Heavenly Alliance Intervenes, Wang Hao Publicly Executes a Wave of Lip-Service Justice

"Your Majesty, this... since this Heavenly Dao Alliance has a way to break the deadlock, shouldn't we deliberate on this further?" The elder of the Purple Heaven Sect, who had been the slowest to sign earlier, was now the first to jump out. His originally hunched back even straightened up a bit.

"Indeed, Your Majesty. The manifesto claims that the Great Zhou intends to annex the world. This... this truly breeds suspicion. If it causes a misunderstanding across the entire Eastern Wasteland, the great cause of resisting the Nightmares might be destroyed in an instant." Another patriarch of a hidden aristocratic family echoed, his tone even carrying a hint of forcing the emperor's hand.

In the back row, young prodigies like Xiao Chen and Ye Guyun also looked at each other in dismay. Their blood still ran hot, and hearing the Heavenly Dao Alliance raise the banner of "Resisting the Tyrannical Zhou and Saving the Common People," they inevitably felt a ripple in their hearts. After all, compared to the tyrant sitting on the dragon throne who chained them like dogs and squeezed dry their surplus value, the Heavenly Dao Alliance's slogan sounded exactly like an army of justice.

In the VIP seats, Shen Xue frowned slightly, coldly sweeping her gaze over the restless representatives of the major factions, silently cursing them as a bunch of idiots. These people had no idea how terrifying Wang Hao's methods were; jumping out at this time was simply courting death. Ren Mingyue, on the other hand, looked at the dragon throne with some concern. The Heavenly Dao Alliance, led by the Heavenly Secret Pavilion, stirring up public opinion at this critical juncture was a vicious scheme to pull the rug out from under them.

However, Wang Hao, sitting on the dragon throne, showed not a single trace of panic on his face.

On the contrary, he smiled.

He smiled radiantly, even with a bit of the lazy demeanor of someone watching a good show.

"Grand Companion Wei." Wang Hao's slender fingers gently tapped the dragon desk, making a crisp tap-tap sound. "Since the Heavenly Dao Alliance is so literary and has written a hundred thousand copies of their manifesto, we cannot let their hard work go to waste. Go, have this manifesto copied a hundred times and distribute them to all the beloved ministers seated here, so everyone can properly appreciate this bizarre masterpiece of the ages."

"This old servant obeys the decree." Wei Zhongxian fought back a smile and immediately ordered the little eunuchs below to get it done.

In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, several hundred copies of the Manifesto Against Zhou, still exuding the fragrance of ink, were respectfully distributed into the hands of every attending representative.

The uniform sound of flipping paper echoed throughout the great hall.

This manifesto was indeed written with ornate rhetoric and impassioned fervor.

The opening heavily denounced the successive emperors of the Great Zhou for their militarism, and then the tone shifted, directly pointing at the current Emperor Wang Hao as a tyrant of the ages who was "licentious and immoral, tyrannical and cruel, and adept at manipulating power."

The manifesto further claimed with absolute certainty that the so-called Crimson Moon Anomaly was nothing more than a deliberately exaggerated hoax by the Great Zhou to consolidate the world's military power! Finally, the Heavenly Dao Alliance called upon all people of lofty ideals across the world to gather at Heavenly Dao Mountain for an alliance, to share the Heavenly Dao Divine Crystal together, crush the hegemony of the Great Zhou, and establish a truly free and equal martial arts world!

After reading the entire manifesto, many faction representatives who harbored dissatisfaction with the Great Zhou were so excited that their hands trembled. This simply spoke right to their hearts!

"Finished reading?" Wang Hao looked at the people below with their varying expressions, the mockery at the corners of his mouth growing thicker.

He slowly stood up, his hands clasped behind his back. An invisible imperial coercion slowly spread out like the tide, and the great hall, which had still held some whispers, instantly became dead silent.

"The article is written quite well, combining parallel and prose styles, with neat antithesis, and its transitions can be considered the work of a master. If I were to hold an imperial examination to select scholars, this pedantic scholar who wrote the manifesto might well be awarded the third place." Wang Hao evaluated slowly and methodically, as if he really were an examiner grading a test paper.

Immediately after, Wang Hao's gaze suddenly turned fierce, like an unsheathed peerless divine blade, piercing the eyes of several Astral Qi realm experts in the front row until they ached!

"But—"

Wang Hao's voice was like a massive temple bell, exploding with a boom within the Hall of Supreme Harmony!

"I just want to ask five questions!"

He suddenly extended a finger, pointing directly at the Purple Heaven Sect elder who had clamored the loudest just now. "First! The Heavenly Dao Alliance keeps saying they want to resist the Nightmares, but have they ever produced a practical and feasible array defense plan?"

The Purple Heaven Sect elder was shaken by this aura and subconsciously took a half step back, cold sweat instantly breaking out. "This... the manifesto did not mention it..."

"Second!" Wang Hao extended a second finger, his gaze sweeping across the entire hall. "The Heavenly Dao Alliance calls for a worldwide alliance, but have they ever contributed a single spirit stone or a single load of military rations to provide relief for the Northern Border refugees displaced by the Nightmare outbreak?"

The entire hall was dead silent, no one daring to answer.

"Third! Since the Heavenly Dao Divine Crystal they speak of can destroy the Nightmares, why didn't we see them take it out to save people when a minor anomaly tide broke out in the Northern Border? Instead, they watched helplessly as three thousand disciples of the Profound Sound Sect turned into demonic creatures?"

This question was a direct strike to the heart! Those who just thought the Heavenly Dao Alliance was an army of justice instantly felt their minds buzz. That's right! If you had the antidote, what the hell were you doing earlier?

"Fourth! Has the Heavenly Dao Alliance ever sent a single array master or a single alchemist to the border to reinforce the seals?"

"Fifth! Since the establishment of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion, over thousands of years, have they ever slain even a single lowest-tier anomaly on the frontal battlefield?"

Wang Hao's five consecutive questions were like five bolts of divine lightning from the nine heavens, each more ruthless and heavier than the last, striking until the entire Hall of Supreme Harmony buzzed. Those faction representatives who had still harbored illusions about the Heavenly Dao Alliance just moments ago were now all pale-faced, cold sweat soaking through the heavy layers of their clothes on their backs.

"No! Absolutely nothing!" Wang Hao suddenly waved his sleeve. A violent astral wind directly swept the teacup on the dragon desk to the ground, smashing it to pieces. "A bunch of trash who only know how to hide in the gutters, relying on a mouth and a few pens to fan the flames and spout nonsense! And they dare falsely claim to be an army of justice?"

"Grand Companion Wei!"

"This old servant is here!" Wei Zhongxian immediately jumped out excitedly, like a vicious dog that had smelled blood.

"Hang up the good stuff our Eastern Depot has prepared for the beloved ministers!"

"Yes!"

Wei Zhongxian waved his large hand, and several Eastern Depot guards immediately carried out a massive recording stone slab. After injecting true qi into it, a ridiculous image was projected in mid-air.

At the very top of the image, several bloody large characters were written: Comparison Chart of Slogans and Actual Combat Records Since the Establishment of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion and the Heavenly Dao Alliance.

The eyes of everyone in the hall were drawn to it, and even prodigies like Xiao Chen couldn't help but crane their necks.

After just one glance, a burst of uncontrollable coughing sounds came from the crowd.

[Year 320 of the Great Zhou Calendar]: The Heavenly Secret Pavilion declared, "Enforce justice on behalf of Heaven, execute the demon consort."

Actual Combat Record: The Alliance Leader was caught drinking with courtesans in a capital brothel by the imperial anti-vice brigade, fined three thousand spirit stones, and bailed out after writing an eight-thousand-word self-criticism.

[Year 345 of the Great Zhou Calendar]: The Heavenly Secret Pavilion declared, "Slay the Resentful Dragon, return peace to the Eastern Wasteland."

Actual Combat Record: Gathered three thousand cultists to besiege a level-eight anomaly in the Eastern Sea that was about to die of old age. Two thousand people were blasted to death by a single sneeze from the Resentful Dragon, and the remaining thousand fled overnight, robbing three mortal villages along the way.

...

[Year 1180 of the Great Zhou Calendar]: The newly established Heavenly Dao Alliance declared, "The Nightmares are illusions, all lies of the Great Zhou."

Actual battle record: The Northwest Branch of the Heavenly Dao Alliance had a Tier-7 Aberrant Yaksha pass by. All three hundred members of the branch were so terrified they trampled each other, resulting in over half dead or injured. The branch master fled overnight to beg for help from the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion.

...

Item by item, case by case, it was all a record of the empty boasts the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion and the Heavenly Dao Alliance had made, alongside the brutal beatings they had suffered. There was no absolute worst, only worse!

By the end, even the usually ice-cold Shen Xue couldn't stop her mouth from twitching wildly, hastily using her sleeve to cover her breathtakingly beautiful face. Yun Meng almost burst out laughing. This dog emperor wasn't just full of schemes; his psychological warfare was simply unmatched in the world! He had completely stripped away the enemy's secrets and publicly flogged their corpses!

"This is the savior you placed your high hopes on?" Wang Hao sneered as he walked down the jade steps, strolling leisurely among the representatives of the major factions. With every step he took, the hearts of those representatives trembled.

"Opposing me is easy." Wang Hao stopped, his profound gaze fixing on the Valley Master of Fire Cloud Valley. "All it takes is flapping your lips and handing out a few flyers, and you become heroes unafraid of authority. But saving the world is hard!"

"It requires pouring in real gold and silver! It requires filling the gap with the lives of formation masters! It requires the Demon Suppression Army to use their flesh and blood to block that hundred-foot-tall mountain of flesh!"

"I will make my stance clear right here. The Great Zhou Imperial Court will initially invest one hundred million taels to purchase military supplies for the grand cause of resisting the Aberrants."

Wang Hao's voice gradually lowered, yet it carried a suffocating sense of oppression. "Of course, I will also lay it out today. You can choose to follow the Heavenly Dao Alliance and play at some 'freedom and equality,' and I absolutely will not stop you."

"But the moment you step out the doors of this Supreme Harmony Hall, you will be the mortal enemies of the Great Zhou. The Great Zhou iron cavalry will completely erase you, along with your sects, from the map of the Eastern Wasteland!"

"Now, which do you choose?"

Dead silence. Absolute dead silence.

Wang Hao's combo was simply too ruthless. First, he used five consecutive questions to rub the Heavenly Dao Alliance's "righteousness" into the dirt, proving they were nothing but a bunch of all-talk keyboard warriors. Then, he threw out their historical battle records to slap them in the face, completely stripping away their mystique and prestige. Finally, he used mountains of gold and silver, absolute martial prowess, and grand righteousness to apply extreme pressure!

The elder of the Purple Heaven Sect swallowed hard and fell to his knees with a thud. "Y-Your Majesty, please quell your anger! This old man was just blinded by the Heavenly Dao Alliance's demonic lies! My Purple Heaven Sect is willing to swear loyalty unto death to the Great Zhou and fight against the Nightmares!"

With someone taking the lead, how could the rest dare to hold out?

"We are willing to swear loyalty unto death to Your Majesty!"

Clatter! The big shots who had been harboring ulterior motives just moments ago now knelt in a massive swath, kowtowing like pounding garlic.

In the corner, Xiao Chen watched this scene, feeling as if his entire worldview had been rebuilt. He had originally thought that a true expert was someone who could break all laws with a single sword strike. But today, he finally understood that in front of this man, you wouldn't even have the chance to draw your sword before his words, methods, and schemes drove you straight into a dead end!

This is the real fucking monster!

Wang Hao looked at the crowd kneeling all over the floor, feeling extremely satisfied in his heart.

Just as he was about to tell them to rise and completely finalize the alliance, another flurry of hurried footsteps echoed from outside the hall.

"Reporting to Your Majesty!" A commander of the Imperial Guards rushed in with a bizarre expression on his face, dropping to one knee. "Outside the palace gates, there is a man who claims to be the Vice Hall Master of the Heavenly Dao Alliance's Punishment Hall, named Zhao Hu. He... he is bound in thorny vines, claiming he wants to forsake the darkness for the light and offer a heaven-shaking secret to Your Majesty!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the representatives of the major factions who had just knelt all jerked their heads up, faces full of astonishment.

It hadn't even been an hour since the Heavenly Dao Alliance issued their call to arms, and their higher-ups were already running to the imperial palace to surrender?!

Wang Hao raised an eyebrow, a glint flashing in his eyes. Truly, just as he was feeling sleepy, someone offered him a pillow.

"Interesting." Wang Hao chuckled softly, sitting back down on the dragon throne and waving his large sleeve. "Summon him! I want to see just how soft the bones of this Heavenly Dao Alliance really are!"