All Beings of Great Xia Do Not Bow to the Rotten Immortal

Boom!

The second toll rang out.

The entire Great Xia trembled.

Countless roof tiles exploded at once.

Mountains and rivers bowed low.

The rivers ran dry.

That ancient golden bell was no ordinary immortal artifact.

It was fueled by the faith of countless billions of living beings held captive.

Wherever its chime passed,

the wills of all living things were forcibly twisted.

The weak knelt in worship.

The strong submitted.

And those who could not submit

had their souls shattered outright by the bell’s toll.

Within Great Xia,

a youth at the Skin-Tempering Realm had only just managed to straighten up.

The next instant,

the flesh on his legs exploded beneath the ringing of the bell.

He crashed heavily to the ground.

Blood stained the bluestone red.

The youth gritted his teeth.

Bracing himself with both hands,

he began to crawl upward again.

His father had died at the hands of aristocratic clan soldiers.

His mother had nearly been sold into a brothel.

It was Great Xia’s new laws that beheaded the head of that aristocratic family.

It was the authorities who redistributed land to them.

The youth did not know what immortals were.

Nor did he know how mighty Taiyi had once been.

He only knew

that, years ago, his mother had taken him to the county yamen, where they had kowtowed once before the golden statue of the Emperor of Great Xia.

That kowtow

had been in gratitude for the grace of saving their lives.

And now, some corpse with half its face rotted away

had appeared out of nowhere

and demanded that he kneel.

He refused.

“My mother once told me…”

The youth’s arms trembled

as he slowly pushed himself upright.

“Your knees must never be sold a second time…”

Crack!

The bones in his legs shattered completely.

Yet the youth still did not lower his head.

The same scene

was unfolding throughout Great Xia.

Above the imperial capital,

the nation’s fortune gathered.

Thin threads of aspiration rose from within the bodies of the people.

They should have been drawn away by the river of incense and faith belonging to the Taiyi Ancient Immortal.

But the moment those aspirations appeared,

they ignited.

They would rather burn themselves away

than enter the ancient golden bell.

For the first time, confusion appeared in the eyes of the Taiyi Ancient Immortal.

“Why?”

“Is it not only natural

for mortals to worship the strong?”

“I am ten thousand times stronger than that emperor.”

“I can grant you cultivation methods that transcend mortality.”

“I can make your descendants masters of sacred lands.”

“Why will you not kneel?”

Wang Hao stood above the river of Imperial Dao.

His body, too, was being pressed steadily downward by the bell’s toll.

The pressure he endured

far surpassed that suffered by any citizen of Great Xia.

If the Taiyi Ancient Immortal wished to seize Great Xia’s incense and faith,

the first person he had to crush

was the Emperor of Great Xia.

Cracks appeared in the bones of Wang Hao’s legs.

The flesh on his back split apart inch by inch.

Within him, the corpse-path mark seized the chance to spread faster.

It was already less than three inches from his heart.

An immortal bell suppressing his spirit.

Corpse poison corroding his body.

In the distance stood three decayed immortals and one being half immortal, half aberration, ready to strike at any moment.

Since Wang Hao had stepped into Transcendence,

this was the most perilous moment he had faced.

He lowered his head.

Within the river of Imperial Dao, he saw countless scenes.

He saw the youth’s broken legs.

He saw an old craftsman whose ears had been deafened by the bell.

He saw an aged general of the Jingbian Army bleeding from all seven orifices.

He saw a mother shielding her child in her arms.

She herself knelt upon the ground,

yet used her back to support the child, refusing to let the child’s knees touch the dirt.

Wang Hao suddenly felt

that he had been wrong about something before.

He had once said

that Xuanming had brought the battlefield to the Nine Provinces,

and that Xuanming should bear responsibility for every loss.

Now, it seemed,

the blame could not all be laid upon Xuanming.

Every one of these immortals—

every last one of them—

would have to pay compensation.

“Stand up.”

Wang Hao spoke slowly.

His voice was not loud,

yet it traveled through the river of Imperial Dao and spread across all of Great Xia.

The fallen youth heard it.

He gripped a crack in the wall

and dragged himself upright, inch by inch.

The old craftsman heard it.

He placed a red-hot piece of iron beneath his knees.

He resisted the Immortal Bell’s crushing pressure through searing pain.

The Jingbian Army heard him.

Eight thousand spears rose as one.

“Get up!”

The river of Imperial Dao surged and boiled.

The golden dragon of national destiny threw back its head and roared.

Wang Hao’s bent back slowly straightened once more.

He took a step forward.

The void beneath his feet exploded.

A second step.

The corpse-path patterns were forced back half an inch by the willpower of the Imperial Dao.

A third step.

Taiyi Ancient Immortal’s river of incense and faith began to flow in reverse.

Upon the ancient bell—

An ancient being who had been kneeling in worship slowly raised her head.

She was a woman long vanished from the annals of history.

Her hands remained clasped in prayer.

Yet a trace of clarity returned to her eyes.

Then—

A second being raised its head.

A third.

A fourth.

Tens of thousands.

Millions.

They had long since died.

Yet their souls and faith had been imprisoned within the Immortal Bell by Taiyi Ancient Immortal.

Generation after generation.

Until they had forgotten even who they were.

The unyielding will of Great Xia’s people—their refusal to kneel—

Flowed through the river of incense and faith into the bell.

It awakened the last remnants of their true selves.

“Rise!”

Wang Hao shouted again.

Inside the golden ancient bell,

countless kneeling beings began to struggle.

Taiyi Ancient Immortal’s expression changed dramatically.

“Your lives were granted by this Immortal!”

“Your paths were bestowed by this Immortal!”

“Without this Immortal,

your sects would have perished long ago!”

An elderly phantom slowly rose to his feet.

He wore the most ancient robes of one of the Seventy-Two Sacred Lands.

But a massive palm print marked his chest.

It had been left there by Taiyi Ancient Immortal.

Back then,

this ancestor of a Sacred Land had discovered that the so-called Path of Incense and Faith was merely prolonging the life of the immortal corpse beneath the earth.

He had tried to sever the flow of incense and faith.

In the end, Taiyi Ancient Immortal had slain him with a single palm strike.

Even after death,

his soul had been imprisoned within the Immortal Bell.

The elderly phantom lifted his head.

“You passed down your Dao to me

so you could devour me.”

“You kept my soul

so you could devour me as well.”

“Today,

this old man will offer no more.”

He raised both hands.

Grabbing the golden thread of incense and faith connected to him,

he pulled with all his strength!

Snap!

The thread broke.

A tiny crack appeared on the ancient bell’s surface.

More and more ancient soul-shades rose to their feet.

They tore apart their incense threads.

They hurled themselves against the bell’s walls.

Behind Taiyi Ancient Immortal’s head,

the incense-and-faith immortal halo, formed from seventy-two immortal runes, flickered violently.

The thirteenth immortal rune was the first to go dark.

Wang Hao’s gaze sharpened.

The intelligence provided by the system surfaced in his mind once more.

Taiyi Ancient Immortal’s fatal weakness—

the incense-and-faith immortal halo!

“Blood Luo!”

Wang Hao suddenly shouted.

The Blood Luo Immortal Lord was fighting Xuanming over a piece of immortal, aberrant flesh.

Hearing him, she turned toward Wang Hao.

“Mortal.

What do you want to say now?”

Wang Hao pointed behind Taiyi Ancient Immortal’s head.

“Within that incense-and-faith immortal halo

is sealed the blood essence of generations of experts from the Seventy-Two Sacred Lands.”

“If you shatter it,

it will all be yours.”

Blood-red light flared in the Blood Luo Immortal Lord’s eyes.

“Is that true?”

Taiyi Ancient Immortal whipped around.

“He is deceiving you!”

Wang Hao wore an expression of perfect righteousness.

“I am the sovereign of a nation.

When have I ever deceived anyone?”

The Dragon-Slayer, standing nearby, heard those words

and silently turned his head away.

He feared he would not be able to stop himself from speaking.

But the Blood Luo Immortal Lord had already moved.

She did not care whether Wang Hao was lying.

So long as there was blood within that incense-and-faith immortal halo,

it was worth the attempt.

A sea of scarlet blood condensed into a spear.

She thrust it toward the back of Taiyi Ancient Immortal’s head.

Taiyi Ancient Immortal had no choice but to turn the golden ancient bell to block it.

Boom!

The Bloodsea Immortal-Devouring Spear collided with the ancient bell.

Countless golden bolts of lightning erupted.

The Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Tower was stirring in the distance.

Wang Hao raised a hand and pressed it against the tower.

“Hold it in for now.”

“We’re not here to eat this time.”

The black tower trembled in protest.

Wang Hao continued:

“Wait until they smash it apart.”

“Then you can have a big meal.”

The tower immediately fell silent.

Taiyi Ancient Immortal was entangled by Blood Luo.

The power of the Immortal Bell pressing down upon all the people of Great Xia suddenly weakened.

Wang Hao seized the opportunity.

The New Emperor Sword appeared in his hand.

“Opening-Heaven Nine Swords!”

The first sword.

It cleaved into the river of incense offerings.

Countless golden threads snapped apart.

The second sword.

It split open a layer of immortal restrictions.

The third sword.

The willpower of the Emperor’s Path poured back through the sword scar.

The fourth sword.

Hundreds of thousands of ancient soul-figures rose to their feet at once.

The fifth sword.

A roar of defiance rang out from within the Immortal Bell.

The sixth sword.

Even half of Taiyi Ancient Immortal’s intact face began to rot.

The seventh sword.

The twenty-first immortal rune upon the incense-offering immortal ring went dark.

The eighth sword.

A golden sword scar appeared, stretching across the Nine Provinces.

Wang Hao gripped the sword with both hands.

The Transcendent Great Dao and the river of the Emperor’s Path merged into the blade.

“The ninth sword!”

“Open the heavens!”

Shhk!

The river of incense offerings was severed by a single sword.

The immortal ring behind Taiyi Ancient Immortal’s head shook violently.

A palm-sized golden fragment broke loose from the edge of the ring.

Wang Hao’s eyes lit up.

The golden dragon of destiny immediately reached out a claw.

It seized the fragment of the immortal ring.

But at that very moment—

A cold sword intent locked onto the center of his brow.

There was no killing intent.

No fluctuation.

It was as if that sword had always been lodged within Wang Hao’s brow.

The empty eye sockets of the Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal faced him.

Two rust-covered natal swords.

One of them extended three inches.

“You know Taiyi’s weakness.”

“And you know the weakness of corpse liberation.”

“Then you…”

“Do you also know this immortal’s weakness?”

The warning in Wang Hao’s heart surged.

“Senior!”

The Dragon-Slayer sensed it even before he did.

His rusty woodcutter’s knife swept across Wang Hao’s path.

Clang!

A barely audible collision rang out.

A needlepoint-sized chip appeared on the surface of the knife.

The Dragon-Slayer’s body jolted violently.

His chest split open without a sound.

A thin sword scar pierced straight through him.

Immortal sword intent erupted within the wound.

It furiously ground away at what little life force he had left.

Yet the sword’s shadow did not vanish.

It passed through the woodcutter’s knife.

And continued toward the center of Wang Hao’s brow.

After being blocked by the Dragon-Slayer,

the sword shadow had lost ninety-nine percent of its power.

But the remaining sliver

still reached the peak of the Martial God Realm.

Wang Hao had no time to raise his sword.

A pale-golden shield of willpower appeared on its own.

The phantoms of countless billions of Great Xia’s people formed a barrier before him.

The sword shadow pierced the shield.

For an instant, time seemed to stop.

In the next moment—

the shield of willpower exploded.

Years of accumulated protective willpower were completely exhausted.

Golden motes of light rained down across the Nine Provinces.

A line of blood split open on Wang Hao’s brow.

The sword shadow vanished.

He had not died.

But the sensation of countless billions of people standing before him at once,

only to dim at the same time,

caused an uncontrollable fury to rise in Wang Hao’s heart for the first time.

Willpower could be accumulated again.

The common people had not been harmed.

But the Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal’s strike—

had pierced the national destiny of Great Xia.

“Blind man.”

Wang Hao wiped the blood from his brow.

“Your sword…”

“is expensive.”

The Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal replied calmly:

“The next sword…”

“will cost even more.”

The second natal sword in his eye socket also began to emerge slowly.

Wang Hao raised his hand.

The Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Tower shot into the air with a thunderous roar.

The nine gates of this rank-fifty-six anomalous artifact opened simultaneously.

Within the ninth level,

a pale-golden giant dragon wreathed in violet lightning opened its eyes.

It had just devoured the Nine-Heavens immortal lightning.

Along the edges of its purple scales,

golden immortal-lightning patterns had already formed.

“Thunder Abyss.”

“Let one through.”

Roar!

The purple lightning dragon burst out of the ninth layer.

Its dragon roar resounded throughout the Nine Provinces.

The lightning dragon did not pounce on the Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal himself.

Instead, it bit down on the natal swordlet protruding from his eye socket.

Boom!

The immortal sword and immortal lightning collided head-on.

The purple lightning dragon’s head was instantly cleaved apart.

Yet its massive lightning body wrapped itself tightly around the swordlet.

Countless bolts of lightning drilled into the sword through the rust.

From within the Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal’s hollow eye socket,

gray blood flowed for the first time.

[The Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Tower has unleashed one full-power attack at the Ninth Realm!]

[Remaining complete attacks on the ninth layer: two!]

“New Emperor Sword!”

“Here!”

The silver-haired youth had long since grown impatient.

He transformed into a streak of silver light.

His sword struck the side of the natal swordlet.

The power of the seventh Martial Dao realm

was nearly insignificant in a battle of this level.

But the New Emperor Sword possessed the ability to devour and evolve.

The moment its silver blade made contact,

it clamped down fiercely on a patch of rust.

“So hard!”

The silver-haired youth’s voice came from within the sword.

“Master!”

“I can’t bite through this!”

Wang Hao remained expressionless.

“Who told you to bite it?”

“I told you to ram it!”

“You should’ve said so sooner!”

The New Emperor Sword abruptly turned sideways.

Its spine slammed heavily into the natal swordlet.

Clang!

The natal swordlet shifted half an inch.

The Dragon-Slayer endured the injury in his chest.

For the third time, the woodcutter’s blade descended.

It struck precisely the same spot.

Crack!

An extremely fine fracture appeared

on the surface of the natal swordlet.

The Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal abruptly raised his hand.

Terrifying sword intent swept across the battlefield.

Wang Hao, the Dragon-Slayer, and the New Emperor Sword were blasted away at the same time.

The purple lightning dragon also completely shattered beneath the sword intent.

The Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal withdrew his natal swordlet.

Gray blood continued to flow from his eye sockets.

The injury was not serious.

But he had indeed been wounded.

His natal immortal sword had been injured

by the combined efforts of a first-level Transcendent,

a crippled woodcutter,

and a strange artifact with only seventh-realm combat power.

“You…”

The Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal’s voice grew colder still.

Wang Hao ignored him.

He was still flying backward.

But the golden karmic-fortune dragon successfully seized that fragment of the incense-offering immortal ring.

The fragment fell into his palm.

Vast amounts of pure incense power surged outward.

Dozens of drops of golden corrupted blood were mixed within it.

The Sealing Immortals Altar began to tremble on its own.

The mouth of the altar opened.

It drew in the most intact drop of golden source blood.

The third blood-red mark lit up.

[One drop of Taiyi Ancient Immortal source blood has been sealed!]

[Remaining complete spaces in the Sealing Immortals Altar: six!]

Taiyi Ancient Immortal witnessed this scene.

Half of his face twisted completely out of shape.

“Again?!”

The Blood Luo Immortal Lord also saw the golden source blood.

“Mortal!”

“You said it would be mine!”

Wang Hao put away the Sealing Immortals Altar.

“I only said that there was essence blood inside the immortal ring.”

“I never said it would belong to you after I picked it up.”

The Blood Luo Immortal Lord froze for a moment.

Then the sea of blood surged violently.

The Corpse-Releasing Immortal dragged along eight life coffins.

Gray blood flowed from the eye sockets of the Heaven-Deficient Sword Immortal.

The shattered starry sky within Xuanming’s chest continuously spewed forth immortal-abyssal origin power.

Five immortal-level beings

stopped fighting at the exact same moment.

Ten gazes

fell upon Wang Hao.

The Dragon-Slayer clutched his chest.

His face was pale.

“They seem to have noticed.”

Wang Hao asked,

“Noticed what?”

“That you’re the one who picked up the most.”

Wang Hao swept his gaze across the five decaying beings.

He stuffed the Sealing Immortals Altar into his robes.

Then he pressed the fragment of the incense-offering immortal ring beneath the coffin at his right foot.

Finally, summon back the Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Tower and the New Emperor Sword.

“Why is everyone looking at me?”

“Keep fighting.”

“Don’t let such a trivial matter”

“delay the revenues flowing into the Great Xia treasury.”