Chapter 476: Something Is Wrong With This Era

"Is that so?" the Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman said with a smile.

"But I get the feeling he doesn't really want to guard Yueyin for you."

Beneath the white veil, the figure's tone was calm.

"He's still young. He hasn't realized what kind of responsibilities he should shoulder."

"Heh." The Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman sneered and said no more.

She understood the Rabbit across from her very well. From start to finish, that mouth was the Rabbit's most formidable weapon, fully capable of turning black into white and white into black.

She couldn't win a battle of words, so she simply didn't bother trying.

In her mind, however, she was already calculating what chips to use to win him over once the Beast Lord's team kicked Yan Jing out. Although Yan Jing had eliminated Wang Yan from the Dungeon, Wang Yan's fate was relatively good compared to those on Tianzi's side. Soothing him afterward shouldn't be a big problem.

She'd had a very poor impression of Yan Jing previously, but that was only because he hadn't yet demonstrated his value.

Now, it seemed he was a rare talent. If possible, she still wanted to win him over.

But a few seconds later, her expression froze as she watched the updated information on the ranking board.

[The player with the honorary title Yi has brutalized the player with the honorary title Heavenly Armor]

[The player with the honorary title Yi has crushed the player with the honorary title Violinist]

[The player with the honorary title Yi has brutalized the player with the honorary title Ten Thousand Waters]

[The player with the honorary title Yi has brutalized the player with the honorary title Screen]

How was this possible?!

The Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman's pupils trembled violently as she stared at the board in disbelief.

Then, she whipped her head around to look at the white-veiled figure.

She suspected the Moon Yin domain lord was playing tricks. After all, this ranking board was Yueyin's Vessel; these notifications might be fake.

But when her gaze fell upon the veil, she sensed a shock matching her own radiating from the suddenly motionless white fabric.

The figure was clearly just as stunned.

One against four!

And it wasn't just a victory, or even a major victory for most of them—it was an absolute brutalization!

Dong Yu, the player with the honorary title Heavenly Armor, possessed strength obvious to all. During his fight against Zhou Xian, he had claimed victory without either side using their trump cards. Yet now, he had been flat-out "brutalized."

Furthermore, all four notifications had appeared within a single minute.

"Fuck..."

Utterly incredulous, the Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman took a step forward. Her body

"Is that so?" the Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman said with a smile.

"But I get the feeling he doesn't really want to guard Yueyin for you."

Beneath the white veil, the figure's tone was calm.

"He's still young. He hasn't realized what kind of responsibilities he should shoulder."

"Heh." The Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman sneered and said no more.

She understood the Rabbit sitting across from her perfectly. From start to finish, that mouth was their most formidable weapon, fully capable of calling black white and white black.

She couldn't win a battle of words, so she simply didn't bother trying.

In her mind, however, she was already calculating what chips to use to negotiate once the Beast Lord's team kicked Yan Jing out of the dungeon. Although Yan Jing had eliminated Wang Yan, Wang Yan's fate was relatively good compared to those on Tianzi's side. Soothing him afterward shouldn't be a big problem.

She'd had a very poor impression of Yan Jing previously, but that was only because he hadn't yet demonstrated his value.

Now, it seemed he was a rare talent. If possible, she still wanted to win them over.

But a few seconds later, her expression froze as she watched the updated information on the ranking board.

[The player with the honorary title Yi has brutalized the player with the honorary title Heavenly Armor]

[The player with the honorary title Yi has crushed the player with the honorary title Violinist]

[The player with the honorary title Yi has brutalized the player with the honorary title Ten Thousand Waters]

[The player with the honorary title Yi has brutalized the player with the honorary title Screen]

How was this possible?!

The Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman's pupils trembled violently as she stared at the board in disbelief.

Then, she whipped her head around to look at the white-veiled figure.

She suspected the Moon Yin Domain lord was playing tricks. After all, this ranking board was The Vessel of Yueyin; these notifications might be fake.

But when her gaze fell upon the veil, she sensed a shock matching her own radiating from the suddenly motionless white fabric.

The figure was clearly just as stunned.

One against four!

And it wasn't just a victory, or even a crushing defeat for most of them—it was an absolute brutalization!

Dong Yu, the player with the honorary title Heavenly Armor, possessed undeniable strength. During his fight against Zhou Xian, he had claimed victory without either side using their trump cards. Yet now, he had been flat-out "brutalized."

Furthermore, all four notifications had popped up within a single minute.

"Fuck..."

Utterly incredulous, the Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman took a step forward. Her body transformed into a streak of rainbow light and vanished.

In the next instant, she appeared at the door of the room where the Beast Lord's members were staying.

The door flew open with a bang, making Wang Yan, who was resting inside, flinch in fright.

"Where is everyone?!"

She tried to keep her cool, but her voice came out as a near-roar, carrying the feral growl of a wild beast.

Every object in the room vibrated from the force of her shout.

"There's... there's... no one here..."

Wang Yan was completely bewildered. He had just managed to get away from the medical team and lie down on the sofa; he hadn't checked the ranking board at all.

Discovering the room empty, the Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman's face visibly darkened further.

Standing a full two meters tall with a broad, heavy frame, she clenched her fists, and the entire building seemed to quake.

"Fuck! This is going too far!!!"

With a furious roar, she pulled a pendant from her chest.

Hanging from it was a Beast Tooth. Its surface was uneven, the dense pitting stained with dark, unwashable blood.

The moment it was exposed to the air, a savage, primal aura erupted from it. The wounds Wang Yan had painstakingly healed split open instantly, spraying blood.

But the Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman couldn't care less. Surges of weird energy exploded from her body and poured into the Beast Tooth. A blue-gray miasma instantly expanded, enveloping the entire First Ring Domain at a terrifying speed.

"Bai Ya! Bai Ya! Can you hear me?!"

Her voice was infinitely magnified by the savage blue-gray energy, exploding like thunder right at ground level. Everyone in the First Ring Domain felt their heads ring, momentarily deafened.

And that voice seemed to pierce through the heavens, surging into a certain Domain.

Upon the white jade stairway, the man wearing earrings heard the voice ringing in his ears. He withdrew his downward gaze and curled the corners of his mouth. Without replying, he simply continued his climb.

Although they were teammates in name, deep down he had never considered the others to be in the same league as himself.

Take the man in the tailcoat, for example. The only reason he ranked second was because, out of all the Beast Lord's people, his strength naturally placed him there. But he, Bai Ya, was first only because first was the highest rank available.

Even if a hundred or a thousand more people showed up, he would still be first.

As for the guy who had just beaten his teammates...

They could talk once that person actually caught up to him.

Thus, completely ignoring the Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman's voice echoing in his ear, he kept climbing.

His speed was incredibly fast; he basically never spent more than three minutes on a single tier.

Six hundred tiers... six hundred and ten, six hundred and twenty...

When he reached the six hundred and fortieth tier, he felt as if something inside his body had snapped.

A refreshing coolness surged into his muscles, so soothing that he couldn't help but tremble.

His physical body had broken through some sort of shackle, and his internal strength had surged to a new level.

His expression remained utterly calm.

Such an improvement was merely icing on the cake for him; physical strength was not what he excelled at most.

The only reason he wanted to climb this stairway was out of sheer curiosity, a whim to see if there was anything interesting at the top. He wasn't chasing any specific goal.

In fact, he had always been this way.

He didn't need to work hard or put his heart into it. He just had to take things step by step, do what he enjoyed every day, and he would naturally grow stronger.

"Success is simply too easy..." he sighed softly, shaking his head as he continued his ascent.

Unexpectedly, right at that moment, a voice drifted up from behind him.

"Is it really that easy?"

The voice carried a clear smile. He raised an eyebrow, and for the first time, a trace of surprise appeared in his eyes.

He turned his head just in time to see Yan Jing step onto his current tier.

"Hello, sir."

Yan Jing smiled.

"This is our first time meeting. My name is Yan Jing."

"Bai Ya."

Bai Ya looked at Yan Jing's tranquil demeanor. Although he quickly lowered his gaze, he couldn't hide the renewed surprise in his eyes. Because Yan Jing hadn't closed his eyes.

Even though he had just stepped onto a new tier, Yan Jing didn't seem to react to the pressure at all.

After all, even Bai Ya himself needed a brief moment to adjust to the gravity on each new tier.

This astonished him.

His gaze swept up from Yan Jing's trouser legs, scanning his entire body as if searching for proof that the man was just putting on a brave face.

Unfortunately, he found nothing.

"You're not bad at all."

He spoke, offering his sincere praise.

He rarely complimented an opponent like this.

Anyone who could make him say such words generally possessed traits worthy of his admiration.

"Thank you," Yan Jing said with a smiling nod. He was just about to say something else when the Tiger-Skin Skirt Woman's utterly frantic voice erupted between the two of them. "Bai Ya!!! I'll say this one last time!! Bring everyone else back! And that kid too!! Capture him and bring him to me! Otherwise, don't bother coming back yourself!!!!"

"Did you hear me—"

The voice cut off abruptly as Bai Ya severed the connection himself.

"A bit noisy,"

Bai Ya said with a laugh.

When he laughed, he liked to shake his head slightly, making the white earrings on his ears jingle.

"You don't seem afraid of your domain lord," Yan Jing said, smiling.

Hearing this, Bai Ya laughed even harder. The corners of his mouth curled up wildly, revealing a mouth full of snow-white teeth.

"That's right, I'm not afraid of her."

"There are many reasons for that, but only one truly matters."

"It's because I am strong enough."

"And therefore, I am valuable enough."

"When a person is valuable, everyone wants to control them. But when that person's value surpasses a certain threshold, everyone becomes terrified of them having an accident."

"Without me, the Beast Lord would lose its only facade."

Pausing for a moment, he grinned.

"Especially after you just finished cleaning up the rest of them."

He pointed down at his few teammates far below.

"She can only rely on me now. So no matter what I do, all will be forgiven."

Yan Jing nodded thoughtfully upon hearing this.

"That makes a lot of sense, Mr. Bai."

"But what if she resorts to force?"

This time, Bai Ya didn't answer directly. He gave a faint smile.

"I can't give away the answer to that for free. That costs extra."

Yan Jing nodded.

"True enough. Rare commodities must be hoarded; some things lose their value the moment they're spoken aloud."

Bai Ya stretched lazily.

"Do you need anything else? If not, I'll be moving on."

Yan Jing smiled.

"I was just about to say the same thing."

The two of them resumed their ascent up the stairs.

Throughout the whole process, neither showed any intention of attacking the other.

To Bai Ya, it felt unnecessary.

Because whether they fought or not, he was absolutely certain he was stronger than Yan Jing. He didn't need to trade blows to prove it.

As for Yan Jing, he felt there was no reason to.

The other party didn't seem malicious, and Yan Jing was never one to pick fights over nothing.

Yan Jing's pace was very fast, and he quickly pulled ahead, putting a solid distance between himself and Bai Ya.

But Bai Ya didn't care in the slightest.

This wasn't where his own strengths lay, whereas it was clearly Yan Jing's.

And so, several dozen minutes later, Yan Jing stood on the nine-hundred-and-ninety-eighth tier.

This was the penultimate tier. Just one more tier up, and he would reach the very top.

Among the thousands of celestial stairways scattered across the wilderness, only one possessed the strongest gravity. And at the absolute peak of this particular stairway slumbered an existence from the era of the severed epoch. Bing Yao had told him this.

He glanced back. Bai Ya was still around the eight-hundredth tier.

Seeing Yan Jing look his way, Bai Ya waved a hand.

It meant Yan Jing didn't need to wait for him.

Yan Jing nodded and stepped onto the final tier.

At this tier, he was nearly a thousand meters above the ground. Unless one actively enhanced their vision, anyone down in the wilderness was nothing more than a blurry dot. White clouds and mist swirled right around his ankles.

Before him lay an open space roughly several hundred square meters in size. In the center of this white jade-paved platform, a figure lay sound asleep, snoring loudly. Yan Jing took a few steps forward. The sleeping person's ears twitched slightly; then, he sat up and stretched lazily.

It was a man dressed in extremely loose, white silk garments, exposing half his chest and his calves. He wore a pair of straw sandals on his feet. His platinum-blonde hair was a messy rat's nest, its color perfectly complementing the white jade tiles beneath him.

For some reason, as Yan Jing looked at the man, he was reminded of the Western gods described in books from his past life.

The man looked at Yan Jing and yawned.

"Is the severed epoch over?"

"It ended a long time ago," Yan Jing said with a smile.

"Then what era is it now?"

"It's the second severed epoch," Yan Jing replied.

The man's eyes shifted, and he seemed to finally start sizing Yan Jing up seriously.

"Your physical body is terrifyingly strong."

"Is everyone from this era this powerful?"

Yan Jing smiled.

"You flatter me."

The man stood up and cracked his neck. Then, his tone abruptly changed.

"If that's the case, you'll be the perfect test subject."

The moment the words left his mouth, the man's figure seemed to glitch out, freezing in place like a dropped frame. In the very next instant, a figure materialized right in front of Yan Jing, lashing out with a sweeping kick aimed straight for his neck.

It was hard to imagine just how long this man had slumbered in this zone. He had likely adapted to the tens of thousands of tons of gravity long ago, and his speed was absolutely horrifying.

It wasn't until the blow had already been struck that the afterimage left in his original spot finally faded.

The strike was shockingly fast. Since Yan Jing didn't excel at speed, he failed to block it, taking the heavy kick squarely on the left side of his neck.

Yet the one whose expression completely changed was the other man.

He had originally wanted to rely on his familiarity with the terrain to seize the initiative and end the battle swiftly.

But contrary to his expectations, the moment his foot connected with Yan Jing, it felt like he had kicked a mountain thousands of meters tall. Yan Jing didn't budge an inch, while the man's leg went completely numb before agonizing pain set in.

Taking advantage of that exact moment, Yan Jing reached out his left hand, grabbed his opponent's calf, and viciously slammed him into the ground!

"Pfft—!" Scarlet blood sprayed from the man's throat as agony instantly flooded his entire body. He felt as if a mountain peak had just rolled right over him.

Wasn't moving mountains and draining seas a feat only those in the Celestial Immortal Realm could achieve?

The thought flashed through the man's mind. A split second later, he planted one hand on the ground, twisted his wrist, and flipped up like a carp. He bolted for the edge of the white jade platform and leaped right off.

This guy was simply too terrifying.

He hadn't figured out the state of this era yet and had absolutely no confidence in winning, so he decisively chose to tuck his tail and run.

"Fuck, run, run, run... What the hell is with this guy? Aren't people in the Celestial Immortal Realm forbidden from entering the God Storage Land?"

As his body plummeted downward at a breakneck speed, he suddenly spotted Bai Ya, who had reached the eight-hundred-plus tiers.

"Fuck it, I don't buy this."

Determined to test the true caliber of this era, he prepared to unleash just a single strike.

In the next instant, he shot toward Bai Ya, who had his eyes closed in focus, and threw a punch straight at him.

A terrifying pressure surged toward Bai Ya from all directions, carried by the force of the fist.

Yet right as the punch was about to land, Bai Ya opened his eyes.

The next moment, weird energy surged up around his body.

He also threw a punch, smashing it right at the man.

In a trance-like flash.

The man seemed to see thousands upon thousands of figures clad in cloth garments stepping out from behind Bai Ya, all throwing a punch at him in perfect unison.

Countless fist shadows intersected, shining as brilliantly as the stars.

"I am King!"

Bai Ya said coolly.

He clenched his jaw tight, refusing to let the blood that had welled up in his throat from the white jade stairway's backlash spill out.

Their fists finally collided.

In the next second, blood sprayed wildly from the man's mouth. His figure blurred as he continued to plummet downward.

At this moment.

Only one thought remained in his mind.

Run faster.

Something was wrong with this era. Too fucking wrong.