The Whole Nation Carries the Coffin, Sending the Immortal Ghost on Its Way (Part One)

Thud!

Twenty-four heartbeats.

For the first time, they overlapped perfectly.

In the instant after the heart contracted—

Before the next beat began—

There came a moment of absolute silence.

No heartbeat.

No transfer of origin.

No aura of immortal aberration.

Only a blank space hidden between twenty-four hearts.

The system prompt abruptly froze.

【Current distance: zero!】

【You have arrived at a special sign-in location: Xuan Ming the Immortal Aberration—Burial Star Heart Realm!】

【Sign in?】

“Sign in.”

【Sign-in successful!】

【Obtained: Nail of Mortal Destiny!】

【Nail of Mortal Destiny: Using the mountains and rivers of a nation as an anvil, and the recognition of countless living beings as a lock, it can nail that which is formless, shapeless, and unfixed into reality!】

【Once nailed down, all paths of reincarnation, heart-transference, death-substitution, and soul-division available to the target will return to the one true body within ten breaths!】

【Condition of use, one: At least ten million living beings must simultaneously acknowledge the target’s existence!】

【Condition of use, two: The target’s blood of shared origin is required!】

【Condition of use, three: The nail must be driven personally by an emperor!】

【Intelligence updated!】

【Xuanming does not lack a true body.】

【He has hidden his one true body within the blank interval when the twenty-four aberrant hearts cease beating.】

【Xuanming’s twenty-four aberrant hearts were each forged from a world of death.】

【Once his true body is nailed down and destroyed, the twenty-four worlds of death will collapse simultaneously, unleashing Burial Realm Immortal Lightning!】

A three-inch bronze nail appeared in Wang Hao’s palm.

There were no patterns on its shaft.

No immortal radiance.

It looked—

Like an ordinary iron nail casually made by a carpenter.

Yet the instant it appeared—

The entire Heart Realm fell silent.

For the first time, genuine terror appeared on Xuanming’s twenty-four faces.

“What is that in your hand?”

Wang Hao did not answer.

Through the Imperial Dao River,

he projected Xuanming’s image

into the minds of every Great Xia citizen across the Nine Provinces.

Then,

an imperial decree rang across the land.

“Look up.”

“See clearly.”

“His name is Xuanming.”

All beings of the Nine Provinces looked up at once.

Whether martial warriors

or ordinary folk.

Whether officials

or commoners.

At that moment,

they all saw the monster whose twelve pairs of wings were spread wide,

a silver-black heart suspended in its chest.

Wang Hao took out the ledger

and stamped the imperial seal beside Xuanming’s name.

“Great Xia Register of Immortal Calamities.”

“Fifth entry.”

“Xuanming.”

“Entered into the register.”

Boom!

The awareness of hundreds of millions of living beings

converged within the Imperial Dao River.

For the first time, Xuanming was remembered clearly

by all of Great Xia.

Not as an immortal.

Not as something indescribable.

Nor as some ancient existence beyond comprehension.

He had a name.

He had a form.

He had debts.

And he now occupied a place in Great Xia’s ledger.

The bronze nail absorbed Xuanming’s origin blood.

Silver-black patterns emerged across its surface.

Wang Hao raised his right hand.

Using his shattered imperial bones as a hammer,

he struck toward the blank space between the twenty-four hearts with a single punch!

“Destiny of All Beings!”

“Come out for me!”

Thud!

The bronze nail pierced the void.

From a place that had never existed,

a scream suddenly rang out.

Twenty-four deathly stars

collapsed inward at once.

A true body of immortal aberration, ten million zhang tall,

was forcibly nailed out of the blank space.

Its body had no head.

There was only an enormous heart, half silver and half black.

Twelve pairs of immortal-aberration wings

grew around that heart.

At the root of every pair of wings,

two worlds of death were connected.

Xuanming struggled madly.

But the bronze nail held him firmly in reality.

Every mind-shifting technique.

Had failed.

Every realm-transcending coordinate.

Went dark at the same time.

Ten breaths.

Within those ten breaths,

Xuanming had only one life left.

But in the next instant,

Xuanming’s twenty-four death worlds suddenly changed direction.

They did not attack Wang Hao.

Instead, they crashed toward Jiuzhou all at once.

Twenty-four silver-black chains

extended from the death worlds.

They passed through Xuanming’s heart-realm

and linked themselves to the mountains and rivers of Great Xia.

The Northern Frontier.

The Western Wastes.

The Eastern Sea.

The Southern Borders.

The Central Plains.

The Imperial Capital.

Above city after city,

the shadows of death stars appeared.

Xuanming’s true body let out a low laugh.

“You nailed this immortal into reality.”

“So this immortal will nail

twenty-four death realms

into Jiuzhou!”

“Now—”

“If this immortal dies,”

“Jiuzhou will be buried with me!”

Wang Hao raised his head

and looked toward the twenty-four worlds on the verge of collapse.

The first breath of the Bronze Nail

had already passed.

He had only nine breaths left.

Yet Wang Hao smiled.

“Buried with you?”

Above his head,

the Abyssal Thunder Demon-Suppressing Tower slowly appeared.

The doors of all nine levels

shuddered at once.

“Twenty-four worlds.”

“Once they die, they’ll all become thunder.”

“Xuanming.”

“You’re using your own funeral fund

to fill My treasury.”

Second breath.

The twenty-four death worlds

began to collapse at the same time.

Stars shattered.

Laws crumbled.

The countless corpses buried within

turned into silver-black ash.

Strands of lightning

began to form within the cracks of those worlds.

It was not ordinary heavenly lightning.

Nor was it the tribulation lightning

that descended upon martial cultivators.

It was the final wail of heaven and earth

after a world had died.

World-Burial Immortal Thunder.

Any single bolt that struck Jiuzhou

would be enough to turn an entire province’s mountains and rivers into scorched earth.

Twenty-four bolts of World-Burial Immortal Thunder appeared at once.

The skies over all Great Xia

instantly became a tangled expanse of silver and black.

Countless citizens looked up.

Their faces were lit by thunder.

The pressure of death descended, blanketing heaven and earth.

Even with the grand formations of every province holding it back,

many ordinary people still bled from their ears.

The blood and qi within martial cultivators

neared complete stagnation beneath that terrifying thunderous might.

Xuanming had been pinned

at the center of twenty-four hearts

by the Nail of Destiny, forged from the lives of all beings.

He could not shift his heart.

He could not flee.

Yet he still laughed.

“Wang Hao.”

“You may kill this immortal.”

“But you cannot save Jiuzhou.”

“Twenty-four bolts of World-Burial Immortal Thunder.”

“They are enough to bury even your Imperial Dao River!”

Wang Hao looked up at the Abyssal Thunder Demon-Suppressing Tower.

“Did you hear that?”

The black tower trembled once.

It had heard.

“Can you eat them?”

The Abyssal Thunder Demon-Suppressing Tower fell silent.

Its power was to imprison lightning and wield it as weapons.

In theory,

it could absorb any lightning beneath heaven and earth.

But World-Burial Immortal Thunder

was clearly beyond the scope of ordinary heavenly lightning.

It might manage one bolt.

But swallowing all twenty-four at once—

the tower might burst apart.

Wang Hao said,

“Eat them all.”

“Xuanming gets twenty percent.”

The Abyssal Thunder Demon-Suppressing Tower did not move.

“Thirty percent.”

The tower remained still.

“Fifty percent.”

The door to the ninth level opened a narrow crack.

Wang Hao’s gaze turned cold.

“You’d best think this through.”

“If Xuanming blows up Jiuzhou,”

“then the treasury will be gone too.”

“You won’t get even one percent.”

The ninth-level door stopped moving.

The Abyssal Thunder Demon-Suppressing Tower sank into thought.

That argument

made a great deal of sense.

Wang Hao continued,

“Besides.”

“If you swallow all twenty-four bolts of World-Burial Immortal Thunder,”

“not only will your ninth level be fully replenished,”

“your own ranking may even rise.”

The gates of all nine levels of the black tower flew open at once.

It agreed.

Wang Hao nodded.

“Xuanming gets ten percent.”

The Abyssal Thunder Demon-Suppressing Tower shuddered violently.

Hadn’t it just been fifty percent?

“That was then.”

“Now you’ve already opened the door.”

“An emperor’s word is his bond!”

An enraged thought emanated from the tower.

Wang Hao remained impassive.

“What I said was—”

“We’ll discuss it after you’ve eaten.”

“I never said it had to be fifty percent.”

The Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Tower shook violently.

It nearly slammed its gate shut on the spot.

Wang Hao pressed one hand against the tower’s body.

“Get to work first.”

“We can argue over the bill later.”

The black tower grew even angrier.

Argue with whom?

You made all the laws of Great Xia!

Wang Hao did not bother explaining further.

Because the third breath—

had already arrived.

Boom!

The first Dead World completely collapsed.

A silver-black bolt of World-Burying Immortal Lightning, a million miles long,

burst from the shattered world.

It did not bend.

It did not split.

It was like a world-destroying spear piercing the universe,

driving straight toward Great Xia’s northern frontier.

The veteran general of the Northern Frontier let out a furious roar.

The Martial God Manifestation raised both hands to hold up the sky.

The Mountain-Suppressing Army Formation, formed by hundreds of thousands of soldiers,

rose at the same time.

Yet before the World-Burying Immortal Lightning,

the Martial God Manifestation was as tiny as an ant.

The old general’s hands began to split apart.

Blood streamed down his spear.

But he did not take a single step back.

“Army of the Northern Frontier!”

“Great Xia is behind us!”

“If we must die, then we’ll die within the formation!”

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers roared as one.

“Fight to the death!”

The Immortal Lightning descended with a thunderous crash.

At that very moment,

the Imperial Dao River stretched across the Nine Provinces,

linking the Northern Frontier’s army formation with the shattered Immortal Domain.

The gate to the first level of the Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Tower

turned toward the Northern Frontier.

Wang Hao’s voice rang out across Heaven and Earth.

“Draw in the lightning!”

The Imperial City.

The core of the Ministry of Works’ grand formation.

Hundreds of officials and craftsmen

simultaneously drove black iron pillars into the formation’s center.

These iron pillars

had originally been prepared as lightning-conducting pillars for the Nation-Suppressing Formation.

They had been installed throughout every province of Great Xia.

In the past, many officials had believed that

spending vast amounts of spirit stones

to construct something that might never be used

was nothing more than the Ministry of Works padding its budget.

But now,

tens of thousands of lightning-conducting pillars lit up at once,

forcibly diverting the World-Burying Immortal Lightning from the Northern Frontier

toward the Imperial Dao River.

The elderly Ministry of Works official overseeing the formation

pressed both hands firmly against the formation disk.

Stray lightning flames scorched his beard black,

yet he wore an expression of utter triumph.

“Who said I was padding the budget?”

“This is called preparing for disaster before it strikes!”

The military officer beside him shouted:

“The formation foundation is about to crack!”

“Stop talking nonsense!”

“Add more spirit stones!”

The elderly official’s face darkened.

“The treasury hasn’t allocated any more funds!”

“Front the cost!”

“Why should the Ministry of Works front it?”

“His Majesty is listening!”

The elderly official from the Ministry of Works glanced up at the heavens.

Then he silently pulled out his own storage pouch.

“Put it on the books.”

“It must be put on the books!”

The first bolt of World-Burying Immortal Lightning

followed the Imperial Dao River

and plunged into the first level of the Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Tower.

Boom!

The tower’s body suddenly swelled by another circle.

Countless cracks appeared across its surface.

The lightning gate on the first level instantly turned silver-black.

Immediately afterward,

the second Dead World collapsed.

The second bolt of World-Burying Immortal Lightning fell toward the Western Wasteland.

The third

fell toward the Eastern Sea.

The fourth

fell toward the Southern Frontier.

Twenty-four Dead Worlds

were being destroyed one after another.

Twenty-four bolts of World-Burying Immortal Lightning

were like twenty-four pillars of annihilation,

crashing down upon the Nine Provinces from the edge of the universe.

Wang Hao raised his hand.

The largest blood-colored crystal core left behind by Blood Rakshasa flew out.

A miniature sea of blood unfolded with a thunderous roar.

Without Blood Rakshasa’s will,

the sea of blood transformed into a colossal network of crimson veins

that covered the Nine Provinces.

Every scarlet river

connected to a city.

“The sea of blood shall be the veins.”

“The Imperial Dao shall be the bones.”

“The Nine Provinces Grand Formation.”

“Take the lightning for Me!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Bolts of Burial-Realm Immortal Lightning—

were forcibly scattered by the blood-red veins.

Then they converged once more within the Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda.

The pagoda’s first floor.

Its second floor.

Its third floor.

One after another, silver-black lightning flared to life.

The lightning soldiers imprisoned within the tower

were shattered again and again beneath the onslaught of the Burial-Realm Immortal Lightning,

only to be reassembled moments later.

The serpents of purple-black lightning

began to grow silver scales across their bodies.

A black vertical eye opened on the forehead of the lightning tiger.

Beneath the belly of the lightning flood dragon,

twisted, razor-sharp claws began to sprout.

The Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda was devouring the lightning.

It was also enduring the contamination of immortal and uncanny power.

If the tower spirit lost control,

it would no longer be the Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda.

Instead, it would become another heart of Xuanming.

Within Wang Hao’s body,

the source blood of Xuanming suddenly began to tremble violently.

Upon the Myriad Contracts Sharing One Origin Seal,

streaks of silver-black contract patterns began to flow backward.

Through the devoured Burial-Realm Immortal Lightning,

Xuanming was invading the Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda in reverse.

Xuanming’s true form let out a low chuckle.

“You want to use an uncanny artifact

to devour twenty-four dead realms?”

“Ridiculous.”

“Uncanny artifacts belong to the uncanny by nature.”

“The more power it consumes,

the closer it comes to becoming one with this immortal.”

“Once it completely loses control,

the first one it kills will be you!”

Within the gateway to the sixth level of the Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda,

a gigantic eye slowly opened.

On the lightning gate to the seventh level,

silver-black feathers began to grow as well.