Chapter 18: Stripping the False Dragon
"Domain Expansion," I commanded, my voice layered with the absolute, crushing authority of the true Dragon bloodline. "World Tree's Genesis."
An explosion of blinding emerald and gold light erupted from my chest, swallowing the entire Imperial Capital. The sky turned a brilliant, pristine sapphire blue. The necrotic purple dome of the Heavenly Starvation Array didn't just break—it was violently assimilated.
RUUUUMBLE!
Right in the center of the Imperial Palace courtyard, shattering the Emperor’s grand throne room into dust, a massive, glowing tree made of pure life-force erupted from the bedrock. It grew thousands of feet into the air in mere seconds, its canopy covering the entire capital. Its roots surged outward, instantly breaking the obsidian walls of the city to dust.
A wave of intense, revitalizing energy washed over the millions of starving refugees outside. Their sunken cheeks filled out. Their diseases vanished. The famine that had plagued the empire for three years was instantly, irrevocably erased.
But the magic had the exact opposite effect on the Usurper's forces.
The roots of the World Tree snaked across the battlements. They didn't kill the Imperial Guards. They merely reached out and gently tapped their weapons and armor. Instantly, one hundred thousand steel swords, crossbows, and iron breastplates bloomed into violently growing bouquets of heavy, sweet-smelling flowers.
In a single breath, the Usurper's grand army was completely disarmed, holding nothing but handfuls of blooming roses and lilies.
"No! No! This is impossible!" Emperor Xiao Zheng shrieked, scrambling backward on his golden dais. He frantically pumped his own life-force into the pitch-black Dragon Vein Core, trying to summon another attack.
But the Core wasn't responding to him anymore. It was violently trembling in his hands, glowing with a chaotic, destructive heat.
"You stole my family's core, Xiao Zheng," I said, walking slowly down the lotus staircase until I was standing right in front of him on the wall. The hundred thousand guards dropped to their knees, absolutely terrified by my divine aura. "But a fake dragon cannot hold the true sun."
CRACK.
The black corruption on the Dragon Vein Core shattered like an eggshell. The pure, golden essence trapped inside burst forth, drawn to its true master. The orb flew out of the Emperor’s hands and floated gently into my palm, merging instantly with my own max-level Dragon Qi.
The moment the core left him, the dark magic sustaining the Usurper’s unnatural youth vanished.
Xiao Zheng screamed as his black hair turned bone-white. His smooth, arrogant face rapidly collapsed into a network of deep, liver-spotted wrinkles. His spine hunched over violently. In the span of three seconds, the mighty Emperor aged eighty years, collapsing into a withered, toothless, pathetic old man, drowning in his oversized imperial robes.
"My power..." he croaked, staring at his frail, shaking hands. "My empire..."
"Your empire?" I laughed, the sound cold and merciless. I turned to look at the trembling courtiers, the same men who had betrayed the royal family fifteen years ago.
"Kneel," I commanded.
It wasn't a request. The sheer gravity of my aura forced every single courtier, every single soldier, and the withered Emperor himself to violently slam their knees into the stone battlements.
[DING! Ultimate Face-Slapping Achieved! The False Emperor's Dignity has been Annihilated! +500,000 Shock Points!]
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