The Black Heaven's Fate Box: Even Half-Step Transcendents Must Pay Taxes

Cold. Twisted. Wailing. Whispering.

Hundreds of sinister artifacts were sealed to the walls with chains.

Even the lowest-ranked among them placed within the top three hundred.

There were even three incomplete sinister artifacts ranked among the top hundred.

The New Emperor Sword froze the moment it entered.

It said quietly:

“Master, I think I’m looking at my ancestors.”

Wang Hao glanced at it.

“Can you eat them all?”

The New Emperor Sword thought seriously for a moment.

“If I finish them, I might burst.”

Wang Hao said:

“Then pack them up.”

The New Emperor Sword breathed a sigh of relief.

Then it felt a little disappointed.

Bursting from overeating would actually be a pretty happy way to die.

Just then—

A dull heartbeat came from the direction of the Ninth Vault.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The entire underground forbidden vault seemed to tremble in rhythm with that heartbeat.

Wang Hao’s gaze sharpened.

The Black Mandate Box.

It had arrived.

He was just about to take a step when a weak yet icy voice suddenly came from behind him.

“Your Majesty.”

“You cannot enter the Ninth Vault.”

Everyone turned around.

Zi Yuan had somehow appeared at the entrance to the Eighth Vault.

Her hair was disheveled, her robes stained with blood, and she clutched a shattered formation token in her hand.

The composed elegance of the former proprietor of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion had long since vanished.

All that remained was exhaustion, fury, and a despair that defied description.

Wang Hao looked at her.

“You’re still alive?”

Zi Yuan’s lips twitched.

That was certainly a unique way to greet someone.

She drew a deep breath.

“Your Majesty, there are no treasures in the Ninth Vault.”

“That is Heitian City’s final calamity.”

“If you open it, the entire city of Heitian will be dragged underground.”

Wang Hao raised an eyebrow.

“So it’s even more valuable?”

Zi Yuan: “…”

She suddenly felt that she should never have come to dissuade him.

Talking to Wang Hao about danger was like telling a hungry wolf that there were dogs guarding the sheepfold.

The wolf would only ask whether the dogs were fat.

Zi Yuan gritted her teeth.

“Old Man Heitian will rush back at any cost.”

“If he activates the Mandate Box, the power of half-step transcendence will spiral completely out of control.”

“When that happens, it won’t just be Heitian City. A thousand-li radius will be turned into a land of death.”

Wang Hao listened in silence.

Then he asked:

“How do we destroy the Mandate Box?”

Zi Yuan’s pupils contracted.

She finally understood.

Wang Hao wasn’t unaware of the danger.

He had simply heard about the danger and immediately found the most vicious solution.

Destroy the source.

Zi Yuan’s voice turned hoarse.

“You’re insane.”

Wang Hao smiled.

“I’ve always been perfectly lucid.”

“You people are the ones who are insane.”

“You treat the world as a gambling table, the dragon veins as stakes, and human lives as commodities.”

He walked step by step toward the Ninth Vault.

“Now the house has lost.”

“And you still won’t let me clear the table?”

Zi Yuan stood rooted to the spot, her entire body turning cold.

For the first time, she sensed something in Wang Hao more terrifying than shamelessness.

It was an emperor’s decisiveness.

He could joke, curse, and bicker.

He could be greedy and scheming.

He could fling blame in every direction until the sky was black with it.

But when he truly set his mind on doing something, no one could stop him.

Before the Ninth Vault.

Wang Hao raised his hand.

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

The pagoda trembled faintly.

Lightning patterns flared to life.

He looked at the pitch-black door, dark as an abyss, and spoke softly:

“Old man.”

“Your Majesty has come to collect his taxes.”

Boom!

The door to the Ninth Vault swung open at his command.

The instant the Ninth Vault opened, every sound in Heitian City seemed to be swallowed.

The clashes, roars, imperial decrees, thunder, and the crashing of collapsing towers outside all receded into the distance at that moment.

Wang Hao stood before the entrance.

And saw a black starry sky.

It was not a metaphor.

Inside the Ninth Vault truly lay a fragment of a shattered cosmos.

The floor was paved with jet-black crystals, beneath which a dark crimson river of blood flowed.

The dome overhead was set with lifeless soul pearls, like the stars of countless worlds that had perished.

At the center floated a black casket.

It was not large.

Only the length of a palm.

Yet it seemed to bear the fate of the entire Heitian City.

Each time it pulsed, the Ninth Vault trembled.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

It was not the casket that was beating.

It was the remnant soul origin of Old Man Heitian.

The Heitian Fate Casket.

Eight hundred years of lifespan, the obsession of one who had reached half a step beyond transcendence, and centuries of blood debts owed by Heitian City—all of it was condensed within this single casket.

Beside the Fate Casket hovered a black nail.

It was three feet long, covered in dragon patterns.

Yet the patterns were not golden, but a corrupted dark gold.

Nine cracks ran along the nail’s body, each one seeping with a faint trace of draconic aura.

Yin Jiuyou’s expression changed drastically after a single glance.

“Your Majesty, it is a Black Vein-Suppressing Nail.”

Wang Hao narrowed his eyes.

He had sensed a similar aura from the fragmentary map of the Nine Provinces’ dragon veins.

But that map had felt ancient, profound, and vast.

This black nail, however, was cold, twisted, and defiled.

It was as though someone had torn a strand from the dragon veins of the Nine Provinces, nailed it within the darkness, and left it to rot slowly.

Wang Hao’s voice turned cold.

“Heitian City truly has some nerve.”

Zi Yuan stood outside the doorway, her face pale.

She did not deny it.

There was no point in denying it anymore.

The Black Vein-Suppressing Nail was here.

And the fragmentary dragon-vein map had once been auctioned in Heitian City.

Placed together, these two items were enough to nail Heitian City to the monument of infamy before all under heaven.

Han Shanyue cursed under his breath.

“Those beasts.”

For the first time, genuine fury appeared on his rugged face.

Robbing people—he could understand that.

It was a black market. It was filthy by nature.

Killing—he had seen plenty of that too.

In these chaotic martial times, whose hands were free of blood?

But tampering with dragon veins was different.

They were the foundation of the realm.

Once the dragon veins fell into disorder, mountains and rivers would lose their balance, spirit fields would wither, river courses would shift, demon beasts would run rampant, and famine and disaster would spread everywhere.

It would not be only the powerful who died.

Far more would be ordinary people.

Farmers, women, and children who had not even reached the Skin-Tempering Realm.

Wang Hao stared at the Black Vein-Suppressing Nail, killing intent rising in the depths of his eyes.

He could be shameless.

He could swindle holy lands and demonic sects.

He could treat Heitian City as a cash machine.

But there were certain things that could not be touched.

Dragon veins were one of them.

He was the emperor.

Every inch of farmland, every river, every city, every citizen of Great Xia—this was his nation.

Whoever tampered with the foundations of its mountains and rivers was touching the root of his life.

Or, more precisely—

They were touching his tax base.

Wang Hao reached out and grabbed it.

The Black Vein-Suppressing Nail trembled slightly, then suddenly erupted with a fierce backlash.

The dark-gold dragon patterns transformed into nine black dragons, winding toward Wang Hao’s wrist.

Their dragon roars were not loud, yet they carried an overwhelming pressure.

They sounded like the resentful howls of the Nine Provinces’ earth veins, forcibly twisted out of shape.

Yin Jiuyou cried out in alarm.

“Your Majesty, be careful!”

Wang Hao snorted coldly.

The willpower of the people emerged around him.

Golden motes of light revolved like a river of stars.

The instant those black dragons touched that willpower, they let out shrill, agonized cries.

This was not a matter of overwhelming strength.

It was a matter of inherent restraint.

The dragon veins carried the common people.

And the people’s collective will could, in turn, soothe the resentment of the dragon veins.

Golden light surged in Wang Hao’s palm as he seized the Black Vein-Suppressing Nail.

Boom!

The black nail struggled violently.

The flesh of Wang Hao’s palm split open, and blood dripped onto the nail’s surface.

That blood bore both the aura of an emperor and the willpower of the people.

The dark-gold dragon markings trembled, then slowly fell still.

Wang Hao forcibly stored the Black Nail of Vein Suppression in his storage space.

And at that very instant—

High in the sky, Old Man Heitian finally went completely mad.

“WANG HAO!!!”

His roar was like the simultaneous howling of ten thousand vengeful ghosts.

The black clouds over the entire city of Heitian exploded with a thunderous crash.

The aura of a half-step Transcendent was no longer restrained. It surged forth like a boundless black sea flooding into the mortal world.

The Martial Gods of the sacred lands and demon sects, locked in fierce battle, all changed expression.

The Taiyin Old Matriarch said coldly,

“Old Man Heitian has gone mad?”

The Yellow Springs Ancestor stared toward the City Lord’s Manor, his face dark.

“No.”

“Someone has touched the root of his existence.”

The Sword Ruins powerhouse looked toward the black light splitting open beneath the earth, sword intent surging in his eyes.

“Wang Hao is in the City Lord’s Manor!”

The White Bone Demon Sect old monster gave a strange chuckle.

“That Young Emperor really has nerve.”

A female Martial God from the Blood Lotus Sacred Land twitched at the corner of her mouth.

“While everyone else is using the chaos to flee for their lives, he’s using it to loot the place.”

A powerhouse from the Blood Prison Demon Sect fell silent for a moment.

“In a sense, he’s more like a demonic cultivator than we are.”

For a moment, no one could refute that.

Old Man Heitian knocked the Demon Lord back with a stroke of his staff, then transformed into a streak of black light and dove toward the City Lord’s Manor.

The Demon Lord’s face had gone slightly pale.

He had been clashing head-on with Old Man Heitian for quite some time, and his aura was beginning to waver as well.

After all, he was not at his peak.

Even decayed as he was, a half-step Transcendent was still a half-step Transcendent.

Yet when he saw Old Man Heitian charging toward the City Lord’s Manor, he still cursed under his breath.

“Wang Hao, you’d better really have a backup plan.”

Having said that, he struck out with his palm.

Demonic qi transformed into nine layers of abyss, pressing down upon Old Man Heitian.

Old Man Heitian roared,

“Get out of my way!”

His black wooden staff swept through the air, smashing through the nine layers of abyss one after another.

The Demon Lord was sent reeling backward, a thread of black blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

The killing intent in his eyes only grew stronger.

“Old dog, why are you in such a hurry?”

“It’s not the first time your home has been robbed.”

Old Man Heitian nearly exploded with rage, his soul-fire thrown into turmoil.

The damage from those words was minor.

The insult, however, was immense.

Especially because he knew full well—

This time, it was not theft.

It was relocation.

Wang Hao was already standing before the Heitian Life Casket.

An aged face surfaced on the casket’s surface.

It was Old Man Heitian.

That face glared venomously at Wang Hao.

“Young brat.”

“If you dare touch the Life Casket, this old man will slaughter the nine clans of your Great Xia!”

Wang Hao raised an eyebrow.

“Nine clans?”

He gave it serious thought.

“I am the Emperor.”

“My nine clans are rather numerous.”

“Are you sure you can finish slaughtering them all?”

The face formed by Old Man Heitian’s remnant soul twisted grotesquely.

“You will regret this.”

Wang Hao smiled.

“Regret is generally something reserved for those who didn’t make enough profit.”

“I’ve gained quite a lot tonight.”

“So I have no regrets.”

The Life Casket erupted with black light.

A massive spectral hand extended from within, clawing toward Wang Hao’s brow.

Though this strike was weaker than Old Man Heitian’s true body, it contained the origin power of a half-step Transcendent.

Yin Jiuyou and the others had no time to come to his rescue.

But Wang Hao had prepared for this all along.

The Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Tower rose into the air.

The gate of its eighth level opened.

A thunder phoenix cried out!

Boom!

The thunder phoenix collided with the spectral hand.

Purple lightning sigils, crimson-gold thunderfire, and black soul-light tore savagely at one another.

The Ninth Vault shook.

Soul pearls exploded one after another.

Seizing the opportunity, Wang Hao pressed his palm against the Life Casket.

Heaven-Imprisoning Earth-Overturning Palm.

First strike!

The Heitian Life Casket sank.

Second strike!

Cracks appeared across its surface.

Third strike!

Fourth strike!

Fifth strike!

Golden power of faith merged with the force of his palms, suppressing the remnant soul.

Old Man Heitian’s remnant soul let out a shrill, miserable scream.

“You’re only at the second level of the Martial God Realm!”

“What right do you have to suppress this old man’s Life Casket?!”

Wang Hao gritted his teeth, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

“Because you owe money.”

Sixth palm strike!

Boom!

The cracks on the Heitian Life Casket widened.

Seventh palm strike!

The ground of the Ninth Vault collapsed entirely.

A dark-red river of blood surged upward in reverse.

Eighth palm strike!

The veins on Wang Hao’s arm bulged. Blood and qi coursed through his body like a raging river.

His cultivation at the second level of the Martial God Realm was driven to its absolute limit.

A tearing pain ran through his meridians.

But he did not stop.

Because he knew Old Man Heitian was almost here.

Once Old Man Heitian’s true body returned, the Ninth Vault would become an inescapable death trap.

Ninth palm strike!

Heaven-Imprisoning, Earth-Covering!

Nine palms in succession—the heavens and earth alike were imprisoned!

Rumble!

Wang Hao brought down his final palm.

The old man’s face on the surface of the Heitian Life Casket shattered halfway on the spot.

A deep fissure split open across the Life Casket.

High in the sky—

Old Man Heitian’s true body suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood.

Spiderweb-like cracks appeared across half of his blackened bones.

His aura dropped sharply from the peak of the Half-Step Transcendent Realm.

The entire city was shaken.

Every Martial God sensed it.

The Taiyin Old Matriarch’s pupils contracted.

“Old Man Heitian has been injured!”

A cold gleam flashed in the Yellow Springs Ancestor’s eyes.

“His origin lies underground!”

The Sword Ruins powerhouse’s sword intent shot into the heavens.

“Charge into the City Lord’s Manor!”

The White Bone Demon Sect old monster cackled.

“That Young Emperor has found something good.”

At that moment, the gazes of powerhouses from every side turned toward the City Lord’s Manor.

Wang Hao was not the only one trying to seize it.

Before the eyes of the world’s great powers, he was pulling the fattest piece of meat straight out of the pot.

Who could tolerate that?

Not a single one of them.

Thus, a considerable number of experts from the holy lands and demon sects—who had been fighting one another just moments earlier—simultaneously descended upon the City Lord’s Manor.

Naturally, their stated reasons were all perfectly righteous.

“Suppress the evidence of Heitian City’s crimes!”

“Protect the relics of the dragon vein!”

“Exterminate the remnants of the black market!”

“Prevent Wang Hao from keeping it all for himself!”

The last line was shouted by a Protector of the Myriad Souls Demon Sect.

After saying it, he realized everyone was staring at him.

The Protector froze for a moment.

“Did I say something wrong?”

The elder beside him remained expressionless.

“No.”

“But you were too honest.”

Beneath the City Lord’s Manor.

Yin Jiuyou’s expression changed dramatically.

“Your Majesty, Martial Gods from all sides are closing in!”

Xue Wuhen tightened his grip on his blood saber.

“Old Man Heitian will be here soon as well.”

Han Shanyue, carrying more than a dozen storage pouches on his back, wore a grave expression.

“Your Majesty, should we retreat?”

Wang Hao looked at the cracked Heitian Life Casket.

It had not completely shattered.

It still needed one final blow.

But if that blow landed, Old Man Heitian would undoubtedly suffer devastating injuries.

The problem was that the violet lightning dragon on the ninth level of the Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Tower had only two uses left.

Use one, and there would be one less.

And the situation was chaotic now.