Can You Live If You Pay

Dozens of black-gold warships.

The formations on their surfaces rapidly melted away.

A-Li immediately steered the fleet into retreat.

The silver-haired youth looked at Wang Hao.

“Master.”

“Borrowing the sword again this time?”

“Yes.”

“And the payment?”

“One year off your debt.”

The silver-haired youth frowned.

“Can’t you offer something more original?”

Wang Hao said,

“Two years off.”

The silver-haired youth instantly transformed into the New Emperor Sword.

It fell into Wang Hao’s right hand.

“Deal!”

A tiny crack still remained

on the silver blade.

Wang Hao gripped the hilt.

A vast amount of dark power

poured into his Imperial Soul.

At the same time,

a Nine-Revolution Imperial Soul Lotus

appeared before him.

The lotus had nine petals.

Each one

seemed to be condensed from pure soul essence.

The Crone of Hundred Burial Mountain’s pupils contracted slightly.

“A Nine-Revolution Imperial Soul Lotus?”

“Even Hundred Burial Mountain

has only seen such a thing in ancient records.”

“If you refine it completely,

your Imperial Soul injuries

will recover by at least half.”

The silver-haired youth’s voice

came from within the sword.

“Master.”

“Shouldn’t we save the people below first?”

Wang Hao said,

“This time, I save myself first.”

The silver-haired youth fell silent.

Even the crone was momentarily stunned.

Wang Hao calmly looked at the Marquis of Ten Thousand Furnaces.

“If I yield again,

you will all begin to think

that the life of the Emperor of Great Xia

is worth less than those slaves.”

“But if I die,

who will sever their chains for them?”

He opened his mouth and inhaled.

All nine lotus petals

simultaneously transformed into a golden torrent

and surged into his Imperial Soul.

Boom!

His shattered Imperial Soul

instantly ignited with golden flames.

His missing left arm

regrew from the shoulder.

Cracks in his Imperial Soul

rapidly healed.

[Imperial Soul damage: 77%.]

[Imperial Soul damage: 62%.]

[Imperial Soul damage: 49%.]

[Imperial Soul damage: 41%.]

[Current condition: Seriously wounded.]

Though he was still far from fully recovered,

he was vastly better off

than before.

Wang Hao raised his left hand.

His five fingers slowly curled into a fist.

That long-lost sense of power

returned to his Imperial Soul.

The Marquis of Ten Thousand Furnaces sensed that something was wrong.

The Martial God Dharma Avatar raised its enormous fist

and smashed it toward the Great Xia fleet.

“Get out of the Ten Thousand Furnaces Realm!”

Wang Hao stepped down from the Imperial Dao River.

“Heaven-Imprisoning, Earth-Overturning Palm.”

“First Palm.”

A giant golden palm

descended from the heavens

and collided with the crimson fist.

The entire Ten Thousand Furnaces Realm

sank sharply.

The Martial God Dharma Avatar’s fist

shattered inch by inch.

“Second Palm.”

Another golden hand

followed close behind.

The eight furnaces

were all slapped downward at once.

“Third Palm.”

The Marquis of Ten Thousand Furnaces crossed his arms.

A sea of fire surged upward into the sky.

But when the Third Palm descended,

the sea of flames was extinguished on the spot.

“Fourth Palm.”

The world’s marrow veins trembled.

The power of the mountains and rivers

across the entire planet

was drawn forth by this strike.

The Marquis of Ten Thousand Furnaces’ expression changed drastically.

“This is the Merchant Alliance’s world!”

“Why would the power of this world

obey your command?”

Wang Hao said,

“Because the Merchant Alliance owes it a debt.”

Boom!

The Fourth Palm

smashed apart half the Martial God Dharma Avatar’s chest.

The spectral figures of fire slaves

imprisoned within the avatar

broke free from their shackles one after another.

“Fifth Palm.”

All eight hundred and seventy thousand fire slaves

raised their heads at once.

The slave marks on their bodies

all went dark in that instant.

The rage accumulated over hundreds—

even thousands—of years

poured into the golden palm seal.

“Sixth Palm.”

One hundred and seven warships reclaimed from the Third Secret Treasury.

They lit up all at once.

The dead world-scavengers.

The shattered Shi Bo.

The countless living beings the Merchant Alliance had treated as goods.

All of them appeared within the palm print.

The Marquis of Ten Thousand Furnaces panicked completely.

“Wait!”

“This old man is willing to surrender!”

Wang Hao did not stop.

“Do you have money?”

The Marquis of Ten Thousand Furnaces froze.

“Yes!”

“Then hand it over first.”

“If I do, can I live?”

“No.”

The Marquis of Ten Thousand Furnaces’ eyes turned bloodshot.

“Then why should this old man hand it over?”

Wang Hao said,

“If you don’t hand it over,

both your money and your life will be smashed to pieces.

“If you do,

at least the money can enter Great Xia’s treasury intact.”

The Marquis of Ten Thousand Furnaces roared.

“This is too much!”

“The seventh palm.”

Wang Hao’s right hand

came crashing down completely.

A golden palm print that covered half the world

struck the Marquis of Ten Thousand Furnaces head-on.

His Martial God Dharma Form.

Eight furnaces.

His crimson body.

All exploded at once.

Just as the Marquis of Ten Thousand Furnaces’ divine soul tried to flee,

a flash of silver sword light streaked past.

The New Emperor Sword

had already pierced through his brow.

The silver-haired youth’s excited voice rang out.

“Master!”

“Do you want him alive or dead?”

Wang Hao said,

“Alive is worth more.”

The silver blade suddenly twisted.

The Marquis of Ten Thousand Furnaces’ divine soul

was forcibly nailed in midair.

The Crone of Hundred Burial Mountain

immediately directed the corpses forward.

They carefully caught the Marquis of Ten Thousand Furnaces’ shattered body.

Not a single scrap of flesh fell to the ground.

The old Ministry of Revenue official nodded in satisfaction.

“That was a good catch.”

The crone looked at him.

“Transport fee.

“Still three high-grade spirit stones?”

The old official shook his head.

“Five.”

The crone was somewhat surprised.

“It went up?”

“Two of them

are hazard-pay compensation.”

The crone drew a deep breath.

She kept reminding herself

not to attack the Ministry of Revenue.

Their cultivation was not high,

but they truly were infuriating.

With the Marquis of Ten Thousand Furnaces suppressed,

the First Branch Vault completely lost its ability to resist.

Great Xia’s soldiers

entered the Ten Thousand Furnace World.

Furnace after furnace was taken over.

Warehouse after warehouse was opened.

Mountains of ore.

Neatly arranged divine weapons.

Warships that had yet to be fully assembled.

And the lifeblood of countless beings, extracted into liquid form.

All came into view.

The hands of the Ministry of Revenue officials

had not stopped moving

since they entered the branch vault.

One item.

Ten items.

Ten thousand items.

A hundred thousand items.

The entire Ten Thousand Furnace World

was like a treasure mountain hollowed out from within.

But what truly silenced everyone

was not the treasure.

It was the densely packed white bones

beneath those furnaces.

The Merchant Alliance had operated the Ten Thousand Furnace World for three thousand years.

The eight hundred and seventy thousand furnace slaves

were merely those still alive today.

More than a billion people

had died here.

Chains still hung

from the hands and feet of many skeletons.

An elderly furnace slave

walked out from behind a furnace.

He raised his head to look at Great Xia’s dragon banner.

His voice trembled.

“Are you…”

“the new Merchant Alliance?”

Wang Hao descended to the ground.

“No.”

The old man asked,

“Then what do you want us to do?”

“Keep refining artifacts?”

“Or mine ore?”

Wang Hao said,

“Those who want to leave

may leave.”

The old man froze.

“Leave for where?”

Wang Hao did not answer immediately.

The Ten Thousand Furnace World

had long ceased to be a place where anyone could live.

The Merchant Alliance had drained its rivers dry.

Burned away its forests.

Excavated its world-marrow veins until they were empty.

Even if these people were granted freedom,

they did not know where they could go.

Wang Hao raised his hand.

Deep underground,

a dim world-marrow vein

was slowly lifted up by the Imperial Dao River.

That marrow vein

had been severed into hundreds of thousands of pieces.

Each segment was pierced

by black-gold pipes through which the Merchant Alliance extracted the world’s origin.

The old Ministry of Revenue official said quietly:

“Your Majesty.”

“If this World Marrow Vein is refined…”

“Its value would be no less than two Ninth-Realm materials.”

The old fire slave’s body trembled.

Of course, he understood what those words meant.

The last hope of the Myriad Furnace World.

And an immense fortune as well.

Wang Hao gazed at the Marrow Vein for a moment.

“Reconnect it.”

The old official did not hesitate.

“Your servant obeys the decree.”

Great Xia soldiers rushed underground.

They tore out the black-gold pipes one by one.

Then reconnected the shattered World Marrow Vein—

back into the core of the Myriad Furnace World.

Rumble—

The land, parched for three thousand years,

welled with springs for the first time.

From the dark-red heavens,

a faint rain began to fall.

The raindrops struck the scorching earth,

quickly evaporating into white mist.

Eight hundred and seventy thousand fire slaves

stood in the rain.

None of them tried to shelter from it.

Some opened their mouths.

Some stretched out their hands.

Some fell to their knees in the mud,

weeping aloud.

Since the day they were born,

they had never seen rain.

Wang Hao looked over them all.

“From this day onward,

the Myriad Furnace World

will fall under Great Xia’s protection.”

“For the first three years, taxes will be waived.”

Tears had only just begun to gather in the old fire slave’s eyes

when they suddenly stopped.

“And after three years?”

Wang Hao replied,

“Taxes will be collected according to the law.”

The old man fell silent for a moment.

Then, unexpectedly, he smiled.

“As it should be.”

“As it should be.”

“As long as people are not thrown into the furnaces,

we are willing to pay taxes.”

All eight hundred and seventy thousand fire slaves

knelt at once.

They were not kneeling to the Merchant Alliance.

Nor were they kneeling to their slave masters.

They were kneeling before a path

that would finally allow them to live.

Wisps of faint power of aspiration

rose from their bodies

and merged into the Imperial Dao River.

Then—

beneath the Myriad Furnace World,

the reconnected World Marrow Vein

let out a long, resounding roar.

The power of the entire world

flowed into Wang Hao’s Imperial Soul.

Crack!

An invisible shackle

emerged from the depths of his soul.

The Transcendence Realm

was not simply about accumulating qi and blood.

It meant breaking free, layer by layer,

from the shackles Heaven and Earth placed upon all living beings.

The first level of Transcendence—

cast off the shackles of the mortal body.

The second level of Transcendence—

break through the barriers of the soul.

Wang Hao’s once-damaged Imperial Soul,

under the impact of the aspirations of the Myriad Furnace World’s people,

rapidly solidified.

The second shackle

became covered in cracks.

Then it exploded with a thunderous roar.

Boom!

The Imperial Dao River expanded tenfold.

Golden river waters

encircled the entire Myriad Furnace World.

Wang Hao’s aura

rose from the first level of the Transcendence Realm

to the second.

His newly regenerated left arm

finally became fully solid.

The damage to his Imperial Soul

decreased once more.

【Current Realm: Second Level of the Transcendence Realm.】

【Imperial Soul Damage: 37%.】

Wang Hao slowly opened his eyes.

The entire Myriad Furnace World

was reflected in the depths of his pupils.

The silver-haired youth took human form once more

and moved close to Wang Hao.

“Master.”

“You broke through.”

“Shouldn’t we celebrate?”

Wang Hao said,

“We can.”

The silver-haired youth’s eyes lit up.

“How?”

Wang Hao pointed toward the underground level of the First Sub-Vault.

“There are still eighteen warehouses down there.”

“Empty them all.”

The anticipation on the silver-haired youth’s face

slowly faded away.

“What kind of celebration is that?”

Wang Hao replied,

“If the treasury is happy,

then I am happy.”

“If I am happy,

then the whole realm celebrates.”

The silver-haired youth thought about it.

He found that he could not refute it.

The old official from the Ministry of Revenue

took out a black-gold star map

from the core of the First Sub-Vault.

On the map,

the coordinates of the other eighteen sub-vaults

lit up at the same time.

The old official’s breathing grew hurried.

“Your Majesty.”

“The First Sub-Vault

is not merely a place for forging artifacts.”

“It is also the main transfer depot for the Wusheng Merchant Alliance’s eastern star region.”

“Through this place…”

“It leads directly to the Nineteenth Sub-Vault.”

Wang Hao turned to the star map.

“The Nineteenth Sub-Vault.”

“What is stored there?”

The old official opened the ledger.

His expression darkened, little by little.

“People.”

“All living beings captured by the Merchant Alliance across the eastern starfields…”

“Are sent there.”

“Priced.”

“Classified.”

“Auctioned.”

In Wang Hao’s eyes,

golden imperial flames slowly rose.

“Issue the decree.”

“Three hundred and forty-one warships.”

“Divide them into six forces.”

“The first eighteen sub-vaults…”

“Leave not a single one standing.”

“All Merchant Alliance assets…”

“Seize them all.”

“All Merchant Alliance slave brands…”

“Destroy every last one.”

“As for the Nineteenth Sub-Vault…”

“I will go there myself.”