The Tiankui Divine General’s sudden decision to join them — to rebel against Grand Hall Master Dongfang — struck everyone present as unbelievable, and even harder to accept.

Sea Fatty even had an ugly suspicion.

Was this Tiankui Divine General using the banner of rebellion to sneak into the team, so he could be Grand Hall Master Dongfang’s eyes and ears and find some weak spot in Yue Yang, or somewhere else, to strike at? If not, the man had no reason at all to come over to their side! For a start, he was a Divine General — beneath one man, above ten thousand. Sitting that high, he owed loyalty to Dongfang and nobody else, and never had to read anyone else’s moods. What a free and easy life! If he rebelled against Dongfang — never mind whether it worked — the first thing on the line would be his neck. Everyone knew that the moment you rebelled, you were setting yourself against Dongfang and the Central Divine Hall, and a fight to the death would start on the spot…

If Yue Yang had been about to beat that Dongfang guy and turn the whole war around, the Tiankui Divine General switching sides on the battlefield wouldn’t have been strange at all. The problem was that right now the Central Divine Hall had the Sky Tower pinned and was pounding it, and even if Yue Yang came back, there wasn’t a shred of hope in sight. Wasn’t it a little early for the Tiankui Divine General to be talking about defecting?

Unless the guy was brain-damaged, there was no way he’d do something this hopeless and this completely insane.

Earlier, when the Tianyue Divine General had announced at the last moment that he wanted to work with everyone and deceive Dongfang, Sea Fatty had kept up plenty of suspicion and probing, and had only grudgingly accepted him once that one reason came out.

Now the Tiankui Divine General was saying, with no reason at all, that he wanted to join them and rebel against Dongfang and the Central Divine Hall.

Who the hell do you think you’re kidding?

Sea Fatty would be the first one not to buy it!

“Why?” Never mind the suspicious Sea Fatty — even the Tianyue Divine General couldn’t believe this was really happening.

“If you can rebel, why should I not?” The Tiankui Divine General roared with laughter and turned the question back on Tianyue. “If that were not the case, I would have wiped out every one of you long ago. With strength like yours, do you imagine you are even worth my bullying? Ridiculous. What would I gain from you? Use you to track down Yue Titan or his fiancées, and overreach myself into a war among my betters? I am not that foolish. I will tell you this — earlier, I stood and watched that Princess Qianqian, divine sword held high, lead her charge right past me and away… I will not fight her, and I will certainly not fight Yue Titan himself. That is a war at a higher level, and it has nothing to do with me. I am only a Divine General. I know my place. All I need to do is take care of matters at my own level!”

“That doesn’t prove anything either. Maybe you’re trying to bluff your way through to some goal. Maybe you want to win our trust and then pull off some ambition of yours in the Sky Tower!” However prettily the guy talked, Sea Fatty felt there was no way he could trust him.

“I believe him!” The first one willing to trust the Tiankui Divine General was, of all people, the Wind-Breath Seabird.

The clever girl had no special power to see into people’s hearts, but she had a strong intuition.

If the Tiankui Divine General really meant to pursue some goal inside this team, he wouldn’t have needed to teach everyone a lesson first, scare the wits out of them, and only then announce that he was defecting to join them against Dongfang.

He could have said it at the very beginning, before anyone had lifted a hand. That would have been far more convincing and far more likely to work. Saying it only after he had taught them a lesson was a show of strength: besides signaling that he meant no harm, he wanted a voice in the team and had no intention of being shut out of it. And that was exactly why the move proved the Tiankui Divine General was joining in good faith.

Just like the Tianyue Divine General before him.

It was only that he hadn’t yet given everyone a reason good enough to win them over.

“I believe him too.” The Tianra Prince, back to normal now that he had been thawed out of the ice, nodded slowly in support of the Tiankui Divine General’s wishes.

“What? Prince, are you crazy? He killed you with one punch a minute ago, and you believe him? If you ask me, this guy is a hundred percent Dongfang’s avatar, here to stir up trouble between us, or to worm his way into the team and pull off some scheme. Either way, there’s definitely a reason!” Sea Fatty flatly refused to go along with it.

“Welcome.” Xue Tanglang, sparing with his words as if each one cost gold, made his position known.

“Huh?” Sea Fatty’s jaw hit the floor. Wasn’t Coffin Face’s IQ a little on the low side? This was obviously an enemy plot!

“I would like to ask what drove you to rebel against Dongfang.” Ye Kong raised the question cautiously. With Yue Yang gone, he had been doing the captain’s job the whole time, even if the title wasn’t his. Every threat and every doubt had to be thought through calmly; he couldn’t let his feelings run the show the way Sea Fatty did.

“Exactly right, Monkey! For the first time in my life I agree with you. Goes without saying — this guy’s definitely a fake, and so is this joining business!” Sea Fatty felt he had finally found a kindred spirit, and felt enormously reassured.

“Shut up, you dope!” As far as Ye Kong was concerned, the guy contributed nothing here except trouble.

The Liqie brothers had always backed Ye Kong.

The two of them stood up.

They knew they were no match for him, but they held their attack stances anyway.

If the Tiankui Divine General’s reasons didn’t hold up, they would charge in without a second thought, even if it meant a last-ditch strike — just as they had thrown themselves at his Comet Return earlier, eggs against a rock, with no thought for themselves… Ye Kong and the Liqie brothers didn’t side with Sea Fatty, and they didn’t side with Xue Tanglang and the Tianra Prince either. They were still holding the middle ground and weren’t ready to call this Tiankui Divine General an ally just because he had spared everyone.

The Tiankui Divine General’s face slowly turned serious.

Sea Fatty almost thought he was about to turn on them. Then, the very next second, the Tiankui Divine General threw back his head and roared with laughter, and kept laughing until no one had the slightest idea what was going on.

What on earth was so funny?

Weird!

While everyone was still racking their brains and getting nowhere, the Tiankui Divine General turned to Tianyue. “You may know that my talent is Meteor Crown Kick. In your memory, I, Tiankui, am a formidable presence who excels at comet strikes, and once one of my attacks lands, the enemy has no chance whatsoever of surviving. That is everyone’s impression of me — including the all-capable Dongfang, who believes the same. In truth, it is an effect I cultivated on purpose. My real talent is not Meteor Crown Kick. It is Take the Crown.”

“Take the Crown?” The Tianyue Divine General was taken aback. What kind of talent was that?

“My Take the Crown talent has two forms. In the first, I use Take the Crown on an enemy, and if it holds, my victory is certain. In the second, if it cannot hold, my defeat is certain — but I may then choose to use Take the Crown on myself. That is to say, I can hand the victory to someone else: to whoever wins in the end. In this war, for instance, Yue Titan!” The moment the Tiankui Divine General said it, Tianyue understood everything.

So this crafty Tiankui had used his Take the Crown talent against Yue Titan at the very start of the fighting — and found he had no chance of succeeding at all.

With certain defeat foretold, he turned his spear around without a moment’s hesitation, switched sides in the middle of the battle, and threw in with Yue Titan’s camp of his own accord, keeping his Take the Crown talent in play.

No wonder the Tiankui Divine General had never lost a fight. He had always had two options.

One: if he could take the crown, he would beat his enemy head-on.

Two: if he couldn’t, he would immediately, without the slightest hesitation, pick the side that was going to win. At that rate, this Tiankui simply had no way to lose! Before a fight even began, he already had a rough idea who the final victor would be — so why would he ever need to worry about which side to stand on? On the surface, Grand Hall Master Dongfang had victory in hand, every piece of his layout locked into the next, nothing overlooked. Yet Tiankui had betrayed him without a backward glance and thrown in with Yue Titan, who was still struggling in a tight spot, because the guy had known from the start that Yue Titan would win this war in the end. Of course he had picked Yue Titan. So what if the Sky Tower’s situation was still a hopeless mess right now?

All that mattered was that Yue Titan turned it around and won in the end!

This Tiankui’s talent was way too sneaky. A guy with a talent like that was practically an insult to the laws of heaven!

The Tianyue Divine General couldn’t help being jealous.

If he’d had a talent like that, would he have needed to scare himself half to death fighting for his freedom?

“That said, you deserve more credit than I do — and more respect — for daring to stake your life without any foresight at all. I, at least, do not have courage like yours. Perhaps that is why you are fit to be a Divine General as well! Of course, I am not the only one with an ability like mine to glimpse victory and defeat. In the battles to come, a good many more interesting things should happen.” The Tiankui Divine General let out another burst of hearty laughter.

“You mean… Tianji?” Something stirred in the Tianyue Divine General’s heart.

Could the Tianji Divine General — the best strategist of them all — also have an ability like Tiankui’s to foresee victory and defeat? Could he be about to join the ranks of the turncoats too?

The Tiankui Divine General only smiled and said nothing.

“Hey, hey, even if you say all that, it doesn’t wipe out everything suspicious about you, does it?” Sea Fatty realized he had misjudged the man. This Tiankui Divine General really did seem to want to join the fight against Dongfang, and having a powerhouse like that join was obviously a good thing. The problem was everything Sea Fatty had said earlier — he had no graceful way to back down, so all he could do was dig in his heels and stay stubborn to the bitter end.

“You can keep doubting him, with an intellect like yours…” Ye Kong let it be known that he was big enough to forgive Sea Fatty.

“Say whatever you want about me, but never doubt my super-high IQ! Monkey, you say that and I’m going to flip out!” Sea Fatty was furious. A real man has two things that must never be doubted: his fighting power, and his IQ.

“Go ahead and flip out!” Ye Kong couldn’t have cared less how the lummox felt about it.

“Hahaha!” The Tianra Prince and the Liqie brothers couldn’t help bursting out laughing at the scene, and even Xue Tanglang, cold as ice, had a hint of a thawing smile at the corner of his lips, as if spring were returning to the land. Since the Heavenly Realm legions had invaded, this was the first time everyone had felt so relaxed! And the Tiankui Divine General joining them wasn’t really the main reason they were happy. What truly brought their hearts down from where they had been hanging so high and set them back in place was the Tiankui Divine General’s Take the Crown talent.

They all believed in Yue Yang, and believed he could pull off a great comeback from the brink.

But if that could be confirmed from the enemy’s side, it would without question be the happiest stroke of luck there was!

All their grim, dogged endurance had paid off. Their self-confidence was confirmed and restored all at once. The hope that had nearly died out was spreading before their eyes again like the first light of dawn… Of course that was worth cheering about!

They were going to win!

Ye Kong held his hand out toward Sea Fatty, and the Liqie brothers, the Tianra Prince, even Xue Tanglang reached in and stacked their hands on top, one after another. Last of all, a slender, delicate hand pressed down on the very top of the pile. In a shared look and a shared smile, they all roared out their declaration of victory together: “The Sky Tower will win! We will win!”

(End of Chapter 1281)