Sword Breaks the Star River, Willpower Shields the Body, Forcing Out the Ultimate Power

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Three consecutive muffled explosions. Under the violent, stacked force, the ancient corpse's left arm shattered inch by inch, black bone fragments and corpse blood splattering everywhere. His knees buckled, and he was forcibly slammed down to kneel in the void.

But the Nine-Coffin Sacrificial Altar beneath him spewed out a thick mass of black qi, connecting through the void to his feet, desperately trying to repair his broken body.

"Trying to recover? Dream on!"

Wang Hao's eyes turned fierce.

"Fifth palm! Sixth palm! Seventh palm!"

This time, Wang Hao's palm strikes changed direction abruptly. He didn't continue slamming the ancient corpse's head. Instead, at extremely vicious and cunning angles, all three palms sliced precisely into the corpse's kneecaps!

"Crack—"

The crisp sound of bones breaking rang out. Under the terrifying power stacked up to seven palms, even the bones of a peak Martial God couldn't withstand such a concentrated blast. From the knees down, both legs of the ancient corpse were cleanly severed!

The death-qi transmission line connecting to the altar instantly snapped!

The ancient corpse let out a miserable roar. Without death qi to replenish him, his once-vaunted regenerative power vanished completely, and his aura decayed at a visible pace.

"An ancient peak Martial God? Times have changed, you fossil. You should've stayed rotting in your coffin!"

Wang Hao roared to the heavens, his hair whipping wildly in the wind. The Emperor's Destiny within him burned to its limit, his true essence boiling like a raging sea.

"Eighth palm—Upside Down!"

"Ninth palm—Prison of Heaven and Earth, I Am the Sovereign!!!"

The final two palms nearly drained three-tenths of Wang Hao's true essence.

Two enormous golden hands, large enough to cover the entire altar, slammed together from above and below like two massive millstones, crushing the legless, immobile ancient corpse between them.

"Shatter for your Emperor!"

Wang Hao clapped his hands together.

A miniature void storm erupted within his palms.

That indestructible peak Martial God corpse, under the ultimate annihilation of nine stacked palms of the Prison of Heaven and Earth Palm, had its chest bones crushed, its skull exploded, and its entire body shattered like dried, pulverized wood—exploding into a cloud of dust!

An ancient peak Martial God's corpse had just been beaten to pieces by Wang Hao, a mere first-level Martial God!

Absolute silence fell over the battlefield.

In the distance, the other three ancient corpses, currently being held off by the Demon Lord, the Sword Spirit, and the others, seemed to momentarily pause in their movements, as if trembling from primal instinct.

And Ji Wushang, who had been watching coldly all along, with his pale, handsome face, shed his mocking grin for the first time, replaced by a shadow of gloom.

"Nicely chained killing moves, and a truly vicious eye for weakness." A red glint flickered in Ji Wushang's pupils. "But that burst of yours earlier cost quite a bit, didn't it? With three enemies left, do you still have the strength to kill them?"

"You can try me and find out." Wang Hao stood firm in midair, taking one heavy breath as his true qi circulated wildly, rapidly restoring what he'd spent. His expression remained unhurried, even carrying a hint of provocation.

But inside, Wang Hao knew Ji Wushang was right.

The nine-palm combination was extremely taxing on stamina. If the remaining three ancient corpses ganged up on him up close, the destructive power of peak Martial Gods was no joke.

Sure enough, Ji Wushang gave him no time to catch his breath. Raising his ancient war halberd, he coldly spat one word: "Form the formation—execute him!"

The remaining three peak Martial God corpses, as if receiving a death sentence, instantly abandoned their fights against the Demon Lord and the Sword Spirit. Transforming into three streaks of black lightning, they locked Wang Hao in a triangular siege high in the sky.

A kill-box formation had descended in an instant!

"Damn it! These three old bastards have no shame—they're ganging up!"

The Emperor Sword Spirit was hopping mad in the rear, sword raised to rush in and help, but was forced back by the residual formation's gale winds.

The Demon Lord and Han Shanyue were also gritting their teeth, desperate to intervene, but peak Martial Gods were simply too fast—there was no time!

"Die!"

The three peak Martial God corpses surrounded Wang Hao in a triangle.

The one in the center formed a strange hand seal, and behind him, a vague, ancient demon-god phantom emerged, fist punching through the void straight for Wang Hao's heart. The one on the left turned his palm into a blade, condensing corpse qi into a thousand-zhang pitch-black sword aura that sealed off all escape routes. The one on the right opened his bloody maw and spat out a soul-corrupting miasma of poison.

Heaven and earth changed color, the Great Dao seeming to wail. A combined strike like this—not to mention a first-level Martial God, even a peak Martial God would be hard-pressed to escape alive!

The overseers from the Sixteen Sacred Grounds of the Central Province watched this scene; more than a few silently breathed sighs of relief.

Wang Hao's potential was too terrifying. If he died here, it would actually be a blessing for the Central Province.

However, at the very center of the storm, Wang Hao curled his lips into an utterly bizarre, utterly shameless sneer.

Dodge? Why dodge?

This Emperor's got cheats!

"Since you're all so eager to feed me kills, I'll grant your wish!"

Instead of retreating, Wang Hao stepped forward, opened his chest wide, and deliberately let the demon-god phantom's fist, the pitch-black sword aura, and the miasma slam straight into his body.

"Your Majesty!!!" Han Shanyue screamed in despair.

"Utterly idiotic." Ji Wushang sneered coldly.

But at the barest fraction of a moment before the lethal attacks could tear Wang Hao's flesh apart—

"Buzz!!!"

An immense, incomprehensibly vast and strange power erupted from within Wang Hao's body. It wasn't true qi, and it wasn't imperial dragon qi. It was a power that seemed intangible, yet as heavy as a mountain.

The Power of Ten Thousand People's Wishes!

Ever since Wang Hao ascended the throne, sweeping through the Eastern Wasteland, suppressing the Southern Sea, and pacifying all directions, the reverence and faith of hundreds of millions of common people had gathered day and night—crystallizing into the most indestructible protective divine ability in this world!

[System Notice: Fatal attack detected! Ten Thousand People's Wishes Shield activated automatically!]

"RUMBLE—!"

A circular shield of pure dark-golden light enveloped Wang Hao in an instant.

On the surface of the shield, faint silhouettes of a hundred million worshippers kneeling in prayer, farmers tilling fields, and soldiers shouting battle cries flickered into view. The will of all living beings—enough to hold back a falling sky!

The three peak Martial God corpses' lethal strikes slammed into the Wishes Shield with full force.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a grating, grinding sound that set teeth on edge.

That power, enough to annihilate a peak Martial God, met the Wishes Shield and simply melted like snow thrown into boiling water, dissolved and dispersed by an invisible, overwhelming will!

"What?!" In the distance, Ji Wushang's pupils shrank. For the first time, he lost his composure and shouted aloud, "The faith of all living beings? How could you, a mortal emperor from the lower realms, gather such pure collective willpower? Are you trying to walk the path of the ancient Human Sovereign?!"

Wang Hao stood within the shield, completely unharmed. Though he felt a sting of regret at the amount of Wishes power consumed, his gaze was ice-cold to the extreme.

The shield had absorbed the fatal strike, and it had also bought him an unprecedented opening for a counterattack! Because their full-powered strikes had been blocked, the three corpses were locked in an exceedingly brief moment of rigidity.

"Sword Guy, return to your sword!"

Wang Hao roared, his right hand clawing at the sky.

"Coming right up! Time for me to go on a killing spree!"

The Sword Spirit transformed into a beam of black light and instantly merged into the body of the Imperial Sword.

Wang Hao caught the sword hilt in one hand, and in that moment, he became completely one with this sinister blade that had inherited his darkest, most vicious side.

A terrifying sword intent—lawless, heaven-defying, capable of annihilating all things—surged into the sky!

A god-level martial art, the Nine Swords of Heaven's Opening!

"First Sword, Split the Heavens!"

"Second Sword, Cleave the Earth!"

"Third Sword, Sever the Star River!"

Wang Hao held nothing back. The last remnants of his true essence, mixed with the savage qi absorbed by the Imperial Sword, let him unleash three slashes in an instant!

Rip—!

Three peerless sword beams, black and gold intertwined, shot out like three wild dragons tearing the universe apart.

The first sword split apart the demonic phantom and cleaved the middle ancient corpse from head to groin, black blood gushing wildly;

The second sword swept across like a thousand charging soldiers, severing the left ancient corpse at the waist, its body falling in two halves into the abyss;

The third sword was the most ruthless—the blade light seemed to cross space itself, piercing through the right ancient corpse's brow and obliterating the corpse-fire origin within its skull!

In a single breath, a desperate counter-kill!

Under the peerless edge of the Nine Swords of Heaven's Opening, the three peak Martial God corpses were shattered into fragments, beyond any possibility of reassembly.

With that, the four peak Martial Gods from the first row of bronze coffins were utterly wiped out!

Silence hung over the abyss. The people of the Sixteen Holy Lands in the Central Province had forgotten even how to breathe.

Single-handedly slaying four peak Martial Gods in the span of a heartbeat—such a feat was nothing short of myth!

"Haah…"

Wang Hao leaned on the Imperial Sword, kneeling on one knee mid-air, his chest heaving violently.

That smooth, flawless combo looked invincible and utterly badass, but in truth, it had drained almost every card he had.

The Vow Shield was on a long cooldown, his true essence was scraping bottom, and if not for his unique constitution holding him up, he wouldn't even have the strength to stand.

"Your Majesty, godlike in valor!" the Demon Lord and the others roared with excitement, rushing to Wang Hao's side to guard him.

Yet Wang Hao did not relax for even a second. His gaze was fixed on Ji Wushang atop the altar.

Ji Wushang looked at the broken corpse parts scattered across the ground. Instead of flying into rage, he slowly began to clap. The applause echoed through the empty, desolate abyss, sounding eerily sharp and unnerving.

"Clap, clap, clap…"

"Brilliant. A battle instinct honed by ruthless calculation, a shameless fighting style that cares nothing for face, and those stunning trump cards." Ji Wushang looked down at Wang Hao from above, the cold smirk returning to the corner of his mouth. "You have indeed earned the right for this seat to remember your name."

"Stop acting like some big shot." Wang Hao wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and sneered. "Your four guard dogs are dead by my hand. Now, it's your turn."

"Me?"

Ji Wushang seemed to hear the funniest joke in the world and burst into laughter that shook the nine heavens, carrying with it an extreme pressure that made souls tremble.

"You think those four pieces of scrap metal were this seat's trump card?"

Ji Wushang's laughter stopped abruptly. His eyes turned utterly cold and merciless. He drove the war halberd in his hand fiercely into the altar beneath his feet.

"Rumble!!!"

The entire Abyss of Ten Thousand Ruins erupted in an earthquake ten times more violent than before. The stone tablet engraved with "Emperor's Fall" suddenly split open, and countless streams of blood-red liquid gushed out madly.

Then, the four bronze coffins on the second tier of the altar let out creaking sounds a hundred times heavier than those from the first tier.

"Creeaak… creeaak…"

This time, what seeped out was no longer the corpse-qi of the Martial God realm. It was a power that made the very laws of heaven twist and wail in agony—a force beyond the limits of Martial Gods, brushing against an entirely different dimension!

Half-Step Transcendence!

And all four of them!

Wang Hao's pupils contracted to pinprick points in that instant.

"The game has only just begun." Ji Wushang looked at Wang Hao like a dead man.

"Little emperor, are you ready to find out how you die?"