I Banished It to the Central Plains, Let's See Who Flips the Table First

The moment the Demon-Suppressing Stele Forest rose into the sky, the entire Guixu Ancient Battlefield seemed to be pressed into a freeze-frame.

Stele after stele, none taller than ten zhang, yet they weighed down like celestial pillars that had suppressed the ages. Their surfaces were covered in ancient cracks, and from within those cracks oozed a dark red blood-light, as if the blood of countless powerhouses had soaked into the stone itself. Each stele radiated the archaic intent of soul-repression, demon-repression, and slaughter-repression. Even the Half-Step Tenth Order Abomination noticeably slowed its movements.

It was afraid.

Not of Wang Hao, but of what lay buried beneath this forest of steles.

Standing at the center of the Ten-Thousand-Karma Soul-Sealing Formation, Wang Hao’s eyes blazed with sudden brilliance.

"Good."

"So even you have something you fear."

He raised a hand and pressed lightly against his brow. The fire of grievance that had been building in his chest ever since Zhongzhou had schemed against him finally found an outlet.

"This place… not bad."

"Perfect for holding your funeral."

The Half-Step Tenth Order Abomination’s main eyeball had been shattered to fragments. It howled, trying to drag the entire ancient battlefield into the abyss, but once the Demon-Suppressing Stele Forest was activated, the inscriptions on the steles began to revive on their own. Golden archaic characters materialized across the stone surfaces like countless chains, wrapping around the abomination’s core.

"Your Majesty!" the Demon Lord suddenly barked. "Something beneath the stele forest… it’s waking up!"

Wang Hao felt it too.

This was not an ordinary fluctuation. It was an aura so ancient, so close to the Transcendent level, surging and churning beneath the steles. Something that had been suppressed for far too long was opening its eyes, inch by inch.

"A Transcendent Residual Soul…" Wang Hao narrowed his eyes. "So the System wasn’t lying to me."

"What System?" The Heavenly Sword took a moment to glance back and ask.

"You wouldn’t understand," Wang Hao said flatly. "A wonderful thing that only ever shows up at critical moments to give me money, give me troops, and give me trouble."

The Heavenly Sword: "…"

He suddenly felt that the circumstances of his being picked up might not have been a coincidence after all.

Beneath the Demon-Suppressing Stele Forest, the long-slumbering aura began to awaken. But it did not immediately burst forth from the steles. Instead, it seemed to be fighting the Half-Step Tenth Order Abomination for control of the region.

The residual killing intent, grudges, and curses scattered across the ancient battlefield were all churned into chaos by two terrifying forces wrestling against each other.

Wang Hao watched the scene, his eyes growing deeper.

"Interesting."

"One Half-Step Tenth Order. One half-awakened Transcendent Residual Soul."

"If I put them together…"

He paused for a moment, then suddenly smiled.

"Then I won’t even need to lift a finger."

"Your Majesty, have you thought of another dirty trick?" Wei Zhongxian immediately grew alert.

"This isn’t a dirty trick," Wang Hao corrected. "This is called using borrowed strength to hit, and clearing the field along the way."

With that, he raised his hand.

"Ten-Thousand-Mile Star-Chasing Ship, rise."

The ancient ship manifested once more from the void, star patterns rippling across its hull, radiating immense void-shattering force. It hovered directly above the stele forest.

"Drive it toward Zhongzhou," Wang Hao said, his voice calm but every word sharp as a blade. "Not right now. Fight it all the way, and force it to flee north."

"A Half-Step Tenth Order Abomination needs to devour massive amounts of abomination cores to recover."

"It’s wounded. It will inevitably seek the nearest, densest, most suitable place to feed."

"And the South Sea here? I’ve already shattered it."

"So the only path left is Zhongzhou."

The Demon Lord was silent for a moment, then finally understood.

"Your Majesty intends to make it charge into Zhongzhou on its own?"

"It doesn’t want to go, but it has no choice," Wang Hao sneered. "I’ll keep fighting it, keep bleeding it, keep forcing its direction. When it truly panics, it will definitely pounce toward the densest spiritual energy, the most people, and the easiest prey for an abomination to devour."

"Those Sixteen Sacred Grounds of Zhongzhou? Aren’t they the perfect hunting ground?"

"By the time Li Cangming is forced to act, if he still hides his Half-Step Transcendent strength, then Zhongzhou will genuinely become a laughingstock."

The Heavenly Sword’s eyes lit up: "This is good. I love this. Then it’s not us going looking for trouble—trouble comes looking for us."

"Exactly." Wang Hao glanced at him. "My favorite thing is making other people clean up the mess I leave behind."

He finished speaking and suddenly raised a finger, pointing toward the depths beneath the stele forest.

"But before that, I need to add a little more fuel to the fire."

"Demonic Prison Heaven-Sealing Nail, rise."

That black, long nail was forcibly drawn out from within the Half-Step Tenth Order Abomination’s body, then, under Wang Hao’s divine will, it was driven straight toward the central stele of the Demon-Suppressing Stele Forest.

Boom!

The black nail pierced the stele. The entire forest trembled.

The very next instant, that half-awakened Transcendent Residual Soul was detonated by the nail, partially igniting its aura.

"You’ve lost your mind!" the Demon Lord’s face twisted with shock.

"I haven’t lost my mind," Wang Hao said coolly. "I just want them to fight a little louder."

And sure enough.

From beneath the stele forest came a muffled, deep bellow.

Then, the entire ruin seemed to split open from its lowest depths. A massive, pale-white hand slowly emerged from the ground at the very center of the stele forest.

That hand had no flesh. It was formed purely of bones, gray mist, and shattered remnants of consciousness, wrapped in countless black chains. The moment the hand moved, all the surrounding steles flashed with golden light simultaneously, struggling with all their might to suppress it and prevent it from crawling out fully.

The Transcendent Residual Soul had truly awakened.

And the first thing it fixed its gaze upon once awake was the nearest living thing—that Half-Step Tenth Order Abomination.

To it, an abomination itself was a prime sacrifice.

"ROOOOAR—!"

The Half-Step Tenth Order Abomination reeled back in terror. Clearly, it had never expected such a fearsome entity to exist in this ruin. It desperately struggled to break free from the Ten-Thousand-Karma Soul-Sealing Formation and the stele forest’s suppression, but Wang Hao would never give it that chance.

"Imprisoning Heaven and Covering Earth Palm, Ninth Palm."

A golden palm print descended from the heavens and slammed directly onto its sinking body.

That single palm crushed down like the entire sky itself.

Black blood splattered. Bones exploded. The freshly condensed body of the Half-Step Tenth Order Abomination was shattered once more, hurling it rolling to the other side of the stele forest.

And that was exactly the direction the pale bone hand was reaching toward.

"I’ll give you a send-off."

Wang Hao’s eyes hardened. He abruptly activated the Ten-Thousand-Mile Star-Chasing Ship. The ancient ship roared like a river of stars spanning between heaven and sea, pushing Wang Hao and his entourage—and the abomination—northward.

No, not pushing. Dragging.

Dragging it by pure force.

"Your Majesty!" Ao Guang cried out. "You really intend to drag it all the way to Zhongzhou?"

"Even if I can’t drag it the whole way, I’ll drag it as far as I can," Wang Hao sneered. "Today, I’m treating it like livestock. I’m herding it all the way there."

"Those Sixteen Sacred Grounds of Zhongzhou wanted to watch me bleed alongside the South Sea, right?"

"Then I’ll give them a good show."

He paused, a cold glint flickering in his eyes.

"And I want to see exactly how long those self-proclaimed ancient monsters with their bottomless reserves can keep their mouths shut."

As his words fell, Wang Hao raised his hand and activated the Half-Step Transcendent Aura Obscuring Talisman once more.

The next instant, his entire presence sank, forming a subtle, delicate equilibrium with the stele forest and the Transcendent Residual Soul. The Half-Step Tenth Order Abomination’s perception was heavily disturbed, leaving it unable to lock onto his position with any accuracy.

"They will discover it far too late."

Wang Hao murmured to himself.

"When they think I’m hunting it down, I’m actually delivering a gift to Zhongzhou."

"A gift they will definitely not be able to refuse."

As he was speaking, a sound like the sky shattering reverberated through the sky above the Ruins of the Ancient Battlefield.

It was the sound of the spatial barrier being torn apart completely.

A deep rift leading to the outside world had been forced open by the violent impact of the Myriad-Mile Star-Chasing Vessel.

On the other side of the rift, the border of Zhongzhou was already visible in the distance.

"We're here," Wang Hao said softly.

Everyone looked up. Beyond the rift, mountain ranges stretched endlessly, and seas of clouds churned.

That was Zhongzhou.

That was where the Sixteen Sacred Lands had their strongholds.

And that was where Wang Hao planned to dump this monster.

He slowly drew the Heavenly Sword, his gaze cold and sharp.

"Sword-bitch, don't get greedy when the time comes."

"When have I ever been greedy?" the Heavenly Sword fumed.

"Last time you said 'this leg smells delicious,' I heard you loud and clear," Wang Hao replied.

"...That wasn't greed. That was a spontaneous appreciation of flavor in the heat of battle."

Wang Hao couldn't be bothered to argue with it. He simply raised his head and fixed his eyes on the grotesque, colossal shadow ahead, about to slip through the rift out of the Ruins.

"Zhongzhou."

"Your emperor has returned."

"And I've brought you a gift—one you absolutely don't want to accept."

In the distant sky above Zhongzhou's border, the formation of a Sacred Land was already beginning to glow.

It seemed someone had already sensed something was wrong.