A powerful force was born out of the Golden Arena.

It was a constraining force very close to a law.

Ye Kong’s brows drew hard together. He sprang into the air and made straight for the outside of the arena — and to his astonishment, a transparent barrier rose at the arena’s edge, a half-dome shape covering the whole of the Golden Arena. Ye Kong gathered his Vajra strength and struck the transparent barrier hard enough to shake the entire Golden Arena, and the barrier was not damaged in the slightest.

“Nobody may leave this Golden Arena until the opposing camp has been beaten and the victory is complete.” The Young Lord of Dawn explained the rule of the place.

“Then let’s settle which of us is better.” The Liqie brothers summoned their grimoires with a single shared thought and called out the newly acquired silver-tier Sky-rank war beasts, a pair of Lion-Headed Eagles, meaning to lay a Lion Soul Possession buff on themselves.

The silver-tier Sky-rank war beasts appeared. The two Lion-Headed Eagles had no time to react at all.

The Golden Arena produced a peculiar rippling force.

And it expelled them both outright.

The two Lion-Headed Eagles could not even get back into their summoning grimoires. They were thrown irresistibly outside the Golden Arena’s transparent barrier.

“I said it a moment ago. This Golden Arena admits only war beasts of gold tier and above to fight in it. Any war beast below gold tier, however strong and however special, cannot stand on this Golden Arena. And on this Golden Arena, no competitor from any camp may fight on his own strength alone. Everyone can only fight through war beasts.” The Young Lord of Dawn kept the courteous smile on his face, and made an elegant salute to Sea Fatty and Ye Kong. “If you have no war beasts of gold tier or above, then I am afraid I shall have to apologize in advance.”

“Country bumpkins. It’s a lot to expect them to have even one war beast at gold tier or better. I never held out any hope they’d have a surprise for us.” The middle-aged scholar was arrogant now. He made a show of waving a hand, like an official on an inspection tour.

At that wave of his hand, more than a dozen gold-tier war beasts flashed into being behind him and roared in answer.

An enormous show of force.

The black-robed old man did exactly the same thing.

Only, the gold-tier war beasts the black-robed old man called out ran generally toward demons or undead, and very few of them were evil war beasts with flesh-and-blood bodies and living life in them. There was a Demon-Flame Bone Dragon assembled out of a dragon’s skeleton, for instance, and there was a Cursed Wraith that crawled out of the freezing air of death… some thirty Sky-rank gold-tier war beasts of differing types and differing attributes reared up behind the middle-aged scholar and the black-robed old man with a crash, and an overwhelming momentum ran straight across the field.

Every one of them had reached the realm of Sky-rank level five.

A very few of the war beasts had, unbelievably, reached Sky-rank level six.

Set against the level and the strength of the Heavenly Realm invasion corps’ commanders — the lion-headed and man-faced leader and the rest — any one of these gold-tier war beasts could have killed such a commander where he stood without difficulty, and the two strongest could have done it instantly.

By what means had unintelligent Sky-rank gold-tier war beasts been infused up to Sky-rank level six? Ye Kong and Sea Fatty could not work it out at all. But they had heard the rumors: that in the Central Divine Hall there were certain extremely special secret methods that could raise a powerful war beast with no intelligence, or with insufficient intelligence, to Sky-rank level six or beyond, and carry it across the chasm at Sky-rank level five, which had always been impossible to cross. It was said that a mad ascension like that demanded an extremely cruel price — but to the Central Divine Hall’s people, who had war beasts in enormous numbers and did not count casualties, it was an enormous advantage.

The advantage was obvious enough at the moment.

The middle-aged scholar and the black-robed old man both had gold-tier war beasts that exceeded their own strength, and on top of that they had these “super-tier war beasts” that exceeded the range a war beast could normally grow into.

Even at only two of them, the enormous gap between Sky-rank level six and Sky-rank level five gave the middle-aged scholar and the black-robed old man an overwhelming position.

Sea Fatty first looked at the Demon-Flame Bone Dragon standing behind the black-robed old man, which had reached Sky-rank level six, and then at the Rock Giant Ape on the middle-aged scholar’s side, which had reached Sky-rank level six as well. He shook his head slowly and let out a long sigh.

Gold-tier war beasts forced up to Sky-rank level six like these…

The Sky Tower.

It really did not have any.

If Yue Yang, for his part, set his mind on doing it, it would presumably not be difficult. The problem is that no warrior of the Sky Tower has ever thought of using a method like this to raise a war beast’s tier and strength. Nobody would claim it holds universally, but for the great majority of the Sky Tower’s martial artists a war beast is a fighting partner, and some war beasts hold a place in their masters’ lives no different from family or friends. Very few people treat their war beasts as combat tools to be swapped out whenever convenient.

The Sky Tower’s martial artists put great weight on a war beast’s loyalty and on the degree of fusion between beast and master. Even a heartless character like Yue Yang, for his part, that transmigrator, has never once treated the war beasts he owns as slaves.

Being a grimoire-holder himself, Sea Fatty found there was no way he could do what the middle-aged scholar or the black-robed old man in front of him had done.

There was no way to turn every war beast that belonged to him into a fighting tool.

War beasts like these have no free will.

Or rather, no will at all.

Because either they died long ago while the power was being poured into them, or their consciousness was annihilated, and what is left is an empty body with enormous strength in it for the master to go on driving and fighting with… as walking corpses or as undead, there is naturally no question of loyalty at all. And how high could the degree of fusion be, fighting as one body with a master? Nobody could feel optimistic about it either.

The only thing strong about them is their tier, and the forcibly infused power that does not belong to them in the first place.

“Is this what comes of chasing power too far? Thank heaven we didn’t take the same wrong road.” Disgust flashed through Xue Tanglang’s ice-cold eyes.

“I’ve never been willing to pass judgment on how another man lives. But this situation forces the anger out of the bottom of me. What you have done is genuinely sickening. In the pursuit of power you have thrown away even the last line life has.” Compared with Xue Tanglang, the Tianra Prince could bear this profanation of life a great deal less. If these people had killed their war beasts he might not have been so angry — but the people in front of him had reduced war beasts to this in the pursuit of a higher tier and greater power, and that genuinely enraged a man of his fine upbringing and excellent temper.

“How laughable. Is power not the one thing you pursue as well? What is all your bitter struggling for? Is it not to obtain stronger power? You make your war beasts bleed and sweat for you, and give up their lives for you — and what is that for? Is it not for victory? All we have done is use exactly the same method you use, only more intelligently: raise the war beast’s strength first, and then obtain the final victory smoothly. What is improper about that? On the contrary — if your hypocritical, counterfeit benevolence gets a war beast killed in battle, then it would have been better off as a super-tier war beast in our hands, because at least that way it has a stronger guarantee and an undying body.” The middle-aged scholar faced the Tianra Prince’s anger with perfect composure, as though anger of this kind were something he had long since seen too often to find surprising.

“Our war beasts are our companions, our friends, and even our family.” The Tianra Prince was thoroughly angry now. He had no interest in arguing further, and simply summoned his platinum grimoire and called out his life-guardian war beast, the Fire-Wing Sky Demon.

The Fire-Wing Sky Demon was the two beasts Sky Fire Meteor and Flying Stone Demon fused into one.

Its original potential had been excellent.

Later, washed through and remade by the energy of the Chitian River Blood Pool, which came out of the Chitian River sacrifice and which Yue Yang had given him, it had advanced tenfold, with limitless potential. And after months of cultivation from the Tianra Prince, day in and day out, it now possessed intermediate intelligence and had, with its master’s help, comprehended and cultivated the Chitian River Divine Flame, second only to Yue Yang’s Chitian Divine Blaze.

You could say that although it stood at only Sky-rank level four now, its real strength now could not be spoken of in the same breath as its strength back then.

The Tianra Prince’s intention was to raise it into a Divine Flame Demon King.

Only there had not been time.

Before it could be advanced and raised, he had already had to hurry back to the Sky Tower to take part in this war of resistance… the Fire-Wing Sky Demon and Xue Tanglang’s life-guardian war beast, the Storm Giant, stood to left and right, holding off the pressure bearing down on them from the war beasts of the opposing camp.

“Very fine. I like young men of this sort.” The black-robed old man looked at the Storm Giant, and then at the Fire-Wing Sky Demon, and nodded with a clicking of his tongue. “The more potential a young man has, the stronger the puppet warrior refined out of him. And of course, because a young man of that kind has a strong enough spirit of resistance and a strong enough will, the vengeful spirit in the dead body is more abundant as well. For refining a cursed death guard, they really are the finest choice. Resist, then. Be angry. I like young men with a spirit of resistance, and I like their war beasts. As you can see, every one of them behind me is a trophy of mine. In their day, they — every one of them, man and beast alike — bravely threw themselves at me in a counter-charging duel, exactly as you are doing. Unfortunately their endings were all the same. And you will be no exception.”

“We will not lose.” Ye Kong answered that suddenly, and with absolute finality.

“On what grounds do you say so?” The middle-aged scholar was somewhat at a loss. From any angle whatsoever his own side was certain to win. On what grounds was this boy so confident?

“Because we are Yue Yang’s teammates. We are his brothers. Under his leadership we will never lose — not yesterday, not today, and not tomorrow.” On Ye Kong’s face there appeared a light of confidence that nothing could shake. At the sight of that expression the middle-aged scholar and the black-robed old man, who had been perfectly serene, both looked startled — and the near-divine Young Lord of Dawn went on smiling. “I understand your confidence. But allow me to correct one point where you are mistaken: Yue Titan is not here. He is not at your side. You are fighting alone.”

“He isn’t at our side, but that is no different from his being at our side, and we still don’t lose.” The Liqie brothers stepped out and stood with Ye Kong. “This is the will he gave us. A fighting will that never wavers. Under a sovereign fighting will like that, whoever you are, in the end you are certain to lose.”

“An unshakable fighting will?” The Young Lord of Dawn’s expression turned serious all at once.

“Every Sky Tower martial artist qualified to stand in the Heavenly Realm has to possess this fighting will. That is the difference between us and you.” The Tianra Prince stepped up as well and stood in the same line as Ye Kong and the Liqie brothers, facing the enemy.

“…” Xue Tanglang was silent.

What he pursued was no longer the Sovereign Intent comprehended at the Gate of Life and Death, but the power of law that extends out of Sovereign Intent.

Now there was only one person still standing at the back.

That was Sea Fatty.

The Young Lord of Dawn, whose expression had been quite serious a moment ago, looked at Sea Fatty now exactly as though he had discovered an old friend he had not seen in a long time, and smiled broadly. “I imagine brother Hai Dafu has not comprehended Sovereign Intent?” He knew about the Sky Tower’s Gate of Life and Death test. He had never taken it, but he knew how monstrous and how difficult it was.

Not if you beat him to death would the Young Lord of Dawn have believed that a mountain of meat and a demon king like Sea Fatty — a lecherous, money-grubbing character of that sort — could pass the Gate of Life and Death test, or comprehend an unwavering Sovereign Intent inside it.

So he felt he had finally found the breach in this small team Yue Titan had put together.

The weakest one on this team was not Ye Kong, who had a very nearly undying body and was called the Vajra Giant Ape. Still less was it the deeply learned Tianra Prince, or Xue Tanglang with the greatest strength of them all, or even the Liqie brothers, those twins of one silent shared mind… it was this greedy, lecherous, life-loving and death-fearing Sea Fatty. Hai Dafu.

Sea Fatty was the weak point in the team. So what was Sea Fatty’s weak point?

(End of Chapter 1235)