Dilemma of Cang

In the midst of the desolate expanse that was once the Eternal Heaven Realm, not far from Yun Che's location, a man endeavored to conceal his presence meticulously. His form was almost see-through, his body and aura so finely suppressed they were nearly non-existent.

His cloaking technique might not hold a candle to the famed arts of the Brahma God Realm or the Snow Song Realm, but it was a close contender for third place. So adept was this method that even peers of his caliber would likely fail to detect him.

"What on earth..." he murmured, his sensory perceptions heightened to their limits, disbelief coloring his tone. "They intentionally let the Dragon Monarch escape?" The revelation sent a jolt through him. The strategy of the devils he was observing was unfathomable. What could their endgame be with the Dragon Monarch? Whatever it was, it boded ill.

"I'll hold off on leaving until they've departed," he plotted quietly, ensuring utmost caution.

This man was none other than Cang Shitian, the God Emperor of the Ten Directions Deep Sea Realm.

Cang Shitian had chosen to linger not far from the Eternal Heaven Realm; such a gathering of power indicated an event of significance was imminent. Preferring to maintain his spirits rather than witness the potential bloodshed, he had withdrawn to a nearby star, just a few planets away.

Leisurely meandering through one of the subsidiary planets of the Eternal Heaven Realm, he snacked casually, his charm causing a stir among the local populace. His flirtatious banter with a local woman was abruptly cut short by a heaven-quaking roar.

The roar's intensity was such that weaker profound practitioners burst outright, unable to withstand its sheer force.

The woman who had been the focus of his playful advances disintegrated into a mist of blood, and even Cang Shitian, despite all his might, felt his blood churn with the unexpected assault.

"This... from the Dragon Monarch?!!!" Recognition dawned on Cang Shitian; the roar could only belong to Long Bai. But the question loomed large—why would the Dragon Monarch unleash such a tumultuous cry that seemed to ripple through the very fabric of the heavens?

"Something untoward must have transpired at the Conference," Cang Shitian mused, his energy effortlessly clearing the bloodstains left by the unfortunate practitioners who had met their end.

Surveying the devastation, Cang Shitian couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy. The inhabitants of this subsidiary planet of the King Realm, despite their relatively advanced collective cultivation, stood no chance against the unleashed fury of a God Realm's peak expert. The old saying held true—when gods clash, mortals pay the price.

With a surge of energy, Cang Shitian propelled himself at maximum velocity back towards the Eternal Heaven Realm.

As he neared, a miasma of profound energies assaulted his senses, among them the unmistakable taint of dark profound energy—devils were present in the Eternal Heaven, and not just any devils; some possessed auras that dwarfed even his own.

He also detected the distinct energies of the Eternal Heaven God Emperor and his Guardians, Brahma God Emperor and his entourage confirming the gravity of the situation. Surprisingly, he also detected the aura of Moon God Emperor and his Moon Gods, but they quickly vanished from his perception at the fastest speed.

In response, Cang Shitian resorted to his secret technique. With a fluid motion, he activated 'Vanishing Sea,' rendering his form transparent and his presence nearly imperceptible. His body faded from view, a ghostly silhouette against the chaos. While this technique couldn't eliminate his aura completely like the Snow Song Realm's ultimate technique used by Yun Che, it greatly minimized it.

Unless one was actively searching with acute focus, detecting Cang Shitian now would be next to impossible.

As Cang Shitian approached the scene of the cataclysmic battle, he maintained a cautious distance. But nothing could have prepared him for the sight that met his eyes, one that sent a jolt of fear straight to his core. "The Devil Queen... and Yun Che?!!!" There, before him, stood the most formidable woman in all the God Realm, and beside her, Yun Che, whom he had presumed dead at the hands of Luo Guxie, very much alive and fiercely engaged in combat.

To his utter astonishment, they were locked in battle with the most powerful being known, the Dragon Monarch himself. Concealed from view, Cang Shitian observed, and with each passing moment, his shock deepened.

Chi Wuyao, the Devil Queen, was offering support from a distance, launching strategic assaults on Long Bai. In stark contrast, Yun Che was boldly clashing with Long Bai, exchanging blows in direct confrontation.

What was unfolding before him defied comprehension. Yun Che's aura was undeniably that of a Divine Sovereign Realm Rank 10, yet here he was, contending on par with Long Bai. How could someone of the Divine Sovereign Realm stand against the might of a God Emperor? The scene before Cang Shitian shattered all his preconceptions about the balance of power within the God Realm.

Beading sweat dripped from Cang Shitian's forehead as a cold dread settled in his heart, accompanied by a sigh of relief that he had chosen to remain unseen. He was itching to flee, questioning his decision to venture here in the first place. Yet, an inexplicable sense of danger that seemed to lurk just beyond his perception kept him rooted in his covert vigil.

He had swept the vicinity time and again with his senses but detected no one. Perhaps the ominous feeling warning him of exposure was what prevented him from making a move to escape.

Then, before his very eyes, the Dragon Monarch transformed. A colossal dragon form emerged, its sheer scale seeming to eclipse the skies. With this transformation, Long Bai's power surged exponentially, a testament to the awe-inspiring strength of the Dragon Monarch's true form. This display of might seemed to signal the end for the devils.

"This is their end," Cang Shitian presumed with grim certainty.

Yet, the anticipated outcome did not unfold. Instead, his eyes widened to their limits as a blue flame ignited upon Yun Che's sword, a fusion of intense cold and heat that defied natural laws.

The blue flame that erupted from Yun Che's sword did not originate from his own power but was drawn from a separate spatial pocket. Prepared in advance, it was unleashed at a critical moment, a premeditated strike waiting to be deployed.

However, it wasn't the flames themselves that sent a wave of shock through Cang Shitian; it was the devastating might they contained. He could only watch in abject horror as the flames consumed Long Bai's arm, reducing both flesh and the seemingly indestructible dragon bone to nothingness at a terrifying rate.

Then came the spectacle of Long Bai, in a desperate bid for survival, severing his own limb with his other claw. Almost immediately afterward, a burst of Icy Phoenix Power detonated from Long Bai's back—a force nearly on par with Long Bai's own formidable strength.

"She... SHE!!!!" Cang Shitian's mind raced, hardly able to process the unfolding events. His recognition dawned with a mix of horror and awe. "Mu Xuanyin of the Snow Song Realm!" he gasped, struggling to keep his aura concealed as he drew a sharp, involuntary breath.

"Moon Splitting Cascade," he realized. She had been here, undetected, for who knows how long, concealed by the Moon Splitting Cascade technique. And the power she wielded was so immense that she could likely fell a God Emperor with ease.

As the battle raged on, Cang Shitian's confusion deepened into existential crisis. "What is happening... Who am I... What am I witnessing?" He continued to observe, each new shock imprinting a look of disbelief upon his features. From Mu Xuanyin's dramatic entrance to the barrage of elemental attacks assailing Long Bai, he bore witness to it all, each moment etching deeper into his psyche.

The supremacy of Long Bai, acknowledged as the pinnacle entity within the Primal Chaos, was not merely a product of his personal endeavors. Indeed, previous Dragon Monarchs and Dragon Gods had also exerted commendable effort to ascend to their ranks. However, through years of meticulous investigation, Cang Shitian had unearthed the truth of Long Bai's seeming invincibility — it was a divine boon, the Light Power, a blessing bestowed by the Dragon Queen herself.

Yet, in the unfolding chaos before him, the Light Power that should have shielded Long Bai was disintegrating under Yun Che's relentless assault.

What felt like an eternity for Long Bai finally culminated in a defining "BOOM!" as he was cast down to the ground, forcibly reverted to his human form. By an unfortunate twist of fate, his landing was alarmingly close to Cang Shitian's hidden position, just a few hundred meters away.

Drenched in a cold sweat, Cang Shitian did everything within his power to remain undetectable, staying as still as the grave, not daring to even draw breath.

He eavesdropped on their conversation and witnessed Long Bai's harrowing escape. The revelation that Yun Che and his demonic allies had deliberately spared the Dragon Monarch left him numb with shock.

Now, all that mattered to Cang Shitian was to stay unnoticed, praying fervently that Yun Che and his cohorts would depart so he, too, could slip away from this nightmare unscathed.

"Are you going to reveal yourself or not?" The sudden intrusion of Yun Che's voice pierced the tense silence. A fresh wave of cold sweat broke out across Cang Shitian's forehead. "Have I been discovered?!" raced through his mind, panic rising. He was on the cusp of revealing himself when suddenly...

"Bang!!!" A burst of profound energy erupted, and a Mid Stage Divine Master, covered in wounds, burst from the ground. "BOOMM!!! BOOM!! BOOMM!!" Several more presences, each belonging to Divine Masters bearing the scars of battle, emerged around him.

To Cang Shitian's surprise, there had been others concealed nearby, their presence unnoticed by him as his attention had been wholly consumed by the battle between Yun Che and the Dragon Monarch.

"These must be the fortunate few who survived the Dragon Monarch's roar," Cang Shitian surmised silently, taking in the scene.

"You devil!...huff...huff...even if I die today, I will not let you..." The hate-fueled words of an Eternal Heaven Adjudicator cut through the air, filled with loathing and defiance.

"BOOM!!!" But his declaration was cut short. In a gruesome instant, his body was obliterated mid-sentence.

"Arghhhhh.....AHHHH!!!"

An anguished cry tore from another Adjudicator as he mustered the last of his strength in a futile attempt to strike at Yun Che. But with a resounding "Bang," a kick from Yun Che connected, and the Adjudicator's form detonated into nothingness.

The remaining Adjudicators, now utterly demoralized, scrambled in a desperate attempt to escape. But Yun Che was not one to leave loose ends. In the sky, a golden lotus blossomed, a beautiful harbinger of doom. Its petals unfurled, and in an instant, the fleeing Divine Masters were reduced to ashes, obliterated without a trace.

"All accounted for," Yun Che declared, his figure ascending gracefully into the sky...

Cang Shitian exhaled a silent sigh of relief, watching as Yun Che prepared to depart. But his relief was short-lived, as Yun Che's next words struck him like a bolt from the blue.

"Cang Shitian, won't you come out?" Yun Che called out with a sly smile, his gaze piercing through the veil of invisibility to where Cang Shitian was concealed.

A surge of panic washed over Cang Shitian. "I'm fucked," he thought, as a scream of despair escaped his lips, both internally and aloud.

"Hahaha, Yun Che... no, Young Master Yun... no, oh exalted Great One, GREAT ONE YUN! How may this humble Cang be of service to you?" Cang Shitian relinquished his cloaking technique, stepping out of his concealment with the most ingratiating smile he could muster.

"Did you enjoy the show?" Yun Che's smile was edged with amusement.

Cang Shitian's heart raced with alarm. A nervous laugh was the only response he could manage, the realization dawning on him that Yun Che must have been aware of his presence all along. Perhaps Long Bai's coincidental crash landing near his hideout wasn't so coincidental after all — a ploy by Yun Che to draw him out.

Poised to unleash his full power in a last-ditch effort to escape what seemed like an inevitable confrontation, Cang Shitian was caught off guard by Yun Che's next words.

"There's no need for hostility between us; you are not my enemy," Yun Che declared, his gaze steady upon Cang Shitian.

"???"

"What do you mean by that?" Cang Shitian queried, his confusion apparent at Yun Che's unexpected statement.

"You are not my enemy, and frankly, you wouldn't stand as my match even if you were," Yun Che declared, his eyes fixed upon Cang Shitian, the man who had once sacrificed his own life to save Yun Che in a previous life. Whether it was for the sake of his sister, Cang Shuhe, or for the God Realm itself, the debt of gratitude Yun Che felt was profound. It compelled him to ensure Cang Shitian would enjoy a prosperous life this time around.

"You overheard my conversation with the Devil Queen and Xuanyin, didn't you?" Yun Che's question was direct.

"The part where you intentionally let Long Bai escape?" Cang Shitian probed for confirmation.

"Exactly."

"But why?" Cang Shitian pressed, as perplexed as anyone by the decision. If Long Bai were to recuperate and unite the God Realm against Yun Che and his devil allies, wouldn't that spell doom for them?

"Because what I've shown today is far from the full extent of my capabilities," Yun Che replied, his grin revealing nothing but confidence. Each word landed on Cang Shitian like a sledgehammer to his composure.

"I could face the entire God Realm in battle and obliterate them all."

"!!!!!!!!!"

Yun Che's proclamation left Cang Shitian utterly stunned. The very idea of opposing the entire God Realm single-handedly was inconceivable. Not even Long Bai could expect victory against such odds. Yet, Yun Che's tone bore no trace of jest; he was deadly serious.

"Why disclose this to me?" Cang Shitian pressed, bewildered. Sharing such critical information was akin to exposing their vulnerabilities. "Do you intend to eliminate me?" It seemed logical to Cang Shitian that Yun Che might seek to silence him permanently to protect their secrets.

"Like I've mentioned, you are not an adversary to us," Yun Che reiterated.

"But then, why divulge such secrets to me?"

The answer came with a simple, yet profound, "Because of Shuhe."

Cang Shitian's eyes widened more than they had at any point prior, struck by the sudden mention of a name so dear to him.

"Shuhe is important to me," Yun Che stated with a hint of warmth, levitating off the ground and gradually fading into the distance.

"Wait, wait for me!" Snapped out of his stupor by Yun Che's departure, Cang Shitian's mind was a whirlwind of questions. He propelled himself into the air, trailing after Yun Che.