Niutou pursed his mouth. "What toxic wine! I've never had anything worse!"

"This sort of poison, this—I can't bear it anymore!"

The three sura kings whose faces had been turning green after Gaoyuan's revelation suddenly became to vomit at once.

Gaoyuan twisted his head. "What are they doing?"

Suiyue shrugged. "Who knows."

Fenghe clapped vigorously. "Amazing! No one has ever managed to take down three sura kings in one sitting. Ninth brother, congratulations—your accomplishment won't be replicated for a millennium, I'm sure of it!"

Shicang, who likewise hadn't drunk the proffered wine, asked, "From today onwards, can I call you a master poisoner?"

Gaoyuan finally understood what they were insinuating. "What? But this is a top-quality brew! Do any of you truly understand brewing?"

Shouta's face was pale. "Top quality?! Leave it for yourself, then!"

Niutou sighed. "And to think they call me perverted! Compared to you, I'm hardly worth mentioning."

Moyan sighed as well. "I feel much the same way. Compared to those who have fallen to true perversion, I'm hardly anything."

Gaoyuan shouted, "I'm just a culinary connoisseur, someone who aspires to the acme of food!"

"A poison connoisseur, perhaps?" everyone replied simultaneously.

"A testicle connoisseur!"

Fenghe palmed his face. "To have ordered all the men in your kingdom be castrated—I had thought you nothing more than a fanatic like our fifth brother, but I've really underestimated you."

Moyan concurred. "You're more perverted than any of us here, and I think all of us agree on this point. If anyone ever tries to call me out on my fetish, I'll mention that yours is worse."

The other sura kings nodded.

Gaoyuan shook his head. "No, no! You're my fourth brother—how could you be so modest? I'm sure you're far more perverted than I am."

Moyan shook his head quickly. "No, surely not. You might be my younger brother, but you're far more perverted than I am. You're a stain on my honor, I say!"

Shouta nodded and gave Gaoyuan a thumbs up. "Fourth brother is right. You're the most perverted among us, we'll all grant you that!"

From the three brothers' expressions alone, ignoring their actual dialogue, one would almost think that they were each demurring some honor politely.

Gaoyuan shook his head. "Fourth brother, you've extracted the eyes of countless humans. Please have more confidence in yourself."

Moyan countered, "Ninth brother, you're a connoisseur of testicles. Isn't that fact enough to have you be considered the most perverted among us?"

"I've told you already, I'm just a gourmand! Surely I'm far less vicious or brutal than our eldest brother? He's a butcher, through and through! All of us combined would have a lower kill count than him."

Shouta folded his arms. "Nonsense! The necrophile surely has killed more humans. His entire kingdom's full of corpses."

Shicang's brows furrowed. "Don't drag me into this."

Shouta rolled his eyes at him. "As though you aren't a pervert in your own right!"

"I'm a collector, only that."

Shouta shrugged. "I doubt I've killed as many people as you've collected."

Shicang shook his head. "Is someone perverted just for killing people? Look at Niutou—he's never killed anyone except on the battlefield, but we consider him crazier than a pervert."

Moyan nodded. "And our eighth brother as well—he's barely killed anyone, but they fear him more than they do us."

It was Niutou's turn to frown. "What? Who's calling me crazier than a pervert?"

Suiyue looked aggrieved. "I'm just a gerontophile! What's wrong with that?!"

Niutou rolled his eyes. "Even an ordinary gerontophile would be disgusted by you."

Fenghe tried to pacify all the sura kings. "Brothers, let's not fight over these things. What's wrong with a little perversion between men? Surely you wouldn't want Father to see us fighting."

Everyone shouted, "Shut up, you mad scientist!"

"What? What's wrong with my passion for science, for biology?"

None of the sura outside the palace could have imagined that the seven sura kings, potential candidates to become the future monarch of stars, were squabbling with each other like little children.

Just as the situation looked to be spiraling out of control, a red-robed elder walked in and asked, "What are all of you discussing?"

Everyone quieted down and returned to their seats. Shouta asked, "Why are you here, elder? Where's Father?"

The red-robed sura was an elder of the empire of stars. He slowly replied, "His majesty had something that required his attention, so he dispatched me to supervise the meeting for the moment to prevent any infighting."

Clearly, the monarch of stars had anticipated such a fight occurring.

The elder sat down by the center of the table. "You've all received the missives, haven't you?"

Shouta countered, "Elder, if we hadn't, how would we have known to gather here?"

The elder nodded. "Very good. In that case, what do you think of the information presented in the missive?"

Shouta shook his head. "To be honest, I'm very surprised that our fifth and seventh brothers were killed."

Shicang added, "By a human, no less."

Fenghe closed his eyes in contemplation. "It's possible that it wasn't in direct battle, as the missive alluded to."

Moyan advised, "We should try to be cautious. Our enemy might be lurking in the background."

Niutou suddenly raised his head. "What does Father think?"

"My thoughts are simple: we'll crush them with brute force."

The monarch of stars pushed open the doors to the meeting room and marched in, his aura dwarfing that of anyone else's in the room.

The seven sura kings present were all leaders and rulers in their own right, but even their auras were magnitudes weaker than the monarch of stars'.

"Long time no see, godsons!"

"Godfather!"

As soon as the monarch of stars emerged, the seven perverted sura kings immediately began acting like the paragons of virtue, and the monarch gave them all a big hug.

He instructed them seriously, "No matter who it was that killed your fifth and seventh brothers, we'll make them pay. We'll strike quickly and lethally, as fast as possible. This matter concerns not just my reputation, but also the reputation of the entire empire of stars. We must make it known that you godsons aren't to be touched."