“And where do you think you’re going?” A woman’s yell cracked the silent void around a hovering courtyard among the stars.

“It’s cultivators’ night out!” Zhuo Fan replied at the door, with Yongning following with an indignant look while carrying a baby just a few months old.

“If someone around here needs a break, it’s us.” Lei Yuting appeared with another baby, though she was careful enough not to wake the child in her arms as she glared at their husband, leaving them to bear all the weight of parenthood.

“I do this every day, and we all know what happened when Yuting tries to go out on her own.” Zhuo Fan spoke sagely, masking the urgency of getting some fresh air—or was it chaotic energy—from the stifling yells and demands of human babies.

[Chaos, just what the hell was I thinking when I accepted all of them?] That wasn’t the first time he asked himself this, and it wouldn’t be the last. [They say ‘the laughter of a child is the light of a home.’] So far, he has yet to see any in this bottomless abyss.

Lei Yuting shuddered, having recalled being eaten away by the wild and rampant energies outside their home, wondering even now how she kept sane. The involuntary stab of fear shook the child awake and made her wail, setting off the other couple of babies resting in other rooms.

“Couldn’t you have kept it down?” Chu Qingcheng came over with a crying baby girl, looking at them with reproach. “Just let him go. He’s not going to stay long anyway.”

Zhuo Fan took this chance to slip by, with Yongning and Lei Yuting looking at the door with longing for a break as well, but despite all having reached the Supreme Stage, they had to understand Dao if they wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with Zhuo Fan and walk outside. The chaos outside powered them up, but it was also the reason for staying cooped up.

Zhuo Fan flew among the stars, mere dots of light of varying intensity, some even completely black. He did his job in snuffing out the dark one, returning them to the chaotic energy that made this universe.

Hours later, he arrived at what could only be described as a tavern. Its exterior was weathered, with aged wooden beams and a thatched roof, as well as a sign above the entrance with ever-shifting wording above the image of a spilling tankard as other people entered.

When it was his turn to enter, the words became Chinese, reading ‘World’s End.’ He didn’t pay it any heed, ignoring the rowdy bunch in a corner and approaching the bar, where a hulking man with bull horns was cleaning a small tankard in his large hands. A newcomer would think it should’ve been reduced to pieces by now, yet it remained intact nonetheless.

“Hey, Mino! The usual, please.” Zhuo Fan was greeted with a smile.

“Would you stop calling me that? I do have a name, you know?” The massive man grunted as he finished cleaning the mug and took another from beneath the bar filled with a swirl of colors, placing it in front of Zhuo Fan.

Just as Zhuo Fan reached for it, he pulled it back. “Aren’t we forgetting something now?” The massive man stared down at the guy half his size, yet Zhuo Fan wasn’t the least bit intimidated.

“Don’t you trust me by now, Mino?” Zhuo Fan gave him an innocent look, but at the man’s hard gaze, he sighed in the end, “Fine, fine, here it is.”

Only when he pulled out a perfect white sphere, its mere presence warping the energy around it, did ‘Mino’ hand over the mug. “Great job, as always. Of all the guys working for me, you do the finest job of getting the purest traits of a dying world.”

“Don’t I know it?” Zhuo Fan sighed.

In the two years since he ascended from the Sacred Domain, he came to realize he wasn’t the only world expert around. In fact, there were countless of them. But as with every civilization, they tended to gather in cities, towns, sects, or, in this case, a peculiar tavern.

He found that among all the cultivators here, he was the only one who reached this stage on the insight of Dao and himself. All the rest just used their homeworld’s nature to gain insight into this stage, which makes recycling dead worlds back into the chaotic energy and collecting their remnant aspects easier. It was with these aspects that one grew further, or by going back to their homeworld and understanding further of the heaven there, but the world would crumble otherwise.

It wasn’t much of a shock to hear the World Stage was not the end of cultivation, but it was truly mind-opening to hear of the ways spiritual energy appeared for others, such as qi, nen, chakra, mana, and so forth.

“Why do you keep calling me Mino anyway? What part of me makes it look cute?” Asked the big man.

Zhuo Fan gave a casual reply: “Since you’re a bull demon turned human, I’m calling you Xiao Ni-, Mino-. Blast this automated translation; it takes the fun out of jokes.” He grumbled in the end.

Mino sympathized, having his own many jokes ruined at the hands of the chaotic energy. “Since all our powers come from the chaotic energy that made our homeworlds, our languages, despite how different they are, are automatically filtered into the language we are most familiar with.”

“I know, but it still sucks.” Zhuo Fan whined as he took a sip of his colorful drink, a veritable rainbow passing through his throat and into his stomach before fading out. “That hit the spot. Oh, and thanks for that array flag. Without it, who knows how many milk bottles would’ve gained sense by now? My wives don’t have the heart to feed my kids with them.”

In this seemingly empty void, anything would be instilled with primordial chaotic energy and would soon gain sentience, unless someone barred its entry.

“No problem. Though why did you have to shoot yourself in the foot like that? Isn’t one wife enough? I learned my lesson when my wife found out our maid was hitting on me and almost crucified her.” Mino shuddered. “Women are scary, especially in a pack.”

“I was in a bad place back then, but I still think it will all work out in the end.” Zhuo Fan paused and focused on the door just as someone came in. “Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in.”

“Not funny, Fanny.” The humanoid black panther shot back, moving to a table.

Zhuo Fan ignored him. “I wasn’t talking to you; now was I, big brother?”

As the panther left, a man in Daoist robes appeared in sight, bearing a striking similarity to Zhuo Fan. He wasn’t phased at the greeting, taking a seat next to Zhuo Fan.

“How long has it been, two years?” Zhuo Fan’s grin was most annoying.

“Try two million. Leaving me stuck there was like being in prison. Watching the world go about me without having any means of interacting with it was torture, but it was exactly what I needed to reach your stage. But you knew that already, didn’t you, little brother?” Heavenly Sovereign spoke in a flat tone.

“I was still new with my worldly powers,” he chuckled at that, “but it all worked out in the end, and now you’re here. You’re not still sour about everything, are you?”

“I did pay a visit to your house, thinking about taking your family hostage, but I figured it would be a relief instead. No doubt you’d be running around in joy while I had to keep the hostages healthy.” Heavenly Sovereign smirked.

“That’s so nice of you.” Zhuo Fan trailed with gloomy eyes. Being a parent was easy when you didn’t have to change diapers or get them to sleep. Using magic wasn’t an option at such a frail age.

“Z-Zhuo Fan, he’s your brother for real?!” Mino shouted in shock. The brothers only now noticed the eerie silence around them.

“Is that a bad thing?” Zhuo Fan raised an eyebrow.

“It is when you both are world experts coming from the same homeworld. Many others would kill to know how you did it, wanting to establish their own factions, clans, or sects here. Without an expert from the same homeworld, no one would trust anyone to share power when they build it, which is why this place is so peaceful, destroying remnant worlds and cultivating peace. But you just destroyed the very balance of this universe!” Mino explained as he had the tavern door open and pushed the two out, seeing the other glaring guests ready to draw blood.

“I don’t want any part in it! You’re on your own!” Mino slammed the door behind them, leaving the two in the starry black void.

“Well, brother, doesn’t this bring back memories?” Zhuo Fan smirked.

Heavenly Sovereign saw the incoming mob, probably notified by the tavern’s guests, with a serious look and said, “Yes, unfortunately. I recall it being around this time you betrayed me last time.”

“Ha-ha, that’s all in the past. Now it’s us against the universe. Back then, our homeworld was at stake. Shall we?” Zhuo Fan raised a carefree eyebrow, not minding the ever-growing opposition getting closer and closer.

For the first time, Heavenly Sovereign grinned and said, “Let’s!”

The Steward Demonic Emperor >>