A Single Page Scared a Level 55 Soul King to His Knees?

The pressure of the level 55 Soul King rolled across the bluestone pavement to the tips of Qin Zhaoye's boots, but he didn't retreat half a step.

Watching He Zhili stride toward him, Qin Zhaoye reached into the case in his sleeve and drew out the dark-gold page.

"Manager He, you ask what gives me the right to bargain with Spirit Hall?"

Qin Zhaoye raised his arm and flung Historical Evidence Remnant Image II into the air. "The fact that Spirit Hall's fate has long since been written on this page of mine!"

The dark-gold page flew from his hand and swelled in the wind into a vast screen several yards wide, hanging directly above the long street.

A remnant image of the Battle of Godhood, a battle that burned the heavens and destroyed the earth, unfolded across the sky.

At the center of the image, the Pope's Palace in Spirit City collapsed with a thunderous crash. The enormous golden statue of a Six-Winged Angel atop the palace snapped at the waist and plunged into the ruins, trailing black smoke.

Spirit Hall's tattered banners turned to ash in the dying flames of the divine battle. The brutal lingering might of a battle between level 100 gods poured down from the screen, silencing even the wind along the entire street.

At the left edge of the screen, line after line of historical chronicle lit up in gold, character by character. At the top were the volume title and passage number: "Official History of the First Era: Record of Spirit Hall's Destruction."

The elite members of the punitive force on the street, who had been about to activate their Soul Rings, all froze in place and looked up in unison, staring at the image of the ruins overhead.

"Isn't that... the Pope's Palace in Spirit City?!"

An old soldier in the front row recognized the coiled-dragon stone pillars among the ruins. His voice trembled as he said, "Those are the pillars in the square in front of the Pope's Palace! I saw them with my own eyes when I served a rotation in Spirit City years ago. They're exactly the same, down to the last detail!"

"What nonsense are you spouting?! How could the Pope's Palace possibly collapse?!"

The squad leader beside him was shouting him down, but the palm gripping his halberd was already slick with cold sweat.

At the very front, He Zhili stared up at the screen as though his backbone had been pulled out.

He had served as a steward in Spirit Hall for more than ten years, after all. He recognized the layout of its main headquarters at a glance, and he could also tell that the pressure of a fallen god pouring down from the screen could not possibly be faked.

That destructive presence bore down on him, making his level 55 Soul Power circulate sluggishly. He couldn't even light his first Soul Ring.

He Zhili stared at the golden characters on the left side of the screen. His legs went weak, and his right knee slammed against the bluestone with a thud. He dropped to one knee on the spot!

Oblivious to the searing pain from his scraped knee, he followed the lines of the chronicle with trembling eyes and recited the passage number and words in a daze. "Record of Destruction... third passage from the end of the volume... the Jialing Pass defensive line collapsed, the Pope was defeated and fell, and Spirit Hall was erased from the rolls from that day forth..."

Every word was a statement of historical fact, and it matched the image of the collapsing Pope's Palace overhead perfectly.

He had fallen to one knee before that page of history overhead—the page that had sentenced Spirit Hall to death!

A sharp clang rang out. One of the swordsmen behind He Zhili had been unable to withstand the lingering might of the divine battle. His fingers slackened, and his regulation heavy saber fell straight onto his foot.

Once someone had taken the lead by dropping his weapon, panic erupted through the formation.

"Even the steward's on his knees! What that book shows must be true!"

"No wonder the Pope's Palace hasn't struck to kill all this time. The higher-ups must have known all along that this man was holding the date of Spirit Hall's death in his hand!"

Several young members in the rear ranks turned deathly pale at those words, their feet carrying them backward beyond their control.

"What are you panicking for?! It's nothing but a trick of the eyes!"

The punitive force's deputy commander bit the tip of his tongue, drew his saber, and roared, "Form a combined attack formation! Before that page of gold paper comes down, attack together and tear it to shreds!"

That shout jolted more than ten elites awake. Gritting their teeth, they poured their Soul Power into the deputy commander at their center, and their combined killing blow was about to take shape and blast into the air.

Below the stone steps, Qin Zhaoye watched the remaining troops forcibly gather their strength. The third Soul Ring at his feet, a purple one, blazed with light.

"Padding your word count in front of me? Did you ask the pen in my hand first?"

Qin Zhaoye pressed his left palm down on empty air, activating his third Soul Skill, Chapter Severing, and aimed it straight at the deputy commander in the center of the formation!

A brutally forceful power of severance cut into the junction where their Soul Power converged. With a crack, it forcibly cut off the combined Soul Power, which had only reached seventy percent of its full strength!

The deputy commander bore the brunt of it. The backlash of Soul Power struck his chest, and he spat out a cloud of blood before toppling onto his back.

The dozen or so elites connected to him all grunted in unison and stumbled into one another.

The instant the combined attack formation was severed, Qin Zhaoye pressed down with his right hand.

Historical Evidence Remnant Image II dropped half a foot with a thunderous boom, and the overwhelming lingering might of the Battle of Godhood pressed down toward the center of the street!

Under the lingering might of the divine battle drawn from that single page of history, the bluestones along the entire street sank by an inch.

The dozen or so elites who had just climbed to their feet fell in a heap into the dust without so much as a grunt, their helmets rolling across the ground.

"Retreat! Everyone, fall back!"

Someone shouted at the top of their lungs, and the punitive force from Spirit City descended into complete chaos.

Several personal guards scrambled forward and hauled up He Zhili, who was still muttering the passage number from the Record of Destruction. Others dragged up the two level 40 enforcement elders from the ground. They didn't even stop to retrieve their fallen weapons, but threw away their helmets and armor as they fled madly south. Only after retreating three streets in one breath did they dare stop to catch theirs.

In midair, the dark-gold page, its power spent, shattered inch by inch and dissolved into golden flakes that scattered in the morning breeze.

Qin Zhaoye glanced at the fading golden light. He had bought this page of Historical Evidence Remnant Image II for 2,500 Talking Capital. It was a single-use trump card that fell apart once used, and the two-item purchase limit for this volume had now been exhausted as well.

But with that one page brought down, he had recouped his investment far faster than he had expected.

On the rooftops and walls along both sides of the street, thousands of spectators had held themselves in check for a long while. Now, unable to hold back any longer, they erupted in a thunderous uproar!

"My eyes weren't playing tricks on me just now, were they? A golden page hung in the sky, and Manager He, a level 55 Soul King, dropped to his knees right there?!"

Someone rubbed his eyes hard, muttering under his breath.

Another person immediately chimed in. "That's the Myriad Ages Historian's history book! Didn't you hear him? A page came down from the sky, and everything on it showed Spirit Hall's future destruction!"

An old neighborhood resident counted the incidents off on his fingers, one by one. "Good heavens! Young Master Cen's spear was taken apart at the Soul Fighting Arena, the raid on the western outskirts' hidden cache came up empty, and Captain Li saw the Pope's shadow in the middle of the night and got beaten back. Add today's remnant image of destruction to that... and it turns out all four big incidents in Suotuo City were this one man's doing!"

Under the portico of Perching Swan Academy, Dean Feng Yanqiu could no longer sit still. Clutching the plaque in his arms, he rushed onto the stone steps and shouted to the people filling the street, "Remember this clearly! The Myriad Ages Historian, Qin Zhaoye, is the foremost genius of our Perching Swan Academy!"

He raised the plaque a little higher and shouted even louder. "From now on, let's see who in Suotuo City still dares come to our academy's gates and run wild!"

The routed soldiers fled, and the spectators spread the story as they went. Before long, the title "Myriad Ages Historian" had spread through every street and alley in Suotuo City. As for Qin Zhaoye's identity, nearly everyone in the city now knew it, making it all but officially public. From now on, whenever prices were discussed, the bargaining power would be firmly in his hands.

Meanwhile, on the public screen of the Myriad Ages Douluo Group, the Group Hub's live transcription had just finished playing, and the image froze on the golden flakes scattering across the sky.

[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Holy shit! He actually dropped a remnant image of Spirit Hall's destruction in the Battle of Godhood out of the sky to scare them?! A level 55 Soul King dropped to one knee on the spot, and even the punitive force was so scared by a single page that they threw away their helmets and armor and retreated three streets in one breath!]

After watching, Lan Xuanyu slapped his thigh and posted a message.

[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Using Spirit Hall's own history of destruction to smash the punitive force Spirit Hall sent after him-killing them and then attacking their hearts like that is just brilliant, if you ask me!]

[Tang San: He didn't clash head-on with a level 55 Soul King in Soul Power. He first used the remnant image to shake their minds, then used his third Soul Skill to precisely sever the junction of their combined attack... Every step he took struck at his opponents' vital points.]

Far away in the Pope's Palace in Spirit City, Bibi Dong sat on her throne, holding the latest urgent battle report sent back from Suotuo City.

The report was detailed, describing everything that had happened on the long street, scene by scene. First, the two level 40 elders had been defeated. Then a remnant image of the Pope's Palace collapsing had spread across the sky. Finally, the level 55 steward He Zhili had dropped to one knee before everyone and fled with his men. Nothing had been concealed in a single word.

Bibi Dong stared at the words "Myriad Ages Historian Qin Zhaoye" in the report without speaking for a long time.

First there had been a remnant image of her youth, and then a remnant image of destruction from the Battle of Godhood. Just how many more trump cards did he have in his hands? Sending more troops to surround and suppress him had become a complete joke for Spirit Hall.

After a long while, Bibi Dong finally set the report on the table, opened the group chat's light screen, and typed two words on the public screen.

[Bibi Dong: Negotiate directly.]

Those two brief words appeared on the public screen, announcing the collapse of Spirit Hall's plan to use force that night.

That same night, in the imperial capital of the Heaven Dou Empire.

The inner city gate slid quietly open in the darkness. A black-lacquered carriage bearing no insignia rolled over the bluestone road and onto the southbound imperial highway, the palace lanterns on either side of its shafts swaying as it headed toward Suotuo City.