Capital Feast and the Rolling Knife Ancestor

The Great Zhou Capital, the West City Royal Hundred-Thousand-Seat Colosseum.

Three months ago, this place was still an abandoned royal hunting ground overgrown with weeds. But now, a giant circular structure forged entirely of obsidian and magic-banishing dark iron had risen from the ground. It was breathtakingly magnificent, resembling a dormant behemoth resting upon the lands of the capital.

This was the masterpiece of the Great Zhou Emperor, Wang Hao. It was also his ultimate slaughterhouse for harvesting the wealth of cultivators all over the world—the grand finale venue of the First Great Zhou Divine Land Beauty Ranking National Tournament.

Outside the colosseum, the scorching sun hung high in the sky. Tens of thousands of martial artists and commoners packed the perimeter so tightly that not a drop of water could leak through. They couldn't get in because the cheapest nosebleed standing ticket cost a full five thousand taels of silver! To an ordinary person, this was an astronomical figure they could never earn in several lifetimes. Those who could sit inside right now were all high-ranking officials, powerful nobles, wealthy aristocratic families, elders of orthodox sects, and the Dao Protectors brought by the participating Holy Maidens. Even the weakest among them were mighty experts at the Half-Step Void Traversing Realm.

What to do if you couldn't get in? The Great Zhou imperial court very considerately provided a cheap alternative.

Newspapers! Get your newspapers! The Great Zhou Royal Daily Special Edition! Only two copper coins! Giving you a detailed breakdown of the top hundred beauties' true appearances, top-secret body measurements, and their untold stories! Two copper coins won't leave you at a loss, won't leave you scammed, but will allow you to catch a glimpse of the peerless immortal faces of the Divine Land's top hundred beauties!

Hundreds of paperboys in uniform shuttled through the crowd, while commoners frantically dug out their copper coins to buy them up. In just one morning, these papers, which cost less than a single copper coin to produce, raked in hundreds of thousands of silver taels in pure profit for the Great Zhou's inner treasury.

In stark contrast to the shabbiness outside the arena was the extravagantly luxurious carnival taking place inside.

At the very top of the colosseum, inside a supreme luxury VIP box completely covered by a tier-eight array formation, the atmosphere seemed somewhat bizarre.

Brother Emperor! This place of yours is so stuffy. What's so interesting about watching those women fight down there? It's not nearly as fun as watching you execute people and confiscate their properties.

A quirky young girl wearing a pale yellow palace dress was sprawling ungracefully on a soft couch, munching on a spirit fruit. This was Wang Hao's biological sister, the Great Zhou's Eldest Princess, Wang Rou. Following behind her was the idle prince Wang Xuan, whose face was filled with helplessness and who only wanted to lie flat, as well as the current Empress Dowager, Lady Sun, who was being carefully supported by the Directorate of Ceremonial's Seal-Holding Eunuch, Sun Li.

Rou'er, cease your nonsense. Empress Dowager Lady Sun rolled her eyes at her daughter, then turned her head and smiled warmly at Wang Hao, who was sitting in the main seat. Her eyes were full of maternal love. My imperial son, did you use this beauty ranking as a guise to trick these arrogant girls from the hidden sects down the mountain just so you could select concubines for yourself? You must keep your eyes peeled and choose carefully. I think Shen Xue from the Ice Snow Divine Palace and Yun Meng from the Illusory Sea Immortal Sect have excellent figures. They have wide hips and a stable center of gravity; they will definitely be good at bearing children.

Wang Hao, wearing a dark casual robe, was playing with two walnuts carved from spirit jade in his hands. Hearing this, his face darkened with imaginary black lines. On the surface, his old mother was a kind Empress Dowager who ate vegetarian food and prayed to Buddha, but deep down, she was also someone who reveled in chaos.

Rest assured, Imperial Mother. Today, your son is not only going to pick people, but also strip their family fortunes bare. Sun Li, serve the Empress Dowager and my imperial brother and sister well for their meal. Bring up the iced bodhi fruits tributed from the Western Regions. Without my permission, no one is allowed to take half a step near this VIP box. Wang Hao waved his hand.

This old servant obeys the decree! Sun Li immediately bowed at the waist, leading the Empress Dowager and her party to the sofas by the window.

...

Wang Hao's all-star eunuch boyband—Cao Zhengchun of the Directorate of Imperial Horses, Yu Huatian of the Western Depot, Cleansing Army Commander Cao Shaoqin, Directorate of Ceremonial Superintendent Hai Dafu, and Eastern Depot Superintendent Wei Zhongxian—stood like five fiendish gods exuding terrifying bloody auras, guarding Wang Hao's sides tightly. On the table sat the Thunder Abyss Demon-Suppressing Pagoda. Over a thousand fully armed soldiers of the Cleansing Army had already surrounded the entire main platform, making it impenetrable.

Wei Zhongxian, holding his pinky finger up in an orchid seal, respectfully handed a thick ledger to Wang Hao. His feminine, aged face was filled with unconcealable joy.

Your Majesty, during this half-month of preliminary selections, we've practically sheared all the fat sheep in the world bald! In order to maintain the prestige of their own Holy Maidens, those Dao Protectors pinched their noses and bought the VIP luxury boxes starting at fifty thousand taels of silver. Just the ticket revenue for this half-month has reached nearly one hundred million taels! Counting the royal casinos we opened outside the venue, as well as the odds we secretly manipulated... Your Majesty, we made a pure profit of two hundred and fifty million taels of silver in just half a month!

Wang Hao looked at the long string of zeros in the ledger, enough to make any dynasty's eyes blur, and couldn't close his mouth from smiling.

Two hundred and fifty million? Not enough, not nearly enough. Wang Hao casually tossed the ledger onto the table, his eyes shining with golden light. The hidden sects have stood in the Divine Land for thousands of years. The heavenly treasures hidden in their cellars are too many to count. This bit of money is merely scratching their skin to draw a little blood. I wish I could hold this kind of beauty pageant tournament ten or eight times a year! Sooner or later, I will force all those high and mighty Holy Land Sect Masters to beg on the streets!

Hearing Wang Hao's deranged speech, the all-star eunuch boyband behind him didn't feel the slightest bit that it was inappropriate. Instead, each and every one of them trembled with excitement, wishing they could immediately transform into vicious wolves to tear out the throats of those sects for His Majesty.

Right at this moment, a violent commotion suddenly broke out in the spectator stands below.

Bullshit! Our Fairy Yun Meng is the true number one beauty in the world! She is the top of the Heaven's Secret Pavilion's ranking! What the hell is Shen Xue from your Ice Snow Divine Palace? She keeps a deadpan face every day, that's facial paralysis! An aristocratic young master wearing a gorgeous Daoist robe was standing on a chair, waving a banner in his hand that read Fly bravely, Yun Meng, your big brother will follow you forever, roaring at the top of his lungs with spit flying everywhere.

You dare insult my Xue'er? Brothers, Ice Snow Guard Squad, draw your swords! Hack these brain-dead fans of the Illusory Sea Immortal Sect to death! On the other side, a group of fanatical swordsmen dressed in white directly drew their gleaming sharp swords.

Seeing that the two groups of fanatical fan clubs were about to start a full-blown brawl in the stands, before those sect elders could even voice their reprimands, hundreds of Brocade Guards wearing flying fish suits and holding embroidered spring swords suddenly lunged out from the shadows around the stands.

Clang, clang, clang—!

Sword light flashed. Without a single word of nonsense, the Brocade Guards directly used the backs of their embroidered spring swords to viciously smash the faces of the young masters leading the trouble. They knocked out a mouthful of shattered teeth on the spot, sending blood splattering wildly.

Article Three of the Great Zhou Colosseum Public Security Management Regulations: Those who pick quarrels and provoke trouble will have their tickets confiscated, be fined one hundred thousand taels, and receive fifty strokes of the cane! The leading Brocade Guard Thousand Battalion Commander stepped on the face of the aristocratic young master holding the banner. His cold gaze swept the surroundings as if looking at dead men. Who else wants to cause trouble? The Brocade Guards are ready to oblige at any time!

Watching those aristocratic scions who were incredibly arrogant just a moment ago being dragged away like dead dogs, the entire venue instantly fell silent out of fear. The leading experts from those hidden sects all furrowed their brows, a trace of humiliation and anger flashing through their eyes.

"This is going too far! A mere pack of imperial lapdogs dares to humiliate us cultivators like this! Do you really think the heroes of the world are made of mud?!" A guardian elder of a hidden sect at the half-step Void-Treading Realm fiercely crushed the armrest of his chair. A powerful aura instantly erupted as he attempted to pressure the Brocade Guards.

However, the very moment he released his aura—

Rumble—!!!

The originally clear sky suddenly let out a terrifying roar that made souls tremble! It was as if the firmament was being forcefully torn apart from the outside by brute force!

Nine terrifying columns of blood qi, so dense they seemed almost tangible, pierced directly through the clouds. Like nine heaven-supporting pillars, they crashed down upon the very top of the gladiator arena! That furious, tyrannical, and utterly unreasonable terrifying pressure slammed into the hearts of the hundred thousand people present like nine immemorial divine mountains!

The elder of the Ice and Snow Divine Palace who had just tried to release his aura felt as if his chest had been struck by a heaven-reaching giant hammer the moment this presence descended. With a pfft, he violently spat out a mouthful of blood. His entire body was forced to kneel and crawl on the floor, unable to even lift his head!

Dead silence engulfed the arena! A hundred thousand people, whether they were patriarchs of noble clans or mighty figures of great sects, were now shivering like frightened quails, not even daring to breathe loudly.

Next to Wang Hao's supreme VIP box, within another massive open-air box belonging to the imperial family, nine figures slowly emerged.

The leader was an old man wearing coarse, heavily patched clothes, holding a dry tobacco pipe in his hand. Yet, the aura exuding from his body caused pitch-black spatial rifts to tear open in the surrounding space!

The eighth realm of martial arts, the Great Perfection of the Void-Treading Realm! Known as a demigod, he was the living fossil of the Great Zhou imperial family, Wang Hao's great-grandfather!

Behind him stood two equally shriveled elders whose eyes were as sharp as falcons—Wang Hao's two great-granduncles, both terrifying existences at the ninth layer of the Void-Treading Realm!

Further back was Wang Hao's imperial grandfather, Wang Jingyuan, at the eighth layer of the Void-Treading Realm, along with five imperial uncles who were all in the middle to upper layers of the Void-Treading Realm!

These nine old monsters had absolutely no intention of hiding their cultivation bases. Like a group of overbearing, unstoppable scoundrels, they brazenly rubbed their terrifying pressure back and forth across the faces of every hidden sect expert present.

Gulp...

The sect mighty figures who were full of resentment just moments ago were now frantically swallowing their saliva. Their faces were filled with despair, and their Dao hearts were on the verge of collapse.

"Crazy... the Great Zhou imperial family is crazy! A full nine Void-Treading Realm mighty figures! There is even a demigod! How... how are we supposed to fight this? It's impossible!"

"No wonder the number one orthodox sect, the Azure Cloud Sect, was completely annihilated overnight last month. Even their grand sect-protection array couldn't withstand a single palm strike... With this group of old monsters around, who would dare to cause trouble in Great Zhou?!"

The great-grandfather tapped the dry tobacco pipe in his hand and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke. His eyes swept across the arena. Though his voice was not loud, it clearly reached everyone's eardrums, carrying a thick aura of a street thug: "All of you, quiet down. My Little Hao is hosting a joyous event today. If anyone dares to ruin his show, I will go and scatter the ashes from your ancestral graves tonight. Understand?"

The hundred thousand people in the arena were dead silent, and then they erupted in a uniform, trembling voice filled with a desperate desire to survive: "Understood... we respectfully obey the old ancestor's decree..."

Seeing his great-grandfather's utterly unreasonable behavior, Wang Hao almost laughed out loud in his box. This was his true confidence in bringing all the toughest troublemakers in the world to the capital for a competition! With this group of ancestors who cared nothing for martial virtue holding the fort, he could play however he wanted!

Wang Hao rolled the walnuts in his hand and slightly raised his chin: "Companion Wei, go on. The stage is yours. Remember my instructions: our main focus is fairness, justice, and openness. Those highly anticipated fat sheep absolutely must not meet each other before the top ten. Also, go ahead and handle that matter I assigned to you first."

"This old servant understands!" Wei Zhongxian, who had long been unable to hold back, immediately put on a flattering yet highly punchable smile. Turning into a blur, he landed steadily on the white jade arena in the very center of the gladiator arena.

Wei Zhongxian held an amplifying artifact in his hand. The sharp voice unique to a eunuch sounded extremely piercing at this moment.

"Distinguished officials and nobles! Immortal couples of the great sects! Good morning, everyone!" Wei Zhongxian, wearing an extremely flashy bright red python robe, strutted across the arena with an incredibly arrogant gait. "After half a month of auditions! Today, we finally welcome the birth of the top ten in our grand finals!"

"But before the competition officially begins, I have an extremely important matter to announce to the whole world, by the verbal decree of His Majesty, the Emperor of Great Zhou!"

As soon as Wei Zhongxian said this, the hundred thousand people in the audience immediately pricked up their ears. The sect mighty figures in the VIP boxes grew tense, terrified that this shameless little tyrant was going to pull another crazy stunt.

Wei Zhongxian took out a yellow scroll from his sleeve and violently unrolled it. The smile on his face instantly vanished, replaced by the cold, murderous intent unique to the Director of the Eastern Depot.

"Just yesterday, His Majesty personally verified the so-called 'Divine State Beauty Ranking' published by the Heavenly Secret Pavilion! The results showed that this ranking is manipulated behind the scenes and involves bribery. It is simply absurd!"

Wei Zhongxian sneered and pointed toward the contestant preparation area: "Look, everyone! Out of the top one hundred beauties ranked by the Heavenly Secret Pavilion, more than fifty of them couldn't even pass the auditions in this absolutely fair competition today! Even that so-called 'Pure Fairy' Li Wanru, ranked tenth on the Heavenly Secret Pavilion's list, had her front teeth punched out by a fierce pig-butchering woman in the very first round of the auditions! What does this prove?"