After Li Caiwei returned to the Biritual Divine Realm, she spent most of her energy repairing the formation core of the Biritual Yinyang Formation Dugu Jin had destroyed. Soon, the defensive formations were deployed across the cities and towns of the entire realm under her instruction. The sect and its cities would be the targets of the specters, the former especially, since it had the best spiritual energy springs in the area, which the specters desperately needed.

By the time she was done, she felt a little worn out. Sitting atop her cloudveil illusory fox, she returned to her cultivation grounds, the Cloudfox Hall. It was already the dark of night and the moon and countless stars were visible, thanks to the cloudless sky. Before entering the hall, she turned and looked at the Divine Moon Realm far up above.

"So they don't care if the specters wipe us out, only whether they break the taboo?" Her expression was cold. "They sure like to throw their weight around, though. At the end of the day, we can only rely on ourselves."

Even without personally dealing with the envoys from the Divine Moon Realm, Li Caiwei was plenty displeased after hearing about it from Tianming. As she was mulling over their predicament, she entered Cloudfox Hall and immediately felt a chill, as if a beam of moonlight was shining on her body. Looking up, she saw a white-haired youth standing in the clouds, wearing a large cloak. His face was fair and glowing, and he looked like the child of the moon under the illumination of moonlight. The crescent moon symbol on his forehead looked all too eye-catching.

"Ah, Lord from the Divine Moon Realm. I wonder if you need something?" Though she asked that in a casual tone, she was actually really nervous. Tianming had told her that he was a god, and gods hadn’t existed on the Flameyellow Continent for a hundred thousand years.

As she watched, the man looked down on her, eyeing her pink hair from high up, and said, "Since you know who I am, why don't you kneel?"

"Lord, by the customs of the Flameyellow Continent, that’s not the expectation. I’m neither your slave nor your servant," she said with her head lowered.

"By the customs of the Divine Moon Realm, those inferior must kneel." While his words sounded gentle, they cut like a sharp wind.

"But this is the Flame—"

"Where I stand is my territory." Before she finished, he put a hand on her shoulder and pressed down. He hadn’t moved quickly, but the force caused Li Caiwei to grit her teeth. She couldn't resist at all as she was pressed down to her knees.

"Kneel well. I heard that you have a rather good status among your run-down place, so I have some questions for you." He continued looking down on her like nothing happened, completely unfazed at the fact that he just made someone as beautiful as her kneel. Right as she was about to look up, he humphed with dissatisfaction. "Keep your head lowered. Even though we're in the mortal world, it doesn’t hurt to have some manners. That’s what being civilized means."

"Understood. Ask away!" Li Caiwei waved her angry fox away to make sure it didn't come in. No matter how angry she was, she had to hold it back in the presence of a god.

"These days, I've heard some interesting rumors while traveling across the Nine Divine Realms," his lofty voice rang out.

"What rumors?"

"It's said that the human emperor of yours was only a sky saint a year ago when he joined the sect. In a short year, he managed to grow strong enough to kill twelfth-level death samsarans. It's said that he became the strongest person on the continent in his twenties and is soon to ascend," said Huiyue Yin.

Li Caiwei furrowed her brows. She knew that Tianming's amazing achievements were definitely annoying this fellow a lot. Otherwise he wouldn't be in such a bad mood. Based on his voice, she could tell that those rumors bothered him a lot. After all, he had mocked Tianming when he first told them of his age, only for him to find out later that it was true. If that was the case, the behavior the three of them had shown was utterly humiliating.

Li Caiwei was all too aware of what he was thinking. Knowing his troubles, she felt a little relieved. But the thought of this causing trouble to Tianming gave her a headache. They had thought getting into contact with the Divine Moon Realm would be helpful, yet it turned out that these three envoys were actually putting them in a tough position. Let's hope Tianming’s made preparations to counter this.

The man stood before her and said, "Is all that true?"

"Yes. Our human emperor is said to be the successor of Great Emperor Xuanyuan and has inherited his legacy."

The legacy of Great Emperor Xuanyuan, including his caelum and Dragonhide, was public knowledge. However, Huiyue Yin and the rest wouldn't care much about that. Even so, Li Caiwei thought it would at least make Tianming's meteoric rise sound more plausible and less miraculous.

"Xuanyuan?" He suddenly chuckled, sounding completely unimpressed. "For someone at twenty-three to be able to reach these heights would make him rather decent even in the Divine Moon Realm."

It wasn't just decent, Tianming didn't have access to the stellunar source, nor a million god-level caeli, yet he was far superior to Huiyue Yin at the same age.

"Surely he pales in comparison to you, Lord."

"Oh? I seem to be hearing something else in that tone of yours." He came to her and pulled on her ponytail, raising her face toward him.

"Lord, did you not say I should not raise my head?"

"If I want you to raise it, you raise it." Looking at her coldly with his pale eyes, he suddenly chuckled. "Come to think of it, your looks and figure are decent. Did you think you might be able to seduce me with your charm?"

Li Caiwei felt like she was about to puke, but she didn't dare show it in fear for her life. "Lord, you’re overthinking it. How could someone as esteemed as you come to like the looks of an ant like me?"

"You’re a smart one, I’ll give you that. Your bloodlines are too lowly! Even though we’re all humans, there's supposed to be a minimum standard. Yet you lot are like animals, dogs and pigs. No matter how pretty a female dog is, a human would never be charmed by one, understood?"

"Yes, Lord. You truly are a man of grace. As expected of someone from a civilized land. However, I feel it’s a little wasteful for you to remind me of my lowly stature. I’m already fully convinced, so I worry that your saliva will go to waste, Lord."

"Oh, trying to be smart, are we?" He raised her by her ponytail. "Don't you know you should be grateful? Without me here, your rootbeast race would’ve been killed by the specters long ago! It's one thing if you aren’t grateful, but how dare you mock me?!" His mood was indeed terrible. Li Caiwei took a deep breath and swallowed her rage. "Next time you see me, kneel. I saved your dog life, understood?!"

He then raised his foot and slammed it against her knee, snapping it completely.

"Ugh...." Her face was pale, but she didn't utter a cry.

Then, Huiyue Yin tossed her to the ground and cried out, "Though I didn't think there would be useful stuff over here, but there’s at least a few things, I bet." When he was done, he left the hall. The cloudveil illusory fox hurriedly rushed in, angered at its master's broken leg.

"It's fine, I just need to reconnect it. It won't kill me," she said as she crawled onto its back.

"Are we to be bullied just like that?!" the fox growled.

"Of course not!"

"Then what do we do?"

"I’ve never faced so much humiliation all my life. I'm going to complain to Tianming!"

......

At the northmost part of the Flameyellow Continent was an endless ocean of ice. The severe cold caused many layers of ice to form, giving it a color that matched the sky. There wasn’t a single person in sight on this vast expanse, making for quite an untainted sight of beauty. It was the first time Tianming had ever come to this place. The icebergs, sea, and cold drafts awed him with their beauty. If only I’d come here to witness such a beautiful sight with Ling'er, he lamented.

He shook his head, standing unmoving on top of an iceberg. A few hundred meters ahead of him was a girl in a short white skirt. She played around the ice and snow, her laughter echoing like the clearest of bells. She looked utterly elated, probably thanks to long periods of living in a claustrophobic space. She skidded around the icy layers and even smashed through them to swim with the colorful fish like a mermaid.

Whether she intended it or not, she was dressed rather lightly. After entering the water, her clothes tightly clung to her figure and seemed to make her glisten. Her figure was really alluring to begin with, and her cute face made her even more charming.

However, Tianming didn't pay her too much heed and continued practicing his swordsmanship. When twilight came, the setting sun cast an orange hue on the ice and made it sparkle.

"Hey, come play with me! The fish here are really pretty! There’s all kinds of shapes and sizes!" rang her voice before Tianming could even see her.