By the next day, everything the strike had wrecked in Tongtian Pavilion was restored to its original state.
That was the power of godstones fed into the repair array.
So long as there was sufficient power, the God Alliance would endure.
Ye Yu wasn’t surprised. What did surprise him was that Luo Shu had apparently turned into a loyal guard dog.
From the first day Liu Yuenong moved in, he hadn’t left her side.
Even at night he stood watch at her door.
Anyone who didn’t know °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° better might have thought him devoted.
But with his teeth bared and face twisted, it was obvious the old hound was deeply displeased with the beautiful witch.
Curious, Ye Yu walked straight over and asked who Liu Yuenong really was and why Luo Shu was so angry.
“From what you two said yesterday, she used to be one of Tongtian Pavilion’s people, then left,” he said. “But from your own account, plenty from the God Alliance walked away. Shouldn’t you be used to it by now?”
“She isn’t the same!” Luo Shu snarled. “Anyone could leave—but not her!”
Ye Yu knit his brows and was about to press him when a door opened behind him.
He turned to see Liu Yuenong leaning on the doorframe, a red drink in one hand, an oddly wicked beauty about her.
“You’re right,” she said. “I shouldn’t have left. But I knew that if I stayed, I would rot along with this Alliance, and the name Tongtian Pavilion would never rise again.”
Luo Shu started to retort, but a violet chain snapped into place and sealed his mouth.
He strained with everything he had, and still couldn’t break it.
Then Liu Yuenong began to speak of her days in Tongtian Pavilion.
“Bai Hong and Luo Shu ascended together and founded Tongtian Pavilion—true enough.
“But the first demon to believe in them and join the God Alliance was me.”
She had been Bai Hong’s disciple, later Shattering the Void and stepping into the God Realm.
Then, without hesitation, she had committed herself to the Alliance Bai Hong created.
Back then, the three of them forced the name Tongtian Pavilion into the God Realm’s notice, making it shine brighter and brighter.
You could say that aside from Bai Hong and Luo Shu, the first name on the roll of merit was Liu Yuenong.
In time she became Tongtian Pavilion’s Grand Elder,
deeply trusted by Bai Hong.
Master and disciple, yes—but they were more like mother and daughter.
Even Luo Shu, before Liu Yuenong, felt like an uncle.
But after Bai Hong’s death and Luo Shu’s grievous injury,
Tongtian Pavilion’s prestige waned like a setting sun.
Headless and adrift, they had to choose someone to carry the pavilion forward, or the Alliance would wither quickly.
Luo Shu knew it.
So he set his sights on Liu Yuenong,
hoping the first disciple of Bai Hong, the Grand Elder of the Alliance, would shoulder the burden.
He wasn’t alone; the other god-clan members in Tongtian Pavilion thought the same.
In strength, Liu Yuenong was the Alliance’s strongest. In prestige, unmatched.
No one but her had the right to sit as God Alliance Leader.
And yet, at that very juncture, Liu Yuenong chose to leave.
When she made the decision, Luo Shu thought she’d gone mad.
But she was resolute—gone the moment she said the word, with no message left behind.
Despair swept through Tongtian Pavilion. Many demon gods left with her.
From that day, the pavilion truly began to decline.
Liu Yuenong recounted it all like a bystander telling a tale. When she finished, she lifted the seal from Luo Shu’s mouth and asked, quite seriously, “Anything to add?”
“Add what?” Luo Shu exploded. “Don’t you have anything to explain? Back then, Bai Hong and I treated you well. At the crucial moment you walked away. Don’t you have a single thing to say to me?”
He was nearly hopping with rage.
Liu Yuenong’s next line drove his fury even higher.
“If I explained, would you believe me? I know your temperament. No matter what I say, you won’t. In that case, why waste the effort?”
She gave him no chance to answer—turned on her heel, went back into her room, and shut the door hard.
“Ah!!!”
“Get out here!”
“If you’ve got the guts, open the door!”
Luo Shu’s roars sounded more like impotent fury than anything else.
Ye Yu’s expression, by contrast, was complicated.
He’d been in that headspace himself.
It wasn’t about yanking other people’s emotions around, or deliberately letting the misunderstanding fester.
It was knowing in advance that explaining would be useless—and if so, why explain?
Sometimes saying more is worth less than doing more.
That, Ye Yu understood deeply.
Maybe the woman had her own reasons.
He shook his head, turned, and went back to his room.
For now, the priority was to raise his strength first. Everything else was empty talk.
Lately, he really hadn’t run into many low-cultivation gods.
Most who showed up were already at the ceiling.
It left him with very little sense of safety.
Time passed.
Half a month later, Ye Yu pushed forward again, reaching late New God Realm.
Outside his window, Luo Shu’s cursing still drifted faintly.
Only then did Ye Yu finally understand why, in an argument, people kept saying “stop barking like a dog.”
Because a dog’s barking could really drive you mad.
Ye Yu rose slowly and headed out.
Whether it was because he stepped with his right foot first or not, the entire Tongtian Pavilion began to tremble violently.
The shaking grew stronger.
It felt as if the whole Alliance might collapse at any moment.
Sure enough, a vast fissure split open across the central training grounds.
Caught off guard, Luo Shu dropped straight in.
Ye Yu flashed forward to save him, but he was clearly a step behind.
At the last instant, a white ribbon shot out, wrapped Luo Shu like a rice dumpling, and hauled him up.
Liu Yuenong had acted.
Suspended in midair, she looked down at the chasm with a grave expression.
“Take the Great Sage away from here,” she said. “Come back in half a year. Consider this my room fee.”
The white ribbon carried a delicate wooden box—and Luo Shu—straight to Ye Yu.
