Come on, let the storm rage on with even greater fury

Looking at this artifact spirit that perfectly replicated his extremely greedy, extremely treacherous, and completely bottomless personality, Wang Hao's mouth twitched madly.

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the urge to throw this thing back into the furnace to be reforged, and sneered through gritted teeth.

Good, very good. Your temper suits my appetite perfectly. Since the side effect is hair loss, I won't deal with those scumbags from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion myself tomorrow.

Wang Hao's eyes instantly became extremely dangerous, like a venomous snake lurking in the abyss.

Let's go, I'm taking you with me to the forbidden area in the back mountain to find Great-Grandpa. Since the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion wants to play big, our Wang family will give them the entire family of loyal martyrs package. Tomorrow, I will make sure these bullshit mighty figures have their souls squeezed out to the very last drop of oil!

The shadows of the man and the sword stretched long in the flickering candlelight, like two peerless gluttons about to be released from their cages, drooling as they waited for tomorrow's excellent feast named assassination.

The Imperial Mausoleum in the back mountain of the Great Zhou Imperial Palace.

Wang Hao, bringing the artifact spirit, familiarly navigated through layers of killing arrays and arrived in front of a quaint stone door. Before he could even knock, the stone door opened automatically with a rumble, and a terrifying pressure capable of changing the color of the world surged out from within, carrying a thick sense of dissatisfaction.

In the middle of the night, instead of counting silver and causing trouble for young ladies in your palace, what are you doing here bothering your ancestor?

Wang Wudi sat cross-legged on a futon. The occasional flashes of sharp light in his cloudy eyes seemed capable of easily piercing through the void.

Great-Grandpa, what are you saying? Your grandson is here to bring you a huge business deal. Wang Hao unceremoniously plopped down directly opposite Wang Wudi and got straight to the point, exaggeratingly spilling the system's intelligence about the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion's decapitation strike tomorrow.

Of course, he replaced the system with top-secret espionage by the secret police.

Three demigods? Nine peak Skysoarers? Just to kill you? And they want to touch the foundation of my Great Zhou?

After hearing this, Wang Wudi's original lazy, stingy old man demeanor vanished without a trace. It was replaced by a tyrannical murderous aura that shot straight into the clouds!

Those charlatans from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion who tell fortunes every day until their brains are waterlogged actually dare to touch the qilin child of my Wang family?! Do they really think Wang Wudi has been a vegetarian for the past two hundred years?! Touching my Great Zhou's empire, touching my great-grandson, touching my treasury—I'll dig up their ancestral graves!

Wang Wudi stood up abruptly, pacing back and forth in the cave out of agitation.

No, the other side has three demigods. Even though I can fight ten of the same realm, if even one of them escapes, or if some shameless bastard secretly attacks you, it would be a huge loss. When our Wang family does things, we have always emphasized convincing people with reason and absolute fairness.

Wang Wudi stopped pacing, a trace of extremely cunning light flashing in his eyes.

Hao'er, you go back to sleep first. Since they like assassinations, your ancestor won't sleep tonight either. I'll use a thousand-mile voice transmission talisman right now to contact my old brothers from back in the day. Back then, I saved their lives, caught their weak points, and even owed them quite a few romantic debts... Ahem, anyway, tomorrow your ancestor will prepare a surprise for you!

Looking at his great-grandfather's expression, which was even more excited than his own and looked exactly like he had just seen a fat sheep, Wang Hao silently lit a row of candles in his heart for the assassins of the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion.

Then I will trouble Great-Grandpa and all the ancestors. Tomorrow at the arena, your grandson will cooperate with them and put on a good show of luring the snake out of its hole.

Wang Hao gave an eerie smile, turned around, and left the forbidden area with the artifact spirit.

...

The night passed without further incident.

Early the next morning, sunlight sprinkled across the entire capital like shattered gold.

The boiling excitement of the entire Great Zhou capital reached an unprecedented peak! Because today was the grand finale of the Royal Arena!

Shen Xue, the Holy Maiden of the Ice and Snow Divine Palace, versus Yun Meng, the Holy Maiden of the Illusory Sea Immortal Sect! The ultimate collision between two peerless geniuses of the righteous path, combined with the wild aftermath of Ye Hongling being instantly defeated by Yun Meng in three moves yesterday, completely ignited the hormones of all cultivators and the greed of gamblers.

Inside the imperial palace, Wang Hao was being served by palace maids as he put on an extremely gorgeous, even somewhat flashy, purple-gold dragon robe.

My imperial son! I am going to the arena today! I want to see which shameless vixen dares to spout nonsense on the stage today! I must teach them a lesson using royal rules! Empress Dowager Sun stormed in angrily, leading Wang Rou and Wang Xuan. She was clearly still brooding over Ye Hongling's provocation from yesterday.

Wang Hao's eyes twitched. What a joke, demigod-level immortals were going to break out into a fight at the arena today. If his mother went, he would have to split his attention to protect her.

Calm down, Mother, please calm down. Wang Hao immediately put on an extremely filial expression and went up to meet her. Mother, think about it. Today is the grand finale, and that Fairy Yun Meng has unfathomable strength. What if the arena's arrays are broken and your precious body is injured? Besides, the inner palace cannot be without its master for a single day. Yesterday, I just confiscated the properties of several corrupt officials who secretly bet on the demonic cult. The millions of taels of silver and those rare jewelry pieces confiscated from their homes are still piled up in the Sweet Spring Palace. Those underlings have sticky fingers, so you must go and personally supervise the inventory!

Upon hearing confiscated properties, millions of taels of silver, and rare jewelry pieces, Empress Dowager Sun's eyes instantly lit up. The Wang family's greedy genes were carved into their very bones.

Ahem... My imperial son makes a valid point. Those dog slaves really don't understand the rules. Rou'er, Xuan'er, let's go, accompany your mother to the Sweet Spring Palace to audit the accounts! We won't go to a foul and chaotic place like the arena. Empress Dowager Sun changed her face as fast as flipping a book, pulling the bewildered Wang Rou and Wang Xuan toward the Sweet Spring Palace.

Having handled the Empress Dowager, Wang Hao let out a long sigh of relief.

Your Majesty, it is time to depart, Wei Zhongxian said respectfully from outside the door.

Let's go, to the arena!

Half an hour later, at the Royal Arena.

On the main viewing platform, Wang Hao sat boldly and confidently on his dragon throne. However, the situation in the VIP box today was extremely bizarre.

In the shadows behind Wang Hao, and even within the ranks of the tea-pouring eunuchs, more than twenty people were densely packed!

Some of these people wore tattered clothes, some were sloppy and unkempt, and some had the air of transcendent immortals, but without exception, they all exuded a terrifying fluctuation that faintly distorted the surrounding space.

Wang Hao turned his head to glance at this extremely exaggerated lineup, his mouth twitching madly out of control.

Great-Grandpa... is this the surprise you mentioned?

Wang Wudi, wearing a eunuch uniform stripped from heaven knows where, stood hunched over beside Wang Hao, picking his nose while letting out a sleazy chuckle:

"How about it, is this grand enough? For your sake, your grandfather and the others are in the light, while I, your ancestor, am in the dark. I've summoned all the reclusive, prestigious old monsters in the Divine State who are on good terms with the royal family! A full five Half-God Realm experts and sixteen Peak Sky-Soaring Realm experts! These old immortals are usually stingy as hell. I had to promise them that they could loot the corpses of those bastards from the Heaven's Secret Pavilion today, and we'd split their sect's treasury thirty-seventy before they agreed to come out of the mountain!"

In the shadows, a Half-God Realm old man holding a broken wine gourd let out a burp, staring greedily at the arena below. "Old Ghost Wang, we had a deal! That 'Heaven's Secret Compass' in the hands of the Heaven's Secret Pavilion Master belongs to me, you guys can split the rest!"

"Bullshit! I've had my eye on that for a long time!" another Half-God old woman holding a whisk cursed loudly.

Listening to these old monsters dividing the spoils of the yet-to-appear Heaven's Secret Pavilion assassins in the VIP box like old ladies at a wet market, Wang Hao only felt his scalp tingle. Then, his black, capitalistic heart completely ignited.

"The advantage is mine! Heaven's Secret Pavilion, if I don't strip you down to your underwear today, my surname isn't Wang!"

Wang Hao adjusted his expression, instantly switching to the look of a profiteer. He walked to the front of the stage, channeled his true qi, and his voice echoed throughout the entire venue like a massive bell:

"Citizens of the Great Zhou!! Today is the grand finale! I declare that the royal casino's betting pool today has no upper limit!"

Wang Hao waved his hand fiercely, and a massive bronze cauldron exuding an extremely ancient, desolate, and even slightly eerie primordial aura crashed onto the display stand in front of the arena.

"This is the 224th-ranked ancient eerie artifact—the 'Eight Desolations Cauldron'! I am bringing it out today as the grand prize! No matter who it is, as long as you can guess the final winner and top the odds pool, this priceless treasure will be yours!!"

"Boom!!!"

The entire crowd of a hundred thousand people instantly fell into an irrational frenzy! That was a top-three-hundred eerie artifact! Obtaining it was enough to instantly elevate a first-rate sect into the ranks of the top-tier powers!

Countless funds surged madly toward the royal casino like a tsunami.

Amidst the fanatic atmosphere of the whole arena, Wang Hao keenly noticed that in a few hidden corners of the audience seats, over a dozen extremely concealed, freezing cold killing intents, carrying the scrutinizing gaze of high and mighty gods, had already firmly locked onto him.

"The fish have taken the bait."

"Come on, let the storm rage even harder!"