After the Myriad Furnace Realm.
The Great Xia fleet
entered the myriad heavens
for the first time.
Three hundred and forty-one black-gold warships
were divided into six fleets.
Following the trade routes
of the Lifeless Merchant Alliance,
they struck at eighteen branch depots at once.
The first fleet
was commanded by A-Li.
She had not reached the Martial God Realm.
She had not even stepped into the Sky-Imperial Realm.
But she had once followed Uncle Shi,
sailing between countless shattered worlds.
The undercurrents of the starry void,
spatial rifts,
and worldstorms—
to her,
they were no different from waves upon the sea.
Fifty-seven warships
were arranged into a black-gold spearhead.
They crossed twelve spatial rifts in succession
and crashed straight into the heart of the Second Branch Depot.
The depot’s chief steward
had only just activated the realm-guarding formation
when fifty-seven Godslayer cannons
struck every formation node with perfect accuracy.
Not a single shot hit the warehouses.
Not a single shot damaged the warship foundries.
Only the Merchant Alliance’s guards
were blasted until not even bones remained.
An old official from the Ministry of Revenue
stood within the River of Imperial Dao,
watching the images being transmitted back.
He nodded in satisfaction.
“This girl
belongs in the Ministry of Revenue.”
An official beside him asked,
“Does she know how to keep accounts?”
The old official replied,
“If she doesn’t, she can learn.
“The fact that she knows not to break valuable things
already makes her better than many others.”
The second fleet
was commanded by the Crone of Hundred Burial Mountain.
She led several hundred thousand corpses
into the Third Branch Depot.
The Merchant Alliance guards
had only just formed their battle lines
when countless skeletal hands
burst from the ground.
Mine slaves dead for countless years
crawled out of the earth one after another.
In life,
the Merchant Alliance had refined them
into part of the mineral veins.
Even in death,
they had been unable to leave.
Using the secret arts of Hundred Burial Mountain,
the Crone awakened the remnants of their obsessions.
In a single night,
the Third Branch Depot changed hands.
Every guard’s corpse
was arranged in neat rows.
Even their storage rings
were removed and boxed separately.
The Crone stood amid the bodies,
watching the Ministry of Revenue officials take inventory.
“This time, there are thirteen hundred thousand corpses in total.
“Three hundred and twenty are at the Seventh Realm.
“Nine are at the Eighth Realm.
“How are the transport fees calculated?”
The official from the Ministry of Revenue took out an abacus.
“Ordinary corpses are valued at one low-grade spirit stone each.
“Seventh-Realm corpses, three each.
“Eighth-Realm corpses, five each.”
The Crone frowned.
“A Martial God’s corpse is worth only five?”
The official said,
“The bodies are severely damaged.
“Two of them are even missing their heads.”
The Crone replied,
“I was the one who smashed their heads off.”
The official nodded.
“That is precisely why depreciation must be deducted.”
The Crone tightened her grip on her bone staff.
For the first time,
she felt that fighting Martial Gods
was easier.
The third fleet
was commanded by the Dragon-Slayer.
His targets were the Fourth and Fifth Branch Depots.
Along the way,
the Dragon-Slayer asked only one question.
“How much debt
does killing a Martial God pay off?”
The Ministry of Revenue’s answer was:
For an early-stage Martial God,
depending on the condition of the corpse,
it could offset the value of five Seventh-Realm materials.
A mid-stage Martial God
could offset the value of one Eighth-Realm material.
Capture alive,
and the price doubled.
The Dragon-Slayer drew his sword at once.
“None of you had better compete with this old man.”
The chief steward of the Fourth Branch Depot
was an early-stage Martial God.
The moment he saw the Dragon-Slayer charging toward him,
he turned and fled.
The Dragon-Slayer pursued him for three hundred thousand li,
broke all four of his limbs,
and dragged him back to the warship.
The chief steward of the Fifth Branch Depot,
seeing that the situation had turned against him,
surrendered of his own accord.
The Dragon-Slayer fell silent for a long while.
At last, he looked toward the Ministry of Revenue official.
“If he surrendered voluntarily,
does that count as this old man capturing him alive?”
The official shook his head.
“No.”
“Then why did he surrender?”
“Perhaps he was afraid of dying.”
The Dragon-Slayer smacked the man on the back of the head with the flat of his sword,
knocking him unconscious,
then dragged him back outside the battlefield.
“Now it counts as having been seized by this old man.”
The Board of Revenue officials hesitated for a moment.
“It can be counted.”
Only then was the Dragon-Slayer satisfied.
The fourth fleet.
Was commanded by the silver-haired youth.
Wang Hao had initially refused.
The silver-haired youth immediately promised:
“I absolutely won’t sneak a bite.”
“I won’t damage anything.”
“I won’t keep anything for myself.”
So,
Wang Hao assigned thirty Board of Revenue officials
to follow behind him.
The silver-haired youth led the fleet in storming the Sixth Sub-Treasury.
The moment he saw a seventh-realm cursed artifact,
he took only one bite.
Before he could swallow it,
all thirty Board of Revenue officials
simultaneously produced their ledgers.
“Damage to state treasury assets.”
“Fine: one seventh-realm material.”
The silver-haired youth still had the artifact clenched between his teeth.
“This thing can repair my sword!”
A Board of Revenue official replied,
“You may submit an application.”
“How long is the process?”
“Three months.”
“My sword is already cracked!”
“You may apply for expedited processing.”
“How long does that take?”
“Two months and twenty-nine days.”
The silver-haired youth swallowed the artifact in one gulp.
“Then I’d rather pay the fine.”
The seventh-realm cursed artifact entered his stomach.
The cracks across the surface of the new Son of Heaven Sword
finally began to mend, little by little.
Just as the silver-haired youth broke into a smile,
the Board of Revenue officials spoke again.
“Additionally, there is an artifact-refining tax.”
“An income tax on repair gains.”
“And a fine for using state-owned materials without declaration.”
The silver-haired youth’s smile froze.
“You’re harsher than my master.”
The Board of Revenue officials replied,
“His Majesty taught us well.”
The silver-haired youth had no answer.
The fifth fleet
was led by Zhao Ergou and the Northern Frontier soldiers.
They had no high-level Martial Gods among them,
yet they were
the most willing to risk their lives
of all six fleets.
The Seventh Sub-Treasury
was a mine that stretched across the galaxy.
Hundreds of millions of mining slaves
were trapped inside the stars.
The Merchant Alliance’s defenders hid deep within the mineral veins,
using the miners’ lives as shields.
Zhao Ergou did not order a bombardment.
He led thirty thousand Northern Frontier soldiers
and dug for three full days.
From the other side of the starfield,
they forcibly carved out a passage.
When the Northern Frontier soldiers burst through the mine wall,
every one of them
was covered in black mineral dust.
Zhao Ergou cleaved the prison doors apart with a single slash.
He said only one thing:
“Don’t be afraid.”
“Great Xia has come to collect its debts.”
The sixth fleet
was jointly commanded by experts from the Star-Rending Hall and Hundred-Burial Mountain.
They successively captured the Eighth through Eighteenth Sub-Treasuries.
In seven days,
all eighteen sub-treasuries
changed hands.
One hundred and twenty thousand small merchant ships,
nine hundred and thirty-seven mineral veins,
three hundred and twenty medicinal gardens,
one thousand eight hundred artifact-forging workshops,
as well as immeasurable quantities of spirit stones and materials,
were continuously transported into the Imperial Dao River.
For the first time,
Great Xia’s treasury
showed signs of being unable to hold everything.
The Board of Revenue had no choice but to hastily establish
thirty-seven starfield warehouses.
The silver-haired youth stood outside one of the warehouse gates,
staring at the mountains of materials.
Drool nearly spilled from his mouth.
“Master.”
“With so much stuff here,”
“can’t you let me eat just a little?”
Wang Hao said,
“You can.”
The silver-haired youth’s eyes lit up.
“Really?”
Wang Hao took out a low-grade spirit stone.
“This month’s rations.”
The silver-haired youth stared at the spirit stone.
His voice trembled.
“I captured three sub-treasuries.”
“And I swallowed a seventh-realm cursed artifact to repair my sword.”
“And you’re giving me one low-grade spirit stone?”
Wang Hao said,
“The seventh-realm cursed artifact”
“already counts as an advance.”
The silver-haired youth fell into despair.
“My future...”
“how many more years are left?”
The elderly Board of Revenue official lowered his head and flipped through the ledger.
“If there are no additional fines,”
“fifty-seven years remain.”
The silver-haired youth froze.
“Wasn’t it only forty-odd years before?”
“The refinement tax on cursed artifacts accrues interest.”
The silver-haired youth turned around.
He looked toward Heavenly Lord of the Scales, who was screaming inside the Demon-Suppressing Tower of Thunder Abyss.
At that moment,
he suddenly understood Heavenly Lord of the Scales a little better.
The Nineteenth Branch Vault.
It lay at the heart of a deathly silent sea of stars.
There were no worlds.
No great stars.
Only an unimaginably vast platform of black gold.
The platform spanned a million li in diameter.
Three thousand black-gold palaces floated around it.
Within every palace,
living beings from different worlds were imprisoned.
There were humans.
Demons.
Giants thousands of zhang tall.
And alien races no bigger than a finger,
with translucent wings on their backs.
In the deepest part of the palaces,
sixty-seven small worlds had even been sealed away.
Each small world
was contained within a transparent vessel.
The countless beings within those worlds
had no idea they were being auctioned off.
Above the black-gold platform,
four enormous characters floated in blood-red light:
Auction House of the Myriad Realms.
Wang Hao looked up.
A system prompt
appeared before him.
[Special location detected.]
[The Nineteenth Branch Vault of the Lifeless Merchant Alliance: Auction House of the Myriad Realms.]
[Would you like to check in?]
“Check in.”
[Check-in successful.]
[Obtained: One Ownerless Merchant Contract.]
[Ownerless Merchant Contract: Can temporarily assume responsibility for one transaction of the Heavens-level. Once the transaction is complete, ownership will belong to the contract holder.]
[Intelligence updated.]
[Intelligence One: The Nineteenth Branch Vault holds 4.763 million?]
[Correction: The Nineteenth Branch Vault holds 4.763 billion living beings.]
[Intelligence Two: The cores of all slave seals are located in the auction house’s Settlement Hall. Only the final buyer may enter.]
[Intelligence Three: The Nineteenth Branch Vault has no self-destruct formation. However, if it is attacked by force, the three thousand black-gold palaces will be exiled into spatial turbulence.]
[Intelligence Four: Today, the largest auction in the Eastern Star Domain will be held. Twelve ancient powers have already arrived.]
[Intelligence Five: As the First Vice Alliance Leader of the Lifeless Merchant Alliance, Heavenly Lord of the Scales possesses an unlimited guarantee credit line.]
After Wang Hao finished reading the intelligence,
his expression gradually turned strange.
The elderly official from the Ministry of Revenue asked,
“Your Majesty,
shall we launch a direct assault?”
Wang Hao shook his head.
“4.763 billion lives.”
“Sixty-seven small worlds.”
“We cannot take the risk.”
The old official frowned.
“If we do not attack directly,
how will we seize control of the slave-seal cores?”
Wang Hao raised a hand.
The first level of the Demon-Suppressing Tower of Thunder Abyss
slowly opened.
The black-gold sphere containing Heavenly Lord of the Scales
flew out once more.
Heavenly Lord of the Scales said weakly,
“What do you want now?”
Wang Hao replied,
“To borrow some money.”
Heavenly Lord of the Scales fell silent for a moment.
“This old man has no money.”
Wang Hao looked at the elderly official from the Ministry of Revenue.
“How much guarantee credit does he have?”
The old official opened the alliance’s master ledger.
“In theory,
it is unlimited.”
Heavenly Lord of the Scales’s soul trembled.
“Wait!”
“You want to bid at the auction in this old man’s name?”
Wang Hao nodded.
Heavenly Lord of the Scales roared in fury.
“Impossible!”
“This old man will not guarantee anything for you!”
Wang Hao said,
“Your consent is unnecessary.”
“The Merchant Alliance’s account still recognizes this old man’s soul!”
“You cannot forge it!”
Wang Hao took out the control seal he had stripped from him.
Then he took out the Ownerless Merchant Contract.
“I never said I would forge it.”
“I am merely borrowing it.”
“How dare you!”
“I dare.”
Heavenly Lord of the Scales was about to continue raging,
but Wang Hao had already pressed the black-gold sphere
against the Ownerless Merchant Contract.
A soul imprint
was forcibly branded onto the contract.
Within the auction house,
the toll of a bell
rang out across the starry sky.
“The auction of the Myriad Realms
officially begins.”
All three thousand black-gold palaces
lit up at once.
Twelve terrifying auras
rose from within different palaces.
Behind every aura—
Each represented an ancient power that ruled over countless worlds.
At the center of the auction platform,
an elderly man in a golden robe, his face featureless,
slowly appeared.
He held a black-gold auction hammer.
Behind him floated an enormous abacus.
The pressure of a late-stage Martial God realm expert
blanketed the entire hall.
“This old man is Iron Abacus.”
“On behalf of the Lifeless Merchant Alliance, I will preside over this auction.”
“The first item.”
“The Azurewood Minor World.”
A transparent vessel
rose from beneath the floor.
Within it,
mountains and rivers lay whole.
Billions of living beings thrived inside.
Iron Abacus said evenly:
“This world is rich in Azurewood Spirit Marrow.”
“Its inhabitants have an average lifespan of three hundred years.”
“They may be kept as drug thralls.”
“Or the entire world may be cast into a pill furnace”
“to refine three Eighth-Realm Vitality Pills.”
“The opening bid.”
“Three Eighth-Realm materials.”
Inside the vessel,
the inhabitants of the Azurewood World
went on with their ordinary lives.
Some tilled the fields.
Some were getting married.
Children chased paper kites through the air.
They did not know that,
beyond their world,
others were discussing
whether to keep them alive and harvest medicinal ingredients from them,
or simply burn them into pills.
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
y came from. The chests contained supplies, currency, class-change scrolls, skills, talents… and even godhood! The laws of the world were completely rewritten. This became a world where everyone gambled with their fate! Some people, despite having nothing, opened a divine artifact and rose to the top, eventually ruling the world. Others went bankrupt, opened nothing but worthless junk, and leaped from skyscrapers in despair. Lin Ye arrived in this world from another reality, utterly bewildered. “What is going on? Why is everyone a gambling addict?!” “Opening chests? No way. I refuse to gamble. I’ll start with myself!” Until— On his first chest, he obtained a Mythic Talent: Void Incarnation! He could become completely intangible, pass through all things, and reduce everything to nothingness! … On his fiftieth chest, he obtained a Mythic Weapon: Blade of Karma! With a single slash, karma shattered, twisting the universe and overturning the myriad phenomena of creation! … On his ninety-ninth chest, he obtained a Mythic Divine Treasure: Primordial Purple Energy! It could split open the heavens and earth, create all things, and evolve countless worlds with a single thought! Lin Ye: “Now that I think about it… shouldn’t someone have told me that every chest is guaranteed to contain something Mythic?!”
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
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."
