Starlight poured off the Noonday Sky Dragon in countless streams, like frost shedding from a comet. Ouyang could feel it thinning, fading, unraveling.

“Hey, Little Overlord, you’re just… fading out? You’re the Little Overlord. Shouldn’t you give your enemies one last beating before you go?” His mood soured first, then the words came. The dragon looked way too lazy—sprawled in a sea of flowers, sunning like a dog that refused to budge.

“I’m only a wisp of obsession,” the dragon said, voice like wind through a bell. “I was always going to dissipate. And that egg I bled to send away? It hatched. I watched her grow. I’ve got nothing left to cling to.”

The Noonday Sky Dragon yawned, a cavern of a mouth like a dusk-lit cave. This was a different beast from the roaring titan from moments ago. Ouyang’s doubt flared like a struck match—was this the same dragon he’d faced?

“The treasure in this vault means nothing to me,” the dragon murmured, every word a drifting mote. “The only thing that mattered—the egg—hatched safe. If that Tiered Being who broke in ruins this place, so be it… Besides, it seems the Book of Epochs sealed that guy into a page.”

Lazy words drifted like falling petals. Ouyang believed the act was half resignation. This wasn’t the true Noonday Sky Dragon, Flais; it was a remnant, once scattered by a Tiered Being. Holding shape now was hard enough. Revenge? That was mist reaching for the moon.

Without power from its true body, the dragon’s obsession couldn’t mend. Once it knew the egg’s fate, it had no reason to endure. The candle had burned to the end.

“The Book of Epochs…” Ouyang frowned, memory groping like a hand in fog. The title rang familiar, but the shelf it sat on in his mind was blank. “Wait, Little Overlord, you’re really kicking the bucket now? What about me? There’s a Tiered Being outside—fine, maybe he’s gone. But what if he’s still there? How do I get out? Before you go, can’t you cut loose and take that guy out?”

The Noonday Sky Dragon rolled its eyes, a moon rolling over night clouds. Their gazes crossed. Ouyang got it in an instant. The look said: Damn, idiot.

The starry glow thickened like a storm of fireflies, while the dragon’s body grew translucent, a mirage at noon.

“Little Overlord, you can’t just leave!” Grief hit first, then he yelled, like a son wailing under a funeral banner. Thump—one dragon-tail whip sent Ouyang flying like a tossed reed. “Idiot! Lord Dragon’s not actually dead. When we meet a few epochs later, the first thing I smack is still you!”

In a blink, the dragon shed its slouched, elder’s pose. Battle will roared out like a sunflare. Stars bloomed across its scales, each a seed of dawn, each birthing and dying in a heartbeat. At last, Ouyang saw the posture a Noonday Sky Dragon should wear—a legend made flesh. The Nether Raven kept the Underworld in iron night, and this dragon reigned over the sky like a radiant throne. Two sacred beasts, holding the wheel of life and death.

While Ouyang stood stunned by that bastard-king swagger, a jarring voice sliced in like a cracked gong.

“Nice. That flex? Full marks.”

A book slipped from the air, its cover breathing ghostly light. The book, that voice—Ouyang knew it at once. “Huh? Diary Bro, weren’t you supposed to be guarding some Void Illusion Realm? What brings you sightseeing?”

Diary Bro ignored him. The Noonday Sky Dragon, pride bruised, lunged after the book like a storm hawk.

“Magaji, you dirty little book, you dare steal my thunder!” The furious dragon lashed out again and again with dragon-tail whips, each strike a lightning scythe. It never once caught the book. At last, the dragon ran out of breath. Its body scattered into a storm of stars and drifted into the world. Even then, it flung one last line like a spear:

“Dirty little book, wait for me!”

The dragon’s unwilling voice faded like an echo in a canyon, then died. Ouyang stared at Diary Bro—no, at the dirty little book—stunned. Watching Little Overlord and the book bicker like alley cats finally taught him the law of the world: like calls to like. Only the Little Overlord could squabble with this book like that.

“Dirty-Book Bro, why are you here?” Fine. Ouyang renamed it on the spot. Yesterday it was Diary Bro. Today it was Dirty-Book Bro.

At that title, the book bristled, its glow sparking like a struck flint. “Dirty? Your whole family’s dirty! I’m the Book of Epochs!” It streaked like a meteor and slammed into Ouyang’s forehead. A certain Demon King had zero resistance and went spinning, eyes full of stars.

Head wobbling like a bobbing lantern, Ouyang could barely stand. Dizzy, drowned in starlight, he mumbled, “Hey, Dirty Little Book, can you sing Twinkle, Twinkle…”

“I’ll sing your damn sister!”

The Book of Epochs became a meteor again and cracked him on the skull. This time, it rattled him clear.

“Ow, ow—Diary Bro, why’re you like this? We were supposed to be each other’s angels. You hit me…” His head was swelling like a steamed bun, but he had bigger worries.

“Right. Diary Bro, there was a Tiered Being outside. Did you handle him? The bastard forced me in here. And this place… isn’t even that dangerous? I thought walking in meant certain death…”

The Book of Epochs floated, its glow like cold fire.

“That one? Banished. He’s likely lost in Eternal Spacetime. With luck, he’ll crawl back in a few million years. Without, he’s gone forever.”

“Holy—Diary Bro, you’re a monster. Boss, lemme cling to your leg.”

Hearing the Tiered Being was handled, Ouyang threw what little dignity he had left into some distant galaxy.

The Book of Epochs chuckled, a rustle of pages. “Piece of cake. Though I just watched the whole show…”

Ouyang: “…”

“So, which big shot actually moved?” His mind flipped through faces like cards: Kanofia, the Moon Goddess, Litian, Xi. All four were possible. But none of them had returned to peak. Against a Tiered Being, the odds were murky.

“Li acted,” the book said, voice settling like dust. “She can’t beat him in raw combat, but banishing him to Eternal Spacetime isn’t hard for her. Besides, if the three of us link up, our burst strength stacks. For a moment, we can hit third-tier destructive power.”

The three of us? Ouyang knew Diary Bro had a sister—or maybe an older sister—named Li. He’d never forgotten her glance over the shoulder, that scene like a painting of a lifetime. The third one… he’d heard it once, and the memory fluttered like a torn note.

The Book of Epochs read his doubt and explained, each name like a star set in a crown. “Many call us the Three Eternal Artifacts. The core, the strongest, is Li. Her true form is the Pendant of Eternity—the pendant you saw at her throat. She’s the last born, youngest by age, strongest by might.

“As for me, you know it. My true form is this Book of Epochs. Among the three, I came second, and I’m forever number two.

“And the last is Flowing Light. When you hear that, what do you think of?”

It stopped there, a pause like held breath.

“Flowing Light? I think of the Flowing Light Wheel.”

Ouyang remembered the legendary artifact. Years ago, in Terracafe, while searching for Wutong, he’d glimpsed the Flowing Light Wheel…

“Right. Flowing Light means the Flowing Light Wheel. She was the first to awaken, born in the First Epoch. In pure combat, she’s the weakest, because her nature isn’t meant for face-to-face fights.”

At last, Ouyang grasped the little dirty book’s pedigree, and their origins unfolded like a star map.

“As for this lair,” the book went on, tone a cool river, “credit where it’s due. The one who forced you in had a decent plan. Without accidents, the dragon would’ve killed you. If you survived by some hidden card, he’d camp the exit and finish you. Why he didn’t kill you outright? No idea. Maybe he’s the idiot.”

It didn’t know why the man chose a roundabout murder. But it knew Ouyang knew something. In truth, he did. The man had mentioned Jiling…

Ouyang’s thoughts drifted like kites cut loose.

“Honestly, that guy’s sloppy and way too confident. The moment he entered the Sealed Land, we clocked him. We were fishing. Didn’t expect no other Tiered Beings to bite. We only banished him…”

Ouyang: “!!!”

“You… used me as bait!!!”

Every meeting with Diary Bro soured like milk in sun. And the book carried a disaster halo like a traveling boss. Every time Ouyang ran into it, nothing good followed.