Hualan, Yuewan Mountain Range Autonomous Region.
Inside the cage in the sky.
Buhler Guesthouse.
It was just past seven in the morning, yet the sky remained dark and overcast, unlikely to brighten for another two hours. Located far from the city with few entertainment options, locals here were accustomed to early hours. Smoke already billowed from several chimneys, lights flickered on one by one, and the sound of livestock and morning chatter gradually filled the crisp air.
A dark-complexioned man with high-altitude rosiness on his cheeks pulled steamed corn buns from a pot, heading upstairs to call his elder brother for breakfast.
“Brother,” Ali knocked on the door.
Abu stood by the bedroom window, looking through binoculars at the cage floating in the sky. It was his duty, but as he grew older, staying up all night became harder and harder. When he heard his brother’s voice, he lowered the binoculars, looking tired.
“Brother, if you keep pulling all-nighters, you’ll fall ill.”
“It can’t be helped. It’s my job,” Abu sighed.
Ali offered, “Go eat breakfast and rest. I’ll take over watch.”
Abu nodded. That was their routine lately: he took the night shift, while his brother covered the day. At first he had hesitated, but Ali insisted on helping. As brothers, and with Abu’s physical stamina no longer able to endure a continuous twenty-four-hour watch, it was the best arrangement.
Initially, Abu had worried whether Ali could handle it. Though the job seemed simple on the surface, it required maintaining a meticulous work log—recording the sky’s conditions and taking photos at set intervals, demanding immense patience and attention to detail. Yet Ali proved far more capable than expected. Had Abu not known his brother had never left their hometown, he might have suspected Ali was a trained intelligence agent just like himself.
Once Abu departed, however, the expression in Ali’s dark eyes shifted instantly. The simple, honest demeanor vanished, replaced by an astute, calculating gaze.
He walked to the window and observed the sky, his aura completely transformed—as if he were an entirely different person.
Inside the monitored sky cage…
Zhang Simiao had sent a message to Wen Yuxian early in the morning, but received no reply. Anxious and restless, she had only managed to drift off near dawn, waking up shortly after to the sound of the angel moving about.
Checking the time, she realized her shift had begun. She hurriedly washed up, changed her clothes, and rode the Sky Ladder down to fetch the delivered breakfast, setting it neatly on the dining table.
The angel stood by the window with a dark expression, staring blankly outside.
Time to eat, the monster maid signaled.
Lou Ting ignored her, his eyes fixed on the sky beyond. “Something feels wrong.”
A question mark practically sprouted above Zhang Simiao’s head.
“I can’t feel her anymore. My connection with her is broken. Is it an illusion?” Lou Ting mused aloud to himself.
Zhang Simiao naturally knew who “she” referred to. Sweat instantly beaded on her forehead. Did something really happen? Worried that Jiang Qing’s video would spark a crisis for Jing Pei, she had kept bugging Wen Yuxian for updates. Wen Yuxian had provided a live account of the conference and Jing Pei’s subsequent ambush before going silent. His failure to reply now left her terrified that he, too, had met with trouble.
“It shouldn’t be possible,” Lou Ting muttered, walking over to eat. He refused to believe his deity would vanish so suddenly without taking him along.
As he ate, Zhang Simiao hastily pulled out her phone to check for any new messages from Wen Yuxian. Her thick fingers clumsily tapped the screen awake, only for several automated news notification headers to pop up across the top.
Urgent Report! Long Jin, Head of the Long Family, and Qiu Fa, Director of the Tribunal Division, Confirmed Dead!
Hualan Suspected to Have Lost Both Dragon and White Tiger! Only Two of the Four Symbols Remain!
Zhang Simiao’s hand trembled, her phone slipping from her grip and crashing onto the floor.
Lou Ting turned his head in confusion, seeing Zhang Simiao staring at the fallen phone with her single eye wide with terror.
Following her gaze, he looked down at the device on the floor.
Right, why didn’t I just call her directly? I really need a phone of my own, Lou Ting thought as he reached down to pick it up. Without asking Zhang Simiao, he tapped the screen awake. The headlines flared against the display, entering his sight.
Across his divine, handsome face, his silver pupils contracted sharply.
At the same time, inside the research facility below, Old Madam Lou’s face went pale when she saw the news. She shouted, “Dammit, hurry! Lock every door and window of that cage! Don’t let Lou Ting escape!”
While the cage windows were normally controlled by Lou Ting, the facility held master override controls.
Instantly, the two large windows of the cage began to seal automatically.
Inside Buhler Guesthouse.
Ali watched the sky while writing down observations in his log. Later, when Abu woke up to switch shifts, he would transcribe these entries into his official log.
What Abu didn’t know was that every single daily entry was also being secretly copied by Ali into a separate, classified record.
Abu could never have guessed that his initial suspicion was correct: the younger brother who had supposedly never left their hometown was indeed a intelligence agent just like him—and loyal to the exact same organization, assigned to monitor Lou Ting’s movements.
Ali’s assignment had been arranged even earlier than Abu’s. Shielded by familial trust, Abu had remained completely oblivious.
“Weather is clear. Brightness of the holy light from the cage remains unchanged. Lou Ting is staying quietly inside… Ah, another day where nothing happened,” Ali muttered to himself as he capped his pen.
Lou Ting was a terrifying figure. The more wicked a person was, the more they feared him. If he ever broke free from the sky to unleash judgment upon the world unannounced, evil people would be wiped out before they could react. Thus, Ali believed his role was of paramount importance, directly tied to the survival of the organization.
Yet never having been put to actual use left him somewhat frustrated.
Just as he set his pen down, a thunderous roar boomed from the horizon. Startled, he raised his binoculars to look.
There, he witnessed Lou Ting bursting out of the sky cage, radiating pure, suffocating murder.
Ali froze in shock.
“Lou… Lou Ting broke out…”
Jiang Qing’s internal storm came to a sudden halt. He froze in his tracks as a figure flashed across his mind.
No… it can’t be, right?
Before he could process the thought, his phone rang, startling him.
Gazing at the caller ID, an ominous premonition surged in his chest.
Answering the call, he heard Ali’s panicked voice: “Young… Young Master! Lou Ting… Lou Ting broke out of his cage!”
Flight routes passing near Lou Ting’s sky cage were almost always fully booked. Every hour or two, a commercial airship would pass by. The moment the cage came into view, pilgrims on deck would crowd the railings, babbling excitedly with binoculars in hand.
In the Yuewan Mountain Range Autonomous Region below, guesthouse rooms were perpetually in high demand. So when the explosion echoed from the cage, countless people heard it alongside Ali.
Within moments, news of Lou Ting shattering his cage erupted across international and domestic networks alike.
“What?!” Madam President stood up abruptly. One crisis after another had kept her awake all night, and now things were spiraling out of control. A wave of dizziness washed over her.
The Secretary-General quickly poured her a cup of tea. Taking two sips, Madam President rubbed her temples. “It must be because of Long Jin. He was close with her—he must have heard of her death.”
The Secretary-General nodded. “They knew this would enrage Lou Ting. Why did they still have the nerve to do it?”
Madam President blinked. “They?”
The Secretary-General paused, then quickly corrected herself. “I just received word that several members of the Atavist Great Families participated in the ambush against Long Jin last night. They fell for the organization’s trap, believing Long Ankang’s lie that her intelligence capabilities came from a Dragon Pearl, and gave in to their greed.”
“Do we have concrete evidence?”
The Secretary-General shook her head regretfully. “No hard evidence. None of the Atavist energy signatures left at the scene are complete. They prepared thoroughly.”
With Jing Pei dead, there was no surviving witness. No matter what loopholes existed, the culprits could fabricate any story they pleased.
Just as they suspected, inside the estates of various Great Families…
“Where were you last night?” Feng Yilian asked coldly, staring down several elders before him. They were the very individuals who had failed to report their whereabouts during the early morning hours.
Unlike Feng Yilian, these elders were in high spirits. Why wouldn’t they be? Jing Pei was dead, and even that plague god Qiu Fa was gone. Even if Feng Yilian suspected their involvement, what could he do without proof? Dead men tell no tAlis!
Hahaha, heaven is on our side!
“In a bad mood, went out drinking. My apologies, Family Head, I only saw your messages after getting back.”
“Indeed, my apologies, Family Head.”
They were the most stubborn relics in the clan. Their expressions bore a trace of provocation that made Feng Yilian’s blood boil.
“You were among those who struck against Xiao Jin last night! Don’t think you can play dumb! A quick investigation will reveal whether you were actually drinking!”
“Family Head, that’s completely unreasonable! Even if we weren’t drinking, does that prove we ambushed Long Jin?”
“Hmph! When Jiang Qing’s video came out, you were the one saying we shouldn’t believe unverified claims!”
“Taking the side of an outsider against your own kin—what good does this do for our family? Are you a member of the Feng family or the Long family? Don’t forget which bloodline raised you!”
“Accusing your elders for the sake of an outsider—is this how you act as Family Head?” They turned on him with righteous indignation.
In the past, Feng Yilian would never have lost his composure like this. He knew that throwing a rage without evidence would only make him a laughingstock and fuel their arrogance. But he couldn’t hold it back.
He wanted nothing more than to burn these rotten logs to ashes. For their own selfish greed, they had destroyed a pillar of the nation! Yet beyond enduring and waiting for the day he caught them red-handed, he could do nothing! He was too weak, too powerless. What would she have done in my place?
The rest of the Feng family watched in silence, their expressions mixed.
For a young Family Head, seizing absolute authority and uniting the clan in such a short time was no easy task.
The elders exchanged triumphant glances, turning to walk away with smug satisfaction. Just then, a younger family member gasped in horror, “My God!!”
“Tsk!” A relative nudged him sharply. Scrolling through his phone during a serious family meeting was bad enough, but shouting like that drew unwanted attention!
Yet the youth couldn’t control his reaction, his voice rising in panic. “Lou Ting broke out! Turn on the display, look!!”
Activating his phone’s projection feature, a live stream from a top-tier streamer beamed onto the wall. The stream already had over five hundred million viewers and was climbing rapidly, the comment section completely frozen from server congestion.
On screen, the six-winged angel stood atop one of the giant chains supporting his cage, his silver hair whipping wildly in the high-altitude wind. His remaining two pairs of wings unfurled completely, giving him an aura that was equal parts sacred, cold, and lethal.
Everyone staring at the screen felt their hearts drop. The smug elders paled for a moment before regaining their composure.
“So what if he broke out? What’s the panic?” one elder scolded the youth. “He’s miles away in the mountains. Can he fly over here and threaten us right now?”
“His power may be unrivaled, but the stronger the ability, the greater the restriction. With a judgment radius of fifty meters, as long as he doesn’t teleport right next to us, who couldn’t dodge it?”
“Precisely. Besides, the Atavist Management Regulations were amended. Let’s see if Lou Ting dares to use his ability to murder people freely now.”
Ever since Jing Pei summoned Lou Ting at Wu Ying’s birthday banquet, everyone had harbored deep fear toward Jing Pei’s formidable ally.
However, they soon discovered that summoning Lou Ting required a Judgment Feather—a one-time item that took months to regrow. That realization had reduced his perceived threat level.
Furthermore, after the August 20th Conference, Atavist laws were overhauled, stripping away their special privileges. Lou Ting was equally bound by these laws. Even if his judgment was a passive ability, leaving his cage without authorization to kill would result in severe legal consequences.
Lou Ting’s passive judgment ability naturally constrained his movements. What good was breaking out now? Before he could fly a few hundred meters, he would be intercepted by the Air Force. The government would never allow him near populated cities, so they had nothing to fear.
Reassured by this logic, those who had been nervous relaxed completely. They were in the heart of the capital, while Lou Ting was at the far edge of the Yuewan Mountain Range near the border. Without a Judgment Feather to summon him, he couldn’t teleport. His threat was minimal.
“Even Lou Ting can’t put out a fire from far away. Family Head, I know you were close to Long Jin, but you don’t need to blame yourself. Everyone has their fate. When King Yama comes for a soul at midnight, who can make it to dawn?” The elder laughed loudly with his accomplices.
Feng Yilian’s face turned icy cold, his fists clenching until his knuckles turned white. The former Family Head of the Feng family looked at his son, letting out a quiet sigh. This was an inevitable trial on his path to maturity.
Meanwhile, Hualan’s Air Force scrambled into action, while observers across the globe fixed their eyes on Lou Ting, eager to see his next move.
Abu, who had just fallen asleep, woke up with a start. Rushing outside and looking up at the sky, his face drained of color. “Lou Ting broke out! He’s out!!”
Ali stood outside as well, looking dazed. “Is he trying to avenge Long Jin? Why isn’t he moving then?” What is he waiting for? Is he waiting for his enemies to hear the news and flee?
Abu’s expression flickered with complex realization. The uncertain guesses in his mind finally found an answer. “His judgment range… is definitely not limited to fifty meters. He… he might be able to kill everyone… right from where he stands.”
Having read the online news reports, Lou Ting knew everything his deity had endured over the past few days—the hostile conference, the ambush, the brutal siege, and her final disappearance alongside Qiu Fa into another realm.
His rage rose like a monstrous wave, wiping out the last of his patience, restraint, and endurance.
Inside the research facility, Old Madam Lou and several researchers rushed into the cage area, staring at Lou Ting perched on the chain outside. “What are you doing, Lou Ting?! What are you doing?!”
Clutching her phone, Old Madam Lou screamed at the person on the other end, “Are you really going through with this?! Have you thought about the consequences?!”
A cold female voice answered from the receiver, “At this stage, this is the best choice. It can’t be hidden any longer anyway.”
From commercial airships passing along distant flight paths to tourists leaning out of guesthouse windows in the region below, screams erupted in waves.
“Lou Ting—!!”
“The Six-Winged Angel!!”
“God! It’s our Six-Winged Angel!!”
“He heard our calls!! He answered us!! Ahhh!!”
Lou Ting paid no mind to their fanatical cheers. His silver eyes remained colder than midwinter frost, devoid of all warmth.
A speck of golden light ignited at his toes, growing blindingly bright like a miniature sun.
Then, a distant, ethereal voice echoed directly beside the ears of every person in the region:
“First Round of Judgment. Rule: All who participated in her ambush are guilty. Executed.”
The blinding golden light exploded outward, blasting away surrounding clouds in a wide circle. The radiant light, invisible under normal daylight, expanded outward from Lou Ting like a living entity.
Watching a live stream of the event, Jiang Qing’s face paled instantly.
He whipped around, shouting at the executives who were still speculating on Lou Ting’s motives, “Change course immediately! Get us out of Yunjin Prefecture at maximum speed—no, get us out of Hualan! Move!!”
The executives blinked in confusion. They had originally been heading toward Yunjin Prefecture to intercept Jing Pei. After Jing Pei and Qiu Fa entered the Ice Age Realm, no one had issued an order to halt, so their mobile bubble had continued cruising through Yunjin Prefecture’s airspace.
“What are you standing around for?! Do you want to die?! Move!!” Jiang Qing roared. He wanted nothing more than to execute these incompetent fools!
Only then did several executives scramble to issue the navigation commands.
“Young Master, what’s going on?” someone asked in confusion. Why the sudden panic?
They soon received their answer.
“First Round of Judgment. Rule: All who participated in her ambush are guilty. Executed.”
The live stream was drowned in the streamer’s uncontrollable screams and the panic of passengers aboard the airship, yet viewers across the globe could clearly feel Lou Ting’s suffocating rage and watch the golden ring of judgment expand rapidly from beneath his feet.
The deafening decree echoed in everyone’s ears.
The elders who had been smugly celebrating moments ago froze.
“What… what did he just do? What is that gold light?”
“I don’t know…”
Just then, their phones chimed simultaneously.
Pulling out their devices, they saw a broadcast message in the Great Families’ Head Group. This chat comprised the heads and senior figures of all major clans. Usually quiet, the group had been largely abandoned after the new generation took over, though it had never been officially deleted.
The message came from Lou Ningzhou, the current Head of the Lou Family, who normally remained completely invisible in the chat.
She hadn’t just posted—she had tagged everyone.
Lou Ningzhou: If anyone participated in the ambush against Long Jin, I suggest you run immediately. Lou Ting’s judgment range is far beyond fifty meters. We don’t even know its true limit, as it expands every year with his age. Five years ago, he was already capable of judging one-third of Yunjin Prefecture in a single strike. @All
The moment they read her message, a wave of sheer terror seized everyone. Their hair stood on end as the terrifying shadow of death loomed over them.
Without a second thought, they turned and ran for the doors, clearly admitting their guilt.
When life hung in the balance, nothing else mattered!
Run! Get out of here! Fast!
Yet as they reached the threshold, a pale golden light sliced through the air like a reaper’s scythe, passing directly through their bodies.
Clang—!
A crisp, resonant chime echoed through the air—pure, distant, and divine, carrying a force that cleansed the soul.
Instantly, golden shadows manifested as a massive Scale of judgment, swaying rhythmically. Though the culprits tried desperately to leap beyond its boundary, an invisible, magnetic force dragged them into its trays like iron filings to a magnet.
An irresistible, overwhelming force slammed them onto one side of the Scale. Their frantic struggles became futile flailing as terror distorted their faces beyond recognition. They turned to their approaching clan members, screaming for help.
“Help! Save me!!”
“Family Head! Family Head, save me!!”
“I was wrong, I was wrong! Forgive me, let me go!! Ahhh!!”
“Young Master! Mr. Fei! Save me! Save me!!”
“Who are you calling?!” In their panic, the others stared at one elder who was screaming for his true master, completely unbothered by his cover being blown.
In that moment, they finally realized how stupid they had been—used as pawns by the organization once again, just as they had been during the incident with Liu Yin.
Last time, Liu Yin had shown mercy, and both the government and their families had granted them a second chance. But what had they done? They had thrown that mercy away, acting like brainless fools to be manipulated yet again. And this time, there would be no second chances.
Overwhelming regret consumed them as tears and snot ran down their twisted faces.
“It’s you! You did this to us!!”
“If it weren’t for your instigation, how could we have made such a mistake?! I was going to let it go! You pushed me into this! Ahhh!!”
“You brainless fools dragged me down with you! If you had a shred of conscience or intelligence, I wouldn’t be dying like this!! Ahhh!!”
The arriving Feng family members stared in utter shock, while the conspirators’ supporters backed away in sheer terror, not daring to step an inch closer.
What was that? That was the Scales of Judgment—Lou Ting’s Scales of Judgment!! Who would dare approach? They internally thanked their stars that they hadn’t been invited to last night’s ambush, or they too would be trapped on that terrifying Scale right now!
Scenes like this played out simultaneously across multiple Great Family estates, as well as among the mercenaries and assassins who had managed to escape the early morning roundup but remained within Yunjin Prefecture.
“Fast, fast, fast!” Two assassins sprinted frantically toward a ferry docked along the river, about to depart. If they could leap onto that ship and head out to sea, Lou Ting’s judgment ring would never reach them!
The cruise ship was right before their eyes—three hundred meters, two hundred meters, one hundred meters, five meters!
Flashing triumphant smiles, they leaped into the air.
Clang—!
Before their feet could touch the deck, the golden light passed through them. That sacred yet lethal chime resounded, accompanied by the grand manifestation of the Scales of Judgment.
“Ahhhh!!”
Scales appeared out of thin air one after another, trapping everyone who had celebrated Jing Pei’s death.
Karmic fire erupted, burning their bodies as they shrieked and writhed on the Scales. Their darkest, most sinful memories were dragged from the depths of their souls, projecting their greedy, despicable schemes to ambush Jing Pei for all to see.
Feng Yilian watched without a shred of pity, feeling only a sense of profound relief. This was what they deserved. If death hadn’t come knocking, would they ever have repented? No! Now that they were dead, he no longer had to endure their corruption. His family could finally be cleansed and reborn from the ashes.
The former head of the Feng family looked away with a quiet sigh. They were stubborn and refused to repent, so they brought this on themselves.
In excruciating agony, the culprits and their sins were burned to ash together.
Unlike the people on the ground, the organization floating in the sky used advanced technology to track the trajectory of the judgment ring in real time.
On screen, satellite tracking displayed the ring’s expansion speed and its distance from their mobile headquarters.
Cold sweat drenched every executive, Jiang Qing’s palms slick with moisture.
The ring expanded faster than the wind, covering vast distances in the blink of an eye. While shouting at the flight control crew to accelerate the bubble, they prayed frantically for the light to stop expanding.
The mobile headquarters was fleeing toward the border of Yunjin Prefecture at top speed, yet the golden light was already only ten kilometers behind them.
“Faster! Hurry!” someone bellowed, even as the flight crew worked frantically with sweat pouring down their faces.
The thrusters driving the bubble were pushed to absolute maximum, fleeing for their lives, yet the golden light continued to close the gap rapidly.
Eight kilometers… seven kilometers… six kilometers…
Their hearts pounded as sweat dripped beneath Mr. Fei’s mask, his hands clenching into tight fists.
Five kilometers… four kilometers… three kilometers…
The border of Yunjin Prefecture appeared right ahead, while the golden light seemed to dim slightly.
“Look! It’s reaching its limit! We can make it out!” someone noticed, shouting with bloodshot eyes full of desperate hope. Clearly, the judgment ring was reaching its maximum range! As long as they crossed out of Yunjin Prefecture, they would survive!
Two kilometers… one kilometer…
Five hundred meters… two hundred meters…
Their hair stood on end, hearts in their throats as they looked back at the golden ring pursuing them like a strike, then ahead at the approaching coastline marking the edge of Yunjin Prefecture.
Less than fifty meters to the coast!
Forty meters! Thirty meters! Ten meters! Five meters! One meter!
Just as the golden light was about to touch the bubble, they crossed the border!
“Yes!!”
“Ahhhhh!!”
“We made it out!!”
“We won!!”
Surviving the brush with death, they broke into wild, hysterical cheers.
However…
Clang—!
That exquisite, divine chime—sounding like a death knell to their ears—resounded once more.
The ecstatic expressions on their faces froze instantly.
Looking back at the screen, they realized the golden light hadn’t stopped at the border as they had assumed. It had pursued them out over the sea.
Accompanied by the radiant light, a colossal Scale of Judgment slowly surfaced over the ocean waters.
