Chapter 10: The Emperor's Hubris and the Toll of the Vajra
The return to the Eternal Divine Sacred Land was a silent affair. Han Tie sat in the corner of the carriage, his massive frame barely fitting the silk-lined seats. He stared at his hands—hands that were now permanently tinged with a faint, metallic bronze glow. For the first time in his life, he didn't feel the cold weight of Void-Iron. He felt a fire in his marrow that made the very air around him hum with static.
"Welcome to the mountain, kid," Ye Chen said, not looking up from a book titled 101 Ways to Sleep While Standing. "Lin Feng, show him the ladder. And Han Tie... don't break the steps. They're expensive."
Han Tie looked at the Talent Ladder—a thousand steps of shimmering Star-Jade piercing the clouds. He didn't hesitate. While Lin Feng and Su Qingchan had struggled, Han Tie moved with the deliberate, heavy grace of a landslide. Every step he took vibrated with the density of his Indestructible Vajra Body.
By the time he reached the peak, his golden skin was radiating heat like a downed meteor.
[Ding! Third Direct Disciple Han Tie has officially joined the Sect!]
[Opening Tower Floor 803: The Continent of Gravitational Ruin.]
"Go," Ye Chen pointed toward the Tower of Eternal Kalpas. "Floor 803. It has a continent-sized expanse of high-gravity mountains and mercury seas. Your protector, the Iron-Blood General, is waiting inside. Don't come out until you can walk through a mountain without slowing down."
Han Tie bowed—a short, sharp nod of respect—and disappeared into the tower.
The Emperor's Descent
Three days passed in the outside world. Inside the tower, Han Tie had already spent nearly eight years under the crushing weight of 500x gravity, his bones being forged and re-forged by the Iron-Blood General.
On the fourth morning, the sky above the Eastern Region didn't just darken; it turned the color of dried blood.
A massive rift opened in the sky, three hundred miles away from the hidden mountain. From the rift emerged a chariot pulled by eight Nightmare Dragons. Standing upon it was a man clad in armor made from the scales of a True Dragon, his eyes glowing with the terrifying light of a Quasi-Emperor.
This was Emperor Cang, the ruler of the Iron-Blood Empire.
"Whoever stole my prize... whoever dared to humiliate my Legion..." His voice rolled across the clouds like thunder. He couldn't see the mountain through the fog, but as a Quasi-Emperor, he could sense the "void" where the mountain should be. "Hide no longer! I, Cang, have come to reclaim what is mine and erase your lineage!"
He raised a hand, and a spear made of pure, condensed Spiritual Energy—a weapon that could level a province—began to form in the sky.
The End of an Empire's Hope
Ye Chen, who was currently trying to teach Xiao Hei how to sit (with zero success), looked up at the blood-red sky.
"He actually followed us," Ye Chen sighed. "And he's shouting. I hate it when they shout."
He didn't call Lin Feng. He didn't call Su Qingchan. Instead, he looked at the shadows behind him.
"General Yan, the Emperor is yours. But I don't want a mess on my lawn. Take him... elsewhere."
The bronze-skinned giant, General Yan, gave a toothy, terrifying grin. "By your command, Sect Master."
General Yan stepped off the mountain. To the world, he was a 9th Stage God-Emperor. To Emperor Cang, he was a nightmare made manifest.
Cang didn't even have time to throw his spear. Before he could blink, General Yan appeared directly in front of his chariot. The Nightmare Dragons, sensed the General's aura, instantly disintegrated into ash from sheer terror.
"You... you are..." Cang's voice cracked. He realized in that moment that he wasn't a hunter. He was a bug that had wandered into a furnace.
General Yan reached out and grabbed the Quasi-Emperor by the throat. "The Sect Master wants quiet," the General whispered.
With a single squeeze, the "Invincible" Emperor Cang, the man who ruled a continent, was erased from existence. His armor, his soul, and his very memory were snuffed out. There was no struggle. There was only the sudden, terrifying silence of a god intervening in the affairs of mortals.
The Silent Annihilation
"Protector of the Third Disciple," Ye Chen's voice drifted through the air, reaching the Iron-Blood General inside the tower. "The Emperor is gone, but the source of the rot remains. Go to the Iron-Blood Kingdom. Free the slaves. Burn the slave-pits. But... do it quietly. I don't want the Central Plains sending 'Investigative Committees' to my mountain because an entire Empire vanished overnight."
The Iron-Blood General, a figure of shifting shadows and cold steel, emerged from the tower. He bowed to Ye Chen and then vanished into the void.
That night, the Iron-Blood Empire experienced a "Silent Apocalypse."
Across the thousands of cities, every slave-pit, every gladiator arena, and every iron-bound dungeon was visited by a ghost. Chains shattered into dust. The "Overseers" and the corrupt nobility simply... disappeared. One moment they were laughing over wine, the next, their seats were empty, their bodies erased by a God-Emperor's intent.
The millions of slaves woke up to find their doors open and their masters gone. There was no fire, no screaming, and no war. The Empire's military command simply ceased to exist in a single heartbeat.
By dawn, the Iron-Blood Empire was no longer an empire. It was a leaderless, chainless land, its "Iron Throne" sitting empty in a silent palace. To the rest of the world, it looked as if the gods had simply reached down and plucked the sting out of the wasp.
The Return to Training
Back on the mountain, Ye Chen was back in his lounge chair.
[Ding! Mission Accomplished: The Emperor is Annihilated. The Empire is Neutralized.]
[Sect Reputation: Ghost-Level (The world is terrified of the 'Invisible Hand' in the East).]
[Reward: The 'Heavenly Library' (Contains every manual ever written in the lower 3,000 worlds).]
Ye Chen smiled. "A library? Perfect. I can use the heavy books as pillows."
He looked toward the tower. He could feel Han Tie's progress. The kid was currently bench-pressing a continent on Floor 803, his Vajra Body turning a shade of gold so pure it was starting to look white.
"Three down," Ye Chen murmured, closing his eyes as the morning sun warmed his face. "Seven more seats to fill. I wonder where the next one is hiding?"
End of Chapter 10