In Wang Hao's mind, the system notification sounded again.
[Detected: Strange Artifact "New Emperor Sword" has completed deep evolution.]
[Strange Artifact ranking updated.]
[Current ranking: 89.]
[Current combat power assessment: Half-Step Transcendence.]
[New innate divine ability: Unnamed.]
[Warning: This Strange Artifact's artifact spirit has absorbed too much of the host's dark side. Personality stability has further declined.]
Wang Hao's face darkened.
"What do you mean, 'absorbed too much of my dark side'?"
The system remained silent.
Wang Hao grew even more displeased.
What did the silence mean?
Tacit agreement?
Within the black-gold pillar of light, the New Emperor Sword slowly rose.
The blade had become longer and more slender.
The original black-gold hue now carried a deeper shade of profound purple.
Four ancient corpse patterns coiled around the spine of the blade, like four sleeping evil dragons.
The artifact spirit stepped out from the sword.
No longer the somewhat illusory young figure from before.
Now, it was fully materialized.
A black-gold robe.
Long hair streaming in the wind.
His features bore a three-tenths resemblance to Wang Hao, yet were more sinister, more wild, and more deserving of a punch.
He stood atop the sword, hands clasped behind his back.
Gazing down upon heaven and earth.
Gazing down upon all living beings.
Gazing down upon the newly awakened Transcendence-tier Emperor Corpse.
Then, he laughed.
"Hahahahaha!"
"I have attained enlightenment!"
"At last, I have attained enlightenment!"
"What is face?"
"What is a master?"
"What is Haozi?"
"What is Great Xia?"
"From this day forth, heaven is vast, earth is vast, and I am the greatest of all!"
Wang Hao slowly looked up.
His gaze was dangerous.
"What did you say?"
The New Emperor Sword looked down at him.
At this moment, Wang Hao was forced to one knee by the pressure, blood at the corner of his mouth.
And the sword hovered high above, its black-gold light illuminating the abyss.
In this moment, it felt it had stood up.
Truly stood up.
So it spoke with great seriousness.
"Haozi."
"The times have changed."
The entire scene fell into deathly silence.
The Demon Lord's eye twitched.
Ghost Granny drew in a sharp breath.
Yue Ji shut her eyes in agony.
Han Shanyue's only thought was:
It's over.
This sword truly never learns its lesson.
Wang Hao smiled.
A very gentle smile.
"Very well."
"Go on."
A chill inexplicably ran through the New Emperor Sword.
But it immediately straightened its back.
What was there to fear?
I am now Half-Step Transcendence!
Ranked eighty-nine!
Devoured four corpses!
Broke the killing formation!
Even this Transcendent Emperor Corpse, I can certainly take a crack at!
It whirled around sharply, its tip pointing straight at the Emperor Corpse.
"Hey."
"You in the coffin."
"Stop playing dead."
"I haven't had my fill yet."
"You. Come here."
The Emperor Corpse slowly turned its gaze toward it.
In those pitch-black eyes, there was no anger.
No killing intent.
Not even emotion.
Like a person noticing a noisy insect by the roadside.
Then.
The Emperor Corpse raised a single finger.
The instant the Emperor Corpse raised one finger, heaven and earth collapsed by an inch.
Not a metaphor.
It truly collapsed.
The void above the Myriad Abyss was pushed into a massive depression by an invisible force.
Darkness collapsed inward, layer upon layer.
Shattered fragments of law fell from the sky, like a torn river of stars.
In everyone's hearts, the same absurd illusion surfaced at once.
That finger was not pointing at the New Emperor Sword.
It was pointing at the entire mortal world.
When the fingertip descended, the world itself would shatter with it.
The New Emperor Sword, however, showed no fear whatsoever.
Or rather, it was now so inflated that it had forgotten what fear meant.
Devoured four Half-Step Transcendence ancient corpses.
Ranking skyrocketed to eighty-nine.
Combat power stepped into Half-Step Transcendence.
Artifact spirit fully solidified.
Any one of these achievements alone would allow a Strange Artifact to dominate the world.
Stack all four together.
The New Emperor Sword felt it was now terrifyingly powerful.
It even began to seriously ponder a question.
Why had it ever bothered reasoning with Wang Hao before?
Just beat him into submission, wasn't that enough?
Sure, Wang Hao was cunning.
Sure, Wang Hao held grudges.
Sure, Wang Hao had the memory jade.
But that was all in the past!
The current me is not the old me!
I. Have. Stood. Up!
The New Emperor Sword's spirit planted his hands on his hips and roared with laughter at the sky.
"Just a single old corpse."
"And you dare raise a finger in my presence?"
"Today, I'll show you."
"What it means to be the King of Strange Artifacts!"
Wang Hao, one knee sunk into the rubble of the altar, heard this and the corner of his mouth twitched.
King of Strange Artifacts?
A rank-89 King of Strange Artifacts?
Did you pick up that throne from the side of the road?
The Demon Lord also fell silent.
Though he was pinned down and unable to move, he still couldn't help but mutter quietly: "Your Majesty, is it always this brave?"
Wang Hao said flatly: "Before, it was only brave with its mouth."
"Now it seems its brain has gotten brave too."
Ghost Granny struggled to raise a finger.
"Your Majesty, this old woman has something to say, though I'm not sure if I should."
Wang Hao said: "At a time like this, speak."
Ghost Granny said: "This sword's personality... it does resemble you, Your Majesty."
Wang Hao's face darkened.
"Do I look this stupid?"
Everyone fell silent.
This was a hard question to answer.
Answer wrong, and you might die.
Answer correctly, and you might also die.
Wang Hao sneered.
"Fine."
"None of you want to talk, huh."
"I'll remember this."
Everyone: "..."
They were about to be crushed to death by the Transcendent Emperor Corpse, and His Majesty was still holding grudges.
That level of tenacity was, in a certain sense, truly transcendent.
High above.
The Emperor Corpse's fingertip finally descended.
No earth-shattering sounds.
No flashy divine powers.
Only a wisp of grey-white aura drifting from the fingertip.
That aura was like a thread.
Light.
Slow.
Descending toward the New Emperor Sword.
The New Emperor Sword laughed loudly.
"Is that all?"
"Did you not wake up properly?"
Its blade trembled, and the four ancient corpse patterns erupted simultaneously.
Spiritual phantom laughter burst into countless black maws in the sky.
Killing countless spears condensed into ten-thousand-zhang sharpness.
Flesh-and-blood mountain-like power propped up the sword's divine light.
The realm of death's vast sea unfolded a dark forbidden domain.
The power of four Half-Step Transcendence ancient corpses, forcibly fused by the sword into a single river of black-gold sword energy.
The sword river stretched across the abyss.
Like a river that severed past and present, surging against the heavens.
The people of Great Xia watched, their hearts shaken.
Even though they knew this sword had a foul mouth.
Even though they had just been scared half to death by its "Haozi" outburst.
They had to admit in this moment.
This sword was truly powerful.
Powerful to the point of absurdity.
Martial God late stage?
No.
What it was now exceeded ordinary Martial God comprehension.
A Half-Step Transcendence Strange Artifact, with a single slash, could reroute mountains and rivers, turning ten thousand li of void into a sword scar.
The black-gold sword river crashed into that wisp of grey-white aura.
Then.
The sword river was gone.
Not exploded.
Not shattered.
But like spring snow meeting a blazing sun.
Silently dissolving.
The wisp of grey-white aura continued to descend.
Not fast.
Yet impossible to stop.
The New Emperor Sword's laughter froze.
"Hm?"
"That's got something to it."
It gripped its own true body with both hands, its face wilder than ever.
"Again!"
Boom!
The blade suddenly expanded, becoming a ten-thousand-zhang giant sword.
Upon the giant sword, the four ancient corpse patterns blazed completely.
Spiritual shrieks tore at souls.
Killing sharpness pierced through nothingness.
Flesh and blood essence fortified the sword's bones.
Realm of death's laws corroded heaven and earth.
The New Emperor Sword struck down with one slash.
"Open!"
This slash already bore a few traces of the Heaven-Opening Nine Swords.
Clearly, having stayed by Wang Hao's side for so long, cursing him daily, it had secretly learned a thing or two.
Wang Hao's eyes narrowed.
"Stealing my sword techniques?"
The New Emperor Sword roared: "What stealing? This is called studying!"
Wang Hao said: "Don't you have to pay for studying?"
The New Emperor Sword: "..."
You're pinned to the ground, and you're still thinking about collecting tuition?
It lost focus for a moment.
That wisp of grey-white breath landed upon the giant sword.
Clang.
A very soft sound.
Like a fingernail tapping against the rim of a porcelain bowl.
The next instant.
The ten-thousand-zhang giant sword was sent flying backwards.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The New Emperor Sword smashed through seven abyssal cliffs, shattered three underground spirit veins, and finally embedded itself deep within a distant black mountain wall.
The entire mountain wall collapsed in a thunderous roar.
Dust and smoke billowed skyward.
Everyone was frozen in shock.
The Demon Lord's Adam's apple bobbed.
"This..."
Ghost Granny said dryly, "That's quite a distance."
Yin Jiuyou added, "The form was pretty solid too."
Xue Wuhen said, "Just the landing wasn't too graceful."
Wang Hao nodded.
"A fair assessment."
From the distant ruins, the furious voice of the New Emperor Sword rang out.
"Shut up!"
Boom!
The mountain wall exploded.
The New Emperor Sword burst forth.
A distinct dent now marred the sword's body.
Half of the weapon spirit's face was swollen.
Though logically speaking, a weapon spirit shouldn't end up black-eyed and bruised.
But it indeed was black-eyed and bruised now.
One eye socket was ringed in darkness, and its mouth was twisted askew.
Everyone stared with odd expressions.
Ghost Granny whispered, "Do sinister weapon spirits even get swollen faces?"
Wang Hao said flatly, "Maybe its dignity is swollen."
The New Emperor Sword roared.
"Wang Hao!"
"Nobody's going to think you're dead if you keep your mouth shut!"
Wang Hao said calmly, "What do you call me?"
The New Emperor Sword wanted to keep talking tough.
But then it remembered that recording crystal—Wang Hao's scheming tricks.
So its voice paused, and suddenly grew a bit weak.
"Your... Your Majesty."
Wang Hao smiled.
"Good boy."
The New Emperor Sword trembled with rage.
This hurt more than the Emperor Corpse's finger strike.
But the Emperor Corpse gave it no chance to keep bickering.
Seated within the main coffin, it raised a second finger.
This time, the grey-white breath formed a palm print.
The palm print was small.
Only about a zhang in size.
Yet as the palm print descended, countless ancient phantoms materialized above the abyss.
Feudal lords kneeling in homage.
Stars collapsing and dying.
Myriad beings lying dead in the dust.
An imperial throne stained with blood.
Those were the residual dao marks of the Transcendent Realm.
Even though the Emperor Corpse was dead, even though it had been corrupted into a sinister entity, it still retained a terrifying trace of its living dao within.
The New Emperor Sword's expression changed.
But its mouth remained stubborn.
"I just wasn't ready earlier."
"This time, let me show you what true seriousness looks like!"
It spread its arms wide.
Black-gold sword light surged outward like a tide.
Four ancient corpse runes behind it materialized into four phantoms.
The Spirit Corpse let out an eerie laugh.
The Slaughter Corpse raised a broken spear.
The Flesh Corpse roared skyward.
The Death Domain Corpse unfurled a sea of netherworld.
These four ancient corpses had long been devoured.
Yet now they reappeared in the form of sword-servant phantoms.
Everyone's scalps tingled.
"It actually refined those four corpses into its own power."
The Demon Lord's eyes could barely hide their shock.
"This devouring evolution—it's too overbearing."
Wang Hao's gaze sharpened slightly as well.
The New Emperor Sword was indeed infuriating.
But it was also truly powerful.
Its growth rate was absurd even by Wang Hao's standards.
Given more time, it might genuinely become one of the most terrifying sinister weapons in all the heavens.
Provided.
It didn't get itself killed prematurely by being too sharp-tongued.
"Sword-Servant Four Aspects!"
The New Emperor Sword bellowed.
"Suppress!"
The four ancient corpse phantoms lunged at the Emperor Corpse's palm print simultaneously.
BOOM!
Black-gold sword light collided with the grey-white palm print.
At that moment, the entire Myriad Vault Abyss seemed to split in two.
Half black-gold.
Half grey-white.
Raging energy churned in all directions.
The Great Xia soldiers pinned to the ground were blasted into vomiting blood once more by the shockwaves.
Yet in their eyes, hope began to burn.
Did it hold?
The New Emperor Sword gritted its teeth, veins bulging on its face.
"Break for me!"
The four sword-servant phantoms ignited simultaneously.
At last, a crack appeared in the grey-white palm print.
The New Emperor Sword erupted in wild joy.
"HAHAHAHA!"
"You see that!"
"The Transcendent Realm isn't so impressive after all!"
Wang Hao's eyes shifted.
"Something's wrong."
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
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】
ver to a world of cultivation and returned invincible. Modern medicine is child's play compared to elixirs; technological might crumbles before true cultivation. My name is Qin Ning, Earth's sole cultivator!
