By What Right Bury Immortals

The crack upon which Xuanming relied to exist.

Instead, it had lost its meaning.

He could devour fear that was hidden away.

But he could not rule over fear that had been faced.

“We’re afraid of you!”

Zhao Ergou tore open his throat and roared at the sky.

“But you still have to die!”

In the next moment,

billions of voices rose like a mountain collapsing into the sea.

“Xuanming!”

“Get on your way!”

The black giant face began to peel away layer by layer amid the roars of all living beings.

Xuanming let out a shrill, agonized scream.

“This immortal refuses to believe it!”

“Just a mortal dynasty!”

“On what grounds can it bury an immortal?”

Wang Hao gave no answer.

Because the eighth sword

had finished gathering its power.

“Unity!”

The twenty-four reincarnation passages were suddenly drawn in by the sword intent.

They no longer led into the distance.

Instead, they all curved back,

driving straight into Xuanming’s true body!

The origin force Xuanming had been preparing to send away

came surging back along the path it had taken.

The first tiny Aberrant Heart

was dragged back.

The second.

The third.

The tenth.

The twenty-fourth!

All twenty-four Aberrant Hearts

crashed into that enormous heart, half silver and half black.

Xuanming’s true body instantly swelled,

like an eerie sun on the verge of exploding.

“No!”

“This immortal cannot become one!”

“If this immortal becomes one, then—”

“Then you’ll die.”

Wang Hao finished the sentence for him.

All of Xuanming’s escape routes,

all his divided souls,

all his substitute bodies,

all his reincarnation coordinates—

everything was dragged into his sole true body by the eighth sword.

The ten breaths granted by the Nail of Fixed Destiny had indeed ended.

But Wang Hao had used the Nine Swords of Creation

to nail Xuanming down once more!

Not with the bronze nail,

but with the twenty-four paths of reincarnation—

using Xuanming’s own paths

to pin Xuanming to reality!

The Emperor’s Soul began to turn transparent.

Wang Hao could no longer see the scene before him clearly.

Eight swords in succession

had nearly drained the last trace of his strength.

The cracks in his Emperor’s Bones continued to spread.

Large sections at the edge of his sea of consciousness collapsed.

He knew very well

that when the ninth sword fell,

his Emperor’s Soul might shatter along with it.

But he did not stop.

If he did not slay Xuanming today,

then it would be the billions of people in Great Xia who died.

He was the emperor.

An emperor could be shameless.

He could renege on his promises.

He could bargain with an ominous artifact.

He could even divide up the spoils

before the corpse of an immortal aberration had gone cold.

But there was only one thing he could not do:

retreat.

The silver-haired youth sensed Wang Hao’s condition.

The smile on his face gradually faded.

“Master.”

“The final sword…”

“Let me do it myself.”

Wang Hao asked,

“Can you make it move?”

“No.”

“Then shut up.”

The silver-haired youth opened his mouth,

but found that he had no way to argue.

Wang Hao’s Emperor’s Soul gripped the sword with both hands.

His nonexistent left hand

was reconstructed in a vague outline

amid the willpower of billions of living beings.

The people of the Nine Provinces witnessed this sight.

More and more of them raised their right hands,

as if, across the endless mountains and rivers,

they were gripping that sword together with their emperor.

Soldiers.

Commoners.

Officials.

Artisans.

Gods of War.

Children.

Countless hands

overlapped upon the hilt of the sword in Wang Hao’s Emperor’s Soul.

Xuanming struggled frantically.

The twenty-four Aberrant Hearts slammed wildly against the inside of his true body.

“This immortal is willing to withdraw!”

“This immortal can swear an oath!”

“This immortal will never set foot in the Nine Provinces again!”

Wang Hao slowly raised his sword.

“Too late.”

Xuanming’s voice turned shrill.

“This immortal can pay taxes!”

The sword paused for an instant.

Xuanming seemed to have seized his final wisp of hope.

“This immortal has accumulated wealth for countless ages!”

“Immortal gold!”

“Source blood!”

“Ancient realm treasures!”

“This immortal can give them all to you!”

Wang Hao asked seriously,

“How much?”

Xuanming was overjoyed.

“Although the twenty-four Dead Worlds have already been destroyed,”

“this immortal still has three secret treasuries!”

“One of them is located—”

Wang Hao’s sword came crashing down.

“Good.”

“Once I kill you,”

“they’ll all be mine anyway.”

Xuanming’s final voice

turned into a roar of despair.

“Wang Hao!”

“You’re shameless!”

The ninth sword!

“Creation!”

This sword

was still called Creation,

but it was entirely different from the fourth sword.

The fourth sword had split open a realm.

The ninth sword split open

the life and death of an immortal aberration!

The sword light rose.

It had no color.

It made no sound.

The entire shattered Immortal Domain

was split in two at that moment.

Xuanming’s swollen true body

stopped in the middle of the starry sky.

All twenty-four Aberrant Hearts

stopped beating at the same time.

A perfectly straight sword scar

ran from the top of the enormous heart

all the way to its bottom.

Xuanming’s immortal-aberrant aura

fell still.

Then,

the heart split open.

One half was silver.

The other half was black.

The New Son of Heaven Sword passed through the fissure.

The silver-haired youth spread his arms

and swallowed Xuanming’s final origin in one gulp!

[The New Son of Heaven Sword has devoured the origin of an immortal aberration!]

[The ominous artifact’s ranking is beginning to rise!]

[Current ranking: 85 → 79!]

[Current combat power: late Seventh Realm → early Eighth Realm!]

[The ominous artifact’s form is beginning to recover!]

[Warning!]

[The target’s level is too high!]

[The artifact spirit is suffering an impact from the will of an immortal aberration!]

The silver-haired youth’s body suddenly stiffened.

A face belonging to Xuanming surfaced from the hole in his chest.

“Become this immortal…”

The silver-haired youth lowered his head

and glanced at the face.

Then he raised his only remaining right hand

and punched down.

“You’ve already been eaten.”

“Why are you still talking so much?”

Bang!

Xuanming’s face exploded on the spot.

The silver-haired youth let out a satisfied belch.

The hole in his chest

slowly shrank by another inch.

In the starry sky,

Xuanming’s split-open true body

began to turn into silver-and-black ash.

The twelve pairs of broken wings

lost all their power

and fell one after another.

The twenty-four reincarnation passages

collapsed with a thunderous roar.

That immortal aberration,

which had lived through countless ages,

devoured countless worlds,

and claimed to have transcended immortals and mortals—

had finally died.

But Wang Hao did not smile.

Deep within Xuanming’s corpse,

he saw a transparent heart no larger than a fingernail.

It contained no immortal aura.

No aberrant aura.

Not even the breath of life.

After Xuanming’s death,

it quietly split open along a narrow seam.

A wisp of gray-white mist

drifted out.

The system notification

suddenly turned a glaring blood-red.

[Warning!]

[The final corpse decomposition of Xuanming has been detected!]

[Xuanming has refined his own death into a Heart Plague!]

[Targets of the Heart Plague’s spread: all living beings who have confirmed Xuanming’s existence!]

[Current number of locked targets: 974,320,000!]

The gray-white mist vanished.

At that very moment,

throughout the Nine Provinces,

an unfamiliar heartbeat

rang out from the chests of countless commoners.

Thump!

Thump!

Thump!

Across the Nine Provinces,

the hearts of nearly one billion living beings

began beating to a second rhythm at the same time.

The sound was not loud.

But its uniformity was terrifying.

It was as if Xuanming had not died at all,

but had instead divided himself into nearly a billion fragments

and hidden inside every person’s heart.

At Blood-Calming Pass in the Western Wastes,

Zhao Ergou’s body suddenly shuddered.

He looked down at his chest.

Beneath his skin,

silver-black blood vessels began to emerge one by one.

His own heartbeat

gradually weakened.

The unfamiliar heartbeat

grew stronger and stronger.

Zhang Shan grabbed Zhao Ergou by the wrist.

True Intent surged through his meridians.

But the moment it entered Zhao Ergou’s body,

it was contaminated by a silver-black force.

The veins on the back of Zhang Shan’s hand

began to change color as well.

Zhao Ergou’s face turned pale.

“Uncle Zhang.”

“Am I about to become Xuanming?”

Zhang Shan slapped him across the face.

“Bullshit!”

“You don’t have what it takes!”

The slap sent Zhao Ergou staggering,

but it also brought him back to his senses.

Rubbing the back of his head,

he asked,

“Then what’s happening to me?”

Zhang Shan gritted his teeth.

“A dead debtor is trying to welch on the bill.”

“He’s dead, but he still wants someone else to take his name.”

“Don’t let him get his way.”

The same scene

was unfolding elsewhere.

It appeared throughout every province of Great Xia.

In the cities.

In the villages.

Within military camps.

Along the streets and alleys of the imperial capital.

And within the chests of countless commoners.

Silver-black veins surfaced.

Some elderly people who were already frail

collapsed onto the ground,

vomiting black blood without end.

Newborn infants

began to cry with shrill, piercing wails.

Deep within their pupils,

a tiny sinister heart gradually appeared.

Xuanming’s final corpse liberation

was not meant to bring him back to life.

It was meant to exact revenge.

He had turned his own death

into a heart plague.

Everyone who knew Xuanming,

remembered Xuanming,

or acknowledged that Xuanming existed

would become a host of the heart plague.

The Nail of Destiny of All Beings

had nailed Xuanming into reality

through the recognition of billions.

Before Xuanming died,

he had followed that recognition

and driven his own corpse plague

into the bodies of countless people.

He intended to turn all of Great Xia

into the burial coffin that would accompany him to the grave!

Within the Star-Burying Heart Realm,

Wang Hao’s imperial soul had already returned to his body.

He stood amid Xuanming’s corpse ash,

his aura as feeble as a guttering candle in the wind.

Both his arms were gone.

His imperial bones were shattered.

The Nine Swords of Creation had nearly drained his sea of consciousness dry.

Yet he still did not fall.

He could not fall.

At least,

not now.

Because the moment he fell,

the Imperial Dao River would lose its core,

and the heart plague would instantly devour everyone who had been infected.

Wang Hao looked toward that transparent heart.

The transparent heart hung in the starry sky.

Nearly a billion faces surfaced upon its surface.

Each face corresponded to a citizen of Great Xia.

Xuanming’s lingering voice emerged from within the heart.

“Wang Hao.”

“Weren’t you trying to make all living beings remember this immortal?”

“Now,”

“they will never be able to forget me.”

“One life for mine,”

“in exchange for ten billion lives in your Great Xia.”

“Worth it.”

“More than worth it!”

His voice was filled with resentment and savage delight.

Wang Hao calmly said,

“Who told you that you were dead?”

The transparent heart trembled slightly.

Xuanming’s remnant consciousness let out a low chuckle.

“My true body has already been destroyed.”

“Within this heart plague,”

“there is only death.”

“You can’t find my soul.”

“You can’t find my will.”

“How, then, can you say that I’m not dead?”

Wang Hao looked toward the Imperial Dao River.

The reflections of the people of the Nine Provinces were gradually turning black within its waters.

The heart plague was taking root at terrifying speed.

In half an incense stick’s time at most,

everyone’s heart

would be replaced by Xuanming’s source of death.

By then,

even if Wang Hao destroyed the transparent heart,

everyone infected would die at the same time.

He could not kill it.

He could not seal it.

He could not transfer it elsewhere.

And he could not delay.

This was the most vicious trap Xuanming had left behind for Great Xia.

The silver-haired youth emerged from the New Heavenly Son Sword.

His body was far more solid than before.

The hole in his chest had already shrunk by half.

Even his severed left arm

had begun to grow a length of silver bone.

Having just devoured the origin of Xuanming’s immortal weirdness,

he had leaped from the seventh realm into the eighth.

But at this moment,

the silver-haired youth’s expression was grim.

“Master.”

“I can devour that heart.”

“But it’s connected to too many people.”

“When I devour the heart plague,”

“I’ll also devour part of their souls.”

Wang Hao asked,

“How many will die?”

“At least thirty percent.”

Nearly three hundred million people.

The silver-haired youth lowered his voice.

“If I only devour half of it,”

“I can reduce the death toll to ten percent.”

Nearly one hundred million people.

Still far too many.

Wang Hao shook his head.

“No.”

The silver-haired youth did not try to persuade him.

He knew that his master usually appeared

darker-hearted than anyone.

Confiscating property.

Imposing fines.

Collecting debts.

Skimming the shares from weird artifacts.

Whenever he set out to fleece someone,

even his own people had to cover their storage bags in advance.

But the lives of Great Xia’s common people

had never been something that could be traded on a ledger.

Xuanming’s lingering consciousness clearly understood this as well.