In the eyes of immortals, all are but ants.

Wang Hao paid it no heed.

His gaze remained fixed on the rift in the firmament.

The information the system had just provided consisted of only five points.

A projection of a True Immortal would descend.

It could remain for only three breaths.

It would rescue the remaining inheritors of the Dark Immortal Sect.

Every piece of information had already been verified.

By all rights, since True Immortal Xuanming had taken the Demon Lord away, the rift of immortal light should have healed along with him.

But even now, the rift continued to expand.

It was not merely holding steady.

It was growing!

Strands of pitch-black lines were slowly spreading over from the other end of the Immortal Realm.

Those lines appeared to be far away.

Yet after Wang Hao stared at them for only a moment, a stabbing pain arose in his soul.

It was as if something utterly incomprehensible were peering into the Nine Provinces across endless void.

Wang Hao’s heart sank.

“Everyone.”

“Leave the Dark Ancestral Court.”

Taiyin Old Matriarch immediately turned around.

“Your Majesty, what have you discovered?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then why are we retreating?”

Wang Hao’s expression remained impassive.

“Precisely because we don’t know. That’s why we have to run.”

“Once we find out what it is, we may no longer have the chance to run.”

Everyone froze for a moment.

Then Yellow Springs Ancestor was the first to flee into the distance.

Without the slightest hesitation.

White Bone Old Monster followed close behind.

The experts of the Sword Ruins tore open the void at the first opportunity and took all the Sword Ruins disciples with them.

They were all old monsters who had survived mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The more unknown something was,

the more dangerous it was.

In the face of their lives, dignity was worthless.

Those martial artists who reacted a little more slowly also fled beyond the Ancestral Court one after another.

Wang Hao unfolded the Great Xia Mountains and Rivers Register.

Page after page of golden paper hovered between heaven and earth.

“All personnel affiliated with Great Xia within the Dark Ancestral Court—”

“Return to Great Xia immediately.”

“Transmission fees will be covered by the Ministry of Revenue.”

White Bone Old Monster paused in the distance.

“Wang Hao!”

“I took part in the battle too. Can I count as personnel affiliated with Great Xia?”

Wang Hao replied,

“Yes.”

White Bone Old Monster was overjoyed.

But Wang Hao’s next words followed immediately.

“Remember to pay your taxes after you return.”

White Bone Old Monster’s expression stiffened.

“On second thought, never mind.”

Rumble!

At that moment,

a deafening boom suddenly rang out from the depths of the rift of immortal light.

It was as if a divine mountain spanning the ages had collapsed within the shattered Immortal Realm.

Everyone’s movements halted at once.

They saw it.

The black-robed figure seated amid the stars had opened his eyes once again.

True Immortal Xuanming!

He had not left.

Or rather,

the one who had descended into the Nine Provinces just now had been nothing more than a projection from beginning to end.

His true body was still seated within the shattered Immortal Realm.

Tens of thousands of disciples of the Dark Immortal Sect prostrated themselves before him.

The Demon Lord knelt at the very front.

He looked up at True Immortal Xuanming, his face filled with the ecstatic relief of one who had narrowly escaped death.

“Patriarch!”

“This disciple was incompetent!”

“I failed to defend the Ancestral Court!”

“Please unleash your immortal might and annihilate Great Xia!”

True Immortal Xuanming did not respond.

He merely lowered his head slowly.

Within those eyes that spanned the starry sky, there was neither joy nor anger—nor any emotion belonging to a human being.

The ecstasy on the Demon Lord’s face gradually solidified.

“Patriarch?”

True Immortal Xuanming raised one finger.

Boom!

Beneath the tens of thousands of Dark Immortal Sect disciples, an immense black altar suddenly appeared.

Upon the altar,

ancient runes lit up one after another.

The Demon Lord’s expression changed drastically.

“Patriarch!”

“This is the Blood Immortal Altar!”

“I am the thirty-seventh sect master of the Dark Immortal Sect!”

“We are your inheritors!”

True Immortal Xuanming finally spoke.

His voice no longer resounded throughout the Nine Provinces.

It echoed only within the shattered Immortal Realm.

But Wang Hao had already stepped into transcendence.

His gaze followed his own Great Dao, piercing through the barrier between the Nine Provinces and the Immortal Realm.

Thus,

he heard True Immortal Xuanming’s voice clearly.

“Inheritors?”

True Immortal Xuanming’s tone was indifferent.

“This Immortal has no need for inheritors.”

“This Immortal needs only the Dao arts within your bodies, all of which share the same origin as mine.”

The moment his voice fell,

the altar began to operate with a thunderous roar.

The bodies of tens of thousands of Dark Immortal Sect disciples withered at the same time.

Their flesh and blood, true essence, souls, and lifespans—

even the dark cultivation arts they had practiced throughout their lives—

were all extracted by the altar.

“No!”

“Patriarch, spare us!”

“We worshiped you for tens of thousands of years!”

“Patriarch!”

“We’re willing to become your slaves!”

Wretched screams rang throughout the shattered Immortal Realm.

The Demon Lord struggled desperately.

But most of his half-immortal Dao fruit had already been shattered by Wang Hao.

How could he possibly resist a true immortal?

True Immortal Xuanming needed only a thought.

The Demon Lord’s legs exploded with a boom.

Then his waist and abdomen.

His chest.

His arms.

In the end, only his head remained, suspended above the altar.

The Demon Lord’s eyes were filled with despair.

Only at this moment did he finally understand.

True Immortal Xuanming had not rescued them out of regard for their line of inheritance.

Their cultivation arts all originated from Xuanming.

They were simply the blood offerings most suited to being devoured by Xuanming.

The Demon Lord suddenly began to laugh maniacally.

“Wang Hao!”

“Did you see that?”

“Immortals are the same!”

“Immortals are nothing more than demons with greater strength!”

Wang Hao stood within the Dark Ancestral Court, calmly watching the scene unfold.

“I saw it.”

“But what does that have to do with me?”

The Demon Lord’s laughter abruptly stopped.

Wang Hao continued,

“Your own patriarch ate you.”

“It wasn’t me who got eaten.”

“Besides—”

“You still owe Great Xia money.”

“Xuanming ate you. Under Great Xia’s laws, that constitutes malicious debt transfer.”

“I’ll put the debt on his account.”

The Demon Lord’s remaining head began to tremble violently.

He seemed to want to curse.

But before he could say anything,

all the disciples of the Dark Immortal Sect on the altar turned to ash.

Tens of thousands of black torrents surged into True Immortal Xuanming’s body.

The aura surrounding Xuanming grew slightly stronger.

But to a true immortal, that increase was nearly negligible.

He had devoured the entire Dark Immortal Sect.

Yet it seemed he had not done so to restore his cultivation.

It was more as if he were trying to suppress something.

Wang Hao saw it.

When Xuanming devoured the Demon Lord, a black line on the back of his right hand briefly contracted.

But in the next moment,

that line began spreading again.

It was even thicker than before.

True Immortal Xuanming lowered his head and looked at the back of his hand.

For the first time,

emotion appeared in his eyes.

It was a trace of anger.

And also a trace of unease.

Boom!

A tremor suddenly came from the depths of the Immortal Realm.

Xuanming abruptly raised his head.

Countless stars behind him exploded in an instant.

A massive shadow, too enormous to describe, slowly writhed out from the ruins of the Immortal Realm.

The shadow had no fixed form.

At times, it resembled a human face.

At times, a heart covered in countless eyes.

At others, a monster stitched together from innumerable immortal corpses.

With only a single glance,

hundreds of martial artists who had yet to evacuate the Dark Ancestral Court let out agonized screams.

Beneath their skin,

eyeballs rapidly sprouted one after another.

The eyes opened.

Every pupil turned toward that mass of shadow.

“Don’t look!”

An expert of the Sword Ruins shouted angrily.

Sword intent swept across the void.

The space before those hundreds of martial artists was instantly severed, forcibly cutting off their connection with the shattered Immortal Realm.

But it was already too late.

One of the Sky-Soaring realm martial artists suddenly stretched his mouth into a smile.

“Immortal…”

“So this is an immortal…”

His body began to twist.

Two arms burrowed out from beneath his armpits.

His back split open.

A slender tentacle, pieced together from bone and flesh, shot into the sky.

The martial artist was still smiling.

“I’ve seen eternal life!”

“I have seen eternity!”

Wang Hao raised his hand.

A golden palm seal descended in an instant.

Boom!

The warrior, along with the twisted flesh within his body, was crushed into nothingness.

Wang Hao roared:

“All of you, lower your heads!”

“Do not look directly at the Immortal Domain!”

“Anyone below the Martial God realm, seal your five senses!”

“Those above the Martial God realm, suppress your own souls with your Dharma Images!”

His voice was like an imperial decree, spreading throughout the entire Dark Ancestral Court.

All the warriors immediately did as he commanded.

At the same time, Wang Hao drew the New Heavenly Son Sword.

The Nine Heaven-Splitting Swords!

First Sword!

A river of golden and silver sword light swept upward against the heavens.

It was not aimed at Xuanming.

It was aimed at the rift of immortal light in the firmament above the Nine Provinces.

Something in the Immortal Domain was capable of corrupting the living beings of the Nine Provinces.

The passage had to be sealed immediately!

The river of sword light stretched across a million miles.

Countless spatial laws crumbled beneath its radiance.

But just as the sword’s edge was about to strike the rift of immortal light, True Immortal Xuanming suddenly turned his head within the shattered Immortal Domain.

His gaze fell upon Wang Hao.

“Did this Immortal allow you to leave?”

With a single sentence, time throughout the Nine Provinces seemed to freeze.

The river of golden and silver sword light halted in midair.

Wang Hao’s body was also locked in place by an irresistible force.

Xuanming raised his hand.

Across two separate worlds, a palm descended.

There were no visions of immortal arts.

No roar of laws.

The palm merely pressed down slowly.

Yet the Transcendent Great Dao that had just been born beneath Wang Hao’s feet let out a thunderous groan under the unbearable weight.

Crack!

The surface of the golden Great Dao split open for the first time.

Wang Hao’s pupils contracted.

This was the first time he had truly faced an attack from the body of a True Immortal.

The projection from earlier had been repelled by the laws of the Nine Provinces and could only unleash a fraction of its power.

But now, although Xuanming’s true body was still in the Immortal Domain, this palm had traveled through the rift of immortal light.

The power it contained was far beyond what that single finger from the projection had displayed!

“All of you, fall back!”

Wang Hao stepped into the sky.

Heaven-Prison Overturning Earth Palm!

First Palm!

Second Palm!

Third Palm!

Three imperial palms rose to meet the heavens.

They shattered instantly.

Fourth Palm!

Fifth Palm!

Sixth Palm!

The imperial fortune surrounding Wang Hao began to burn.

Throughout the territory of Great Xia, countless commoners seemed to sense something.

Strands of their faith crossed mountains and rivers, merging into the palm seals.

The Sixth Palm shook the immortal hand.

But it held for only an instant before shattering as well!

Golden light surged in Wang Hao’s eyes.

“Seventh Palm!”

“Eighth Palm!”

“Ninth Palm!”

The nine palms merged into one.

An immense imperial phantom rose from behind Wang Hao.

The phantom wore a crown and stood with its feet upon mountains and rivers.

It struck upward with one palm!

Boom!

The heavens and earth fell silent.

The million miles of mountains and rivers surrounding the Dark Ancestral Court sank completely the instant the two forces collided.

The earth was crushed into a pitch-black abyss.

The Ancestral Hall collapsed with a thunderous crash.

Above the firmament, Wang Hao’s Nine Palms as One held out for less than half a breath.

The imperial phantom’s arm cracked apart.

Its chest shattered.

At last, the entire Dharma Image exploded into a sky full of golden light.

The remaining force of the immortal hand continued downward.

The faith of the ten thousand people automatically rose to protect its master!

Countless golden motes gathered before Wang Hao, forming a shield of mountains and rivers.

That shield was powerful enough to withstand a full-force attack from a peak Martial God.

Yet the moment it appeared, it exploded with a deafening roar.

The lethal attack was neutralized.

But the power contained within a True Immortal’s palm was far more than a single lethal attack!

Bang!

Wang Hao’s chest caved in.

Every bone in his body shattered.

The Transcendent Great Dao trembled violently.

His entire body shot across hundreds of thousands of miles like a falling star, smashing through mountain range after mountain range.

At last, he crashed deep into the earth.

Rumble!

Dust soared into the sky.

The ground split open, forming a ravine stretching for ten thousand miles.

Wang Hao lay at the end of the ravine.

His aura was gone.

His life force had been extinguished.

The New Heavenly Son Sword was embedded in a distant cliff.

The silver-haired youth crawled out from the sword and stared wide-eyed.

“Master?”

There was no response.

“Master!”

Still, there was no response.

Taiyin Old Matriarch’s face was deathly pale.

Yellow Springs Ancestor looked as though he had been struck by lightning.

White Bone Old Monster instinctively took half a step backward.

One palm.

With merely one palm, Wang Hao—who had just stepped into the tenth realm of martial arts—had been beaten to the brink of death.

Beyond the heavens, True Immortal Xuanming withdrew his hand.

There was not the slightest ripple in his eyes.

“Transcendence through martial arts.”

“It is nothing more than a somewhat stronger ant.”

The black shadow within the shattered Immortal Domain continued to draw closer.

The black markings on True Immortal Xuanming’s body continued to spread as well.

But he did not immediately deal with that mass of shadow.

Instead, through the rift of immortal light, he gazed toward every corner of the Nine Provinces.

“Since someone has stepped into the tenth realm…”

“Then…”

“The Transcendent Ones hidden in this era should reveal themselves as well.”

His voice spread across heaven and earth.

“This Immortal requires your Dao.”

The Nine Provinces fell silent.

The next moment—

Deep within the Eastern Sea, a stone pillar supporting the heavens slowly rose.

In the forbidden grounds of the Western Wastes, ten thousand miles of yellow sand parted to either side.

In the sacred lands of the Central Province, ancestral tombs that had been sealed for tens of thousands of years opened with thunderous crashes.

In the ancestral lands of the demonic sects, a blood moon rose into the sky.

One after another, auras that did not belong to the nine realms of the Martial God began to awaken throughout the Nine Provinces.

And deep within that ten-thousand-mile ravine—

The eyelid of Wang Hao, whose life force should have been extinguished, moved ever so slightly.

There was only one thought in his mind.

“I’ve already been beaten to death.”

“Surely no one will be paying attention to me now, right?”