Footsteps sounded behind him, and Jin Dachang slowly turned.
Su Chen's icy gaze sent terror coursing through him.
"Wait!"
Seeing Su Chen raise the Mountain-Splitting Axe high, Jin Dachang stumbled backward and shrieked.
"I'm Haidong's inheritor!"
"I'm Kim Chunchu's twenty-eighth-generation descendant!"
"You can't lay a hand on me!"
His only answer was a flash of utterly cold axe light.
Thud!
With a dull impact, Jin Dachang flew backward and landed in the shallows more than ten meters away.
"Fuck!"
Jin Dachun struggled to his feet, his teeth grinding as he roared himself hoarse.
"Su Chen! You set a trap and lured us here! You're utterly despicable!"
"If you stop now and let me leave, I promise to let bygones be bygones!"
"From now on, Huaxia and Haidong will be allies for generations, never fighting each other!"
"But if you dare touch me, you'll be making an enemy of all of Haidong Country! We won't stop until you're dead!"
Thud!
Another dull impact sent Jin Dachang flying more than ten meters again.
All the inherited power surrounding him shattered.
Sand covered Jin Dachang's head and face, and seawater soaked his exquisite, luxurious robes.
"No..."
"No..."
Jin Dachang kept retreating as Su Chen slowly approached.
The pride of Haidong's inheritor had been utterly crushed by his fear of death.
Jin Dachang, who had held the power of life and death in Haidong Country, now lacked even the courage to fight back.
"I can't die!"
"Spare me! I'll acknowledge you as my master! All of Haidong will be yours!"
"Wealth! Women! Power!"
"Whatever you want, I can give it to you!"
Faced with Jin Dachang's desperate pleas, Su Chen raised the Mountain-Splitting Axe again and brought it down.
This time.
There was no dull impact.
Jin Dachang remained kneeling on the ground, but his wailing stopped.
Without sparing him another glance, Su Chen withdrew the Mountain-Splitting Axe, rested it on his shoulder, and turned away.
Several seconds later.
The once-mighty inheritor of Haidong slumped sideways and fell into the shallows.
His entire body split down the middle, severed in two.
The crimson blood gushing out spread rapidly with the waves, staining the surrounding seawater bright red...
"He's dead?"
"Jin Dachang just died like that?"
Many inheritors around the world abruptly rose to their feet, staring blankly at their screens with horror and shock in their eyes.
An inheritor represented their ancestors and served as the standard of their nation!
They stood at the very pinnacle of this world!
Before today, no one had believed it.
That someone could kill an inheritor.
That someone would dare kill an inheritor.
Even with Haidong Country launching a massive invasion, most people had not thought Su Chen would come to harm.
With an inheritor's abilities, if Su Chen had been determined to flee, Jin Dachang could never have stopped him.
Yet now.
Jin Dachang, the aggressor.
Had not only failed to do anything to Su Chen.
He had instead died on this beach in Huaxia, with the entire world watching.
It was simply beyond anything anyone had imagined.
In fact, many inheritors could see it.
Had Jin Dachang fought desperately for his life, he might well have survived.
Even if he was no match for Su Chen, he should still have been more than capable of dealing with Huaxia's Awakened.
If he had taken some of them hostage, Su Chen might have held back for fear of harming them and let him leave.
But first, his fleet had been destroyed.
Then Su Chen had displayed strength far beyond anything he had imagined.
Then a million people of Huaxia had suddenly awakened.
Even his final attempt to escape had been thwarted by Huaxia's divine artifact sealing off his retreat.
Those relentless blows, and the terror of being at someone else's mercy.
Had utterly broken Jin Dachang's courage and composure, until he no longer even dared resist and died beneath Su Chen's axe.
The inheritors of the other nations were no fools. After watching everything from the beginning.
Most had already realized that this entire affair was a trap laid by Su Chen!
On the surface, Haidong had launched an invasion, forcing Huaxia to defend itself.
But those million Descendants of Dayu who had suddenly awakened.
And the divine artifact of Huaxia hidden in the sea beforehand.
Proved that this inheritor of Huaxia had planned everything long ago.
He had spread his net, scattered his bait, and waited for Haidong to bite.
Once the people of Haidong dared come, they had no chance of escaping!
Devious!
Utterly devious!
He had possessed such tremendous power, yet kept it hidden all along.
Had he revealed those million Awakened from the start.
Jin Dachang would never have dared invade Huaxia, even if he had lost his mind.
Yet in the face of Haidong's repeated taunts, Huaxia had remained patient and done nothing.
Even its own citizens had not known whether any Descendants of Dayu existed.
All those appearances had inflated Jin Dachang's confidence, leading him step by step into the trap Su Chen had prepared.
Such cunning.
Such an ability to plan and command.
It was terrifying!
Utterly terrifying!
Watching Su Chen on their screens, many inheritors felt a chill down their backs as wariness stirred in their hearts.
But what did it matter if they saw through the trap?
No one had forced Haidong to declare war.
The massive invasion by its hundred and thirty thousand Awakened had also taken place before everyone's eyes.
Huaxia had turned the tables and crushed them through its own strength.
Without Su Chen and those Descendants of Dayu, the people of Haidong would never have laid down their butcher's blades.
So no matter how anyone framed it.
Huaxia held the moral high ground in this affair.
Even with Jin Dachang dead and all hundred and thirty thousand Awakened wiped out.
They had brought it upon themselves, and no one could say a word against it!
Anyone who dared step forward now and rally others to jointly contain Huaxia would have no justification whatsoever.
And without that justification, Huaxia would have every reason to strike back.
Huaxia had already shown its strength.
Anyone who wanted to follow Haidong Country's fate was welcome to try!
On the beach, the cries of battle gradually faded.
Facing a million Descendants of Dayu, Haidong's hundred and ten thousand Awakened had no hope of resisting.
Those who refused to surrender were killed outright.
Those who knelt and begged for mercy had all four limbs crippled, leaving them sprawled on the ground like dead dogs.
The great battle ended.
All the Descendants of Dayu still felt as though they were dreaming.
They looked at the blood on their hands and the bodies of Haidong's people strewn across the shore.
At last, they were certain that everything that had happened was no illusion.
They had all been ordinary people.
Facing Haidong's Awakened, they would have had no chance of survival.
Yet their ancestor from four thousand years ago had left them the power to resist the invaders.
They had not failed their ancestor's expectations!
They had defended the land of the Nine Provinces behind them!
They had defended the legacy their forefather had founded!
Just like the people of Xia in those distant days.
They had driven calamity from Huaxia and protected their parents, wives, and daughters.
"We descendants of the Xia family bow in gratitude for our forefather's grace!"
As the cries rang out, more than a hundred thousand people faced the sea and fell to their knees.
"We descendants of the Zeng family bow in gratitude for our forefather's grace!"
"We descendants of the Deng family bow in gratitude for our forefather's grace!"
"We descendants of the Bao family bow in gratitude for our forefather's grace!"
"We descendants of the Gou family..."
"We descendants of the Ou family..."
On the beach.
A million Descendants of Dayu knelt one after another.
They kowtowed toward the towering, majestic Nine Provinces Cauldron, weeping as they bowed.
Before you continue