The spatial corridor.

Inside the corridor, which was almost on the verge of collapse, the Windstill national ruler, Blue Wolf, and the other Sky-rank were surprised to find the place empty.

Where were Tianzhu, who had gone in earlier, and the Two-Faced King, who had gone in after him? What most puzzled the Windstill national ruler was that, by the timing of Yue Titan’s own exit and the Two-Faced King’s pursuit, they should certainly have met… Could it be that Yue Titan had killed the Two-Faced King?

Blue Wolf and Luoluo were the first to head into the stone world.

They came back quickly.

Shaking their heads.

Indicating that the stone world was also empty. Even the Star Realm Space was empty.

“Tianzhu and his companions, plus Gray Wolf and that earth divine soldier — if Titan Young Lord pulled them all into the grimoire world, fine, that’s plausible. But where did the Two-Faced King go? However powerful Titan Young Lord is, there’s no reason he could one-shot the Two-Faced King!” The Windstill national ruler had regained part of his strength; while he channeled energy into Lady Zhiguang to keep her stabilized, he conferred with Blue Wolf and the others.

“Inside — there’s an ancient rune formation. Where the divine body was, there’s now a teleport formation.” Blue Wolf hesitated, then finally spoke up.

“You mean —?” The Windstill national ruler had a guess.

“That ancient rune formation is possibly the passage to the Divine Codex. Tianzhu, Gray Wolf, and the Two-Faced King may have already gone in. And Titan Young Lord — with Master Ming Rihao holding the enemy — successfully broke free of the Solar King’s pursuit and doubled back to the Storm Sea.” Luoluo spelled out his guess. As he did, every heart in the corridor grew a little hot.

The Divine Codex.

Everyone knew, of course, that the Divine Codex would not acknowledge them as its master.

But — this was the Divine Codex. Even if you didn’t win it, being able to walk through it once was enough to make a life not worth complaining about.

The corridor fell briefly silent. Everyone glanced at one another and then, unanimously and awkwardly, looked away. All of them wanted to go in. They were just embarrassed to say so in front of the others. By strength, none of them had any real business inside the Divine Codex — that was a battle between Titan Young Lord and the Solar King. Unless both of them died, and the Silent King and the Lion King and the Eight Generals all died, cultivators of their level had no business getting near the Divine Codex.

The snake-hair demon man, holding the Revenge Domain Emperor, suddenly burst into a great laugh: “Go on. If there’s a Divine Codex to see, why wouldn’t we go? Just one glance, and I could die with my eyes shut.”

Cradling the Revenge Domain Emperor, he strode ahead with utter, unbothered ease.

“Move!” Blue Wolf and Luoluo, who had been hesitating, brightened up the moment someone took the lead, and quickly followed.

“What about you people?” The Windstill national ruler, cradling Lady Zhiguang, wanted to follow too — but he saw that Zhongguan, Baima, Heitu and the rest had already sat down and no longer seemed to have the strength to move. That put him in a bind. If these people couldn’t go in, and yet those he owed his life to were tripping over each other to get in first, then Titan Young Lord — if he found out — was going to be furious. Besides, if not for these guards fighting to the death, Windstill and everyone with him would have been long dead.

“We’ll stay here and wait for the young lord. You go on!” Zhongguan was carrying multiple serious wounds. He forced a small smile: “If the young lord does not come back, we have no reason to go on living either. If the national ruler has any decency, come back another day and give us a proper burial.”

“Good. Windstill will go on ahead.” The Windstill national ruler understood. These fiercely loyal guards would not leave Titan Young Lord a millimeter further than they had to. Only their weakness in combat kept them from being out at the Storm Sea, fighting the Eight Generals to the death. The Titan Young Lord was powerful — but he wasn’t just fighting the Silent King. There was the terrifying enemy behind that, the Solar King. The odds were bad. That these guards refused to leave him was entirely understandable.

The Windstill national ruler had, in truth, wanted to stay behind and wait with these loyal guards.

The Titan Young Lord — whose true identity was the head of the rebel force out of the Sky Tower — had, so far as his kindness to Windstill was concerned, been closer than any friend or kinsman.

Only — the Lady Zhiguang in his arms had woken and now wanted very badly to enter the Divine Codex to see it for herself. In her words: let us first go inside and take a look. If we truly don’t have the fate to see the truth, we can always come back out and wait for Titan Young Lord.

Lady Zhiguang did not beg him.

She only looked up at the Windstill national ruler with an expression of longing, deep yearning.

The Windstill national ruler’s heart broke a little. He decided to say a temporary farewell to Zhongguan and the loyal guards and take her in for a look.

“Your Majesty, we are of low ability — we would be dead weight. It’s better we remain.” Steward Ye and Gold-Tooth also wanted to go in — but they had enough self-awareness. For servants like them, even the Windstill national ruler was going to be like an ant inside the Divine Codex, unable to protect himself. Better to stay in the spatial corridor with Zhongguan and the others. At the very least, staying near those men was the safest place they could be.

“Good. All of you stay here and wait…” The Windstill national ruler could sense Steward Ye’s and Gold-Tooth’s loyalty perfectly well. But he could not even protect himself. Carrying Lady Zhiguang into the Divine Codex was already going to be difficult. Exploring a dangerous, unknown Divine Codex world with more people in tow was simply not going to work.

Steward Ye and the rest staying behind was, in fact, the correct choice.

Watching Blue Wolf and the others step onto the ancient rune formation and enter the Divine Codex world, the Windstill national ruler still hesitated.

Go in — or turn back and wait for Titan Young Lord’s victory? Abandoning the young lord, mid-fight, to slip into an unknown Divine Codex world — wasn’t that unforgivably selfish? What if he ran into the Two-Faced King in there — or worse, the Solar King? Wasn’t that a fool’s death?

Lady Zhiguang, in his arms, did not press him. She only watched his face with her bright eyes.

Waiting, patiently.

Rarely, in her life, had anything genuinely drawn her longing like this. As a man — could he not go through fire and water for the woman he loved?

The Windstill national ruler kissed her jade-white forehead, and — with a soft tenderness he almost never showed — wiped away the smudge of blood on her face. He fed a little energy into her, letting her small face glow again with clean light. Then, cradling her carefully, as one would cradle the world’s most precious treasure, he stepped onto the Divine Wish Formation.

Storm Sea.

Yue Yang and the Silent King were staring at each other.

Just as he had with the Solar King before, Yue Yang did not blink. He watched the Silent King. And the Silent King — solemn beyond expression — was watching this dangerous young man with equal intensity.

Around Yue Yang’s body, little points of starlight, one by one, began to appear.

It was still daylight — but somehow the sky was gradually going dark. Night was falling. The pinpricks of light were like the curious wide-open eyes of very young children. Slowly there were more and more of them, until the entire surface of the Storm Sea was inlaid with beautiful stars.

Every star of a different size. Every star vivid and alive — brighter than a real star.

A shimmering river of stars.

A galaxy of billions upon billions of shining stars.

Born around Yue Yang’s body, revolving endlessly, spreading across the entire Storm Sea surface.

The Storm Sea became once more the Still Sea. The mirror-flat sea reflected the shining starry sky. It was hard to tell — which was the starry sky, and which was the sea.

Yue Yang turned his hand.

The sea and the starry sky — impossibly — flipped.

The whole of heaven and earth turned itself over. Stars below. Sea above.

The inverted starry sky and the upside-down sea looked identical. And when the people standing there — now head-down, feet-up — dripped blood from their wounds, the droplets fell strangely down into the starry sky beneath their feet.

Meanwhile, above their heads, the sea continued to mirror-reflect the starry sky. The water was crystal clear, transparent, reflecting ten thousand points of starlight — as though the “sea” up there were the real starry sky!

“Amateur tricks.” The Lion King’s heart lurched inwardly. He had no idea how Yue Yang had done it — actually flipped heaven and earth, actually inverted the starry sky — and yet had done a real inversion, one that had turned around every single person in the Storm Sea along with it. On the outside, though, the Lion King did not let his expression shift. As though what Yue Yang had done was a trivial trick that would not even fool a three-year-old.

“Is that so?” A shade of mockery crossed the corner of Yue Yang’s mouth.

He turned his hand again.

Heaven and earth reversed once more. Starry sky back above. Sea back below.

The Silent King’s eye twitched, once. Because with both of Yue Yang’s flips, he had not been able to spot the mechanism.

If it were His Majesty the Solar King, he would have seen straight through the trick and dismantled the ability’s premises. Knowing full well that this Yue Titan’s innate talent was Overturn, knowing his domain was the Starfield Domain, and still being unable to break it — this, this was the enormous gap between us and a truly top-tier powerhouse.

Yue Yang, smile unchanged, once again turned his hand — flipping the sky, flipping the ground.

What made the Lion King and the others really panic —

Was that the heaven and the earth —

Under the flipping of Yue Yang’s palm, kept turning like a spinning wheel. Ten times. A hundred times. A thousand times… By the end, even the Lion King could no longer tell whether what was overhead was the starry sky or whether what was underfoot was the sea.

Under those circumstances, if Yue Titan launched an attack, the consequences did not bear thinking about.

The Lion King and the Golden Crown King clenched their fists. The Eight Generals were already in panic; one after another they glanced at the Silent King.

The Silent King, too, could not read the trick. All he could do was guard his own mind — never mind heaven, never mind earth, never mind starry sky or sea, his own combat power and his own will would not shift a fraction. But he had understood one other thing. This Yue Titan’s use of the Starfield Domain was not aimed at him. It was aimed at his companions and subordinates. In fact, this heaven-and-earth-inverting, sky-upside-downing trick had been set up specifically to kill the Lion King, the Golden Crown King, and the Eight Generals!

With a wave, he sent out beams of Faith-talent-born “guiding light.”

Rapidly consolidating his Eight Generals behind him.

The Lion King and the Golden Crown King did not receive the guiding light — but they knew that was the Silent King leaving them a shred of face. Wordlessly they, too, edged closer to the Silent King.

Just as this group had gathered its maximum strength and was ready to counter-strike —

Yue Yang smiled.

He made a very courteous welcoming gesture, like a warm host greeting invited guests: “Welcome, all of you, to the Sky Tower — this is the Ninth Floor of the Sky Stairway. Rather rustic, I’m afraid — but as your hosts, we do try to be hospitable!”

“The Sky Tower? The fifth floor of the Sky Stairway?” The Lion King’s expression changed at hearing it.

“This is a small welcoming gift, from me, to all of you — for arriving at the Sky Tower. A small courtesy, really. You must all be very pleasantly surprised, aren’t you?” Yue Yang was smiling with all the warmth of a spring breeze.

He had one flaw.

When he smiled, other people found him particularly handsome. Only there was one problem with that — the handsomeness had a bad-boy edge to it. It made you want to punch him.

(End of Chapter 976)