"Really? Are you sure?"
Redmoon God-King still wasn't reassured, her eyes full of suspicion. After all, Ian Song was only a Mid Heavenly God, and even if the other two were injured, they were still God-King Supremes—how could a Mid Heavenly God possibly threaten them?
Ian hurried to reassure her: "How could I ever trick you, sis? Besides, I'm super cautious with my own life—if I weren't confident, I'd never go through with this. Honestly, I've gained a ton from the Sacred Mountain's grand formation. My realm is still just Mid Heavenly God, but my strength has shot up a lot. Handling two wounded God-Kings is no big deal now!"
Redmoon God-King replied, "No way, I'm still not comfortable with this. How about I leave one of my divine-spirit avatars with you? If those two have any bad intentions, my avatar will deal with them!"
"Sis, you're really overthinking this!"
Ian shook his head. "I think King Tuer is insisting you team up with them because he's got some scheme cooking. If you leave your avatar with me, it'll make things even riskier for you. You should take your avatar with you!"
"No way! If you won't let me leave my avatar, then I'm not leaving either!"
They stared at each other for a while before Ian finally gave in: "Alright, sis, you can leave one of your avatars with me. But you have to take this bottle of Origin Source Power with you!"
As he spoke, Ian stuffed a jade bottle into Redmoon God-King's hand—inside were a hundred drops of Origin Source Power.
Seeing this, Redmoon God-King was deeply moved and leaned in to give him a kiss.
Of course Ian wouldn't refuse such a sweet moment—he pulled Redmoon God-King into his arms and kissed her passionately. Their lips and tongues tangled, lost in sweetness, and before he knew it, Ian's hand had slipped under her clothes, grabbing a soft, firm place.
Suddenly, Redmoon God-King shoved Ian away and glared at him, a bit angry: "Hey! Where do you think you're putting your hands?"
"Uh, I couldn't help myself! Sorry, sis, I promise I won't do it again. Let's try that kiss one more time." Ian grinned sheepishly and shamelessly tried to pull Redmoon God-King back into his arms for another kiss.
Smack!
Redmoon God-King slapped away his thieving hand and glared at him. "You shameless brat! Haven't you taken enough advantage of your sister yet?"
"Heh, I'll never get enough of you, sis!" Suddenly Ian's expression grew serious. "Who knows how long you'll be gone this time—I really can't bear to part with you!"
Hearing this, even Redmoon God-King's face softened with affection. "Little brother, I can't bear to leave you either!"
So Ian reached out again, pulled Redmoon God-King into his arms, and kissed her hard on those cherry lips.
Meanwhile, outside the formation—
Mira Skylar kept glancing toward the formation, her eyes flashing with obvious irritation.
After a while—
The formation faded, and Ian Song and Redmoon God-King walked out, faces calm as ever.
Half an hour later—
Redmoon God-King and the others all departed together, leaving only Ian, Mira Skylar, and the two wounded God-Kings—Shu Ning and Yun Huang—in the valley.
Ian quickly set up a defensive formation, then pulled Mira Skylar inside with him.
"You smell like Redmoon God-King again!" Mira Skylar sneered, convinced there was something fishy going on between these 'siblings.'
"So what? We hugged when saying goodbye—real feelings, you know. Of course our auras mixed a little!" Ian replied, totally unconcerned.
"I don't believe you!" Mira Skylar huffed.
"Why should I care whether you believe me or not? If you've got time to gossip, you'd be better off cultivating—otherwise you'll just be a burden on your dad!" Ian shot back, unimpressed.
"Hmph! I'm still an Upper Heavenly God, you know. You, a mere Mid Heavenly God, have some nerve lecturing me!" Mira Skylar retorted, still fuming.
"But can you actually beat me, Miss Upper Heavenly God?"
Ian teased, eyes glinting with amusement.
"...You...!"
Mira Skylar was so furious she wanted to strangle this jerk on the spot.
"Here, take this and go cultivate somewhere else—don't get in my way!" Ian tossed her a jade bottle containing three drops of Origin Source Power.
"Are you trying to bribe me?" Suddenly, Mira's eyes narrowed. "Or are you just afraid I'll tell Silverwing God-King about all this?"
Ian shrugged, utterly fearless. "Tell whoever you want. The only reason I'm giving you Origin Source Power is because your strength is too weak—I don't want you dragging us down later!"
"...You...!" Mira Skylar was speechless with rage yet again.
Ignoring Mira, Ian pulled out the Creation Heaven Diagram and started studying it.
"What's that?"
Mira Skylar asked curiously.
Ian glanced up at her but said nothing.
"Hey! Why aren't you answering? I'm asking you!"
"Say one more word and I'll throw you out of the formation!" Ian bared his teeth, sounding downright vicious.
"Scary, scary. You think I'm afraid of you?" Mira shot back.
She talked tough, but Mira didn't dare bother Ian again. She stormed off, knowing full well that this jerk just might actually throw her out.
With Mira out of the way, Ian focused all his attention on the Creation Heaven Diagram.
At first glance, the Creation Heaven Diagram looked just like any old stone slate covered in strange patterns. Even probing it with Divine Soul revealed nothing special.
But the Chaos Sun Sect statue had taught Ian exactly how to activate the Creation Heaven Diagram.
The next moment, his expression sharpened. Ian’s hands flashed through a series of hand seals, and a faint glimmer appeared on the diagram. He quickly sent his Divine Soul to touch the light, and instantly felt his consciousness pulled into a strange new space.
Inside this space stood nine Heaven Steles, but only the runes on the first stele were clear. The other eight were blurred and unreadable.
Ian knew: only by comprehending the runes on the first Heaven Stele could he unlock the next. Even so, according to the Chaos Sun Sect statue, all previous sect masters had only ever managed to grasp the first stele—and that alone made them peerless experts.
Ian took a deep breath and fixed his gaze on the first Heaven Stele.
It was covered in billions of runes, packed so densely they made his head spin. He quickly gave up on memorizing them all, and instead started reading from the beginning.
The runes were bizarre and indecipherable—like some kind of heavenly script. Ian couldn’t make heads or tails of them.
He kept reading, struggling through thousands of runes, but it was still all gibberish to him.
"Something’s wrong—I must be approaching this the wrong way!"
Ian muttered to himself, deep in thought.
He stared at the Heaven Stele, lost in contemplation.