With most of what needed to be discussed completed, the Sky God let Alex leave for the time being to be with his family. She asked to meet him again to go through all the treasures he had, but that would come at a much later date.

Alex didn’t have much to begin with, but of what he had, he agreed to return those that he could afford to. The Blood God’s Manual especially was something he couldn’t return, so he made it clear.

The Sky God didn’t say much at that time, just that they would discuss more later.

With that done, Alex finally left the building and walked out through where he had come from. As soon as he came out, he saw Ronron to the side, waiting for him.

"Where are the others?" he asked.

"They are with the others back at our house," Ronron said. "Is your conversation with master done?"

Alex nodded.

"Let us go too then."

As they walked, Alex looked around at the place. The Sky God’s palace was massive, far too big for what it actually should have been. There was a strange spatial manipulation happening inside the palace itself that expanded the space within.

The aura of the expansion was faint enough that even most people with some understanding of space would fail to sense it properly.

There were many courtyards scattered throughout the palace, most of them fully equipped with various formations. Alex couldn’t see past the outer walls of any of them.

"Who lives in this place?" Alex asked as he walked past some of them.

"This house in particular?" Ronron asked. "This belongs to my senior brother Tailwind, from what I hear. I haven’t met him though. He’s been away for over 5 millennia, from what I hear."

"The Sky God’s disciple?" Alex asked. "How many are there?"

"7, including me," Ronron said. "But they are all outer disciples. I alone am the prime disciple."

"I see," Alex said. "I know a prime disciple is important, but are you in danger that you need to be protected even inside the palace itself?"

Ronron’s eyes widened slightly before a faint smile formed on her face. "You noticed him? I can never tell when he is around."

"Who?" Alex asked.

"It’s my martial uncle Greensoul," Ronron said. "He’s one of my master’s junior disciple brothers and a current Reverend in the sect."

Whoever it was, he didn’t seem too interested in revealing himself just yet, so Alex let him be.

"I’ll introduce you to him later, father," she said.

Alex nodded. "How many Reverends are there in this place?" he asked with some curiosity. He had heard of Reverends under most gods, but they seemed to be so arbitrarily assigned that he could hardly tell who was what and why.

Half of the beasts that were bonded with the Beast God were considered her Reverends. As for the Wine God, he only had two of them. From what Alex understood, there were no Reverends under Bladedance when she was a God herself, only sages.

"Under my master, there are currently 18 Reverends," Ronron said.

Alex nearly tripped at that number. "18?" he asked with an incredulous look. "How is that even possible?"

Ronron shrugged. "9 of them were already reverends before my master became the Sky God. 7 of them were either high-ranking soldiers or disciples of the previous Sky God and thus became Reverends after my master became the Sky God. The last two Reverends are the eldest two disciples of my master."

"And what exactly is the requirement?" Alex asked.

Ronron thought for a moment before slowly shaking her head. "I’m not too sure. Their cultivation base, maybe? Or maybe their influence within the cult. Half of them are leaders of the Sky God’s army, so that’s that."

Alex scratched his chin as he wondered at that.

As they walked by a few other courtyards, they crossed one that was different from the rest. Two men and one woman in the Sky God’s armor stood outside of a specific courtyard. When Ronron and Alex passed by, they quickly bowed toward Ronron but did not move an inch beyond that. They even continued staring at Alex, not with reverence, but rather with a look of alertness.

Alex watched them for a brief moment before turning away. "What’s up with them?" he asked, finally looking toward his daughter. As he did, he noticed a gloomy look upon her face.

"That’s his courtyard," she said in a somber tone.

"He?" Alex asked, unsure at first as to who she was referring to. But then, he realized what she meant and looked right back toward the courtyard. It made sense now why there would be people standing guard there.

This was Yang Renye’s courtyard.

"The Sky God had mentioned something like this. So he is trapped inside there forever?" Alex asked.

"I haven’t seen his face since the day we came here," Ronron said. "The moment we arrived, master met up with us and took him away. After that, I only heard the news of him being confined to his courtyard. 2 thousand years later, and he’s still there."

Alex couldn’t help but feel pity for the man. Everything he had done, he had done for the sake of stopping the war. And in a way, he had achieved it.

3 thousand years later, and the war still hadn’t happened.

’I hope it stays this way,’ Alex thought. But of course, it would be difficult for things to stay the same. Sooner or later, war would come true no matter what.

Not because war was inevitable, but because human greed was.

"We’re here," Ronron said as they arrived at a courtyard. "This is my place. Everyone else stays here as well, so in a way, this is our home. And from today on, it will be your home too, father."

Alex couldn’t help but smile.

"I haven’t had a place I could call home since the day I left the lower realm," he said. "After so many years, I finally have one again."