The Emperor Has Spoken: We're Beating It to Death Today

The moment the golden sword light collided with the black mountain peak, the entire Southern Sea seemed to be pressed into the abyss by an invisible giant hand.

Boom—!

First came the sound.

Not an explosion, but the earth-splitting roar of heaven and earth being torn apart.

Then came the shockwave.

Violent airwaves erupted from the point of impact. The sea, like a single black mirror shattered to pieces, had tens of thousands of towering waves rise simultaneously—churning, collapsing—staining the entire sky a somber gray.

On the walls of Zhennan Pass, the defenders felt a piercing pain in their eardrums. Many lost their hearing in that instant, and could only see, ahead in heaven and earth, that brilliant golden light—so dazzling it nearly seemed unreal—piercing deep into the center of the roiling black mist.

That "black mountain peak" which had risen from the deep sea was forced to halt—for the first time.

It was not a mountain.

It was the true body of that Half-Step Tenth Rank Aberrant—a terrifying flesh form thousands of zhang tall, thousands of li wide.

Its surface was covered in dense, writhing aberrant patterns, like countless black veins creeping and pulsing. The enormous eye at its palm, as it swiveled, seemed capable of seeing through, dissecting, and devouring a person's very soul.

And in that moment, for the first time, human-like emotion appeared in that eye.

Not contempt. Not mockery. But—shock.

Because this human at the Martial God First Layer had actually, with brute force, stopped its first strike.

"Wang Hao—"

A low growl shook free from its throat. The seawater rolled backward in reverse, and the four directional waves seemed to bow their heads like subjects hearing the roar of their sovereign.

Wang Hao stood midair, his imperial robes snapping loudly in the fierce wind. The Son-of-Heaven Sword in his hand let out a crisp, ringing hum. Golden light coiled around the blade, like tiny golden dragons slithering along its length.

He was pushed backward a thousand zhang by that terrifying impact, the void beneath his feet collapsing layer by layer, yet he never retreated past Zhennan Pass.

He looked up at that monstrosity slowly rising from the sea, and the corners of his lips curled upward instead.

"Loud voice, but not enough strength."

He raised a hand, patted his shoulder as if brushing off dust that wasn't there, his expression as casual as a food critic grading a dish.

"Did We really think a Half-Step Tenth Rank could scare anyone? Is that all?"

"How did you get so weak? Wounds not healed yet? And still this cocky."

Behind him, on the walls of Zhennan Pass, everyone fell silent for half a breath.

Then, someone finally swallowed hard.

This emperor—when he talked, he really was a piece of work.

"Your Majesty, be careful!" Han Shanyue roared, stamping across the sea surface in a furious charge, his aura exploding like rolling thunder. "Even with its wounds unhealed, this thing is nothing ordinary Ninth Rank Aberrants can match. Its body is already approaching transcendence. If you clash head-on, you'll suffer—"

"We know."

Wang Hao didn't even turn his head, cutting him off flatly.

"So We weren't planning to clash head-on."

The moment those words fell, he raised his left hand.

The Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda flew from his sleeve, swelling instantly in the wind to a height of a hundred zhang. The silver-white lightning coiled around the tower condensed into something nearly liquid. All nine layers of its gates burst open at once with a thunderous roar.

First layer. Second layer. Third layer—

All the way to the eighth.

"Eighth layer, Thunder Phoenix."

Boom!

A thunder phoenix, pure silver-white, three hundred zhang across, burst from the tower gate. When its wings spread, the thunderclap roared like a tsunami, and the skies above the entire Southern Sea blazed bright as day in that instant. The thunder phoenix dove straight at the Half-Step Tenth Rank Aberrant's left shoulder blade. The moment the lightning exploded, a vast swath of aberrant flesh charred black.

Black blood poured down like a waterfall.

"Open again."

Wang Hao pressed two fingers together like a sword, and another command followed with almost no pause.

"Ninth layer—Purple Thunder Dragon."

The pagoda trembled violently. The topmost gate of the ninth layer slowly yawned open.

In that moment, heaven and earth's spiritual energy poured inward in a mad torrent, as if some thunder-path beast dormant for ten thousand years was beginning to awaken.

Purple lightning leaked from the depths of the gate. A purple thunder dragon, with lightning wings on its back, slowly extended its head. Just the appearance of its dragon head alone caused the sea within a hundred li to fall into suffocating silence.

Every onlooker felt their scalp crawl.

This was no ordinary thunder. This was a full-power strike at the Ninth Layer of Martial Dao. A single strike like that was enough to erase a large mountain range from the map.

Even Wei Zhongxian, who'd witnessed the Purple Thunder Dragon many times, was shaken each time he saw it.

"Go."

Wang Hao flicked his sleeve.

The purple thunder dragon howled as it shot forth.

It didn't fly. It pierced.

Like a purple heavenly punishment, it hammered down from the sky and drove straight into the Half-Step Tenth Rank Aberrant's chest.

Rumble—!

The several-hundred-zhang-thick wall of black flesh at its chest was pierced through clean—charred, shattered, annihilated. As the purple lightning carved a path through the monster and exploded within its body, it forced that colossal horror to unleash a roar of fury and alarm.

"Human... you ant!"

That giant eye turned blood red.

If not for its wounds, even a true Martial God Peak's attack would never have harmed it.

The next second, the entire sea behind it collapsed. Black tides rose like mountains. Countless aberrant tentacles burst from the seabed, like ten thousand black dragons soaring skyward at once, all surging toward Wang Hao.

Wang Hao gave a cold laugh, stamped his foot, and instead of retreating, he charged forward—straight into that sky-obscuring storm of tentacles.

"Sword-bitch."

"I've been waiting for this!"

The newly-awakened spirit of the Son-of-Heaven Sword manifested as a young man in black. With a flicker, he vanished into the midst of the tentacles, wielding his black-gold longsword like a madman, his sword-wind splattering black blood across the sky.

He loved battle more than anything. He fought with wild excitement, and even as he cut, he didn't stop spitting curses:

"What's a Half-Step Tenth Rank? Just because you look like a mountain, you think you can scare me? I'm ranked one hundred and fourteen—today I'll chop you into one hundred and fifteen pieces!"

With one swing he cleaved through a tentacle, then split into three afterimages, targeting the weakest joints beneath the giant eye. These were the weaknesses Wang Hao had identified earlier using his intelligence system.

The creature's body was mighty, true, but every time it moved its colossal form, it had to coordinate through that main eyeball. As long as you broke the connection points of its limbs, the whole body would become like a beast stripped of its skeleton—unable to move with precision for a brief window.

Wang Hao's eyes gleamed cold.

"Sky-Sealing Earth-Covering Palm, Fourth Palmar Strike."

A golden palm imprint materialized in the air, landing directly on the cracked opening in the Half-Step Tenth Rank Aberrant's chest.

One strike. Black blood exploded outward.

"Fifth Palmar Strike."

"Sixth Palmar Strike!"

Two more strikes, palm imprints layering one atop another like a raging sea stacking wave upon wave, ripping that wound torn open by the Purple Thunder Dragon even wider.

From the creature's chest cavity came the sickening sound of flesh and bone grinding and snapping, as if countless black iron chains were breaking inside.

It flew into a rage. The main eye suddenly unleashed a beam of dark green divine light, aimed straight at Wang Hao's brow.

"Your Majesty!"

Wei Zhongxian nearly screamed himself hoarse in the rear.

That divine light came too fast. So fast that even a Martial God Late Stage cultivator couldn't react.

But in that moment, the Ten-Thousand-People Heart-Lamp within Wang Hao burst into brilliant light.

The combined willpower of millions of people coalesced around him, forming a golden shield in the blink of an eye.

The divine light hammered into the shield.

Boom!

The shield caved in violently. Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface. But it held. Barely.

Wang Hao was knocked backward, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his lips—yet he grinned all the fiercer.

"Now that's something."

He raised a hand, wiped the blood from his mouth, and battle fury blazed in both his pupils like fire.

"What a pity, I came here today to beat you to death."

As the words fell, a vast sword intent rose behind him.

Nine Swords of Heaven's Creation.

The first sword struck—heaven and earth were parted.

The second sword struck—yin and yang reversed.

The third sword struck—mountains and rivers split apart.

...

Blade after blade grew stronger, like nine heavenly judgments falling from the nine celestial tiers at once, cleaving the entire Southern Sea into trembling chaos.

By the sixth sword, the sea surface had been slashed open into a ten-thousand-zhang-deep trench.

By the seventh sword, countless low-ranked aberrations in the deep sea didn't even have time to scream before being ground to ash by the sword intent.

By the eighth sword, even the great formation set up outside the Southern Pass was buzzing madly, as if it might shatter at any moment under this overwhelming tide of sword force.

The half-step Tenth Rank aberration finally revealed wariness beneath its fury and shock.

It hadn't expected that a human at the first level of Martial God Realm could have this many trump cards hidden up his sleeve.

"Emperor of the human race—"

"Shut up." Wang Hao replied coldly. "I don't like listening to nonsense."

The ninth sword crashed down.

That strike wasn't aimed at its head, nor at its heart, but at the root of its right lower limb.

Black blood sprayed into the sky.

"ROOOAR—!"

For the first time, the half-step Tenth Rank aberration let out a true, agonized howl.

One of its legs had been severed at more than thirty percent of its connection points by that sword, the entire limb tilting off-balance and crashing heavily into the sea, kicking up a wall of waves ten thousand zhang high.

And in that exact moment, the Dragon Clan's battle formation, which had long been lying in ambush at the bottom of the sea, erupted into action.

Ao Guang stood at the formation's heart, his dragon horns raised high, bellowing: "Lock the sea!"

Thousands of Dragon Clan formation-cultivators formed seals simultaneously, and hundreds of golden chains rose from the seabed, entangling the severed leg in a death grip. The titanic limb, which should have instantly retracted and begun regenerating, was forcibly held in place for half a breath.

Just half a breath.

"Sword-bitch!"

"EAT!"

The new Heavenly Emperor Sword cackled with glee as it charged forward, its whole being transforming into a streak of black-gold blade light that plunged directly into the depths of the severed leg's wound.

The next moment, the half-step Tenth Rank aberration let out a scream more miserable and shrill than any before.

Because that leg... was eaten.

Not cut to pieces. Not annihilated. But truly, genuinely, devoured from the inside out by the new Heavenly Emperor Sword's devouring-evolution ability.

A flash of sword light, and the sword spirit burst out with black blood smeared all over its face, wearing an exaggerated grin of pure excitement.

"Damn, that's delicious!"

"The flavor of this leg is absolutely divine!"

Wang Hao: "..."

Everyone behind him: "..."

Wei Zhongxian's mouth twitched, nearly dropping to his knees right there before both the emperor and that sword.

This scene... was too damn bizarre.

The half-step Tenth Rank aberration went completely mad.

It had lived for seventy thousand years and never once imagined it would have its leg "eaten" right in front of its face one day.

It violently retracted its damaged body, the entire titanic form sinking as if to vanish into the deep sea—clearly preparing to disengage and flee.

Wang Hao's eyes turned frosty.

"Running?"

"Did I give you permission?"

He took a single step forward, and the seventh and eighth palms of the Heaven-Sealing, Earth-Capturing Palm Technique slammed out consecutively, the palm prints smashing directly into the aberration's main eyeball. That eyeball burst apart with a wet crack, spraying viscous emerald fluid everywhere, and a grating, teeth-clenching screech tore through the air.

The half-step Tenth Rank aberration's aura plummeted by a notch.

It began to retreat.

It truly began to retreat.

Everyone could see that this thing wasn't being killed outright—it had been hurt, scared, and was about to retreat temporarily to its lair to heal.

Wang Hao watched its immense, boundless frame begin to sink, and there was no trace of surprise in his eyes.

He simply let out a soft breath and murmured:

"Just as I thought—can't kill it in one go."

"Then let's change tactics."

He raised his head, his voice carrying across all directions.

"Chase!"

"Raze its nest to the ground!"

Over a million troops at the Southern Pass roared in unison, the sheer force of their voices surging into the heavens.

In this moment, the Great Xia Dynasty took the offensive.

No more defending. No more stalling.

Hunting.