The tenth floor of the Sky Stairway.

This was a shattered space without a trace of life.

Several devastating battles had been fought here. Even with the laws of heaven and earth at work, and space healing itself on its own, thousands of years had passed and the tenth floor of the Sky Stairway was still a shattered space. No life of any kind could grow here naturally.

The heavens were not a sky washed clear and blue, but a terrifying expanse riddled with black holes large and small. At every moment, these rifts in heaven and earth were devouring whatever energy they needed from everything around them.

Never mind living creatures of flesh and blood — even rock and grass and trees, wind and fire, water and earth, would be ground to powder the moment they were swept inside.

The ground was no fertile land of rolling hills, high mountains and flowing water either. Countless “islands,” carved apart by fragments of time and space, stretched out ahead without end. On every one of these “islands” cut off by spatial rifts, there was nothing but wasteland, and more wasteland.

On one enormous “island,” a company of golden-armored guards stood quietly, as imposing as mountains and as mighty as any in the world.

There were only a few hundred of them, but their power was so great and their presence so fierce that they could have swallowed everything in the world. You could believe that wherever their banner pointed, ten thousand men could not stand against them.

And yet what these mighty golden-armored guards were guarding was a small, unremarkable tent. It seemed that this little tent, even a somewhat shabby one, was something a hundred times more important and a hundred times more precious than their own lives. Behind the golden-armored guards came a group of wise elders in golden robes, every one of them frost-haired and white-bearded, holding silver staffs and bright pearls. They sat at their ease in a circle around the little tent, and there was a faint air about them of followers who took their lead from the tent’s owner.

The wise elders, with their devout expressions, were not like the solemn, intent golden-armored guards. Any outsider could easily see that although the two groups belonged to one party, they were as distinct as oil and water — two entirely different ranks.

Whatever the appearance of harmony between those two ranks, they were in fact groups at odds with each other that could never be reconciled or brought together.

When the Night Empress drifted down in front of them, she saw at first glance the rivalry between the two ranks, and she saw the real intent of the owner inside that shabby little tent. The owner hiding in the background cared nothing for unity or cooperation. What he wanted was rivalry and conflict. The less the two ranks could be reconciled, the fiercer they fought, the better it was for his rule.

“Who are you?” Hidden in the sky full of starlight, the Night Empress knit her pretty little brows, unseen by anyone.

“This lord is the Central Divine Hall’s First Commandant of the Watch, whom the world calls the ‘Long Gate Colossus.’ The three Supremes are further back. If you do not have the ability to get past this lord, then naturally you are not fit to see the three Supremes. This lord has waited a long time for a warrior of the Sky Tower — just like six thousand years ago. Just thinking of it makes the blood boil! Come! This lord’s great blade has been starving for far too long!” From inside the somewhat shabby little tent, a majestic voice rolled out like distant thunder.

“Oh, so you’re the dog that guards the Central Divine Hall’s gate? I forgot to bring you a meaty bone!” the Night Empress mocked him without the least courtesy.

“No matter. This lord will make do with gnawing on your bones to his heart’s content!” The majestic voice in the tent struck back at once.

“You toothless old dog, you still haven’t woken up yet, have you?” The Night Empress did not normally talk this viciously. But to draw the enemy’s hatred — to draw the attention of Dongfang, the Immovable Supreme and the other Heavenly Realm powers — she did her very best to copy Yue Yang’s usual way of talking, and gave the enemy in front of her a thorough verbal beating. However hard it might be, she wanted to win three days for Yue Yang and the Supreme, and the longer the better.

A Central Divine Hall “door god” of a commandant turning up in front of her suited her just fine.

She was not worried about her fight with the Immovable Supreme. She only cared about the time — that it not be too short.

Three days was not long, but the Night Empress felt that under the combined siege of the three divine tiers — Unfallen, Undefeated and Immovable — something unexpected might happen, because this holding action had gone far beyond her original goal of fighting just one divine tier, the Immovable Supreme.

Now some “door god” of a commandant had come running from who knew where, insisting on joining this Divine War — which, naturally, suited the Night Empress perfectly.

“Hmph. The warriors of the Sky Tower are as dull as ever, and as fond of flapping their lips as ever. Apart from that one specialty, have the Sky Tower’s warriors not made the slightest progress in six thousand years?” The commandant who called himself the Long Gate Colossus seemed to look down on the Night Empress, who had only recently ascended to the divine tier.

“I’ll tell you just before you die.” The Night Empress stirred her will.

Countless stars shone brilliantly. One by one, inside the river of stars, they turned into a meteor shower and came crashing down on the unmoving golden-armored guards and the wise elders before her. At the center of the attack, of course, was that shabby tent, and the Central Divine Hall’s First Commandant of the Watch hiding inside it, the Long Gate Colossus.

The same meteors that had so easily annihilated the Sky Dragon overlords Shanglong and Konglong shot out like rain.

With the Night Empress’s divine power as it stood now, she could easily have reduced this crowd of unmoving golden-armored guards to cosmic dust.

She could not understand it at all. Why would a Divine War need these golden-armored guards, who looked so splendid on the outside but were all only Sky-rank in strength — not one of them anywhere near the divine tier, and far short even of a quasi-god?

A giant hand suddenly appeared in the shattered sky.

It was golden, as fierce and dazzling as the sun at noon. The moment it appeared, it blazed with countless rays of light that stained all heaven and earth.

Its overbearing divine power pressed down on the whole field and drove the golden-armored guards, who had been gritting their teeth and standing firm, straight into the hard ground.

The Night Empress noticed one small detail. Compared with the golden-armored guards, the elders in golden robes, for all their look of sages, were in even sorrier shape. It was not because they were dodging the meteor shower but because of the pressure from that golden hand, which had shattered their earlier ease. One after another, faces tense, they held up their staffs to protect themselves, bracing against the shock waves as the two divine powers collided… Compared with the golden-armored guards, these few dozen elders in golden robes were stronger fighters; individually, they were plainly a level or two above.

The golden hand, big enough to blot out half the sky, spread its palm and arrogantly caught the meteors the Night Empress had rained down.

More than that, dripping with sheer domineering swagger, it crushed the meteors in its grip and burst them — instead of flinging them into the rifts of heaven and earth or into the all-devouring black holes.

The golden hand ground the meteors mercilessly, crushing them until they burst and scattered into powder that trickled, strand by strand, through its golden fingers…

Seeing this, the golden-armored guards — driven half their bodies’ length into the earth — felt a fanatical fire rise in their eyes. Their spirits soared, and their presence grew even more overpowering. They were bound by strict discipline. Until their master spoke, they did not dare to move a muscle; even when divine power came at them, they never dared so much as blink. For their master’s victory, they could only cheer in silence, letting the surge in their spirits stand in for any shout.

The elders in golden robes were different.

They were just as shocked, but deep in their eyes their reason was still intact.

Clearly they had not submitted to that overbearing door-god commandant. Or rather, they were not under his command. They had only been obliged to come along on this operation and take orders from him.

Hidden in the river of stars, the Night Empress took careful note of all this.

As for the setback to her meteor shower — a probing attack — she looked not only at what it showed on the surface but more at the deeper meaning beneath. One thing was certain: this commandant truly was a divine-tier power, and no ordinary one at that. This commandant who called himself the Long Gate Colossus really did have the strength to back up his arrogance.

Only — how would a divine tier as arrogant as this lower himself to stand watch at the Central Divine Hall’s gate?

Could the Immovable Supreme, or the Divine Hall Supreme, Tianyu, really be strong enough to set a divine-tier power to guard their gate like a dog?

Had the Immovable Supreme sent this man to test her because he had already seen through her plan to stall? Or was the Immovable Supreme locked in an open and hidden struggle with the Divine Hall Supreme, Tianyu, so that until the final moment when the treasures of the Ruins of the Gods appeared, the Immovable Supreme could not bear to waste any divine power, for fear of losing out to Tianyu?

Whatever the truth, this commandant before her, this “Long Gate Colossus,” was without a doubt a formidable enemy!

“You really are a watchdog with a very loud bark.” The Night Empress kept up her vicious mockery. A struggle between the Immovable Supreme and the Divine Hall Supreme was no bad thing as far as she was concerned.

The longer she could drag this out, the better for Yue Yang’s and the Supreme’s cultivation.

She would be fighting the Immovable Supreme anyway, and adding a watchdog of a commandant was just more fighting. With two extra divine tiers already on her hands in Unfallen and Undefeated, one more Long Gate Colossus hardly mattered! The best way things could go now was to fight this arrogant Long Gate Colossus for as long as possible — ideally for several days and nights — to give Yue Yang and the Supreme more room to work…

“Ten thousand years ago, this lord killed an idiot just like you — someone freshly ascended to the divine tier who couldn’t wait to rush over here and die! Six thousand years ago, right here, there was another idiot who urged this lord to give up the fight, saying bloodlust only clouds a strong man’s mind and hampers his cultivation. Hahaha! Do you know what this lord did? This lord wrenched his head off, stepped on it and pissed on it! A fool like that wasn’t even fit to be this lord’s chamber pot! You think this lord is really the Central Divine Hall’s watchdog? What a joke! This lord is a direct descendant of one of the Central Divine Hall’s founders, of noble blood, not one hair inferior to Tianyu or the Immovable One! The only reason this lord is willing to hold the post of First Commandant of the Watch is that this lord likes holding everything that passes through in the palm of his hand — a way of thinking far beyond the understanding of you Sky Tower fools… This lord’s greatest regret is that ten thousand years ago, that woman the Conquest Queen was sealed before she could fight her way to the Central Divine Hall’s gate. Otherwise, this lord would have shown her what it means to run into a wall — what it means to lose!” The majestic voice of the commandant who called himself the Long Gate Colossus boomed out, so loud it shook heaven and earth.

“What a long last will and testament!” The Night Empress gave an impatient yawn.

“Go on and be arrogant. The Sky Tower’s warriors are always like this — dead, with nothing left but a mouth. Do you see this little tent? It is this lord’s trophy, the trophy from the first Sky Tower warrior this lord ever killed, ten thousand years ago. That idiot brought this tent to the battlefield with his lovely wife and his beautiful concubines inside it. He thought battle was a children’s game he could win without trying — that he could even show off his glory in front of his wife and concubines. What a great fool! This lord cut him down with a single stroke of the blade, beheaded every one of his wife and concubines inside, and made their skulls into wine cups… This lord kept this little tent, the symbol of the Sky Tower warriors’ shame, on purpose — hahaha, has kept it all this time — so that every generation of Sky Tower warriors can witness its disgrace and admire this lord’s glory! Offer up your head! This lord’s little tent is still missing a beautiful ornament!”

“I’m never talking to a lunatic again.” The Night Empress felt that talking to someone like this would actually lower her own intelligence. If it weren’t for the need to stall, she would long since have buried that utterly tiresome little tent under a thousand, ten thousand meteor showers.

She still had to stall for time, but the Night Empress had now decided she would never say another word to this so-called door god.

A man like this was simply a lunatic — a lunatic beyond all reason, and a twisted, depraved lunatic at that!

(End of Chapter 1271)