"Since you're already here… then none of you are leaving!"
The Wu Emperor snorted coldly and took a step forward.
Inside the small world, the winds and clouds changed violently. One vortex after another appeared in the sky.
From within those vortices, chains shot out from the heavens. Each chain was completely golden—iron clasp linked to iron clasp—and at the very front was a sharp, arrow-like tip.
The chains pierced straight toward the cultivators.
The cultivators within the small world dodged frantically, but in the end, they were still pierced through by the chains.
Some were stabbed through the heart. Some were pierced through the shoulder blades. Others had their limbs impaled.
Every one of them was hoisted into the air like criminals on display.
"Since Your Majesty insists on stubbornness, then don't blame me for being merciless!" an Ascension Realm elder shouted.
The Wu Emperor stared at him coldly, as if looking at some filthy beast.
"If you want to fight, then fight. Why all the nonsense? Don't tell me you actually think you're guaranteed to win?"
The Wu Emperor extended his palm and pressed downward.
Two enormous golden giants rose up.
Each giant stood a hundred meters tall, clad in full armor, gripping a Fangtian Halberd. It was as if a single swing could cleave the entire landscape apart!
The Heavenly Dao chains condensed from the Wu Kingdom's national fortune… those massive golden giant Dharma forms… two stone lions as large as mountains… and a national fortune dragon stretching a thousand meters long—
Everything was the tangible manifestation of the Wu Kingdom's mountain-and-river destiny.
All of it was the result of generations of Wu Kingdom emperors governing with tireless ambition and discipline.
If the Wu Kingdom were a minor state, if its national power were weak, it would have long since become fish on the chopping block. How could it resist like this?
It was only because the Wu Kingdom was prosperous now that it could forge such strength.
Otherwise, its national fortune might, at best, condense into a tiny lion—nothing more.
"Wu Chang! Have you lost your mind?!"
Seeing how desperately the Wu Emperor was fighting, the other Ascension cultivators felt their hearts jolt.
If the Wu Emperor exhausted the national fortune like this and still lost, then the Wu Kingdom would be utterly destroyed, and the realm would fall into at least a hundred years of chaos and war!
"On the contrary," the Wu Emperor said calmly. "I'm very clear-headed."
He swept his arm, and golden lightning pierced through the body of an Ascension cultivator—but it only caused minimal damage.
Those elders immediately realized they could no longer hold back.
They had originally planned to feast on flesh at the lowest possible cost.
But the rulers of the Wu Kingdom—from ancient times to the present—could only be described as lunatics.
And as the Wu Emperor battled them to the death, disasters erupted across the Wu Kingdom.
Earthquakes struck repeatedly. Mountains collapsed. Rivers flooded. Great waterways overflowed.
The Astronomical Bureaus of the various vassal kings all learned that turmoil had erupted in the imperial capital.
Seeing this, the other vassal kings all believed the best opportunity had arrived. One after another, they mobilized troops, preparing to rebel.
What the Wu Emperor was doing did not come without a price.
Everything he did was founded upon national fortune.
National fortune could recover, yes—but if it fell past a critical limit, the only outcome was annihilation.
And now, the fortune he had consumed was already teetering on that very edge.
These vassal kings didn't know what exactly was happening in the capital.
But they knew one thing: this was their greatest chance.
No matter what was happening inside the capital, no matter whether the Wu Emperor won or lost, the court would be gravely wounded.
This was the best chance they would ever get!
On the plains, Wu Yanhán frowned and scattered a thousand soldier pellets.
The pellets hit the ground—and instantly, a total of one thousand warriors clad in silver armor appeared, each holding a spear, standing beside Wu Yanhán.
Everyone's hearts trembled in shock.
What… was this?
Were these Moist School soldier pellets?
They didn't seem like it.
Since when were Moist soldier pellets this terrifying?
Those soldiers didn't even move—yet they radiated an indescribable killing aura!
To forge a thousand of these soldier pellets… how many heavenly treasures would it consume?
Could the Wu Kingdom even afford such a cost?
"Kill!"
Wu Yanhán pointed forward and shouted coldly.
The heavenly soldiers immediately understood their master's will. With spears in hand, they charged at the sect masters!
Where the silver-white armored tide passed, everything was destroyed like a storm sweeping away dead leaves.
Those Nascent Soul cultivators before them were like lambs waiting to be slaughtered.
The sect masters unleashed every technique they had—but it was all useless. These silver-armored warriors were outrageously durable!
Within this small world, the battlefield split into two halves.
On the ground and in low air: Nascent Soul cultivators slaughtered against Wu Kingdom civil and military officials.
High in the skies: Ascension cultivators and Immortal Realm / Jade Purity Realm cultivators encircled and hunted the Wu Emperor.
After Wu Yanhán's thousand soldier pellets joined the battle, the situation became almost completely one-sided.
A few Jade Purity cultivators had no choice but to descend, protecting sect masters allied with their sects.
As for cultivators with no connection to them… they didn't care at all.
Better that those sect masters die.
Once they escaped the capital, they could simply annex those sects.
A Nascent Soul sect would definitely have plenty of wealth left behind.
Meanwhile, in the skies above—
Even though the Wu Emperor redirected the entire dynasty's fortune, he was still at a disadvantage.
It even felt like it wouldn't take long before he would be erased by them entirely.
And yet, even so… Xiao Mochi, who had been standing off to the side, still had not made a move.
Xiao Mochi—wearing a blue robe—stood on the ground with one hand behind his back and the other clenched before his chest. His expression was calm as he watched everything unfold.
As if none of what was happening in the Wu Kingdom had anything to do with him.
Liu Feng looked at this younger Wu Kingdom scholar and couldn't tell what he was thinking.
As more and more cultivators died, the golden paper floating in the air grew brighter and brighter.
One Ascension cultivator pulled out a miniature mountain-and-river model and smashed it down toward the Wu Emperor's head.
That palm-sized landscape instantly expanded into a real mountain and river!
"ROAR!"
Several golden dragons surged upward and shattered the mountain-river projection.
But the Wu Emperor spat out a mouthful of blood, and the golden dragon robe upon him dimmed as if it were losing light.
Seeing him like this, most cultivators knew he was at the end of his rope.
"Your Wu Kingdom… should have perished long ago! How will you face your ancestors in the underworld?!"
The Mountain Azure Sect Patriarch formed hand seals. His Dharma form rose from the earth.
His Dharma Manifestation was a massive stone giant.
It gripped hammers in both hands and smashed down at the Wu Emperor!
At the same time, several other High Fifth Realm cultivators also summoned their Dharma forms, preparing to deliver a fatal blow together.
After today's palace upheaval, the Wu Kingdom would certainly fall into chaos—perhaps even suffer disasters and calamities—all because the Wu Emperor had consumed too much mountain-and-river fortune.
But they did not intend to let him consume any more.
A century of chaos in Wu Kingdom lands meant nothing to them.
But four or five centuries of chaos? That would bring them no benefit at all.
Kill the Wu Emperor, and this land might still have some room left to breathe.
What they wanted wasn't a strong dynasty, nor a centuries-long age of war.
What they wanted was a puppet regime that could be manipulated at will!
"Your Majesty!"
"Your Majesty!"
The civil and military officials looked up and cried out in grief.
No one believed the Wu Emperor could withstand the combined assault of the Ascension cultivators.
Xu Ming raised his head and looked up, frowning.
In his eyes, the Wu Emperor was destined to die.
In fact, Xu Ming's mind had already begun thinking subconsciously about how to flee the slaughter with Wu Yanhán.
Though that would likely be impossible.
Most likely, he and Yanhán would die together here.
But at that moment—
The Wu Emperor's lips curled slightly, as if this was exactly what he had been waiting for.
And finally… Xiao Mochi moved.
Xiao Mochi stepped forward, and in an instant, arrived beside the Wu Emperor.
"Your Majesty." Xiao Mochi clasped his hands and bowed.
The Wu Emperor, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth, looked at him.
"What I needed to do… I've already done."
"You've worked hard, Your Majesty." Xiao Mochi straightened and faced the gathered Ascension cultivators. "From here on… leave it to this humble minister."
"Mm." The Wu Emperor nodded without saying more.
But visibly, his hair turned white in patches—like he had aged ten years in an instant.
What the Wu Emperor had used wasn't only the Wu Kingdom's national fortune—he had also burned his own essence blood.
After this… even if the court won, no one knew how many years he could still live.
An emperor always values his lifespan above all else.
Throughout history, how many emperors had sought immortality to escape the restraints of mountain-and-river fortune?
But the Wu Kingdom's emperor was different.
"BOOM!"
All the Dharma forms rushed toward Xiao Mochi and the Wu Emperor.
But Xiao Mochi only lifted his head and glanced at them once.
Beside him, pages of ink-condensed scripture flew out from behind his back.
Hua-la-la-la…
The pages wrapped around Xiao Mochi and the Wu Emperor.
"THUD!"
A deafening crash sounded.
Those Dharma forms were instantly repelled—stumbling backward as if struck by an unseen force.
The scroll dispersed.
The Wu Emperor held the imperial jade seal and stepped toward a phantom throne.
He sat upon the illusory golden throne.
He no longer attacked, but instead stabilized the small world, stabilizing Wu Kingdom fortune.
Even he did not dare to truly squander the kingdom's fortune to nothing.
Golden radiance enveloped Xiao Mochi. Strands of Dao principles intertwined with mountain-and-river fortune.
Weng… weng…
The sound of the Great Dao resonated across the heavens.
Golden light condensed above.
On the golden paper, the black characters were stripped away one by one.
Beams of light descended, wrapping around each character.
The black characters vanished, compressing high in the sky.
They became ink—
condensing into a black ink pool in the air.
What you could see was a thin, vast sheet of darkness—black as pitch.
"Could it be… the Wu Emperor wants to…?!"
Everyone's hearts jolted.
They had already begun to guess what he intended.
At first, they thought he merely wanted greater authority over the sects.
That he only wanted the Wu Kingdom's court to stand above all sects.
But now, they realized they had all been wrong.
What the Wu Emperor wanted wasn't merely to subdue the sects.
He wanted to alter the rules of the Great Dao itself!
That golden paper looked like a contract, yes—but it was no ordinary contract.
With Wu Kingdom fortune, the Wu Emperor had connected that sheet of golden paper to the Great Dao!
But to change the rules of the Great Dao…
Wu Kingdom fortune alone was not enough.
So the Wu Emperor needed lives.
He needed cultivators' lives!
He intended to use cultivators' lives to link dynastic fortune, Dao laws, and cultivators together.
To use a metaphor:
Dynastic fortune and the cultivator sects were the Wu Emperor's target.
Great Dao rules were the result he sought.
If he succeeded, then what he wrote on that contract would no longer be merely words on paper—
it would become Great Dao law.
Of course, it was still far from affecting the whole world…
But within the borders of the Wu Kingdom, every rule written today on that golden sheet would become law.
Any cultivator who entered Wu Kingdom territory would be forced to obey!
"A mere mortal dares go this far?! Wu Kingdom—today you will certainly be destroyed!"
The Chengshan Sect Master roared.
His Dharma form—green-faced, fanged, wielding a blade—smashed toward the Wu Emperor!
How could he allow this to happen?
The Chengshan Sect had existed on this land for thousands of years.
How many years had the Wu Kingdom existed?
How could he let the Wu Kingdom rise to power?!
As for moving away?
That blessed land and veins was not so easily found.
Any sect that relocated would suffer heavy damage—possibly even collapse and fracture apart.
Xiao Mochi held his scroll and pointed at that Dharma form, chanting:
"Like a spring wind that comes overnight—
a thousand trees, ten thousand trees, bloom into pear blossoms."
In an instant, a gentle wind passed, and pear blossom trees appeared out of thin air, forming a line across the sky.
In the next instant, another breeze blew, scattering the blossoms to form a barrier before Xiao Mochi and the Wu Emperor.
With a sweep of Xiao Mochi's sleeve, flowing cloudlike afterimages trailed behind.
The floating pear blossoms froze in midair.
Their pale petals took on a frosty edge, trembling as their soft curves peeled away—like countless silver blades tempered by moonlight, tearing free from silk restraints.
Each pear blossom turned into a sword.
Thousands upon thousands.
"So-called rules… the ones decreed by Heaven—why can't they be decreed by man?" Xiao Mochi gazed at the Dharma forms ahead, clasping his hands in a solemn bow. "Today, for the great undertaking of my Wu Kingdom… I ask you all to die!"
