Jialing Pass.
A dull boom rang out as the Heaven Dou Empire army's battering ram slammed into the gates.
Behind them, only a few hundred Spirit Hall Empire soldiers were holding out.
They had no Soul Power, and the swords and spears in their hands could not have been more ordinary. Facing an army of a million, they were like mantises trying to stop a chariot.
Boom!
A crack appeared in the gates, then a second, then a third.
The logs and boulders had long since run out, and nearly all the arrows on the walls had been fired. The defending commander drew his sword, his eyes red as he roared, "Fight them to the death-!"
But it was no use.
The Heaven Dou Empire's vanguard poured through the breach, a vast black tide of men swallowing the entire wall in an instant.
Blades flashed and cries of battle shook the heavens. The defenders fell one by one, and blood flowed like a river, staining the foot of Jialing Pass's walls red.
In less than half an hour, the Heaven Dou Empire's flag was flying over Jialing Pass.
Clad in golden armor, Xue Beng rode through the gates.
He carried the treasured sword passed down through the Heaven Dou Empire's imperial family. Blood stained its blade, and his face showed the exhilaration of more than a decade of pent-up restraint finally bursting free.
The Heaven Dou Empire's generals followed him, with Ge Long at the front. The flesh on Ge Long's broad face trembled, and his face was full of excitement.
"Your Majesty! Jialing Pass has fallen!" Ge Long swung down from his horse and dropped to one knee, his voice loud enough to carry across the entire fortress. "The Spirit Hall Empire's defenders have been wiped out! Our army has won a great victory!"
Xue Beng sat on horseback, gazing at the battered Jialing Pass. The corners of his mouth slowly rose.
He had waited far too long for this day.
In the past, he had played the fool, acting the spoiled prince before Xue Ye and the useless younger brother before Xue Qinghe. Everyone thought he was useless; everyone thought he was a coward.
Only he knew that he was waiting.
Later, his chance had finally come, and he had become Heaven Dou's emperor.
Now, he had personally led an army to defeat the Spirit Hall Empire.
Although he had only defeated the garrison left behind at the pass after the Spirit Hall Empire withdrew, it was still a great victory.
The Spirit Hall Empire army's withdrawal had already proved that the other side was afraid.
"Pass my orders to the entire army..." Xue Beng called, his voice carrying a ruthlessness finally unleashed after more than a decade of suppression. "Jialing Pass has fallen, and the Spirit Hall Empire has no natural defenses left to hold! The army will rest and regroup for a day. Tomorrow, we march on Spirit City!"
"Long live His Majesty! Long live His Majesty! Long live His Majesty-!"
The army cheered, each wave of sound rising higher than the last, until even the bricks of Jialing Pass trembled.
Outside Jialing Pass, on an unnamed hill.
Wu Wei sat on a rock, watching the Heaven Dou Empire's flag rise over the walls of Jialing Pass. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
"The Spirit Hall Empire certainly made a clean getaway." He casually pulled a handful of melon seeds from his Storage Soul Tool and began cracking them. "That woman Bibi Dong is quite decisive, as long as she isn't blinded by love."
Behind him, the Angel God Qian Yuhan was kneading his shoulders with a stony face.
The Rakshasa God Ye Si knelt beside him, pounding his legs.
Both goddesses wore extremely sour expressions.
"What? Not happy about it?" Wu Wei glanced sideways at them.
"...No." Qian Yuhan squeezed the word through her teeth. The fury burning in her golden eyes was almost tangible.
She was the dignified Angel God, the divine ancestor worshipped by the Qian Family for generations, yet now she had to serve a mortal from the lower realm as a maid.
If word got out, how could she ever show her face again?
The Rakshasa God Ye Si was no better off.
Her purple eyes were lowered, and she appeared obedient, but a cold light flickered in their depths. In her heart, she had already cursed eighteen generations of Wu Wei's ancestors.
"All right, stop cursing me in your hearts." Wu Wei stood and brushed the dust off his clothes. "Let's go. There's nothing more to see here."
"Where to?" Qian Yuhan asked instinctively.
"Somewhere safe to cultivate." Wu Wei turned to look at the two of them, a meaningful smile on his face. "You don't want your cultivation stuck at level zero forever, do you? Even if you do, I don't."
Qian Yuhan and Ye Si fell silent at the same time.
Of course they didn't.
They wanted to regain their cultivation more than anyone.
Ye Si lowered her head, a trace of ruthlessness flashing in her eyes. As soon as her cultivation was restored, the first thing she would do was tear the mortal before her limb from limb.
Qian Yuhan was thinking the same thing.
But her face betrayed nothing, and she simply answered in a low voice, "Yes."
Wu Wei tossed the melon seed shells onto the ground and turned to leave. The two goddesses followed behind him, one on either side, like two utterly loyal maids.
But Wu Wei knew better than anyone what was on their minds.
"You want to kill me?" Wu Wei said leisurely without looking back. "You'd better think about how you're going to serve me tonight first! That's your duty as maids, after all!"
Qian Yuhan: "..."
Ye Si: "..."
In the past, beneath the Heavenly Screen.
The moment the Heaven Dou Empire's flag rose over Jialing Pass, the entire continent saw the golden-armored figure riding in beneath it.
The Heaven Dou Emperor, Xue Beng!
"Xue Beng?!" In the Heaven Dou Empire's imperial capital, a nobleman leaped to his feet. The wineglass in his hand fell with a crash and shattered, splashing wine across the floor. "That useless prince??"
"Impossible!" Another minister was full of disbelief. "That brat Xue Beng spent every day in the imperial capital drinking and whoring. Even his Martial Soul only got where it was because the imperial family poured resources into it. He... he actually became the Heaven Dou Emperor?!"
"And he was the one who took Jialing Pass?"
"How is that possible..."
"That spoiled prince actually..."
Everyone in the imperial capital who knew Xue Beng was dumbfounded.
As far as they remembered, Xue Beng was a useless prince who couldn't accomplish anything but could ruin everything.
Yet the Heavenly Screen had shown them that the useless Xue Beng was the one who had ultimately ascended the throne?
The Heaven Dou Empire's imperial palace.
Xue Ye sat on the dragon throne, staring in a daze at Xue Beng on the Heavenly Screen, resplendent in golden armor and riding high on horseback.
"Xue Beng..." he murmured. "It's actually Xue Beng..."
Xue Ye had always thought his youngest son was good for nothing. His talent was poor, his character frivolous, and all he knew was eating, drinking, and having fun. Xue Ye had long since ruled him out as an heir.
But the Heavenly Screen had shown him that Xue Beng had not only inherited the throne, but had also led troops to take Jialing Pass.
"That brat... just how many years has he been hiding it?"
Xue Ye's voice was trembling.
A feeling suddenly came over him: perhaps he had never truly understood this son of his.
Meanwhile, deep within the Heaven Dou Empire's crown prince's residence, in a dim room.
Qian Renxue sat alone in a chair, her golden eyes fixed on the armored figure on horseback in the Heavenly Screen. Her expression was complicated to the extreme.
"Xue Beng..."
Her voice was soft, carrying an indescribable sense of absurdity.
"I spent more than a decade in disguise, only for that good-for-nothing to reap the benefits?"
"That good-for-nothing was putting on an act for me all along!"
Qian Renxue clenched her fists.
She had thought she knew Xue Beng well. He spent all day eating, drinking, and having fun, going in and out of pleasure houses. He was the most useless of the useless.
She had even thought that once she inherited the throne, she would give Xue Beng the title of an idle prince and provide for him for the rest of his life.
But now the Heavenly Screen had shown her that Xue Beng had hidden himself far more deeply than she had imagined.
"So my future self's plan failed, all because of Xue Beng?"
A cold light flickered in Qian Renxue's eyes.
In fact, when the Heavenly Screen first showed her appearing in the Spirit Hall Empire, with the Spirit Hall Empire and Heaven Dou Empire armies facing off, she had guessed that her plan of all these years might have failed.
She simply had not expected that the cause of her failure was most likely that good-for-nothing Xue Beng.
That spoiled prince she had never once taken seriously.