298: The Emperor's personal presence is a declaration of war against the entire Divine Dynasty!

Great Xia Divine Dynasty, Imperial Capital, Tian Du.

The autumn afternoon sun was warm and gentle, casting a golden edge upon this majestic Imperial City.

On the long streets, traffic flowed like water and carriages like dragons. The hawkers' cries, the crisp sound of the storyteller's gavel, and the laughter of children chasing kites intertwined into a grand and tranquil song of a prosperous age.

A one-armed veteran, just retired from the battlefield, sat by the tavern window, contentedly drinking cheap liquor with a dish of fennel beans. His turbid old eyes looked out the window, filled with satisfaction.

One of his arms had been left at the border, sacrificed to protect this very peace.

Imperial Palace, Imperial Study.

Ji Hongxue, clad in the nine phoenix emperor robe, gently rubbed a Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade paperweight with her fair, slender fingertips.

The news from Heavenly Pillar Mountain left her heart unsettled.

Her icy phoenix eyes were calculating countless methods to break the deadlock.

Yet, a storm powerful enough to overturn this world descended with the most domineering force, giving no one time to prepare!

Riiip——!

The sky was torn open.

An ear-piercing explosion resounded across the clear sky directly above the imperial capital!

The warm sunlight was instantly devoured.

A massive, ferocious black spatial rift appeared out of thin air, like an ugly scar that could never heal!

Fierce spatial turbulence raged within the rift, emitting a destructive aura that could freeze even a Saint's Divine Soul.

An indescribably terrifying pressure poured forth from the rift!

Every inch of space in Tian Du groaned and twisted under this power!

"What's happening?!"

"The sky... the sky is torn open?!"

Within the imperial capital, all sounds were cut off at this moment.

The wine bowl in the one-armed veteran's hand shattered with a *crack*, spilling wine all over the floor.

The children on the street corner forgot to cry, staring dumbfounded at the apocalyptic scene above.

Countless Cultivators turned deathly pale, feeling their Divine Souls pinned by that pressure, unable to move an inch!

The next second.

Under the countless horrified gazes of the entire city, a figure stepped out leisurely from the black rift, hands clasped behind his back.

The newcomer wore black robes and had a sinister, ruthless face.

As soon as he appeared, the Laws of Heaven and Earth above the Great Xia's Tian Du groaned under unbearable strain, then retreated and submitted!

"A... a Great Emperor?!"

Deep within the Imperial City, the three Direct-lineage Old Ancestors of the Imperial Family were simultaneously jolted awake. The moment their Divine Thoughts touched that figure, they broke out in a cold sweat!

First that terrifying woman, and now a living Great Emperor!

What in the world is happening?!

Zhao Wuji hovered high in the sky, looking down upon the imperial palace coiled by a Luck Golden Dragon.

His gaze was that of a butcher sizing up livestock ready for slaughter.

The corner of his mouth curled into the cruelty of an executioner.

What he wanted to savor was the thrill of personally shattering their faith and backbone before the eyes of billions of ants!

Zhao Wuji activated the half-converted immortal essence within his body. His voice, though not like thunder, carried a more destructive force.

Each syllable transformed into a Divine Soul hammer, smashing into the minds of every living being below!

"Great Xia Empress, Ji Hongxue, where are you?! Roll out and receive the Edict!"

Within the Imperial Study, Ji Hongxue abruptly looked up!

Crack—

The Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade paperweight beneath her hand silently turned to dust!

Her icy phoenix eyes pierced through the palace's barriers, locking onto the figure above the imperial capital radiating overwhelming ferocity!

That lackey from Heavenly Pillar Mountain!

He actually came in person!

Zhao Wuji greatly enjoyed the silent fear below. He gave no one time to react, directly reciting Lin Yu's words—filled with humiliation and perversion—word for word before the billions of inhabitants of the entire imperial capital!

"Edict from the Upper Realm's Xuantian Immortal Sect, Divine Emissary Lin Yu, proclaims!"

"The common woman Ji Hongxue, though passable in appearance, is of a stubborn and unruly disposition, and has offended the Upper Emissary. She deserves total annihilation of body and soul!"

"However, the Divine Emissary, in his mercy, grants you two paths to survival!"

"First: Immediately cripple your own cultivation, remove your Imperial Robe, and proceed from the imperial capital to Heavenly Pillar Mountain, kowtowing every three steps and bowing every nine steps! Kneel before the Divine Emissary, lick the dust from his shoes, and beg for forgiveness! If it pleases the Divine Emissary, he may take you as a tea-serving maid, allowing you to live a wretched existence!"

"Second: In fifteen days, bathe and change your clothes, prepare half the divine dynasty's treasury as dowry, and await the Divine Emissary's grand arrival at the Great Xia Imperial Palace!"

Zhao Wuji's voice suddenly rose, filled with mockery and the thrill of pronouncing judgment, as he roared the final line!

"At that time, the Divine Emissary will personally arrive at the imperial palace, proclaim to the world, and take you as his... thirteen-thousand-eight-hundredth concubine!"

"So it is decreed!"

Each word was like a blunt knife dipped in potent poison, scraping across Ji Hongxue's face and the hearts of every Great Xia subject.

As that light, yet utterly malicious phrase, "thirteen-thousand-eight-hundredth concubine," fell.

The entire imperial capital fell into a graveyard-like silence.

Everyone was stunned, thinking their Divine Souls were in disarray, that they were hallucinating.

Take... take their supreme, sovereign Empress, Her Majesty the Empress, as a concubine?

And the... thirteen-thousand-eight-hundredth?

This was not humiliation.

This was completely shredding the dignity and glory of the Great Xia Divine Dynasty's vast lands and billions of subjects, pressing it into the mire, and grinding it repeatedly underfoot!

The whole world fell silent.

Then.

"Pfft—"

The one-armed veteran could no longer suppress it, violently spitting out a mouthful of heart's blood that stained the table before him.

His remaining arm clenched tightly, his crimson eyes fixed on the sky, a beast-like growl forcing its way from his hoarse throat.

This dead silence was not fear!

It was the suffocating calm before a volcano, dormant for ten thousand years, erupts!

One wisp, two wisps, millions of wisps... a torrent of anger, enough to burn the heavens and defy immortals and gods, exploded in the heart of every Great Xia subject!

Converging into an intangible torrent powerful enough to change the face of heaven and earth!