The silver-haired youth suddenly turned around.
“Master!”
“That’s my food supply!”
Wang Hao said:
“Heal me.”
“Then I can keep finding food for you.”
The silver-haired youth thought it over carefully.
He reluctantly agreed.
Deep within the secret vault,
a spiritual pool was opened.
Inside the pool
was the essence of life Xuanming had gathered from countless worlds.
The Crone of Hundred Burial Mountain used an immortal bone as a catalyst
and added thirty-six herbs of the Eighth Realm,
refining them into a pool of silver-gold medicinal liquid.
Wang Hao didn’t enter the pool right away.
First, he looked toward the wreckage of the black ship.
Dozens upon dozens of realm scavengers
lay among the ruins.
Some had lost limbs.
Some had exhausted their life force.
And several hundred
were clinging to their last breath.
A-Li stood at the front, clutching the wood chips Uncle Shi had left behind.
Wang Hao said:
“Heal them first.”
The Crone of Hundred Burial Mountain frowned.
“This pool’s medicinal power
was prepared for you.”
“Their cultivation is too weak.”
“Use it on them,
and at least nine-tenths of its power
will go to waste.”
Wang Hao said:
“I won’t die.”
“They will.”
The Crone studied Wang Hao for a long moment.
She had thought this emperor cared for nothing but money.
He had chased them for thirty-seven million li,
refusing treatment even while gravely wounded,
all to reclaim Xuanming’s treasure vault.
But now that something capable of saving his life was right in front of him,
Wang Hao was letting others use it first.
The silver-haired youth muttered from the side:
“Don’t get the wrong idea.”
“Master just thinks
that the living can keep paying taxes.”
The look of conflicted admiration vanished from the Crone’s face.
Wang Hao glanced at the silver-haired youth.
“Spreading rumors about the emperor.”
“Fine him one Eighth Realm material.”
The silver-haired youth panicked.
“But I’m telling the truth!”
“Add another penalty.”
The silver-haired youth fell silent.
The medicinal liquid was divided into thousands of portions
and given to all the wounded.
Broken bones began to grow back.
Their depleted life force gradually returned.
The Dragon-Slayer received a portion too.
As the silver-gold liquid went down,
his sunken chest slowly rose again.
His severed meridians
began to heal.
The Dragon-Slayer opened his eyes,
feeling the vitality coursing through him.
“Good medicine.”
Wang Hao said:
“It’s already been added to your bill.”
The smile froze on the Dragon-Slayer’s face.
“How much?”
The old Ministry of Revenue official’s voice
came from the Imperial Dao River.
“Senior Dragon-Slayer,
by His Majesty’s decree,
you now owe Great Xia
one Ninth Realm material,
seven Eighth Realm materials,
eighty-two Seventh Realm materials,
and three hundred thousand high-grade spirit stones.”
“If you have no objections,
please affix your seal with your imperial soul.”
The Dragon-Slayer’s eyes widened.
“All I drank
was a single bowl of medicine!”
The old Ministry of Revenue official replied:
“The medicine itself is cheap.”
“The main charges are for borrowing the sword,
transport,
supervision,
deck repairs,
and interest accrued on the overdue balance.”
The Dragon-Slayer turned to Wang Hao.
“Why don’t you just rob people?”
Wang Hao said:
“I just did.”
“No.”
“I just finished collecting what I was owed.”
Only after all the gravely wounded had been treated
did Wang Hao enter the spiritual pool.
Silver-gold medicinal liquid
covered his battered body.
The imperial bones in his legs, shattered to powder,
began to re-form.
At the stump of his right arm,
flesh slowly grew back.
First came the bones,
then the meridians,
and finally the skin.
His left arm recovered more slowly.
Only half a bone had formed
when the medicinal power was completely exhausted.
Wang Hao rose from the pool.
Both legs had recovered.
His right arm had grown back.
His left arm was still missing.
The damage to his imperial soul
had fallen from eighty-seven percent
to fifty-one percent.
Though he had not fully recovered,
at least he was no longer on the verge of death at any moment.
The silver-haired youth hugged a pile of materials
and hurried over.
“Master.”
“My reward.”
Wang Hao took out a fragment of the Lord of Wealth’s copper coin.
From its edge,
he sliced off a small piece.
Then, from the secret treasury,
he took out a palm-sized piece of Eighth-Realm Lunar Corrosive Gold.
He handed both items to the silver-haired youth.
The silver-haired youth froze.
“You’re really giving them to me?”
Wang Hao said,
“A ruler’s word is no jest.”
The silver-haired youth accepted the two materials.
His eyes gradually lit up.
After following his master for so long,
this was the first time
he had received a complete reward
without having it all deducted as punishment.
He was somewhat moved.
“Master,
have you finally found your conscience?”
Wang Hao took out a ledger.
“The Lunar Corrosive Gold
is an advance on your military pay for the next ten years.
“The Ninth-Realm copper coin fragment
is on loan.
“After you finish devouring them,
you must serve Great Xia without pay for twenty years.”
The emotion on the silver-haired youth’s face
slowly vanished.
“I’m not eating them.”
Wang Hao said,
“You have already accepted the materials.
“The contract is in effect.”
The silver-haired youth lowered his head
and looked at the two materials in his hands.
His chest heaved violently.
The new Son of Heaven Sword on his back
gave off a dangerous hum.
Wang Hao, meanwhile, turned toward the secret treasury.
Countless treasures
were being moved onto one hundred and seven black-gold warships.
The flags of the Lifeless Merchant Alliance on the warships
were all torn down
and replaced with the Great Xia dragon banner.
The rescued World-Pickers stood upon the decks.
A-Li stood at the very front.
The last half-link of chain around her ankle
was personally cut away.
Wang Hao raised his regenerated right hand.
The River of Imperial Dao ran through the void.
Golden radiance
illuminated the entire fleet.
“Return to Great Xia.”
All one hundred and seven warships
started up at once.
They sailed mightily into the River of Imperial Dao.
Inside the Ministry of Revenue’s grand hall,
an elderly official picked up the great seal
and stamped it heavily onto the Xuanming ledger.
“The third secret treasury
has been recovered!”
“All seized assets
are to be deposited into the Great Xia treasury!”
The silver-haired youth stood at the bow,
still glaring at the materials in his hands.
He thought for a long time
before finally finding a question.
“Master,
if I serve without pay for twenty years,
then during those twenty years,
what about the cost of food?”
Wang Hao said,
“It will be deducted from the military pay of the following twenty years.”
The silver-haired youth slipped,
nearly falling off the bow.
The Dragon-Slayer lay nearby.
For the first time, he felt
that the little money he owed
did not seem all that much after all.
At least
he would not have to start repaying it in his next life.
His target
was still the treasures of the third secret treasury.
But just as his palm descended,
one hundred and seven God-Exterminating Cannons
lit up at the same time.
A-Li stood at the foremost point of the warships.
The half-section of helm left behind by Uncle Shi
was inserted into the core of the formation.
“All warships!”
“Fire!”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
One hundred and seven beams of destructive light
pierced through the heavens.
The Merchant Alliance army had only just entered the Nine Provinces
when it was struck head-on
by its own warships.
Dozens of black-gold tower ships
exploded in succession.
Even an early-stage Martial God Realm expert
was forced back by the artillery barrage.
When he saw the warships attacking him,
his face twisted with fury.
“Merchant Alliance warships!
“How dare you attack the Merchant Alliance?”
A-Li said coldly,
“They bear the Xia name now.”
The Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Tower
rose from the River of Imperial Dao.
Wang Hao raised his right hand.
“Open the eighth floor.”
Boom!
The gates of the eighth floor
opened at the same time.
Amid endless blue-white lightning,
hundreds of enormous thunder phoenixes
spread their wings and flew forth.
Every single thunder phoenix—
Each strike possessed the full power of a peak Void-Faring Realm attack.
Hundreds of thunder phoenixes formed a sea of lightning.
They plunged into the Merchant Alliance army.
Tens of thousands of martial artists
were reduced to ash within the lightning sea.
The formations on warship after warship collapsed.
They fell from the sky.
“Protect the warships!”
The old Ministry of Revenue official’s voice
rang throughout the imperial capital.
“Try not to hit the hulls!”
“Those are all Great Xia assets!”
A-Li’s eye twitched slightly.
“The God-Slaying Cannons aren’t that accurate!”
The old Ministry of Revenue official said:
“Hit the people!”
“Don’t hit the ships!”
“You can’t sail people back home!”
The Merchant Alliance army heard those words,
and every face turned grim.
In the eyes of Great Xia’s officials,
they were not even worth as much as the ships.
Boom!
A mid-stage Martial God Realm expert
tore through the sea of lightning
and charged straight at the Dragon-Slayer.
The Dragon-Slayer extended a hand.
“Sword, come!”
The silver-haired youth immediately retreated.
“There’s a fee for borrowing the sword.”
The Dragon-Slayer’s expression darkened.
“Didn’t your master waive it?”
“That was waived last time.”
“This is a new bill.”
Wang Hao said,
“Lend it to him.”
The silver-haired youth asked,
“And the reward?”
“Take one year off your debt.”
The silver-haired youth immediately transformed into the new Son of Heaven Sword
and fell into the Dragon-Slayer’s hand.
“Deal!”
The Dragon-Slayer gripped the hilt tightly
and slashed out.
“Firewood Cleaver!”
“Bone-Breaker!”
The Martial God Realm expert’s Dharma Avatar
had barely risen
when the silver sword-light sheared off half its shoulder.
Elsewhere,
the Crone of Hundred Burial Mountain
commanded several hundred thousand corpses
to surround the second Martial God.
The four battered warships of the Star-Shattering Hall
also reignited their cannons.
Everyone who had survived the Third Secret Treasury
was now fighting for Great Xia.
Heavenly Lord of the Scales gripped the Scales of All Beings with both hands.
The entire illusory heavenly city
began merging with his Martial God Dharma Avatar.
“All things have a price!”
“All living beings are merchandise!”
“Scales, suppress the world!”
A vast golden balance,
spanning all Nine Provinces,
rose behind him.
The power of the peak Ninth Realm
forced all one hundred and seven warships to sink at once.
Even the Imperial Dao River
was pressed full of countless cracks.
Heavenly Lord of the Scales looked coldly toward the Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Tower.
“The lightning of the Ancient Ferry of the Burial Realm
has indeed replenished the power within your tower.”
“But a peak Martial God
is not comparable to trash like Lord of Wealth.”
“I would like to see
whether this attack of yours can kill me.”
Wang Hao raised his right hand.
The ninth-tier tower gate
burst open.
An enormous purple dragon head
emerged from within.
Its violet eyes
reflected the entirety of the Nine Provinces.
The thunder dragon opened its maw.
Endless lightning
gathered deep within its throat.
Heavenly Lord of the Scales brought his hands together.
The Scales of All Beings stood before him.
“The Merchant Dao shall not perish!”
“Myriad treasures shall not be destroyed!”
Roar!
The purple thunder dragon surged out from the tower gate.
Its hundred-thousand-li body
stretched across the heavens.
It slammed headlong into the Scales of All Beings.
The heavens and earth of the Nine Provinces
were instantly drowned in violet lightning.
Rumble—
The Scales of All Beings shook violently.
A crack
appeared at the center of the beam.
Heavenly Lord of the Scales retreated tens of thousands of li.
With every step back,
he shattered vast swathes of space.
The robes across his chest were torn apart.
His Ninth-Realm body
was covered in blackened scorch marks.
Yet in the end, he had not died.
“He blocked it!”
Cheers erupted
among the Merchant Alliance army.
Heavenly Lord of the Scales raised his head
and looked toward the now-dim ninth-tier tower gate.
A cold smile appeared on his face.
“The Ninth-Realm thunder might has been exhausted.”
“Wang Hao,
what else do you have?”
Wang Hao did not answer.
He merely watched him calmly.
Heavenly Lord of the Scales’ pupils contracted slightly.
That expression.
He had already seen it once in the image Lord of Wealth had transmitted before his death.
He said coldly,
“Do you have a second strike?”
Wang Hao replied,
“You can guess.”
Demon-Suppressing Thunder Abyss Tower.
Deep within the ninth floor.
Another pair of violet dragon eyes
slowly opened.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
