Silence covered the city for only a brief moment before it was shattered by the chaotic roar of the crowd.
People rushed out of their homes like madmen. Many dragged their heavy bodies as they staggered through the streets. Some supported each other. Some fell, only to rise again. Their eyes held only a single destination.
The Cloud Commerce Pavilion.
Although doubt lingered in the hearts of many, at this moment, no one dared to voice it. Their lives and deaths depended solely on that single pill. Even if the price was absurdly inflated, there was nothing to regret if it meant survival.
Amid the crowd surging like ocean waves, Kang Hao stood silently watching the scene. His breathing remained steady and powerful. His gaze was deep and calm, impossible to read, revealing nothing of what he was thinking.
Above Heaven Sword City, gentle sunlight descended peacefully. Yet below, the entire city was being pushed into a current from which there would be no turning back.
At the same time, in a distant land, beneath a curtain of torrential rain so dense that the horizon could barely be seen, layers of black clouds overlapped endlessly. Thunder roared without pause. Shockwaves spread across the desolate region, splitting the earth into deep, jagged cracks. Floodwaters surged into rivers of mud, devouring mountains and forests without mercy.
Boom!!!
A silver-white bolt of heavenly lightning tore through the black clouds. Massive craters formed again and again. The surrounding land was reduced to ruins. Trees collapsed in chaotic heaps. The energy of heaven and earth churned violently as the balance of natural laws began to destabilize.
Amid the catastrophic storm of destruction, a single figure floated motionlessly in the sky.
Zhang Wen.
The rain that should have been pouring onto him halted just before touching his body, as if an invisible force surrounded him. His white robes fluttered against the violent winds, while his eyes remained calm like the silent depths of an ocean.
The next bolt of lightning shot toward him with devastating force. That power could reduce a mountain peak to ashes in an instant. Yet the moment it touched his body, it was silently absorbed.
From one bolt… it became ten.
Ten bolts… became hundreds.
Before long, the entire sky transformed into an ocean of lightning crashing down endlessly, as if the heavens themselves were punishing one who dared to challenge the laws of the world.
Inside Zhang Wen's body, channels of energy opened one after another. Spiritual power circulated violently. The vast ocean of energy within him expanded until it nearly overflowed beyond its former limits. His body began radiating a faint silver-blue glow.
Suddenly, the sky trembled violently.
Some of the lightning bolts froze in midair.
Behind Zhang Wen, fragments of a small world slowly began to take shape. A silver-blue ocean swirled within it as waves of power spread outward in expanding rings.
The pressure from heaven and earth surged tremendously. Black clouds across the sky gathered into a colossal vortex. Pitch-black energy condensed within it. This was not merely lightning, but a force of erasure created to eliminate beings that existed outside the laws of the world.
Boom!!!!!
A pillar of black lightning crashed down from the heavens. The destructive force spread outward, causing tens of thousands of li of land to collapse. The surrounding space cracked apart into fissures as if the world itself were shattering.
Zhang Wen slowly raised his head and lifted his right hand. Within his eyes reflected an ocean flowing beyond time itself.
At that moment, the fragment of the world behind him erupted into turmoil. Tidal waves of oceanic energy surged outward, surrounding his body. The power of the small world began expanding into reality.
The black lightning pillar froze in midair.
It was not resisted.
It was… rejected.
The laws that created it began to tremble. The lightning gradually shattered into streams of pure energy before flowing backward into Zhang Wen's small world, as if it had accepted the new law that was being born.
The echoes of heaven and earth reverberated across the land, sounding like a mixture of a roar and a warning.
Saints, Saint Kings, and Saint Emperors were beings who fused with the laws.
But a Half-Emperor was one who began forcing the laws to fuse with themselves.
The space surrounding Zhang Wen began to change according to his will. The storm winds reversed direction. Elemental forces lost their former balance, as if the world itself was being rewritten piece by piece.
Zhang Wen's body radiated a tranquil silver-blue glow. All power within him merged into one. The pathways of energy no longer flowed according to the laws of heaven and earth, but instead followed his own will.
A formless pressure slowly spread outward from his body. It was not violent, yet it was so heavy and absolute that the surrounding dimension began to distort.
At that moment, the boundary between those who obeyed the laws and those who dictated them was completely shattered. Zhang Wen stepped into the realm of the Half-Emperor, Level One.
The rain continued to fall, but the black clouds gradually parted. The sky returned once again to a chilling silence.
…
…
…
Not long after, Zhang Wen floated motionlessly in the air. His body stood upright as his gaze focused upon a translucent blue interface floating before him. Countless lines of text flowed across it continuously.
[Name: Zhang Wen]
[ Cultivation Level: Half-Emperor, Level 9 ]
[ Special Body: Sacred Body of Pure Water (Sacred Rank), Emperor Phoenix Bloodline (Sacred Rank) ]
[ Cultivation Technique: Origin of Water (Emperor Rank) ]
[ Combat Techniques: Water Absorption (Emperor Rank), Aqua Clone (Emperor Rank), Roaring Water Dragon (Emperor Rank), Water Dominion (Emperor Rank), Water Transmutation (Emperor Rank), Poison Mist (Emperor Rank), Storm Rain (Emperor Rank), Covenant of Water (Emperor Rank), Whirlpool (Emperor Rank), Droplet Formation Array (Emperor Rank), Water Detonation (Emperor Rank) ]
[ Luck: Black ]
Now… he had officially stepped into the Half-Emperor realm. After using Enlightenment eighteen times, he immediately realized that the power of Enlightenment was far more overwhelming than he had expected, both in cultivation and in mastering techniques.
He used ten rounds of Enlightenment to elevate nearly all of his cultivation and combat techniques, and even created several entirely new techniques. The remaining eight rounds were spent studying numerous laws, including the Law of Life, the Law of Space, the Law of Death, the Law of Luck, and others. During that process, his cultivation naturally advanced to Half-Emperor Level Nine.
If one were to describe the Saint realm, its essence was harmony with the laws of the world. Cultivators became a part of those laws and wielded their power through their understanding.
But the Half-Emperor realm… was another step entirely.
It was a stage where a cultivator had to separate themselves from the laws of the world. They were no longer beings who harmonized with those laws, but beings who would instead control them.
For ordinary cultivators, this stage was unimaginably difficult. Separating from the laws meant defying the very foundation of their existence, and the risk of causing their small world to shatter was extremely high.
But for Zhang Wen… this step was strangely effortless.
Since reaching the Saint realm, he had never truly harmonized with the laws of the world in the first place. His power relied on a fusion of his personal comprehension, the system, and the foundational power granted by the Emperor Phoenix Flame Pill and the Heaven-Escaping Water. From the very beginning, he had already stood outside the framework of the world's laws.
Therefore, stepping into the Half-Emperor realm for him… required almost no effort to detach himself from the laws of the world.
For most cultivators at the beginning of their path, absorbing spiritual energy was the core method of increasing strength. But once one reached the Half-Emperor realm… or even the Emperor realm…
That method was no longer the foundation of advancement.
At this level, absorbing power was no longer the most important factor. What truly determined progress through each minor stage was one's understanding of the laws of the world and the ability to force those laws under one's own authority.
It was no longer about flowing along with the laws.
It was about forcing the laws… to flow according to oneself.
The rain surrounding Zhang Wen began to change rhythm once again. Some droplets flowed upward toward the sky, while others froze midair as though time itself had been halted. The structure of natural law was quietly distorted, yet no resistance from heaven and earth appeared in response.
All of this happened because of a single fragment of his thought.
The most important factor that allowed him to advance this far was Enlightenment. It was something unimaginably rare for any human being. Among the countless lives within this world, those who had ever experienced Enlightenment could almost be counted on one's fingers. Some people might even live their entire lives without ever knowing such a state existed.
Even high-level cultivators often spent hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years in pursuit of it. Some devoted their entire lives… yet never touched it even once.
But for those who managed to enter Enlightenment even a single time, their entire life path would be completely transformed. Their power, comprehension, and perspective toward the world would leap forward as though they had crossed an invisible wall that no one else could see.
Its value was immeasurable… greater than certain Emperor-tier treasures, greater than some supreme cultivation techniques, and even surpassing certain Sacred-tier physiques.
And now… he still possessed an abundance of it.
Zhang Wen slowly closed his eyes. The pressure that once loomed over his cultivation path completely dissipated.
Within his soul, countless structures of laws began forming and collapsing repeatedly. The Law of Water, the Law of Life, the Law of Death, and the Law of Space were continuously analyzed, restructured, and fused together.
Zhang Wen raised his hand slightly. A single droplet of water floated above his fingertip before splitting apart into multiple layers of intricate energy structures. Within that tiny droplet appeared reflections of flowing currents, vast oceans, raging storms, and endless void, cycling endlessly without conclusion.