The escape from the Black Spire was less of a tactical retreat and more of a chaotic freefall into the unknown. The Twilight Stable, now harboring a fugitive Divine Beast and a pig undergoing a cosmic metamorphosis, drifted deep into the Eternal Mist—a region of the Shattered Peaks where the clouds were so thick you could chew them.
Su Ye sat on the steps of the barn, watching his pig.
Zhu Zhu was currently floating three feet off the ground in a comatose state. He was encased in a shell of hardened, violet crystal—a chrysalis formed from the sheer density of the Void energy he had consumed. Every few seconds, the crystal would pulse, and a low, bass-heavy thump would vibrate through the entire stable, syncing with the heartbeat of the Sky-Eater beneath them.
"He ate a singularity," Lin Fan whispered, scanning the crystal with his gauntlet. "The energy readings are off the charts. It's not just Void energy anymore. It's... creating matter. Master, I think he's trying to digest a hole in space-time."
"As long as he doesn't eat the floor," Su Ye sighed, nursing a bruise on his shoulder. "Let him sleep. Evolution takes time."
He turned his attention to the other new addition to their chaotic family.
Moonbell, the Moon-Silver Fox, was sitting atop the highest point of the Star-Iron wall. Her silver fur, now clean of blood, shimmered with an ethereal light that pushed back the mist. She was grooming her nine tails with the regal indifference of a queen who had just destroyed a fortress.
"Hey, Foxy," Su Ye called out, tossing her a piece of dried spirit-meat.
Moonbell didn't look down. One of her tails simply extended, snatched the meat mid-air, and brought it to her mouth. She ate it delicately.
"My name is Moonbell," she projected her voice into his mind, cool and crisp. "And do not address me as 'Foxy'. I am older than your entire civilization."
"You were in a cage for ten years," Su Ye pointed out. "I broke the cage. I think that earns me nickname privileges."
The Fox paused. She looked down at him with eyes like liquid mercury.
"You broke the cage," she conceded. "But you also threw a pig at a bomb. Your methods are... unrefined."
"Efficient," Su Ye corrected. "Now, we need to talk strategy. We just blew up the headquarters of the Dark Beast Sect. Every Warlock, Necromancer, and bad guy with a grudge is going to be hunting us."
"Let them come," Moonbell's tails flared. "I have recovered 10% of my power. I can handle insects."
"Can you handle the Imperial Army?"
Su Ye pulled the Black Ring—Patriarch Wraith's ring—out of his pocket. It was vibrating. A soft red light pulsed from the gem.
"This isn't just a piece of jewelry," Su Ye said, tossing it in his hand. "It's a transmitter. Someone knows exactly where we are."
Gao Ming, who was trying to glue his mirror suit back together, gasped. "Throw it away! Toss it into the mist!"
"No," Su Ye smiled, and it was a cold, calculating smile. "If we throw it away, they stop chasing the ring and start searching the grid. If we keep it, we control where they look."
"You want to use it as a lure?" Luo Bing asked, cleaning her sword.
"I want to mail it," Su Ye said.
"Mail it?"
"To the Heavenly Sword Sect," Su Ye grinned. "If the Dark Beast Sect wants their ring back, let them go knock on the door of their rivals. We'll let the villains fight each other while we hide and train."
"That is... incredibly underhanded," Moonbell noted, though her tails swished with amusement. "I approve."
Suddenly, the mountain beneath them groaned.
Zzzzt.
"Captain..." the Sky-Eater's voice rumbled, sounding weary. "I am tired. The jump... it took a lot. I need to roost."
"Roost?" Su Ye looked at the map. "We can't land. The ground is swarming with enemies."
"Not ground," the mountain corrected. "The Graveyard."
Su Ye checked the holographic display. Deep in the Eternal Mist, there was a designated zone marked with skull icons.
[Zone: The Behemoth Graveyard.]
[Description: Where ancient sky-beasts go to die. High interference. Hidden from radar.]
"A graveyard," Su Ye nodded. "Perfect. No one looks for life in a graveyard."
He turned the wheel. "Take us in, Senior. Let's lay low."
The Twilight Stable descended through the mist. Slowly, shapes began to emerge from the white gloom. They weren't mountains. They were bones.
Colossal ribs, miles high, jutted out of the cloud layer. Skulls the size of cities floated in the drift, covered in moss and hanging vines. It was a silent, somber place, filled with the remains of creatures that had ruled the sky thousands of years ago.
The Sky-Eater drifted toward a massive, hollowed-out skull of a Great Wind Serpent. It gently docked inside the skull, hiding the stable completely from the sky above.
"We're safe," Su Ye announced, cutting the engine. "For now."
But peace, as always, was short-lived.
"Master," Lin Fan called out, his voice shaking. "Zhu Zhu... the crystal is cracking."
Su Ye ran to the pig. The violet chrysalis was fracturing. Bright, blinding beams of light shot out from the cracks.
CRACK. SNAP.
The crystal shattered.
Zhu Zhu emerged.
He didn't look like a monster. He didn't have wings. He didn't have claws.
He looked... exactly the same. Just a small, pink pig.
Except he was wearing a diaper.
"A... a diaper?" Gao Ming stared. "He evolved into a toddler?"
"It's not a diaper," Su Ye squinted. "It's... skin."
The "diaper" was actually a band of white, swirling energy around his waist—a Void Belt. It looked like a sumo wrestler's mawashi made of starlight.
Zhu Zhu blinked. He looked at his new accessory. He looked at Su Ye.
He opened his mouth.
"I..."
Su Ye froze. "Did he just speak?"
"I..." Zhu Zhu struggled, his vocal cords adjusting to the new reality.
"I... want... pancake."
Silence filled the stable.
"He talks," Lin Fan whispered in horror. "The pig talks."
"And his first word was pancake," Su Ye sighed, rubbing his temples. "Of course it was."
Zhu Zhu stood up on his hind legs. He wobbled, then hovered. The Void Belt defied gravity effortlessly.
"Hungry," Zhu Zhu said clearly, his voice sounding like a small, polite child who just happened to be a world-ending demon. "Father. Feed me."
"Don't call me Father," Su Ye scolded. "Call me Warden. Or Boss."
"Boss Father," Zhu Zhu compromised. "Pancake. Now. Or I eat the moon."
He pointed a trotter at Moonbell.
Moonbell bristled, her fur standing on end. "Do not threaten me, swine. I am a Divine Beast."
"You look like marshmallow," Zhu Zhu drooled.
"Okay! Pancakes!" Su Ye clapped his hands. "Everyone to the kitchen! We are making pancakes before the pig eats the fox and starts a civil war!"
As the team scrambled to cook for the newly evolved, talking pig, Su Ye stepped to the edge of the stable, looking out at the silent graveyard of bones.
He held the Black Ring in his hand.
He activated the Ancestral Link System.
"System," Su Ye whispered. "Can we trace the signal back to the source?"
[Affirmative.]
[Tracing Signal...]
[Source Identified: The Imperial Palace. The Grand Eunuch's Chambers.]
Su Ye's eyes narrowed.
"The Imperial Palace?"
It wasn't just the Dark Beast Sect. The corruption went all the way to the throne.
"Looks like we're not just fighting a Sect," Su Ye muttered, crushing the ring in his hand until the gem cracked. "We're fighting the Empire."
He turned back to the warmth of the barn, where a flying pig was arguing with a nine-tailed fox about the proper syrup-to-pancake ratio.
"Rest up, everyone," Su Ye whispered to the wind. "Tomorrow, we start the revolution."