The steward stood before the Redemption City Lord and delivered his full report with meticulous courtesy.

The City Lord had already braced himself, but even so, the intelligence his steward had brought back sent cold sweat trickling down his spine. He had been lucky — very lucky — that he had reversed his position when he had. If he hadn’t, his entire clan would most likely be dead without a grave to lie in. Offending a personage so exalted they couldn’t be looked at directly — even the Redemption City Lord, specifically appointed by the Central Divine Temple as the external guardian of the Divine Punishment Platform, wouldn’t be worth more than a casual flick of a finger to such a person.

And replacing a City Lord was trivially simple. There were plenty of people in the Central Divine Temple eyeing his position already. If that great lord decided to lay charges, he was finished.

“Tell me your thoughts on this matter,” the City Lord said. “I want to hear your impressions — the more detailed the better.”

He had other qualities besides a thick face. One of them was a genuine talent for using other people as mirrors, for catching and correcting his own mistakes through others’ eyes.

“My lord, please forgive your servant’s frankness,” the steward began, knowing his master’s temperament well — and with their fates bound together, he had every reason to give honest counsel. “In truth, even with my lord’s standing and position, cultivating a connection with this distinguished heavenly guest will be extremely difficult. The difference in status is simply too vast. If we seem overeager, we risk causing displeasure. To use a comparison — the finest pearl in the world is a priceless treasure in our eyes, but to someone accustomed to banquets of the most extraordinary abundance, it is about as remarkable as a bowl of plain coarse rice. Our pearl, compared to the young lord Lone Wind’s Mirror of Suffering, is like a worn piece of sackcloth laid beside embroidered silk — not even worth mentioning. And the Mirror of Suffering itself could not please that distinguished heavenly guest — which is why the young lord departed in shame. What we must do now is nothing more than this: follow her instructions, keep the situation under control, and wait. If that heavenly guest enjoys herself, a summoning is not out of the question.”

“Well said.” The City Lord gave a satisfied nod. “I, Qian Hu, know my own station. As long as I don’t make that distinguished heavenly guest displeased with me, that alone is already a great success. I’ll leave this matter in your hands — by whatever means necessary, see to it that no one disturbs them further. As for that Minotaur Lima, keep him at the manor for now — he may yet be useful if we need someone to offer up as a token of goodwill. Elder Yumu is none of our concern. But that Yanzao — we must build a rapport with him. Through him, open a channel to that guard captain. A young man like that is no ordinary figure. For now, stabilize things… this event, unexpected as it was, may not be a bad thing at all. I even have a feeling — our fortunes are about to turn.”

“Congratulations, my lord!” The steward recognized the opportunity as well. If the City Lord succeeded, entry into the upper circles of the Upper Heavenly Realm would no longer be a dream.

“If this lord rises to prominence one day, I will not forget your service.” The City Lord clapped the steward solemnly on the shoulder, which produced a suitably moved expression from the steward, eyes glistening as though tears were imminent.

On the luxurious airship.

Luohua was arranging her precious flowers with devoted attention. The giantess Lieyan, keeping to the training habits she’d built up in the Sky Stairway, had doubled her daily regimen without fail.

Bi Lv searched the entire ship for Yueyang, couldn’t find him anywhere, and initially assumed he’d stepped out. She waited patiently. But half a day passed with no sign of him, and she finally couldn’t help herself — she went and sat down beside Luohua, asking softly, “Little sister Luohua… where is that head guard of yours?”

Luohua smiled and set down what she was doing. “I was wondering how long before you asked. He’s not here — don’t worry, he’ll be back later.”

In truth, Yueyang had slipped into the Black Void Sealed Space to visit Queen Vivienne. But Luohua saw no need to go into that with Bi Lv. Too much to explain, too little motivation.

With Yueyang gone, Bi Lv couldn’t seem to find enthusiasm for anything. She sprawled lazily and picked up a book, then put it down again with a long sigh. “These wretched Heavenly Realm runes — impossibly complicated. I genuinely cannot imagine how any of you manage to read them.” She didn’t find it surprising at all that Luohua was skilled with Heavenly Realm runes, but discovering that Lieyan had mastered more of them than she had was what truly deflated her.

Lieyan wiped the sweat from her brow and waved it off. “I’m nothing — not even a ten-thousandth of what Luohua knows. But if you want to talk about true mastery of runes, the two who stand above everyone else are Mistress Wuhen and Mistress Wuxia.”

That earned a startled tongue-click from Bi Lv.

The Black Void Sealed Space.

Queen Vivienne’s delighted laughter rang out again and again, only to be absorbed by the surrounding void.

Yueyang’s arrival had exceeded everything she had hoped for. The Yueyang who had resonated souls with Supreme and Night Empress and the others in the shared energy field — exchanging and merging realms, achieving mutual enlightenment and breakthrough — had reached the most perfect Innate Sovereign realm ever attained in history. Even for Vivienne, who had once swept nearly the entire Heavenly Realm before her, the insights available from a communion like this were extraordinarily beneficial.

As she absorbed Yueyang’s pure Innate True Qi, she linked her realm to his.

Yueyang broke through to a higher realm.

And Vivienne, in turn, was strengthened further within her own Innate Sovereign state.

“How long was I asleep?” The impact of the new realm Vivienne had brought him had sent Yueyang into a deep sleep again, and only now did he fully grasp just how terrifyingly profound her true cultivation was.

“Not quite a full day. I expected you to be out for several,” Vivienne said, pressing a light kiss to his cheek. “Your body’s potential is far beyond what anyone could have anticipated.”

At his current level of strength and realm, fully assimilating everything Vivienne possessed was simply not possible. But he had found a clever workaround — sealing the most elevated aspects of her realm within his mind, the way he had stored Fourth Elder Sister’s knowledge inheritance, then gradually comprehending them layer by layer, assimilating upward from each stage. Without Fourth Elder Sister’s prior knowledge inheritance and without the perfect Innate realm as a foundation, Yueyang would never have woken this quickly — sleeping for ten days to half a month would have been getting off lightly.

This communion with Vivienne had brought not only an elevation of the Innate Sovereign realm, but a new breakthrough in his Innate Body-Piercing Invisible Sword Qi as well.

If they hadn’t been inside the Black Void Space, he would already be impatient to go find the Sword Spirit.

For the first time, Yueyang felt something he had never quite felt before.

The absolute confidence of a true supreme powerhouse.

The certainty that with a sword in hand, nothing in the world could stand against him — the same conviction that had stirred in him when he had seen the Sword Spirit in that dream realm.

Splitting space. Destroying worlds. Things that had been fantasies were no longer impossible. Here inside the Black Void Space, even with nine-tenths of his True Qi drawn away by Vivienne, he had the feeling that a single sword strike could pierce through the black void sealing itself. The pressure this space had once placed on him was no longer something that felt insurmountable. Was this what they called the Divine Sense — the consciousness said to effortlessly perceive all things in the world? Was this the Divine Mind — the will said to look upon all things with indifference and be unmatched by any?

Vivienne wrapped both arms around his neck, smiling like a flower. “Now — you’re finally starting to feel a little like a Sacred Sovereign.”

Yueyang barely had time to register her warmth. He held both hands up in front of his eyes and stared at them for a long time. “Is this really the power I now hold?”

“Hah!”

A sharp cry from behind.

Xiao Wenli, who had also benefited from the realm communion, had manifested above her head — without anyone noticing when it appeared — a golden serpent demon image a hundred meters tall, solemn and magnificent, radiating divine authority. Moving in concert with Xiao Wenli, the golden serpent demon raised a colossal golden blade and brought it crashing down into the walls of the Black Void Sealed Space — as though trying to smash open a tunnel and rescue Vivienne, her mother.

A torrent of light surged forward like divine pillars driving into the sea, booming through the endless darkness.

This was the energy column the golden serpent demon had unleashed.

Even the Black Void Sealed Space could not fully withstand it.

It cracked.

Far above, in the distant sky, a sliver of light appeared — tiny as a star, faint as a pinprick.

But in the same instant, an indescribable and overwhelming Law energy surged up around Vivienne, pressing her down absolutely — she couldn’t so much as blink. Only when the crack in the void had completely sealed itself and hidden away did that Law energy vanish, withdrawing without trace. The Black Void Space returned entirely to its original state, as though it had never been pierced at all.

Xiao Wenli stood frozen.

She had believed that with the power unleashed from today’s enlightenment — the insight guided by the Sacred Sovereign realm itself — she would finally be able to save Mama.

But the sealing of the Black Void Space was far beyond anything she had imagined.

Yueyang had known this before she even acted. Simply punching through the Black Void Space wasn’t enough. From the very first time he had entered this place, it had been Vivienne’s own residual strength that cracked open the space to send him back out — and every time since, the same. If breaking through the void was all it took for Vivienne to escape, she would have freed herself long ago. The true sealing force was the Extinction Sealing Law. Only someone whose power exceeded the original sealer, or who could completely deceive or unravel the Sealing Law itself, had any hope of freeing Vivienne.

The Black Void Seal was not something escaped easily.

Vivienne gently stroked Xiao Wenli’s cheek as she turned back, tear-streaked, eyes red. In that moment, a soft maternal radiance shone from Vivienne without restraint.

“Little one — just knowing you want to save me makes me happy. But you mustn’t be impatient. Leave this to Mama and Papa to handle. Papa will save me — his future Divine Aspect is World. The Black Void Space is only a part of the world…”

“Ahem.” Yueyang felt a touch awkward hearing the word Papa, especially given his current state of undress.

“Mm.” Xiao Wenli showed no awkwardness at all regarding the current state of either Papa or Mama. If anything, she preferred things this way — it felt entirely natural to her, more intimate, more honest. She wrapped one arm around Vivienne and one around Yueyang, deeply reluctant to let either of them go. Only when the prolonged energy expenditure left her slightly tired, and the Black Void Space began to feel oppressive after too long, did she finally press a lingering farewell kiss to Vivienne’s cheek and retreat back into Yueyang’s body to sleep.

Vivienne watched Xiao Wenli settle into slumber — and set aside the mother in herself, returning to the Empress of Conquest.

Even lying against Yueyang’s chest, pressed close in his arms, she maintained the clearest and most rational of minds.

After a long silence, Vivienne spoke with uncharacteristic gravity: “Tantai Tumie is a formidable opponent for you — but only a formidable opponent. His intellect, his strategy, his abilities — they will never take him to the very top. It’s Ji Wuri who is the truly serious threat. I don’t know the Tairen King personally, but the Divine Punishment Platform has existed since ancient times — and those of the older generation know that beneath it, three ancient runes are sealed. No ordinary force can shake their imprisonment.”

Yueyang’s breath caught, and then elation surged through him. “Three ancient runes?”

Vivienne pressed a finger lightly to his lips, cautioning him not to get carried away. “Those three runes are extraordinarily difficult to obtain. Even I failed in my time. No matter how many lives Tantai Tumie sacrifices, no matter how much blood he spills at that altar — he is destined to fail. You don’t need to spend much time at the Divine Punishment Platform. What matters is the Trial Grounds.”

Yueyang recognized immediately that this was the most important thing she was going to say. He pressed down the excitement within him and listened with complete attention.

“The Trial Grounds and its trials…” Vivienne paused. “They are, in truth, the complete process by which an ancient powerhouse cultivated a successor — to become a god.”