In Ancient Memory Town, Xi clutched her head, her expression flickering like wind-torn clouds. Space suddenly heaved like a stormed sea, and a little girl fell out of a torn sky. She hit the street in a bloom of dust, and because she landed inside Ancient Memory Town, Xian arrived first like an arrow loosed.

Xian eyed the dust-caked Ou Xinxue, curiosity pricking like a thorn. From that spatial tunnel, she’d felt Ouyang’s breath, a familiar heat. Which meant this little girl had been thrown here by him.

Ou Xinxue lifted her head and locked eyes with Xian. Panic hit first, quick as lightning, before words could line up. Auntie Xian, take me to Aunt Aurora, quick—Dad’s in danger!

“Auntie…” Xian’s face soured like a cloud before rain. By age, she could be this eleven-year-old’s ancestor’s ancestor’s ancestor. By face, she was forever seventeen. Every kid she’d met called her big sister. Never thought she’d live to hear “Auntie.”

Whose little troublemaker is this?

“Your dad’s in danger? Right. And who’s your dad, exactly, that you ran here for help…”

“My dad’s Ouyang! Auntie Xian, he’s in real danger—take me to Aunt Aurora now!” Xian’s calm look made Ou Xinxue itch to smack her with a sharp knuckle, but the clock pounded in her ears. She had to find Aurora, that out-of-spec existence.

Xian froze at the words. Brother-in-law has a daughter since when? And no, Klafias doesn’t count.

“No time! Move!” Ou Xinxue’s anxiety crackled like a live wire. “This is Dad’s life we’re talking about. Stop guessing and take me to Aunt Aurora!”

Her urgency rang true, raw as an open wound. Xian felt the weight settle like frost. Her sister had been… off. But if even someone like Ouyang had hit danger, only her sister could cut that knot.

She took Ou Xinxue to Xi’s room. Xi raised a pale face, like a moon washed thin.

“Aunt Aurora, bad news—”

No more patience. Ou Xinxue dove into her arms and spilled everything like a toppled jar. Xi went still. The pain on her face drained away, because both souls saw the cliff ahead. They stopped fighting and stared into the same abyss.

In a white world like winter ash, two Xis faced each other. One had crimson eyes, soft as lantern light. The other wore deep violet eyes and a chill, queenly air, like frost ruling a night sea.

“You idiot, there’s no time.” The queenly Xi’s voice cut like ice. “He’s marked by two Third-Tier beings. His situation is critical. Even without your meddling, I’m barely using a sliver of my strength. Only if we fully merge and restore the power of the Aurora Goddess can we save him.”

The red-eyed Xi’s heart buckled first, like wings in a downdraft. If they fused, the queen with a million years of memory would take the helm. Her little handful of memories would be drowned like a candle in rain. She didn’t want to fade. He said he’d stay with her forever…

The queen’s tone cracked like a whip. “Still hesitating? If letting you lead would get us there faster, I’d do it. But even if you take the lead, with that power, can you truly wield the Aurora Goddess’s might?”

The answer was a cold no. The queen had lived since the First Epoch, an ancient breed born with storm and starlight. Only she could hold that out-of-bounds power. Only she had the scars to spend in battle.

“You’re right…” The red eyes flooded like a broken dam. “Compared to you, I’m nothing. Not as sharp, not as quick to read a battlefield. I don’t have your experience to break all enemies. I’m just… useless. My birth was a mistake. I shouldn’t have existed…” She cried like a wing-torn angel, lost and looking for a road back to heaven.

The queen Xi fell silent, a snowfield before dawn.

“There’s no such thing as useless.” Her voice softened, like fire under ice. “You have what I lack. I’m not as kind, not as pure. I can’t be as gentle as you. And after we merge, we won’t be only me. You won’t disappear. That ‘us’ will be both me and you—just leaning more my way.”

“Have you decided? If you refuse, I won’t force you. Even driving this exhausted body to the edge, I’ll go save him alone.”

“Don’t you dare look down on me. I love him no less than you.” The red eyes steadied like a drawn bow. “Fine. Merge. And then we’ll make those two pay.”

The queen’s lips curved, an ice lotus blooming on a black lake. “Yes. We’ll make them pay. Not you alone—but us.”

“Let the stars blaze again with the Aurora Goddess’s light.”

In Ou Xinxue’s eyes, Xi closed her eyes and just dropped, like a candle blown out. Xian’s heart jumped, clattering like beads. But after a heartbeat’s “faint,” Xi opened her eyes again. Power poured off her like a rising tide. Those deep violet eyes looked as if they could pierce the seams of the world.

“If Glorious Moon succeeds, we gain another main force,” she said, smoothing her hair like sheathing a blade, gaze thrown far as a horizon. “So the Stellar Courtyard must hold steady. Only then do we give her a clear sky for that final step. Xian, Xiaoxue, the next field is yours. You know what to do.”

She sketched a great circle in midair. The other side opened like a blooming gate—it was the Stellar Courtyard.

“Sis, I’ve got it!”

“Aunt Aurora, don’t worry. Please—leave Dad to you!”

Xi’s body vanished on the wind. The vast passage hung there, and half of Eternal Slumber felt it and frowned, like birds sensing a storm. The force bridging two worlds poured out of Ancient Memory Town. As the Second Demon King, Jue came at once to ask. After hearing the truth, he almost leapt to help Ouyang. Then reason cooled him like rain. With his weight, he’d barely tip the scales. And if they all left, with no Tiered Being holding Eternal Slumber, trouble would breed like mold.

Just then, a sword streaked across the sky, splitting clouds like silk.

“So that’s the mess. Interesting.” A blade drenched in destruction hummed like thunder. “I just rushed back from the Sea of Time and Space and haven’t fully recovered, and those two still don’t put us in their eyes…”

The sword’s voice rolled, all edge and echo.

“Hey, Pornbook Bro, call your big sis and little sis. We’re going to settle accounts with those two.”

A book floated down from the air, pages glinting like scales. “You’re the pornbook—your whole family’s pornbook!” Diary Bro seethed, ready to slug Litian. Being called a smutty little yellow book by Ouyang was bad enough. Now this Litian had the nerve to call him Pornbook Bro.

He, the dignified Book of Epochs, reduced to that? If his master heard, he’d toss him into a latrine and seal him for ten thousand years. Master wasn’t here, but still—he was one of the so-called Eternal Three Artifacts!

“I am the Book of Epochs,” he boomed, chest puffed like a drum. “I record the rise and fall of eras, the birth and ruin of civilizations, the blooming and withering of races. Evolution’s every trace is inked in me. ‘18+’? ‘H material’? Please. I’ve got every species on file. Compare me to a smut rag? Laughable. From microbes to star-beasts, every position, every kind of play—I know it all, crystal clear…”

Up front, he sounded lofty as a temple bell. By the end, half the crowd nearly fell over. This guy. Admitting that out loud—was that really okay?

“Eh? Where’s your decency?” A vampire in a black-and-white princess dress stared, shocked enough to drop a teacup. As the Ancestor of Blood Night, Kanofia was elegance poured into shadow. One line from this shameless book had her thoroughly thunderstruck.

Even the Moon Goddess drifted above like a silver petal. At that line, her figure wobbled, a ripple across moonlight.

“Decency? What’s that?” Diary Bro’s tone was righteous as a sermon. “I’ve roamed epochs and never seen such a thing. Master said the more ‘decency’ you haul around, the tighter moral chains choke you. I’ve no decency, so I’m free. I do as I please, bound by nothing!”

That domineering speech left everyone speechless, like fish dumped on shore.

Just as he was ready to preach the holy path of losing shame, a white-haired little loli popped up before him. She scooped Diary Bro into her arms, eyes shy as dew. “Everyone… my sister said he didn’t take his meds today. Sorry for the trouble.”

She bowed, small and solemn, then carried Diary Bro off. His indignant roar trailed behind like a cat hauled from a feast.

“Liuguang, let me go! Who didn’t take meds? I take meds every day! I’m only following Master’s will, spreading the doctrine of the No-Shame Cult! I’ll make everyone love dropping shame…”

That unwilling howl sent a chill up everyone’s spine. They’d seen shameless. They’d never seen this shameless.

Litian drifted through the sky like a lazy kite and sighed out a quiet truth. “Once you join a heretical cult, it’s as deep as the sea. From then on, shame’s a stranger.”