The Sky Tower.

The moment he heard Fourth Mother’s call in his heart, Sea Fatty was the first to jump up. A second ago he had been half dead; now it was as if he had respawned on the spot at full health, and he started hollering at the top of his lungs. “As the boss, my time to shine has finally come! Can’t be helped — at the most important moment of his life, the kid’s not going to make it without his boss covering for him. Never fear, I’m here!”

“Go die somewhere else!” Ye Kong kicked him flying in a rage. Luckily, Fourth Mother’s call went straight into the heart and nothing outside could interfere with it. Otherwise, if this damned fatso had disrupted it, skinning him alive would not have made up for it.

“…” Xue Tanglang and the Tianra Prince were listening too, their faces tense.

At a moment this important, nobody dared to miss a single second. Missing even one sentence might do irreparable damage to the whole situation. Apart from Sea Fatty, that heartless lummox, nobody was in the mood to run their mouth right now.

Sea Fatty climbed to his feet, but before he could say a word, the Wind-Breath Seabird in her human form reached out her small hand and gave the fat around his waist a vicious twist. It hurt so much the guy sucked in a sharp breath and every roll of fat on him wobbled… Anyone else would have blown up long ago. But the one dishing out the punishment was a great beauty — the very one he had been bending over backwards to please — so of course he did not dare let the pain show on his face. Instead he squeezed out a creepy expression of tremendous enjoyment.

What could anyone do with a fatso this thick-skinned? Besides, nobody had time to beat him up right now.

Fourth Mother paused. She seemed to be weighing and arranging her words.

After a pause of nearly a minute, she slowly began to explain the secret method for bearing the power of fate on Yue Yang’s behalf… The secret method was being passed on through the call to the heart, and everyone it reached was bound up with Yue Yang’s fate — if not family, then friends — so she was not worried about the enemy learning it.

It was just that once the secret method was spoken, everyone who could bear the power of fate for Yue Yang within the three days would have to make a choice. Otherwise the chance would be lost forever.

A chance missed never comes again. That was exactly what a moment like this was.

“I am the Tianra Emperor, Hua Xuri, and I wish to say a word about bearing the power of fate for Yue Yang. None of you need worry. Anyone can bear the power of fate for Yue Yang. Even ordinary people, so long as they have faith, can contribute their share of strength. There is no danger to anyone’s life in bearing the power of fate, and no one has to give anything up… And even in the worst case, if it fails, it will not affect any of you in the slightest. This is purely an act of goodwill, and of unconditional support! So long as you are willing to stand behind Yue Yang and believe in him, you can take part. Rank does not matter, nor does strength. And if anyone changes their mind while bearing the power of fate, you may give it up at any time. No one will be pressed in the least!” Her Majesty’s voice suddenly followed. As if she could see the doubts of countless people, Her Majesty went straight to the heart of the matter and made it plain that bearing the power of fate carried no risk at all.

“If it succeeds in the end, Huaxian will suggest to San’er that he give something back to everyone who supported him. Of course, that depends on everyone’s support — yes or no — and Huaxian does not dare make empty promises for now.” Fourth Mother had a kind heart, and she wanted to give everyone a promise.

In truth, any Sacred Sovereign, once ascended, displayed vast divine powers. Raising a hand to bless those who had supported him was entirely normal.

But she worried that whatever she said might go beyond what Yue Yang himself wanted. If Yue Yang could not follow through on it later, it would surely leave the bad taste of a broken promise, so she did not make promises lightly.

Compared with Fourth Mother, Her Majesty was a great deal more blunt. “Rewards are for Yue Yang to think about, not us. Everyone who can hear our call in their heart is someone whose fate is bound up with Yue Yang’s — if you had nothing to do with him, you would not hear our voices at all. A-Xian would rather not say it, so I will say it for her: the support must be unconditional! If we Sky Tower people step forward to bear the power of fate for one of our own and help him rise to the realm of Sacred Sovereign, and then start talking about rewards and conditions, the powers of the Heavenly Realm and the Sky Realm would laugh their heads off! In their eyes, our Sky Tower is like some backwater village full of country bumpkins. Now, at long last, one of us is about to ascend to Sacred Sovereign — a glory they have yearned for across thousands upon thousands of years and never seen… If such a feat were happening in the Heavenly Realm or the Sky Realm, there might well be countless warriors who had never even met him, all willing to sacrifice themselves and give everything for the honor of helping him to his final success. But they do not have that chance, and they could wait forever without getting it… And now, if they looked back and saw us Sky Tower people — who need give nothing at all, only lend a hand with our faith, to help one of our own ascend to the divine realm — still haggling over terms like merchants chasing profit, would that not be the biggest joke under heaven?”

“If all of us had sunk that low in spirit, what revival could the Sky Tower talk of, what rise? Chasing profit is not in a warrior’s nature. What we pursue is a higher and ever higher realm. We gather our faith and stand unconditionally behind our strongest, to help him soar straight into the sky. We lose nothing at all by it, and what we gain afterward is something that worldly people could never have, however much they wanted it!”

“Never mind rewards, never mind honor. In bearing the power of fate, each of us can also use this great undertaking to look into ourselves.”

“Perhaps you have never known your own potential, or what you might achieve in the future.”

“That has always been the secret of secrets in a warrior’s growth.”

“Only those willing to take part in bearing the power of fate will see the truth in the course of it… With a Sacred Sovereign to measure yourselves against, you may see yourselves clearly. Enough — I do not wish to describe too much here. This is a chance for Yue Yang, and is it not a chance for you as well? Those of you willing to stand behind Yue Yang without conditions, step forward quickly and join us. Whatever your race, whatever your station — only those who stand up for us at this most important moment are true family and friends, true followers…”

The moment Her Majesty finished speaking, Sea Fatty was the first to jump out again.

He raised both hands high above his head and bellowed in the pose of a savior of the world: “I’m willing to bear the power of fate for that kid Yue Yang! Bring it on — give me a thousand meters of Fate Giant power! I usually keep a low profile, but is bearing a thousand meters of the power of fate with ease the kind of thing this great young master would go around bragging about?”

In fact, according to the secret method Fourth Mother had passed on, it made no difference what pose you took to receive the power of fate. Sea Fatty just had to strike a savior-of-the-world pose, which made everyone’s blood boil.

Ye Kong had no time to deal with him right now. Otherwise he was just about ready to chop the damned fatso into eighteen pieces and arrange them into thirty-six display models.

“Shut up! One more squeak out of you and I’ll cut off all that fat, render it into oil and fry pancakes in it!” Only when the Wind-Breath Seabird, in her human form, opened her mouth did the fatso finally pipe down — for three whole seconds.

“Oh — oh my, sweet heavens above!” Sea Fatty’s whole body shook. The power of fate taken on through the secret method did not work like the invisible, wondrous hand at Yue Yang and the Supreme’s side, which handed each bearer exactly as much as they could bear. Bearing it by the secret method was a gradual climb: it started at less than a meter and rose bit by bit until the supporter reached their limit.

Sea Fatty, who had just been boasting about bearing a thousand meters of Fate Giant power for Yue Yang, was now flattened by a single meter.

His whole body had sunk deep into a mud pit, with only his sorry, filthy, worthless face showing. The power of fate did not affect the world outside at all; it acted only on the bearer’s own body. Sea Fatty had ended up like a turtle in the mud purely because he could not hold it up, and his body’s strength had been thrown into chaos… Even so, seeing that the unkillable cockroach Sea Fatty could be reduced to this by one meter of the power of fate left Ye Kong and Xue Tanglang thoroughly shocked. Did that mean the power of fate they could bear would be in the same range?

At first, Ye Kong and Xue Tanglang had thought that, while a thousand meters was out of the question, if they gritted their teeth they might bear a hundred meters or so for Yue Yang. Who would have guessed that a single meter would crush Sea Fatty like that?

What made them even more ashamed — and frantic — was that when Ye Kong and Xue Tanglang began trying to bear the power of fate for Yue Yang by the secret method, they immediately felt a heart-to-heart connection with one another, and through it they could sense the other bearers in distant spaces far, far away. The bearers under one meter were so densely packed they were almost beyond counting — but Yi Nan and Yue Bing, those two little girls, were at one hundred and eighty meters and one hundred and sixty meters. It was eye-popping!

It was truly unimaginable. With bodies that slight and delicate, what kind of will had it taken for them to reach heights like that?

“If little sister Bing’er can carry over a hundred meters, there’s no way I’m losing! Pile it on me even if it kills me — keep piling it on! I won’t stand for this, I — I’m the boss, there’s no way I’m losing!” Sea Fatty clenched his teeth, trying with everything he had to add more of the power of fate, but with his capacity, one meter had already been more than enough, and a few meters very nearly hit his body’s limit.

“Who cares if my body breaks down — bring it on! I, Ye Kong, am the teammate who stands behind Yue Yang the most!” Ye Kong let out a wild roar.

“…” Xue Tanglang braced himself on the ground with one arm. His eyes were bloodshot and his veins stood out. Among all his teammates, he was ahead for the moment at ten meters, leaving Ye Kong, Sea Fatty and the Tianra Prince behind — but that height did not make him happy in the least.

Higher. Keep adding more. No limit.

He felt that even if he did have a limit, it should not be at a mere ten meters.

Yi Nan and Yue Bing were girls, and they could each bear over a hundred meters for Yue Yang. If a whole band of grown men together could not even match them, what face would he have left, what right to call himself Yue Yang’s teammate? Besides, his limit should not be ten meters. It should be more, higher… If his body had any potential left in it, any hidden power at all, let it all burst out now!

He wanted nothing else now. All he asked was to break through once, and bear the share of glory that belonged to him, like a man!

Who am I? I — I am Xue Tanglang! The world once called me the most gifted genius after Yue Yang. Is this my limit? No — never!

“Damn it… Sea Fatty, you’re the boss, you’re the boss! Bearing just a few meters of the power of fate — aren’t you ashamed? Are you going to hide behind other people like a coward and scrape by forever? Can’t you stand up just once and prove yourself? No — I’m Hai Dafu the genius, not Hai Dafu the idiot, and definitely not Hai Dafu the coward… Get up, I’ve got to get up!” Sea Fatty saw that Ye Kong, Xue Tanglang and the Tianra Prince were all bearing more of the power of fate than he was — Xue Tanglang especially, who was past ten meters now — and his sense of shame exploded. He slapped himself across the face a few times and crawled out of the mud pit, tears streaming down his face. He knelt on the ground, hands lowered and cupped in front of his chest as if he were cradling the most precious dignity of his life, muttering words of encouragement to himself as he desperately used the secret method to add more of the power of fate.

Ten meters. Monkey can do it, the Prince can do it, Coffin Face can do it — I can do it too…

I’m the boss. I’ve got to act like a boss…

Not just ten meters. I can bear more, bear higher. Who am I? I’m the boss of that freak genius Yue Yang… I don’t want to be a coward. I’m not a coward. I want to stand tall and be a man. I want to make something of myself for once — for my family, and for myself! Yes — I’m going to be a boss worth the name. I can do it. I know I can…

(End of Chapter 1291)