Dark Skies Sink the City, the Emperor Does Not Retreat

The Holy Lands, the Demon Sects, Old Man Heitian, and all the ancient monsters from every faction were closing in.

Keeping one trump card was more important than destroying the Life Casket.

Wang Hao fell silent for a moment.

Then he smiled.

He did not destroy the Life Casket.

Instead, he raised his hand and summoned the Myriad Contracts, One Origin Seal.

A contract aura descended upon the Heitian Life Casket.

The remnant soul of Old Man Heitian’s face changed drastically.

“What are you doing?”

Wang Hao said gently, “Don’t be nervous.”

“I’m just putting you on collateral.”

The light of the Myriad Contracts, One Origin Seal surged.

A line of twisted characters appeared on the Life Casket.

Owed to Emperor Wang Hao of Great Xia: an unspecified amount of tax silver. The Life Casket is pledged as collateral.

Yin Jiuyou’s eyelids twitched violently.

Xue Wuhen fell silent.

Han Shanyue muttered, “You can use it like that?”

Wang Hao replied seriously, “Of course.”

“Rules are dead. People are alive.”

“The Life Casket is neither fully alive nor fully dead. That makes it perfect as collateral.”

The remnant soul of Old Man Heitian was so furious he nearly exploded.

“Wang Hao!”

“I’ll never rest until you’re dead!”

Wang Hao nodded.

“Debtors always say that.”

He reached out and grabbed the air.

To everyone’s shock, he forcibly swept the shattered Heitian Life Casket into the first level of the Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda.

The pagoda doors closed.

Thunder runes sealed it shut.

Old Man Heitian’s true body vomited blood once more, and his figure staggered in midair.

His Life Casket had been suppressed.

It had not been destroyed.

That was even more infuriating.

He could sense that the Life Casket was still there, yet it was imprisoned by a terrifying force of thunder.

It was as if someone had his heart clasped in their hand.

Not crushing it.

Just holding it.

That feeling was even more agonizing than being killed with a single blow.

When the Demon Lord saw this, even the corners of his eyes twitched.

“This kid…”

He suddenly felt that he had been far too simple-minded back when he had roamed the demonic path.

If he wanted something, he simply took it.

If he wanted someone dead, he killed them.

Who would have thought of doing things the way Wang Hao did?

He stole from someone, then wrote them an IOU.

After writing the IOU, he took their Life Casket as collateral.

This was no longer the demonic path.

This was a higher dimension of evil altogether.

Inside the Ninth Vault.

Wang Hao put away the Life Casket and swept his gaze across the surroundings.

“Is there anything else valuable?”

Zi Yuan was completely numb.

At a time like this?

Old Man Heitian’s true body was about to kill his way back.

The experts of the Holy Lands and Demon Sects were almost here.

And Wang Hao was still looking for valuables?

Wang Hao noticed her expression and said calmly, “Don’t waste anything.”

“Waste is shameful.”

Zi Yuan suddenly laughed.

Her smile held a trace of desolation.

“Your Majesty, you truly are the most terrifying person I’ve ever met.”

Wang Hao shook his head.

“Don’t praise me.”

“I get conceited easily.”

Zi Yuan closed her eyes.

She knew that Heitian City was finished.

From the moment Wang Hao entered the Ninth Vault, Heitian City had not merely been destroyed.

It had been dismantled.

Its wealth had been carried away.

Its evidence of crime had been taken.

Its Life Casket had been suppressed.

Its Vein-Suppressing Black Spike had been seized.

A reputation for centuries of neutrality had been hammered into the greatest joke under heaven.

That was crueler than annihilating the city.

Boom!

The underground passage exploded.

The first to rush down was the Sword Ruins Martial God.

His sword light shone like a white rainbow, illuminating the darkness.

“Wang Hao, hand over everything you took from the Ninth Vault!”

Immediately afterward, corpse aura from the White Bone Demon Sect surged into the chamber.

“Finders keepers!”

Taiyin’s frigid energy, Yellow Springs’ soul mist, Blood Lotus radiance, the Blood Purgatory Sea, golden celestial light, and a black tide of ten thousand souls pressed in one after another.

The Martial Gods of every faction arrived almost simultaneously.

Wang Hao stood in the center of the Ninth Vault, his robes stained with blood and his face slightly pale.

Suppressing the Life Casket had consumed an enormous amount of his strength.

Yet his back remained ramrod straight.

He raised his head to look at the crowd and revealed a dazzling smile.

“You’ve all arrived at just the right time.”

“Heitian City’s crimes have been confirmed beyond doubt.”

“I have sealed this place.”

“If you want to take anything, you’ll have to queue up and register.”

The entire chamber fell silent for a moment.

Then everyone’s killing intent surged at once.

The White Bone Martial God screeched, “Register your ancestors!”

Wang Hao said seriously, “Insulting a law-enforcement officer adds another charge.”

The Sword Ruins Martial God drew his sword.

“Wang Hao, you’re far too greedy.”

Wang Hao nodded.

“I admit it.”

“But aren’t you all the same?”

He waved his hand.

A trace of the aura from the Vein-Suppressing Black Spike was deliberately released.

Dark golden dragon energy instantly filled the Ninth Vault.

Every Martial God’s expression changed drastically.

“A vein-suppressing relic!”

“Heitian City really tampered with the dragon vein!”

“This thing must be handed over!”

Wang Hao sneered.

“Handed over to whom?”

“To Taiyin?”

“To Yellow Springs?”

“To the Sword Ruins?”

“Or to the White Bone Demon Sect, so they can refine it into a corpse?”

The crowd was rendered speechless.

No one dared answer.

That was the value of Heitian City.

It was filthy.

But everyone had used it.

Wang Hao stepped forward.

The will of countless people behind him transformed into a faint golden radiance.

“I’m not clean.”

“I’m greedy too.”

“But at least I know that the dragon veins cannot be tampered with recklessly.”

“The common people cannot be wiped out.”

“The world cannot be turned into a gambling table by all of you lofty Holy Lands and Demon Sects.”

The atmosphere inside the Ninth Vault froze.

For one brief moment, Wang Hao no longer looked like that shameless young emperor.

He looked like a true sovereign standing before the mountains and rivers.

But in the next moment, he added, “Of course, the treasury of Heitian City is an exception.”

“That can be used as a gambling table.”

Everyone nearly twisted themselves in half.

The hint of respect that had just begun to rise vanished instantly.

This man truly could not be praised for too long.

Rumble!

Above the underground chamber, Old Man Heitian finally arrived.

His voice was cold to the extreme.

“Wang Hao.”

“Return the Life Casket to me.”

Wang Hao looked up.

“Pay your debt first.”

Old Man Heitian’s figure appeared at the end of the passage.

Half his body was flesh, while the other half was black bone.

Although his aura had fallen after being restrained by the Life Casket, it remained terrifying enough to make everyone suffocate.

His gaze swept across everyone in the Ninth Vault before locking firmly onto Wang Hao.

“No one is leaving today.”

Wang Hao’s smile did not change.

“Old man.”

“Don’t speak too soon.”

“Your city is about to collapse.”

Old Man Heitian slowly raised his black wooden staff.

“Then you can all be buried with it.”

As soon as his words fell, countless mechanisms suddenly began roaring to life beneath the entire city of Heitian.

Zi Yuan’s face instantly turned deathly pale.

“He’s activated the Heitian City-Sinking Array!”

Yin Jiuyou’s pupils contracted.

“What array?”

Zi Yuan’s voice trembled.

“Heitian City’s final destruction array.”

“Once it is activated, the entire city will sink into the Abyss of Darkness.”

“Every living being within the city will be refined into sacrificial offerings to prolong Old Man Heitian’s life.”

Wang Hao’s gaze finally turned solemn.

Old Man Heitian laughed.

His laughter was wild and venomous.

“Didn’t you all want Heitian City?”

“Then I’ll give it to you.”

“Along with your lives!”

Boom!

The ground began to sink.

The entire city of Heitian plummeted toward the abyss.

Heitian City was sinking.

Not just a single building.

Not just one street.

The entire city.

The greatest black market in this land of darkness crashed into the depths below like a massive stone whose foundations had been hollowed out by fate.

The earth split open.

Cracks spread in every direction from the city lord’s residence.

The Life Gambling Arena collapsed.

The Strange Artifact Street broke in two.

The Face-Changing House slid into the fissures amid screams.

The iron cages in the slave market tumbled away. The slaves trapped inside desperately clung to the bars, but even their cries were swallowed by the black wind surging up from below.

There were sobs in the black wind.

Laughter.

The whispers of countless souls who had died in transactions carried out within Heitian City.

They had not been summoned for revenge.

They had merely been awakened by the array and turned into fuel once more.

The Heitian City-Sinking Array.

Old Man Heitian’s true final trump card.

From the moment this city was built, it had never been merely a black market.

It was a colossal sacrificial altar.

Every transaction, every killing, every soul sold in exchange for a life had added another brick to its construction.

After hundreds of years, the ground beneath Blackheaven City had long since been filled with resentful spirits and blood-soaked bones.

Now, the formation had been activated.

The entire city was about to become the sacrifice that Old Man Heitian would use to prolong his life, strike back, and drag everyone down with him.

High in the sky, the Sacred Land and Demon Sect powerhouses who had been locked in battle finally paused for a brief moment.

Everyone felt the earth beneath their feet sinking.

Taiyin Old Matriarch roared, “Old Man Heitian, you dare sacrifice the entire city?”

The Yellow Springs Ancestor’s face darkened.

“Mad dog.”

Behind the Sword Ruins Martial God, ten thousand swords trembled in unison.

“Destroy the formation!”

The White Bone Demon Sect old monster could no longer force out a mocking laugh.

The White Bone Demon Sect had sacrificed entire cities before.

But the problem was that they were currently inside the city.

A powerhouse from the Blood Hell Demon Sect swore furiously, “You old bastard! Couldn’t you wait until we got out before offering us up as sacrifices?”

The Blood Lotus Valkyrie beside him gave him a cold glance.

“You’re surprisingly polite.”

The Blood Hell powerhouse shouted angrily, “I’m talking about basic rules of the martial world!”

The dark humor was especially absurd on the brink of death.

But no one could laugh.

Blackheaven City was sinking too quickly.

The black abyss splitting open beneath the earth was like a gaping maw, swallowing buildings, streets, formation flags, corpses, and the living alike.

Low-level martial artists had no chance of escaping.

Those in the Skyflying Realm could still take to the air.

But the black wind surging from the City-Sinking Formation carried an immense force of suction. Many Skyflying Realm experts had only just broken into the air when ghostly hands dragged them back down.

Those in the Astral Force Realm suffered even worse.

They were like ants caught in a storm, swept into the depths along with collapsing buildings and ruptured ground.

Some screamed and cried.

Some cursed in fury.

Some fell to their knees and begged for mercy.

Some clutched the storage bags they had looted even as they faced death.

A wandering cultivator was swept up by the black wind, still gripping half a spiritual ginseng root in his hand.

A demonic cultivator beside him roared, “You’re about to die! Why are you still holding on to that?”

The wandering cultivator answered bitterly, “I’ve been poor my whole life!”

“I have to die rich!”

In the next moment, the two of them were swallowed by the black abyss together.

The Ninth Vault beneath the City Lord’s Residence.

Old Man Heitian stood at the end of the passage, holding a black wooden staff.

His aura was unstable because the Life Casket had been suppressed, but after the City-Sinking Formation was activated, immense quantities of blood energy and soul power were surging into his body from every direction.

His fractured bones began to mend.

His rotting flesh writhed back to life.

A sickly satisfaction appeared on his half-human, half-ghostly face.

“Wang Hao.”

“You think taking away the Life Casket gives you leverage over me?”

“This city is my true source of life.”

“Today, every one of you will become nourishment for my return to the peak!”

Inside the Ninth Vault, the expressions of the various Martial Gods changed.

Old Man Heitian truly was insane.

But his madness was not the impotent rage of a weakling.

If the city really sank into the black abyss and he used the blood sacrifice of the entire population, he might be able to briefly recover to a state approaching his full strength.

When that happened, how many people present would still be alive?

No one knew.

The Sword Ruins Martial God said coldly, “Break the formation first!”

The Yellow Springs Martial God said ominously, “Kill Old Man Heitian first!”

The White Bone Martial God countered, “Take Wang Hao first!”

Everyone turned to look at him.

The White Bone Martial God was completely justified.

“The Life Casket and the Black Nails Suppressing the Veins are both in his hands.”

“What use is there in killing Old Man Heitian?”

Wang Hao nodded.

“That makes sense.”

The White Bone Martial God was taken aback.

Wang Hao smiled.

“But someone as clever as you tends to die young.”

As soon as his voice fell, the New Son of Heaven Sword suddenly burst out from the shadows.

It had not returned to Wang Hao’s hand earlier. Instead, it had remained in the Eighth Vault, devouring fragments of strange artifacts.

At this moment, the young sword spirit was wreathed in eerie silver light, and its aura was sharper than before by another degree.

Although it was still at the level of the seventh martial realm, it faintly showed signs of a breakthrough.

It slashed toward the center of the corpse-puppet formation behind the White Bone Martial God.

Crack!

The corpse puppet at the formation’s core was cleaved in two.

The White Bone Martial God’s expression changed.

Wang Hao struck at the same time.

The Nine Heaven-Splitting Swords.

The third sword—Earthsplitter!

The sword light crashed down.

The floor of the Ninth Vault, already sinking without end, instantly collapsed.

The White Bone Martial God had no choice but to retreat.

His corpse aura was cut apart by the sword light, and his expression became extremely ugly.

“Wang Hao, you’re courting death!”

Wang Hao replied calmly, “You’re not the first person to say that.”

“But I’m still alive.”

Old Man Heitian sneered.

“You won’t be alive for much longer.”

He raised his black wooden staff.

The sacrificial power of all Blackheaven City gathered into a gigantic black wheel.

Countless faces of the dead struggled and howled across its surface.

Their eyes were hollow, yet every one of them was fixed on Wang Hao.

The pressure was so immense that the air inside the Ninth Vault seemed to solidify.

Yin Jiuyou’s expression grew solemn.

“Your Majesty, you cannot take this attack head-on.”

Wang Hao knew that, of course.

No matter how formidable he was, he was still only a second-layer Martial God.

The Heaven-Imprisoning Earth-Covering Palm could clash head-on with a mid-stage Martial God. The Nine Heaven-Splitting Swords could slay enemies across realms. The Will of the Myriad People could withstand a fatal blow.

But Old Man Heitian was now striking with the power of the City-Sinking Formation.

He was no longer within the realm of an ordinary Martial God.

This was the sacrificial power of an entire city.

It was not the strength of a man.

It was a calamity.

Wang Hao did not recklessly try to withstand it.

He was passionate.

But he was not stupid.

Only an idiot would take something like this head-on.

With a wave of his hand, the Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda appeared.

The gate to the ninth level of the pagoda slowly opened.

Purple lightning surged out from within.

A purple thunder dragon opened its eyes.

In that instant, every Martial God inside the Ninth Vault felt their scalps go numb.

A full-strength strike from a ninth-realm existence.

Even though it was merely thunder sealed within a strange artifact, it was still powerful enough to threaten a peak Martial God.

Old Man Heitian’s pupils contracted.

“You’re actually willing to use it?”

Wang Hao answered seriously, “I’m not.”

“Then you’d better stand still and let me aim properly.”

Old Man Heitian: “…”

The purple thunder dragon roared out.

Boom!

Thunder illuminated the underground depths.

Darkness, sacrificial power, resentful spirits, corpse aura, and soul mist were all torn apart before the purple lightning.

The thunder dragon collided with the black wheel.

The entire Blackheaven City shuddered violently.

Countless streets that were sinking into the depths were jolted to a temporary halt.

The black clouds in the heavens exploded, forming a massive hole.

Beyond it, the long-lost starry sky could be seen.

A third of the black wheel was blasted apart by the purple lightning.

Old Man Heitian staggered backward, half of his skeletal body charred black.

He roared in fury.

“Wang Hao!”