The middle-aged scholar drew his brows tight over Yue Yang’s second move.

He did not understand it at all.

This step — why play it there?

Yue Yang paid him no attention whatsoever. He had played it that way for reasons of his own, and however much an outsider doubted it, all that mattered was that he believed it was right.

“Your second move is to call out the Demon Emperor?” The middle-aged scholar honestly could not work it out. After Peerless Emperor Wushuang, the second thing this Yue Titan chose to answer was the Demon Emperor — not the Golden Emperor, lord of the Three-Legged Golden Crows of Tang Valley, with whom the boy had a connection of his own; not the Central Divine Hall’s First Elder, the Immovable Supreme, and not the Divine Hall Supreme; not even the five great powers coming in league out of the East, South and West… This step did not take on the strongest, and it did not strike the weakest first. It picked out a Demon Emperor sitting squarely in the middle, neither high nor low, and it made no sense to anybody.

“Is there a problem?” Yue Yang put on a puzzled face and asked it back at him.

“Surely the strongest of them is the Divine Hall Supreme? How is it you throw him aside and pay him no mind at all?” the middle-aged scholar pointed out.

“The Divine Hall Supreme isn’t your piece!” Yue Yang dismissed it in one line. If the Divine Hall Supreme takes no orders from you, Dongfang, then he is none of your business. How I answer him is my business. I’ll do as I please, and it has nothing to do with you.

“It is true that the Divine Hall Supreme does not take my orders. But I have successfully persuaded the Immovable Supreme to join this position.” The middle-aged scholar looked at Yue Yang to see how he would explain not answering the Central Divine Hall’s First Elder either. Yue Yang spread both hands and gave a shrug, and laughed easily. “One listen to that man’s name tells you exactly what his temperament and his character are. Styling himself the Immovable Supreme — obviously he’s a lazy bag of bones, and a cunning one, tucked in behind you. The Divine Hall Supreme hasn’t come out yet, so how could he possibly come out first? He’ll certainly be the last one out, to pick up whatever’s going cheap. Why would I bother with him now?”

The middle-aged scholar was startled.

And then he laughed.

He clapped his hands and praised it. “Worthy indeed of the Yue family’s third son, a peerless genius of the kind that does not appear in ten thousand years. That deduction is extraordinarily bold, and yet it is also perfectly ordinary. I am impressed. And if we say the Immovable Supreme will not move in the opening — then what about the Golden Emperor, lord of the Three-Legged Golden Crow Clan? His whole clan was once deep in the Central Divine Hall’s debt. When they were driven out by the Immortal Clan in those days they had no home to go to, and enemies everywhere besides, and it was the Central Divine Hall that took them in of its own accord and let them make a home in the Heavenly Realm. Set that aside — the Golden Emperor and I also have a deep friendship, and no ordinary one. Now that I have asked him to throw a fist into the fight, he absolutely will not bend the rules on account of your friendship with Eighth Prince Wuhai… You mean to turn a deaf ear to him. Is that really all right?”

Yue Yang shook his head lightly. “Of course I’m not turning a deaf ear to him. In point of fact I’m planning to send a little sister over to talk him out of it.”

The middle-aged scholar let out a great laugh. “Perhaps you believe it will work. But I am sorry to have to tell you that one small qilin in her infant stage will never talk the Golden Emperor out of anything.”

Yue Yang held his ground. “If she can’t talk him out of it, I have two more little sisters. Between them they certainly can.”

“No!” The middle-aged scholar shook his head at it and waved a hand as well. “Even adding the two dragon girls of the Battle God Attendant, even adding that Chi-Dragon Woman of yours who sits there like a secret weapon, it is still not possible to talk the Golden Emperor out of anything. The Golden Emperor does not dare harm the Immortal Clan, but he will not take orders from girls who carry no authority and no standing. So long as no one kills a member of the Immortal Clan, then even leveling the entire Sky Tower to the ground makes no difference at all — the Immortal Clan will absolutely not raise an army over it. I thought that particular point through a long time ago.”

“And if a man doesn’t try, how does he know what the result will really be? Besides, there’s no harm in trying!” Yue Yang was not moved an inch, and held to his own view.

“As you please.” The middle-aged scholar nodded, taking the point gracefully, and raised no further objection.

“No problem at all. Then let’s seal the game. I’m tired today, so we’ll stop here and pick it up again tomorrow!” Yue Yang behaved as though it had not occurred to him that this was a fight to the death. He looked for all the world like a professional at a tournament. He stretched, lazily, and proposed a recess that would have struck a man dead on the spot.

“If you need it, three days would be no trouble either.” The middle-aged scholar agreed to it completely. To the man who is going to win in the end, nothing matters very much.

“Then we’re done for today!” Yue Yang tossed his piece onto the table.

“Allow me to remind you of one thing. The five great powers are not weak, and with the five of them fighting in concert they are a very serious matter indeed. Please do not forget them. In a game one cannot take a move back — once a piece is down the shape is settled, and there are times when wanting to regret it comes far too late.” The middle-aged scholar offered the reminder kindly.

“If you hadn’t said that I might nearly have forgotten. But the five great powers have somebody to answer them already. I don’t need to spend my worry there!” Yue Yang brought out the Three Realms Compass and was gone in an instant.

The middle-aged scholar gathered himself and thought.

After murmuring over it a while he suddenly reached out and lightly picked up the piece Yue Yang had just played, the one that stood for the Demon Dragon.

His expression was startled at first, as though he were genuinely astonished — and then his brows unknotted all at once and he smiled. “So it was false after all. There is no Demon Dragon in this war whatsoever; otherwise this piece could not be lifted at all. What war beast did the boy use to fool me, I wonder? To think he could slip something past even my Game talent. Truly incredible. But a bluff on the board does you no good — cheat on one move and you will need ten to make it back. Leaving the Divine Hall Supreme and the Immovable Supreme unanswered was bold enough. I never imagined you would dare leave Peerless Emperor Wushuang unanswered as well. Ha! Do you imagine Peerless Emperor Wushuang will take the field against the Divine Hall Supreme of his own accord, simply because the Central Divine Hall has invaded the Sky Tower? What a lovely thought. Unfortunately you have no idea what kind of man Peerless Emperor Wushuang is, or what lies between him and the Divine Hall Supreme. And how is that small mind of yours to reach a design I have calculated ten thousand ways over… The five great powers — you intend to set the Conquest Queen against them. No wonder you would rather leave the Golden Emperor and the Immovable Supreme unanswered. So that is what you have been thinking! It will fail. An arrangement like that is certain to fail. And yet I love it. Only this — heaven and earth for a board, all things for pieces, the winning odds in my own hand — only this is the life I have dreamed of!”

The middle-aged scholar murmured it all to himself.

As the scenes in the images shifted and changed, a light broke over his face, satisfied and happy at once, exactly like a master lost in his art who has just produced a matchless classic.

“I shall have to arrange a little more. I cannot leave that cunning boy any opening at all to turn the position around.” The middle-aged scholar sobered again at once. He set the piece standing for the Demon Dragon gently back where it had been, studied the board carefully, adjusted the positions of his own pieces very slightly, and only when it felt perfect beyond improving did his body turn into a shaft of golden light and vanish into empty space.

At that same moment, Yue Yang was already back at the gate of the Tianra Imperial Palace.

The moment he transferred in, the guards at the palace gate — who had been standing as though a great enemy were upon them — quietly let out a breath.

A powerful enemy had come, and with the strength they had there was no possibility whatsoever of keeping Her Majesty safe. Now Yue Yang was back and had taken all that pressure onto himself, which gave them a small space in which to breathe. Standing opposite them, arrived at some point nobody had noticed, were five uninvited guests. Even the weakest palace guard, for all that he could not judge their strength, understood perfectly well that these five were Heavenly Realm powers who could destroy heaven and earth with one lift of a hand. In front of them, Boulder General — whose will was as firm as iron — could not even hold his body straight. His head hung down, his knees bent, his spine seemed to have five mountains laid on it, and every part of him was shaking with the strain of not giving way… It was not until Yue Yang came back that he dropped to the ground with a slap, every scrap of strength gone out of him.

Yue Yang looked along the line from the left. In the order they stood, they were the Nine-Headed Serpent, the Nine-Headed Worm, the Nine-Headed Bird, the Nine-Headed Demon and the Nine-Headed Monster.

The Heavenly Eye of Wisdom could see the true bodies of these Eastern demon-race creatures — but he could not work out which of them was actually the Demon Emperor. Among these five of the Nine-Headed Clan, was the Demon Emperor the Nine-Headed Serpent? The Nine-Headed Worm? Going by where they stood, the Nine-Headed Bird in the middle seemed the more reasonable answer. Going by true body, the Nine-Headed Demon was the likelier one. And then there was the Nine-Headed Monster, who was also entirely possible.

On the surface these five monsters of the Nine-Headed Clan looked alike, their true bodies were near enough identical, and even in strength there was hardly anything to choose between them.

The Nine-Headed Serpent and the Nine-Headed Worm were very much alike. The Nine-Headed Bird had wings, and so did the Nine-Headed Demon. The Nine-Headed Demon had a body like a black tortoise, and the Nine-Headed Monster was much the same. So which of them was the real Demon Emperor?

If the real Demon Emperor was among these five, then Yue Yang had to be a great deal more careful.

Because if even his Heavenly Eye of Wisdom could not make out the Demon Emperor’s true strength, then the fight that came next was going to be very, very, very hard to win. At the least it meant the Demon Emperor’s strength ran a long way past anything Yue Yang had imagined. At Mountain Beyond the Mountain the mysterious man’s strength had been overwhelming, and the evil god Weiguang had pressed Yue Yang until he could hardly breathe — but the strength of both of them had still been inside what Yue Yang could imagine.

If the ‘Demon Emperor’ ran a great deal further past the mysterious man or the evil god Weiguang, then this fight was going to be touch and go.

“Which of you is the Demon Emperor?” Yue Yang looked them over again and again and honestly could not tell.

“Whichever one you think it is, that’s the one!” The Nine-Headed Serpent, standing at the far left, watched Yue Yang with a grin all over his face. “You’re an interesting child. Let’s do it this way. If you’re willing to split half the Ruins of the Gods with us, then we’ll do you the favor and stand by with our hands behind our backs.”

“Dream on!” Yue Yang refused it flat.

“The Ruins of the Gods aren’t yours either. If we weren’t allowing for the fact that there’s a bit of a connection between you and us, why would we waste words on you at all? We’d finish you in one move and be done with it.” The Nine-Headed Worm’s voice was so nearly identical to the Nine-Headed Serpent’s that even Yue Yang could not hear the difference — and yet Yue Yang could be certain it was the Nine-Headed Worm who had spoken, and not the Nine-Headed Serpent’s voice at all.

“Finish me in one move?” Yue Yang laughed out loud and crooked a finger at the five of them. “Come on, then. Give it a try.”

“Killing you wouldn’t do. My guess is that the moment we moved here, somebody over there would be sent to seal us, and we’re not taking a loss like that. Those old things of the Immortal Clan are far too protective of their own. We’ve got nobody standing behind us, so a sealing would be the light end of it — if they were really put out, there’s every chance they’d beat us to death. We’re not falling for that!” The Nine-Headed Bird’s voice was rather shriller, and it kept up a strange run of laughter. “But as long as we don’t kill you, beating you until there’s not a whole patch of skin left on you and knocking your teeth out all over the floor ought to be no trouble. That much is the floor, and we can keep ourselves to it.”

“Today you knock my teeth out all over the floor, and tomorrow I may well bring people to your door and wipe out your entire clan. Are you Nine-Headed Clan quite certain you want me for an enemy?” Yue Yang gave the warning in ice.

“The Ruins of the Gods are too great a temptation. Frightened or not, we have to have a go at it.” The Nine-Headed Demon’s voice was the clearest of the five, and his manner the most pleasant.

“What doesn’t belong to you really ought not to be taken.” Yue Yang let out a breath.

“We won’t be taking it. Once we’ve got hold of you, you’ll take it out and give us half, and that’ll do. We aren’t greedy. Half is enough.” The Nine-Headed Monster was indicating that there were ways around it after all, and that seizing Yue Yang was the best of them at present. The reason the five had come ahead to the Tianra Imperial Palace was to get in front of the Golden Emperor and the Immovable Supreme and take Yue Yang first, and then work out at leisure how to squeeze the treasures of the Ruins of the Gods out of him. As senior figures of the Eastern demon race, nobody knew the many rules of the East better than they did. Killing Yue Yang for no reason and seizing the treasure by force was a thing they would never do — but taking Yue Yang alive and making plans around the boy should be no great problem. The only ones they really had to guard against were the Golden Emperor and the Immovable Supreme and that crowd, their own allies.

“You think I’d hold still and let you take me?” Yue Yang smiled coldly.

“Of course not!” The Nine-Headed Serpent shook his head and looked at Yue Yang seriously. “But we have time enough. Even grinding you down slowly, we can take you in the end. By rights only one of the Nine-Headed Clan needed to come — but all five of us came, precisely so that the treasures of the Ruins of the Gods would be got without the smallest risk of failure.”

“Let’s make a wager. If you win, I’ll have nothing to say. But if I win, you clear out of the Sky Tower at once and never set your minds on this place again. The Sky Tower — this is my ground!” Yue Yang slowly gathered out the three swords, Black Returning Burial, White Frost Bloom and Scarlet Heaven Tempering, fixed his eyes on the five in front of him, and issued the maddest challenge there was — one man against five — with the wager attached.

(End of Chapter 1254)