The palace at the highest level of Tiancheng was so lofty that one might mistake it for sitting atop the clouds, where raising one's head could pluck the stars and lowering one's gaze revealed the ebb and flow of Tianren City below.
"Finally, we've made it here."
Li Mo snapped back to reality.
His expression was anything but relieved—instead, it grew even more guarded and solemn.
The Divine Sword... something seemed off about it!
In the past, the Tianren Divine Sword had always been indifferent to him, even after he had mastered the Sword of the Common Man.
But that was only part of the problem.
The sword had undergone a deeper, more unsettling transformation.
Not a good one.
Once grasped, it made one unwilling to let go. Once held, it gave the illusion of commanding heaven and earth. Once wielded, it stoked the flames of ambition until they raged uncontrollably...
Yet, the others remained oblivious to Li Mo's turmoil.
Tianren City had descended into chaos.
The imperial capital beyond was no better.
"This palace hereby declares the appointment of Elder Hanhe as Crown Prince. Now, kneel before the Grand Emperor and receive the decree with gratitude!"
Shang Wu stood atop a table, gazing at the Map of Rivers and Mountains with unbridled arrogance.
Who wouldn’t say her precious disciple bore the bearing of an emperor?
"Kneel my ass! Shut your mouth already!"
Elder Hanhe noticed the Imperial Patrol Guards eyeing him with hostility, as if the slightest provocation would send them charging forward to arrest him. The old man inwardly groaned.
Damn it, Shang Wu’s the one spouting treasonous nonsense—why are you all staring at me, the Crown Prince?
With this head full of white hair, would I even live long enough to ascend the throne?
"Brother Li... I... you..."
Wu Chushu’s eyes were vacant, his mind seemingly locked in an internal struggle.
Smack!
Elder Zeng promptly smacked the back of his head, snapping him back to clarity.
You can imitate anything else, and at worst, you’ll just embarrass yourself. But this? You’re actually trying to copy this?
"Brother Li really took Tianren City without shedding a drop of blood," Xiao Qin remarked with admiration, feeling honored to have witnessed it.
The Thousand Forms Art had played a role too—Li Mo’s application of this divine technique had surpassed even his understanding.
"Thousand Forms" was a broad term, referring to countless martial intents.
Li Mo didn’t practice it alone. Instead, he spread the Thousand Forms Art to everyone, and in turn, their cultivation nourished his own—a mutually beneficial cycle.
"Hey, Old Huang, what are you writing?"
Murong Xiao noticed Huang Donglai scribbling furiously.
Without looking up, Huang Donglai replied, "Summarizing Brother Li’s success."
"Success in... rebellion?"
"Mm."
"..."
Murong Xiao mused that the Great Yu Dynasty wasn’t quite at that point yet.
Just then, someone pointed at Li Mo in the Map of Rivers and Mountains and asked uncertainly,
"Does anyone else think something’s wrong with Li Mo?"
...
Beneath the imperial canopy, Emperor Jingtai’s deep eyes held a trace of sorrow.
"The Tianren Divine Sword doesn’t just contain the path of the warrior—it also holds the path of the emperor. This is my fault. If not for this, Sujun wouldn’t have..."
Li Mo had only grasped thirty percent of the sword’s essence, with zero mastery over the paths of the general or the emperor.
Jiang Yu had walked the emperor’s path.
This was also why Jingtai had never held much hope for his crown prince—he had already walked that road once and failed.
As for the warrior’s path, no one had ever attempted it, for it was far too vast and chaotic.
Yet Jingtai frowned again.
"His current state seems influenced by the emperor’s essence, but not entirely... If Li Mo were susceptible, he should have been affected long ago..."
The emperor had tacitly allowed Li Mo to wield the sword, wanting to see if he possessed the will to resist its temptations—if he was truly worthy.
The answer was clear: Li Mo had no interest in imperial ambition. His heart was pure, making it impossible for him to learn even if he tried.
Unless... he had been pretending all along.
"Blood God left a trap in the sword," the Elder Matriarch of Yantian said gravely.
"What kind of trap?"
"This old woman can’t say for certain, but it’s likely far more dangerous than the sword’s original trials."
Seeing the grim look on her face, Emperor Jingtai fell silent before uttering two words:
"Immortality?"
He could ask because he had considered it himself.
For someone who had reached the pinnacle of wealth, power, and strength—what else could possibly tempt them?
Jingtai searched his own heart and knew he, too, would struggle to refuse.
If even an emperor couldn’t resist, then what of Li Mo...?
The old woman bowed. "Blood God and Li Mo are both beyond my divination. I discovered this too late—forgive me, Your Majesty."
"How could I blame you?"
Jingtai stared at the Map of Rivers and Mountains, his fingers tightening around his teacup until the veins stood out. The faint light in his eyes wavered.
At this moment, the ruler of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands no longer resembled a sovereign.
Instead, he seemed like a drowning man, watching helplessly as his last lifeline frayed...
Meanwhile, in the projection, the sword in Li Mo’s hand pulsed with a faint crimson glow.
Anyone with eyes could see something was wrong.
"What’s happening?"
"The Tianren Divine Sword was once seized by Blood God, tainted by his corruption. Could it be...?"
"Did Blood God leave something behind?"
"That’s the ancestral deity of the Demon Summoning Sect, whose influence spans the Great Shang and Great Yu dynasties—perhaps even older eras."
"Can Young Hero Li withstand it?"
The once-boisterous imperial capital fell silent again, countless faces paling in dread.
...
Within Tianren City’s borders, atop Tiancheng.
The bloody light from the sword grew ever brighter.
"Thank the heavens we never tried to touch that sword."
Many of the Tian Clan had entertained the thought, though none had acted on it.
Had it not been for Li Mo’s demonstration today, someone would have inevitably taken that step sooner or later.
"Hmph. He brought this upon himself," Pojun snorted, his expression conflicted.
He genuinely admired Li Mo, and even after being deceived, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of pity.
He’ll be alright, won’t he...? Feng Zhi thought anxiously.
The Tian Clan held back, unsure what other changes might occur. Besides, Mo City’s people stood guard around Li Mo, preventing anyone from approaching.
None were more frantic than Dong Geyu and the others.
"Li Mo, you—"
"I can handle this. Stay back."
With the last shreds of his clarity, Li Mo warned them.
Then, his consciousness plunged downward, his vision swallowed by the sword’s eerie radiance. Amidst the swirling colors, darkness overtook him.
"Your Majesty, your health... grows worse by the day..."
A shrill voice reached his ears, accompanied by the creaking of carriage wheels. He seemed to be in a moving palanquin, luxurious as a mobile palace, surrounded by an army with banners like a forest of spears.
A eunuch knelt beside his sickbed, reporting in hushed tones.
"I was just ascending the throne..."
"Where the hell have I ended up?"
Li Mo’s consciousness was already faint, and his current body teetered on the brink of collapse, leaving him unable to speak.
Worse, he couldn’t act of his own will.
All he knew was that he was no longer in the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands.
It was the empire from his past life—an empire that swept across the world with unstoppable momentum, only to fall as swiftly as a shooting star.
How swift, you ask?
Well, the animation adaptation about this empire was delayed longer than the empire itself actually lasted.
The reasons for its collapse remain debated, but the most popular theory points to the sudden death of its formidable ruler. Many believe the empire perished alongside him.
The irony runs deeper.
This short-lived emperor spent his entire reign and the nation’s wealth in a desperate quest for immortality.
In the end, he died, the treasury was drained, and he left behind a legacy as divisive as it was infamous.
“I… became Qin Shi Huang?!”
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
