The Demon Lord watched from a distance, his eyelids twitching involuntarily.
He suddenly felt that this sword would eventually be driven mad by Wang Hao.
But what was even more terrifying was that despite this one man and one sword never exchanging a single serious word, their coordination was becoming smoother and smoother.
Wang Hao used the Nine Swords of Heaven's Opening to break through defenses.
The New Emperor Sword tore at the foundations with its devouring evolution.
The Thunder Abyss Demon-Sealing Tower sealed the battlefield.
Imperial Dragon Qi suppressed the corruption.
Every link was deviously calculated to perfection.
What Ji Wushang feared most wasn't that Wang Hao was strong.
It was that Wang Hao was strong and extremely shrewd at the same time.
Even more shamelessly, when he was plotting against you, he'd also insult you.
The crystal core in Ji Wushang's chest spun faster and faster.
He forcibly steadied the cracks, a fierce cold light surging in his eyes.
On the other side.
Having lost part of Ji Wushang's control, the Emperor Corpse struggled more violently.
In its pitch-black eyes, it seemed as if an ancient remnant of consciousness was awakening.
It wasn't life force.
It was more like the last unwillingness of a dead emperor.
Refined into a corpse.
Driven by another.
Used as a weapon.
Even if only the remains were left, the instinct of an emperor refused to be controlled.
The Emperor Corpse shuddered violently.
The black lightning chains shattered inch by inch.
The Heaven-Prisoning Palm force was smashed apart by its shoulders with sheer brute force.
It turned its head toward Ji Wushang and let out a low growl from its throat.
That growl seemed to come from the end of ages.
The Great Xia people's scalps went numb.
Han Shanyue murmured, "Is... is it going to turn against Ji Wushang?"
Ghost Granny's voice was dry.
"Possibly."
"But if the Emperor Corpse turns, that may not be a good thing."
"If it completely loses control, we'll die too."
Yin Jiuyou gave a bitter laugh.
"So the best-case scenario now is that His Majesty first beats Ji Wushang to death, then cripples the Emperor Corpse?"
Xue Wuhen glanced at him.
"You say that so easily."
Yin Jiuyou spread his hands.
"I do the talking. His Majesty does the doing."
Everyone: "..."
Shameless as it was.
It somehow fit the Great Xia style perfectly.
Wang Hao naturally noticed the change in the Emperor Corpse as well.
His gaze flickered.
Opportunity!
Ji Wushang had to simultaneously suppress the damage to his crystal core, maintain control of the Emperor Corpse, and guard against Wang Hao's pursuit.
Fighting on three fronts.
Anyone else might have played it safe.
Not Wang Hao.
He loved kicking a man when he was down.
And even more, he loved adding two extra cuts before the man even had a chance to die.
"Thunder Abyss!" Wang Hao barked.
The Thunder Abyss Demon-Sealing Tower rumbled.
Black lightning from the seventh level turned into chains once more, binding the Emperor Corpse.
Thunder phoenixes from the eighth level spread their wings, tens of thousands of lightning feathers sealing off Ji Wushang's escape.
Within the tower, even the lingering aura of the ninth level's purple lightning dragon was forcibly channeled by Wang Hao.
The New Emperor Sword exclaimed, "Master, you're still going to release the purple lightning dragon?"
Wang Hao said coldly, "Not release."
"Scare him."
The New Emperor Sword was stunned.
Then realization dawned.
"Oh— bluffing!"
Wang Hao shot it a glance.
"Can you watch your words?"
The New Emperor Sword immediately corrected itself.
"Great master, this is strategic deterrence!"
Wang Hao nodded approvingly.
"A teachable sword."
When Ji Wushang saw the purple light rising from the ninth level again, his pupils indeed contracted.
He knew the terror of the ninth level of the Thunder Abyss Demon-Sealing Tower.
Even though he had endured it just now, he hadn't come out unscathed.
If it came again, combined with Wang Hao's Nine Swords of Heaven's Opening and that vile sword's devouring, the crystal core in his chest might not hold.
That moment of hesitation was seized by Wang Hao.
Eighth Sword of the Nine Swords of Heaven's Opening.
Hell's Prison.
The sword light descended—not striking Ji Wushang's body, but slicing at the most concealed black rune-thread connecting his chest crystal core to the nine-coffin altar.
The rune-thread was extremely thin.
Like a strand of hair.
But it linked Ji Wushang, the Emperor Corpse, and the remnants of the altar array.
Wang Hao had been fighting, cursing, and watching all at once.
Finally, he had spotted it.
The sword descended.
The black thread snapped.
Ji Wushang's face turned pale in an instant.
The Emperor Corpse roared to the heavens, and its death aura exploded into a frenzy.
The entire wreckage of the nine-coffin altar collapsed with a thunderous crash.
Ji Wushang finally erupted in absolute fury.
"Wang Hao!"
"I will make you die!"
Wang Hao simply smiled.
"What's the hurry?"
"Heaven hasn't finished chopping yet."
He took a step forward, palm power gathering in his left hand, sword intent surging to the heavens in his right.
The aura of the Ninth Sword began to awaken on the New Emperor Sword.
At that moment, the entire Abyss of Myriad Ruins seemed to split open under an invisible edge.
The Great Xia people's hearts shook violently.
They vaguely saw a blurry imperial silhouette forming behind Wang Hao.
The silhouette held a celestial sword, trod upon mountains and rivers, with lightning above its head and countless subjects bowing in worship behind it.
It wasn't a Transcendent Emperor.
Yet it bore the bearing of an emperor.
Murderous intent blazed in Wang Hao's eyes.
"Ji Wushang."
"I'll first sever your shell."
"Then I'll sever your life."
"And finally, I'll chop your pathetic ambition into pieces and feed it to the sword."
The Ninth Sword had not yet been released.
The abyss was already cracking.
The New Emperor Sword's blade trembled madly.
Not from fear.
From excitement.
It could feel the temporary transcendence-bearing power inside Wang Hao surging into the blade in a brutally domineering way.
It felt like a small river suddenly being flooded by the Milky Way falling from the sky.
Sweet.
Very sweet.
But also a bit too much to handle.
The New Emperor Sword let out a wail.
"Master!"
"Slow down!"
"This little sword is getting swollen!"
Wang Hao's face was expressionless.
"Bear with it."
The New Emperor Sword whined in anguish.
"You always do this!"
Wang Hao sneered.
"Keep talking, and I'll use the pommel."
The New Emperor Sword fell silent instantly.
It still remembered that hit to the Emperor Corpse with the pommel earlier.
Its dignity still ached.
Ji Wushang felt the pressure of the Ninth Sword, his gaze as dark as an abyss.
The crystal core in his chest spun at breakneck speed, black corruption power surging out like a tide, reforming the phantom of the Emperor's Fall Tablet.
But this time, the tablet phantom had barely taken shape before it was rocked by the Imperial Dragon Qi encircling Wang Hao.
Nine golden dragons coiled around, lightning dancing across their scales.
The Thunder Abyss Demon-Sealing Tower hung overhead, its nine tower gates not fully open, yet seeming like nine abyssal wells of heavenly punishment, ready to pour down an ocean of thunder at any moment.
Murderous intent surged in Ji Wushang's heart, but for the first time, a trace of unease was born.
Wang Hao was too troublesome.
He had never faced such an opponent.
Clearly not high in cultivation, yet endlessly revealing trump cards.
Clearly heavily wounded, yet daring to squeeze every last drop of strength to the limit.
Clearly a foul-mouthed scoundrel, yet every step landed precisely on the critical point.
This wasn't a brute.
This was a wolf wrapped in the skin of a debauched emperor.
And a starved one at that.
"Emperor Corpse!" Ji Wushang roared.
"Stop him!"
The Emperor Corpse howled.
Its tattered imperial robes billowed, and death laws fell like a hundred million gray-white chains from the void.
Even with the key rune-thread just severed by Wang Hao, it still possessed terrifying power.
After all, this was an Emperor Corpse.
Even if it wasn't a complete emperor.
Even if it had been dead for who knows how many ages.
Even if it had been corroded and suppressed by the nine-coffin altar.
It had still once touched transcendence.
The Emperor Corpse stepped forward, planting itself in front of Ji Wushang.
Wang Hao's gaze was cold.
"Letting a corpse take hits for you."
"Ji Wushang, you're so filial."
The New Emperor Sword piped up immediately.
"Master, that's not filial!"
"That's leeching off the old!"
"Others leech off their dads—he leeches off his corpse-dad!"
The Great Xia people, who were so tense their hearts nearly stopped, almost lost it at that.
The Demon Lord's mouth twitched.
This sword was absolutely absurd.
Even in a life-or-death battle, it could talk smack like a blooming flower.
Ji Wushang's temple veins bulged.
"Shut up!"
The New Emperor Sword got even more excited.
"He's flustered!"
"Master, look, he's flustered!"
"Even half-step transcendence can panic!"
"A black lump growing on his chest, claiming a corpse as his father, and crying for daddy when losing a fight!"
"Tsk tsk tsk, truly heartbreaking to hear, hilarious to behold!"
Wang Hao said calmly, "Don't just hurl insults."
"In a bit, you'll be devouring plenty."
The New Emperor Sword immediately turned solemn.
"As you command, my great master!"
The Emperor Corpse's fist came crashing down.
On the fist's edge, there was no true essence, no qi aura—only pure death rule, refined to the absolute limit.
If this punch landed on the people of Great Xia, let alone their physical bodies, even the very traces of their existence might be erased.
But Wang Hao did not retreat.
He raised his hand and unleashed the first strike of the Heaven-Sealing Earth-Covering Palm.
A colossal heavenly palm met the fist head-on.
Boom!
The giant palm shattered.
The Emperor Corpse's fist momentum was weakened by a layer.
Second strike!
Third strike!
Fourth strike!
Wang Hao unleashed four consecutive palms in a single breath.
Each palm that landed was like a piece of the sky plunging into the abyss.
The Emperor Corpse's forward advance was forcibly slowed.
But it still pressed onward.
Within the ruined imperial body, it seemed to harbor an undying sea of death.
Wang Hao's expression did not change.
Fifth strike!
Sixth strike!
Two palms stacked together, and a phantom of mountains, rivers, and altars materialized.
The void beneath the Emperor Corpse's feet collapsed into a black hole.
Its knees sank slightly.
The New Emperor Sword shouted excitedly.
"He's kneeling!"
"Master! The Emperor Corpse is about to kneel!"
Wang Hao said coldly, "Not yet."
The seventh palm descended!
Black thunder chains simultaneously bound the Emperor Corpse's neck and arms.
The Emperor Corpse suddenly threw its head back, a tearing screech tearing from its throat.
Ji Wushang's face darkened as a black light shot out from the crystal core in his chest, trying to stabilize the Emperor Corpse.
But Wang Hao was waiting for exactly that moment of distraction.
His form flickered, and in an instant, he slipped past the edge of the Emperor Corpse's fist momentum.
The ninth strike of the Nine Heaven-Opening Swords was finally unleashed.
The ninth strike.
Heaven Opener!
There was no ornate light show.
No ten-thousand-zhang sword aura.
Only a single, ultra-thin line.
A black-golden line, slashing out from the tip of Wang Hao's sword.
When that line fell, heaven and earth seemed to be redefined.
The abyss was sliced open.
The death qi was sliced open.
Even the death rule before the Emperor Corpse was sliced open.
As if sensing a true threat, the Emperor Corpse suddenly raised both arms to block.
Clang!
The sword line struck the Emperor Corpse's arm.
First came the sound of metal colliding with metal.
Then, a crack.
The Emperor Corpse's arm—strong enough to withstand the purple thunder dragon—was slashed open, revealing a gash deep enough to expose bone.
Gray-white dead blood gushed out.
Not real blood.
Rather, it was the residual death origin within the corpse emperor's dead body.
The New Emperor Sword went absolutely berserk.
"Food!"
"Master! Pure nourishment!"
Wang Hao said coldly, "Devour!"
Boom!
The New Emperor Sword's black light surged.
The power of devouring evolution drilled madly into that gash.
The Emperor Corpse trembled violently.
Beneath its tattered imperial robes, that withered yet majestic frame showed its first signs of obvious collapse.
The cracks on its arm kept expanding.
Spiderweb-like black-golden sword marks also surfaced on its shoulder.
Ji Wushang's face drastically changed.
"Stop!"
He tried to activate the crystal core again.
But Wang Hao's left hand had already pressed down with the eighth palm.
The eighth strike of the Heaven-Sealing Earth-Covering Palm!
The giant palm blotted out the sky, and within its center, mountains, rivers, and altars crushed down upon everything.
This palm did not strike the Emperor Corpse.
It went straight for Ji Wushang!
Ji Wushang had no choice but to defend.
The black crystal core erupted with a tide of pollution, blocking the eighth palm.
Boom!
The tide of polluted blackness was scattered in large part.
Ji Wushang's form recoiled, black blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
On the Emperor Corpse's side, all support was lost.
A cold light flashed in Wang Hao's eyes.
"Continue!"
He raised his sword and charged at the Emperor Corpse.
This time, he held nothing back.
The Nine Heaven-Opening Swords, one after another.
First sword, Mountain Splitter!
Struck the Emperor Corpse's chest.
Second sword, River Severer!
Struck the Emperor Corpse's waist.
Third sword, Sea Cleaver!
Struck the Emperor Corpse's shoulder blade.
Fourth sword, Peak Cutter!
Struck the Emperor Corpse's knees.
With every sword strike, a black-golden rift exploded across the Emperor Corpse's body.
With every rift that appeared, the New Emperor Sword lunged like a starving ghost to devour greedily.
"Hahahaha!"
"This is awesome!"
"So awesome!"
"Old man Emperor Corpse! Weren't you all arrogant just now?"
"Didn't you beat me?"
"Come on!"
"Hit me again!"
"You've practically been chewed down to the bone by me!"
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?!
tions: attribute allocation, analysis, proficiency, and simulation. Specializing in mechanical alchemy, from crafting sorcerous battle armor to handcrafting mechanical maidens, his mechanical legion conquers endless realms... Relying on his wits, he begins with a student-teacher romance, wins over a female director, enslaves a female assassin and a underworld queen, becoming the husband of a Grand Duchess... He enslaves the Goddess of Magic from the divine realm, developing his power simultaneously in both the Wizard World and the Realm of Gods...
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!
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
