Yueyang felt like a mountain stream rushing down from the snow-capped peaks — charging forward with unstoppable momentum, propelled by the support of Xue Wuxia, Princess Qianqian, and Xiao Wenli.
Every second brought a new revelation.
At first, Yueyang had assumed that his comprehension of the Sovereign realm represented the endpoint of a stage — that until his next breakthrough, it would be the ceiling of everything he could achieve. But now, what he had once believed to be the finish line was left behind in an instant, as wave after wave of new understanding crashed into him, so fast he could barely keep up. With no need to worry about his physical safety, his entire being was free to sink into comprehending this new realm, and the unconscious Law energy he had obtained from the Earth Demon Divine Temple continued to flow in without end. Yueyang’s mind soared like a great eagle spreading its wings — climbing higher and higher, reaching heights he had never dared to imagine before.
The benefits, of course, weren’t his alone. Xue Wuxia and Princess Qianqian, bound to him in heart and mind, rose alongside him.
Even Xiao Wenli’s face shimmered with a radiant glow.
A look of sudden, deep understanding.
Clearly, yet another layer of her past life’s battle memories and cultivation had been restored.
With no awareness of time passing, no knowledge of anything happening in the outside world, four hearts beat as one — flowing freely together through a new world woven from energy and will. Even Yueyang, who led it all, had no idea when this session of comprehension would end, or how high they could climb.
He only knew one thing.
This was only just beginning. The real breakthroughs were still pouring in, one after another — nowhere near their limit.
The energy pillar stretching over a thousand meters into the air grew slowly taller as Yueyang’s consciousness refined itself and climbed toward new heights.
The entire base of the Sky Stairway was bathed in this profound and wondrous Law energy. The first group to arrive — Sick Beauty, Yue Yu, and Bao’er — had descended from above and reached the bottom. Afraid of disturbing Yueyang, they held their excitement in check and watched from a distance, not daring to approach. Yue Bing and Yi Nan descended from higher up, overtaking Liuye, Xiayi, and Hailan, and arrived at the foot of the Sky Stairway as the second group.
Unlike Yue Yu, Yue Bing shared a deep spiritual bond with her brother.
She couldn’t help herself.
Completely ignoring Yue Yu’s attempt to stop her, she rushed toward Yueyang in a surge of emotion, seamlessly merging into his world of comprehension — lending him her own unique support, a contribution that was small but utterly irreplaceable.
“Bing’er went in too — is that really okay?” Yue Yu was deeply worried her little sister might disrupt Yueyang’s cultivation.
“Not only is it fine, it seems to be helping.” Sick Beauty made the call with quiet certainty.
“What about us, then?” Liuye and the others had caught up by now.
They all wanted to lend Yueyang a hand, but worried they couldn’t blend in as seamlessly as Yue Bing. After all, Yue Bing shared the Twin Soul and Heart Bond talents with Yueyang — they could communicate mind-to-mind at any time, and their connection was beyond question. Whether their own presence would help or hinder, none of them could say, and they hesitated, torn.
Even Sick Beauty, who understood Yueyang better than almost anyone, turned her gaze cautiously toward Yi Nan.
Yi Nan shared the Spirit Mirror talent with Yueyang, Yue Bing, and Xue Wuxia through the Virgo Palace of the Zodiac — and on top of that, as his formal wife through dual cultivation, her spiritual connection with him was no less than Yue Bing’s.
But even Yi Nan, faced with everyone looking to her for guidance, felt a little lost.
She felt a powerful urge to step into the energy field herself, but couldn’t be sure the others would be able to follow.
While she was still weighing it, the Southern Demon Queen, the Drunken Cat Older Sister, and Tianzai descended and joined them. The Southern Demon Queen, who had spent years at the top of the Eastern Demon Clan’s hierarchy and ruled vast territories as a warlord in her own right, was more decisive than most. She suggested that those with strong spiritual bonds — or hearts pure enough — step forward first and try to merge in, to see whether they could offer Yueyang additional support.
Haiyan Hailan, who had become the Female Sea Emperor, along with Tianzai, who had trained widely in the Sky Demon Palace, both voiced their support.
In the end, Yi Nan and Liuye stepped forward, carrying everyone’s hopes with them.
They quieted their minds and slowly walked into the field of comprehension centered on Yueyang.
They merged in without the slightest resistance.
That went so well the others burst into cheers. Even so, they remained cautious — Sick Beauty and Yue Yu stepped in next to test whether there was any risk of their presence causing a mental rejection. In truth, their concern was unnecessary. Yueyang, in his current state, wasn’t just tolerating their presence — he was welcoming it.
Every person who joined added something unique that no one else could offer.
If Yueyang’s mind was a great river right now, then everyone’s supporting thoughts were streams flowing in from all sides — individually smaller than his, but together, a remarkable force. And in the act of merging, both sides grew: he was nourished by them, and they were lifted by him.
From higher up the Sky Stairway, where the cultivation pressure was far greater, the Giant Big Loli, Hong, A’Man, Duoduo, and Yika came sprinting downward at a frantic pace.
Night Empress and Supreme turned back from the highest point and began their descent.
The distance between them and the others closed quickly.
At this rate, they would overtake the others before long.
Phoenix Fairy, unable to contain her impatience, had already raced ahead past them, catching up with Lieyan and Sky Fire Phantom. The War Goddess Shi Sisters and the Chilong Girl Jiang Ying happened to be on their way back down for re-training, and seeing Phoenix Fairy’s urgency, fell in right behind her — blowing past Lieyan and Sky Fire Phantom and steadily pulling ahead.
“To think that I — a Level 6 Sky-rank cultivator — am this useless,” Lieyan muttered in helpless resignation.
Sky Fire Phantom didn’t have the mind for deep thoughts, but she could sense it through their bond — that desperate yearning to merge into the energy field and lend her master strength. Lieyan clenched her jaw and pushed harder in pursuit. She could accept being unable to catch up with the War Goddess Shi Sisters, or with Jiang Ying and Tianfa. But if she couldn’t even keep up with Sky Fire Phantom, she would never forgive herself.
Time ticked by, second by second.
Half an hour. An hour. Two hours.
Had Yueyang not previously received the knowledge inheritance from Fourth Elder Sister, he never could have withstood so many minds of so many different levels and natures flooding into him at once. But now he felt like a great river — no matter how many streams joined it, the load never became too heavy, never exceeded what he could hold. It was the opposite: each addition made him stronger, more powerful, more encompassing.
Every person understood every battle, every experience differently — and Yueyang had never imagined that one day he might absorb the accumulated wisdom of so many people all at once.
The blending of different perspectives and different ways of thinking was extraordinarily rich.
It didn’t surpass Fourth Elder Sister’s knowledge inheritance in depth, but it was far more varied, more expansive, and more nuanced.
Drawing on everyone’s support, Yueyang grew stronger with every passing moment — assimilating everything flowing into him while continuing to push beyond himself, breaking into new realms of understanding while simultaneously unraveling the parts of Fourth Elder Sister’s inherited knowledge he had yet to fully comprehend. In every sense, he was cultivating on multiple fronts at once.
This kind of cultivation was something he had never conceived of before.
Something none of them could have imagined.
It was a complete coincidence — a stroke of extraordinary fortune, a unique cultivation born from the perfect convergence of opportunity. One of a kind, impossible for anyone else to replicate.
No one else could achieve what Yueyang was doing — fully harmonizing with so many minds at once. No one else could inspire so many people to support them so completely and without reservation. And no one else had anything like Fourth Elder Sister’s knowledge inheritance, the unconscious Law energy source, and the flawless, soul-deep resonance between him and those around him. The confluence of conditions that made this possible could never be engineered or reproduced — this was, without question, the first time in history it had ever occurred, and it would remain the only time.
When Phoenix Fairy and the others finally arrived, Yueyang felt his support grow even larger.
If before he had been a rushing stream, then after gaining Xue Wuxia, Princess Qianqian, and Xiao Wenli’s threefold support, he had become a swift flowing river. When Yue Bing and Yue Yu joined, the pace of his advancement widened into a broad, surging waterway. And when Phoenix Fairy and the others arrived — it became a roiling torrent, powerful and unstoppable, sweeping everything before it.
Supreme and Night Empress arrived and looked on in stunned silence.
Everything before them had far surpassed what either of them had thought possible.
As they stood watching, Hong, A’Man, Duoduo, Yika, and the others came rushing in from behind. By the time the Giant Big Loli threw herself into the energy field, the column of energy in the sky had already climbed past two thousand meters — a sight that left even Supreme and Night Empress shaken to the core.
No one had ever trained this way before. No one had ever known whether it would even work.
But now, both Night Empress and Supreme were certain of one thing:
Yueyang was going to succeed. The only question was — with all this support behind him, just how far could he go?
Another half hour passed, and Lieyan and Sky Fire Phantom joined the field. Yueyang had now been deep in comprehension for three full hours under everyone’s support, and the energy pillar — a measure, in some sense, of his realm — had risen past two thousand three hundred meters, and was still climbing, slowly but without pause.
“This must be Heaven’s will. Since Heaven has shown him such favor, we should lend him our strength as well.” Night Empress’s voice rang out, clear and melodious. In truth, she wasn’t worried about Supreme holding back — if anything, Supreme cared more deeply about Yueyang than she did. It was just that for someone of Supreme’s standing, stepping into a shared energy field — where hearts had to be fully open and minds completely unified in service of another — without some suitably grand justification like “Heaven’s will,” would make for a slightly awkward dynamic with the younger generation like Xue Wuxia afterward. After all, merging fully meant that certain… personal little secrets might not stay personal for long.
Supreme gave a faint nod and stepped forward at last, her stance of detached observation at an end.
She knew that with herself and Night Empress joining in, the energy pillar representing Yueyang’s realm and potential would break through three thousand meters at minimum.
This would be immensely beneficial to him. Every hundred meters further up represented an entirely different level — and the higher you went, the harder it became.
Beyond that, helping him would cost her nothing and gain her everything.
Yes, he would receive the greatest boost. But she, who was comprehending this new realm alongside him — wouldn’t she be gaining just as much?
Night Empress and Supreme drifted forward, one just ahead of the other, and reached out in unison, pressing their palms to Yueyang’s body with a unity of will. Yueyang’s body shuddered, and a vast surge of energy erupted from every part of him. In an instant, the entire energy field gained another layer — more brilliant, more magnificent than anything before, like a rainbow encircling the whole. The energy pillar shot upward by hundreds of meters in seconds, effortlessly shattering the three-thousand-meter mark.
If Yueyang’s previous ascent had been like an unstoppable great river, then the support of Night Empress and Supreme was like two enormous lakes pouring into it — boundless, inexhaustible, carrying with them a depth of realm so far beyond his own that the impact defied description.
Another hour passed, and Yueyang still hadn’t fully absorbed everything the new realm brought by Night Empress and Supreme had to offer.
Supreme in particular.
He felt as though he barely needed to move — she was pulling him through the air, carrying him at a speed faster than flight. And it wasn’t only him: every person in the energy field shared in what he experienced. Through Yueyang as a conduit, everyone was absorbing everyone else’s insights, elevating themselves through him — every single person, in every single moment, was ascending.
No one could say how much time had passed. At some point, just as Yueyang and Supreme broke through what they had each believed to be their absolute ceiling and the energy pillar began to slowly cease its rise —
A phoenix cry rang out across the heavens, piercing through the clouds.
The Kirin Girl, Bingyin, burst out and leapt directly onto Yueyang’s back, her playful consciousness connecting with everyone present in an instant.
Her appearance stunned Xue Wuxia and the others with pure delight — this Kirin girl was no ordinary presence. Normally, no amount of calling could coax her out.
Then two more waves of consciousness appeared — ones that only Supreme and Night Empress, with their extraordinary sensitivity, could barely perceive. These poured directly into Yueyang, and though those around him could tell something had changed, none of them could sense the nature of this new energy. Supreme felt her mind tremble. What she had believed to be the ultimate, absolute ceiling of her realm — shattered. A brand new, infinite world of profound mystery opened before her. She felt as though some invisible sword had passed through her own body and struck Yueyang between the brows — and that sword had not only pierced through the highest realm she and Yueyang had built together, it had split the sky itself.
No.
Not the sky.
The entire Law World of the World Tree.
Who?
Who had shattered the limits of the realm? Who had used sword energy to connect with the entire world of the Sky Stairway?
Before Supreme could think further, she suddenly realized that the Laws of the entire World Tree had, in some miraculous way, linked themselves to Yueyang.
The unconscious Law energy that Yueyang had already fully absorbed — replenished itself. A vast, ocean-like torrent of Law energy, boundless beyond measure, surged into the energy field and into Yueyang’s body in a single instant. In that moment, Yueyang had the dizzying sensation of standing at the center of the Big Bang — his consciousness expanding outward without limit as the explosion unfolded around him.
Those with weaker cultivation — Bao’er, Xiayi, and Yue Yu — blacked out in less than a second, their minds automatically severing from the soul-shattering impact.
Yue Bing and Yi Nan held on for three seconds.
Hong and A’Man — despite being Divine Envoys and Divine Generals — lasted only five before reaching their limit. Phoenix Fairy, Luohua, and Princess Qianqian gritted their teeth and pushed to seven seconds before collapsing. Only Xue Wuxia, anchored by her Divine Sense Domain, held on for ten. Night Empress, whose strength vastly surpassed the others, lasted thirty seconds. And Supreme alone endured for a full minute.
In the end, she and Yueyang lost consciousness at the same moment, their minds in perfect sync until the very last.
Just before the darkness took her, Supreme thought she glimpsed an enormous grimoire — ten meters tall, radiating magnificent, blinding light — floating before her eyes.
The Sacred Grimoire?
She could think no further. She collapsed, falling against Yueyang, and sank into a deep, exhausted sleep.