Three hundred...

Four hundred...

Five hundred...

The number of criminals dying at Wei Zhao's hands was climbing at a furious rate.

Across the land, the people kept erupting in wave after wave of jubilant cheers.

True, swayed by conspiracy theories, the common folk of Tianjun had harbored no small amount of grievance toward Wei Zhao over this mass prison break, but now that the moment had come, their gratitude toward him was heartfelt all the same.

In the end, the hearts of the people remained simple and honest.

Before long, the tally of criminals slain by Wei Zhao's hand had passed nine hundred.

"Nine hundred ninety-six. Nine hundred ninety-seven. Nine hundred ninety-eight."

Wei Zhao counted silently in his heart, and came to stand before the last criminal.

The spot happened to be a street-side plaza.

When the criminal saw Wei Zhao appear, the pressure of his presence bore down and his legs gave way; he dropped to his knees on the spot.

The gulf between them was too vast. Even if he had struggled, it would have been futile, and every cell in his body had already given up resistance by pure instinct.

Facing Wei Zhao, he could not summon even the faintest thought of fleeing; all he could do was shut his eyes and wait for death.

At the same time, as the remaining criminals were swiftly put down, order throughout Tianjun had already been restored. Folk from all quarters came pouring out of their homes and gathered toward where Wei Zhao stood.

"Kill him! Kill him!"

The crowd's shouts rose higher with every wave.

Slowly, Wei Zhao drew the Ksitigarbha Blade and brought it down at the criminal's neck in a single stroke.

The criminal's whole body gave an instinctive shudder.

But strangely, the expected sight of a head falling to the ground did not appear. The Ksitigarbha Blade rested against his neck and stopped at the very last instant.

A dead silence fell over the plaza.

The criminal forced his eyes open, disbelief written across his face. "You... you're letting me go?"

Wei Zhao said nothing.

One more stroke and the condition of slaying nine hundred ninety-nine criminals would be fulfilled.

By the normal course of things, he would then be able to fuse the Myriad Image Finality without hindrance.

But would it really be that simple?

Wei Zhao did not move, and naturally the criminal before him dared not move either.

Only the gathered folk of Tianjun looked at one another in bewilderment.

"What's going on?"

Had Wei Zhao's prestige been even a shade weaker, they would likely have cursed him aloud.

Facing a criminal steeped in every imaginable evil, was the Lord of Tianjun really going to play the tenderhearted saint?

If he simply let the man go, then not only those present but the whole of Tianjun would curse him for it.

A flicker passed through Wei Zhao's eyes.

A mysterious energy came slicing through the air and plunged straight into his sea of consciousness.

At the same time, under the influence of that energy, Wei Zhao's right hand exerted force of its own accord, and it looked for all the world as though he was about to take the criminal's life.

But at the final instant, Wei Zhao checked the force after all.

Under the eyes of the crowd, Wei Zhao slowly sheathed the Ksitigarbha Blade and lifted his head to glance at a certain point in the void.

"So there really is someone behind this."

On the surface, his whole sequence of actions had been the slaying of criminals to fulfill the second option of the fusion ritual, but in truth he had been probing the mastermind behind the scenes.

Wei Zhao could already guess the other party's identity.

Honestly speaking, the man's entire scheme could not be called anything but exquisite. Had Wei Zhao's vigilance been even slightly weaker, he would likely have fallen for it by now.

But the man's flaw was no small one either.

It came down to one thing.

He had been too hasty.

Had the Tianjun riot never happened, Wei Zhao might, after some muttered deliberation, actually have chosen the second option.

Now that this had been staged, it did give Wei Zhao ample justification on the face of things—but for that very reason, Wei Zhao's guard was all the higher.

And what had just happened had thoroughly confirmed the other party's existence.

"Can I go now?"

The criminal, understanding nothing, thought he had escaped disaster.

Wei Zhao did not even glance at him, and simply turned and walked away.

As the crowd stood puzzling over this, Gu Tianque came forward with a cold chuckle and sent the criminal straight to the Western Paradise with a single kick.

After a moment of stunned silence, the plaza erupted in cheers.

The crowd could not fathom why Wei Zhao had not finished the criminal off himself, but whether Wei Zhao struck the blow in person or had a subordinate do it in his stead, the result was the same as far as the people were concerned.

Back at the New Heavenly Palace, Zhang Baiyu came forward to meet him.

The two of them at once went back over the whole affair from start to finish.

"It's now all but certain that the man behind this is Jiang Wushe."

Wei Zhao clicked his tongue. "He goes out of his way to put the Myriad Image Finality up as a lot so it falls into my hands, then turns around and comes running to help unbind me, building himself the persona of a magnanimous elder. Thinking about it now, this man has truly schemed himself raw."

To be fair, Wei Zhao's stumbling upon the Myriad Image Finality as a bargain was, by any normal logic, utterly unforeseeable.

But some things are fated in the unseen.

Given the other party's level of power, once he set his mind to laying a scheme, reaching this point was not entirely impossible.

Zhang Baiyu mused, "With option two gone, if you wish to continue fusing the Myriad Image Finality, my lord, then the only choice left is the Myriad Ages Reincarnation."

However one looked at it, this was a dead end with no way out.

Wei Zhao was silent a moment. "Let me study it first."

He had to fuse the Myriad Image Finality; that line of thinking would never change.

But even if he was forced to choose the Myriad Ages Reincarnation, the groundwork had to be laid first. Otherwise, charging in rashly and truly enduring the shock of ten thousand ages within a single day—even with all his confidence, Wei Zhao would not dare claim he could weather it.

Meanwhile, in the private secret realm of the God of Wealth Academy.

Jiang Wushe stared at the projected map of Tianjun, frowning in silence.

The black-robed mystery man materialized before him, his tone carrying an edge. "You assured me before that you could use the Myriad Image Finality to control Wei Zhao and seize the Lord God's opportunity. That was the foundation of our continued cooperation."

"If you can't even manage this one step, then you and we are finished here."

Jiang Wushe's expression shifted slightly. "You want to drive a nail into the core region of the Divine Domain. Without my cooperation, I'm afraid that won't come so easily."

"That needn't trouble you."

The black-robed man spoke calmly. "What the world has no shortage of is ambitious men. If you're not up to it, we can find someone else."

With that, he turned to leave.

Jiang Wushe's face contorted in conflict.

His cooperation with the other party was a matter of each taking what he needed—but as the man had said, without him, they could simply choose to back someone else.

Yet Jiang Wushe had no such fallback.

The crux was this: the moment they propped up someone else, that person would instantly become his rival, and any hope of rising higher within the Hall of the God of Wealth would then multiply in difficulty by geometric degrees.

That was a consequence Jiang Wushe could not afford.

After all, he had already invested far too much—put plainly, he had gone all in.

By now, there was no road back at all.

Seeing the black-robed man about to depart, Jiang Wushe finally spoke. "I have one more chance."