The western gate tower.

Wulan of the Three-Legged Golden Crow Clan could no longer maintain her earlier composure. She had reverted to her true form — a golden crow with a wingspan of dozens of meters — and was still barely holding the line against Princess Qianqian and her group. Princess Qianqian had rated her highly going in, but that rating had been too low. Wulan alone, fighting with everything she had, was holding off three opponents simultaneously: Princess Qianqian with the Prison Emperor divine sword, the berserk Ika, and Jiang Ying with the full might of the Dragon Sovereign divine force integrated into her.

The only reason the outcome wasn’t already settled was that the Gold-Crowned Thorn Queen Duoduo had been holding back, covering the rear.

Wulan, on her end, had absorbed far more damage than she had anticipated. She had not imagined Yue Yang’s wives and life-guardian war beasts would be at this level — that she, in her original form, could be driven to the edge of her breath by this kind of sustained pressure.

Gold feathers shed and scattered. Her golden claws were scorched black across wide patches.

She had never been beaten this badly while in her true form.

And worse: not everyone was deployed yet. There was still one — the strongest — and another of unknown capability, holding back.

If the Gold-Crowned one entered the fight, ten exchanges would end it. So what now? And why hadn’t the Golden Toad Queen, Jinmiao, come to support? Had she met something even worse on her side? How many life-guardian war beasts did Yue Yang Titan actually have? Three visible here alone, and he was supposedly a human male from Sky Tower. How could he be more exceptional than the celestial realm’s elite prodigies?

The more she fought, the more her confidence eroded.

She was being driven back step by step.

From above the Purple-Gold Divine Hall, the battle sounds had been shaking the sky — and she had heard the Solar King’s pained cries more than once. He was clearly in a hard fight as well. She had considered falling back toward the hall. She dismissed the thought. Something worse was building in her chest.

“Wulan, are you this useless?” A stream of light shot out from deep within the palace behind her, and a tall, elegant woman appeared at Wulan’s back — fine-featured, regal, with a horn rising from her forehead. Behind her, four iron-armed golden apes lumbered forward, shouldering an enormous golden coffin between them.

“Quick — help me!” Wulan and this woman were rivals under normal circumstances, but normal circumstances were gone. She called out immediately.

“My, my,” the regal woman said, with a cold laugh that went nowhere near warmth. She crossed her arms and watched. “Weren’t you supposed to be so capable?”

“Chiyan, sister — please — I’m nearly spent, my true form can barely hold — if you help now, I’ll yield to you, I’ll take the third consort position willingly, I swear it—” Wulan beat her wings with tremendous effort and drove Ika and Jiang Ying back far enough to retreat, then held.

Princess Qianqian, the moment the new arrival appeared, had already stepped back to stand with the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady and Duoduo. Her guard was fully up.

The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady noticed Princess Qianqian’s composure — not a trace of hot-headed aggression, not a single decision made in anger — and felt a quiet admiration. This girl. The fiercer the battle, the sharper she became. Who among them could match that? Only Wuxia.

Ika moved to resume the attack. Princess Qianqian’s sword came across, blocking her.

Jiang Ying read the signal and pulled back as well.

The regal woman watched her opponents stand down and allowed herself a contemptuous sound. “You were already third. The only reason you held the second position at all was that you wormed your way there. And if not for Jinmiao’s early service to His Majesty, that queen’s title would have been mine to begin with. Wulan — remember every word you said today.”

Wulan lowered her head with visible submission.

Princess Qianqian’s Six Senses talent caught something flash across Wulan’s eyes that her posture was carefully hiding.

“Chiyan, sister,” Wulan said, all softness, “I’ve been fighting so long, and I’m worried about His Majesty — could I ask sister to hold here while I go check on him at the Purple-Gold Hall? I promise, I won’t compete with sister for any credit.”

“You couldn’t compete with me if you tried. I’ve already recovered the golden coffin for His Majesty — with the God’s Remains inside, combined with the Divine Codex, His Majesty’s covenant will certainly succeed. What could you possibly contribute? Don’t make things worse. Go recover your injuries somewhere. You look like a burned wreck right now — you’ll embarrass His Majesty if he sees you like that.”

The regal woman’s chin lifted like a proud swan.

“Yes, sister. Little sister will rest in the gardens for a while, then come back to pay her respects once recovered.” Wulan beat her wings hard and swept upward, heading out.

Ika raised her energy cannon to target the retreating form.

Princess Qianqian’s hand pressed quietly against her arm. Focus on the one in front. Let Wulan go for now.

Simultaneously, Jiang Ying and Duoduo each reached to hold Ika back as well.

The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady watched this and smiled to herself.

If Wulan had stayed and the two women had fought together, it might have been a draw. Instead, their enemies were eating each other. And looking at the way Wulan had played that departure — the honey-coated yielding, the strategic humility — the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady was fairly certain what Wulan had actually done was set a trap for her rival. Wulan knew exactly how strong these opponents were. She couldn’t win. Could this Chiyan? Wulan hadn’t said so. She’d just stepped aside and pointed.

In some situations, a romantic rival was more dangerous than an enemy.

The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady counted her blessings quietly. Their own group had no jealousy like this — no one competing for standing, no one trying to trip anyone else. Yue Yang deserved some credit for that: he had never played favorites, never made anyone feel second-best. They had grown together, trained together, fought together. That kind of bond didn’t fracture easily. These three — Wulan, Chiyan, the unseen Jinmiao — had been assembled along the way, and it showed.

Whoosh.

A few wing-beats, and Wulan had vanished.

Chiyan stood there alone, the four iron-armed golden apes behind her, looking at Princess Qianqian’s group with the casual survey of someone reviewing servants.

Princess Qianqian said nothing. She extended her hand. The Heart-Link Bond spread outward, connecting her to Jiang Ying, Ika, Duoduo, and the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady in one thread. In an instant, her Six Senses assessment, her battle-plan, and her intended sequence of actions were shared with everyone — and their responses and ideas came back to her.

From their time training together under the World Tree, they had each developed their own strand of Heart-Link energy, distinct to the bond they shared. With it connected, words were unnecessary. Princess Qianqian had activated it now both for the secrecy and for the depth of coordination it allowed.

Chiyan glanced at this exchange and gave a dismissive sound. “Can’t even manage targeted sound transmission, and you’re showing off in front of me? Truly pitiful. Big Fool, Second Fool — go rip apart that weakest one. Third Fool, Fourth Fool — crush that flower. A plant-type war beast in human form — what real combat power could it have? Pretty face, empty inside. You grow a beautiful appearance and suddenly think that means strength?”

Ika went rigid with fury.

The Gold-Crowned Thorn Queen Duoduo, by contrast, laughed and shook her head. “You’re right that a pretty face and combat power aren’t connected. But honestly — someone as ugly as you tends to make people nauseous, which does affect their performance.”

“You miserable —” The vein that crossed Chiyan’s forehead became visible. Her face twisted.

She didn’t wait for the iron-armed golden apes to move.

She launched herself forward, a blazing sphere in each hand, aiming to end Duoduo in one strike.

Duoduo’s laughter rang like bells.

She didn’t retreat. She went forward instead.

She leapt into the air, and at the moment those blazing spheres were about to hit her face, she threw a punch — the haphazard swing of an ordinary girl in a street scuffle. Chiyan saw this and nearly burst out laughing. She spun in a beautiful aerial reversal — upside down, leg sweeping overhead — and drove a flawless spinning kick directly at the top of Duoduo’s head. A national-ruler-tier Sky-rank warrior would have been killed outright by that one strike.

Duoduo’s smile only widened.

The blazing spheres hit her. She didn’t react to them.

Chiyan’s beautiful kick connected with the top of her head.

Duoduo’s body exploded into flowers.

Countless blooms erupting outward in every direction — the most beautiful display of anything in this space, by some margin — and from within that flowering, a force erupted that went beyond Divine Beast-level. Something more severe than the small Law-force Yue Yang used in ordinary combat. Something that made the sky and ground feel, for a moment, as though they had both become a single flower, and no power could prevent it from opening, any more than you could stop the natural order of the world.

The flower crown on Duoduo’s head dipped slightly.

It absorbed Chiyan’s kick.

The two blazing spheres that had detonated against Duoduo’s body were swallowed by the flowers around her — like stones thrown into deep water, without a ripple.

Chiyan’s expression lost its composure entirely.

She turned to retreat. Found that her ankle was in someone’s hand.

The world spun.

She was going down — fast, with unstoppable force driving her toward the ground.

BOOM.

Every bone in Chiyan’s body announced its presence simultaneously. The pain didn’t leave time for sound.

She bounced off the ground. A foot came down on her spine before she could complete the rebound — nearly snapping it. That one extracted the sound she hadn’t managed before.

The scream had barely begun when Duoduo swept the Skypiercer Battle Blade across her throat with the ease of someone gesturing.

A split opened. Blood poured like a curtain.

Chiyan clutched the wound with both hands, one arm pushing off the ground, desperately trying to get clear. Duoduo stepped behind her without hurry, raised the battle blade high, and drove it through her back — point emerging from the front of her chest.

The strike tore the pride out of Chiyan and replaced it with animal instinct.

She transformed.

In a spray of blood-light, she became a crimson dragon — enormous, furious — and beat her wings with everything she had, trying to follow Wulan’s example and get airborne.

Jiang Ying had been waiting.

A silver net dropped from above. Then a water dragon formed — long, fluid, purpose-built — and Jiang Ying called out with genuine competition in her voice: “Let’s see whose dragon is stronger!”

The water dragon came down on the wounded crimson dragon like a wave on a stone and drove her flat.

Ika stood on the ground below.

Her Angel’s Blade came up.

She cut.

The crimson dragon’s left wing separated from its body without sound — spinning away, painting the ground with dragon blood.

The crimson dragon’s jaws opened to exhale — a killing breath forming —

Ika’s energy cannon fired first.

The light column met the breath at the opening of the dragon’s own throat and drove it back inside.

BOOM.

The explosion went through the area like a fist. The shockwave flung the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady — who had been trading blows alone against all four iron-armed golden apes — a hundred meters sideways. The apes themselves tumbled across the ground in a disorganized pile.

“AAAAHHH—” The crimson dragon’s head had a gaping, blackened hole in it now. Only now, feeling all of it at once, did the creature understand what Wulan’s earlier submission had really meant. These opponents could not be matched by force. Wulan’s retreat hadn’t been weakness. It had been maneuvering.

The crimson dragon fought to take flight — one wing, blackened head, several deep bleeding wounds — and couldn’t manage it.

Duoduo descended from the air.

She grabbed the dragon by the tail.

She swung it.

Dozens of full rotations, back and forth, before she finally let the laughter into her voice: “Does your face still look pretty right now? Go ahead and tell me — does a pretty face mean empty inside?”

“Mercy—” The crimson dragon was vomiting blood with every breath.

“Far too late for that.” Princess Qianqian had been building her power through the entire exchange. The Four Symbols — Blue Dragon, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird, Black Tortoise — converged around her, amplified by her Sacred talent at its ceiling. The Prison Emperor divine sword came down.

One strike.

The crimson dragon’s head left its body.

At the same moment, someone came flying out of the Purple-Gold Divine Hall.

Yue Yang. Blood-soaked, clothes in ruins, launched by the Solar King’s punch through the hall doors and tumbling down the golden steps, end over end.

The Solar King was also not having a good time. Xiao Wenli’s Binding talent had caught him a second time — and then Aman arrived, Five-Element divine force at full flood, and her punch sent the Solar King flying ten times as far as Yue Yang had gone.

Under normal circumstances, anyone taking a direct hit from Aman would simply not exist afterward. The Solar King’s quasi-divine body was the only reason he was still moving.

Hong was holding herself together through clenched teeth, both hands against the Solar King’s quasi-divine form, preventing it from breaking free to rescue its master.

Both Yue Yang and the Solar King landed on the golden steps.

Both were beyond calculation and beyond caution. They looked at each other with the eyes of people who had completely run out of anything else, and the moment their bodies responded to their will again, they threw themselves at each other like maddened animals — no defense, no technique, just fists — hammering into each other without any regard for wounds or surroundings or what else was happening in the world around them.

The Solar King’s quasi-divine form tore itself toward the fight to rescue its master.

Yue Yang had Xiao Wenli, Hong, and Aman.

The battle did not stop. The chaos did not resolve.

Until one of them went down, it would not.