Your Majesty Opens a Course, Rumors Are Also Instruments of State

That remark once again ignited the demonic cultivators’ fury.

The Yellow Springs Ancestor said coldly,

“Blood Lotus, do you take me for a mere nobody?”

His enormous hand swept across the sky and came crashing down.

The old man in the blood robe was forced to withdraw and defend.

Wang Hao seized the opportunity to retreat and whispered,

“Yin Jiuyou, make a note of this.”

Yin Jiuyou was stunned.

“Make a note of what?”

“Blood Lotus, a Transcendent Realm expert, ambushed and severely wounded Blood Wusheng.”

“For future publicity.”

Yin Jiuyou: “...”

Even while being attacked, His Majesty never forgot to gather material.

That level of dedication was chilling.

The battle continued to expand.

What had begun as probing attacks turned into genuine slaughter.

The slaughter became a fight to the death.

More and more powerful experts fell.

Wang Hao, meanwhile, was like a black fish slipping between the teeth of a colossal beast.

Wherever someone died, he appeared.

Wherever the situation threatened to reach a balance, he gave it the slightest push.

The Holy Land’s Martial God was about to cut straight through the Demon Sect’s left wing?

He quietly released a thunder dragon, knocking the sword formation off course.

The Demon Sect’s corpse puppets were about to surround the Martial God of the Taiyin Holy Land?

He secretly tossed a healing pill from the Holy Land to the man’s feet, allowing him to launch a counterattack at the brink of death and blow apart half the corpse formation.

The Blood Prison Demon Sect had gone berserk and was about to charge into the Holy Land’s rear?

He spread a false rumor that a Transcendent Realm expert was lying in ambush there, making the Blood Prison Sect hesitate just long enough to avoid collapsing too soon.

The Myriad Souls Demon Sect and the Yellow Springs Demon Sect were on the verge of turning on each other over the remnant souls of a Holy Land Martial God?

He immediately lured a Martial God from the Sword Ruins over, giving the two sides a common enemy.

Yin Jiuyou watched it all unfold, his scalp prickling with dread.

“Your Majesty, this isn’t warfare.”

“You’re seasoning it.”

Wang Hao picked up a damaged soul pearl and said,

“War is like cooking.”

“Keep the heat too low, and it won’t be done.”

“Turn it up too high, and it will burn.”

“I want it just right.”

The Demon Lord finally could not hold back his question.

“What exactly does ‘just right’ mean?”

Wang Hao looked up at the increasingly violent battlefield of Transcendent Realm experts in the sky.

“Both sides must suffer.”

“Both sides must grow resentful.”

“Both sides must believe they cannot retreat.”

“But neither side can wipe out the other for the time being.”

“Only then will the flames of war continue to burn.”

“Only then will the Central Continent remain in chaos.”

Han Shanyue said quietly,

“That will mean many people have to die.”

Wang Hao was silent for a moment.

Then he said,

“Shanyue.”

“Who do you think will be the first to die if the Twelve Holy Lands free their hands?”

Han Shanyue said nothing.

Wang Hao said indifferently,

“It will be Great Xia.”

“It will be the Northern Frontier Army.”

“It will be the people who have only just had enough to eat, who have only just been able to hold their heads high, and who have only just begun to believe that the imperial court will protect them.”

“I am no saint.”

“I can only choose to let the enemies die.”

Han Shanyue clenched his fists.

A moment later, he lowered his head.

“This subject understands.”

At that moment, the last trace of hesitation in his heart vanished.

There was no mercy on a battlefield.

Nor should an emperor’s mercy be granted to those who sought to destroy Great Xia.

Just then, the sky suddenly darkened.

From the deeper reaches of the Land of Sin in the distance, three more terrifying demonic shadows rose into the air.

More powerful experts from the Nine Great Demon Sects had arrived.

On the side of the Holy Lands, several immense holy lights also appeared along the horizon.

The true main forces of the Twelve Holy Lands were drawing near.

The pressure between heaven and earth suddenly intensified.

It was as though two ancient star domains were about to collide.

The Yellow Springs Ancestor’s voice rang out across ten thousand miles, grim and cold.

“Twelve Holy Lands.”

“If you do not give the Land of Sin an explanation for what happened today...”

“Then let war begin.”

A Transcendent Realm expert from the Taiyin Holy Land replied coldly,

“Hand over Wang Hao.”

“Otherwise, the Holy Lands will stop at nothing to flatten Yellow Springs Ferry.”

The Myriad Souls Old Fiend let out a sinister cackle.

“Flatten Yellow Springs Ferry?”

“Then this old man will devour the souls of your thirty thousand Holy Land disciples first.”

Tu Qianshan, drenched in blood from head to toe, threw back his head and roared.

“Enough nonsense!”

“Fight!”

Countless demonic cultivators followed him in a furious roar.

“Fight!”

Within the Holy Land’s ranks, sword qi shot into the heavens.

“Slay the demons!”

Golden radiance swept across the sky.

“Suppress the evil!”

Blood Lotus baleful energy churned violently.

“Kill Wang Hao!”

Wang Hao stood at the edge of a mountain of corpses and sea of blood. Hearing those final three words, he frowned.

“How did this become my problem too?”

The New Emperor Sword said in a faint voice:

“Master, you are the main course, after all.”

Wang Hao sighed.

“Then I definitely can’t die.”

He lowered his head and looked at the dozen or so storage rings he had just picked up, his eyes hardening once more.

“I haven’t even finished counting all this loot.”

“Anyone can die—but not me.”

In the next instant, the Holy Land and demonic factions collided once more.

This time, it was no longer a localized melee.

It was a true, large-scale battle to the death.

Transcendent experts carved open the way.

Martial Gods clashed in savage combat.

Seas of souls collided with rivers of sword qi.

Blood prisons slammed against golden palaces.

The frozen moon of supreme yin froze ten thousand miles of earth.

The Nether River of the Yellow Springs drowned the heavens.

The entire region outside Yellow Springs Ferry transformed into a blood-red millstone that blotted out the sky and covered the earth.

And Wang Hao moved through the gaps between its grinding wheels.

Sometimes rescuing people.

Sometimes delivering the killing blow.

Sometimes roaring in righteous fury.

Sometimes shedding tears as he made a fortune.

He was like the most shameless player on the board, yet also the calmest hunter.

He used the Holy Lands as his blade.

The demonic sects as his shield.

The chaos as his path.

And the mountains of corpses and seas of blood as the walls of Great Xia’s future.

Amid the battle, Wang Hao suddenly looked up.

In the distance, a familiar yet terrifying aura was drawing near.

That aura belonged neither to the Holy Lands

nor to the demonic sects.

It was cold, twisted, and mad, carrying the taint left behind by a Level-Ten Aberration.

Wang Hao’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Ji Wushang?”

No.

It didn’t feel like the complete Ji Wushang.

It was more like some form of contamination he had left behind, awakened by this battle between the Holy Lands and the demons.

Deep within a tributary of the Yellow Springs, the murky yellow water suddenly began to flow backward.

Countless lingering souls turned their heads at the same time, staring toward the battlefield.

As if something were about to crawl out from beneath the Yellow Springs.

Wang Hao tightened his grip on the New Emperor Sword.

The Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda trembled in his palm.

On the battlefield, the Holy Lands and the demonic sects continued their slaughter.

No one knew that a third, even more terrifying force was awakening.

Yet the corners of Wang Hao’s lips slowly curled upward.

“Interesting.”

“This game has gained another piece.”

The tributary of the Yellow Springs flowed backward.

The murky yellow water rolled and roared at the edge of the Black Plains like an ancient evil dragon roused from sleep.

Countless lingering souls rose from the surface of the river, their empty eye sockets all turned toward the battlefield.

In that instant, the slaughter between the Holy Lands and the demonic sects briefly came to a halt.

Not out of mercy.

But out of fear.

In a high-martial world, a Martial God could shatter mountains, while a Transcendent could rend the heavens.

But the Aberrant was different.

An Aberrant was not power.

An Aberrant was contamination.

No matter how mighty one’s strength, everyone feared being dragged into the abyss by something invisible, indescribable, and impossible to sever.

Especially since that cold, twisted aura clearly carried the scent of a Level-Ten Aberration.

Even if it was merely the last ember of its existence,

it was still enough to make even Transcendent experts wary.

The Yellow Springs Ancestor stood atop a mass of demonic clouds, ghostfire flickering in his eyes.

“Something beneath the Yellow Springs… has awakened.”

The Transcendent expert from the Supreme Yin Holy Land also frowned.

The frozen moon hung behind him, its moonlight pouring down—yet it could not illuminate the depths of that surging Yellow Springs water.

An elder from the Sword Ruins Holy Land stood with his sword in hand, his voice cold and grave.

“It’s not a living thing.”

The blood-robed elder’s face darkened.

“It’s the corruption left behind by Ji Wushang.”

At those words, many people on the Holy Land side showed subtle changes of expression.

Ji Wushang.

By now, that name had become an unhealed wound across the Central Continent.

The South Sea had descended into chaos.

Ji Wushang had fled after suffering severe injuries.

A tenth-level anomalous corruption had spread.

Because of it, the Twelve Holy Lands had grown suspicious of one another and begun tearing each other apart.

And now, that corruption had appeared outside Yellow Springs Ferry.

On the Demon Sect’s side, even the Myriad Souls Old Fiend’s cackling grew quieter.

“Heh heh heh… How interesting.”

“The Holy Lands’ filthy little secret has actually crawled into the Land of Sin.”

The blood-robed elder shouted furiously:

“Bullshit!”

“This is clearly the work of your Demon Sect colluding with the anomalies!”

Tu Qianshan was drenched in blood, a serrated greatsword resting on his shoulder as he sneered.

“You old cur, the Holy Lands are best at dumping their own shit on someone else’s head.”

“But this time, the stink’s too strong. You can’t get away with it, can you?”

The two sides were about to resume their verbal battle.

Wang Hao stood at the edge of the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, but his gaze remained fixed on the depths of the Yellow Springs tributary.

He could sense it.

That corruption was not Ji Wushang in its entirety.

It was more like a piece of flesh.

A wisp of lingering thought.

A pool of black blood seeping out from the abyss.

It possessed no clear will of its own, yet instinctively, it had been drawn here by the battle between the Holy Lands and the Demon Sect.

Too many people had died here.

Divine Martial blood, transcendence energy, vengeful souls, baleful aura, the sinister power of the Yellow Springs, lunar frost, Blood Lotus hellfire…

Everything had been mixed together into a pot of poisonous stew boiled to mush.

To anomalous corruption, this was a feast.

Wang Hao narrowed his eyes.

If this thing climbed out completely, the situation today would spiral out of control.

The Holy Lands and the Demon Sect might temporarily cease hostilities and join forces to suppress the corruption.

That would not serve Great Xia’s interests.

What he wanted was for the Holy Lands and the Demon Sect to tear into each other.

Not for them to sit down and share a feast.

And certainly not for everyone to band together against a monster, then conveniently treat Wang Hao as another monster to be dealt with.

Wang Hao said in a low voice:

“Yin Jiuyou.”

Yin Jiuyou immediately approached.

“Your Majesty.”

“Take our people three hundred miles back.”

“Don’t retreat too quickly. Make it look as though we’re withdrawing because we’re wounded.”

Yin Jiuyou paused.

“Your Majesty, what about this corruption…”

Wang Hao replied calmly:

“Someone will deal with it.”

“Who?”

Wang Hao looked toward the Transcendence-realm experts in the sky.

“They will.”

Yin Jiuyou fell silent.

His Majesty truly wasted nothing.

He was even planning to use anomalous corruption as a tool.

The New Emperor Sword beside him began buzzing excitedly.

“Master, can I eat this thing?”

Wang Hao shot it a glance.

“You eat everything. You’ll get indigestion sooner or later.”

The New Emperor Sword was indignant.

“I’m a sword. I don’t get indigestion.”

“Then you’ll break sooner or later.”

The New Emperor Sword fell silent.

It felt that its master was threatening it.

And there was a very good chance he really would throw it into the Yellow Springs for a wash.

As Wang Hao watched the battlefield grow increasingly chaotic, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

“System.”

“Can I sign in here again?”

【You have already signed in at the current special location.】

【The opportunity to update information has been used.】

Wang Hao felt a little disappointed.

He couldn’t keep exploiting the same opportunity.

But it didn’t matter.

He had already found a new direction.

The battlefield could be set aside for now.

The rumors had to start spreading immediately.

What could truly keep the Holy Lands and the Demon Sect locked in mutual hostility for the long term was not a single battle.

Battles killed people.

Once enough people died, the higher-ups on both sides would instead grow calm and rational.

Rumors, however, were different.

Rumors were like poison.

They did not kill you at once.

They simply kept you from sleeping.

They made you suspicious.

Terrifying.

The more people thought about it, the more convinced they became that the other side was plotting to harm them.

Add a little real evidence, a little fabricated testimony, and a few letters “accidentally leaked”...

Then it was no longer a rumor.

It was the tide of history.

Wang Hao turned around.

“Pass down my order.”

“Withdraw.”

Yin Jiuyou froze.

“Withdraw now?”

Wang Hao nodded.

“If we don’t leave now, then once they realize what’s happening, they’ll capture me and sacrifice me to Heaven.”

Han Shanyue lowered his voice.

“Your Majesty, the Holy and Demonic factions are still locked in battle.”

Wang Hao replied calmly:

“That’s precisely why we leave now.”

“The harder they fight, the less attention they’ll pay to us.”

The Demon Lord stared at him.

“Did you plan to run from the very beginning?”

Wang Hao answered solemnly:

“This is called a strategic redeployment.”

“I never run.”

The New Emperor Sword added quietly:

“My master says that every time before he runs.”

Wang Hao immediately pressed down on the sword hilt.

“Shut up.”

Not long afterward.

Deep within a tributary of the Yellow Springs, the corruption erupted completely.

A gigantic palm made of remnant souls, rotting flesh, black water, and sinister markings reached up from the riverbed.

Hundreds of human faces grew across its palm.

Every one of them was smiling.

Smiling through tears.

Laughing while weeping.

“Ji... Wu... shang...”

Countless remnant souls babbled in chaotic delirium.

The force of the corruption spread like a black tide. Wherever it passed, low-level martial artists’ eyes instantly turned pitch-black, their bodies twisted, and fine scales sprouted from their flesh.

The holy lands and demonic sects were both thrown into a panic.

The Yellow Springs Ancestor roared:

“Suppress the corruption first!”

The Transcendent Taiyin shouted as well:

“Everyone, fall back! Transcendent-realm experts, move!”

Although the old man in the blood robe wanted nothing more than to tear Wang Hao into a thousand pieces, he dared not allow the corruption to spread at a time like this.

If the embers of a Grade-Ten Anomaly ran rampant here, both the holy lands and the demonic sects would pay a price they could not afford.

Thus, the Transcendent-realm experts from both sides—who had just been fighting to the death—were forced to turn around and suppress the Yellow Springs’ upheaval together.

Of course, they did not trust one another.

Even while suppressing the corruption, they remained on guard against each other.

The Yellow Springs palm slammed toward the black tide.

The Taiyin Cold Moon froze the surface of the river.

Sword Mound’s sword-light cleaved apart the anomalous limbs.

Blood Lotus’s balefire incinerated the source of the corruption.

The Myriad Souls Old Fiend, meanwhile, tried to sneak a few bites of the contaminated remnant souls. But the moment he swallowed them, half his face grew Ji Wushang’s smile. Frightened, he immediately spat the souls back out.

“Bleh!”

“What filthy garbage!”

Tu Qianshan burst out laughing when he saw this.

“Old Fiend, you actually have standards when it comes to filth?”

The Myriad Souls Old Fiend replied darkly:

“I eat souls, not shit.”

Wang Hao, who was listening from a distance, suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“Write that down.”

Yin Jiuyou looked puzzled.

“That too?”

Wang Hao nodded.

“It’ll come in handy someday.”

Yin Jiuyou dutifully wrote:

The Myriad Souls Old Fiend personally admitted that Ji Wushang’s corruption may have originated from the holy lands’ excrement.

When he finished writing, he fell silent for a moment.

Something about it seemed wrong.

But if His Majesty had ordered him to write it down, there had to be some profound meaning behind it.