Zhennan Pass.
When Ao Zhen's message jade arrived in Wang Hao's hands, on the sea due south, the aberrant tide had already closed to within a hundred li.
Wang Hao finished reading the jade slip, his face a blank mask. He simply handed it to the Demon Lord beside him, then said one thing.
"That old bastard Li Cangming sent me a gift. And that half-step tenth-rank aberrant sent me one too. Do I look like easy prey to everyone?"
The Demon Lord read the jade, and a shadow of gloom passed through his pitch-black, vortex-like eyes. "Your Majesty, this minister will take the Dark Legion out to sea and intercept—"
"No need." Wang Hao waved a hand.
"Three aberrant tides, and each one has a second eighth-rank aberrant hiding inside. Even if I sent all of you out, you couldn't stop all of them. I need something that can take on multiple eighth-rank aberrants at once."
He looked down at the sword at his waist—the Heavenly Sword.
From the sheath, the sword let out an impatient hum.
"Wang Hao, you finally remember me." The Heavenly Sword's voice dripped with barely-contained battle-lust. "I've been cooped up in this sheath for ten days, about to rust. Eighth-rank aberrants? I'll eat them one by one!"
"Didn't you say anything below ninth-rank was just a banquet? What's an eighth-rank?"
"An appetizer." The Heavenly Sword was utterly unapologetic. "But an appetizer is still food. I've been starving for ten days—I won't even pass up an appetizer."
Wang Hao drew the Heavenly Sword.
The blade let out a scream that split clouds and cracked stone the instant it left the sheath. Golden sword-light surged down the edge, and the Annihilation Dao patterns on the spine were even more clearly carved than ten days ago—that battle had been brutal, but after devouring a mass of aberrant remains, the sword's presence had clearly grown stronger.
Its ranking had risen from one hundred twenty-six to one hundred fourteen, jumping twelve whole places.
"Sword-bitch, I permit you to take human form."
The Heavenly Sword was silent for a breath, then said something Wang Hao hadn't expected.
"I've been waiting for you to say that."
Golden light exploded from the blade, and a black silhouette split away from the body of the sword. He was a young man who looked to be around twenty, lean and sharp-featured, with a face that was seventy percent Wang Hao's—but a completely different spirit.
Wang Hao's smile was bright with calculation. This young man's smile was pure, reckless arrogance—the kind of arrogance that wouldn't bother if he punched a hole through the sky itself.
He wore a long black robe patterned with sword-glyphs, his hair loose down his shoulders, each strand honed as sharp as a blade-edge. Arms crossed over his chest, he lifted his gaze to the black tide closing in across the southern sea, and the smile on his lips was that signature, infuriating, punch-me-in-the-face grin.
"Eighth-rank aberrant." The Heavenly Sword licked his lips. "Here I come."
The words had barely left his mouth before his figure vanished from the battlement.
The next instant, a black sword-light exploded across the sea.
In his manifestation, the Heavenly Sword was even faster than Wang Hao had anticipated.
His body was the sword, and the sword was his body. No need to channel petty energies, no need to cycle techniques—his mere existence was itself a blade.
A blade that could fly, cut, devour—and curse.
He charged into the aberrant tide with no subtlety at all. He simply ran straight into it.
Wherever that black sword-light passed, low-rank aberrants fell in rows like wheat under a scythe. A layer of golden sword-light rippled across his skin, and the instant it touched aberrant flesh, they melted like ice under the summer sun.
"Weak! Too weak!" The Heavenly Sword rampaged across the waves, one golden longsword of condensed sword-qi in each hand, and every strike landed precisely on an aberrant's core.
He wasn't fighting. He was harvesting.
A seventh-rank aberrant sea-serpent lunged from the flank, jaws gaping to devour his soul.
The Heavenly Sword didn't even turn his head. His left hand lashed backward, the golden blade puncturing the serpent's skull, spearing straight through the aberrant core inside. The serpent's body burst in a flash of sword-light, black remains splattering in every direction.
"A seventh-rank, and you dare ambush me? I'm ranked one hundred fourteen now—one hundred fourteen understand? There aren't two hundred artifacts in the entire continent ranked above me. A seventh-rank aberrant isn't even worthy to shine my shoes!"
Out on the sea, the soldiers of the Great Xia Navy stared at the black shape tearing through the aberrant tide, every single jaw hanging open.
"What the hell is that thing?" A young cannon-master pointed at the water, voice trembling.
"His Majesty's sword." Han Shanyue stood at the prow of the flagship, his iron leg grinding against the deck with a screech, the corner of his mouth twitching. "His Majesty's sword just took form."
"Took... took form? An artifact manifests a body?"
"Don't be dramatic. Anything that belongs to His Majesty—since when has any of it been normal?"
That's what Han Shanyue said aloud. In his head, he was cursing up a storm.
He'd lived long enough to have read accounts of swords manifesting bodies. But he'd never seen a manifested spirit fight like this—no wait, he'd never seen one talk like this.
"Hey, that eighth-rank one over there! Don't run! I haven't eaten you yet!" The Heavenly Sword was chasing an eighth-rank aberrant starfish across the sea, a creature a hundred spans across, each of its five tentacles equally long, every tentacle bristling with suckers, and in every sucker—an eye.
Eighth-rank aberrants had a certain animal cunning, and this one could feel something in the Heavenly Sword that made its instincts shriek in terror—not the sword's ranking, but the way the Annihilation Dao pattern fused into him seemed to snuff out all existence. Aberrants, as distortions of existence itself, were withered by it all the more fiercely.
No wonder the starfish ran.
But running did no good.
The Heavenly Sword was too fast. His substance was a blade, and a blade's flight was speed itself among all artifacts.
In a handful of breaths, he'd caught up, both swords lashing out to shear through the starfish's two forward tentacles at the root.
Tentacles fell, black pus spraying.
The starfish screeched an ear-rending cry, its remaining three tentacles thrashing wildly at the Heavenly Sword.
He didn't dodge. He let them hit him.
Golden sword-light flared across his body again. The tentacles slammed against it like flesh against an anvil, and the recoil shattered most of the eyes in their suckers.
"Had enough? Then I'm digging in."
He opened his mouth, and a jet of golden sword-light shot from his throat, drilling straight into the starfish's bulk.
It exploded inside him, shredding the aberrant core to pieces.
The creature's body began to collapse—a hundred spans of its mass melting into black sludge that dissolved into the sea, leaving only a fist-sized aberrant core behind—the most refined essence of an eighth-rank, all its years of digested power.
The Heavenly Sword reached out, snatched the core from the air, and popped it into his mouth like a sugar bead. Crunch. Crunch. Swallowed.
"Mediocre flavor. Not as savory as a ninth." He frowned, then turned to the aberrants still left on the water. "But better than nothing."
He charged out again.
On the battlement of Zhennan Pass, Wang Hao watched the black blur tearing through the sea below, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
“This Sword-bitch — I let him take form so he could fight battles for me. But instead, he turned it into an all-you-can-eat buffet.”
Wei Zhongxian stood behind him and said flatly, “Your Majesty, your sword takes after you.”
Wang Hao turned and glared at him. “Old Wei, what do you mean by that?”
“This old servant means that your sword, like yourself, has a hearty appetite.”
“……Old Wei, you’re getting better and better with your words.”
Wang Hao turned his gaze back to the sea. The Heavenly Sword alone was holding back at least half of the aberrant tide on the southern front, greatly easing the pressure on the Great Xia navy and the defenders of Zhennan Pass.
Rune cannons hammered the sea surface, and spirit-light beams blasted columns of blue through the aberrant tide, shredding low-tier aberrants by the dozens.
But Wang Hao knew this was only temporary.
No matter how capable the Heavenly Sword was, he was still just one being.
His combat power was enough to crush an eighth-tier aberrant, but aberrants weren’t enemies you could overwhelm with sheer force of numbers—they had no morale, they didn’t rout, they didn’t retreat. As long as their cores weren’t shattered, low-tier aberrants would surge forward in endless waves until they buried their target.
What’s more, every one of the three aberrant tides carried two eighth-tier aberrants. The Heavenly Sword was dealing with two on the southern front, but at Haigang Harbor and Linhai County, one lurked in the shadows on each side, where Ao Guang and Ao Zhen were locked in bitter struggle.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
