The immediate aftermath of becoming a legend is, surprisingly, administrative paperwork.
Su Ye stood at the registration desk of the Myriad Beast Hall, holding a stack of forms thick enough to kill a small rodent. Zhu Zhu, still wearing his glittery disco vest, was asleep on top of the paperwork, drooling slightly onto the official "Transfer of Title" document.
"Sign here," the clerk said, looking at Su Ye with wide, terrified eyes. "And here. And... initial here to confirm you didn't use demonic arts to terrify the Earth Drake."
"It wasn't demonic arts," Su Ye sighed, signing his name with a flourish. "It was a cockroach with a superiority complex. There's a difference."
Behind him, his disciples were experiencing the dizzying highs of stardom.
Gao Ming was currently reenacting the battle for a group of starry-eyed junior students. He had somehow found a new, even larger cape and was posing on top of a crate.
"And then!" Gao Ming shouted, striking a pose. "With a whisper that shook the heavens, I commanded the Void! The Golden Roc fell before my silent majesty!"
"You were screaming," Lin Fan corrected, adjusting his glasses as he counted a bag of Spirit Stones. "You were screaming 'Look at me' so loud that my Echo Bone registered a seismic event."
"Details!" Gao Ming waved him off. "The legend is what matters, Lin Fan! We are the Kings of the Arena!"
Princess Luo Bing stood apart from the chaos. She was holding a small, velvet box—a gift delivered by a royal guard moments ago. Inside was a single, perfect Ice-Heart Lotus, a peace offering from her cousin, Prince Zhao. It was worth more than the entire Twilight Stable.
"He respects you now," Su Ye said, walking up to her. "That's worth more than the flower."
"He respects power," Luo Bing said quietly, closing the box. "But he was kind. That is... new." She looked at Su Ye. "Master, what happens now? We defeated the Royal Academy. There is no one left to fight."
"Now?" Su Ye grinned, picking up Zhu Zhu. "Now we do the most important thing a Tamer can do."
"Meditate?" Lin Fan asked.
"Search for ancient wisdom?" Gao Ming suggested.
"Eat," Su Ye said. "We go to the victory banquet, we eat everything that isn't nailed down, and we make Master Mo watch."
The Feast of Uncomfortable Silence
The Victory Banquet was held in the Grand Hall of the Academy. Long tables groaned under the weight of roasted meats, spirit fruits, and jars of wine. The air was filled with music and laughter—until Su Ye walked in.
The room went silent. The "Elite" Tamers of the other classes, who had spent years mocking the "Trash of Class F," suddenly found their shoes very interesting.
Su Ye didn't care. He walked straight to the Head Table, where the Grand Elders and a seething Master Mo were seated.
"Grand Elder," Su Ye bowed slightly to Elder Shen. "Master Mo. Lovely party. I hope you don't mind that I brought a guest."
He placed Zhu Zhu on the table. The pig immediately buried his face in a bowl of caviare.
"Su Ye," Master Mo hissed, his knuckles white as he gripped his wine cup. "This is a formal event. That animal is..."
"The Champion," Su Ye interrupted, grabbing a turkey leg. "He scored more points than your entire team combined, Mo. Let him eat his fish eggs."
Grand Elder Shen chuckled, a dry, rattling sound. "Let him be, Mo. The boy earned his meal."
Shen looked at Su Ye with piercing eyes. "You have shaken the foundation of this Academy, Su Ye. You proved that bloodline is not everything. But you have also made dangerous waves. The Royal Family is gracious today, but they do not like being humbled. And there are... other eyes watching."
"Let them watch," Su Ye said, tearing into the turkey. "If they want a show, I'll charge admission."
The banquet continued, but the tension remained. Su Ye noticed that Master Mo wasn't eating. He was drinking heavily, his eyes fixed on Su Ye with a look that wasn't just hatred—it was anticipation.
He's planning something, Su Ye thought. He didn't lose enough today.
As the dessert course arrived (a tower of Spirit Cream Puffs), Su Ye felt a sudden, sharp vibration in his skull.
It wasn't the System. It wasn't a mission update.
It was the Tortoise Ancestor. And for the first time, the old ghost wasn't complaining about his back. He was screaming.
"BOY! LEAVE! NOW!"
Su Ye froze, a cream puff halfway to his mouth. "What? Why? The pudding just got here."
"THE SKY!" The Tortoise bellowed. "THE VIBRATION! IT WASN'T JUST NOISE! YOU RANG THE BELL! SOMETHING ANSWERED!"
Su Ye dropped the puff. He grabbed Zhu Zhu, who squealed in protest.
"We're leaving," Su Ye announced, standing up abruptly.
"But Master," Gao Ming whined, his mouth full of cake. "I haven't finished my toast to my own genius!"
"Now!" Su Ye's voice was like a whip crack. The disciples, sensing the sudden shift in his aura, dropped their food and scrambled to follow him.
Master Mo watched them leave, a slow, cruel smile spreading across his face.
The journey back to the Twilight Stable was quiet. The moon was high, but the usual sounds of the night—the crickets, the wind in the trees—were absent. It was a dead silence.
"Master," Lin Fan whispered, rubbing his arms. "The air pressure... it's dropping. My ears are popping."
"Keep moving," Su Ye said, his pace quickening.
They reached the gate of the stable. Everything looked normal. The Crimson Maw Basilisk was sleeping by the fence. The Thunderfire Lion was gnawing on a bone.
But the Obsidian Tortoise was awake.
The massive beast had pulled itself out of the mud pit and was staring at the sky, its neck fully extended. Its ancient eyes were filled with a terror Su Ye had never seen.
Su Ye ran to the Tortoise and placed his hand on its shell.
Zzzzt.
The connection was static-filled, like a radio in a storm.
"It's here," the Tortoise Ancestor whispered. "The Eater of Sounds. The Void Walker. It heard the Echo Bone. It heard the Pig. It thinks this is a feeding ground."
"What is it?" Su Ye asked, looking up. "I don't see anything."
"You can't see it," the Tortoise said. "It exists in the spaces between seconds. It is a Scavenger from the Void Realm. It eats... potential."
Suddenly, Zhu Zhu began to scream.
It wasn't a normal pig squeal. It was a high-pitched, resonant frequency that shattered the glass lantern hanging by the barn door. The pig convulsed in Su Ye's arms, his pink skin turning a dull, lifeless grey.
"Zhu Zhu!" Su Ye fell to his knees, clutching the pig. "What's wrong?"
"HE IS THE BEACON!" The Tortoise shouted. "The Void Scavenger is trying to latch onto him! It wants to use him as a door to enter this world! You must sever the connection! Disrupt the signal!"
"How?!" Su Ye yelled.
"OVERLOAD IT!" The Ancestor commanded. "The Scavenger feeds on Void energy! Feed it something it hates! Feed it LIGHT! Feed it FIRE! Burn it out!"
Su Ye looked around frantically. Fire? The Thunderfire Lion? No, its fire was too physical. He needed spiritual light. Pure, blinding radiance.
His hand brushed against his pocket. He felt a burning heat.
The egg he had received as a reward for teaching his disciples humility. It was pulsing with a violent, solar rhythm.
"Light..." Su Ye whispered.
He pulled the egg out. It was glowing so brightly he could see the bones in his hand.
"Luo Bing! Lin Fan! Gao Ming!" Su Ye roared. "Formation!"
The disciples rushed over, terrified by the screaming pig and the glowing egg.
"Master, what is happening?" Luo Bing cried.
"We are performing an emergency hatching!" Su Ye shouted. "Lin Fan, amplify the heartbeat of the egg! Gao Ming, distract the sky! Luo Bing, keep the pig's temperature down so he doesn't cook!"
"Distract the... sky?" Gao Ming looked up at the empty, silent darkness. "How?"
"Scream at it!" Su Ye ordered. "Do what you do best! Be annoying! Confuse the signal!"
Gao Ming didn't hesitate. He took a deep breath, threw his head back, and unleashed a monologue of pure, nonsensical gibberish at the stars.
"I AM THE ETERNAL STAG! I CHALLENGE THE DARKNESS! LOOK AT ME! I AM WEARING A VERY NICE CAPE!"
Lin Fan clamped his hands onto the egg, channeling his Qi through the Echo Bone. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. He amplified the life-force inside the shell, turning the heartbeat into a drum.
Luo Bing placed her hands on Zhu Zhu, coating the convulsing pig in a layer of gentle frost to stabilize his fever.
Su Ye held the egg directly over Zhu Zhu's forehead.
"Dawn Crow Ancestor!" Su Ye screamed mentally. "WAKE UP!"
Zzzzt.
"WHO TURNED ON THE LIGHTS?!" The Dawn Crow Ancestor squawked sleepily. "I WAS DREAMING OF WORMS!"
"No time for worms!" Su Ye projected the image of the Void Scavenger trying to eat the pig. "A Void parasite is trying to eat your roommate! Burn it!"
"A PARASITE?!" The Rooster went from sleepy to incandescent rage in a millisecond. "ON MY TURF? IN MY STABLE? BURN IT WITH THE FURY OF A THOUSAND SUNS!"
The egg cracked.
It didn't hatch a chick. It hatched a laser beam.
A pillar of pure, white-gold solar fire erupted from the eggshell, shooting straight down into Zhu Zhu's forehead.
The pig arched his back, his eyes shooting open. The grey color vanished, replaced by a blinding brilliance.
SCREEEE!
A sound tore through the air above the stable—a shriek of pain from something invisible. The sky rippled like water disturbed by a stone. A shadow, vast and tentacled, briefly flickered into existence against the stars, recoiling from the blinding light.
The connection was severed. The "Void Scavenger" fled, burned by the purity of the Dawn Crow's birth.
The light faded.
Su Ye sat panting in the dirt. Zhu Zhu was lying on his side, snoring peacefully, his color returned to a healthy pink.
And sitting on top of Zhu Zhu's head was... a chicken.
It was tiny. It was golden. It had a crest that looked like a burning flame. It looked around the stable, blinked its large, intelligent eyes, and let out a sound that was definitely not a cluck.
Moooo.
Su Ye stared. "Did... did that chicken just moo?"
"It is the Dawn Crow," the Tortoise Ancestor sighed, sounding exhausted. "It is a solar bird. But... you hatched it using a Void Pig as a catalyst. It's confused. It thinks it's a cow. Don't ask. Just... feed it a worm."
Su Ye slumped back against the Tortoise shell. His heart was still racing.
"We survived," Lin Fan whispered, checking his gauntlets. "What was that thing in the sky?"
"That," Su Ye said, looking at the rippling stars, "was the dinner bell. And we just slammed the door in its face."
He looked at his team. They were terrified, exhausted, and covered in sweat.
"The tournament was a game," Su Ye said quietly. "This... this is the real war. The Void knows we're here now."
He picked up the tiny, mooing golden chicken.
"Welcome to the team, Little Sun," Su Ye whispered. "We're going to need a bigger stable."
As the sun rose, bringing a much-needed warmth to the stable, a courier arrived at the gate. He looked nervous, refusing to step inside the courtyard where the Basilisk was eating breakfast.
He tossed a letter to Su Ye and ran.
Su Ye opened it. It was stamped with the seal of the Dark Beast Sect—the terrorist organization mentioned in the history books, the ones who created the Basilisk.
The letter was brief.
To the Master of the Twilight Stable,
You have made a lot of noise. You have stolen our Basilisk. You have humiliated our agent, Master Mo.
And now, you have attracted the gaze of the Void.
We are not angry. We are impressed.
Join us. Or become the food for the thing you just scared away.
The Chimera Elders
Su Ye crumpled the letter. He fed it to Zhu Zhu, who ate it with a happy burp.
"Join them?" Su Ye scoffed. "I don't join clubs that don't offer dental benefits."
He turned to his disciples, who were watching him.
"Pack your bags," Su Ye said. "We're going on a field trip."
"Where?" Luo Bing asked.
"To the Wildlands," Su Ye said, looking at the horizon. "We need materials to upgrade the stable's defenses. And more importantly..."
He looked at the mooing chicken and the snoring pig.
"...I need to find a way to stop these two from eating the universe."