Easy Solution

"This Luo City has actually fallen to such ruin." Master Lu gazed down at the broken and battered capital of Liang from the air, a trace of sorrow in his heart.

Liang Kingdom lay in the central continent, once the wealthiest and most prosperous region under heaven, with its capital Luo City hailed as the foremost city in the world.

But now, the city lay desolate, lifeless, with only a pillar of dark brown light shooting up from where the former palace once stood.

"After enduring war and then five full years of abandonment, it's only natural. I wonder how Yong City is faring now." Master Han from the Celestial Master Palace of Yong Kingdom also sighed.

"Alright, everyone. Once the monsters are dealt with, human footprints will eventually return here." Yan offered a few words of comfort, then began arranging tactics: "Three of you, I'll take the lead in this battle. You three conceal yourselves and wait for an opportunity. If I reach a stalemate with the monster or fall at a disadvantage, I'll rely on you to create openings for me."

"Rest assured, Palace Master." The three masters quickly composed themselves. Master Zhang, their leader, even gave his guarantee: "Palace Master, you still remember how that monster 'Zhou' died back then, don't you? Have no worries."

"Mm, good."

Yan nodded, then charged alone into the palace district.

Once again, he teleported into the dark brown light pillar. As expected, within the large pillar, Yan spotted a smaller pillar, equally towering between heaven and earth.

"This ends here."

Yan waved his hand, and a massive spatial rift directly severed the small pillar at its waist. For him five years later, unleashing a spatial rift of this magnitude was no longer as taxing as before, and its power had even grown considerably.

"Shhh..."

Under the spatial rift's influence, the light pillar instantly twisted and warped, then collapsed outright.

"Boom!"

A deafening roar erupted. Perhaps because the small pillar had collapsed too quickly, the large pillar exploded outright this time. In an instant, light blazed as if a second sun had appeared over the palace, threatening to reduce everything around it to dust.

But just then, the entire palace district suddenly separated from normal space, as if a fragment had been torn from a complete sheet of paper.

The explosion raged within the fragment—blasts and flames intertwined, thick smoke billowed like the end of the world—yet none of it affected the world outside the palace.

Moments later, the spaces merged back together. The scorching heat sent the surrounding air soaring, but the explosion had already ended. Aside from a bottomless pit where the palace had stood, nothing else was harmed.

"..." Yan's body slowly emerged from the void, his face somewhat pale. In that critical moment, he had hastily separated the palace's space from normal space while teleporting himself away, thus escaping the terrifying explosion without endangering the three masters hiding in Luo City.

But separating such a vast space had placed immense strain on him. Even though Yan was far stronger than five years ago, achieving this was no easy feat.

Now, at the center of the massive pit, a dark brown horned lizard lay sprawled, covered in wounds.

"Huff... How did this happen?" Yan teleported above the pit. Waves of heat rolled through the air, but a transparent barrier covering his body blocked all residual blast effects.

"Palace Master!"

From afar, the three masters rushed over, apparently alarmed by the terrifying explosion. Seeing Yan unharmed, they breathed a sigh of relief.

"What happened, Palace Master? That explosion?" Master Zhang stared at the dark brown horned lizard below, too injured to even move, his face full of shock.

Master Lu beside him wore a complex expression. The culprit that had effortlessly annihilated their Liang Celestial Master Palace now lay at the pit's bottom like a dead dog.

Yan gave a wry smile at this and said, "How should I know? Maybe the light pillar collapsed too fast and caused the explosion. Anyway, let's finish off this monster too."

With that, Yan tore open a massive spatial rift right beside the dark brown horned lizard.

The dark brown horned lizard seemed to want to struggle in its death throes, but gravely wounded, it could do nothing. With a mournful cry, it was swallowed by the spatial rift.

"This dark brown horned lizard seems much weaker than that monster from Jing Kingdom back then. It probably wields around 2,500 rounds of Rhino Emperor Game authority, and its power is far inferior to the white-gold horned lizard with complete time authority." Having casually disposed of the monster, Yan mused inwardly.

In the instant of the explosion, this dark brown horned lizard had controlled the surrounding rock and earth to shield itself. It seemed its authority was related to "earth," somewhat similar to the ordinary monsters infesting Liang Kingdom.

Or more precisely, this dark brown horned lizard was like an enhanced version of an ordinary monster, far less special than the white-gold horned lizard, and seemingly less intelligent.

"And this monster doesn't seem to have that special connection with me... I wonder what the other monsters are like—the same as this dark brown one, or similar to that white-gold horned lizard?" Yan vaguely felt that if he could uncover the reason behind this, he might discover some great secret.

"Palace Master, what do we do now? Should we head to Yong Kingdom?"

Just then, Master Han suddenly spoke, interrupting Yan's thoughts.

Yan snapped back to reality, glanced at him, and said seriously, "Naturally. This battle shows that these monsters are no longer a concern for me. It's time to reclaim the lands that belong to humanity."

"Is the calamity about to end?" Master Zhang grew excited at the words.

"Of course. Once these super monsters are dealt with, the ordinary ones are just beasts. Easy to handle. Then the calamity will end." Yan said with a faint smile.

"Then let's set out quickly!" Master Zhang urged impatiently.

"Let's go."

Yan then led the three toward Yong Kingdom in the west.

As Yan expected, the monster entrenched in Yong Kingdom's capital, Yong City, was a dark blue horned lizard, its authority mainly water. In strength, it was roughly equal to the dark brown horned lizard in Luo City, and Yan dealt with it fairly easily.

The smooth success of this operation exceeded the three masters' expectations. At their suggestion, Yan changed his plan. Instead of returning to Jing Kingdom, he visited the other five kingdoms in succession, eliminating the super monsters entrenched in each and breaking their light pillars.

As it turned out, the overall strength of the other seven monsters was far inferior to that white-gold horned lizard that had first appeared in Jing Kingdom.

But regardless, this calamity, after five years, ultimately ended at Yan's hands, elevating his prestige among humanity to its peak.

Of course, after eliminating these super monsters, the ordinary monsters roaming the various kingdoms still needed to be cleared out.

These monsters, stripped of their authority, were easy to deal with. But given Jing Kingdom's current level of recovery, it couldn't yet strike out on all fronts. It could only advance slowly toward the surrounding areas. However, Yan didn't need to worry about that.

He was now the absolute ruler of the human world. But... it seemed nothing had happened?

"A ruler of humanity, but not a ruler of the world? In other words, there exists in this world beings far more powerful than I, capable of suppressing the entire world with their own strength?"

Within the Celestial Master Palace of Jing, Yan sat in his meditation chamber, pondering.

His prestige among human society was now unshakable. If that unknown existence were only slightly stronger than him, it could not shake his status as the world's sovereign.

Only one possibility remained: the hidden existence was far stronger than him, strong enough to suppress the entire world with a single person's power.

"Hah... I'm afraid those Eight Great Monsters are merely the ones on stage. The true mastermind behind the scenes must be someone else." Yan let out a long breath, his heart feeling somewhat heavy.

"Enough. That hidden existence is likely under considerable restrictions as well, or else it wouldn't have stayed out of sight until now." Yan set aside his worries for the moment, stood up, and walked out of the meditation chamber.

"Palace Lord."

"Palace Lord."

Along the way, many disciples of the Celestial Master Palace saluted Yan with reverence, and Yan nodded back at them with a smile.

Soon, Yan arrived at the Celestial Master Hall, the place now responsible for managing daily affairs within the Celestial Master Palace. It was mainly staffed by Celestial Masters whose potential in solving puzzles had been exhausted and who had made no progress for a long time. Currently, five Grand Celestial Masters served as its leaders.

"Palace Lord? Why are you here?"

The one on duty today was none other than Grand Celestial Master Lu, one of the three Grand Celestial Masters of Jing. Seeing Yan walk in, Grand Celestial Master Lu quickly came forward to greet him.

"Nothing serious. I just came to tell you that I need to leave the capital for about ten days. During this time, I'll leave the local affairs and the matters of the Celestial Master Hall in your hands." Yan said to Grand Celestial Master Lu.

"Rest assured, Palace Lord." Grand Celestial Master Lu didn't ask where Yan was going, only patting his chest in assurance: "There's nothing major happening anywhere right now, so handling things is quite easy. Whatever business you have, just go ahead and take care of it."

"That's good, then. I'll leave it to you."

With a nod, Yan bid farewell to Grand Celestial Master Lu and teleported directly outside the capital.

"There's less than half a month left until the five-year agreement I made with Sister Yun. I wonder how she and the villagers are doing." Yan shot into the sky, speeding toward Bauhinia Village.

In the five years since, he had never returned to Bauhinia Village, worried that the chaotic outside world might bring disaster to the village if he went back rashly.

But now, the external situation had largely stabilized, leaving only the unknown existence he suspected. With the five-year deadline approaching, Yan decided to return to Bauhinia Village and see for himself.

Racing along at full speed, occasionally using long-distance Teleportation, Yan moved quickly. The journey from Bauhinia Village to the Jing capital had taken nearly twenty days back then, but now, returning to Bauhinia Village, Yan took only three days before the endless mountain range came into view.