The Vice Hall Master wasn’t interested in a verbal exchange. He condensed a spinning energy disc and sent it slicing forward.

The ground cracked apart.

A hilltop was split in two.

The snake-haired demon man finally remembered what a state he’d been in before Yueyang’s arrival, and urgently sent a palm-strike toward him while sending a private whisper across: “This guy is a Vice Hall Master — don’t underestimate him. We split up and retreat separately. Meet at White River City in the Tianhua Domain. I have something I need your help with — I’ll even buy you a late-night snack.”

Yueyang privately figured that if this fellow was waiting on him to show up, he’d be waiting long enough to grow cobwebs.

But he didn’t mention that he was about to enter the Trial Grounds.

Instead he flashed his most devious grin and nodded, promising he would absolutely be there.

Oh, this is going to be entertaining — let the man wait until mushrooms sprout all over him. There was no chance he’d be going anywhere near White River City in the next several months.

Lone Wind had briefly entertained the notion of stepping up to play the hero — standing his ground to hold off the Vice Hall Master while Yueyang made his escape. But Yueyang’s foot had other ideas, connecting firmly with his backside and launching him away before the thought had even fully formed.

Hero was not a role available to just anyone.

Lone Wind, despite being unceremoniously booted, wasn’t angry. He was, if anything, faintly touched.

He had no particular concern about Yueyang staying behind to face the Vice Hall Master. After all, this was someone who had walked straight into the Earth Demon Divine Temple. You didn’t pull that off without genuine ability. Lone Wind didn’t think Yueyang could actually beat the Vice Hall Master — but holding him off for a few minutes seemed manageable enough. And more importantly, voluntarily staying to buy time spoke of confidence in one’s own ability.

“Remember to come, I’m serious — I have something important. And feel free to bring that cool little girl along!” Lone Wind called back as he fled, still not forgetting to remind Yueyang about the appointment.

“You’re such a nag,” Yueyang called after him.

The Temple death squads and the Dark Realm fallen warriors all launched into the air, trying to intercept. It was no use. The Lone Wind gentleman of the Lone Family, however wretched his current condition, was not something they were capable of stopping.

In the end, every ounce of collective frustration converged on Yueyang alone. If not for his sudden appearance, they would have had Lone Wind captured or beaten into the dirt by now. With Lone Wind gone, this young man needed to stay — use him as a hostage, and the escaped gentleman would eventually have to come back and negotiate.

Boom, boom, boom…

The Vice Hall Master launched several heavy attacks in rapid succession — and couldn’t land a single one on Yueyang.

Even without drawing on his real strength, pure speed alone put him beyond their reach. On his hands: the Acceleration Gauntlets taken from Elder Yumu. On his feet: Elder Yumu’s Winged Silver Boots. On his head: a Platinum-rank Falcon Helm that Yueyang had cobbled together more or less on the spot purely to fool Heavenly Realm warriors.

Not accounting for the sub-divine-artifact Extreme Speed ring. Not counting Yueyang’s three mysterious movement techniques. Not factoring in his teleportation skill. Not even touching the Creation Domain’s absolute spatial control.

Just the speed gear he was visibly wearing.

And it was already enough to leave them coughing up dust chasing after him.

They ran. He ran.

Yueyang played with them for a few minutes, then started to feel bored. In the midst of the dense interference and pursuit, he secretly condensed a ball of highly compressed comet energy.

Boom.

A mushroom cloud erupted from the ground with tremendous force. The blast and shockwave swept across the earth.

At the center of the explosion, the Temple death squads and the Dark Realm fallen warriors below Sky-rank Level 3 didn’t even leave ash — they were simply erased. Even the squad leaders above Level 3 were critically wounded, teetering at the edge of death. The Vice Hall Master burned with fury, wishing he could tear Yueyang into pieces. He could never have imagined the little mouse he’d been chasing would suddenly turn and scorch the cat’s whiskers.

And then he watched as Yueyang charged straight through the restricted zone, teleporting into the Trial Grounds’ First Stage — Rain Valley — and the last of his composure evaporated in smoke.

In his entire life, he had never seen a human being with this much nerve.

Surrounded by thousands, he had struck down hundreds of Temple guards in one blow — and then had the gall to barge into Trial Grounds that the Central Divine Temple had declared off-limits. This was nothing short of a death wish.

“I, Shen Du, swear: if I don’t hang this brat’s head from these iron chains, I will present myself before Lord Ji Wuri and beg to be stripped of my rank as Vice Hall Master!”

The Vice Hall Master roared at the sky.

He handpicked fifty of his finest Temple death squad elites to serve as messengers and searchers, made his preparations at two hundred percent thoroughness, swallowed his rage, and plunged into the Trial Grounds in pursuit. Until this human was dead, his fury would not be appeased — and the Temple’s accountability would come for him too. Whether by duty or by desire, he needed that head on the iron chains.

Only that would wash away today’s humiliation.

“Got you!”

The moment Vice Hall Master Shen Du entered Rain Valley, he found — with eye-splitting fury — that the little wretch hadn’t run at all. He’d set up an ambush right at the entrance, and the moment Shen Du stepped through, one of his elite Temple guards was instantly dead.

Amid Shen Du’s curses and furious roaring, the thoroughly familiar Yueyang moved at speed he could barely track, steadily widening the distance between them.

The harder they chased, the further behind they fell.

A few minutes later, watched helplessly by the surviving Temple death squads, he vanished like a wisp of smoke.

Clenched jaws and impotent glares were all Shen Du had left.

Time spent in enjoyable pursuit passes particularly fast.

By the time Yueyang reached the Second Stage — Wind Valley — Shen Du had only thirty of his men left. Twenty had been picked off by Yueyang in Rain Valley, quietly and efficiently, joining the grim collection of bones along the roadside.

By the Third Stage, Sand Valley — ten men remained.

By the time Yueyang entered the Fourth Stage — Desire Valley — only Shen Du himself had managed to keep up. All fifty of his elite Temple guards had been buried along the way, serving as living targets to keep Shen Du’s rage stoked and his pursuit relentless.

Had Shen Du known about the other Vice Hall Master — the Garrison Vice Hall Master who had been so thoroughly intimidated by Yueyang’s Creation Domain Death Gate that he had no choice but to submit — he would not have charged ahead with such reckless, heat-of-the-moment single-mindedness.

The truth was, the parents and teachers who had given Shen Du the name Shen Du — meaning self-examination and restraint when alone — had done so hoping he would cultivate the habit of turning his gaze inward on himself, of not being ruled by impulse.

The expectation had been that at all times he would remain humble and cautious, avoiding stubborn recklessness, never committing independent acts of recklessness.

Regrettably, Shen Du had never grasped what his elders had intended with that name.

Every mistake a person could make, he had proceeded to make.

The Fourth Stage — Desire Valley.

Once entered and before its trial was cleared, no one could leave.

It was a world unto itself, governed by special Law restrictions. Violate any of them, and a person became part of it — permanently trapped, unable to ever depart.

“Finally caught you, you little—”

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

“The head is as good as mine — you thought you were so impressive? Show me that impressive again! Ha ha ha ha!”

Inside Yueyang’s Creation Domain, Shen Du had no idea he had been deliberately led here as a pawn all along, and was practically preening with self-congratulation. Convinced that Yueyang had exhausted himself, he launched a frenzied assault on the illusion. Through the Creation Domain’s Death Gate projecting a convincing fake, and with Yueyang deliberately feeding him misdirection, Shen Du successfully killed an exhausted Yueyang.

He threw his head back in triumphant laughter.

And remained completely unaware that the real enemy stood directly behind him, letting him do all the pathfinding.

With Yueyang’s strength and intelligence, clearing Desire Valley wouldn’t have been a problem even without Vivienne’s experience. But he preferred things simple and economical. If he could use a Shen Du as an expendable scout and follow along at his leisure — why would he turn down an opportunity like that?

Concealed and perfectly still, Yueyang watched Shen Du’s performance in Desire Valley.

After his triumphant outburst — which released quite a bit of pent-up frustration — Shen Du finally took a proper look at the valley surrounding him.

At the entrance stood two enormous headless stone statues — what appeared to be a man and a woman in an embrace, their heads severed at some unknown point in history. Both radiated a terrifying energy of resentment, fused inseparably with the Law energy that permeated the surrounding space.

Looking in every direction, aside from the thin stone-carved clothing draped on the two headless statues at the entrance, everything else in sight — absolutely everything — was bare. Countless enormous stone figures, some humanoid, some beastman-like, some in strange hybrid forms, were all frozen in various poses that could only be described as thoroughly anatomically explicit.

Even some of the trees had apparently been pruned into suggestive shapes.

Every direction, every surface — nothing but naked, unfiltered desire.

What made it worse for Shen Du was the atmosphere itself. The wind that touched his skin, the fragrance of the flowers in the air, the invisible pulsing energy around him — all of it carried an intense, provocative charge that frayed his restraint and made him want to find an outlet immediately.

Careful. This is Desire Valley. I’ve heard warnings about this place. I need to be on my guard.

“Help! Somebody help me!”

A panicked cry reached him from the treeline not far ahead.

Yueyang, seated and quietly holding the Laws of desire at bay, didn’t move. He knew exactly what was about to happen — Vivienne’s experience had told him. That was precisely why he had been thoughtful enough to bring Shen Du along as a decoy, to spare himself the inconvenience of dealing with it personally.

Shen Du, with absolutely no awareness of his role as a pawn, shot toward the source of the sound immediately.

He found several grotesque centaur-like creatures surrounding a young woman of stunning beauty, moving toward her with clear and reprehensible intent.

Shen Du didn’t rush in. He took a moment to assess both parties’ strength and check the surrounding area.

The centaurs had no Sky-rank cultivation whatsoever.

No other enemies in the vicinity.

He let out a thunderous shout and descended like a divine warrior, planting himself in front of the disheveled young woman and dispatching the grotesque creatures in moments.

What followed was entirely predictable — the beauty falling instantly for her savior, and a scene that would have required parental guidance to witness.

Afterward.

The young woman tearfully begged Shen Du to rescue her sisters.

Driven by contempt for the centaurs’ pitiful strength — and by somewhat less noble motivations regarding the sisters — Shen Du descended like a divine warrior again upon a centaur encampment dozens of kilometers away, and heroically rescued ten more women, each beautiful in her own way, each with a figure that commanded attention.

Another protracted, grueling campaign ensued.

In Shen Du’s experience of time, the whole ordeal had lasted three days and three nights, leaving his legs trembling and his back aching before he had finally claimed victory over all eleven women and basked in their expressions of overwhelmed adoration.

In Yueyang’s actual observation, the man had never moved more than a thousand meters from where he started, and less than ten minutes had passed.

There were also no women whatsoever — everything was a Law-induced illusion of lust.

The only thing that had genuinely happened was that Shen Du had thoroughly exhausted himself.