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General Li was so angry, he trembled from head to toe.

He stared, unblinking, at Su Liu’er for quite some time, but just as he was on the brink of explosion, he nodded, hard, then grabbed the phone from Zuo Mo’s hands and stormed out.

Ye Zichen looked at Su Liu’er in confusion…

His impression of Su Liu’er was that she was domineering, but she shouldn’t have been this unreasonable.

Even if you didn’t believe in not speaking ill of the dead, General Li’s son had sacrificed his life to get them that video, which was precious to their cause. Even if Su Liu’er was right, saying it so bluntly was over the line.

“General Li!” Xiao Yumei called out to him, but General Li didn’t even look back.

She shot Xiao Yan a meaningful look, and both he and Xiao Hu hurried out of the room and after General Li.

“Big Sister Liu’er,” said Ye Zichen.

“All I did was tell it as it is. He’s different from other people; he’s experienced the Outsider Gods’ invasion. He ought to understand better than anyone how important a first-person account of the enders would have been. But now, our understanding of the era-ending giant beasts is limited to the video his son sent us. Don’t you think that’s ridiculous?” Su Liu’er’s eyes glinted with cold light. 

In the face of her cold indifference, Ye Zichen couldn’t even speak. Before he could respond, he heard Su Liu’er snort, “And don’t you call me ‘big sister.’ I can’t possibly bear the weight of that title. Little Yan, let’s go.”

Su Liu’er dragged Su Yan out of the room. Those still present looked at each other. None of them understood just what Su Liu’er was so mad about. 

“Could Big Sister Liu’er be in the middle of that special time all women have?” Gou Yuzhan, still slumped in his chair, muttered carefully.

Yin Shang shot him a vicious glare, forcing any other comments back down. “Are you sick of living?”

Ye Zichen looked around at all the newly empty chairs. He never would have guessed the meeting would end up like this.

“Yumei, go look after Big Sister Liu’er. Everyone else… you can leave!”

Everyone left in dejection. It would be difficult for this meeting to proceed any further. They rose, bade Ye Zichen farewell, and left.

Still sitting in an otherwise empty room, Ye Zichen put his head in his hand.

“Perhaps I shouldn’t have come,” said Gu Li.

“You?” Ye Zichen lowered his hand. “Then why’d you come with me? Are you intentionally trying to disrupt my alliance’s unity?”  

“Even if I wanted to do that, I wouldn’t use such a half-assed method.” Gu Li only shrugged. “I just didn’t expect to see her here, and I didn’t realize her distaste for me was still so intense.”

“Distaste? That she didn’t kill you where you sat was already magnanimous.” Ye Zichen waved Gu Li away, then put his head back in his hand. “You can leave too. I’d like to sit here by myself for a while.”

Everyone else had left.

The door to the grand hall was open, and from time to time, a gentle breeze blew inside. The flickering candlelight made Ye Zichen and the chairs’ shadows shake about.

Ye Zichen could understand why Su Liu’er had lost her temper.

Back when the demons invaded, the Endless Beast Region, Immortal Region, Heavenly Court, and Underworld lost far too many people.

Yuan Hong had died during that invasion. He wasn’t just Ye Zichen’s friend; he was Su Liu’er’s one true love, as well as the Great Sage’s brother.

After meeting An Lu, Gu Li had changed. It was as if he’d become a different person.

A prodigal son’s return was worth more than gold. Gu Li had seen the light, and although Ye Zichen still bore him enmity, he was gradually coming to accept him.

 The Great Sage hated Gu Li, but for the sake of the big picture, he chose not to act against him.

But Su Liu’er….

Untying the knots in her heart would be far too difficult.

Even if Gu Li became the new messiah, even if he saved billions or trillions of lives, Su Liu’er would never see him as anything but the reason Yuan Hong had died.

This was a fact, and there was nothing Gu Li could do about it!  Ding!

Ding!

Suddenly, the sound of cell phone notifications filled the room. They were particularly jarring amidst the dead silence.

As Ye Zichen sat there, racked with anxiety, he listlessly took out his phone, opened his social media app, and saw that it was from the Stranger, or rather, the Divine Arbiter, one of the God Emperor’s closest confidantes. 

There were only two words, the message brief and to the point.

“You here?”

Ye Zichen’s fingers tapped against the screen. He edited his response, then sent it.

Only Idealism: I’m here. Where’d you get the time to come looking for me? Right, I still haven’t gotten the chance to thank you for your help back in the mausoleum.

Stranger: Even without me, with that expert from the Yao-Sealing Pagoda, I imagine the likes of Yuchi Kong couldn’t have harmed you.

Only Idealism: I still ought to thank you.

Back in the palace’s true room, Ye Zichen had encountered grave peril as he faced down both Yuchi Kong and Huangfu Youming.

 Fortunately, the Divine Arbiter had come just in time. After she blocked an otherwise fatal attack for him, Ye Zichen used peach juice as a lure to summon Cang Xiong. That was how he’d avoided calamity.

As for the God-Smiting Bow….

It hadn’t actually been much use.

Its arrows had been used up, and reusing old arrows didn’t have much of an effect. Ye Zichen had used it mostly as a bluff, his goal, to win himself enough time to reach an agreement with Cang Xiong.

Stranger: If you really want to thank me, you ought to kill Yuchi Kong.

Stranger: If he tells Zhou Wu what happened, it’ll be hard to avoid a rift forming between us.

Stranger: On that note, Yuchi Kong is still in your Yao-Sealing Pagoda, isn’t he? Do you have a use for him in there?

Only Idealism: I do!

Stranger: Are you planning to use him as leverage against the Yuchi and Huangfu families? You’ve sure got guts.

To this, Ye Zichen merely responded with thought-provoking grin emoji, but he didn’t say anything excessive.

At the end of the day, the Divine Arbiter had never clearly expressed a desire to join their alliance. Instead, she’d made it perfectly clear that she was Zhou Wu’s, even in death.

Ye Zichen had every right to keep certain key secrets from her, and to avoid answering related questions.

The Divine Arbiter had said as much herself a long time ago!  

Stranger: Alright, whether you hold onto him or not, I hope you won’t let him spill anything he shouldn’t.

Only Idealism: I can’t guarantee that.

Stranger: Are you trying to land me in hot water?  

Only Idealism: I absolutely have no such intentions. I’ll do my best to make Yuchi Kong behave himself.

Only Idealism: But I doubt you sought me out just for a chat. Is there something you want to tell me about?

The Divine Arbiter fell silent for a long time.

Ye Zichen stared at his screen for at least a hundred breaths of time before he saw that the other party was typing.

Stranger: I’m deeply conflicted!

Only Idealism: You chose to reach out to me, so even if you’re conflicted, your heart must be pushing you in a certain direction. Say it! Has Zhou Wu done something cruel and extreme enough to make you think he’s gone insane again?

Stranger: Yes!

When he saw this response, Ye Zichen was stunned. He’d said all that casually; he didn’t think he’d hit the nail right on the head.

Only Idealism: What did Zhou Wu do this time?

Stranger: He….

A moment later, when Ye Zichen read the rest of her message, his expression changed dramatically!