The Terrifying Ancient City

Sword energy surged. His ruptured spleen rapidly mended, and his depleted force and inner force swiftly recovered as well. With sword energy at their disposal, both Li Hao and Yuan Shuo could fight with reckless abandon. Without it... Yuan Shuo would keep a lower profile, and Li Hao would be even more discreet. Earlier, Yuan Shuo had been unwilling to burn through the last dregs of his sword energy, choosing to kill a pack of Red Moon experts before immediately making a run for it. Had he possessed enough sword energy back then, knowing Yuan Shuo's temperament, he would have absorbed it on the spot to heal himself, and none of the Feitian or Yama experts present that day would have lived to tell the tale! That was a truly ruthless man! He had fled only because his strength had been insufficient and his wounds too severe. Otherwise, how could he have settled for merely slaying a few members of Red Moon? As for why he had killed people from Yama and Feitian... Old Demon Yuan needed no reason to kill. If one insisted on a reason, it was that he had enemies in those two organizations as well! Indeed, quite a few people from the Silver Moon martial arts world had ventured out into the wider world. Feitian and Yama truly harbored old enemies of his—they simply hadn't climbed as high as Ying Hongyue had. Right now, Li Hao found himself in a similar situation. After absorbing the little snake, he felt a considerable amount of his sword energy restored—roughly comparable to what he had absorbed back at the stone gate. Keep in mind that the sword energy absorbed at the stone gate had required refining an immense volume of mysterious energy. Yuan Shuo reaching Spirit Nourishing, Li Hao breaking through to Thousand-Battler, Wang Ming ascending to Solar Radiance... all of that had consumed that hoard of sword energy. On top of that, Li Hao had sparred with Liu Long for days on end, repairing his own body daily, which had also cost a great deal. Such a massive reserve of sword energy had been enough to last Li Hao for quite a while. Yet... by the time he finished patching up his spleen and mended Liu Long along the way, Li Hao realized he had burned through an enormous amount. He had to economize! Sword energy was the true hard currency here. Not far away, Wang Ming came jogging back with a grin, clutching the energy storage ring Li Hao had tossed him earlier. Dingchen from Feitian had given it to them, and it had previously held one hundred cubic meters of fire energy. Now, the remaining four compartments were packed to the brim with eight hundred cubic meters of water energy! On top of that, there were two extraordinarily dense human bones, which likely held another three to four hundred cubic meters of water energy. That was the entirety of the haul! A middle Three Sols expert actually possessed far more than this, but this place was unique. The ground absorbed energy at no sluggish pace, leeching away a portion in the blink of an eye. To walk away with nearly twelve hundred cubic meters of water energy was already a tremendous gain. At least it hadn't all been swallowed up! Beyond this mysterious energy, Wang Ming held a broken sword. Even though this Origin God Armament was snapped in two, it remained a top-tier supernatural artifact, unimaginably sharp, and endowed with the property of cloaking one's aura. Despite being broken, Wang Ming could feel his supernatural fluctuations suppressed just by carrying it. An Origin God Armament and mysterious energy—these were their greatest spoils. Apart from those, there was a small booklet. Zhang Ting hadn't carried much with her. As an undercover agent, she couldn't carry many belongings, let alone proof of identity; only a fool would do that. Wang Ming couldn't make heads or tails of the booklet. He tossed it straight to Li Hao. "Take a look. What is this? A secret manual or something?" Li Hao caught it, flipped through a few pages, and shook his head. "It's not a manual. It's likely a cipher for communications. This kind of thing is common—sometimes messages can only be sent through special channels, perhaps using numbers that correlate to characters in a specific book to decode the message. A very primitive method of information transmission." With that, Li Hao smiled. "It seems she wasn't the only operative in Silver Moon!" Since she had a means of contact, there was bound to be more than one mole planted in Silver Moon. Who knew how many there were? She had likely just been the strongest among them. Only now did Wang Ming snap out of his daze, looking somewhat unsettled. "Uh... who... who was she, anyway?" He had forgotten to ask! Caught up in the heat of battle and bloodshed, it suddenly dawned on him. Wait... wasn't she a Night Watcher? Killing their own people was a capital offense. Li Hao glanced at him and smiled. "A Night Watcher!" Wang Ming coughed violently, unable to hold back. "You're... you're joking, right? With strength like hers, she had to be an undercover agent from one of the Three Great Organizations..." "She really wasn't. She was a Night Watcher." Wang Ming froze like a wooden chicken. An instant later, he swallowed hard. "D-don't mess with me... W-we killed a Three Sols Night Watcher... We're done for!" "Relax, she wasn't from Silver Moon." "Oh, thank goodness!" Wang Ming breathed a sigh of relief. The provinces weren't a monolith. If she belonged to another province, it would be troublesome, but still manageable. "She was from headquarters!" "..." Wang Ming froze once more. "W-which headquarters?" "Central headquarters!" "..." At that moment, Wang Ming slumped to the ground, crying out in anguish, "It's over! We're truly finished! You knew who she was, yet you still went around killing people—" "You killed her!" Li Hao chuckled softly. "It has nothing to do with me. You said so yourself just a moment ago—you killed a Three Sols. What does that have to do with me?" "..." Wang Ming was on the verge of tears! Seeing this, Liu Long stepped in to reassure him. "It's fine. Director Hao ordered us to kill her, and Director Hou knows about it as well." "What?" Wang Ming swallowed again, his mind reeling. What on earth was going on? "It's simple: the people of Silver Moon don't want to be ruled by the central government. That's all there is to it. The dynasty is the dynasty, and Silver Moon is Silver Moon. Do you understand?" Wang Ming was completely stunned. After a long while, he climbed to his feet and backed away from Li Hao, muttering sullenly, "I... I know nothing! I didn't hear a thing! I'm begging you two, don't drag me into this. I can't take the heat!" The sky had practically fallen on him! Li Hao smiled and tossed a piece of bone toward him. "Do you want it?" "..." Did he want it? Of course he did! He caught the bone in an instant, utterly torn. There were roughly two hundred cubic meters inside—an immense amount! Li Hao then tossed one half of the severed Origin God Armament over. "Do you want this?" "..." Yes! Wang Ming caught it as well. That peerlessly sharp Origin God Armament, even stripped of its spirit, was not something ordinary supernatural artifacts could compare to. Just holding it in his hand, he could feel the biting sharpness radiating from it. How could he refuse? This wasn't something mere mysterious energy could buy! If he brought it back to have a smith reforge it, it might very well become another lethal weapon. Even though it had been a water-aligned weapon, its spirit had already been extinguished. Now, only the resilient material remained, and the material happened to be metal-aligned, making it even more suited for him. He had constantly been detonating his metal supernatural swords precisely because he lacked a suitable weapon. In his hands, this piece could prove extraordinarily useful! Wang Ming swallowed hard and stepped closer to Li Hao. Now that he had taken the goods... it seemed he was well and truly on this pirate ship! Li Hao smiled. "Are you an accomplice now?" Wang Ming agonized over it for a long while before nodding. "I suppose so!" "You killed Zhang Ting, right?" "Uh... the three of us did it together. Cough, cough... You two did the heavy lifting; I was just running errands." Wang Ming gave a sheepish laugh. Li Hao smiled, and Liu Long chuckled as well. The fellow simply couldn't bring himself to pass up his share of the loot. Li Hao added, "You can't use water-aligned energy. Hand it over to the boss, and we'll compensate you with two hundred cubic meters of metal energy later!" "You have that?" Wang Ming asked, puzzled. Didn't they run out? There was only one hundred cubic meters of fire energy left in Li Hao's storage ring. Li Hao smiled. "Of course we do. Why wouldn't we? It's only two hundred cubic meters—a single Solar Radiance expert is more than enough. Let me count for you: right now, there are two Solar Radiance experts from Yama, four from Red Moon, and seven from Feitian. That's a full thirteen Solar Radiance experts! Tell me, among those thirteen, is there a single metal user?" Wang Ming was dumbfounded. He nodded numbly. "I... I suppose so!" So the two hundred cubic meters you were talking about is inside the city? Are you planning to go in and slaughter them? At that moment, his somewhat sluggish mind finally caught up. He drew in a sharp breath. "How... how did you get so powerful?" A Thousand-Battler already? Li Hao chuckled. "Powerful? Not at all! When my teacher stepped into the Thousand-Battler realm, he slaughtered a Three Sols single-handedly! What about me? The three of us joined forces, fought for ages, nearly got ourselves killed, and only managed to take down a Three Sols through an ambush. Now do you still think I'm powerful?" Put that way, Wang Ming thought it over and shook his head. Not particularly powerful—fairly ordinary, really! Yet an instant later, he felt like crying. Damn it, who could compare to their monstrous teacher? Liu Long was also a Thousand-Battler, but he hadn't seen him kill a Three Sols either. How had he, a Solar Radiance expert, ended up feeling like the weakest person on the scene? And to think he had spent every day boasting about how terrifyingly strong he had become after breaking through to Solar Radiance. As the three talked, the bloodstains in the distance vanished, and the battlefield smoothed over completely. Such was the ancient city—a terrifying ancient city. Slaying someone here left virtually no trace. Naturally, the ground didn't consume clothing and gear. Li Hao glanced in that direction, drew out a tiny wisp of fire energy, and hurled a fireball. In an instant, everything on the ground was reduced to ash, the garments vanishing without a trace. With that, every last sign of Zhang Ting was gone. Li Hao continued, "Boss, absorb some water energy first to nourish yourself. As for the Origin God Armament, you and Wang Ming split it down the middle! See if you can draw it into your bodies. I'm worried someone might try to cause trouble or conduct a search after we head out. Anything we can use, we should use immediately and turn it into strength!" Silencing witnesses was one thing, but Zhang Ting was a Three Sols from the central headquarters, an operative from a superior department. If word got out and Hou Xiaochen feigned ignorance, Li Hao and the others would be in deep trouble. Having already offended the Three Great Organizations, offending the Night Watchers as well would be more than he could bear. Before heading out, Li Hao hoped to convert all their spoils into pure strength. Now that he had sword energy again, he could afford to be a bit more daring. Time to absorb! Previously, his five viscera had each absorbed around four hundred cubic meters of metal, water, and earth energy, with fire energy being the highest at roughly five hundred cubic meters. Wood energy was currently the lowest, at just over three hundred cubic meters. Li Hao wasn't hurting for water energy at the moment, but since Zhang Ting had insisted on lingering, she had only herself to blame for what happened. He had set his sights on her long ago anyway! "Old Wang, keep watch for us... The boss and I will absorb some water energy first." "Ah?" Wang Ming froze. "Y-you're absorbing water energy?" What was going on? "Martial masters can absorb anything!" Wang Ming was immediately green with envy, practically drooling. "I want to become a martial master too! Look at us—our absorption of mysterious energy is full of restrictions, and we aren't even as strong as martial masters... Solar Radiance..." Just days ago, he had been ecstatic about reaching Solar Radiance. Now, he felt Solar Radiance was utter garbage. It couldn't hold a candle to a Thousand-Battler martial master! Look at Yuan Shuo, Li Hao, and Liu Long—which of those three Thousand-Battlers couldn't beat him black and blue? It was enough to make anyone feel inferior! He wanted to become a martial master too, but unfortunately, having already shattered his supernatural locks, that ship had likely sailed. "Cut the chatter and keep watch..." Li Hao paid him no further mind, swiftly utilizing his sword energy to extract pure water elements. As for the two characters on the city gate... there was no rush. Having just recovered from his injuries, the stronger he became, the better. The characters weren't going anywhere; if he couldn't study them now, he could do so next time. Instead of letting Liu Long absorb the water energy alone, Li Hao extracted a massive surge of water elements himself and channeled a portion into Liu Long's body. Next, he extracted a substantial amount of unaligned mysterious energy and said, "Old Wang, you can absorb some of this unaligned mysterious energy..." Wang Ming was thoroughly bewildered, having no idea where this unaligned energy had come from. But... who cared? Drink up! Unaligned energy wasn't bad at all; it could strengthen supernatural locks and temper the physical body, even if it didn't lend itself easily to rank advancement. The three promptly began their absorption. Li Hao was steady, but Liu Long was like a bottomless pit. He was running completely on empty! Li Hao's kidneys had at least absorbed four hundred cubic meters of water energy previously, whereas Liu Long hadn't spent long in the Hundred-Breaker realm and hadn't yet begun nourishing his five viscera, lagging far behind Yuan Shuo. This was the first time he was receiving a baptism of pure elemental energy. In the blink of an eye, he devoured over ten cubic meters of water elemental energy. As a Thousand-Battler, this was precisely the stage to nourish his five viscera. For him, this water energy couldn't have arrived at a better time. More importantly, this was pure elemental energy, vastly different from ordinary water-aligned mysterious energy. Liu Long nearly groaned aloud. It felt too good! Was this what nourishing the five viscera was like? Li Hao didn't waste words, rapidly absorbing as well while his kidneys soaked up the water energy. The three consumed it at an astonishing pace. Wang Ming took in unaligned energy, Li Hao absorbed both unaligned and water elements, and Liu Long gorged exclusively on water elemental energy. In the blink of an eye—roughly twenty-odd minutes—one of the human bones shattered to pieces. The three opened their eyes and looked at one another, completely dumbfounded. Li Hao was fine, being used to it by now, but Liu Long swallowed hard, utterly shaken. "D-did we kill... a fake Three Sols?" Roughly two hundred cubic meters had been drained dry by the three of them in twenty minutes? Yet feeling the state of his kidneys... fine, he supposed it made sense. At this moment, he clearly felt his force being affected and expanding! His spirit intent had grown far more potent! Wang Ming clicked his tongue in awe. No wonder Li Hao and his crowd went around killing people every day, hunting down Solar Radiance experts first and then Three Sols. Consuming resources like this, not even the Night Watchers could afford to keep them fed. Of the two hundred cubic meters of water elemental energy, Li Hao had absorbed nearly half, as had Liu Long. Now, Li Hao's absorbed water energy had reached five hundred cubic meters, matching his fire energy. However, Li Hao planned to absorb the second human bone as well, taking in another one hundred cubic meters. With another one hundred cubic meters of fire energy in the ring, he could balance water and fire at roughly six hundred cubic meters each. Metal and earth would also remain balanced at around four hundred cubic meters each. As for wood energy... wood-aligned energy was indeed relatively rare, so he would see about it later. "Keep absorbing. Drain the other bone as well... That way, whatever is left can stay in the storage ring." Liu Long had no objections; he too felt a lingering craving. It felt magnificent! Neither of them asked where this pure elemental energy had come from—there was no need to pry. As long as there were benefits to reap, that was all that mattered! They resumed absorbing. After another twenty minutes or so, the final human bone shattered. Li Hao said, "I'll absorb a bit more fire energy... Boss, you and Old Wang keep an eye out. They've been inside the city for nearly an hour. There was some commotion earlier, but now it's dead quiet... Don't tell me they've all perished..." Liu Long cleared his throat. Surely it hadn't come to that? Li Hao didn't dwell on it and continued absorbing fire energy, bolstering the strength of his heart! Absorbing one hundred cubic meters was neither particularly fast nor slow... By the time Li Hao exhausted the fire energy, both water and fire had reached the six-hundred-cubic-meter mark, while eight hundred cubic meters of water energy remained in the ring. ... By this point, all three had made considerable progress in strength. The one who had advanced the most was naturally Li Hao, but Liu Long was no slouch either. He had just tested his Ocean Wave Force, and it was at least twenty percent stronger than before. For a Thousand-Battler, a twenty percent increase gave him the confidence to battle a middle Solar Radiance expert and emerge victorious. As for a late Solar Radiance... he would have to fight one to find out! "It's been roughly an hour, hasn't it?" Li Hao stood up and looked toward the city interior. At this moment, it was terrifyingly quiet. He frowned slightly. The tall tower was only twenty-odd li away. Three Sols experts could fly, so they should have arrived very quickly. Could a battle over treasures really drag on for an hour without concluding? Furthermore, virtually no commotion was drifting over from that direction. What was more, not a single person who had entered the city had come back out. Li Hao had originally thought that if those people found nothing, some might return shortly. Yet none had! Of the thirty people who had gathered, excluding the three of them and the deceased Zhang Ting, not one of the remaining twenty-six was in sight! "Should we go in and take a look?" By now, both Wang Ming and Liu Long were brimming with confidence. We're so formidable that we even took down a Three Sols—why not go in and see? "No rush!" Li Hao glanced toward the inner city, then looked up at the two massive characters overhead. In the end, he decided to comprehend the characters for "Battle Heaven" first. As for treasures and Origin God Armaments—though he certainly wanted them to snap and replenish his sword energy—he had coveted these two characters for a very long time! Naturally, he had to examine the characters first! No matter what happened inside the city, those people would eventually have to come out. It would be best if both sides tore each other to pieces so he could pick up the scraps. At this moment, his line of thinking was much the same as Zhang Ting's had been. Li Hao had just tested it: martial masters truly could fly here, even without passing through the second passage. That being the case, he had few reservations. With a kick off the ground, he scrambled straight up along the massive city gate, using the colossal gate as his staircase. Step by step, Li Hao swiftly climbed to the top of the gate. He sat directly atop the city gate. Its thickness was staggering—at least two to three meters across. Sitting atop it felt no different from sitting on a bed. Right in front of him hung those two colossal characters. Looking closely... they seemed to be inscribed upon the wall, yet not entirely so. They felt somewhat as though they were suspended in midair, or perhaps existing within another dimension altogether. Li Hao reached out to touch them... yet vaguely sensed he wouldn't be able to make contact! It was that intricate. After a moment of silence, Li Hao suddenly forced a drop of blood from his heart and shot it straight toward the two massive characters. Boom! The blood merged into the writing. In that instant, Li Hao felt as though he had tumbled into another dimension, stepping into an entirely different world! His consciousness grew hazy. Amid the blur, he heard people crying out in astonishment: "The Sovereign has arrived!" "The Sovereign has arrived!" It sounded like the citizens of an entire city shouting, cheering, driven into a frenzy. "The Sovereign is invincible!" Li Hao's consciousness remained in a daze. He tried to open his eyes, only to find he couldn't. Amid the shifting shadows, he seemed to catch sight of something: a figure descending from the heavens... countless silhouettes encircling that person, some leaping with joy, others trembling with excitement! "Sovereign, this small city has just been founded. If the Sovereign does not disfavor it, we hope the Sovereign will bestow a name upon it..." "You are too polite!" Vaguely, Li Hao heard a gentle voice, not nearly as domineering as he had imagined. "Speaking of which, we belong to the same family..." Through the haze, the Sovereign who had trodden through the void seemed to say something else, eliciting another round of cheers from the entire city. A moment later, Li Hao's vision shifted slightly. He seemed to appear in a new location... Looking closely, wasn't it the very city gate atop which he was currently sitting? Only... it seemed somewhat different. It lacked that ancient patina, appearing freshly cast. At that moment, the scene shifted again, and a silhouette from behind came into view. Li Hao's eyes flickered—it was that person! The very moment the inscription was written! He... seemed to be witnessing an entirely different era. In the dim light, the figure raised a brush, seemingly lost in thought. Vaguely, a voice from ten thousand ages ago seemed to echo across time once more: "I am no good at naming things... I have thought long and hard, yet I cannot decide on a fitting name. I am not like that fellow; he always loves to come up with all sorts of ridiculous names and then acts terribly proud of himself..." It sounded like mockery, yet also like lighthearted banter. "Forget it. I shall name it... Battle Heaven!" The moment those words were spoken, a commotion seemed to ripple through the crowd. In Li Hao's ears, a chorus of wild cheers and frantic roars erupted once more, as though everyone had been whipped into a frenzy. Battle Heaven! It seemed to represent something extraordinary. The powerful elder who had welcomed the Sovereign earlier appeared visibly shaken now. Li Hao heard the old man's trembling voice, fraught with emotion: "Battle Heaven? H-how could we dare! That is... that is the Sovereign's exalted title..." "It matters not. Battle Heaven... cannot truly be considered my title! Even if it were, that is all in the past. He is worthy of admiration, but I... am not him, after all! Still, his life is worth remembering... Battle Heaven it shall be! He loved educating others; I hope Battle Heaven City will nurture more fine youths for the human race in the days to come. Under no circumstances must my name be used to commit dishonorable deeds!" "We would never dare! The Sovereign has bestowed the name Battle Heaven... Who in the Divine City of Battle Heaven would dare disgrace the Sovereign's name?" A roar echoed, as though shaking the boundless ages! That elder seemed half-crazed with fervor, as though this name, this Battle Heaven City, had bestowed upon them a sacred mission! The next instant, Li Hao nearly coughed up blood, for the countless cheers and roars were ten, a hundred times louder than before! He could not fathom how people could become excited to such an extent. At this moment, he thought of those black-armored warriors and that silver-armored commander. Battle Heaven seemed to be something incomparably sacred! A presence that could never be defiled! "Battle Heaven!" "Battle Heaven!" Roar after roar, shout after shout, rising in unison and reverberating across ten thousand ages. That excitement, that boiling blood, that wild fury... Even separated by the river of space and time, Li Hao felt his blood surging with heat! Just a few ordinary words from this man, bestowing a simple name... could produce such an effect. It was simply unimaginable! Li Hao was left thoroughly dizzy from the shock! After a long while, his vision brightened once more. The silhouetted figure began to write. Holding the brush, he earnestly penned the two characters: "Battle Heaven." The moment the figure lifted the brush... Li Hao could not stop his blood from surging. When the character for "Battle" was completed, Li Hao suddenly understood the people of that city. The moment he laid eyes on the character, battle intent surged forth. In an instant, he felt as though he had been cast into the heart of a battlefield, surrounded by countless formidable enemies. Battle! A lone man battling heaven and earth. Slay! Endless slaughter! Wild beasts and fiends seemed to prowl all around. Slay! Clashing again and again, battling without end! Slaughter all enemies, slaughter everything! Until the enemies are dead, the battle never ceases! Li Hao felt as though he were personally present, possessing that very figure... At that moment, he felt it. A saber! Yes, gripping a long saber, strike after strike, lopping off enemy heads! And ahead of this person... there seemed to be yet another figure. One could not clearly discern that figure's back or appearance, only vaguely perceive him wreaking havoc in all directions, running rampant without restraint—evidently another expert of the saber! And with every stroke of that blade... one could only vaguely see countless heads flying into the air. A star of slaughter! Li Hao felt somewhat muddled, yet brimming with battle intent. Who was that person? And whose perspective had he taken on, whose body was he inhabiting? Was it this Sovereign? He didn't know! He only sensed the other man striking with his saber relentlessly. The moment that blade struck, it was as if he himself were delivering the blow. Slaughtering all the way forward... slaughtering to the very edge of the firmament, until no enemies remained! When everyone had been slain, the silhouette ahead came to a halt, seemingly saying something. Li Hao strained to listen, focusing all his concentration to catch what the man was saying. Marshalling every shred of his will... At that moment, he seemed to hear a sentence that left him completely speechless. "Damn it, what gall they had. I told them to slit their own throats, but they refused. In the end, they forced me to draw my blade, and before I knew it, they were all dead..." Who was this? Li Hao was thunderstruck. What arrogance! It sounded like he had told people to commit suicide, and when they refused, he simply slaughtered them all... How did this feel even more murderous than his own teacher? This was a true fiend, wasn't it? In a daze, Li Hao's vision shifted again, returning him to the earlier scene. The figure was still writing, and the character for "Battle" was already finished. Next came the character for "Heaven." The moment "Heaven" was completed, Li Hao felt as though he had entered an entirely different scene. That scene... was extraordinarily distinct. It seemed to be set amid a starry cosmos. He saw a figure once more—seemingly the very same man from before. "You dare call yourself Heaven?" "You are the very one I've come to kill!" "Heavenly Emperor... what a joke!" Boom! Sun and moon shattered, the starry sky collapsed, and an entity so terrifyingly powerful it choked the breath from one's lungs had his head crushed like an egg in an instant! Boom! Li Hao felt as though his own head were about to explode! In that split second, he caught a vague glimpse of that man—arrogant, tyrannical, cold, with a murderous aura surging to the heavens! He... seemed to have slain an expert known as the Heavenly Emperor... Who dared style themselves the Heavenly Emperor? Li Hao was dumbstruck once more. Who would dare? Would the King of Heavenly Star dare call himself the Heavenly Emperor? What a joke! Emperor of the Heavens—no one dared claim such a title. Yet... this Heavenly Emperor had apparently been slaughtered! And the one who killed him was that very same man, an insolent and peerless monster. ... Li Hao woke up. This time, he was certain he was awake, completely lucid. He could no longer see that murderous madman, nor the Sovereign writing the characters. All he saw below were Liu Long and Wang Ming. When he looked back at the two characters... they seemed entirely ordinary now. He hadn't gained all that much... All he remembered was that the Sovereign he had inhabited seemed to have slain a few enemies with a saber, and after that... he only recalled watching the other man slaughter everyone. Yet... had he truly gained nothing? Li Hao felt a bit dazed. No, the gain was enormous! He had witnessed an entirely different world, glimpsed the sheer might of the ancient civilization, and confirmed that someone could truly shatter the sun, moon, and stars. He had watched that man crush the skull of a Heavenly Emperor! Wielding a blade... He had no saber, so he instinctively swung the Earth-Overturning Sword in his hand. In that instant, Li Hao suddenly experienced a subtly different sensation. The sword swept out, unimaginably natural... Buzz! A burst of sword qi erupted, shooting straight downward. The city gate stood a hundred meters tall; for a Thousand-Battler martial master, an attack over a hundred meters was essentially the limit. Yet at this moment, that sword qi shot straight toward Wang Ming in the blink of an eye. Seeing Li Hao casually swing his sword from a hundred meters up, Wang Ming hadn't paid it much mind. But in the next instant, every hair on his body stood on end! His scalp nearly exploded! Without a second thought, he manifested ten thousand swords—rumble! The instant the myriad swords materialized, the sword qi struck. A deafening roar erupted as the ten thousand swords shattered. Wang Ming's eyes filled with horror, utterly unable to believe what he was seeing! Beside him, Liu Long bellowed and threw a punch! Ocean waves surged toward the heavens! Boom! A colossal wave, unleashed at point-blank range by a Thousand-Battler, collided with a thunderous roar, finally causing the sword qi to disperse. Even so, Liu Long was thoroughly shaken. He looked down at his fist... bloody and mangled, the bone visible beneath the flesh! From a hundred meters away, a casual burst of sword qi from Li Hao had nearly killed a Solar Radiance expert, and Liu Long, a Thousand-Battler martial master, had barely managed to shatter it. Up above, Li Hao was equally dumbfounded. How could this be? He hadn't used much strength; he had merely... followed some of the habits from earlier, or rather, the habits of the Sovereign he had inhabited, casually executing a swing. How could it turn out like this? He instantly dropped down from the city gate, staring at the two of them. Only after a long while did he manage to stammer, "Are you two... trying to frame me?" "..." Cold sweat poured down Wang Ming's face. He looked at Li Hao as though staring at a demon, trembling slightly as he cursed, "You... you were trying to kill me, weren't you?! Are you trying to silence the witness?" Damn it, he had nearly been killed! Liu Long frowned as well. "That sword strike... how was it so strong?" Li Hao scratched his head, only managing to speak after a long pause: "I don't know! I honestly don't know. It was just a casual swing..." With that, he casually swung his arm again. Wang Ming scrambled away in terror, but this time, no soaring sword qi emerged. Li Hao looked somewhat blank, while Liu Long frowned, finally asking, "Did you gain some insight? Were you in a state of comprehension just now?" "Insight?" After a long while, Li Hao gave a wry smile. "If... if watching someone slaughter people counts as an insight... then I suppose so!" He had merely watched someone kill people. Perhaps it truly was extraordinary. Recalling the Sovereign he had inhabited cleaving enemies down with a single blade... Li Hao felt that this might be the true gain from this experience. As for that murderous madman, Li Hao hadn't seen much clearly, so he hadn't learned anything concrete. At this moment, Li Hao let out a breath. That sword strike from earlier might not be something he could unleash at will. He likely needed time to digest it! Furthermore, he now realized that while the strike had seemed effortless, it had completely drained the inner force within his body... The hollow sensation was no better than the depletion from using the Blood Saber Art. He felt as though his entire body had been emptied out—something he hadn't even noticed in the moment. Truly terrifying! No wonder Old Wang had nearly wet his pants. One could only imagine: a casual strike from Li Hao that completely drained his reserves, even without specifically targeting Wang Ming or unleashing his force, was the product of a man who had previously slain the middle Three Sols Zhang Ting with a single sword strike. He looked toward the fleeing Wang Ming and said, caught between tears and laughter, "Stop running! Who's trying to kill you? If I truly wanted you dead, would you have lived this long?" In the distance, Wang Ming shot him a dirty look, muttering curses under his breath. This guy was far too dangerous! Liu Long looked up toward the two characters overhead, yet saw nothing out of the ordinary. He felt somewhat helpless and depressed. It seemed this opportunity wasn't meant for him. Li Hao looked up again as well, but quickly lowered his gaze. Forget it; he couldn't take those two characters with him, nor could he touch them. He would see if there was another chance in the future; the things he had absorbed earlier still needed to be digested. Besides, it seemed no one else could touch them either. Only now did Li Hao turn his attention back toward the city. The city remained quiet, but soon, Li Hao spotted a cluster of light moving toward them from deep within. Judging by the aura, it wasn't a Three Sols. It was at the Solar Radiance level! He couldn't tell who it was; they were a bit too far away to see clearly. "Someone's coming!" Li Hao warned. Wang Ming and Liu Long quickly drew close, peering into the city. Before them lay only a dim avenue, with no silhouette in sight. Just as Wang Ming began to think Li Hao was pulling their leg, a figure emerged. Someone from Yama! Two Solar Radiance experts from Yama had entered... but this wasn't the one who had threatened Liu Long earlier; it was the other one. Seeing Liu Long and the others, the man's expression tightened slightly, but he soon relaxed. There were only these three! One Thousand-Battler, one early Solar Radiance, and one Hundred-Breaker... Although he was only a middle Solar Radiance himself, he had no reason to fear them. If it came to blows, he wouldn't necessarily lose. Still, he had no desire to fight right now. Li Hao's group, meanwhile, looked toward the bundle he was carrying—a package wrapped in clothing. Wang Ming said in surprise, "Can you go inside the buildings and take things?" At the thought, his heart grew hot! No wonder no one had come out. If they could enter the buildings and take things... wouldn't they strike it rich? Who would want to leave! The man frowned slightly and said coldly, "Go see for yourselves!" Seeing the three blocking the gateway, he barked again, "Out of the way!" He wanted to leave! Although they couldn't leave the ruins just yet, he had no desire to linger in the inner city—it was too dangerous. Having already acquired valuable treasures, staying behind out of greed might jeopardize his chances of escaping alive. Furthermore, if he brought out too many treasures, he would be forced to hand them over, keeping very little for himself. Wang Ming glanced at Li Hao. Seeing that Li Hao remained silent, he smiled and asked inquisitively, "What's the rush? We're very curious about what's happening inside. Why are you the only one who came out? And... what are you holding in your hand?" The Yama expert's face darkened. What, are you three planning to rob me? He moved forward slowly, speaking in a measured tone: "The inner city is much like the outer city—the closed buildings can't be entered... but some buildings have their doors open. At first, no one dared go in, but after testing the waters, we found we could... So we each sought out those open buildings and grabbed a few worthless items..." "How about opening it up for us to see?" Wang Ming said earnestly. "If they're truly worthless, we'll let you pass!" "Are you looking to die?" The man grew enraged. "Do you really think you can do anything to me?" He simply hadn't wanted a fight to break out right now. Having secured his spoils, what was the point of killing these few fellows who looked like paupers anyway? Besides, in a three-on-one, if things went south and he died at their hands, what a waste that would be. Li Hao spoke up. "Did the Wheel-Turning King and the others head for the tall tower? Why haven't they come out, and why hasn't there been any commotion?" The Yama expert's brow furrowed deeply. He said coldly, "I don't know. If you want to know, go see for yourself!" "You know nothing about anything... Yama truly is full of scoundrels!" Li Hao scoffed. At this moment, an involuntary urge to kill welled up within him... Damn it, he had been influenced by that slaughtering fiend from earlier. Li Hao casually slashed his sword outward! The man was furious. What insolence! A mere Hundred-Breaker dared attack him? Courting death! He flared with rage. If all else failed, he would kill these three first... Did they truly think he was a soft target? He waved his hand to conjure a massive battleaxe, earth energy churning around it—he was an earth supernatural... The giant axe had barely taken shape when the sword qi arrived. Squelch! The sword qi tore straight through his earth energy defenses, piercing his throat in an instant. At that moment, the Yama expert's eyes glazed over. Am I... dead? Li Hao didn't care what thoughts were running through the man's head. Stepping forward, he delivered another sword strike to finish the job. Wang Ming, thrilled, didn't need Li Hao to tell him what to do; he immediately set to work collecting the corpse and extracting mysterious energy. A mosquito's leg was still meat! Besides, this was a Solar Radiance expert, capable of yielding two to three hundred cubic meters of mysterious energy. It was just a pity that the man was an earth supernatural rather than a metal one. Li Hao, meanwhile, unwrapped the bundle directly. Once it was opened, all three of them froze. What was this? A bundle of rocks? Yet as Li Hao looked closer, his breathing grew heavy. Wang Ming hadn't thought much of it at first, genuinely taking them for ordinary stones. After a moment, he swallowed hard, speaking in disbelief: "T-this... this... seems... seems to be... divine energy stones!" "What?" Liu Long was bewildered. He hadn't sensed anything, seeing only a pile of rocks. Wang Ming swallowed and explained, "T-these are treasures discovered by powerful experts in ancient civilization ruins! A single stone contains an immense amount of mysterious energy! Moreover, they can hold various attributes. The key is that this mysterious energy is exceptionally pure, and... there's an astonishing amount of it! A single stone might contain several hundred, or even over a thousand cubic meters of mysterious energy..." He was utterly shaken. "In the past... in the past, they were occasionally discovered in certain ruins! But... sometimes an entire ruin might yield only two or three pieces. Rumor has it that organizations like Red Moon rose to power precisely because they discovered a massive cache of divine energy stones, which allowed them to expand rapidly!" "Furthermore, these are crucial for replenishing the origin energy of Origin God Armaments... Actually... the Night Watchers have them too. Didn't I mention before that every faction has its own methods for nurturing newcomers and producing mysterious energy?" "Divine energy stones are the finest treasures for that! Through an Origin God Armament, vast quantities of divine energy can be swiftly extracted... and they can even temper the armament itself..." He swallowed hard, thoroughly incredulous. "This fellow... actually managed to pick up several dozen of them!" Indeed, there were roughly several dozen stones in the bundle. They had struck it rich! Truly struck it rich! No wonder this guy had been in such a rush to flee. If Wang Ming had picked up so many divine energy stones, he would have bolted immediately too! Not only would he run, but he would also hide them! If these were brought out and discovered, it might provoke Three Sols experts—or even those above Three Sols—to hunt him down. Divine energy stones were worth a fortune! One or two pieces were one thing, but several dozen all at once... this was simply too much. At this moment, Liu Long and Li Hao were equally astounded. Just these things—a single piece was worth several hundred or even over a thousand cubic meters of mysterious energy? Were these ruins... not a little too wealthy? This had merely come from an open building; what about the closed ones? Unbelievable! Could the others have found this many divine energy stones as well? Li Hao looked outward. He had sensed something unusual because of his keen eyesight, recognizing that these stones contained a vast reservoir of energy, but he hadn't imagined there would be this much! At this moment, even he felt they had hit the jackpot. He quickly counted them—large and small, thirty-two stones in all! Based on Li Hao's and Wang Ming's estimates, there might be over ten thousand cubic meters of mysterious energy here, perhaps even more... An unfathomable amount! The next instant, Wang Ming drew in a sharp breath. "This... this won't be easy to carry out! The stones aren't small, and we never entered the city. If we suddenly walk out carrying a bundle... anyone who sees it will know..." Striking it rich was one thing, but there were still many Three Sols experts inside. At this moment, all three wore troubled expressions. Did they have a spatial ring? Did any of them possess spatial abilities? If they carried a bundle just like this fellow had, even an idiot would know they were hauling treasure! Liu Long gritted his teeth. "If all else fails... I'll swallow them into my stomach first! Martial masters have strong digestive tracts and robust viscera. If it comes down to it... I'll excrete them once we're out!" "..." Li Hao and Wang Ming shot him looks of disgust at the same time! Can you be any more revolting? Yet thinking it through carefully... that might truly be the best way to conceal them. Over ten thousand cubic meters of mysterious energy! If it were a Three Sols or even a Rising Light expert, they wouldn't hesitate to casually dispatch the three of them to seize it, would they? As for absorbing it on the spot, that was out of the question. All three were practically saturated—how could they absorb more? Besides, there was no way they could finish it all! Just as the three were pondering how to handle the treasures, a brilliant golden light suddenly erupted from the center of the ancient city, which had remained dead quiet until now! In that instant, Li Hao and the others were startled at the same time, turning their gazes in that direction! With the faint light emanating from the central tower, they saw it... they saw a fist! A single punch! With just one punch, a figure tearing through the air was shattered to pieces, vanishing in an instant. And that figure that had been launched backward... looked somewhat familiar! Although it was far away, their eyesight was keen, and the figure had been high in the air. That fist seemed to glow with light, allowing them to vaguely make out what had happened. Li Hao's jaw dropped, while Liu Long and Wang Ming shuddered in terror. That... seemed to be Dingchen! Yes, the middle Three Sols expert from Feitian, who had even been carrying an Origin God Armament! Yet he had been obliterated by a single punch! Not only that, but at this moment, Li Hao saw a rapier fly out, its faint silhouette resembling a ferocious beast. What it was exactly, he couldn't tell, though it looked somewhat similar to the Shadow Snake from before—and that Shadow Snake had already been sliced to death by him. Right now, that colossal beast phantom seemed to be trembling. The next instant, a golden fist smashed outward! Bang! With a deafening crash, beast and sword alike were reduced to fine dust beneath that single blow! A Yellow-grade Origin God Armament... had been smashed to powder in an instant! It wasn't broken, nor merely damaged; it had been wiped completely out of existence! It had all happened in the blink of an eye! In the next instant... several figures burst into flight, fleeing frantically in all directions! Far away beneath the tower, a golden light flashed as a suit of golden armor emerged! That golden armor hovered in midair, making no move to pursue. It merely watched in silence as those people fled for their lives! The reason it had slain Dingchen was that the man had dared covet the Black Tortoise Seal in its grasp. The golden armor hovered in the void. Within the city, those Three Sols experts fled in utter panic, terror etched onto every face. Gold! Fuck! They had thought it was just a decoration, a mere shell... but it was alive! Consider that the silver-armored commander had unleashed the power of a Rising Light or higher at the very end. What about this golden warrior? Had he regained his consciousness? Perhaps not! Regaining consciousness seemed to mean complete dissolution. Yet even if he hadn't... by convention, a silver chiliarch had possessed the strength of a late to peak Three Sols. This one... was likely at least a Rising Light, wasn't he? Or perhaps even beyond Rising Light? If pushed to the brink and forced to awaken his consciousness... might he transcend the Rising Light realm altogether? No one dared contemplate it! He had slain the middle Three Sols Dingchen with a single punch and shattered an Origin God Armament with another... With just those two moves, everyone knew that joining forces would be utterly futile; they would only be obliterated one by one! Run! Running was their only option! If they didn't run, they were all doomed. At the city gate, Li Hao was scared out of his wits as well. Holy crap, golden armor! He turned on his heel and fled as well! It was simply too terrifying! He had been right by the gateway. As he fled, the colossal city gate began to slowly creak shut. Li Hao hadn't noticed at first... but after running for a bit, he glanced back, his heart seizing in shock. Is it... closing? Once the gate shut, he didn't know what would happen to the others, but Hao Lianchuan and his group wouldn't be able to escape! They couldn't fly inside the city! It was over—Director Hao was finished! The city center was over twenty li away, and the gate would only take a moment to close. Director Hao was dead meat! There was also Kong Qi—of the Three Sols experts, only the two of them hadn't entered the second passage. Li Hao grew anxious. Director Hao was a decent man... It would be a terrible shame if he died. He wanted to try and see if he could stall the gate from closing, even for just a moment. He turned and sprinted back. Seeing this, Liu Long and Wang Ming had no choice but to grit their teeth and follow him, having clearly noticed the closing gate as well. Yet in the next instant... Li Hao froze. As he drew near the city gate, the gate... began to open again! He stood dazed. What was going on? ... At that very moment, the golden armor seemed to cast a glance toward the city gate. Up in midair, the crouching giant tortoise seemed to open its eyes once more, glancing in that direction as well, as if catching sight of something. A direct descendant of the Eight Families? Whether that thought belonged to the old tortoise or the golden armor was unknown, but it vanished in an instant. Battle Heaven City welcomed guests. Direct descendants of the Eight Families were always welcome. The Eight Families were branches of the same tree; when they came as guests, the main gates ought to be thrown wide open! Provided, of course, that Battle Heaven City was revived... Yes, revived. Clearly, the reason Li Hao hadn't been able to open this gate earlier was that the city... was still slumbering and had not yet awakened. Right now, it seemed to have revived slightly. The golden armor remained motionless, and the crouching old tortoise was equally still, like a stone sculpture, allowing the people inside the city to flee in mad panic! Battle Heaven City never feared enemies. So long as they did not cross the line, Battle Heaven City welcomed all guests... It simply did not welcome bandits and thieves. With the appearance of the golden warrior, the ancient city sank into dead silence once more, broken only by the whistling sound of bodies tearing through the air. The Three Sols experts inside the city were scared out of their wits. Even Hao Lianchuan was deathly pale. In the next instant, the Fire Phoenix Spear materialized, and he mounted the phoenix-like creature, fleeing toward the city gate at blinding speed, completely past caring that this was Director Hou's cherished Origin God Armament! Hu Dingfang transformed into a stag-like creature, all four limbs touching the ground as he bounded and leapt frantically, moving even faster than flight, terrified out of his mind. As for the others, without exception, even when they caught sight of one another, no one was in the mood to fight. Fleeing came first! ... At the city gate, Li Hao wore an odd expression. He glanced at the gate, then looked toward the people rushing over. Suddenly, he grabbed the divine energy stones and shoved them into his mouth, swallowing one, two, three... "Eat!" Li Hao hissed in a low voice. Realization dawned on Liu Long and Wang Ming, and they hurriedly began gulping them down! Once those people returned and saw this... they might try to snatch them. Better to swallow them first! Meanwhile, Li Hao gauged the distance, searching for Deputy Director Zhou and the earth supernatural Zhao Huan among the Night Watchers to see if they were fleeing this way. He prepared himself: the moment Hao Lianchuan and Hu Dingfang drew near, he would make a break for it. Close the gate! As for whether the gate could open again, or whether they could fly out... he wouldn't care! Evidently, the Solar Radiance and Lunar Nether supernaturals hadn't ventured as deep into the city. Before long, several Solar Radiance experts came fleeing frantically in this direction. Li Hao spotted Zhao Huan and Deputy Director Zhou. As for the Lunar Nether supernaturals, perhaps their speed had been too slow, for they were nowhere to be seen... Li Hao didn't care about them; those few were likely scouts anyway. To hell with them! Any Lunar Nether expert who had chosen to stay behind harbored ill intentions. Seeing these Solar Radiance experts escaping through the gate one after another, Deputy Director Zhou didn't forget to bark as he dashed past, "What are you idiots still standing there for? Run!" These few fools! Still standing here? Had water gotten into their brains? Li Hao said woodenly, "W-waiting for the director..." Fuck! This foolish boy! Deputy Director Zhou grabbed him and bolted, bellowing, "Leave them be, they're faster than us—" Li Hao's heart felt weary! As he was dragged away, the city gate began to close once more, though no one noticed in the chaos. In the distance, Hao Lianchuan and the others saw the gate shutting. Drenched in cold sweat, Hao Lianchuan panicked. The gate is closing too? Run! He poured every ounce of strength into his flight, the Fire Phoenix Spear accelerating like a launched cannonball—faster than a cannonball! The gate was nearly shut! He couldn't fly, and even if he could, he worried he wouldn't make it out. In an instant, a streak of fire shot through the opening. The next moment, the Wheel-Turning King blew past like a gust of wind, and Ziyue, transformed into a bolt of lightning, burst out as well. Hong Yitang wasn't particularly strong, yet at this moment, he curled up like a giant bear and rolled straight out along the ground... leaving Li Hao dumbfounded. What kind of technique was that? Hu Dingfang was no slouch either; with a powerful leap, he cleared the threshold! On Feitian's side, Kong Qi was the weakest. Desperate, seeing the gate closing, he leapt into the air, hoping to rely on flight to escape... But he had never traversed the second passage. In an instant—rumble! A flash of white light erupted. The man was gone! Erased in an instant! Feitian hadn't suffered heavy losses before, but in the blink of an eye, two of their Three Sols experts had vanished. The few Feitian Solar Radiance experts who had managed to escape stood dumbfounded. Gone? Both of their leaders... had died just like that? Boom! The city gate slammed completely shut! Heavy, ragged breathing echoed in everyone's ears. The Three Sols experts were panting heavily, drenched in sweat. What had transpired today would likely become their enduring nightmare.