The Vision Is Too Narrow

The Taiyin Ice Moon fell into the River of Souls in the Yellow Springs.

The Yellow Springs Ancestor struck from across the void, and ten thousand ghosts swallowed the moon.

The reinforcements from both sides began their battle outside the city.

Next, the phantom of the Sword Ruins’ Sword Mountain cleaved toward the cloud of white-bone corpses.

The White Bone Demon Sect activated the Myriad Corpses Formation. Countless corpse puppets surged toward the sword cultivators like a tidal wave.

The Blood Lotus Sacred Land summoned a blood lotus that split the heavens, purifying the blood fiend aura.

The Blood Prison Demon Sect unleashed a roaring sea of blood that swallowed the lotus light.

The Golden Turret Sacred Land formed ranks with its golden-armored army and charged.

The Myriad Souls Demon Sect counterattacked with soul soldiers as dark as a black tide.

Black Heaven City had completely exploded.

This was not a single battlefield.

There were eight.

Then sixteen.

Then more than a hundred.

Martial Gods slaughtered one another in the sky.

Skyfliers darted between the towers.

Astral Aura cultivators smashed through the streets.

True Intent cultivators fought until their eyes ran red.

The lower-level warriors of the Aperture Opening, Organ Tempering, and Bone Tempering realms were swept into the chaos like driftwood in a raging tide. Most had no idea why they had even drawn their blades.

After one Sacred Land disciple hacked down a demon cultivator, he roared, “Avenge Senior Brother Taiyin!”

Someone beside him asked, “Who’s your Senior Brother Taiyin?”

The disciple froze.

“I don’t know.”

“But the atmosphere called for it!”

Elsewhere, a demon cultivator raised his blade and shouted, “Blood for blood!”

Someone asked, “Who owes you blood?”

The demon cultivator snapped, “Kill them first, investigate later!”

The dark humor was especially absurd amid the blood and flames.

But war had always been absurd.

The deaths of countless people often required nothing more than a reason no one had bothered to verify.

Wang Hao stood atop the ruins, looking down upon it all.

The wind swept up his imperial robes.

The remnant map of the dragon vein lay quietly in his storage space.

The power of the people’s prayers swirled around him, golden motes of light flowing like a river of stars.

At that moment, he resembled a young emperor standing above an age of chaos.

His eyes held both coldness and clarity.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

He was setting the entire world ablaze.

He was dragging the Sacred Lands and Demon Sects into the abyss.

He was using the blood of others to buy Great Xia time to rise.

It was cruel.

But if he did not do this, then the ones who would die in the future would be the people of Great Xia.

The soldiers of Great Xia.

The ordinary people who worked the fields, kept watch upon the walls, and prayed beneath lamplight.

Wang Hao had never considered himself a saint.

He was merely an emperor.

An emperor’s kindness could not be given to his enemies.

It could only be given to his subjects.

So he could be shameless.

He could be calculating.

He could turn Black Heaven City into a meat grinder.

So long as Great Xia survived.

So long as Great Xia won.

He was willing to let the world curse him.

Of course, if the curses became too vicious, he would remember them.

“Your Majesty.”

Yin Jiuyou arrived behind him.

“The formation protecting the seventh-floor storeroom was shaken open by the aftershocks of the battle.”

Wang Hao’s eyes lit up.

His heavy imperial mood instantly lifted by a third.

“Let’s go.”

Yin Jiuyou: “…”

Indeed.

His Majesty’s concern for the nation was vast and noble.

But his concern for the imperial treasury was far more dependable.

They had just begun to move when a terrifying killing intent suddenly locked onto Wang Hao.

Old Man Heitian had broken free from the Demon Lord for half a moment and struck from afar with his staff.

“Wang Hao!”

“I’ll kill you first!”

At the tip of the blackwood staff, a strand of darkness law nearing Transcendence condensed.

An ordinary Martial God could not withstand this attack.

Even a peak Martial God would be gravely wounded and left on the brink of death if struck by it.

The Demon Lord’s expression changed.

“Get out of the way!”

But Wang Hao remained where he stood without retreating.

The attack was simply too fast.

And he also wanted to see exactly how far the power of the people’s prayers could go.

The darkness law pierced through the void in an instant and shot toward Wang Hao’s brow.

The next moment—

Golden light erupted.

The countless motes of prayer power surrounding Wang Hao abruptly converged, transforming into a golden shield.

The shield was not thick.

Yet it seemed as though the people of the Nine Provinces had joined hands to hold up a piece of heaven.

The darkness law struck the shield.

Boom!

Gold and darkness exploded simultaneously.

Wang Hao staggered back three steps, his face paling slightly.

But he did not die.

He had not even suffered a serious injury.

Old Man Heitian’s pupils contracted violently.

“The power of the people’s prayers protects you!”

“How can an emperor who stirred up this war possess such power?”

Wang Hao raised his head, his smile cold.

“Because I treat my people well.”

“As for my enemies…”

He raised a hand and gripped the New Emperor Sword.

“Of course, if they can be exploited, I exploit them. If they can be killed, I kill them.”

The New Emperor Sword returned to his palm, its blade humming.

“Master, should I chop the old man?”

Wang Hao said, “Chop him.”

He took one step forward.

The Nine Swords of Creation.

Fourth Sword—Cloudbreaker!

Sword light soared into the heavens, cleaving apart the black mist before Old Man Heitian.

Old Man Heitian roared and brought his staff crashing down.

Wang Hao did not retreat. Instead, he advanced.

Heaven-Imprisoning Earth-Covering Palm, First Palm!

Second Palm!

Third Palm!

Palm force suppressed the void while sword light tore through the darkness.

He was not trying to kill Old Man Heitian.

He could not kill a half-step Transcendent yet.

He was trying to stall him.

To hold out until the Demon Lord returned.

To hold out until the battles between the various factions completely spiraled out of control.

To hold out until Black Heaven City could no longer muster the strength to protect its storerooms.

Fourth Palm!

Fifth Palm!

Blood once again seeped from the corner of Wang Hao’s mouth.

But his eyes were wild and bright.

“Old bastard, weren’t you trying to kill me?”

“Come on, then!”

Old Man Heitian was so enraged that even his black bones trembled.

He had never encountered such a troublesome second-layer Martial God.

He would not die.

He could not win an argument with him.

And the man kept coveting his storerooms.

The Demon Lord finally fought his way back.

A gigantic hand of demonic energy descended from the heavens and struck directly at Old Man Heitian’s back.

Old Man Heitian had no choice but to turn and block it.

Boom!

The two collided once more and were hurled into the upper sky.

Wang Hao used the force to fly backward and land on the seventh floor of the Myriad Treasures Tower.

Yin Jiuyou, Xue Wuhen, and Han Shanyue had already been waiting there.

The moment the New Emperor Sword hit the ground, it pounced on the storeroom door.

“Master, I can bite it this time!”

Wang Hao said, “Bite it.”

The New Emperor Sword excitedly sank its teeth into the door.

Crack!

The door split open.

Brilliant spiritual light surged from within.

The seventh-floor storeroom was filled with genuine treasures from the black market.

Crates of spirit stones.

Ancient cultivation manuals.

Fragments of cursed artifacts.

Martial God pills.

Powder made from the bones of a half-step Transcendent.

And an entire row of soul-sealing jade bottles containing the remnant souls of powerful figures from various factions.

Yin Jiuyou stopped breathing for a moment.

Xue Wuhen’s eyes reddened.

Han Shanyue muttered, “How long will it take us to move all this?”

Wang Hao waved his hand grandly.

“Don’t sort anything.”

“Pack it all.”

This was the simplest sentence he had spoken all night.

It was also the sentence with the greatest power of execution.

Everyone immediately got to work.

Storage rings were filled one after another.

The hidden guards emerged from the shadows like a swarm of well-trained ants, frantically emptying the storeroom.

The New Emperor Sword was responsible for eating the cursed artifact fragments that were too difficult to carry away but still valuable.

As it ate, it wept.

“This is happiness.”

“Master, can we raid the black market every day from now on?”

Wang Hao said, “Your vision is too narrow.”

“From now on, we’ll make the black market pay us taxes.”

The New Emperor Sword was shaken.

“That’s possible?”

Yin Jiuyou remained perfectly calm.

“If His Majesty says it is, then it is.”

Outside, Black Heaven City had already begun to collapse.

This was not a figure of speech.

It was literally collapsing.

The battle between the Sacred Lands and Demon Sects had destroyed the core formation that sustained the city.

Tower after tower came crashing down.

The black-market streets were split apart by sword qi.

The River of Souls flooded the Life-or-Death Arena.

Corpse puppets charged into the Face-Changing House, only to be greeted by fugitives asking whether they wanted cosmetic surgery.

The corpse puppets fell silent for a moment.

Then they demolished the entire building.

Outside the Myriad Treasures Tower, Zi Yuan stood with her hair disheveled, staring blankly as her family’s century-old enterprise was emptied.

She wanted to stop them.

But to her left, Wang Hao’s people were hauling away the storeroom’s treasures.

To her right, the Sacred Lands and Demon Sects were fighting to the death.

Above her, Old Man Heitian and the Demon Lord were locked in combat.

She suddenly realized that the only thing the shopkeeper could do was stay alive.

Only by staying alive would she have a chance to resign.

Suddenly, a voice filled with immense authority rang out from the edge of the sky.

“Black Heaven City has hidden a fragmentary map of the dragon vein, violating the pact.”

“The Twelve Sacred Lands demand an explanation today!”

From deep within the Land of Sin, another voice rolled forth like demonic thunder.

“The Sacred Lands’ thieves have used Black Heaven City to set a trap, plotting to seize the fortune of our Demon Sects.”

“The Nine Great Demon Sects accept the challenge!”

The two voices boomed across the skies above the Land of Darkness like ancient bells proclaiming the end of an age.

One edict after another tore through the void.

The Taiyin Sacred Land declared war on the Yellow Springs Demon Sect.

The Sword Ruins Sacred Land declared war on the White Bone Demon Sect.

The Blood Lotus Sacred Land declared war on the Blood Prison Demon Sect.

The Golden Palace Sacred Land declared war on the Myriad Souls Demon Sect.

The remaining Sacred Lands and Demon Sects were also forced to take sides because of the fragmentary dragon-vein map and the incident at Black Heaven City.

The false balance that had endured for centuries between the Central Continent and the Land of Sin was finally shattered completely.

Black Heaven City burned.

The flames of war spread wildly along trade routes, ore veins, strongholds, and the borders of sects.

After tonight, there would be no more minor skirmishes.

No more localized conflicts.

There would be only war.

A true war between the Sacred Lands and the Demon Sects.

Wang Hao stood in the emptied seventh-floor treasury, listening to the edicts from beyond the heavens. His expression remained calm.

Yin Jiuyou said in a low voice, “Your Majesty, they’ve officially declared war.”

Wang Hao nodded.

“I heard.”

Han Shanyue carried more than a dozen storage bags on his back, his throat dry.

“Then what do we do now...?”

Wang Hao looked toward the final core treasury of Black Heaven City.

It stood in the direction of the City Lord’s Manor.

Its restrictions were the strongest.

Its spiritual radiance was the brightest.

And it was the true private treasury of Old Man Heitian.

Wang Hao’s eyes lit up.

“We’re already here.”

Everyone instantly understood.

The Demon Lord was still fighting desperately in the sky.

The Sacred Lands and Demon Sects had plunged into all-out war.

Black Heaven City was collapsing.

The entire world’s power structure was being reshaped.

And at the beginning of this epic age of chaos, their emperor had said only four words:

“We’re already here.”

Yin Jiuyou fell silent for a moment. He suddenly felt that those four words might one day be recorded in the history books.

Of course, the historians would probably phrase it differently.

Something like:

The Emperor descended upon Black Heaven. Seeing the world plunged into chaos, he seized its treasury to replenish the nation’s coffers.

Wang Hao raised a hand and swept it through the air.

“Let’s go.”

“Great Xia is poor.”

“We can’t just stand by and watch the excitement empty-handed.”