Backhanded Blame: Heaven’s Secrets Pavilion Takes a Big Fall First

"The Heavenly Secret Pavilion!"

As these three words fell, it felt as if the entire underground cavity had been struck over the head with a club.

Many people couldn't even bother with the writhing, rapidly expanding remnants of the Night Fiend ahead, turning their heads in unison to look at the bizarre array patterns that had suddenly lit up.

The array patterns were embedded at the edge of the ancient seal. Their color was gloomy, yet the lines were exceptionally fine, completely different from the rough and heavy ancient martial array paths surrounding them. If the original seal was like using mountains and rivers as bones and blood vitality as anchors, then this newly embedded piece was like a slender yet vicious small knife, specifically drilling into the most lethal part of the seal.

Experienced array masters only needed a single glance for their expressions to change.

"These are not the original patterns of the ancient array!"

"It looks like it was altered by later generations..."

"And it was altered very deeply, embedded directly into the main vein of the suppression seal."

"If a corner of the seal hadn't collapsed just now, it would have been completely undetectable!"

For a moment, an uproar arose in the area.

The Night Fiend's remnants were still constantly crashing below the altar. Black-red bone armor and flesh protruded section by section, carrying a heart-palpitating shriek and mental pollution. But compared to this evil entity before them, what chilled everyone's hearts even more was another matter—

If someone had truly set their sights on this place long ago and altered the ancient suppression seal in advance, then this Yanshan anomaly was probably never a simple emergence of a serendipitous encounter from beginning to end.

Rather, someone had deliberately set a trap.

This reaction was exactly what Wang Hao was waiting for.

His face darkened just right, appearing angry, yet also like he was shocked in hindsight. He raised his hand, pointing directly at that array pattern. "Everyone sees it? Such tampering techniques are absolutely not something an ordinary sect could achieve. It is not repairing the seal, but leaving a backdoor for the Night Fiend!"

Saying this, his gaze turned cold, his words becoming increasingly sharp. "First there were demonic shadows in Yanshan, then anomalies in the secret realm, followed by the imbalance of the core seal. The displacement of the true blood then triggered the rampage of the remnants. If you say all of this is just a coincidence, who would believe it?"

No one spoke.

Because right now, it was indeed hard to convince oneself that it was a coincidence.

And Wang Hao clearly had no intention of giving others a chance to think slowly.

He understood best what it meant to gain the upper hand by striking first. Especially when it came to shifting the blame, the key was to pin it fast and steady, giving the other party no time to organize their words.

"The Heavenly Secret Pavilion claims to deduce the destiny of the heavens and is most skilled in array mechanisms; Xie Wujiu previously set up schemes outside the capital to stir up trouble, and now this artificially embedded seal-breaking array path pops up in the Yanshan secret realm—if not them, who else could it be?"

His voice, projected by true essence, made the stone walls hum and vibrate.

"Releasing the Night Fiend to wreak havoc in the Eastern Wasteland, and then profiting from the world's chaos. What a Heavenly Secret Pavilion, what a Xie Wujiu!"

These words were urgent and ruthless, yet their logic was exceptionally complete.

While others were still at the level of "could it be," Wang Hao had already directly advanced to "it is indeed so."

Yun Meng's eyelids twitched as she listened.

She always felt something was wrong with this matter, but right now, that array pattern was solidly placed there, leaving her unable to find any flaws for a moment.

Shen Xue frowned slightly, her gaze sweeping back and forth between the array pattern and Wang Hao, her eyes deepening a bit. She wasn't as easily swayed by the rhythm as others, but at this moment, she also had to admit that these array paths before her indeed looked very much like human handiwork.

Furthermore, regardless of whether the Heavenly Secret Pavilion did it or not, the most important thing right now was to suppress the Night Fiend first.

As for Xiao Chen and the rest of The Ten, they had no time to think about conspiracy theories right now.

Because the Night Fiend's remnants had gone completely mad.

"Roar—!"

Below the altar, a ring of black shockwaves suddenly exploded.

It wasn't pure energy, but more like a mental frenzy mixed with resentment, malice, and decaying vitality. Rong Xiaotian, who was charging at the very front, bore the brunt of it. His whole body looked as if it had been hit head-on by a battering ram. With a muffled groan, his feet plowed two long marks on the stone surface, and blood instantly spilled from the corner of his mouth.

Ye Guyun reacted extremely fast. Holding his long sword horizontally, his sword intent spread out like a snow line, forcefully cutting off half of the impact for the people behind him.

"Don't take it head-on!" he shouted in a low voice.

Bai Zhantang dodged while cursing, "Easy for you to say! When this thing lunges at your face, who has time to reason with it!"

Gu Han continuously slashed with the long saber in his hand. The saber aura was fierce, chopping directly at the protruding black bone limbs. But when the saber light landed on them, it only brought up a string of sparks, as if hacking against ten-thousand-year-old dark iron, jarring the webbing between his thumb and forefinger until it went numb.

"It's getting stronger." Gu Han's face looked ugly. "When it first came out, it was just the edges of the remnants. Now it seems to be adapting to the environment."

"Nonsense!" Rong Xiaotian wiped off the blood, roared, and lunged forward again. "If we let it grow out more, we'll all die!"

The Ten stepped up to the front again.

Xiao Chen was truly fighting with anger this time.

He was already holding in a bellyful of frustration, and now he was being roasted on a fire by Wang Hao's phrase "The Ten of the Great Zhou's destiny." He couldn't retreat, nor could he stay. Seeing the Night Fiend's remnants sweeping over again with a tentacle-like whip of bone and flesh, his gaze turned ruthless. The strange fire in his palm violently rolled out, unexpectedly transforming into a giant flaming wolf that pounced and bit at the long whip.

Boom!

Flames and black energy collided in mid-air, exploding into a large area of scorching red and ink-black light fragments.

This strike finally lifted the spirits of many people.

It could be injured!

Although the damage wasn't huge, it wasn't completely ineffective.

"Keep suppressing it!" an imperial guard commander shouted from the rear.

Wang Hao stood in a position further back but with the best view, yet his eyes were not entirely focused on the frontline slaughter. While observing the battle, he also divided his attention to look at the system prompts in his mind.

[Night Fiend Remnant Activity: 31%... 33%...]

[Current suppression methods have limited effect.]

[Detected that the Martial God's True Blood within the host's body is resonating with the altar's ancient intent.]

[Can attempt to activate the prototype of the "Martial God Battle Seal."]

Wang Hao's eyes flickered.

Martial God Battle Seal?

This name sounded perfect for showing off... no, perfect for saving the world.

"How do I activate it?" he asked in his mind.

[Use blood vitality as a guide to communicate with the ancient martial battle intent within the true blood.]

[Must endure intense backlash.]

[Success Rate: Medium.]

[Failure Risk: High.]

Wang Hao remained expressionless.

Very well.

Every time the system provided a solution, it was like saying, "There is a move, a narrow escape from death, will you do it?"

However, right now there really was no other way.

He looked at The Ten, who were struggling more and more to hold the front line, and then glanced at the sect cultivators who had already begun to take over maintaining the outer defensive lines. Suddenly, he spoke in a deep voice: "Everyone, keep suppressing it! Do not let it completely break free from the altar!"

The crowd subconsciously responded.

The next moment, Wang Hao turned to look at Wei Zhongxian: "Stand guard for me."

Yu Huatian's expression tightened: "Is Your Majesty going to strike personally?"

"Nonsense," Wang Hao said lightly. "We can't really expect them to throw all their lives away in there."

As soon as these words came out, the expressions of many people nearby became a bit subtle.

Especially The Ten.

Bai Zhantang was almost moved—of course, he was only moved for half a breath's time.

Because he quickly remembered that the very reason they were thrown to the front lines was that Wang Hao had personally called them out.

But regardless, Wang Hao being willing to step up at this moment was indeed very morale-boosting for the scene.

Wang Hao took a step forward, arriving directly at the front edge of the altar.

The true blood of the Martial God, having just merged into his body, was still surging. Like a restless primordial beast, it rampaged through his limbs and bones. He took a deep breath, slowly brought his hands together, and the vitality around him erupted with a boom.

In an instant, the vague embryonic form of the dharma idol, which had gradually dimmed, revealed its outline behind him once more.

This time, it was slightly more solid than before.

It was a tall, indistinct humanoid figure standing in the distorted void. Its face could not be seen, yet it exuded an ancient majesty capable of shattering mountains and rivers.

Around the altar, the broken ancient martial Dao engravings all trembled simultaneously, emitting a low hum as if in resonance, or perhaps in submission.

"It's here again!" someone cried out in shock.

"He can still use that embryonic dharma idol?"

"Didn't he just fuse with the true blood? How can he continue to activate it?"

Yun Meng looked at the figure's back in front of her, her expression incredibly complex.

She had seen many geniuses and figures supposedly blessed by destiny, but there were truly few as absurd as Wang Hao. What was even more infuriating was that when this man was ridiculously strong, his face still wore a "We are merely doing this reluctantly" expression.

It was too punchable.

Truly too punchable.

Wang Hao, however, had no time to care about what others thought at this moment.

He was forcefully following the system prompts, guiding that domineering blood intent—which was close to burning through his meridians—toward the center of his brow.

Vitality rushed to his head, and his sea of consciousness roared.

For a moment, he seemed to see an ancient wasteland.

At the end of the wasteland, a figure with an indiscernible appearance stood between heaven and earth. Corpses lay at its feet, a galaxy hung above its head, and with a raise of its hand, it could suppress mountains and seas.

That figure looked down at him.

There were no words.

There was only a battle intent blazing to the extreme, crashing into his consciousness like a meteor.

"Buzz——!"

Wang Hao's glabella suddenly grew hot.

In the next instant, a very faint blood-gold mark slowly surfaced.

The mark was not large, but it carried an indescribable primitive simplicity and coercion.

It looked like a battle seal, and also like an ancient symbol forged from blood and will.

[Martial God Battle Seal Embryonic Form activated successfully.]

[Currently able to briefly borrow the suppressive power of the true blood.]

[Duration: Extremely short.]

[Side effects: Extremely strong.]

Wang Hao felt a sense of certainty in his heart.

It was enough.

Extremely short it is, as long as it suppresses the situation first.

"Everyone, get out of the way!"

He suddenly let out a furious shout.

In front, The Ten retreated almost instinctively. This was mainly because they had formed a sort of conditioned reflex toward Wang Hao—every time this dog emperor spoke in this tone, he was highly likely to cause a massive commotion, and one that probably wouldn't distinguish between friend and foe.

As expected.

The moment the crowd scattered, Wang Hao took a step onto the edge of the altar, raised his hand, and pressed down toward the remnant body of the Night Fiend below, which was still madly assaulting the seal.

"For Us——"

"Get back down."

Boom!

The battle seal between his brows suddenly lit up.

A blood-gold pillar of light, though not blinding, made the entire underground cavity tremble the moment it appeared.

That was not ordinary true essence, nor was it a common martial skill, but an ancient martial will carrying a sense of primal suppression. Like a higher-level life form's status, it forcefully landed on the head of the Night Fiend's remnant body.

"Hiss——!!!"

For the first time, the Night Fiend's remnant body let out a screech that clearly carried shock and fury.

The frantically writhing black-and-red patterns on its surface seemed to have encountered their natural enemy, twisting and shrinking madly. The bone armor that had just protruded more than halfway was actually pressed back bit by bit by this power.

"It's effective!" someone exclaimed.

"It really suppressed it!"

"That battle seal can counter it!"

The Ten were also dumbfounded.

Xiao Chen gritted his teeth, the feeling of stifled frustration in his chest almost exploding.

It was like this again.

Even though they were the ones holding the line during the most dangerous parts earlier, when it came to the final wrap-up, the most show-stealing and savior-like moment, it was always Wang Hao.

And to make matters worse, this move was genuinely ridiculously cool.

Who could stand this?

While Wang Hao appeared awe-inspiring on the surface, he was actually cursing inwardly.

It hurt.

It hurt too much.

Every time that Martial God battle seal brightened a fraction, his internal meridians felt like they were being scraped raw by a knife. The power brought by the true blood was fierce, but it was too fierce, simply not something he could easily endure right now.

But he didn't reveal the slightest bit of it on his face; instead, his aura grew increasingly imposing.

Some people acted tough to save face.

He acted tough to maximize his gains.

If he didn't act now, wouldn't all the previous build-up be wasted?

"What are you still standing there for!" Wang Hao shouted coldly. "Take this chance, sever its outer limbs and seal its rifts!"

Only then did the crowd wake up as if from a dream.

Shen Xue was the first to attack.

She slashed out with her sword, and the sky full of frost gathered into a snow-bright sword waterfall, viciously cutting into one of the exposed main bone limbs of the Night Fiend's remnant body. The frost spread all the way along the bone patterns, forcefully sealing more than half of that bone limb.

Yun Meng formed hand seals, and the Illusion Sea secret art spread out, transforming into layers of blurry ripples that assaulted the mental core of the Night Fiend's remnant body, forcing it to screech incessantly.

The experts of the other sects no longer dared to hold back either.

Sword gleams, palm prints, talismans, and secret artifacts poured down like a torrential rain in an instant.

They hadn't dared to fight earlier for fear of losing their lives.

Now that Wang Hao had suppressed the most demonic core, if they still didn't attack, they would truly just be waiting to be labeled as "sitting by and watching evil plague the world" once they got out.

Boom boom boom——

Amidst round after round of bombardment, the Night Fiend's remnant body was beaten until black blood splattered everywhere and its bone armor shattered.

The scene was astonishingly fierce, yet it inexplicably made one's blood boil.

After all, just a moment ago, the crowd was being beaten down by this evil creature, and the next moment, under the premise of Wang Hao forcefully suppressing the situation, they had begun a counterattack.

Meanwhile, in a rear corner, Yu Huatian had already quietly taken out a Recording Jade, finding an extremely tricky angle.

For the first half, the focus was on filming those "Heavenly Secret Pavilion seal-breaking array patterns."

In the middle, it captured the Night Fiend going berserk and the crowd in critical danger.

Finally, it gave Wang Hao the most frontal shot of his battle seal suppressing the evil.

Yu Huatian watched and nodded repeatedly.

Good.

Too good.

Once this set of footage was taken out, slightly edited, and then pushed by the storytellers of the capital, the Gazette Bureau, the secret agents of the Western Depot, and the folk teahouses all working together——

"Shocking! The Heavenly Secret Pavilion secretly altered the seal, intending to release the Night Fiend to plague the Eastern Wasteland!"

"The New Emperor of the Great Zhou turns the tide, suppressing the evil with the Martial God Battle Seal!"

"Xie Wujiu's intentions are punishable by death!"

The traffic this would generate was unimaginable.

Just as the crowd's siege gradually gained the upper hand, there was suddenly another tremor beneath the altar.

The Night Fiend's remnant body curled up violently under the suppression of the battle seal, and immediately after, an even more sinister fluctuation of intent came from deep within the rift.

It was not a sound, yet it crashed clearly into everyone's minds:

"The blood... has returned..."

"Martial God..."

"You... cannot escape..."

The moment they heard this intent, everyone felt a collective chill.

Especially Wang Hao, whose eyes instantly turned cold.

Because that intent was clearly directed at him.

The Night Fiend had set its sights on him.