Chapter 1081

A beautiful woman lazily sat on the throne in Xi Palace, cradling a cup of moon tea brewed with divine herbs with her fine fingers while delightfully licking her lips. Her slender legs curved slightly, glistening with perfection. In her other hand was a paper note and a transmission stone.

"They've caught my prey using the orderian cauldron. They should be here within the hour."

Sovereign Xi had just received the Pentamoon Slayers' message. Allowing Tianming to destroy the formation and escape was the first time she had failed in her life, which was quickly followed by a few more failures; it was a chain reaction. Thankfully, things were starting to shape up again.

"Sending a hundred thousand gods to kill the people of the world below will be really hard to keep under wraps, after all. If Orderia finds out about it, all the effort I've made to put up a good front for them would be for naught." She still hadn't used her transmission stone to give Prince Fengyue his order to depart. The Pentamoon Slayers had been on the chase for more than twenty days without any results, so she had been growing rather impatient. Little did she know that it would all work out in the end.

"As long as he's trapped within the cauldron, there's no need to fight. They can just bring him back. No matter how crazy his methods are, there's no way he'll be able to escape the cauldron Orderia gave me."

She continued sipping away at her tea while she waited. Yet before an hour had even passed, something in the hall behind her shattered. Then there were four more distinct shattering sounds. She still had her cup of tea held up as she froze, stunned. Abruptly, she stood and smashed the cup to the ground and rushed back to the hall behind her. The five lifesoul stones that had been placed there for more than two centuries were shattered, causing her expression to shift multiple times before it contorted into madness.

"Yet again, he destroyed my preconceptions. Have I tempted fate?"

Gritting her teeth, she calmed herself. Her gaze turned gentle, but a venomous insidiousness was hidden beneath it. She was now a cold, venomous snake, unable to figure out what sort of mad trick Tianming had used to elude her this time.

"The orderian cauldron already had him trapped within, and those five were enhanced by it. Even if he's an elite at the Lifecycle Sky level, he should’ve perished. At the very least, those five wouldn't all be dead. How could this be possible? He already spared lots of effort to kill Liu Qinghuan. That should've been the limit of his power. How could he still improve in the twenty days he spent on the run?"

She took a deep breath and finally understood it. "That means he has something that’s completely beyond my imagination. Common sense will no longer work to evaluate him."

Though she was angry, her mind was calm. It was time for damage control.

"Some things simply can't be explained away by talent. Perhaps someone who rebels against fate like him can resolve countless problems by relying on luck alone. I should start analyzing this from the ground up again. Lianlian."

The imperial guide entered right as she was summoned. "What do you need?"

"Help me look into the possibility of there being an orderian cauldron in the Flameyellow Continent."

"I came here just to tell you about that."

"What do you mean?"

"I looked into the records of the continent from two hundred thousand years ago. There was a passage that said an elite that could reach Orderia had appeared on the continent. During that time, a dead star from the astralscape of order had fallen to the world below. The specters from that star began consuming the lifebound beasts of the continent's natives and enslaved humanity. Then a powerful human elite by the name of Xuanyuan came to the divine moonrace for help. However, our ancestors ignored his pleas. In the end, he went to Orderia and managed to beg for a cauldron. Our ancestors were then ordered to solve the problem and work with Xuanyuan to seal the specters!"

It was now clear that Tianming was only able to win because he also had keys for an orderian cauldron.

"I’d heard about something like that before, but I didn't know that Xuanyuan managed to get an orderian cauldron in the process!" Sovereign Xi said, furrowing her brows. So that was what happened.

"It's not really surprising. I didn't really look into it. Not to mention, this matter was rather grating to us, the divine moonrace, so we were unwilling to record most of what happened. Do you know what I mean now? When they first came to us for help and we ignored them, that caused waves across Orderia and resulted in our humiliating punishment. At the end of the day, only the guardians of the cauldron in the world below would know this part of history. As for the cauldron itself, as it was used as a foundation for sealing up the specters, nobody dared to touch it. Coupled with the passing of two hundred millennia, its power has basically been all used up and nobody in the present day even recalls it anymore," the imperial guide explained.

The sovereign had her mind completely occupied with returning to Orderia and had never thought about the world below at all. "I see. If only you’d told me that earlier...."

"What happened?"

"Those five are dead. Li Tianming has orderian keys, and now the cauldron has fallen into his hands."

"I was just a few moments late?" The imperial guide was speechless.

"That's right. This brat's luck is mind boggling." If only she had that kind of luck.

"It can't be helped. I'm going to say something you won't like to hear. The divine moonrace has always felt an inferiority complex, compared to the celestial orderians, but we also look down on the world below with a sense of superiority. We only have the sun in our sights and our pride made it easy for Li Tianming to exploit us. We stand in the light, while he’s striking from the shadows."

"So I have to completely humble myself to deal with a foe like this."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going to study everything I can about the Flameyellow Continent and its history. With a hundred thousand gods, I'm not just going to force Li Tianming to submit, I'm going to force him to use all his trump cards. I refuse to believe he'll have a second orderian cauldron he can use."

"This is the only way. If he can even kill all five of the slayers, then deploying the gods across the entire continent is the only way. There's no way he can deal with all of them alone, even if he was a hundred times stronger than he is. It's a risky move, but its certain to work," the imperial guide said.

"Alright, let's begin. The nova source pulse is coming soon, possibly within the next two days. Let's rid ourselves of this problem. I'll unlock my eighth bane-ring before dealing with that rat hiding in my city." Sovereign Xi used the transmission stone in her hand to send a note that read: “Time to act, go all out.”

Once Prince Fengyue received the note, he would know it was a sign that they wouldn't stop until they achieved their goal. The weak lifeforms of the world below couldn't possibly compare to the divine moonrace, no matter how numerous they were.

"Should I go down and monitor the situation?" the imperial guide asked.

"No need. It's a simple matter of throwing numbers at the problem. It's better that you stay here to help me. With how adept that killer is at hiding, I alone will find it hard to defend multiple skycities myself. I might even fall for his traps and machinations."

Sovereign Xi had been trying to deal with Bodhi for more than twenty days now, and knew how terrifying he was. The slightest mistake from her would result in a large number of deaths, and throwing numbers at that particular problem would be useless. The nightmarish killer almost seemed formless and couldn't be grasped. The sovereign had already done her best to help the royals leave and go into hiding.

However, there were a million of them alone, and it would be easy for chaos to break out while escorting them away. The killer would have far too many chances to strike if they all moved together, so the process of escorting them to safety was slow. It might take a month to completely evacuate the city, and she had to personally check every single evacuee to make sure the killer hadn’t slipped in among them.

"Once everyone’s gone, I'll get rid of that pest and destroy the whole city if I have to!" she said with a savage look.