BOOM!

With an earth-shattering roar, the black and white moon blades clashed violently against the golden-red crystalline sword! Terrifying Shadow power and vast holy energy collided, devouring each other, converging into a final death ray.

Just as the black-haired girl battled fiercely with the dual-blade-wielding Abyssal Lord—

Shua!

A cold flash of steel.

A figure struck from behind the black-haired girl, the sharp blade piercing through her protective aura and straight through her chest. Indescribable tearing pain shot through her, along with an unprecedented burning in her soul.

"?!"

The black-haired girl's body shuddered.

She twisted around in agony, her eyes going wide with shock as she stared at the Sword Spirit Clan warrior who should have been protecting her back, covering her against the demon horde.

"Yaohuaba... WHY?!"

Yaohuaba's face twisted into something cruel and cold in her vision. Years of trust crumbled into crushing betrayal. She opened her mouth to speak, but the words died as her soul began to collapse.

Seeing this, Yaohuaba let out a long breath.

Then that face—which had always worn such a gentle smile—revealed its true nature. Cold and merciless. His eyes held no trace of pity, only threads of mockery. A cruel smile curved his lips, as if he found her shock and carelessness amusing.

"Goodbye, Lady Judgment. Don't blame me for this... if you want to blame someone, blame yourself for getting in my way."

The black-haired girl bit down hard on her lip, seeming to gather strength for one final strike against this traitor.

But the Abyssal Lord's attack from the other side pierced clean through her body. The Judgment Saint's form began to collapse completely... her immense power flowing away like water. Her eyes filled with despair and rage until finally, under the powerful curse of the White Day sword, her body shattered into nothing.

Leaving Yaohuaba floating there alone, that cruel expression still plastered on his face.

——

Even now, thousands of years later, Yaohuaba could still see those hate-filled eyes staring at him as the Judgment Saint died. That face had become his nightmare, keeping him awake night after night.

Though to be fair, much of what he'd told Yumo earlier wasn't actually lies.

Back then, he really hadn't wanted to become the Judgment Saint's enemy, much less stab her in the back.

He'd been forced into it.

More than two hundred years before he helped the Abyssal Lords siege the Judgment Saint, Yaohuaba had been just another nobody—a Lv7 warrior lost among the countless experts of the Sword Spirit Clan. He'd figured his life would pass quietly and unremarkably. But during what should have been a routine border patrol mission at Source Star, everything changed.

It was supposed to be a simple demon extermination job. Instead, Yaohuaba encountered an Abyssal Lord.

In an instant, nearly all thousand members of the strike force were wiped out. Only Yaohuaba and a few dozen others survived.

But this Abyssal Lord didn't seem interested in finishing them off. Instead, he casually strolled over with his hands behind his back.

"I'll give you a choice. Die here and now? Or accept my power and become my collaborator? Of course... if you choose to work with me, I'll give you rewards beyond your imagination. Help you break through to Lv8, maybe even Lv9..."

Facing this black-and-white-eyed Abyssal Lord named Luo, hearing that demonic whisper, almost every survivor told him to go to hell.

The result was predictable.

They all got fed to the demons.

Watching his comrades die horribly, feeling the overwhelming power radiating from Luo, terror crept into Yaohuaba's heart. Along with that fear came a twisted admiration for Luo's seeming invincibility. Driven by pure terror and desperate survival instinct, Yaohuaba threw away his warrior's pride and dropped to his knees.

"I—I choose to collaborate! Please, please don't kill me!"

The second he made that choice, Yaohuaba's entire life changed.

——

Turns out Luo hadn't been lying.

After signing their contract, the demon hordes began cooperating with Yaohuaba. In every battle between Alliance fleets and demon forces, Yaohuaba's troops achieved stunning victories, often turning the tide of entire campaigns. High-level demons that terrified ordinary warriors fell one after another before him.

Gradually, Yaohuaba went from complete nobody to celebrated hero throughout the Sword Spirit Clan and the entire Alliance.

Glory, wealth, status—everything that had once been beyond his reach came flooding in.

But that wasn't even the best part.

What truly intoxicated Yaohuaba was the source core liquid Luo provided—essence blood from rare heavenly prison beasts. This miraculous substance completely transformed his constitution. He who'd never had hope of reaching Lv8 actually broke through to Lv9. In the Alliance's might-makes-right society, power meant everything. Noble daughters who'd never given him a second glance now fawned over him. Clan leaders he could never have approached became his friends.

After tasting the sweet life that power and honor brought, Yaohuaba grew more and more dependent on Luo.

At first, he'd told himself the contract was just a temporary measure to save his skin.

But after enjoying Luo's benefits, Yaohuaba became a true partner.

He wasn't stupid. He knew Luo was cultivating a high-ranking spy within the Alliance. But compared to the Alliance's interests, Yaohuaba obviously cared more about his own honor and the Sword Spirit Clan's future.

Still, having taken Luo's gifts, he needed to prove his worth. So he fed Luo intelligence on Alliance strongmen, military deployments, weak points in spatial barriers—crucial military secrets. The result was devastating losses for the Alliance.

And Yaohuaba's greatest contribution to the Abyssal Lords was killing that terrifying Judgment Saint.

Actually, when Luo first demanded he join the plan to siege the Judgment Saint, Yaohuaba had been horrified. Forget the fact that targeting such a dangerous woman could cost him his life—the Judgment Saint wasn't just anybody. Killing her would be an unforgivable crime. The Primal One and other Holy Maidens would tear him apart piece by piece.

Unfortunately, his resistance was pointless. After years of cooperation, Luo had plenty of dirt on him. If Yaohuaba refused, his collaboration with demons would go public... and death would be just as inevitable.

So Yaohuaba gritted his teeth and reluctantly joined the siege.

Using the reputation he'd built over years in the Alliance, he positioned himself as the Judgment Saint's loyal comrade, watching her back.

And then delivered the killing blow.

...

Murdering the Judgment Saint left Yaohuaba living in constant dread. Only when Luo died in the last holy war did he finally relax somewhat—after all, the one person who could expose him was gone.

But when he learned that the newly born Abyssal Lord in the trial space had inherited the Judgment Saint's authority, that anxiety came flooding back. Once someone gained that power and inherited the Judgment Saint's legacy, his past crimes would inevitably come to light. To protect everything he'd built, Yaohuaba had launched today's decisive battle in Sky Nation.

All of it served one purpose: keeping the past buried.

No matter how many had to die, it was worth it.