The Emperor Takes the Field, Crushes the Ming Dou Mountain Range, and Unifies the World!

White World, outside Mingdu.

Huo Yuhao slowly raised his head and looked at Xu Tianran's high-spirited figure atop the city wall, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

"Xu Tianran, are you happy?"

"All these years, did you really think I knew nothing about those little schemes you cooked up behind my back?"

Huo Yuhao spoke softly, yet his voice reached every person's ears.

"You secretly colluded with the Holy Spirit Cult, using Evil Soul Masters to eliminate dissidents at court."

"On the surface, you showered Illustrious Virtue Hall with favor, but behind the scenes, you set up a separate research institute in the military, hoping to replicate my research."

"And the old emperor's accidental death was handled very cleanly indeed—so cleanly that no one on the entire continent suspected you."

"But unfortunately for you, it just so happened that you and I planned the old emperor's accidental death ourselves."

"I was the one who helped you become emperor of the Sun Moon Empire. I was the one who placed supreme power before you with my own hands."

A bloody light flickered in Huo Yuhao's eyes as he spoke, each word deliberate.

"Since I could put you on the throne, I can naturally drag you off it too."

By this point, Xu Tianran's expression had turned hideous.

But Huo Yuhao was not finished.

"Originally, you wouldn't have had to die today."

"But we both know that the people from the Shrek Inspection Corps were able to slip into Mingdu without anyone noticing because you allowed it."

"You let them in because you wanted to use Shrek to get rid of me, then keep all my research for yourself and swallow up the entire Douluo Continent while you were at it."

"Xu Tianran, you made your calculations well."

"Unfortunately, you miscalculated one thing!"

"And that is: today, you must die!"

"Hahahaha!"

Xu Tianran suddenly threw back his head and laughed wildly, though a trace of almost imperceptible fear ran through his laughter.

"Huo Yuhao, even if you know everything, so what?!"

"You've lost all your Soul Power and have no cultivation left!"

"What can you use to kill me, all alone with a single sword?!"

"How are you going to turn this around?!"

"Turn this around?"

Huo Yuhao smiled faintly.

"Xu Tianran, since I knew about your little schemes long ago, do you think I wouldn't have guarded against you?"

"Did you think that because those mechas and City Defense Soul Guidance Array Formations were made by your Soul Engineers, there was nothing I could do?"

"You were wrong."

"You were gravely mistaken."

Huo Yuhao slowly raised his head, and his blood-red Eyes of Asura suddenly blazed with dazzling light.

"Don't forget, those Soul Guidance arrays..."

"Were all designed by me!"

The next instant, an invisible wave of spiritual force burst outward from Huo Yuhao!

The wave was silent but swift as lightning, sweeping over everyone like a fierce wind.

The instant the wave passed over them, the Core Arrays of the dozen or so purple mechas in midair suddenly flickered violently. A series of grating metallic groans followed.

"Crack! Crack! Crack-crack..."

Before countless horrified eyes, the armor of the purple mechas fell apart, their components raining down. In the blink of an eye, they had become heaps of scrap metal!

The Soul Engineers operating them also fell out from inside the mechas, letting out helpless cries of alarm.

Meanwhile, atop Mingdu's city wall.

The muzzles of the Soul Guidance Ray cannons, which had been gathering light only moments before, all went dark. Their barrels twisted out of shape, then exploded with a roar!

Even the Soul Tool Armor worn by over a thousand Imperial Guard Soul Engineers and the Soul Guidance Ray Guns in their hands fell completely apart the instant Huo Yuhao's spiritual wave swept over them, metal components clattering to the ground!

The entire place fell deathly silent.

Over a thousand Imperial Guard Soul Masters stood rooted to the spot, left holding bare gunstocks, with scraps of armor clinging to their clothes.

They looked at one another, utterly unable to think.

"No... that's impossible..."

Atop the city wall, the color drained completely from Xu Tianran's face.

For all his calculations, he had never imagined that Huo Yuhao would have dared to tamper with the Soul Guidance arrays.

Or rather, that he had left a backdoor.

All Huo Yuhao had to do was release a spiritual wave to completely dismantle every Soul Tool he had designed.

Although Xu Tianran still had over a thousand guards protecting him, his fear of Huo Yuhao had swallowed his reason.

Without a word, he spun around and tried to flee.

But he had only taken two steps when a sharp crack rang out.

His Soul Tool prosthetic legs, personally crafted by a royal Level 9 Soul Engineer, had broken in two as well.

Thud!

Without his prosthetics to support him, Xu Tianran fell heavily to the ground. His nose struck the hard surface, and blood immediately streamed from it. He was a wretched sight.

"How is this possible? How could you..."

"You guessed right. Even your Soul Tool prosthetics were made using my designs."

"You've been plotting against me all this time, but how did you know I wasn't plotting against you?"

Dragging the Asura Demon Sword, Huo Yuhao walked step by step toward the city wall.

He looked at the Imperial Guards surrounding Xu Tianran and spoke with a cold sneer.

"Those who kneel will be pardoned for all their crimes. Those who defy me will see their entire families exterminated. Choose for yourselves!"

As soon as Huo Yuhao spoke,

the next instant, the thousand-plus Imperial Guard Soul Engineers dropped to their knees in unison wherever he passed.

Not one dared raise his head, much less stop Huo Yuhao from climbing the city wall.

Huo Yuhao walked slowly up to Xu Tianran, reached out, and seized him by the hair.

"Aaaaaah..."

Xu Tianran immediately let out a succession of screams, their shrill sound making the Imperial Guards kneeling around him tremble uncontrollably.

Huo Yuhao dragged Xu Tianran, the Sun Moon Emperor, step by step along Mingdu's central avenue toward the Sun Moon Empire's imperial palace.

The Asura Demon Sword was sentient. It floated beside Huo Yuhao of its own accord, following its master.

Huo Yuhao held Mu Qing in one arm and dragged the emperor of the Sun Moon Empire with the other.

His blood-red eyes turned toward the imperial palace, and his chilling voice rang out across the world.

"The Sun Moon Empire changes hands today!"

"Once I ascend the throne, I will personally lead the army and crush the Ming Dou Mountain Range!"

"I will slay the White Tiger Duke, destroy Shrek Academy, and unify the world!"

Black World, Shrek Academy, Sea God Pavilion.

"Outrageous! Arrogant! The audacity!"

Xuan Zi leaped up from his sickbed in fury, the bandages around him snapping one after another.

"A mere wet-behind-the-ears brat dares boast of crushing the Ming Dou Mountain Range and destroying my Shrek Academy?!"

"He's courting death!"

Yet no one responded.

Inside the Sea God Pavilion, Mu En sat quietly in the seat of honor.

He watched the blood-red figure on the heavenly screen dragging the emperor of the Sun Moon Empire step by step toward the imperial palace, and said nothing for a long time.

Only after a while did the Dragon God Douluo slowly close his eyes and let out a long sigh.

"Using spiritual power to dismantle the Core Arrays of over a thousand Soul Tools in an instant..."

"Even I have never heard of such a method."

"How much more is this Huo Yuhao hiding?"

Black World, Ming Dou Mountain Range, Northwest Army Group camp.

"Huo Yuhao, how dare he be so arrogant!"

"He wants to make a move against the duke? Has he asked us?"

"The Ming Dou Mountain Range isn't so easy to conquer. It would cost countless lives and rivers of blood!"

"A mere usurper wants to unify the world? He's dreaming!"

Inside the military tent, the advisers and deputy generals serving under Dai Hao, the White Tiger Duke, erupted in an uproar, shouting curses.

Dai Hao, however, gazed thoughtfully toward the heavenly screen.

He did not know why, but whenever he looked at Huo Yuhao on the heavenly screen, he always felt something unusual.

"Huo..."

Black World, Mingdu, the crown prince's residence.

Xu Tianran stared fixedly at the figure on the heavenly screen dragging his parallel-world self along the ground like a dead dog. His face was so dark it looked ready to drip water.

Although the Sun Moon Emperor on the heavenly screen was not him,

that face was unmistakably his.

The humiliation of being dragged along the ground by the hair, stripped of all dignity, made the veins bulge on Xu Tianran's hands as he gripped the arms of his wheelchair, his knuckles turning deathly white from the force.

"Huo Yuhao..."

Xu Tianran forced the name through clenched teeth.

"Very good."

"I'll remember you."

The next instant, Xu Tianran's voice rang through the entire crown prince's residence.

"Ju Zi, conduct a thorough investigation across the entire Douluo Continent. Find out who this Huo Yuhao is!"