Hidden in a void of breathing darkness, the Lord of Shadows observed the battlefield, his eyes glued to Kami’s gradually beaten form.

"This is perfect," he muttered to himself.

He had to lure the Heavenly Emperor out of the divine palace. If destruction progressed at the current rate, he would be forced to show himself.

The reason he had told no one else was because of a single memory that kept surfacing in his mind.

...

It hadn’t even been a century at that time when he was learning from the Emperor.

Among the many useless questions he had asked his master back then, one of them was out of genuine concern.

"Even if you are the strongest, what if someone attacks you while you’re sleeping?" Yasashii Hito had asked, while the late Seer of that time was running laps around the huge compound.

The Emperor waved his hand, reassuring him, "No one is capable of escaping my senses."

But the younger one pressed, "What if?"

Having realized that he couldn’t dismiss his concerns, the Emperor smiled warmly and told him, "I have hidden weapons in the palace. No one can harm me in the palace, so worry not."

...

Yasashii Hito came out of his thoughts, his brows knit in worry.

If not for that small memory, he would have already stormed through the palace.

Despite having lived for eons, no one knew of these ’hidden weapons, ’ and they could be anything. Marching inside the palace to confront the Emperor was suicidal if his words from then were to be trusted.

As such, causing suffering across the Realms was his only way to bait the Emperor.

He was confident in getting the upper hand over the Emperor. After all, he had his own trump card he had yet to unveil.

"It is time..." He said, realizing that he had to hit the nail while it was hot.

The reason he made sure his Empyrean subordinates did not die was for one simple reason: they were, in fact, his trump card.

"Go and wreak havoc..." He commanded, and the shadows stirred.

There were four people, the strongest of his former Empyreans.

But something was off about them. They had reddened skin and a violent aura. Their presence itself had changed beyond recognition.

Still, their entry was largely ignored as everyone was busy keeping their lives. One misstep and the opponent would show no mercy, going straight for the throat.

It was only when the four people divided into groups of two and went to support Qingyu and Baoshi that others realized something was off.

No one recognized them, but as they began to help the allies of the Lord of Shadows, it became apparent who had sent them.

Qingyu and Baoshi expected them to have the strength of a regular Empyrean, despite the unusual amount of aura they exuded.

But as they worked together to handle the opposing Virtues alone, they were left shocked and questioning their own reality.

"Who... made you?" Baoshi pursed her old lips.

So this was the reason Lord of Shadows was confident in their advantage.

He had reinforced his people to almost reach the level of a Virtue!

Despite their strength falling short, two of them at the same time could not only keep up with another Virtue, but in some aspects, even had an advantage!

Soon, the power displayed by these four people was observed by everyone.

Injuries began to pile up on the side of the Heavenly Emperor.

The ground was already overrun with an army of cultivators, and now even the skies were becoming a bloodbath.

Kami gritted his teeth as he noticed their falling odds of holding the lines.

’Impossible!’ He cursed internally, not being able to accept that the Demonic Emperor was somehow also able to advance the Empyreans into the next stage.

For a while, even Old Gu couldn’t help but hesitate.

He realized for the first time that the man named Yasashii Hito really had a chance at bringing down the Heavenly Emperor.

’No. I can’t let that happen!’ He thought, worried.

There was no one more suitable than the eternal light to hold the reins of peace together.

The weight of his decisions began to churn at his dao heart. A glint shone in his eyes as he looked for any opportunities to stop this madness, but found none.

He wanted to shout at the heavens and curse the Emperor to show himself and deal with the mess, but the longer the sky stayed silent, the more his hopes diminished.

His convictions wavered once again. ’So this is it...’

Resignation etched on his face as he muted the world around him. If the suffering of the world was inevitable, he would just have to see through it.

The overwhelming advantage on their side became increasingly pronounced as the seconds passed.

The sky howled with explosions, each one sending tremors across the continent, while the earth was soaked in streams of blood.

Air cracked in parts before the Realm Ego fixed it in a hurry, barely holding the laws of the world together.

The Celestial Tortoise bashed his feet atop the bloody figure of Kami, leaving him momentarily disoriented.

Having found the opportunity, his gaze locked onto the defeated figure of Lan Duo, Virtue of Diligence. She was the one who had given him the most grievous wound in their ambush.

Ignoring everything else, he pushed aside Qingyu and the two shadowy figures bashing her, and from beneath rose the charred earth, melting and rising before it spun quickly and drowned Lan Duo.

Even Qingyu watched in hidden horror as Lan Duo, now helplessly flailing to get out of the entrapment, faced the giant tortoise.

"Your pathetic life ends now!" The ancient voice of the tortoise thundered across the Realm as it opened its mouth and, with a force that would crumble even the most formidable mountains, it munched at the earth holding Lan Duo!

An explosion of Spiritual Essence spreading everywhere, with the Tortoise at its epicenter, made known the fate of the Virtue of Diligence.

Lan Duo was dead.

Another Heavenly Virtue had perished in this war.

"NO!!" Kami rose from the ground, unable to contain his rage.

It was his war. He had confidently waged it against the Demonic Emperor, and now they were struggling so helplessly while the man hadn’t even shown his face yet!

Regret filled his heart, and the burden of shame twisted and transformed into unkempt rage.

His aura flared as he went after one of the four shadow people with half the strength of a Virtue. Despite his anger, he knew the most important thing was to reduce the enemy’s strength.

If only he had set aside his pride, he would have noticed that it was a lost battle.

They were already overwhelmed and at a disadvantage. Now, they had even lost one of the Virtues.

It was only a matter of time before they were all killed.

Retreat was their best option.

It was at that point, when everything seemed hopeless to others, did a portal open above everyone else.

Yet again, four figures appeared on the battlefield.

Their skin was flawless, as if the harsh air had never sullied their visage. The air around them compressed, a momentum only possible by those who were as strong as the Virtues.

Their clothes, however, were mere rags compared to the noble air around them.

People quickly noticed the crests held by each of them, a symbol that marked them as the guardians of the royal palace.

Yet, even Kami was unable to recognize the four men who appeared equally as young as they appeared old.

The most shocked was Yasashii Hito, who was secretly observing the war from afar.

"The hidden weapons..."

He seemed to suck in cold breath.

Judging from the reactions of his enemies, it was clear that these four unknown faces had never been shown to anyone before.

He had thought the ’hidden weapons’ were some complex arrays and artifacts laid around the divine palace. He had thought luring the Emperor out of his lair would be enough to avoid them.

He had overlooked the one possibility he most dreaded.

The Heavenly Emperor had somehow hidden away four such beings for eons!

A rune was etched onto their foreheads, a symbol that meant ’Guardian.’

The four Guardians quickly sprang into action; their target was Qingyu, Baoshi, and the Celestial Tortoise.

The Lord of Shadows clenched his fists in frustration.

He had only recently succeeded in using the Celestial Beasts to reinforce his most loyal Empyreans.

And even then, he had only done it half right.

To his discontent, he wasn’t able to manipulate their energy as efficiently as the Emperor had done in the past. As such, although they did receive a boost in strength, it couldn’t live up to the strength of a true Heavenly Virtue.

But Yasashii wasn’t disheartened. Even that much was fine, even that much would further tip the scales in his favor.

Only he had never expected that the Heavenly Emperor was also hiding away four such individuals.

Unlike his people, they were completely on par with the rest of the Virtues.

It was like a slap to his face.

Countless millennia had gone by, and he finally felt himself on par with his former master. But now, he could only watch as the balance was restored, albeit only slightly.

He was sure that these people were not ’modified’ recently, since the Celestial Beasts had now distanced themselves, no longer cooperating with the creations of such beings who harmed even their siblings.

The scales of the war were even.

Two of his shadow people were handling one of the newly arrived Guardians.

Another one of the guardians fought against Qingyu, who was previously keeping Lan Duo at bay.

The last of the Guardians helped Kami push back the Celestial Tortoise.

If anything, Kami and the Guardian had the upper hand in their battle.

Now, only the thousands of cultivators razing and plundering the continent below were an advantage to the Lord of Shadows.

What no one realized, in this chaos, was the burden on the Realm Ego.

If before it was barely holding together the laws of the world, now it looks like the Ego was only trying to minimize the damage. It picked and chose which parts to sacrifice and which were more essential.

Spatial rifts opened and healed at various locations.

Tsunamis were hitting the continent from all sides.

Tremors of the earth were splitting apart the entire land mass into two halves.

If the battle continued for any longer, it was apparent that the Realm would be destroyed.

Yet, no one paid it any heed.

They were all busy fighting against one another.

The only being who was troubled about this destruction was the Heavenly Emperor, who sighed atop his throne.

’I feared this would happen if they entered as well...’

His concerns about the Realm were the only thing holding him back from sending those 4 Guardians, but noticing that Lan Duo was dead, he could wait no longer.

What happened next even put him on edge.

Yet another portal opened amidst the raging war and the crumbling continent!

"I smell fun..."