"Raise your hands and drop your weapons!"
shouted a Mech Squad warrior.
"Idiot."
The Black-Robed Man sneered, his sinister face twisting into a cold smile. Then, he swung his sword.
Five blood-colored sword beams sliced through time and space, slashing into the five Mech Squad warriors.
"Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!"
It sounded like slicing through tofu. Instantly, the five Mech Squad warriors split open, blood and organs spraying everywhere.
"Damn, that's a master far beyond War-General level!"
Seeing this, Harvey Zhang's face changed drastically. He opened a nearby case, pulled out a purple helmet, and put it on. Instantly, he was covered in a layer of purple mech armor.
The armor he wore was the SS-class Purple Dragon Mech produced by Hualong Dynamics—top-tier in both defense and offense, priced at fifty million.
With a faint chuckle, the black-robed man swung his sword again—this time, not just sword light or sword energy.
It was a sword wave...
Wherever the blood-colored sword wave swept, everything was reduced to powder.
In the blink of an eye, hundreds of special police—including Harvey Zhang and Henry Yun—vanished from this world.
Inside the underground palace.
Ian Song was still fending off the giant snakes’ attacks, but his face beneath the mech helmet was dark and unsettled. He felt this Host’s bloodlust was far too intense. He’d killed people before, but never slaughtered without reason like this black-robed youth.
After killing Harvey Zhang and the others, the black-robed man leapt into the pit and began striding unhurriedly down the tunnel.
If nothing unexpected happened, once this black-robed youth arrived, he’d kill Ryan Zhou and the others too. But Ian couldn’t afford to reveal his true strength in front of them.
Glancing at Hugh Xu and the others still fighting the giant snakes, Ian made up his mind.
He uttered a low, hypnotic chant. Instantly, Ryan Zhou and the others’ eyes turned vacant. In the next moment, Ian stored them all inside the Divine Temple.
He reached out and grabbed the Evolution Divine Pearl, then tossed it into his storage space.
The moment the Evolution Divine Pearl vanished, the giant snakes and rats went berserk and charged at Ian.
With a flicker, he appeared directly above the underground palace.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, Ian let out a surprised sound. He realized the black-robed youth was still calmly walking through the tunnel, seemingly unaware Ian had already left.
"What's going on? Aren't Hosts supposed to be able to sense each other? Why hasn't he noticed I've left?"
"System upgrade to one-star: Host can block sensing from zero-star Host systems!"
A cold system notification sounded.
"Haha, so that's it!"
Ian laughed. He’d thought upgrading to a one-star system only unlocked the Shop function, but it also let him block other Hosts’ sensing. No wonder the black-robed guy hadn’t noticed his departure.
With the Evolution Divine Pearl gone, the giant rats and snakes in that space all went berserk and flooded into the tunnel.
They happened to run into the black-robed man as he reached the second hall.
Without the Evolution Divine Pearl, the giant rats and snakes were crazed. As soon as they saw the black-robed man, they threw themselves at him desperately.
But what the special police saw as deadly threats, the black-robed man considered trash—no match for him at all.
"Slash!"
A sword wave swept out, turning thousands of giant rats and snakes into powder.
Watching quietly, Ian estimated that just this sword wave alone meant the black-robed youth’s cultivation rivaled at least a late-stage Grandmaster.
After slaughtering the blocking rats and snakes, the black-robed man pressed forward, killing many more, until he reached that vast chamber.
Suddenly, his brow furrowed and his sinister expression twisted into rage: "Who? Who stole my S-Class treasure!"
"Awwng! Awwng!"
Just then, a dragon’s roar echoed through the chamber, followed by the stone pillar exploding open to reveal a massive upright golden coffin.
The dragon roar was coming from inside the coffin.
Bang!
The golden coffin lid shot out, heading straight for the black-robed man.
"Hmph!"
With a cold snort, the black-robed man swiped his palm, smashing the golden coffin lid to powder.
But Ian’s attention was drawn to someone inside the coffin—a middle-aged man, barely 1.7 meters tall, yet radiating an overwhelming imperial presence.
Ian was very familiar with that aura—it was the majesty of a sovereign.
The middle-aged man wore a golden dragon robe, a flat heavenly crown, and golden dragon-embroidered boots.
Suddenly, his eyes flashed like lightning as he stared at the black-robed man and said coldly, "Hand over the Immortal Pearl, and I can pardon your death sentence!"
"You're an emperor?"
The black-robed youth looked at the middle-aged man in the coffin with a playful smirk.
"I am the Son of Heaven!"
"Hahaha!" The black-robed youth burst out laughing.
"You find that funny?" The middle-aged man stepped out of the coffin.
The black-robed man nodded, "Of course it's funny. I've already cut off the heads of more than ten emperors and played with their prettiest consorts. What does a guy crawling out of a coffin like you amount to?"
"Insolence!"
With a cold shout, the middle-aged man reached out to grab the black-robed youth.
As he grabbed, a dragon’s roar erupted, and a golden dragon phantom appeared, instantly swooping toward the black-robed youth’s head.
"Not bad, you've got some skill!"
The black-robed youth was a bit surprised, but with a single sword slash, he easily broke the middle-aged man’s claw attack.
Then he unleashed several sword strikes in quick succession, sending layer upon layer of annihilating sword waves at the middle-aged man.
"Roar!"
The middle-aged man let out a fierce roar, unleashing wave after wave of sonic blasts.
Boom boom boom boom!
Sword waves and sonic blasts collided, erupting in a string of explosions. Then, a golden figure and a black figure crashed together in midair.