A moment after leaving the Twenty-Ninth Chamber of the Three Corps Hall, Ban Xia furrowed her brow in bewilderment. She could not fathom Ye Yu’s true purpose in coming here. Was it really only for a few rare materials? That seemed unlikely—given his strength, he could visit any Immortal sect as a guest and depart with local specialties without needing to seek out the Demon Heavenly Lord.
Ye Yu, keenly aware of her expression, whispered, “I admit, before coming I did plan to eliminate the Demon Heavenly Lord. But once we arrived, I changed my mind. As I told him, he’s invested much in me—intelligence, rare treasures, even this nominal ‘Immortal partner’ you.”
At those words, Ban Xia’s cheeks warmed and she scolded, “We both know that’s just for show—why bring it up?”
“Setting that aside,” Ye Yu continued, “the Demon Heavenly Lord has always been overly courteous to me. It feels like endless flattery. Do you know why?”
Ban Xia fell silent. True—she had once asked him why he treated an outsider so well, but he never answered directly, only claiming that Ye Yu was important and that they would cooperate in the future. No one knew what that collaboration entailed. It was indeed suspicious. If the Demon Heavenly Lord had once swallowed half the Eastern Celestial Realm without giving a second thought to the First Immortal Gate, why dote on Ye Yu so excessively? The more she thought of it, the stranger it became.
Ye Yu watched her shake her head and murmured, “I was curious myself, so as I departed I warned him: my time in the Celestial Realm is short. He’d best make haste with his plans.”
...
Meanwhile, when Li Ruowang reappeared, she had successfully broken into the early Immortal Emperor realm. Such a terrifying leap would make all the immortals of the Celestial Realm look up in awe. The reason was simple: tens of thousands of years ago she had already approached the threshold of the Emperor realm but had been stuck, unable to breakthrough her personal Dao.
Determined to ascend, Li Ruowang made a daring choice: she split her divine soul in two. Half of her soul and all her power remained in the Celestial Realm; the other half entered reincarnation via secret arts, to wander the mortal world until she reached the moment of re-ascension, at which point her memories would unseal. It was a do-or-die gamble with no retreat.
She believed that only by such means could she truly forge her Dao. She had once read in an ancient text: “See Heaven and Earth, see all beings, see thyself.” As the brightest genius in the Central Celestial Realm, she had early attained “See Heaven and Earth.” But “See all beings”—she could not, for mortals who saw her immediately bowed in reverence, preventing her true understanding. To witness all beings, she had to become mortal. Thus she descended into human reincarnation.
But Li Ruowang never expected that, as an incomplete original soul, her re-ascension would be so arduous. After hundreds of lifetimes she still could not return and nearly remained mortal forever. Yet “all things are possible.” She ultimately succeeded, resealed her Celestial Realm memories, and completed her task of “seeing all beings.” When her two soul halves reunited, she at last “saw herself,” completing her Dao perfectly—unfailing to Heaven, to mortals, or to herself.
It sounded profound, but in essence “seeing oneself” simply meant refusing to betray one’s own heart: doing only what one wished, eating only what one desired, meeting only those one chose. That was “not betraying oneself.” It perfectly matched Li Ruowang’s character.
After stabilizing her Immortal Emperor cultivation, she did not immediately return to Wu Wei Tower but, guided by memory, went to her former sect’s location.
“Wait—” She froze. Her sect was gone! In the Celestial Realm, once an Immortal Gate is built its position never shifts. Even if destroyed, so long as one immortal survives, a rebuilt gate arises at its original site. It was an unspoken rule—for ease of memory, both theirs and others’. Yet here all was vanished. No mountain, no gate—nothing.
Li Ruowang scowled but refined her divine sight to confirm. This spot was indeed her old sect, now utterly erased. She sighed. “Family, who ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) would understand? I break into the Immortal Emperor realm—and lose home. Whom can I complain to?”
But she had no time for investigation—the daughter Ye Nian had urged her to return many times. She would delve into this mystery later.
Returning to Wu Wei Tower, Li Ruowang bumped into Ye Yu and Ban Xia reentering together. Having not seen Ye Yu for so long, she flung herself into his arms, pouring out her longing—while Ban Xia was entirely ignored. “Just another sister,” Li Ruowang thought. Before arriving in the Celestial Realm, she had braced herself: more sisters mattered not. As long as Ye Nian remained, she would forever hold the position of First Sister. After all, “a mother rises by her daughter.”
Ban Xia, meanwhile, stared at Li Ruowang’s dragon-embroidered robe as if upon discovering a cosplayer. Yet with Ghost Kings and Demon Kings already present, a human-world Empress was hardly strange—and thankfully the expanded Wu Wei Tower had room.
At the tower gate the other sisters came out upon hearing the commotion. When Hong Luan saw Li Ruowang, she beamed. “Tsk tsk, I never thought you’d be the last to ascend!”
Hong Luan felt superior—so long as one wasn’t dead last, one had outdone Li Ruowang.
Li Ruowang released Ye Yu, tilted her head, and let her Immortal Emperor pressure fully manifest. “Tell me—who’s truly last?”
In an instant Hong Luan’s smile froze. Not only she, but every sister present could not believe Li Ruowang had directly broken into the Immortal Emperor realm upon arrival in the Celestial Realm. How had she done it?
“Sister?” A call rang out, snapping Li Ruowang from her display of power, and she turned to look.
