Even What You Find Must Be Taxed

Boom!

It was as though an entire sea of corpses

had been smashed by an invisible world.

Venerable Withered River’s Martial God avatar—

together with his physical body—

exploded at the same time.

The moment his soul escaped,

the Heaven-Imprisoning Earth-Covering Palm seized it.

It crushed the soul into countless motes of light.

A mid-stage Martial God realm expert

had been annihilated in both body and soul.

The hundreds of martial artists aboard the black giant vessel

all froze where they stood.

They looked at Wang Hao

as though they were looking at a monster.

A monster with only nine percent of his Imperial Bone remaining;

a monster who had lost both arms,

whose legs were shattered,

whose soul was in tatters,

and who was on the verge of breathing his last.

Wang Hao’s Imperial Soul swayed faintly.

He had unleashed nine palms in succession,

causing his already near-collapsing soul

to dim further.

The formation progress of the Faith-Power Shield

had also fallen

from forty-two percent

to thirty-five percent.

Yet he still stood perfectly straight.

Wang Hao looked toward the black giant vessel.

“Who else wants to buy My people?”

Thud!

An eighth-realm martial artist dropped to his knees.

Then came a second.

A third.

All several hundred martial artists of the Wusheng Merchant Alliance

knelt upon the deck.

“Spare us!”

“We were only carrying out orders!”

“Venerable Withered River’s abductions

had nothing to do with us!”

Wang Hao said,

“Nothing to do with you?”

He glanced toward the vessel’s cabins.

“Sword.”

“Open it.”

The silver-haired youth swung his sword.

More than a dozen decks of cabins

split open at once.

A thick stench of blood

rushed forth.

The cabins

were crammed with living people.

Some had lost hands.

Some had lost feet.

Some wore chains around their necks.

There were also countless children,

sealed inside transparent jars.

Their souls

were being slowly extracted,

turned into lamp oil

to power the giant vessel.

The smile vanished from the silver-haired youth’s face.

The new Son of Heaven Sword let out a piercing hum.

The faces of the several hundred Wusheng Merchant Alliance martial artists

turned deathly pale.

Wang Hao looked at them.

“You’re right. It truly had nothing to do with you.”

Just as delight began to rise in their eyes,

Wang Hao continued:

“You were merely accomplices.”

The silver-haired youth bared his teeth.

“Master.”

“How should accomplices be dealt with?”

“Kill half.”

“As for the other half—

take them back to Great Xia to work in the mines.”

“Which half?”

“You choose.”

The silver-haired youth lowered his head and looked at the people kneeling on the deck.

Everyone desperately scrambled backward.

“Don’t kill me!”

“I’m willing to work in the mines!”

“I can forge artifacts!”

“I’m a seventh-realm formation master!”

“I can find the Wusheng Merchant Alliance’s warehouses!”

“I know where Venerable Withered River hid his spirit stones!”

The sword in the silver-haired youth’s hand

stopped above the last man’s head.

He turned back toward Wang Hao.

“Master.”

“They’re all useful.”

“Then put it on the books for now.”

Wang Hao landed at the prow of the giant vessel.

Golden Imperial Dao laws

spread along its hull.

Every black boat-shaped brand

shattered at once.

The living people in the cabins

raised their heads in confusion.

An elderly woman with a head full of white hair

looked at her broken chains.

Her body trembled without cease.

She had been captured here

three hundred years ago.

Over those three hundred years,

she had watched her husband be refined into a corpse puppet.

Her son had his soul extracted.

Her daughter had been sold into an unknown ancient realm.

She had thought

that she too would die aboard this vessel.

Yet today,

Venerable Withered River was dead.

The iron chain that had bound her for three hundred years

had broken.

The old woman fell to her knees.

Her lips moved,

but no sound came out.

Wang Hao looked at everyone.

“I am the Emperor of Great Xia.”

“You are free.”

The cabins fell silent for an instant.

Then, sobbing erupted.

Some fell to their knees.

Some burst into laughter.

Some rushed to the edge of the deck

and hurled frenzied curses

at the place where Venerable Withered River had been scattered into nothingness.

Others found the corpse puppets that had been hauling the vessel.

His own family’s corpses.

He clutched a head that had long since gone cold.

For a long time, he could not bring himself to let go.

A tiny girl crawled out of a shattered jar.

She looked about seven or eight.

She had only one eye.

In the other socket,

a bronze nail had been driven in.

The girl looked at Wang Hao.

She asked in a small voice:

“Where are you taking us to sell us?”

Wang Hao replied:

“I’m not selling you.”

The girl clearly didn’t believe him.

“Then why did you save us?”

“We’re short-handed.”

“Short-handed for what?”

“For people.”

The girl froze.

She had never heard

of anyone treating ordinary people as something they needed.

In the Shattered Immortal Domain,

the weak were nothing but merchandise.

Wang Hao pointed to the Wu Sheng Merchant Alliance warriors kneeling on the deck.

“These people

will pull the ship from now on.

You’ll ride aboard.”

The girl glanced at the Merchant Alliance warriors who had once lorded over everyone,

then back at Wang Hao.

Her one remaining eye

slowly lit up.

“Really?”

“A ruler’s word is his bond.”

Beside him, the silver-haired youth muttered:

“A ruler’s word is his bond.

But he’ll still charge you a fine.”

Wang Hao shot him a look.

The silver-haired youth immediately fell silent.

The girl climbed out of the jar.

Half a shackle still dangled from her ankle.

“My name is A-Li.

I know what you’re looking for.”

Wang Hao’s eyes shifted.

“The Xuanming Treasure Vault?”

A-Li nodded.

She reached out

and pointed deeper into the Sea of Corpses.

“That door is always moving.

Old Ghost Kuhe has been chasing it for thirty years.

But every time he gets close,

it moves somewhere else.”

The silver-haired youth frowned.

“A door can move on its own?”

A-Li said earnestly:

“It’s not the door that’s moving.

It’s what’s carrying the door.”

The next moment,

the entire Sea of Corpses

shook violently.

In the distant darkness,

an arm larger than a mountain range

slowly rose.

Countless shattered stars

were wrapped around it.

Its palm pressed against the void,

supporting an ancient corpse with no visible end.

It had no head.

No features.

Yet twenty-four withered hearts grew from its back.

A colossal bronze gate

was embedded at the center of those twenty-four hearts.

Beyond the gate,

it seemed to bear an entire world.

The headless corpse strode forward.

Each step carried it a million miles across the stars.

A-Li pointed at the ancient corpse.

“That’s it.

The World-Bearer.

Xuanming hid the treasure vault

on its back.”

Wang Hao watched the headless corpse recede into the distance.

He fell silent for a moment.

Then he turned to the silver-haired youth.

“See?

I told you from the start.

The treasure vault would grow legs.”

The silver-haired youth opened his mouth,

and for the first time realized

that his master’s absurd logic

could actually turn out to be true.

Wang Hao raised his right arm

and pointed at the World-Bearer.

“Set sail.

Give chase.”

One of the Wu Sheng Merchant Alliance warriors, who had just surrendered,

asked cautiously:

“Your Majesty,

who’s going to pull the ship?”

Wang Hao gave him a look.

“Who do you think?”

A moment later,

hundreds of Merchant Alliance warriors

were chained to the front of the great ship.

The once-arrogant Eighth-Realm experts

now bore the chains on their shoulders,

their faces twisted with humiliation.

The silver-haired youth stood at the bow,

a bamboo pole in his hands.

He swept it forward with all his might.

“Move!

Go after those state-owned assets!”

The black ship roared to life,

charging into the depths of the starry void.

The headless corpse

strode through the Shattered Immortal Domain.

Every step it took

crushed vast stretches of the void.

The black ship followed behind,

its hull shuddering nonstop.

Hundreds of Wu Sheng Merchant Alliance warriors

strained against the chains,

pulling with all their might.

Earlier.

They drove corpse puppets and slaves to haul the ship.

He had never imagined it.

That one day,

he himself would end up like this.

The silver-haired youth stood at the prow,

constantly urging them on.

“Faster!”

“Is this all the strength you eighth-realm peak cultivators have?”

“The old men at the third realm aboard this ship

were pulling faster than you just now!”

An eighth-realm martial artist gritted his teeth.

“There’s nowhere to brace ourselves in the void.”

“How are we supposed to exert any force?”

The silver-haired youth drove his sword through the man’s shoulder.

Then he nailed the sword into a spatial rift.

“Now there is.”

The eighth-realm martial artist stared at the sword piercing his shoulder.

Pain drained his face of color,

but he did not dare say another word.

Wang Hao sat at the bow.

More precisely,

he was being held aloft by the golden light of faith.

His physical body could no longer even sit upright.

Only his imperial soul still maintained a cross-legged posture.

The Dragon-Slayer lay beside him.

As the enormous vessel lurched,

his body bounced up from time to time.

At last,

after the back of his head struck the deck for the eighty-seventh time,

the Dragon-Slayer slowly opened his eyes.

He looked at the unfamiliar giant ship,

then at the hundreds of people hauling it ahead.

“I’m not dead?”

“Not yet,” Wang Hao said.

The Dragon-Slayer closed his eyes.

“Then let this old man sleep a little longer.”

“Don’t sleep.”

“We have accounts to settle.”

The Dragon-Slayer opened his eyes again.

“What accounts?”

“The fee for borrowing my sword.”

“Medical expenses.”

“Transportation costs.”

“The cost of looking after you while you were unconscious.”

“And the repair fees for the deck you damaged.”

The Dragon-Slayer sat up.

“The back of this old man’s head is practically shattered.”

“And you’re charging me for repairing the deck?”

Wang Hao said,

“The deck didn’t hit you on its own.”

“Whoever made the move

is responsible.”

The Dragon-Slayer’s chest heaved violently.

The bit of awareness he had only just recovered

was nearly scattered again by anger.

The silver-haired youth walked over

and said earnestly,

“Old man,

I can testify.

“You were the one who hit the deck.”

The Dragon-Slayer looked at him.

“Who dragged this old man here?”

The silver-haired youth immediately turned away.

“The World-Bearer is about to get away.”

“I’m going to check the route.”

The Dragon-Slayer sneered.

Just as he was about to rise,

a sharp pain suddenly shot through his chest.

He collapsed again.

Wang Hao said,

“Don’t move around.”

“You’ll worsen your injuries.”

“And the medical fees will go up too.”

“Get lost.”

“Insulting the emperor.”

“Another fine added to your bill.”

The Dragon-Slayer’s vision went black.

This time,

he truly wanted to faint.

The enormous ship gave chase all the way.

The distance of thirty million li

rapidly shrank.

The headless World-Bearer drew ever closer.

Its body

was larger than an entire continent.

Countless black chains

pierced through its flesh,

pinning a bronze gate to its back.

Upon the bronze gate,

the images of twenty-four hearts

pulsed slowly.

Thump!

With every heartbeat,

the stellar wreckage of the shattered Immortal Domain

trembled faintly.

A-Li stood by the rail,

looking up at the World-Bearer.

“It’s heading for the Sun-Burial Abyss.”

Wang Hao asked,

“What kind of place is that?”

A-Li pointed northwest.

There,

amid crimson-black darkness,

an ancient star ten thousand times larger than the sun

was slowly falling.

Beneath that ancient star

lay a bottomless abyss without end.

Boundless flames

surged upward from its depths.

Every wisp of fire

could burn space itself.

“The Sun-Burial Abyss devours stars.”

“Every three hundred years,

the World-Bearer enters it once.”

“When it emerges again,

it may be hundreds of millions of li away.”

A-Li said softly,

“If it goes in,

we won’t be able to catch up.”

Wang Hao said:

“How much longer?”

“At most, three shichen.”

The silver-haired youth glanced ahead.

“We’ll make it in time.”

But A-Li shook her head.

“Someone got there before us.”

Ahead of the World-Bearer—

countless lights suddenly flared to life.

Warships appeared,

emerging from the void.

On the far left

were nine Stellar Battleships.

Embedded in the hull of each ship

was a fragment of an ancient star.

On the banners at their prows

were two bold characters:

Starbreak.

To the right

stretched a sea of white-bone clouds.

Hundreds of thousands of coffins

floated amid the cloud sea.

Inside every coffin

lay a corpse emanating a formidable aura.

At the center of the white-bone cloud sea,

an old crone sat cross-legged.

The coffin beneath her

was fashioned from the bones of a Martial God.

Hundred Burial Mountain.

Directly before the bronze gate,

a golden tower ship lay anchored.

The ship had nine decks.

From each deck

hung countless lanterns filled with souls.

A black banner

unfurled into the turbulent void currents.

The Lifeless Merchant Alliance.

At the prow of the golden tower ship,

a plump middle-aged man

was directing his people as they bombarded the bronze gate.

He wore a golden robe.

All ten fingers

were covered in spatial rings.

Eighteen more storage pouches

hung from his waist.

Even his teeth

were inlaid with eighth-realm spirit gold.

A-Li’s face turned pale.

“Lu Qianjin of the Lifeless Merchant Alliance.”

“He is the Seventh Merchant Lord.”

“An early-stage Martial God.”

“His status is higher than Old Ghost Kuhe’s.”