This Emperor, How Can He Be So Shameless

Because the consequences of falling out would highly likely not be a battle, but rather being taught a lesson on how to behave by Wei Zhongxian, Yu Huatian, six Void Realm patriarchs, a hundred thousand imperial guards, and hundreds of cannons all at once.

Ultimately, he clenched his teeth tightly and forcefully swallowed down that extreme sense of grievance.

Yet, the look in his eyes as he stared at the broken sword remained full of unwillingness.

That was not ordinary greed, but a true sense of destined attraction. It was as if something was telling him that a massive secret closely related to his future was hidden within that sword.

And Wang Hao, naturally, saw this clearly.

His favorite thing to watch was exactly this kind of expression: You know very well that thing should probably belong to you, but you simply cannot get it.

Sour, stifled, hateful, yet utterly helpless.

It felt absolutely fantastic.

Of course, thrill aside, Wang Hao wasn't purely out to torture people.

He knew very well in his heart that the broken sword's sudden abnormal movement and its active resonance with Ye Guyun definitely hid clues behind it. Rather than risking going up to try it the hard way himself, it was better to use Ye Guyun, this ready-made key, as an experiment first.

Thinking of this, Wang Hao rolled his eyes and suddenly revealed that amiable smile again.

"However, I am not an unreasonable person."

Ye Guyun froze.

The people around them were also stunned.

Did this dog emperor change his nature?

Wang Hao spoke slowly and methodically: "Considering that you do indeed share a trace of resonance with this sword, I can grant you special permission—in the capacity of a temporary externally-hired weapon researcher for the imperial court, under strict supervision, to try and make contact with it for the duration of one burning incense stick."

"If you can uncover any useful clues for the imperial court, it will be recorded as a great merit for you."

"Of course, the sword still belongs to the imperial court; you are merely borrowing it."

Ye Guyun was speechless.

These words sounded like a blessing, but in reality, every single word dripped with insult.

What did he mean by externally-hired weapon researcher?

What did he mean by the sword still belongs to the imperial court and you are merely borrowing it?

But ironically, this really did give him a sliver of opportunity.

Ye Guyun fell silent for a few breaths, and finally said in a low voice: "...Thank you, Your Majesty."

That voice sounded exactly as if it had been squeezed out from between his teeth.

Wang Hao was overjoyed in his heart, but on the surface, he remained completely serious: "Go on. Remember, don't mess around. You are not making it acknowledge you as its master right now, you are doing scientific research for the Great Zhou."

Xiao Chen, standing to the side, listened with his mouth twitching madly.

Doing scientific research.

He could even describe a divine weapon acknowledging a master as doing scientific research.

How could such a person exist in this world?

But Ye Guyun could no longer care about these things.

He took a deep breath, suppressed all distracting thoughts, and slowly walked toward that broken blade.

Ten rods.

Five rods.

Three rods.

As he approached, the trembling of the broken blade became increasingly obvious, and the strands of dark gold light within the blade grew brighter and brighter. The scattered broken weapons all around began to emit a continuous buzzing sound, as if welcoming the revival of some ancient will.

Finally, Ye Guyun stood before the black stone pedestal.

He slowly reached out his hand.

Right at the moment his fingertips touched the hilt of the blade—

Boom!

The entire Weapon Burial Terrace suddenly jolted!

A terrifyingly extreme martial will surged straight into Ye Guyun's sea of consciousness along the hilt, like countless battlefield afterimages exploding all at once. Blade light, seas of blood, the corpses of gods and demons, shattered mountains and rivers, bloody slaughter... Scene after scene submerged him like a torrent.

Ye Guyun's entire body shuddered violently, he let out a muffled groan, and the veins on his forehead bulged.

He seemed to see a figure standing amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

The figure's face could not be seen clearly; only a hand holding a blade and a back that seemed heavy enough to collapse the firmament could be seen.

Too strong.

So strong that it did not seem like a mortal creature.

And the blade intent within the broken blade was precisely a wisp of a remnant trace separated from that back figure.

"Steady!" Shen Xue shouted in a low voice.

She could tell that Ye Guyun was currently in an extremely dangerous state. If he pulled through, he might really obtain important clues; if he couldn't, at best his sea of consciousness would be heavily injured, and at worst he would go insane on the spot.

Yun Meng also uncharacteristically put away her mocking expression and said in a low voice, "There really is something hidden in this blade."

Meanwhile, Wang Hao had already quietly maximized his system's probing and his own divine sense.

The best time to freeload intelligence had arrived.

Sure enough, in the next second, a system prompt rang out in his mind:

"Ding! System upgraded to version 3.0. In addition to updating intelligence, daily check-ins, and the attached Son of Heaven's Qi Observation Technique, a new Appraisal Eye is attached. The Appraisal Eye can appraise all items, but there is also a certain failure rate."

"Ding! Detected that the special Martial God Relic [Buried Broken Sword] has been activated."

"Ding! Appraising..."

"Ding! Appraisal successful: A wisp of the Martial God's remnant will is hidden within the broken blade. It is not a complete inheritance, but merely a carrier for coordinates and a warning."

Wang Hao's eyes instantly lit up.

There really was the good stuff!

And in the arena, Ye Guyun was almost pushed to his limit, blood even spilling from the corners of his mouth, yet he still gritted his teeth and refused to let go. Because he could feel that just a little bit more, just a tiny bit more, and that wisp of remnant will would truly manifest.

"Aim the recording stones for me."

Wang Hao ordered in a lowered voice.

"Yes!"

The West Factory guards immediately and quietly adjusted several high-grade recording stones to the optimal angles.

Finally—

Buzz!

The broken sword suddenly erupted with a blinding burst of blade light, and a blurry phantom slowly condensed above the blade.

It was the silhouette of a tall man, leaving only an extremely faint layer of a phantom, yet it still carried a terrifying coercion that made people not dare to look directly at it. He seemed to cross through the eons, looking up from that long-ended bloody battle to glance at the people of the present.

Everyone held their breath.

Wild joy erupted in Ye Guyun's eyes.

It's here!

He had actually drawn out the Martial God's remnant will!

At this moment, he even had a strong feeling that fate is finally standing on my side.

However, this wild joy didn't even last for a single breath—

Wang Hao moved.

As if he had calculated the timing long ago, his figure flashed and he appeared directly beside Ye Guyun, then unceremoniously kicked him right in the butt.

"Roll aside, don't block me from hearing the main points."

Bang!

Caught completely off guard, Ye Guyun was kicked over on the spot, rolling miserably on the ground several times.

Everyone was speechless.

Ye Guyun lay on the ground, his mind completely blank.

The remnant will he drew out.

The channel he propped open.

He almost threw his life away for it.

And the result was Wang Hao kicking him aside and leaning in himself to listen to the main points?

This was no longer just stealing his thunder.

This was taking a shovel and digging up his ancestral graves.

How could this emperor be so shameless?

Wang Hao, however, didn't feel the slightest bit embarrassed. Instead, he stood before the broken blade, hands behind his back, putting on a solemn posture of I am the orthodox heir of this place.

That illusory figure also seemed to be stunned into silence for a moment by this operation.

A short while later, it finally slowly opened its mouth, letting out a hoarse, ancient voice that seemed to transmit from the end of time:

"Deep within the battlefield..."

"The Demon-Suppressing Stele... has cracked."

Just a few words.

After speaking, that remnant will seemed to have exhausted all its power and crashed into dissipation.

And all the light on the broken blade rapidly dimmed along with it, returning anew to dead silence.

Inside the Weapon Burial Terrace, there was dead silence.

Everyone's expressions changed.

Especially Shen Xue's.

In the instant she heard the words The Demon-Suppressing Stele has cracked, her heart felt as if it had been fiercely gripped by an invisible giant hand, and her breathing stopped for a beat.

The tattered parchment scroll she had read last night in the Royal Library recorded the exact truth behind the Martial God Suppressing Demons!

The Martial God corpse controlled by the Crimson Moon Demonic Cult was essentially one of the sealing vessels left behind by an ancient Martial God, used to suppress the Level Nine Great Ominous Anomaly, the Abyssal Eye Nightfiend. And now, deep within this Martial God Battlefield, the warning that the Demon Suppression Stele has cracked had actually appeared...

What did this mean?

It meant that the core of this mystic realm likely sealed away something incredibly terrifying as well.

Or rather—

This place and the Martial God corpse held by the Crimson Moon Demonic Cult were originally part of the same massive demon-suppression system!

At this thought, Shen Xue felt a chill run down her spine.

On the other side, although Yun Meng did not know the details as intimately, her discerning eyes and intuition as a Holy Maiden instinctively told her that something was wrong.

"This mystic realm isn't just a simple place of inheritance," she murmured softly. "It is more like an ancient battlefield with a massive hidden danger buried within."

Ren Mingyue looked at Shen Xue, then at Wang Hao, acutely aware that the situation had already escalated far beyond a mere treasure hunt.

Meanwhile, Wang Hao stood in place, his gaze deep and unfathomable.

"The Demon Suppression Stele has cracked..."

He silently repeated these words in his mind. Instead of fear, a faint sense of excitement welled up inside him.

The greater the danger, the bigger the event.

And the bigger the event, the more system rewards, political leverage, and strategic benefits he could exploit.

Of course, the prerequisite was not getting himself killed in the process.

"It seems the waters deep within this mystic realm are much muddier than I imagined."

A cold glint flashed through Wang Hao's eyes, and he made a decision without hesitation:

"Men, store this broken sword away and classify it as a Grade One Royal Forbidden Item."

"Also, record a merit for Ye Guyun—hmm, just put down 'Meritorious service in assisting the Imperial Court to activate an ancient artifact.' Reward him with one hundred taels of silver. We cannot have people saying the Great Zhou Dynasty is stingy."

Hearing this, Ye Guyun's vision went dark, and he nearly fainted from anger on the spot.

One hundred taels?!

I almost had my soul shattered to help you freeload a Martial God's remnant will, and in the end, you reward me with a hundred taels?!

And the title of the merit is 'assisting in activating an ancient artifact'?

How was this any different from hiring a coolie to unclog a sewer and giving them a pennant as a reward? If he was not completely outmatched, he would have definitely hacked Wang Hao into a thousand pieces.

Standing to the side, Xiao Chen suddenly felt much more balanced in his heart.

Seeing Ye Guyun in such a miserable state, he even felt the urge to laugh.

It was not just him; even Rong Xiaotian silently backed away a little, terrified that Wang Hao would suddenly have a stroke of genius and assign him some title like Weaponry Researcher or Model Mystic Realm Miner.

Wang Hao, however, could not care less about the complicated feelings of the crowd.

His mind was already calculating furiously.

The warning from the broken blade proved that there was indeed a greater secret deep within the battlefield.

The cracking of the Demon Suppression Stele meant that this secret was highly unlikely to be a simple free-loot scenario. Instead, it was a massive undertaking with high risks, high rewards, and the perfect opportunity to conveniently dig a pit for all the factions in the world to fall into.

The best part was—

The people who knew this information right now were basically all under his control.

In other words, the information advantage was in his hands.

"Heh."

The corners of Wang Hao's mouth curled up slightly.

"Xie Wujiu, don't you love to scheme?"

"I would like to see just who is using who as a pawn this time."

Right at this moment, a low, rumbling sound of shattering echoed from deeper within the Weapon Burial Terrace.

Crack... crackle...

It sounded as if something sealed away for countless years was truly beginning to break apart.

In the darkness, a wisp of gray mist, nearly invisible to the naked eye, was quietly seeping out from the depths.

Wherever the gray mist passed, several broken weapons that originally still retained the will of the martial path silently lost all their spirituality, clattering to the ground like true scrap metal.

The crisis had arrived much faster than anyone had anticipated.

Yet, as Wang Hao gazed at the churning darkness deeper within the battlefield, the smile in his eyes only grew deeper.

"Excellent."

"We have finished the appetizers."

"Now, it is time for the main course."