One Man, One Sword, One Tower

For the first time, the Giant Hand let out a pained roar.

"Annihilation Dao Patterns!" Its voice showed shock for the first time. "How can you possess Annihilation Dao Patterns? Those were lost since the ancient era—"

"The eighth layer." Wang Hao interrupted, his finger pressing upon the void once more.

The eighth-layer formation pattern blazed to life. This time, it was pure gold—the power of national destiny.

All the Willpower of the Eastern Wasteland Empire's subjects, the loyalty of its soldiers, and the faith of its people converged at this moment into the eighth-layer pattern.

Golden light surged from the formation pattern, coalescing into a colossal sovereign phantom, heaven-reaching and earth-firm. The phantom wore a beaded crown and dragon robe; its face bore a seven-tenths resemblance to Wang Hao's, yet was more majestic, more solemn.

The sovereign phantom raised its right hand and struck a single palm at the Giant Hand.

This palm employed no flashy technique—it was simply a single palm strike.

But this strike contained the national destiny of the Eastern Wasteland Empire's billions of subjects. National destiny inherently suppresses all evil and anomalies, just as sunlight suppresses shadows and blazing fire suppresses icy cold.

The Giant Hand was forced to raise its other hand—the one it had originally concealed above the weird domain as its final trump—to block the sovereign phantom's palm force.

The two palms collided mid-sky.

There was no explosion, no shockwave, no sound at all.

Only light.

Golden light and eerie green light clashed fiercely at the collision's center, forming a sphere of light spanning dozens of miles. Within that sphere, the two forces annihilated each other; each annihilation caused the strange domain to tremble violently.

The sovereign phantom's hand began to shatter, but the Giant Hand's hand was also shattering.

The destruction progressed at almost the same rate—national destiny and strange power had struck a draw in this clash.

"The ninth layer." Wang Hao's voice remained calm, but fine beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. Activating eight layers of the formation pattern in succession had consumed a massive amount of his true qi and national destiny force; activating the ninth layer required him to pour in all his remaining strength.

"Rise."

The ninth layer—the final layer of the Ninefold Annihilation Formation—finally blazed forth.

This time, the light was not gold, not silver, not any color—it was pure transparency. A transparent radiance began to emanate from beneath Wang Hao's feet on the town's southern wall, spreading and overlaying all the formation patterns covering several hundred miles around.

Under the connection of this transparent light, the first through eighth layers merged, forming a complete, fully operational, ultra-massive formation disk.

At the heart of this disk stood Wang Hao.

He stood at the disk's center, arms outstretched, funneling his internal qi, national destiny, fortune, and the Willpower of the people into it. His body began to glow—not with the light of qi combustion, nor with the gold of national destiny's protective power, but with a pure white radiance he had never released before.

This was the fusion of all the forces within him: the true qi of the Martial God Foundation, the imperial national destiny, fortune, and the Willpower of billions of subjects—four entirely different powers intersecting, fusing, and transforming at the core of the Ninefold Annihilation Formation.

The pure white radiance coalesced into a column of light that shot straight into the sky.

The light pillar pierced the purple heavens of the strange domain, broke through layers of black mist, tore open the seals of all strange power, and streaked directly into the firmament.

Then the light pillar rebounded from the heavens, carrying the most pristine righteous energy of the empyrean above—like a divine sword of judgment descending—toward the eye at the Giant Hand's palm.

The Giant Hand was finally panicked.

It feverishly drove the strange power within its domain, erecting thousands of black barriers above its head. Each barrier was forged from the purest strange power, capable of withstanding the full force of a Martial God Realm peak attack.

But the pillar of pure white light completely ignored those barriers.

Upon contact with the black barriers, the barriers annihilated silently—not shattered, but purified. The pure white radiance, filled with Wang Hao's combined inner forces, was an unsolvable bane to the strange.

The light pillar pierced through the thousands of barriers, slamming directly into the eye at the Giant Hand's palm.

That eye, spanning several miles in diameter, trembled violently within the pillar. Countless fine cracks spread across its surface, and green abnormal forces spurted out through those cracks.

"No—!" The Giant Hand let out a sky-shaking roar, its voice filled with disbelief, shock, and agonized twisted emotions. "I have waited seventy thousand years—I am only one step away—I cannot—"

But the pillar did not crush the eye.

At the last moment, it deviated by half an inch—not guided by Wang Hao, but because the pillar's own energy, having worn down while piercing the thousands of barriers, could no longer strike with perfect accuracy.

The pillar grazed the edge of the eye, purifying all the anomaly patterns around it and scorching a black, scarred injury several dozen miles long.

The eye itself was not shattered, but its abilities were severely damaged—at least temporarily, it could no longer release the power that had detonated level-nine anomalies and then devoured them.

The Giant Hand retracted its palm in agony. The strange domain cracked with a mournful wail.

The purple sky, the boiling black sea, the black chains—all vanished in an instant. The black mist receded above the Southern Sea. The remains of nine level-nine anomalies floated on the sea's surface—though the Giant Hand had devoured their cores, their remnants still held massive abnormal power that the Giant Hand could reabsorb.

The Giant Hand's body—that black mountain formed from the fusion of countless abnormal creatures—finally revealed its full form.

It truly was a mountain.

A mountain a hundred miles high, covering hundreds of square miles. Its surface was densely covered with strange patterns, each channel flowing with green-gray abnormal power. At the mountain's peak, the wounded eye stared at Wang Hao on the town wall with a gaze full of venom and hatred.

"Human Emperor." Its voice became hoarse, distorted, every word dripping with bone-deep malice. "I admit, you have wounded me. But your formation is also exhausted, isn't it? Your true qi is depleted, and your national destiny force is empty!"

It slowly rose, the entire mountain detaching from the sea and suspending itself in midair. The abnormal patterns at the mountain's base began to glow, and a terror even greater than before emanated from the mountain.

"But my power is far from exhausted. How could seventy thousand years of accumulated foundation compare to what a mere twenty-year-old human can achieve? Your trap had only one layer, while my power is infinite."

"In the half-month you were busy setting up your formations, have you actually been idle? Do you think I was only waiting for you to grow stronger?"

Its voice grew louder, finally transforming into a heaven- and earth-shaking roar.

"I was waiting for your hope to reach its peak. The thicker the hope, the deeper the despair—and the moment you plunge from hope into despair will become my sweetest blood-meal!"

Amid the roar, the black mountain crashed down.

Not toward the southern passes—but toward the lands behind them, toward the most prosperous hinterlands of the East Wastelands, toward the largest city in the Southern Frontier—Southern Peace City, with its three million inhabitants.

Nan’an City was the capital of the Southern Frontier province, and the largest gathering point for spirit stones in the southern part of the Eastern Wastelands. Its permanent population stood at three million, and with the refugees who had retreated from the coast in recent days, the total had already surpassed five million.

If this mountain peak crashed down, the souls of all living beings within a radius of several hundred miles would be devoured by it—and with the souls of these five million lives to replenish its strength, its injuries would be healed in an instant, and it might even complete the final step to truly ascend to the tenth rank.

The faces of everyone on the city wall turned pale.

All the formation patterns of the Ninefold Demon-Slaying Array had been laid on the southern side of Zhennan Pass, defending against attacks from the South Sea. No one had expected this creature to circle around to the rear—its trajectory had always advanced from the South Sea northward, and everyone had assumed it would launch a frontal assault.

But now it had suddenly changed direction.

“Your Majesty!” He Lanyue cried out in alarm. “Nan’an City—”

Wang Hao whirled around, staring in the direction of Nan’an City.

He saw the arc the mountain traced across the sky—a three-hundred-mile-long black peak, blotting out the sun, like a black meteor falling from beyond the heavens.

He also saw the soldiers on Nan’an City’s walls tasked with defense—ordinary city guards, their cultivation at best at the True Intent Realm, caught without even a moment to react against a surprise attack from a half-tenth-rank creature.

He saw, too, the common people on Nan’an City’s streets who were in the midst of evacuation—lining up in long queues, pushing carts, clutching their children, moving north according to the withdrawal plan. The plan required at least three days to complete, and only a day and a half had passed so far.

Five million lives.

All hanging beneath that black mountain as it descended.

“Your Majesty!” the Demon Lord’s voice turned shrill. “Your servants will go to intercept it—”

“You cannot stop it,” Wang Hao said, his voice calm, but with a frost that sent chills down the spine.

“All twelve of you combined could not stop the full-force strike of a peak half-tenth-rank creature.”

He took a deep breath.

The energy within him had been drained by nearly eighty percent under the activation of the Ninefold Demon-Slaying Array. The nation’s destiny force had been consumed by at least half. The people’s wish power was mostly spent. Even the radiance of the Heavenly Sword had dimmed from excessive drawing upon its power.

But when that breath filled his lungs, a brilliant smile once again spread across his face.

“Great-Grandfather.”

From the void, Wang Wudi materialized without a sound. He had never left the Eastern Wastelands—Wang Hao had ordered him to protect him in secret, his final trump card.

“Great-Grandson.”

“Convey my decree. If I do not return, pass the throne to—to whichever of my two unborn children shows the most promise. You shall serve as regent. Remember my words: The Great Xia may die standing, but it shall never live kneeling.”

Wang Wudi’s entire body trembled. “Great-Grandson—”

“Spare me the sentiment. You are the War God. Your most important task now is not to die with me—it is to watch over the Eastern Wastelands for me.”

Wang Hao turned to face the black mountain hurtling down from the sky.

Then he spoke to the Heavenly Sword.

“Sword-bitch.”

“Here.”

“You wanted to eat a half-tenth-rank creature, didn’t you? I’m taking you to have a big meal.”

The Heavenly Sword was silent for three full breaths. Then it replied in a tone it had never used before, uttering just three words.

“Is there enough to go around?”

“Plenty.”

Wang Hao’s figure vanished from the city wall.

The next instant, a golden light erupted from Zhennan Pass into the heavens, flying toward Nan’an City faster than the black mountain itself.

He was not going to intercept the mountain.

He was going to stand between that mountain and Nan’an City.

One man, one sword, one tower.

Standing before five million lives.