The Sky Tower, fourth floor.

This was the outside entrance to the Divine Codex Sky Island and the Azure Heaven Hall, which Yue Yang had once secretly explored — an extremely well-hidden ancient teleportation array. Not even the Black Prison King had known this secret entrance existed back then. He had always wrongly believed he alone held the secret of the “Divine Codex,” never guessing that the Divine Codex, guarded by its golden barrier, had long since been broken into by Yue Yang and his whole household of big and little lolis, who had carried off a great many treasures.

After the Black Prison King died, the secret of the Divine Codex space was in Yue Yang’s hands alone.

Very few people knew of it.

The broken teleportation array on the third floor had already collapsed and could no longer be used, and Yue Yang had destroyed the few other secret arrays himself, so this secret entrance on the fourth floor was in fact the only way into the Divine Codex space.

At this moment, the two women, Liuye and Yue Yu, were standing at that entrance.

Their task was to receive the family and friends of every clan who needed refuge and bring them into the Divine Codex space — which existed entirely within the void — to shelter from the fighting. There were the elite students of the Ivy Academy and Shangjing Academy, for example, and the old, the young, the women and children of the Four Great Families, led by the Yue family, and of the Great Xia imperial family. There were also the gold spirits, peaceful by nature and not made for fighting, and Yue Yang’s followers from the Thunder Fortress, and others besides… In a catastrophe on the scale of this Heavenly Realm invasion of the Sky Tower, it was impossible to come through without any losses at all.

But no matter what, they could not throw everything away. Some of the youngest, at least, had to be kept alive as the seed to carry the bloodlines on.

The races that were no good at fighting, and the old, the weak, the women and children, would find nothing but death even against the sorriest of the Heavenly Realm’s rank-and-file.

The fighting of the strong was not something they should be dragged into.

Yue Yang was facing a powerful enemy right now and could not split himself in two. He had no time to look after any of this.

Fortunately, Xue Wuxia, Princess Qianqian and the others had taken on the responsibility for him of their own accord. He was, after all, the Sky Tower’s new guardian. If every race fought to the last drop of blood, and everything was used up in the fighting with nothing at all left over, then even if they won in the end, there would be no one to rebuild their homes on the ruins.

Everything came down to having people.

Bringing every race in the Sky Tower here to escape the fighting was impossible. If they all came, the Divine Codex space could not hold them. But Yue Yu and the others only needed to bring the family and friends connected to Yue Yang here for shelter. What everyone was up against was Grand Hall Master Dongfang’s targeted strike.

For the time being, Grand Hall Master Dongfang would not interfere with the lives of other races that had nothing to do with Yue Yang.

Even if he meant to destroy the Sky Tower in the end, his first knife would still go to Yue Yang’s family and friends. Until he had brought Yue Yang down, he would have no time to spare for the countless lives of the Sky Tower’s other races.

“This is too slow. Why hasn’t even a single group made it here yet?” Liuye was frantic with worry. Everyone responsible for bringing people in had been sent out, but no good news had come back from any of them — not from Hong, who had gone to the Emerald Forest, not from Weilai at the Thunder Fortress, not from Luohua at the Hanging Garden. Never mind Hailan, who had gone to Blazing Fire Island, or Sea Fatty and the others, who had gone to support the Succubus clan.

“Don’t worry. Nothing’s going to happen to anyone. With Duoduo and Jiangying and the others watching over everybody, everyone will make it through this safely.” Yue Yu was just as frantic inside, but she did not dare let it show.

The more critical the moment, the calmer she felt she had to be.

She was his big sister. So she could never, at any time, throw herself into a panic or make more trouble for him. Instead, she had to set the example a big sister should and give him all the help she could.

Far off at the edge of the sky, a small black dot came shooting toward them. Yue Yu and Liuye both went tense. An enemy? Had Dongfang’s men found their secret hiding place? The two of them readied themselves for battle at the same moment — but a second later, their keen spiritual senses told them at once that what was racing toward them was no enemy but one of their own… Xiayi!

“The Thunder Fortress — the fight at the Thunder Fortress is over. Weilai beat the enemy without any trouble, and she’s gone to back up Princess Qianqian. I brought the Thunder Fortress followers here in my grimoire. Everyone’s fine, just a few people hurt… Uncle Gale Fishman and the others didn’t want to come. They want to stay and fight off the invasion with the Grand Marshal…”

Xiayi was a little out of breath.

At her current strength, flying fast across the fourth floor should not have tired her out.

But the war was blazing, and the grim situation was pressing on this little girl — whom the Heavenly Realm’s dragon-women honored as “Her Holiness” — until she could barely breathe.

In the past, Yue Yang had been there.

Even when she went into battle, she had never carried this kind of weight on her mind. She had only needed to finish her own part of the fight step by step. And now? Yue Yang was not at her side. The pillar that had held up her whole sky was gone, and the situation was grimmer than anything she had ever seen, so that she had no choice but to stand up and fight hard, and the pressure on her had doubled. Luckily, Xue Wuxia, Princess Qianqian and the others were there to shoulder most of it, and all she had to do was her own share. Otherwise, if all that heavy responsibility had fallen on her frail young shoulders — if she had been made to take command of everything and carry it alone — it would have been a wonder if she had not broken down on the spot!

“Xiayi, you did well. You did really well. It’s all right now. Take everyone inside and rest first, and remember to keep their spirits up. As long as we’re here, I promise no enemy can get in and put anyone in danger. Don’t worry — we’re fine too. We’re perfectly safe. Go on in. Nothing’s going to happen to us!” Yue Yu gave the Heavenly Realm dragon-women’s Holiness a hug and, in her gentlest voice, soothed away the tension and fear inside Xiayi. Her own heart was very uneasy too, but she would not show the slightest bit of weakness in front of Xiayi and Liuye.

She was not only his big sister. She was everyone’s big sister.

With him gone, she had to take up a big sister’s responsibility and lead everyone out of this trap and out of danger.

With Yue Yu comforting her, Xiayi’s pale little face got back a little color. She buried her face in Yue Yu’s arms and cried softly for half a minute. When she had let out all the bad feelings inside, she bravely wiped away her tears and nodded to Yue Yu to show she was all right.

Liuye, beside them, was even stronger than Xiayi. She neither cried nor panicked. On the contrary, the harder the moment, the calmer she became.

Inside, Liuye was desperately worried — as anxious as if her hair were on fire.

But in what she actually did, she followed Yue Yang’s special training from before to the letter, and did it even better, even more perfectly.

Using her unique talent, she had laid down rune arrays extremely sensitive to evil auras in every direction within a radius of thirty li as an early warning. The moment any enemy intruded, she would know right away.

“Someone else is coming. Ha — this time it’s that little brat Bao’er. What an idiot. She’s a whole hour later than we agreed!” Liuye found that the one arriving this time was the big gold-spirit loli Bao’er. Unlike Xiayi, who had been badly frightened, Bao’er was as carefree as ever and seemed to have no idea what fear even was.

“Bao’er, well done. You did great!” Yue Yu immediately swept the little mischief-maker, famous for her luck, into her arms.

“When I’m on the job, nothing goes wrong. That mission was way too easy!” Bao’er’s smug little face was as proud as a peacock. “I didn’t just bring my clan here — I also went to the Emerald Forest and rescued big sister Valentine and the others who got hurt. Ha ha, I’m a little genius who went above and beyond!”

“…” Hearing this, Xiayi felt the urge to slap the little brat into next week. Who asked you to do extra? Taking care of yourself would already count as going above and beyond!

In Xue Wuxia’s plan, Bao’er had never had any part to play in the first place. The little brat had a habit of doing bad things with good intentions, and if she were sent back to fetch the gold spirit clan, there was a good chance the enemy would catch her too. But Xiao Nu, who normally never took part in any fighting, had volunteered this time to form a team with Bao’er.

Her reason was that she wanted Bao’er to protect her.

That reason delighted Bao’er, who had always wanted to be a great hero.

Although everyone except Bao’er herself knew that it was Xiao Nu who would be protecting this little lucky charm.

With Pandora, the former Goddess of Misfortune who was one with Xiao Nu, along for the ride, it would be hard for the lucky little Bao’er to get into trouble even if she tried. So in the end Xue Wuxia agreed to give Bao’er the mission, thinking too that this heartless little brat — who didn’t know what worry was and spent all day doing nothing but playing — ought to get some seasoning, or she would never grow up.

Seeing that Bao’er had come back alone, with no sign of Xiao Nu, Liuye asked in a hurry, “Bao’er, where’s Xiao Nu?”

“Huh?” Bao’er blinked her big eyes and asked back, baffled. “Where did Nunu go?”

“…” Xiayi was speechless again.

You definitely lost her.

And you actually thumped your little chest and swore you’d protect Xiao Nu!

It’s lucky it’s Xiao Nu, with Pandora in her, so nothing can happen to her. Otherwise everyone would be worried sick!

Yue Yu quickly comforted Bao’er, who was still trying to remember where she had lost Xiao Nu, and signaled her to stop thinking about it — Xiao Nu would surely come back. She hurried her inside to let her clan out of her grimoire. Bao’er’s Grimoire World had only recently been raised to a gold-tier grimoire, and the gold spirit clan probably would not be very comfortable staying in there for long.

Yue Yu, Liuye and Xiayi could all be one hundred percent sure of one thing: the only reason this scatterbrained Bao’er had managed to complete her mission was that Xiao Nu had played a big part behind the scenes.

Otherwise, never mind going all the way to the Emerald Forest on the Sky Tower’s sixth floor to rescue Valentine and her old companions — even getting safely back to the Spirit Forest, her homeland, to collect her clan would have been unlikely.

Heaven only knew how many men that Dongfang had lying in ambush in the Sky Tower.

Set aside the powerful Divine Generals who could easily wipe out anyone’s home. Just the winged-race renegades Dongfang had lured over from the Light Continent with his poisonous words, and the Heavenly Realm’s rank-and-file, were more than anyone could count. These despicable infiltrators passed themselves off as Sky Tower mercenaries or warriors, but the moment a target showed up, they bared their fangs and attacked with vicious cruelty…

When Liuye and Yue Yu had first come from the fourth-floor passage to the teleportation plaza, a very short distance, they had run into three waves of infiltrators.

But the two of them were no longer the fighters they used to be. Mere Heavenly Realm rank-and-file, or those hateful winged-race traitors, were no longer any threat to them.

These infiltrators could threaten the lives of Sky Tower warriors, even some Innate-tier powerhouses, but that was as far as it went. Never mind Liuye with her Barrier-Piercing Deer or Yue Yu with her Dawn Angel — even Bao’er, who was lazy about her cultivation but always managed to pick up some of Yue Yang’s leftover benefits, was not someone those infiltrators could stop.

“Nothing happened on the way, did it?” As Yue Yu was sending Bao’er inside, she still took care to ask how it had gone.

“Nope. Halfway there I ran into this really ugly guy, and he almost caught me, but then all of a sudden he just went crazy, for no reason at all. I bet he did too many bad things and heaven got him back for it! Hmm, I think that’s when I lost Nunu. She runs way too slow. Oh no, I forgot I was supposed to protect her! I have to go back and find her!” Bao’er’s words nearly made Xiayi choke.

Too many bad things and heaven got him back?

That was Xiao Nu — no, that was Pandora punishing him, okay?

If it weren’t for them, you little lucky charm, you’d probably have ended up as that monster’s dinner, and taken the whole gold spirit clan down with you! But with luck for a talent, there really was nothing anyone could do. Even strength that defied the heavens was no match for luck. That unnamed enemy could only be said to have had the worst luck in eighteen generations, running into Bao’er the little lucky charm!

So far, nobody who had gone up against Bao’er had ever come to a good end.

If there had to be one exception, it was only Yue Yang, for his part, who really did have strength that defied the heavens… And even he, for all that, was often driven up the wall by her, with nothing he could do about it!

This was the power of luck. Nothing could match it!

(End of Chapter 1266)