“The divine realm.” The swaggering man looked over at Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon and the rest of the Sky Dragon clan with more than a little gloating, and when he saw that Konglong, who had been laughing so loudly a moment ago, had gone white as a sheet, he was delighted beyond words. “Congratulations! You’ve gone and offended a divine-realm powerhouse. Aren’t you the lucky one! Only garbage like you, who look down on everybody and think nothing of anybody, would look down on people with those snobby dog eyes! Why shouldn’t the Sky Tower have top-tier powers? Since ancient times, the Longteng Continent, the Sky Stairway and the Demon Abyss have never stopped turning out strong men. The Prison Emperor six thousand years ago, the Conquest Queen ten thousand years ago — go back further than that, and there are more top-tier powers than you could count. And you shameless bunch, who turned on your own lord and killed him with tricks so low even I can’t stomach them — what makes you think you’ve got the right to pass judgment on anybody?”

The swaggering man went on lashing the Sky Dragon clan with his mockery.

Unfortunately for him, the Night Empress was still there.

The Sky Dragon overlords were too busy trying to save their own skins to have any time to argue with him, so they could only pretend not to have heard.

The Black Terror clan’s black bear demon and wild boar demon were badly frightened too, and their expressions were nothing like the swaggering man’s. Silently they shifted their positions, and whenever no one was looking, they edged a little farther toward the outskirts. From the bottom of their hearts, they wanted nothing to do with this Night Empress who had appeared out of nowhere.

Besides, with strength only at the level of demon kings, the two of them could never afford to provoke a goddess who possessed Sovereign Intent.

Against Shanglong, whom the Night Empress had killed in one move, or against Konglong, who had only just escaped, they figured they would have a slight edge at best, and not much of one.

Against Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon, the strongest of the Sky Dragon clan, even the two of them together could not be sure of winning. So naturally they did not dare provoke the Night Empress, who stood in the realm of a true god. They did not know which was stronger, the Night Empress or the Golden Emperor, which of the two stood higher and which lower, but one thing was certain at least: both of them were the kind of existence that could kill everyone on this field in a single move.

“It is indeed the divine realm.” The Nine-Headed Demon of the Nine-Headed Clan was comparatively calm, calm enough to find time for analysis. “Divine power combined with Sovereign Intent produces a power of law that is quite considerable. But perhaps because she has not been in the divine realm for long, her Divinity has not yet fully condensed, and she falls a little short in controlling and wielding her divine power. Still, this divine majesty joined with star force is admirable. It is too beautiful. In that dazzling glitter there is both eternity and destruction. Given time, this Supreme, the Night Empress, will surely become a Sacred Sovereign who lights up the entire Sky Realm!”

The moment he said it, the whole field stared at him.

The swaggering man, Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon and the beautiful queen Bonemelt all looked at him in astonishment.

Bonemelt of the Sky Dragon clan in particular was indignant. Who do you think you are, passing judgment on a divine-realm powerhouse? Do you have any right to?

If the Demon Emperor behind you had said it, fine, that might barely pass.

But you’re nothing but a small fry in the Nine-Headed Clan. Out of the five of you, you’re not even the strongest — and you dare to talk this big?

Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon, however, felt a sudden surge of wild joy. The Sky Dragon clan had offended the Night Empress with its words and was in mortal danger. If, at a moment this critical, the Nine-Headed Clan could shoot its mouth off, draw her hatred onto itself and pull her fire away from them, nothing could be better.

If the Nine-Headed Clan made an enemy that strong, then even if the Night Empress had no intention of letting the Sky Dragon clan go, her targets and her attention would be split a good deal.

Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon could hardly wait for the Night Empress to hear it, fly into a thunderous rage, and blast the Nine-Headed Clan to death on the spot.

“I would never dare accept the title of Supreme. The Sky Tower has only one Supreme at present.” Who could have guessed it? The heavenly voice inside the dreamlike river of stars did not flare up at all. There was not a trace of anger in it. She even thanked the Nine-Headed Demon for his assessment, with a hint of a smile. “I have far too many shortcomings. I would love to settle down and condense my Divinity properly, but it hasn’t even been two months. I hadn’t even had time to get my bearings after my slumber before I was rushed straight into battle. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had to swallow my anger like this when people came to bully me right at my own door.”

“Two months, and already a divine majesty like this? Truly astonishing!” The Nine-Headed Demon was visibly moved.

“…” The beautiful queen, Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon and the others were left speechless.

Pay him one compliment and he starts strutting.

You Nine-Headed Demon, you aren’t even in the divine realm. What gives you the right to put on airs here?

The Night Empress is being modest and big-hearted, and you — you keep showing off again and again, as if you were some divine-realm master yourself. Has there ever been a clown as ridiculous as you? You haven’t reached that realm, and you still dare to run your mouth like this?

On the whole field, only Konglong, the Sky Dragon overlord, was paying no attention to any of this. His whole mind was bent on escaping this blood altar, on escaping the fifth floor of the Sky Stairway.

Whatever anyone said, nothing could change the fact that he had just viciously mocked a god!

Apart from running away, he could not think of a second way to save his own life.

From who knew how far off at the edge of the sky, a voice was carried across an enormous distance by the will of a divine mind, and it rang in everyone’s ears with perfect clarity, as though someone were speaking right beside them: “We are three old immortals, old friends from the old war — ‘Unfallen,’ ‘Undefeated’ and ‘Immovable.’ We are delighted to meet a divine-realm Supreme of the Sky Stairway once more, and we would like to talk at length with the newly ascended divine-realm Supreme on the old battlefield, on the tenth floor of the Sky Stairway. Remembering the warm hospitality Princess Starlight showed us in those years, we are all rather impatient to see for ourselves what this newly ascended divine-realm Supreme is made of.”

The moment this divine mind arrived, Konglong, Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon, the beautiful queen Bonemelt and the others leaped and cheered.

The Central Divine Hall’s First Elder, the Immovable Supreme, was going to take a hand. The Night Empress, divine-realm powerhouse or not, would not be making any more trouble for them now.

They had only ever heard of the “Immovable Supreme” and had never heard of any “Unfallen” or “Undefeated,” but going by how the voice had named them, they could be certain that Unfallen and Undefeated were existences on the same level as the Immovable Supreme. Even if they fell a little short of him, it could not be by much. Three divine-realm powerhouses from the Central Divine Hall ganging up on the Night Empress alone — how could she possibly win?

Not to mention that this Night Empress was a newcomer who had only ascended to the divine realm two months ago.

“When old friends send an invitation, how could Yeyu not come? As one who came after her, Yeyu has never for a single day dared to forget Princess Starlight’s regret from those years. On this fine morning, Yeyu will surely throw a banquet with every ounce of her hospitality for old friends, to repay our honored guests from the Heavenly Realm who have come so many thousands of miles.” From within the brilliant river of stars, the heavenly voice was as lovely and pleasant as ever, but even a deaf man could have heard how furious the mistress inside that starry sky was. Her words were extraordinarily polite, yet even an idiot could have sensed the killing intent in them: a blood feud that would pass down through every life to come, one that would not change even if the rivers and mountains changed hands and heaven and earth were overturned!

She was so angry that the stars, one after another, burst apart under the control of her divine mind.

The lovely figure that had been hidden among them became a meteor that split the time and space of the eternal night, pierced straight through the void, and vanished before everyone’s eyes.

The moment the Night Empress, invited to a decisive battle on the tenth floor of the Sky Stairway, was gone, Konglong collapsed onto the ground, his whole body limp. He looked like someone who had just been fished out of the water, dripping wet; he had sweated so hard he had nearly died of dehydration.

The sudden release after all that terror was so great that Konglong lost control of himself entirely. He could no longer hold a human shape, and he turned straight into a huge crimson-flame dragon three hundred meters from head to tail.

It panted in great heaving gulps.

If the three Central Divine Hall powers, Unfallen, Undefeated and Immovable, had shown up even a little later, it would probably have been reduced to nothing just like its companion Shanglong. Having gotten its life back, it felt the wild joy of someone who has brushed against death and lived, and also a lingering unease that the fright had left behind. Of course, with the divine-realm powerhouse Night Empress gone, some of its confidence came back, enough to give it the nerve to keep hanging around the edge of this blood altar and fight for that one percent share of the Ruins of the Gods.

Barring accidents, the Night Empress could not possibly come back.

She was as good as dead!

For a newcomer only recently ascended to the divine realm, besieged by three divine-realm powerhouses like Unfallen, Undefeated and Immovable, managing to take even one of them down with her would already be a miracle. As for winning outright, wiping out her powerful enemies and coming home — that was a pipe dream not even a three-year-old would believe.

A powerful enemy who was already doomed to die, however strong she might be — what was there to fear?

“Roar! Roar, roar!” Konglong threw back its head and bellowed at the sky, hoping to win back a little of its menace, so that the demon-race brat across from it, who was eyeing it with such contempt, would stop looking down on it.

“Don’t look at me. I’m not going to make a move on you!” The swaggering man turned his face away and did not give Konglong another glance.

“?” Konglong was baffled. Hadn’t this brat been acting awfully tough just now?

What was going on?

Hadn’t this demon-race brat been looking for a fight the whole time?

Could it be that with the Night Empress gone, the brat saw the situation tilting back toward the Sky Dragon clan and had decided to rein in his attitude?

Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon and the beautiful queen Bonemelt were surprised as well. Getting this brat to back down was no easy thing. Could the Central Divine Hall’s Immovable Supreme and those other old ghosts have scared him stiff, so that he no longer dared to stir up trouble? If so, that would be wonderful! Without the brat meddling in the middle, they could get through these three days in peace, and the Sky Dragon clan would receive a five percent share of the Ruins of the Gods. When that happened, the Sky Dragon clan would rise, and restoring its glory — even surpassing the glory of the Sky Dragon Emperor’s era — would be no trouble at all.

The swaggering man kept his head turned away.

It was the Nine-Headed Serpent of the Nine-Headed Clan, apparently the more kindhearted type, who went out of his way to explain. “He will not fight you because you are already dead!”

“What?” Konglong had no idea what he was talking about. I’m already dead? I’m obviously still alive!

One second after the Nine-Headed Serpent finished saying “you are already dead,” Konglong found his belly swelling up at an unbelievable speed.

In the end, not even a great dragon’s hide could hold up under that insane expansion. With a boom, it burst apart and flung countless organs, flesh and blood across the whole sky.

And that was not the end of it. Inside Konglong’s belly, a terrifying star was growing like mad. In the blink of an eye, it grew from something as small as the point of a needle into a heavenly body ten meters across, then a hundred meters, a thousand meters, even ten thousand meters. Next to it, Konglong, three hundred meters from head to tail, was like a little ant crushed beneath a planet. It could not even cry out for help. It was ground into paste right there in its agony.

Not one of its companions dared to step in and save it.

Every one of them understood one fact.

Konglong was a dead dragon.

There was no saving it.

Everyone — Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon, the strongest of the Sky Dragon clan, included — shot up into the air and fled far away from Konglong and from the newborn red giant star that was growing so madly.

No one knew how far the red giant swelled before it finally went off in a great explosion that shattered heaven and earth.

The blast did not leave so much as a fleck of ash of Konglong.

Its soul was destroyed along with everything else.

And that was not all. At the peak of the explosion, a black hole that devoured everything opened up in an instant at its center. It sucked in everything left after the red giant exploded and everything within range, Konglong’s already-annihilated soul included, and reduced it all to nothing, sealing it away forever in who knew what time and space.

“What a pathetic worm — and you call yourself an overlord of the Sky Realm!” The swaggering man spat on the ground in contempt. “A god already declared you dead, and you still thought you could scrape by and live? How naive!”

“…” Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon’s face had gone an ugly, ashen color. He had never in his life imagined that the Night Empress would remember to finish off Konglong even as she was leaving.

Now they had lost yet another companion.

Against the Black Terror demons, they still held a slight edge, but against the Nine-Headed Clan, they no longer had the upper hand.

What kind of cursed day is this? Why is it only ever my own companions who die? The Nine-Headed Clan had plenty of people, and so did the Black Terror demons — especially that arrogant brat, who was downright hateful. Why wasn’t anyone wiping them out? The more Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon thought about it, the angrier he got. He really wanted to find somebody to beat to a pulp, just to let out the frustration in his chest.

The swaggering man glared at him, full of provocation, wearing a smug look that said, If you’ve got the guts, go ahead and take a swing at your old man.

On any ordinary day, Gu Ang the Two-Headed Dragon would have beaten the crap out of him long ago.

But right now, he really did have to hold himself back for a while.

Because across from him, the five members of the Nine-Headed Clan were watching with eyes that meant him no good at all…

(End of Chapter 1262)