The Ultimate Soul Tool, Huo Yuhao's Artificial Intelligence!

"Xu Qian, I know you're all far from convinced!"

Huo Yuhao spoke calmly.

"Over the years, your Soul Engineers have learned my Soul Tool technology, my Core Arrays, and my forging techniques."

"You thought I had taught you everything."

"But in truth, those have never been the Illustrious Virtue Hall's most essential technologies."

With that, Huo Yuhao gave a crisp snap of his fingers.

"Perhaps you don't understand. Humanity's greatest invention was never the machines that could do its work."

"It was the creation of something with computational power greater than humanity's own..."

"Artificial intelligence!"

The next instant, more than a dozen streams of pitch-black light shot into the sky above Mingdu.

The light faded, revealing more than a dozen mechas, black as ink from head to toe.

Each mecha stood over five meters tall. Their designs were completely different from those Xu Qian and his men had brought, looking much more like actual humans.

But what shocked everyone most was that there wasn't a single pilot inside any of them.

The mechas hovered in midair, moving their joints on their own and producing grating metallic screeches that set everyone's teeth on edge.

"Th-this... what are those?!"

Not only Xu Qian, but even Kong Deming and Jing Hongchen, who had hurried to the foot of the God Ascension Platform, were utterly bewildered.

Although they were among the most accomplished Soul Engineers in the Sun Moon Empire, they had never seen these black mechas before!

And if the mechas had no pilots, what was controlling them?

Only then did Kong Deming and Jing Hongchen realize.

Huo Yuhao had been secretly cultivating a force of his own all along!

But this force didn't seem to consist of people. It was the so-called... artificial intelligence!

"Kill!"

Huo Yuhao uttered the single word calmly.

The next instant, the black mechas all swooped down together, charging into Xu Qian's army, which was already in complete disarray.

Without a doubt, this was a wholly one-sided slaughter!

Without the protection of their Soul Guidance Array Formation and Soul Guidance Mechas, these soldiers had not the slightest ability to resist when facing the mechas!

One soldier mustered his courage and raised the Soul Guidance Ray Gun in his hands, but before he could pull the trigger, a black mecha's scarlet electronic eye locked onto him.

Immediately afterward, light flashed from the muzzle of the Soul Cannon in the black mecha's chest.

Boom!

The soldier and his gun were blasted into a bloody mist that filled the air.

Yet that was not the most terrifying thing about these black mechas.

In the midst of battle, they were rapidly learning the characteristics of their enemies' fighting styles.

The officers under Xu Qian soon noticed a pattern.

These black mechas could accurately predict the routes the soldiers would take to dodge and counterattack.

One of Xu Qian's officers led his personal guards into a trench, believing they were safe.

But the next instant, three black mechas swung their cannons around at once and unleashed a blanket bombardment on the trench.

"They... they're studying how we fight!"

"These lumps of iron can think... they can think!"

Piercing screams rose and fell throughout the army's ranks.

The black Soul Guidance Mechas swept unhindered through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, their bodies splattered with crimson until they had nearly turned into red armor.

For Soul Engineers on the Douluo Continent-

Even among Soul Engineers ten thousand years later, although Battle Armor might be known in every household,

No one seemed ever to have seen anything like a computer.

Yet in his underground research institute, Huo Yuhao had fused computers with Soul Tools.

Using the two mysterious digits, zero and one, he had created a vast network that no one else knew about!

The artificial intelligence controlling the mechas was also the greatest achievement of his research so far!

At this sight, several members of the imperial family and nobles beside Xu Qian could hold out no longer. Scrambling and crawling, they fell to their knees.

"Your Majesty, spare us! We are willing to submit!"

"I'll give up my fortune! I only beg Your Majesty to spare my worthless life!"

"We were led astray by that old dog Xu Qian! Please show us mercy!"

But Huo Yuhao couldn't be bothered even to glance at them. He said calmly,

"I won't accept it!"

"My empire has no need for a pack of useless parasites who occupy their posts and do nothing!"

The color instantly drained from the faces of the imperial family members and nobles.

The next instant, Huo Yuhao looked past them toward the vast, dark mass of rebels in the distance and said coldly,

"Those who submit to me shall live; those who defy me shall die!"

"If you lay down your weapons now, I can spare your lives and let bygones be bygones!"

"But anyone still holding a weapon after a quarter of an hour will be killed without mercy!"

Wave after wave of soldiers around Xu Qian fell to their knees and laid down their weapons.

At the very center of the battlefield, Huo Yuhao walked through a river of pooled blood, the Asura Demon Sword in hand, and slowly came to a stop before Xu Qian.

By now, Purple Victory Prince Xu Qian had long since lost his earlier high spirits.

The Earth Dragon beneath him had long been blasted into scraps of flesh by the black mechas' Soul Cannons. His hair crown sat crookedly, and he was as bedraggled as a stray dog driven from home.

"H-Huo Yuhao, you can't kill me!"

"I am a prince of the imperial family. I've commanded troops for decades, and the army under me can still be of great use to you!"

"The Star Luo Empire's White Tiger Duke Dai Hao has long been eyeing the Ming Dou Mountain Range like a tiger stalking its prey. The empire still needs a general to lead its army and defend the range!"

"If you kill me, no one will be left to guard the Ming Dou Mountain Range, and Dai Hao will surely take advantage of the opening!"

"Keep me alive, and I can guard the frontier for you! I can be your foot soldier!"

Xu Qian knelt on the ground, kowtowing as he shouted himself hoarse.

But Huo Yuhao merely watched him in silence, as though looking at a dead man.

"Today I ascend the throne. Tomorrow, the imperial army will assemble and raze the Ming Dou Mountain Range to the ground!"

"So you are of no value to the empire anymore!"

As his words fell, a blood-red flash of sword light swept past.

Xu Qian's head flew into the air. His headless corpse swayed twice, then crashed into a pool of blood.

The little evil eye on Huo Yuhao's shoulder gently touched his neck with a tentacle.

"Hey, kid, you've killed so ruthlessly. Aren't you afraid of retribution?"

"Retribution?"

Huo Yuhao chuckled softly.

"If there's retribution in this world, that hypocrite Tang San should be the first to die!"

Then Huo Yuhao turned around, the Asura Demon Sword in his hand.

His blood-red Eyes of Asura swept over the vast, dark crowd, over face after face filled with fervor and awe.

"In the first year of Sun Moon, receiving the fortune of heaven and earth and continuing the royal line of Douluo, we establish the realm and its ancestral altars, unite all under heaven, and set laws for all people!"

"Drawing from the radiant sun above and the bright moon of ages past, a scion of heavenly radiance, founding virtue and carrying it into the future, we are followed by all the people!"

"Thus, receiving heaven's mandate, we proclaim an empire and establish the nation, naming its capital Mingdu and granting fiefs throughout the realm!"

The moment his words fell, the Sun Moon Empire's officials and people around him dropped to their knees.

Their voices surged toward the clouds like mountains roaring and seas crashing!

"Long live the empire! Long live the emperor!"

The Power of Faith of the people transformed into golden motes that filled the sky and surged wildly into Huo Yuhao's body, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.