army behind them enough time, every kingdom lord burns enormous resources on the Divine Light Beacon’s cross-domain teleport, and never mind the rest of it, the sacrificed slaves alone run over ten thousand a head… This one blunder has not only buried ten kingdom lords but a million slaves with them, and most important of all, the failure may set off reverses in the opening phase of the war and tilt the balance between the two sides.

An idiot would not admit a terrible blunder like that was his own doing.

Find the most suitable reason available for now.

Make the story hold together.

Necessary.

Otherwise the entire unit would very likely collapse on the spot, everyone would kill everyone else, they would scatter and run, and none of them would ever dare go back to the Heavenly Realm.

“The ten kingdom lords will certainly arrive on schedule! Before that, though, we must strengthen the offering.” The lion-headed leader decided to kill every slave, leave only his few companions, and get everyone’s story straight — and at a suitable moment find a Sky Tower power’s surprise attack to blame, or some better reason still, to cover an unbelievable blunder that could otherwise only be described as a Wind-Breath Seabird turned up out of nowhere.

“Mercy!” Every slave was frightened out of its wits and went to its knees knocking its head on the ground without stopping.

They were not fools either.

They knew what a blunder like this meant.

City lords like these, having buried ten kingdom lords, would certainly want the witnesses silenced.

The leaders exchanged a few glances and traded their opinions without a word, and decided the slaves were better killed, because however loyal a slave is, a dead slave is more loyal.

And just as they were preparing to wipe out these pitiful Heavenly Realm slaves, the Wind-Breath Seabird — sand and mud all over it — finally got its breath back. It propped itself up on its wings and got laboriously to its feet, and though it was still unsteady, in the end it more or less held itself upright. To these Heavenly Realm leaders, all their lives now hung on a small bird that could not speak.

If the ten kingdom lords were lucky enough to arrive successfully, everyone would be delighted.

And if, by some chance, they did not come.

Then the blame had to be pushed onto the Sky Tower’s warriors, and this Wind-Breath Seabird — appearing out of nowhere for no reason anybody could name — had to be carried up and reported as a messenger sent by one of the kingdom lords at a desperate moment under attack in the spatial passage.

“Catch the little thing.” The lion-headed leader signaled his companions urgently. Do not let this life-saving bird get away, or every one of us is finished.

“Catch your sister!”

A clear woman’s voice rang out, and every man on that field went blank. Who said that?

It sounded like… don’t tell me it was the half-dead little seabird? The small thing can talk? This is bad. If it can talk, then every one of us is certainly finished. Whether or not it is one of the ten kingdom lords’ spirit birds, if it can talk, one question from above and the whole thing is clear, and there is no pushing the responsibility off no matter how we try. And the worst of it — if it is some kingdom lord’s spirit bird, then even if its master teleports through successfully, our whole squad dies for this blunder anyway, killed by ten furious kingdom lords…

The lion-headed leader exchanged glances with his companions, found every face the color of death, made his decision in a hurry and swept a hand out, pointing at the Wind-Breath Seabird in its wretched state. “Kill it. A dead bird is better than a live one. Only a dead bird won’t talk out of turn.”

“You’re the dead bird, dumbass.” The Wind-Breath Seabird swore right back at him, full of spirit — and just as the lion-headed leader was moving to attack, its small head dipped once and a silver-tier grimoire appeared hanging in the air. Radiance shot up out of it, a shield expanded outward on every side, and a small white hippo came bounding out of the brilliance. The moment it touched down it hurried over and nuzzled the seabird affectionately, whose spirits were very low indeed.

“Wait — you have a summoning grimoire? A silver-tier one?” The lion-headed leader and the rest gaped. This could not be a dream, could it? A mere seabird with a summoning grimoire — how are Heavenly Realm warriors who have cultivated for several hundred years and never once seen what a summoning grimoire looks like supposed to feel about that? In the Heavenly Realm there is no telling how many hundreds of millions of warriors have no summoning grimoire at all. And here a small bird has successfully contracted one.

Is there no justice in this world?

And this summoning grimoire is a silver-tier grimoire, an item so high-grade that a great many Heavenly Realm kingdom lords do not have one. Are you quite sure this is not showing off?

Every one of the Heavenly Realm leaders wanted to say so out loud.

And at the same time, something cold went through each of them.

It has a summoning grimoire — so how are we supposed to kill it? It can be inside the grimoire in the blink of an eye… What do we do now?

They were standing there waiting for death when light flashed on the silver-tier grimoire again, and several men covered in blood, in clothes more ragged than a beggar’s, came leaping out of the void. Before they had even landed, a thin one furiously seized hold of a fat one — a fat one so profoundly unpleasant to look at that nobody could see him without wanting to swing an open hand at his ear — and without a word pinned him to the ground and beat him thoroughly.

Two identical twin brothers joined in shortly after, and the fat one covered his head and ran like a rat.

What were they doing?

The Heavenly Realm leaders felt there were not quite enough brains to go around.

Who are they, and how did they suddenly appear here? Why are they killing each other? If these people came through the spacetime rift and teleported successfully from the Heavenly Realm Gate, then — the ten kingdom lords? Where did the ten kingdom lords go?

“Hit him. This cursed fat man. I said we could not start a fight in the spatial passage. It was dangerous enough already. At our strength, getting through carefully was hard enough on its own — and no, he had to go looking for death, he had to launch an ambush, and then the whole thing blew up and there was no stopping it, and the entire space nearly collapsed and broke apart. If there hadn’t happened to be an energy beacon guiding us, we would all have been wiped out…” A tall, striking woman standing barefoot on the sand pointed at the fat man and swore at him furiously, and the scolding came down on his head like a bucket of dog’s blood.

Where had this girl come from?

The Heavenly Realm leaders stared again. There had been no tall barefoot girl with wings on her back a moment ago.

There had been six who came out, no more: a fat one and a thin one, two twin brothers, a boy who ignored everything and sat down cross-legged to regulate his breathing the instant his feet touched the ground, treating everyone present as though they were transparent, and last of all a young man covered in wounds, his clothes torn to rags like a beggar’s, who still managed the bearing of a perfect gentleman — plainly a nobleman’s son with a good upbringing.

Six of them, and no more. So where had a beautiful woman with wings on her back come from?

“Injustice — this is a terrible injustice! I truly had no idea that fellow was hiding strength like that! I thought, we’ve killed that many Heavenly Realm rank and file already, what’s one more? How was I to know that sinister creature was a Vice Hall Master of the Central Divine Hall? I’m a victim here too. He tricked me… How was I to guess that an honest, kindly face like that hid a cunning devil, and one who can twist space besides? I truly wasn’t looking to die. Think about it — I have my whole splendid youth ahead of me and I haven’t enjoyed a single day of it, I still have my virginity and haven’t spent it, I can’t bear to die either. He tricked me, he really did.” The fat man apologized with tears and a streaming nose to the tall winged woman with sand in her hair, begging her forgiveness.

“Get away from me. Better you die early and get reincarnated.” The tall barefoot woman kicked the fat man flying, and he went into the sea with a boom and threw up an enormous sheet of spray.

“Wait — could somebody tell us what is going on?” The Heavenly Realm leaders were thoroughly confused, and felt there were not quite enough brains to go around.

What — what exactly is this situation?

Things that never happened once in a whole life have all happened at once today. What are we supposed to do?

All we did was build a relay blood-rune formation on this little island. We hadn’t gotten around to doing anything at all. How has it turned into this?

(End of Chapter 1219)