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The old official took a deep breath.

“On the books.”

“Only forty percent.”

“The remaining sixty percent…”

“Is all behind this door.”

The silver-haired youth had looked solemn just moments ago.

But upon hearing those words,

he immediately turned toward the immaculate gate.

“Master.”

“Open the door.”

The Dragon-Slayer asked,

“Are you no longer afraid of maggots?”

The silver-haired youth replied,

“We can pick them out.”

Wang Hao raised the Immortal Road Key.

The key connected with the gate.

A system notification appeared.

【A special location has been detected.】

【Wusheng Merchant Alliance, Sixty-Third Sub-Depot: Ancient Immortal Ferry.】

【Would you like to check in?】

“Check in.”

【Check-in successful.】

【Reward: One Immaculate Boundary Stele.】

【Immaculate Boundary Stele: A one-time special item. After being erected, it can isolate all external contamination for fifteen minutes. It cannot isolate pure force.】

【Information updated.】

【Information One: The Ancient Immortal Ferry was not built by the Wusheng Merchant Alliance. It was born in the previous Era and was once the reception point through which immortals traveled to and from the myriad heavens.】

【Information Two: The Wusheng Merchant Alliance sacrificed three hundred affiliated worlds to restore the Ancient Immortal Ferry. The sixty-three sub-depots are all coordinates along the Immortal Road.】

【Information Three: Behind the Immortal Gate, three true immortals are awakening.】

【First Immortal: Contamination level, forty-two percent.】

【Second Immortal: Contamination level, seventy-one percent.】

【Third Immortal: Contamination level, ninety-six percent.】

【Information Four: Do not look directly into immortal eyes. Do not listen to immortal names. Do not accept immortal gifts.】

【Information Five: The three immortals are restricted by the rules of the Ancient Immortal Ferry. Before the reception ritual is complete, they cannot descend in their entirety. However, parts of their immortal bodies can cross into this world.】

【Information Six: All the assets of the Wusheng Merchant Alliance’s Sixty-Third Sub-Depot are not inventory, but sacrificial offerings to the immortals.】

【Information Seven: Fifteen minutes remain before the reception ritual is complete.】

After reading the information,

Wang Hao took out the Immaculate Boundary Stele.

The stele was no bigger than his palm.

Its surface bore no writing.

When Wang Hao placed it into the Imperial Dao River,

the stele rapidly expanded.

In the end, it became a stone monument a million zhang tall,

driven into the ground before the immaculate gate.

Buzz!

A transparent barrier

covered the Great Xia fleet.

All the eerie chanting

and contaminating aura

were instantly blocked outside.

The bones that had sprouted from the ships

and the teeth that had grown inside the cannons

quickly fell away.

The cracks in the soldiers’ foreheads

gradually healed.

The silver-haired youth walked over to the Immaculate Boundary Stele.

He carefully examined it from every angle.

“Master.”

“Can this thing be used forever?”

“Fifteen minutes.”

“What happens after that?”

“It becomes an ordinary stone stele.”

The silver-haired youth rubbed the stele.

“Can it be eaten?”

Wang Hao replied,

“Take one bite.”

“You’ll be punished for a hundred years.”

The silver-haired youth immediately withdrew his hand.

The Crone of Hundred Burial Mountain stared at the gate.

“There are only fifteen minutes.”

“If the reception ritual cannot be interrupted,”

“the three immortals will truly descend.”

The Dragon-Slayer tightened his grip on his sword.

“Immortals…”

“How powerful are they, exactly?”

The crone shook her head.

“No one knows.”

“After the Martial God.”

“Beyond Heaven and Earth.”

“Beyond the end of transcendence.”

“Only then will one qualify to touch the Immortal Gate.”

“In the ancient records,”

“an immortal can wither a sea of stars with a single thought.”

“A single drop of blood can become a world.”

“A single strand of hair…”

“can sever a Martial God’s Dharma Form.”

The silver-haired youth looked at that drop of immortal blood.

“But this drop of blood…”

“doesn’t seem very clean.”

The crone’s voice was low.

“That is precisely why it is more dangerous.”

“Pure immortal power”

“will only kill you.”

“Contaminated immortal power”

“will turn you into one of them.”

Wang Hao raised his right hand.

The Immortal Road Key

was inserted into the center of the gate.

Crack!

The immaculate gate

slowly opened.

Beyond the gate,

there was no immortal realm as they had imagined.

There was only a broken ancient road.

On both sides of the road

floated the corpses of countless worlds.

Some worlds had already gone dark.

Some were still burning.

Others

looked as though something had gnawed on them,

leaving behind only half a star covered in tooth marks.

At the end of the ancient road

floated three figures.

The first figure

was a man in blue robes.

He sat cross-legged in the star river.

Across his knees

lay a transparent sword with no hilt.

The man was extraordinarily handsome.

His skin glistened like crystal.

Immortal radiance

shone from his body,

illuminating countless remnants of worlds.

Yet the left half of his face

had no skin.

Clusters of black flowers

grew from the flesh.

Inside the core of every flower

was an infant’s face.

The second figure

was a white-haired woman.

An immortal crown rested upon her head.

Three thousand pure white moons

floated behind her.

The woman’s eyes were tightly shut,

yet beneath her eyelids,

countless eyeballs rolled about.

All ten of her fingers

had become black tentacles.

Dried heads

hung from the end of each one.

The third figure

looked like nothing more than a child.

The child wore a red bellyband

and was barefoot.

In his arms,

he held a pitch-black sun.

His body

showed almost no signs of contamination.

Only at the corner of his mouth

hung a strand of black fluid.

But according to the system,

his contamination level was the highest:

ninety-six percent.

The man in blue

was the first to open his eyes.

Boom!

Two streaks of immortal radiance

shot from his eyes.

Beyond the Ancient Immortal Ferry,

a vast stretch of starry sky vanished.

It did not shatter.

It did not collapse.

It was erased from Heaven and Earth.

The Immaculate Boundary Stele

shuddered violently.

Countless cracks appeared

across the transparent barrier.

Inside the Great Xia fleet,

everyone closed their eyes at once.

Even so,

blood still flowed from the Dragon-Slayer’s ears.

The corpses behind the Crone of Hundred Burial Mountain

turned to ash one after another.

All three hundred and forty-one warships

were forced backward.

Wang Hao took one step onto the Imperial Dao River

and forcibly withstood the immortal might.

The power of the fourth level of transcendence

still appeared insignificant

before a true immortal.

But he could not retreat.

Behind him

were three hundred and forty-one warships.

Tens of thousands of Great Xia soldiers.

And sixty-two worlds

that had only just broken free of the alliance.

If he took one step back,

everyone would have to retreat.

The gaze of the man in blue

fell upon the Thunder Abyss Suppression Tower.

“Scale Slave.”

“Come out.”

His voice passed through the Immaculate Boundary Stele

and entered the tower’s first level.

The black-gold sphere

shook violently.

For the first time,

the soul of the Heavenly Lord of the Scales

was gripped by genuine fear.

“Immortal Lord!”

“The Immortal Lord has descended!”

“Release this old man at once!”

“Wang Hao!”

“You don’t understand!”

“The Immortal Lord is immaculate!”

“The Immortal Lord is eternal!”

“If you obstruct the Immortal Lord,”

“everyone in Great Xia will die!”

Wang Hao raised his hand

and pulled the black-gold sphere out of the Thunder Abyss Suppression Tower.

The soul of the Heavenly Lord of the Scales

madly slammed itself toward the gate.

“Immortal Lord!”

“This old servant has completed the reception!”

“Sixty-three sub-depots!”

“Three hundred worlds!”

“Everything has been prepared…”

Wang Hao clenched his five fingers.

Imperial Dao golden fire

surged into the black-gold sphere.

From the depths of the Heavenly Lord of the Scales’ soul

came a tiny shriek.

A black insect

crawled out of his soul.

The insect had the face of the Heavenly Lord of the Scales.

From its mouth, it repeated over and over:

“The Immortal Lord is immaculate.”

“The Immortal Lord is eternal.”

Wang Hao looked at the Heavenly Lord of the Scales.

“So you’ve been contaminated too.”

The Heavenly Lord of the Scales roared,

“This is an immortal gift!”

“Not contamination!”

Wang Hao replied,

“People who eat shit”

“usually claim they’re eating immortal pills.”

The soul of the Heavenly Lord of the Scales

shook violently.

“How dare you insult the Immortal Lord?”

At that moment,

the man in blue spoke as well.

“Mortal King.”

“Offer up your imperial soul.”

“Offer up your kingdom.”

“And I shall grant you the position of Immortal Slave.”

His voice was calm.

There was no threat in it.

No anger.

As if making Wang Hao a slave

were already the greatest mercy.

Wang Hao asked,

“Have you completed the entry procedures?”

For the first time,

confusion appeared in the blue-robed man’s eyes.

“What are entry procedures?”

“Where you came from.”

“What you came here for.”

“What you are carrying.”

“Whether you are ill.”

Wang Hao’s gaze swept over

half of the man’s rotten face.

“The last item.”

“You’re clearly unqualified.”

The black flowers on the blue-robed man’s face

opened at the same time.

Countless infant faces

let out shrill cries.

“An immortal body is immaculate.”

“How dare a mortal speak such nonsense?”

Wang Hao said,

“It’s rotten all the way through,

and you still call it immaculate?”

The white-haired female immortal

slowly opened her eyes.

There were no ordinary eyeballs

in her sockets.

Only densely packed compound eyes.

Every single eye

reflected a world in the process of decay.

“Kneel.”

The two words fell.

The light barrier of the Immaculate Boundary Stele

caved in with a thunderous boom.

Three hundred and forty-one warships

sank at the same time.

The Dragon-Slayer braced himself with his sword,

and the bones in both his legs

shattered instantly.

Half of the Crone of Hundred Burial Mountain’s body

exploded into a mist of blood.

A-Li collapsed to her knees on the deck,

yet both hands still gripped the helm

with all her strength.

The silver-haired youth

once again transformed into the New Emperor Sword

and stabbed into the ground before Wang Hao.

The blade bent wildly.

“Master.”

“This time, I’m really going to break!”

Wang Hao seized the hilt

and slowly pulled out the New Emperor Sword.

“If you break, I’ll repair you.”

The silver-haired youth froze.

“You’ve finally found your conscience again?”

Wang Hao said,

“The nation is in crisis.”

“The repair costs will be advanced by the treasury.”

The silver-haired youth asked,

“What about afterward?”

“They’ll be deducted from your military pay.”

The silver-haired youth fell silent.

“I knew it.”

The white-haired female immortal

raised a black tentacle

and pointed it toward the outside of the Ancient Immortal Ferry.

As the tentacle passed through the portal,

it rapidly reverted into

a pure white finger.

The immortal finger was translucent,

slender,

and even beautiful, by any measure.

But the instant it descended,

the entire Imperial Dao River

began freezing inch by inch.

The hearts of countless Great Xia subjects

stopped beating for a moment in unison.

This was true immortal power.

It surpassed the Martial God.

It surpassed ordinary transcendence.

It had already touched

an entirely different level of life.

The Imperial Soul Wang Hao had only just recondensed

sent out the sound of cracking.

System warnings

flashed frantically before his eyes.

[Deadly attack detected!]

[The Will of the Myriad People shield is beginning to form!]

The willpower of sixty-two rescued worlds,

nearly a billion citizens of Great Xia,

and four billion seven hundred million people

who had only just regained their freedom

all rose from the Imperial Dao River

at the same time.

A golden shield spanning the sea of stars

stood before the immortal finger.

Boom!

The immortal finger struck the shield.

Golden willpower

collapsed in vast swathes.

The lights in homes across the worlds

went out one after another.

Yet for every light that went dark,

even more lights sprang to life.

The fire slaves of the World of Ten Thousand Furnaces.

The herbal farmers of the Azurewood World.

The little girl in the auction house

who had been worth only three low-grade spirit stones.

Countless beings rescued by Great Xia

looked up at the same time.

They did not know the immortals.

They did not know

how powerful that finger truly was.

They knew only this:

Someone had once broken their chains for them.

Now,

it was their turn to stand behind that person.

“His Majesty cannot fall!”

“Hold it back!”

“Stop it!”

Rumble!

The shield of the Myriad People’s Will

finally shattered completely.

The white-haired female immortal’s finger,

however,

was stopped three inches from Wang Hao’s brow.

The shield had neutralized one deadly attack

and sank back into silence.

But the residual force of the immortal finger

still left cracks running through Wang Hao’s Imperial Soul.

Golden imperial blood

flowed from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

A trace of surprise appeared

within the white-haired female immortal’s compound eyes.

“A bunch of ants.”

“And yet they can actually block an immortal.”

Wang Hao raised a hand

and wiped the imperial blood from his face.

“Ants?”

He looked toward the Imperial Dao River.

The lights belonging to the sixty-two worlds

were gradually reigniting.

“Without the worship of the living,

who would acknowledge you as an immortal?”

“Without worlds to bear you,

where would you stand?”

“You feed on the people,

trample upon the people,

and then turn around

and call them ants.”

The ledgers of the sixty-three branch vaults

rose into the air at the same time.

The trade routes of the Deathless Merchant Alliance,

spread throughout the heavens,

appeared across the sea of stars

like a vast web.

Within the sixty-third branch vault,

countless treasures materialized as well.

Nineteen materials of the Ninth Realm.

Three hundred world origins.

The blood essence of tens of billions

of beings who had been refined.

And all the willpower of the myriad peoples

gathered by the Deathless Merchant Alliance

over the past three thousand years.

These things

had originally been offerings to the immortal.

Wang Hao lifted the Great Xia national seal

and brought it down heavily

upon the general alliance ledger.

“Deathless Merchant Alliance.”

“Charged with sacrificing worlds.”

“Charged with illegally allowing contaminated lifeforms

to enter the realm.”

“By law,

all offerings are hereby confiscated.”

The blue-robed man’s eyes turned cold.

“Those are tributes to the immortal.”

Wang Hao said,

“They’re evidence now.”

“Mortal King.”

“You are taking what belongs to the immortal.”

“No.”

Wang Hao raised his right hand.

“I am reclaiming what belongs to the living.”

The general alliance ledger

burst into flames.

The sixty-three branch vaults

shook at the same time.

The world origins

that had been extracted by the alliance

broke free of the sacrificial altars.

Along the Imperial Dao River,

they surged toward the worlds

to which they had originally belonged.

The first world origin returned.

A dying star

began to shine again.

The second.

A dried-up sea of stars

surged with spiritual energy.

The third.

The tenth.

The hundredth.

Three hundred worlds

revived at the same time.

Countless living beings

awoke from their state of kneeling

before immortal idols.

They looked up and saw

a golden river spanning the heavens.

At the end of that river,

an imperial figure

stood before three immortals.

“It’s him.”

“The one who severed the Merchant Alliance’s chains.”

“It’s the Emperor of Great Xia.”

Countless voices

flowed into the Imperial Dao.

They were not forced worship.

They were not sacrifices.

They were a choice

made together by all living beings

in the depths of despair.

Within Wang Hao’s Imperial Soul,

the fifth transcendence shackle

emerged.

It was a shackle forged by all living beings.

Cultivators throughout the world

who wished to transcend

would often sever all ties,

avoid all karma,

and walk alone

toward the end of the Great Dao.

But Wang Hao was different.

His Imperial Dao

had been built upon all living beings

from the very beginning.

If he severed them,

he would be severing

his own Great Dao.

The white-haired female immortal

spoke coldly.

“All living beings are burdens.”

“Cast them aside.”

“I can lead you through the immortal gate.”

Wang Hao looked at her.

“Before you became an immortal,

weren’t you one of them?”

The female immortal did not answer.

Wang Hao continued,

“Once you’ve eaten your fill,

you flip over the table.”

“Once you’ve crossed the river,

you tear down the bridge.”

“A thing like you—”

“In Great Xia,

you wouldn’t even be as good as the Merchant Alliance.”

Inside the Demon-Sealing Tower of the Thunder Abyss,

Heavenly Lord of the Scales could not help roaring,

“If you want to curse an immortal,

then curse an immortal!”

“Why drag the Merchant Alliance into it too?”