"This..."
Seeing those towering, iron-like figures, the middle-aged man's face twitched, and his expression grew serious.
"Capture, capture."
"Capture, capture."
The massive puppets, chanting their simple command, surrounded the middle-aged man, closing in.
"Hmph, just a bunch of puppets, and you think you can overturn the heavens? Today, I'll smash you all to pieces!"
The middle-aged man's long hair fluttered as he stomped the ground with his right foot, shouting, "True Form of the Heavenly God!!"
Boom!
Thunder and lightning filled the sky, and his already imposing figure began to grow rapidly.
This wasn't a mere illusion but his actual body.
As his body expanded, his clothes tore into countless fragments. But in the next moment, a holy light surged from within him, forming a new set of energy armor, preserving his dignity.
In just a few breaths, he had transformed into a giant, towering tens of thousands of feet high. The entire city below him looked like a tiny fence.
"I am the sky, I am the god!"
He spread his arms wide, embracing the world, while the eight celestial shadows around him also expanded to a terrifying size, orbiting him with a booming sound. Any one of them, if it fell, seemed capable of ending the world.
"Capture, capture."
The colossal puppets continued chanting, and their bodies trembled violently as if in a frenzy. In an instant, they too grew to match the middle-aged man's size, their aura just as overwhelming.
"This isn't good!"
The middle-aged man's pupils shrank as the situation dawned on him. Without worrying about his pride, he shot into the sky, trying to escape.
"Capture, capture."
Clang!
Huge golden chains shot from the hands of the massive puppets, stretching toward the sky like vines.
"No—!"
The middle-aged man screamed, his entire body radiating divine light as he transformed into a massive sun. The dazzling golden light was so intense it made it hard to look directly at him.
Divine might surged!
Terrifying shockwaves spread across the distant skies, threatening to topple the entire Ancient City of Dusk.
But the golden chains quickly wrapped around the glowing sun. Up close, these chains appeared as thick as twisted metal cables, but as they extended into the distance, they became finer and thinner, like black needles piercing the radiant sun.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The chains went taut, and silver runes began to shimmer across them. Some even detached from the chains, resembling a swarm of silver tadpoles, swarming toward the sun.
Countless runes—billions of them!
"Ahhh!!"
A heart-wrenching scream erupted from within the sun, and the light quickly dimmed, revealing the middle-aged man, still tens of thousands of feet tall.
However, his body began to shrink rapidly as if the energy was being drained from him, weakening him by the second.
"Captured, captured."
The enormous puppets chanted as their bodies shrank back to their original size, pulling the middle-aged man down like a net being drawn in.
Thud!
Soon, the middle-aged man was brought to the ground, tightly bound in chains like a giant dumpling, his face pale as he lay there silently.
Victory and defeat—it was clear, and there was nothing more to say.
"Was that necessary?"
Qin Chuan sighed, shaking his head. "All I wanted was to deal with these two little thieves myself. Was there any need to get so worked up?"
"Hmph!"
Even in defeat, the middle-aged man refused to concede, coldly turning his head away despite lying there like a trussed pig.
"Release them."
Qin Chuan ordered the winged puppets nearby.
"Yes."
The damaged winged puppets limped over, extinguished the soul-burning flames, and cut down Zhou Mo and Master Pang Qi.
"No, no!"
"Spare us, Lord! We won't dare again! Please, grant us a swift end!"
The moment Zhou Mo and Pang Qi were released, they immediately knelt, pleading tearfully, as if escaping the wolf's jaws only to fall into a tiger's. They seemed terrified of an even worse fate awaiting them.
Their acting was truly top-notch.
"You should have known better!"
Qin Chuan sneered. "You dared trespass on the Ancestral King's tomb? I should rip your souls from your bodies and turn them into wicks for a lamp to torment for ten thousand years!"
"Spare us! Please spare us!"
The two kowtowed frantically, but Qin Chuan waved his hand and stored them in his inner world.
Turning to the fallen middle-aged man, Qin Chuan said, "Considering your loyalty to your duty, I'll overlook your rebellion this time. As punishment, you'll serve ten years in prison, reflecting on your mistakes."
"You..."
The middle-aged man looked up in shock, not expecting Qin Chuan to forgive him so easily. This was far too lenient!
He had lived for millions of years—what was a mere ten years of confinement? Any ordinary retreat lasted longer than that.
"Drink some 'rat tail juice' and reflect carefully."
Qin Chuan said calmly, clasping his hands behind his back as he walked away with Qin Zi and Ye Lingshuang.
"Rat tail juice?"
The middle-aged man frowned, watching Qin Chuan's retreating figure.
"The Lord said you are to drink rat tail juice for ten years," one of the winged puppets said.
"Yes, we'll catch some rats and squeeze the juice."
The other puppets nodded and immediately scattered, heading into the city to catch rats.
It was unclear whether their thinking was overly simplistic or whether they simply wanted revenge.
After all, they had been severely beaten by the middle-aged man earlier, and many of them were still limping.
Some time later...
Qin Chuan, Qin Zi, and Ye Lingshuang had long since left the Ancient City of Dusk. When they were far enough away, Qin Chuan released Zhou Mo and Master Pang Qi.
"Uncle Qin!"
"Master Qin!"
The two immediately ran to Qin Chuan, clutching his legs in gratitude, tears and snot flowing down their faces.
Their gratitude was beyond words.
"What happened to you two?"
Qin Chuan asked calmly.
The two exchanged glances before Zhou Mo spoke up. "Uncle Qin, Master Pang and I came to rob a tomb. Our instincts told us there's a peerless tomb here—enough treasure to last a lifetime!"
"We used all our skills and finally found the entrance to the tomb above the setting sun. Just as we were about to enter..."
"We triggered an unimaginable, terrifying white light. That light shot up into the sky, illuminating this entire world, and that's when we got caught."
"The powerful beings of this world can't enter the sun, but the islands above the Ancient City of Dusk are strange. They unleashed a divine punishment that pierced through the sun, knocking us down."
"Then we ran for our lives in this twilight world for two months before finally being caught... and roasted alive."
Hearing this, Qin Chuan fell into deep thought.
A pillar of white light...
Could it be the same light that triggered the revival of the Nine Heavens Realm? After all, that light had come from the Forbidden God Mountain.
But the timing didn't make sense.
The world had begun reviving over two years ago, yet Zhou Mo and Master Pang had only been in this world for about two months.