Even brothers keep clear accounts.

The Imperial City.

Civil and military officials streamed out through the palace gates.

The old Ministry of Works official had both arms burned to charcoal.

He could no longer grasp the chains himself.

So he had someone tie a rope around his waist.

A military general from the Ministry of War saw this.

He frowned.

“You’re already in this condition.”

“Go back and lie down.”

The old Ministry of Works official glared at him.

“This old man still hasn’t been reimbursed for the spirit stones I put up!”

“If something happens to His Majesty—”

“Who am I supposed to collect the money from?”

The general from the Ministry of War fell silent.

That reasoning—

Was impossible to refute.

He stepped forward.

And tightened the rope around the old official’s waist.

An official from the Ministry of Revenue brought out the Great Xia Register of Immortal Calamities.

The ledger was placed atop a bronze war chariot.

Thirty-six blood-qi drake steeds were harnessed before it.

The elderly official in charge of the accounts.

Sat on the chariot in person.

He opened to Xuanming’s page.

And read aloud:

“Fifth on the Great Xia Register of Immortal Calamities!”

“Xuanming!”

“Destroying cities!”

“Wounding the army!”

“Occupying our mountains and rivers!”

“Spreading plague of the heart!”

“Damaging thirty-seven thousand, six hundred and twenty-two lightning-guiding pillars across the provinces!”

“Damaging seven hundred and fourteen Ministry of Works array discs!”

“Causing the Demon-Suppressing Tower of Thunder Abyss to fall dormant!”

“Damaging the New Emperor Sword!”

“Injuring senior the Dragon-Slayer!”

“Furthermore: insulting His Majesty, refusing to pay taxes, maliciously playing dead, and other crimes!”

“Total debt owed—”

The old official’s voice stopped.

A clerk beside him asked quietly:

“My lord.”

“How much?”

The old official glanced at the million-li burial coffin.

Then at the devastation that nearly covered all Nine Provinces.

He closed the ledger.

“It cannot be calculated.”

The clerk froze.

The Ministry of Revenue had accounts it could not calculate?

The old official said gravely:

“Then write this down.”

“Utter bankruptcy.”

“Extermination of nine generations.”

“Even the corpse after death.”

“To be confiscated into the national treasury!”

The clerk lowered his head and wrote furiously.

Within the silver-black burial coffin.

The already-dispersed Xuanming.

Seemed to sense something.

All twenty-four faces.

Twitched at once.

Within the Imperial Dao River.

Wang Hao saw the countless scenes unfolding across the Nine Provinces.

City after city.

Formation after formation.

Village after village.

Countless people.

Each using their own way.

To seize hold of the burial coffin’s chains.

Ordinary people had no blood-qi.

So they looped ropes over their shoulders.

Children were too weak.

So they followed behind their parents.

Their tiny hands.

Gripping the same rope with all their strength.

The elderly could no longer walk.

So they sat by the roadside.

Both hands pressed against the earth.

Sending their faint strength of faith.

Into the formation spanning the Nine Provinces.

They did not know how heavy the immortal aberration’s corpse was.

Nor did they know how far the shattered immortal realm lay from the Nine Provinces.

They knew only one thing.

The Emperor had asked them to lend a hand.

So they would lend a hand.

One person’s strength was small.

Ten people’s was not much greater.

But tens of millions.

Hundreds of millions.

Nearly a billion people.

When the strength of nearly a billion souls gathered through the Imperial Dao River.

The entire Nine Provinces.

Seemed to come alive in that instant.

Mountains and rivers were its bones.

Rivers and lakes were its blood.

Cities were its acupoints.

The people were its sinews and flesh.

And the Imperial Dao River.

Was the network of meridians running through them all.

For the first time, Wang Hao understood with absolute clarity.

Great Xia was not a map of territory.

Not a string of tax figures in the imperial treasury.

Nor was it the cold household-registration records spoken of by officials.

Great Xia was its people.

It was the new recruit named Zhao Ergou in the Western Wastes.

It was Zhang Shan, carrying his spear.

It was the old Ministry of Works official who would rather die than let funding go unpaid.

It was the martial gods of every province who knew they might die.

Yet still charged into the sea of lightning.

It was the old fisherman aboard a boat on the Eastern Sea.

It was the little girl riding atop a giant elephant in the southern frontier.

It was every person who spoke their own name.

Dynasties may fall.

Mortals may die.

Xuanming was right.

But precisely because time was so fleeting,

every choice they made

carried weight.

Immortals lived too long.

To them, a mortal’s hundred years

were no more than the blink of an eye.

But immortals did not understand.

Mortals used that very blink of an eye

to lift the immortals’ coffins.

Within Wang Hao’s sea of consciousness,

his Imperial Soul, which had nearly dried up,

once again revealed a thread of golden light.

It was not recovery.

Rather, nearly a billion portions of faith power

were supporting his shattered soul.

System notifications flashed endlessly.

[The faith power of countless citizens is converging!]

[The Imperial Dao River is expanding!]

[The Faith-Power Protective Divine Ability is beginning to condense once more!]

[Current condensation progress: 1%!]

[3%!]

[10%!]

The faith-power shield had only just blocked Xuanming’s peak Ninth-Realm strike.

Under normal circumstances,

it would have taken a long time to recover.

But now,

nearly a billion living beings were exerting their strength at once.

The shield was reforming

more than a hundred times faster than before.

A layer of faint golden radiance

slowly spread across Wang Hao’s shattered Imperial Bones.

His broken legs

were temporarily supported by faith power.

Wang Hao straightened once more.

The silver-haired youth looked at him.

“Master.”

“Are you going to help lift it yourself?”

Wang Hao said,

“I am the emperor.”

“Everyone else is working.”

“If I stand by and watch,”

“it would be inappropriate.”

The silver-haired youth froze for a moment.

His master actually felt it was inappropriate to watch others work?

Had the sun risen in the west?

Wang Hao added,

“It could affect my prestige.”

The silver-haired youth suddenly understood.

Of course.

This was still the same master.

Wang Hao walked to the silver-black burial coffin.

He no longer had arms.

He could not grasp the chains.

So,

he lowered his shoulder

and used the broken Imperial Bone in his right shoulder

to brace one corner of the coffin.

The silver-black laws of immortal aberration

immediately seeped into his wound.

The golden light of faith power that had only just formed

gave off a sizzling sound.

Wang Hao’s body sank slightly.

The entire burial coffin was

far heavier than he had imagined.

What lay inside it

was not merely Xuanming’s corpse.

It also contained the death he had accumulated

after devouring countless ages.

Every wisp of corpse ash

had once been a living being.

Every inch of coffin wood

buried an entire world.

If Wang Hao had borne it alone,

even at the height of his power,

he would have been crushed to pieces in an instant.

But now,

at the other end of the coffin,

there were nearly a billion people.

“Hear my command.”

Wang Hao’s voice traveled through the Imperial Dao River.

Everyone straightened their backs at once.

“Raise the coffin!”

Boom!

The Nine Provinces trembled.

The twenty-four chains suddenly drew taut.

The silver-black burial coffin slowly rose by one inch.

Only one inch.

Yet that single inch

exposed all the immortal-aberration roots

that Xuanming’s corpse had driven into the Nine Provinces.

They were enormous blood vessels, half silver and half black.

They extended from beneath the coffin,

piercing deep into the mountains and rivers of the Nine Provinces,

unceasingly draining the vitality of the land.

Even after Xuanming’s death,

his corpse still instinctively sought to devour the world.

Battle intent flashed in the silver-haired youth’s eyes.

The New Emperor Sword fell into his right hand.

“Master.”

“The roots have been exposed.”

“Shall I cut them?”

Wang Hao glanced at the silver-haired youth’s left arm, which had only regrown halfway.

“Early Eighth Realm.”

“Can you manage it?”

The silver-haired youth grinned.

“A man can’t say he can’t.”

Wang Hao said,

“You’re not a man.”

“You’re a sword.”

The silver-haired youth’s smile froze.

Wang Hao continued,

“For every root you cut,”

“you’ll be rewarded with one Seventh-Realm material.”

Silver light instantly erupted in the silver-haired youth’s eyes.

“They’re all mine!”

Boom!

With a single step, he shattered the void.

His entire body transformed into a streak of silver sword-light

and shot toward the underside of the burial coffin.

The first immortal-weird blood vessel sensed danger.

Tens of thousands of eyes opened across its surface.

Wave after wave of polluted thoughts.

All surged toward the silver-haired youth.

“Become Xuanming.”

“Become eternal.”

“Share with this immortal—”

“Share with your grandpa!”

The silver-haired youth gripped his sword with both hands.

The bones of his newly regrown left arm.

Could not withstand the power of the Eighth Realm.

They exploded with a thunderous boom.

Yet the sword’s edge did not deviate.

“My master said so!”

“One Seventh-Realm material!”

“Whoever gets in the way of my fortune—”

“I’ll cut them down!”

Whoosh!

The sword’s radiance stretched across a hundred thousand miles.

The first immortal-weird blood vessel.

Split in two from the middle.

A massive amount of silvery-black corpse blood sprayed out.

The New Emperor Sword trembled violently.

And began devouring the corpse blood on its own.

【The New Emperor Sword has devoured the remnants of Xuanming’s corpse!】

【The strange artifact ranking is beginning to stabilize!】

【Current rank: Seventy-seventh!】

【Eighth-Realm combat power is stabilizing!】

The silver-haired youth laughed heartily.

Then charged toward the second blood vessel.

“Seventh-Realm material!”

“One!”

“Two!”

“Three!”

Sword light crisscrossed beneath the burial coffin.

Every time he severed a blood vessel.

The silver-haired youth loudly counted it aloud.

Wang Hao listened.

His expression growing calmer and calmer.

When the silver-haired youth had cut through the tenth blood vessel.

He could not help asking:

“Master!”

“You aren’t planning to welch on the deal, are you?”

Wang Hao said indifferently:

“A ruler’s word is his bond.”

The silver-haired youth relaxed.

But Wang Hao added inwardly:

A ruler’s word is his bond.

But fines are still allowed.

The New Emperor Sword had just questioned the emperor’s credibility.

That constituted an offense against his superior.

A fine of ten Seventh-Realm materials.

Entirely reasonable.

As the immortal-weird roots were severed one after another.

The silver-black burial coffin grew lighter and lighter.

All living beings across the Nine Provinces dragged the chains.

Step by step, they moved forward.

The Imperial Dao River.

Meanwhile, stretched through the starry sky, forming a golden road of burial.

At the end of the road.

Beyond the shattered Immortal Domain lay the boundless void.

There was no life there.

No complete laws.

Only a true realm ruin.

As long as Xuanming’s burial coffin was sent into the realm ruin.

The contamination from the immortal-weird corpse upon the Nine Provinces.

Would be completely isolated.

But the burial coffin seemed to sense its final destination.

The twenty-four tightly shut faces.

Opened their eyes at the same time.

Boom!

A corpse might surpassing the peak of the Ninth Realm.

Burst forth from within the coffin.

The chains throughout the provinces shook violently.

Countless commoners were thrown to the ground.

The palms of countless soldiers split open.

The ropes slipped from their hands.

The silver-black burial coffin had only moved a few hundred thousand miles.

Yet it began retreating toward the Nine Provinces once more.

On the coffin lid.

The twenty-four faces of Xuanming opened their mouths.

And simultaneously spat out a breath of corpse qi.

The corpse qi condensed.

Transforming into a gigantic, mindless immortal-weird corpse shadow millions of zhang tall.

It had been reduced to instinct alone.

Return to the Nine Provinces!

Devour the mountains and rivers!

Refine all living beings!

The corpse shadow seized the Imperial Dao River with both hands.

And suddenly tore at it.

A massive crack appeared across the golden river.

Throughout the Nine Provinces.

Countless commoners vomited blood.

The pressure on Wang Hao’s shoulders.

Suddenly increased severalfold.

The imperial bones in both his legs.

Once again began to crack.

The silver-haired youth severed the seventeenth blood vessel.

Then turned to look at the corpse shadow.

“Master!”

“How many materials does this count as?”

Wang Hao replied:

“Count it as one.”

“It’s bigger than ten blood vessels combined!”

“One is one.”

The silver-haired youth snapped:

“I’m not cutting it!”

Wang Hao said calmly:

“The core of the corpse shadow.”

“Contains Xuanming’s final immortal bone.”

The silver-haired youth instantly turned around.

“Just a mere corpse shadow!”

“Watch me cut it down!”

He transformed into a streak of silver light.

And charged straight at the colossal corpse shadow.

But the difference in strength between them was simply too great.

The corpse shadow merely raised a hand and struck.

A silver streak of sword light fell from the heavens.

It crashed into the shattered star with a thunderous boom.

Half of the silver-haired youth’s body exploded.

The New Emperor Sword was embedded in the rock.

Its blade hummed without cease.

The corpse-shadow paid him no heed.

It continued dragging the burial coffin.

Xuanming was already dead.

Yet the corpse-shadow had inherited a portion of the immortal aberration’s true form power.

Even without will or consciousness,

it vastly surpassed ordinary peak Martial God realm experts.

The Demon-Suppressing Tower of Thunder Abyss had fallen silent.

Wang Hao had lost both arms.

The Nine Heaven-Cleaving Swords had been exhausted.

The shield of willpower had yet to fully form.

Who else could stop it?

At the edge of the shattered immortal domain,

beneath a collapsed section of the Grand Unity Bell,

a faint sound suddenly emerged.

Rubble rolled aside.

A withered hand

reached out from the ruins.

The Dragon-Slayer slowly opened his eyes.

His chest had caved in completely.

His breath was faint.

There was barely any life left within him.

Yet he was still alive.

Xuanming’s final strike

had nearly severed his lifespan.

Had that half-section of the Grand Unity Bell

not blocked most of the immortal aberration’s power for him,

his soul would long since have scattered into nothingness.

The Dragon-Slayer looked up.

He saw the corpse-shadow, tens of thousands of zhang tall.

Then he lowered his gaze to his empty right hand.

The hilt had shattered.

The Heaven-Deficient Sword Bone had shattered as well.

He no longer had a saber.

And he had even less strength left.

Yet Wang Hao’s voice

came through the Imperial Dao River.

“Senior.”

“Can you still cut?”

The Dragon-Slayer coughed up a mouthful of black blood.

“No saber.”

Wang Hao looked toward the New Emperor Sword embedded in the star.

“There’s a sword.”

The silver-haired youth lifted his head from the rubble.

A sudden sense of foreboding rose within him.

“Master.”

“You aren’t thinking of lending me out, are you?”

Wang Hao said,

“Just once.”

“I’ll compensate you with an eighth-realm material.”

The silver-haired youth immediately fell silent.

An eighth-realm material.

He could be lent out for that.

But the Dragon-Slayer frowned.

“This old man uses a saber.”

“A sword doesn’t sit right in my hand.”

Wang Hao said,

“Cut off one side.”

“Then it’ll be a saber.”

The silver-haired youth’s eyes widened.

“Master!”

“I can hear you!”

Wang Hao’s expression did not change.

“Just joking.”

The silver-haired youth did not believe him in the slightest.

The Dragon-Slayer braced himself against the half-section of the Grand Unity Bell

and slowly rose to his feet.

He looked at the New Emperor Sword.

A trace of complexity flashed through his eyes.

“This sword…”

“Too yin.”

“Too underhanded.”

“It doesn’t accord with this old man’s saber intent.”

The silver-haired youth was displeased.

“Who are you calling underhanded?”

The Dragon-Slayer said,

“Not you.”

The silver-haired youth’s expression eased.

The Dragon-Slayer continued,

“I mean your master.”

The silver-haired youth fell silent for a moment.

“Then it’s fine.”

Wang Hao narrowed his eyes.

“Senior.”

“The fee for borrowing the sword has doubled.”

The Dragon-Slayer’s beard twitched.

“This old man is helping you kill an enemy.”

“And I still have to pay?”

“Even brothers settle accounts clearly.”

“This old man is not your brother!”

“Which is why we need to settle accounts even more clearly.”

The Dragon-Slayer drew a deep breath.

A sharp pain immediately shot through his chest.

He could not be bothered to argue with Wang Hao any further.

If they kept arguing like this—