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

“Yes.”

Wang Hao answered without the slightest hesitation.

The silver-haired youth’s eyes lit up.

“The imperial treasury will pay?”

“Xuanming will.”

The silver-haired youth fell silent for a moment.

He knew it.

The compensation his master spoke of was never paid out of his master’s own pocket.

Still, it didn’t matter.

As long as the payment came through,

it made no difference who paid it.

The silver-haired youth raised his only remaining right hand.

His five fingers closed around his own blade.

Then, with a fierce pull—

Clang!

A streak of silver sword light shot skyward from within Wang Hao’s body.

The new Son of Heaven Sword fully manifested.

Its blade was covered in cracks.

Half its edge was missing entirely.

Yet the moment the silver-haired youth gripped its hilt,

the entire river of Imperial Dao resounded with sword cries.

Not one cry.

But hundreds of millions.

Across the Nine Provinces,

whether in official armories

or martial sects of the jianghu;

whether famed swords and divine weapons

or rusty iron swords hanging on farmers’ walls, used for chopping firewood—

all trembled at the same instant.

Blood-Guard Pass, in the Western Wastelands.

The sword at Zhao Ergou’s waist suddenly slid half an inch from its sheath.

Startled, he hastily pressed down on the hilt.

“Uncle Zhang!”

“Has my sword become possessed?”

Zhang Shan glanced at the heavens.

Then lowered his eyes to his own spear.

Its shaft, too, was trembling faintly.

He said in a deep voice,

“It hasn’t become possessed.”

“His Majesty is about to draw his sword.”

Zhao Ergou looked bewildered.

“But doesn’t His Majesty have no hands left?”

Zhang Shan fell silent.

That question

was difficult to answer.

Because Wang Hao in the heavenly projection

truly had no hands left.

His left shoulder was empty.

His right arm had been severed at the root.

Xuanming’s immortal aberrant power had pierced through his chest.

Cracks covered his imperial bones.

Let alone wielding a sword—

even remaining upright

seemed to require him to force himself onward with his very last breath.

But in the next moment,

all citizens of Great Xia saw

a golden figure step out from Wang Hao’s body.

It was Wang Hao’s Imperial Soul.

The Imperial Soul was just as battered.

One arm was gone.

Half its body was nearly transparent.

Yet in its remaining right hand,

it held the new Son of Heaven Sword manifested from the silver-haired youth.

Wang Hao in the mortal world had no hands.

But his Imperial Soul still had one.

That was enough.

Xuanming’s true body began to fade.

Twenty-four reincarnation passages

had already linked the Heart Realm to the starry void.

At the end of every passage,

a blurred heart appeared.

So long as any one of those hearts began beating again,

Xuanming would escape with his life.

The bronze Nail of Fixed Fate had already been pulled out more than halfway.

Xuanming’s laughter grew increasingly frenzied.

“Too late!”

“Ten breaths have already passed!”

“This Immortal’s true body has returned to the state of indeterminacy!”

“Even if you shatter this heart,

you can only destroy one of this Immortal’s old vessels!”

Wang Hao’s Imperial Soul gripped the new Son of Heaven Sword.

The sword point hung downward.

He did not strike at once.

Seeing this, Xuanming instead felt a thread of unease rise within him.

Having fought Wang Hao for so long,

he knew all too well what kind of man the Emperor of Great Xia was.

The more hurried Wang Hao seemed,

the easier the matter was to resolve.

The calmer Wang Hao was,

the more certain it was that someone was about to suffer.

Usually,

that someone was his enemy.

Xuanming shouted sharply,

“What are you waiting for?”

Wang Hao glanced at the twenty-four reincarnation passages.

“For you to open all the doors.”

Xuanming’s heart sank.

Wang Hao raised his sword.

“You hid behind the doors.”

“I would have had to smash them down one by one.”

“But now, you’ve opened all twenty-four doors yourself.”

“You’ve saved Me quite a bit of effort.”

Xuanming’s twenty-four tiny aberrant hearts trembled at once.

“Arrogant!”

The reincarnation passages shook violently.

Xuanming’s origin essence began transferring outward.

But at the instant the first wisp of that essence entered a passage,

Wang Hao struck.

He swung no arm.

No strength came from his physical body.

This strike—

was unleashed entirely by the Emperor’s soul.

“The Nine Heaven-Opening Swords.”

“First sword.”

“Dust Severing!”

Swish!

The sword-light was incredibly fine.

Fine as a single strand of hair.

It did not slash toward Xuanming’s true body.

Instead, it swept across the first reincarnation passage.

The silver-black passage.

It split cleanly in two.

At the end of the passage,

the strange heart that had just condensed exploded.

Xuanming let out a muffled groan.

“You can sever one.”

“But can you sever all twenty-four at once?”

Wang Hao did not answer.

The second sword had already fallen.

“Soul Severing!”

This sword did not cut through the reincarnation passage itself.

It cut through the immortal-aberrant will Xuanming had entrusted to the passage.

Twenty-four illusory figures

fell out of the passages at the same time.

They were the twenty-four divided souls Xuanming had prepared for himself.

The moment they appeared,

they were swept away by the Imperial Dao River.

Countless faces of living beings

were reflected in the river’s waters.

“Xuanming!”

“The Fifth Immortal Calamity!”

“You owe us and refuse to pay!”

Billions upon billions of voices converged,

like billions upon billions of invisible hammers,

smashing viciously into the twenty-four divided souls.

The divided souls all clapped their hands over their ears.

“Shut up!”

“You mortals!”

“This immortal owes you nothing!”

In the Ministry of Revenue of the imperial capital,

an elderly official who had been calculating Xuanming’s debts

looked up at the sky.

Then he lowered his head

and forcefully added another entry to the ledger.

“Insulting creditors.”

“Bad attitude.”

“Fine: three million taels of silver.”

The minor clerk beside him cautiously reminded him,

“My lord.”

“That provision isn’t listed in the Immortal Calamity Register.”

The old official did not so much as blink.

“It is now.”

“Write it down.”

The clerk did not dare argue.

He hurriedly picked up his brush.

Xuanming had no idea

that just as he was preparing to reincarnate and flee for his life,

he had incurred another three million taels of debt.

Of course,

he would soon have no need to know.

Wang Hao’s third sword descended.

“Realm Severing!”

The sword-edge pierced through the Imperial Dao River.

In an instant, it split into twenty-four sword-shadows.

The New Son of Heaven Sword possessed only seventh-realm battle power.

Under normal circumstances,

forget severing Xuanming’s reincarnation passages—

it would be crushed to pieces by the immortal-aberrant origin

the moment it drew near.

But now,

the New Son of Heaven Sword was not the one wielding the blade.

It was merely a sword.

The one truly swinging it

was Wang Hao’s Emperor’s soul.

The force truly driving the sword-edge

was Great Xia’s national fortune.

The one truly locking onto Xuanming

was the recognition of billions upon billions of living beings!

The twenty-four sword-shadows

struck the reincarnation passages simultaneously.

Crack!

The second passage snapped apart.

The third passage twisted.

The fourth passage collapsed halfway.

The remaining passages shook violently,

but did not completely shatter.

Seeing this,

Xuanming immediately burst into laughter.

“Your sword isn’t sharp enough!”

“The national fortune of mortals

cannot sever this immortal’s road home!”

The figure of the silver-haired youth emerged on the sword’s surface.

A trace of indignation flashed across his pale face.

“Master.”

“He says I’m dull.”

Wang Hao replied coolly,

“Put it on the ledger.”

The silver-haired youth licked his lips.

“How should I record it?”

“Insulting a Great Xia national artifact.”

“Compensation according to rank.”

The silver-haired youth’s eyes grew brighter and brighter.

“If I eat him,

how much will my rank increase?”

“That depends on your appetite.”

“Then can I take a bite first?”

“The swords aren’t finished yet.”

“Be patient.”

Wang Hao raised his sword once more.

Xuanming felt utterly humiliated.

At the moment of life and death,

this master and servant were actually discussing how to divide up his corpse!

But he had no time to grow angry.

The fourth sword

had already been unleashed.

“Heaven-Splitting!”

Boom!

The Imperial Dao River split apart down the middle.

A streak of sword light.

Pierced through the Burial Star Heart-Realm.

This strike—

no longer severed passageways.

Instead, it slashed toward Xuanming’s split-open heart.

Xuanming did not dodge.

He even deliberately opened up his true form,

allowing the sword light to pierce the fissure in his heart.

“Useless!”

“This Immortal’s origin has already begun to transfer!”

“The harder you strike,

the faster I’ll leave!”

The sword light entered the crack,

yet did not continue deeper.

It struck with perfect precision at the segment of purple dragon bone embedded in Xuanming’s heart.

It was the final thunder-bone left behind

after the Burial-Realm Purple-Thunder Dragon had exhausted all its strength.

Xuanming’s pupils abruptly contracted.

Not good!

Wang Hao had never intended to use this strike to wound him.

He meant to drive the power left behind by the thunder dragon

completely into Xuanming’s origin!

“Explode.”

Wang Hao spoke only a single word.

Crack!

The purple dragon bone shattered in response.

The Burial-Realm immortal lightning stored within it

surged wholly into Xuanming’s heart.

Boom!

Within Xuanming’s half-silver, half-black heart,

it was as though a sea of lightning had exploded.

Twenty-four tiny sinister hearts

were wrapped in purple arcs of electricity at the same time.

The transfer of his origin, which had only just resumed,

stalled once again for an instant.

Only an instant.

But for Wang Hao,

it was enough.

The fifth sword!

“Overturn the Seas!”

The imperial river of destiny surged backward.

The collective will of the people of the Nine Provinces

poured forth along the sword’s edge.

Xuanming seemed to see

the entire realm of Great Xia bearing down upon him.

The snow of the northern frontier.

The blood of the western wastes.

The tides of the eastern sea.

The mountains of the southern frontier.

The cities of the central plains.

The lights of the imperial capital.

All became the weight of this single sword strike!

Bang!

The remaining twenty-one reincarnation passages

were bent out of shape at once.

The sinister hearts at the far ends of those passages

could no longer take form.

For the first time, despair arose in Xuanming’s heart.

“A mortal kingdom—

how can it possess such power?”

Wang Hao answered calmly,

“Because they pay taxes.”

Xuanming froze.

Wang Hao continued to swing his sword.

“If you collect taxes,

you have to do your job.”

“You don’t even understand something that simple,

and you still want to rule Great Xia in my stead?”

The sixth sword!

“Suppress the Immortal!”

The sword light fell.

The silver immortal phantom had only just re-formed upon Xuanming’s heart

when the blade pierced straight through its brow.

The phantom seized the sword blade with both hands.

For the first time,

its holy countenance twisted in agony.

“This Immortal has transcended all!”

“No one in this world can judge this Immortal!”

Wang Hao’s imperial soul stepped forward.

“Within Great Xia,

I am this world.”

The sword pressed down.

Starting from its brow,

the silver phantom split apart inch by inch.

Immortal blood cascaded like a waterfall,

spilling across the shattered starry sky.

The silver-haired youth opened his mouth

and inhaled deeply.

Great quantities of immortal blood were swallowed by the new Son of Heaven Sword.

The cracks along the blade

began slowly to mend.

A faint flush of blood also appeared

within the silver-haired youth’s translucent body.

His eyes shone brighter and brighter.

“Delicious!”

“Master!”

“This tastes better than the sinister ones from before!”

Xuanming roared,

“You dare devour this Immortal?!”

The silver-haired youth looked up,

his face full of confusion.

“You’re about to die anyway.”

“Wouldn’t it be a waste to leave it behind?”

As soon as he finished speaking,

he took another great breath.

Xuanming’s silver immortal phantom completely shattered.

The aura of the new Son of Heaven Sword suddenly soared.

Early Seventh Realm.

Middle Seventh Realm.

Late Seventh Realm!

The numbers on the ranking of sinister artifacts

began to flicker violently.

Eighty-nine.

Eighty-eight.

Eighty-seven!

Only when its ranking rose to eighty-five

did it temporarily stop.

But Xuanming was not dead yet.

Black sinister energy

came gushing wildly from the other side of his heart.

A giant faceless visage

loomed over Wang Hao’s imperial soul.

“Immortals may be slain.”

“Wraiths cannot be slain!”

“Ignorant.”

“Formless.”

“Nameless.”

“Without visage!”

“So long as fear remains in the hearts of all living beings…”

“This Immortal shall never perish!”

The seventh sword descended.

“Slay the wraith!”

There was no earth-shattering flash of sword light.

Only a soft sound.

As though someone, in the darkness,

had struck a match.

Within the River of Imperial Dao,

countless millions of beings raised their heads at once.

Of course, fear dwelled in their hearts.

Faced with an immortal wraith,

who could remain unafraid?

Zhao Ergou was afraid.

Zhang Shan was afraid.

The elderly Ministry of Works official, his arms scorched black, feared death.

The Martial Gods falling from the sea of lightning feared they would fail to hold the city.

The children in the imperial capital

trembled in their mothers’ arms.

But fear did not mean surrender.

Mortals fear death,

yet they can still die standing.

Common folk fear immortals,

yet they can still raise their heads.

When countless millions of fears were acknowledged—