The Empress's Side Palace had stood here for a million years, never once destroyed. Forged from divine metal, it was extremely extravagant, but no amount of luxury could withstand the impact of a powerhouse like Annie.
The Side Palace was in utter ruin; nearly half had been smashed by Annie in her fat-bird form. When her Dragon-Sparrow Primordial Spirit unleashed the Dragon-Sparrow Swallowing the Heavens, the Primordial Spirit crashed down and the Vermilion Bird Sacred Flame melted the palace, turning it into rivers of molten iron.
That Sacred Flame could burn anything, setting ablaze even the parts of the Side Palace left standing.
Annie rose from the rubble, withdrew her Primordial Spirit, and shook her wings, dislodging the debris. Not far off, a pavilion that had been teetering was ignited by the Sacred Flame; now, swept by the gust from Annie's wings, it collapsed and fell into the sea of fire.
Dragon-Qilin also climbed up, shaking the dust from his body.
Quinn stood up and got back to work, as if nothing had happened.
Dragon-Qilin watched as Quinn took advantage of the Vermilion Bird Sacred Flame melting the divine metal, refining it and imprinting teleportation runes. He was clearly preparing to build a large teleportation array to escape this place.
Quinn busied himself, but Dragon-Qilin could tell his mind was heavy. As a numerology expert himself, Dragon-Qilin noticed Quinn made several mistakes calculating the spatial nodes.
This was something that never happened under normal circumstances.
As one of the most powerful numerology masters alive, Quinn almost never made mistakes in his calculations, let alone several in a row.
The fact that he kept making mistakes now meant something was weighing on his mind, distracting him so much that he couldn't concentrate.
"Cult Master, what did you see in the great abyss?" Dragon-Qilin probed.
Quinn stopped forging the teleportation array, dazed and lost in thought. After a moment, he said, "The one who killed Venerable Skysoar was the Ancient-God Heavenly Emperor. When he charged onto the Celestial River cross-section, I saw his face—it was identical to the Ancient-God Emperor I saw in the Umbral World."
Dragon-Qilin was puzzled. "Ancient-God Heavenly Emperor?"
"Strictly speaking, it's the flesh body of the Ancient-God Emperor. But as for who is currently controlling that body, I have no way of knowing."
Once Quinn started talking, his thoughts loosened up: "The Ancient-God Emperor's flesh body is no longer in Heavenly Court. That's why those in charge are so desperate to create a perfect Heaven-Guide Venerable. Because the Ancient-God Emperor's flesh is the strongest in history—no single Venerable can fully wield its power. They have to cooperate to unleash its full strength!"
He paced back and forth, his thinking speeding up: "This flesh body is their tool to restrain each other. No one can fully control the Emperor's body, so it keeps them balanced and stops them from turning on each other."
"But without the Ancient-God Emperor's body, who will rule Heavenly Court? Power breeds suspicion, and without that flesh, Heaven Duke and Tu Bo are huge threats to them. So they need to forge a powerful weapon to counter Heaven Duke, Tu Bo, and other top entities."
"That weapon is the Heaven-Guide Venerable!"
Quinn stopped walking, thought for a moment, and said, "That's why they created the Heaven-Guide Venerable and sent it down to the lower realms. They want to test if this weapon works, if it can rival the Emperor's flesh body."
Dragon-Qilin asked curiously, "Cult Master, is the person trapped in the Ancient-God Emperor's flesh body still in Heavenly Court?"
Quinn shook his head. "Heavenly Court only has his flesh, not his Primordial Spirit. He was trapped by Venerable Skysoar and can't escape. Killing Skysoar came at a price—Ancient-God Emperor doesn't need a weapon, his body itself is the mightiest weapon. But this person had to use a spear, so he must be a senior member of the Heaven Alliance. The price was steep: he's trapped in the Celestial River forever, with no place left for him in Heavenly Court."
Feeling refreshed, Quinn continued to arrange the teleportation array, this time making no more mistakes.
Annie fed Dragon-Qilin a spirit pill and praised, "Fat Dragon, your How to Raise Your Human scripture is getting better and better."
Munching the spirit pill, Dragon-Qilin chuckled, "The Cult Master is too smart for his own good—sometimes he gets stuck in a dead end and can't get out. If he just talks it out, he can usually work through it, but smart people rarely do that on their own. I didn't do anything, just let him talk."
Annie smiled and kept feeding Dragon-Qilin.
Quinn finished building the teleportation array, then went to collect more divine metal. The Empress's Side Palace had been completely burned down; all the divine metal had melted into molten iron. Once Annie withdrew the Sacred Flame, the metal solidified again.
The divine metal used in the Empress's Side Palace was a specialty of Home's End Abyss—Home's-End Abyss Iron, spouted from the great abyss, found only in Home's End. Quinn had Annie melt it again, forging it into neat, square ingots and stacking them in piles.
"Young master, we can't take this stuff with us."
Annie and Dragon-Qilin gazed up at the mountain of Abyss Iron, shocked. Annie shook her head, "Abyss Iron is too heavy—even I can't lift it."
"It's fine. I have somewhere to store it," Quinn said.
Quinn peeled off the Golden Willow Leaf Talisman from his brow and began tossing the Home's-End Abyss Iron ingots one by one into the Keane-Sigil Continent.
Inside the Keane-Sigil Continent, the Abyss Iron fell like rain, piling up into a mountain. Heaven Duke, the Crimson Emperor, the Old Buddha, and others stood around the crystal coffin, faces dark, as the iron landed all around them.
Tu Bo's molten-rock avatar didn't look any darker—his face was already black and red.
"Nonsense! This is where his big brother is sealed. How can you throw everything in here like a storage yard?" Tu Bo snapped.
After finishing with the Abyss Iron, Quinn jumped lightly and felt no weight at all. He grinned, "Now I won't even need my Glutton Dragon Pouch!"
He drew the Worryless Sword and looked up at the sky, where broken stars hovered close to Home's End.
Heaven Duke and the others also saw the shattered stars above Home's End, exchanging puzzled glances.
"What's this kid planning now?" The group was baffled.
The big fat baby sat in the Slaughter Cauldron, eating. Hearing this, he looked up and laughed, "That bad little brother plans to push a star down into Home's End to lure those two flowers out."
Heaven Duke hurriedly asked, "No one knows a younger brother better than his older brother. Why is your bad little brother trying to draw out those two Home's End flowers?"
"To chop them down with a sword and take them away," Fenix Greenwood replied.
Heaven Duke's face changed dramatically; Tu Bo's expression stayed the same, but his hands trembled.
Great Brahma King Buddha, the Crimson Emperor, and the others didn't know the origins of the two flowers, so they weren't worried. But Heaven Duke and Tu Bo were scared half to death.
"Nonsense! Utter nonsense!"
Heaven Duke's white beard trembled with rage. "Those two flowers are plugging the sea eye!" he shouted.
Tu Bo clenched his fists and yelled, "It's because those two flowers are blocking the great abyss that Home's End hasn't swallowed all the stars!"
"If you cut them down, even Origin-Capital's Eastern Sea will be drained!"
They looked up at the sky. At that moment, Quinn was standing atop Annie's fat-bird head, flying toward a broken star above the abyss, planning to borrow Annie's Primordial Spirit to push the remnant star into Home's End.
Heaven Duke immediately made a decision, shouting, "Throw the older brother out and suppress the younger, before he causes any more trouble!"
Fenix Greenwood was still picking food in the Slaughter Cauldron when Heaven Duke, Tu Bo, Crimson Emperor, Great Brahma King Buddha, and even the usually timid Star Lord of the Sun all rushed forward. Together, they lifted the cauldron and tossed him—cauldron and all—out into the void.
Quinn, brimming with energy, directed Annie on how to shift the star's orbit and push the broken star into the abyss. Suddenly, he grew dizzy and shouted angrily, "Heaven Duke, you set me up! You let my brother out—aren't you afraid he'll cause trouble?"
He flailed as he fell from the sky, and the next moment found himself landing on the ground—right in the middle of the Keane-Sigil Continent, surrounded by Heaven Duke, Tu Bo, and others, all looking none too friendly.
Annie, hearing Quinn's shout, thought to herself, "Young master really has a few screws loose, always thinking he has a brother."
Just as she thought this, she suddenly felt Quinn become impossibly heavy, startling her.
Standing on her head, Quinn's flesh body swelled crazily, instantly transforming into a gigantic baby—bigger and chubbier than Annie's true form, nearly crushing her!
Annie was terrified, and heard the giant baby say in a childish voice, "Tu Bo always calls me evil. Now you know who the real villain is, right? It's the bad little brother! He makes trouble and I have to clean up after him, but hey, that's what big brothers are for..."
Annie was scared, but saw the giant baby stretch out a chubby hand, gently stroke the massive broken star, then flick it with a finger, sending the planet flying.
"Don't be afraid, I'm here to save you!"
The fat baby leapt down, crashing to the ground with a boom. He stood atop the abyss, grabbed the falling fat bird by the neck, and laughed, "Don't worry, I don't kill recklessly anymore. I've got rules now. So, do you want to make a Little Tu Bo Pact?"
Annie frantically shook her head.
The fat baby set her down, shrank in size, and struggled into the teleportation array Quinn had left behind. "I've gotten fatter—Mother will be so happy to see me. Come on, let's go back to Everpeace. We can't stay here, or the bad little brother will get out and cause trouble again."
Annie and Dragon-Qilin stood stunned. After his reminder, they hurried into the array. Dragon-Qilin stammered, "Are you Cult Master's older brother?"
The fat baby nodded, fiddling with the array. "I don't like coming out—it's too noisy, too many rules. I prefer staying inside. But if my little brother makes trouble, I have to come out... How does this thing work?"
Dragon-Qilin quickly activated the array, lighting up the runes.
The fat baby's eyes lit up. He patted Dragon-Qilin's little head with a chubby hand and praised, "You know so much—no wonder my brother never eats you..."
Light flashed, and they vanished from the array.
The next moment, they appeared in the ruins of the Old Dragon Lord's homeland. The Underworld Elder had already gathered the souls of the Old Dragon Lord; the place was dead silent.
The fat baby grabbed Annie and Dragon-Qilin, set them on his shoulders, and said with a smile, "You two are too slow—I'll take you back. Watch the bad little brother, don't let him keep causing trouble. I really don't like coming out..."
Dragon-Qilin and Annie looked utterly bewildered.
Suddenly, the fat baby took off running on his short legs, smashing through the barrier of the Old Dragon Lord's kingdom and charging into the sea. He sprinted across the water so fast that Annie was left speechless.
The fat baby ran with all his might, chasing the sun and moon, leaving towering waves in his wake. At this speed, they'd reach Yankang in just a few days!
"There really is an older brother inside Cult Master's body!" Dragon-Qilin finally snapped out of it, blurting out loud.
Keane-Sigil Continent.
Quinn sat obediently in the middle of the crowd, head bowed, silent.
"You almost caused a disaster of epic proportions!"
Heaven Duke, furious at Quinn's recklessness, scolded him: "Why are the Empress sisters so important? Why must the Heavenly Emperor marry them as empresses? It's because those two lotus flowers are plugging the sea eye—they're the roots of heaven and earth! If you cut them, yank them out, Origin-Capital will lose all vitality, and even Profound Capital's star river will be swallowed by Home's End Abyss!"
Quinn hung his head. "I know I was wrong."
Heaven Duke fumed, "Suppress Fenix Greenwood? I think we should suppress you! You're always causing trouble. And what's with the empress sister's corpse?"
Quinn quickly said, "That's not my doing—Venerable Skysoar killed her."
Heaven Duke was about to keep scolding when his face suddenly changed. "Something terrible's happened! I'm going to die!" he cried.
Tu Bo's expression changed as well. "Oh no, my time is up!" he exclaimed.
Quinn froze, then hurried to ask what was wrong.
Heaven Duke's and Tu Bo's avatars paced anxiously. Great Brahma King Buddha sighed, "Brothers, I know what you mean. That weapon has arrived in my Buddha Realm, too."
Quinn's heart skipped a beat. "Weapon?" he blurted.
Heaven Duke's avatar traced a circle with his hands and sighed, "Look."
As he spread his hands, a vision of Xuandu appeared above the Keane-Sigil Continent. Before the towering Heaven Duke, a godlike figure shattered the world's barriers and entered Xuandu.
It was a Heaven-Guide Venerable, with drifting celestial palaces behind him—palaces that formed a whole Heavenly Court. The Heaven-Guide Venerable looked every inch the ruler of the heavens.
"The strongest weapon Heavenly Court ever forged has appeared in my Xuandu. Is it here to destroy me?" Heaven Duke's avatar sighed.
Tu Bo said, "One of those weapons has descended on Youdu as well."