The Holy Emperor knew the origins of these five Lord Ancient Gods better than anyone.

Over five hundred years ago, during the early days of Great Xia’s Spiritual Energy Awakening, these five lords descended in the form of Divine Souls from an Outer Realm known as the East Japan Divine Domain.

They called themselves the Ancient Gods of East Japan—in other words, the Sakura Ancient Gods!

Five exceptionally talented physical bodies were fortunate enough to be chosen by them, becoming the Ancient Gods’ avatars for walking the mortal world!

As early as five hundred and sixteen years ago, all five of them had already reached the Emperor Realm!

Unfortunately,

because the Sakura Country was just an Island Country, its territory was too small, and its resources were extremely scarce.

After these five Lord Ancient Gods reached the Emperor Realm Early Stage, they discovered that the Sakura Country’s resources were completely insufficient to support the continued rapid recovery of their strength.

So, they naturally set their sights on Great Xia, which lay just across the sea.

Great Xia was vast and rich in resources, with Cultivation Resources piled up like mountains.

Their plan at the time was perfect.

They would attempt to conquer Great Xia in one fell swoop, then use its vast resources to rapidly push all five of them to the Peak of Emperor Realm!

After that, using Great Xia as their base, they would gradually conquer the entire Blue Star!

But alas...

Back then, although Great Xia ostensibly had only three Great Emperors.

That was two fewer than their Sakura Country.

But among these three Great Emperors, two were actually at the Emperor Realm Middle Stage!

The gap in realms was utterly terrifying.

Two at the Emperor Realm Middle Stage and one at the Emperor Realm Early Stage had completely overwhelmed their five Emperor Realm Early Stage Ancient God avatars!

Forcing them to retreat back to the Sakura Country in disgrace.

Afterward, one of Great Xia’s Emperor Realm Middle Stage experts, the man named Qin Yuan, was ordered to join forces with two Emperor Realm cultivators from Northern Europe. They formed a defensive line, resolutely guarding the seas just outside Sakura.

And they stood watch for a full five hundred years!

Over these five hundred years, it wasn’t that they hadn’t thought of breaking through.

But ever since that Qin Yuan broke through to the Peak of Emperor Realm two hundred years ago, the despair-inducing pressure he exuded made them afraid to make any rash moves.

And now, Qin Yuan was gone!

The great mountain that had been pressing down on them for five hundred years had finally moved aside on its own!

The Holy Emperor’s heart pounded violently with excitement.

Although there were still two Emperor Realm Late Stage experts from Northern Europe guarding those seas.

But so what?

Those two weren’t Great Xia People, after all. They were only obligated to act because of an ancient pact called the "Global God-Slaying Alliance."

There were a total of five Divine Domains on Blue Star.

The Ancient Gods of the East Japan Divine Domain weren’t the only ones who knew how to send their Divine Souls to Blue Star to play the possession game.

The Ancient Gods from the other Four Great Divine Domains had also sent out Divine Souls to possess avatars.

These Ancient God avatars were scattered across the globe, all covetously eyeing the juicy prize that was Blue Star.

To deal with this crisis facing all of humanity,

several of Blue Star’s superpowers at the time had taken the lead in establishing this Global God-Slaying Alliance.

They had all reached an agreement to help each other and jointly suppress these Ancient God avatars.

For example, several Ancient God avatars had also appeared in Northern Europe. Great Xia had likewise dispatched an Emperor Realm expert to help suppress them.

In return, Northern Europe had sent two Emperor Realm experts to help Qin Yuan share the burden of dealing with the Sakura Ancient Gods.

But they would never risk their lives for Great Xia!

Besides, their strength was in a completely different league compared to Qin Yuan, who had already reached the Peak of Emperor Realm!

They were nothing to worry about!

"I will find a way to secretly contact the mortal avatars of the other Four Great Divine Domains."

The middle-aged man in the black and red kimono took a sip of tea and continued speaking slowly, a calculating light flickering in his eyes.

"We’ll have them stir up some trouble in their own regions to pin down Great Xia’s other Emperor Realm experts, making sure they can’t spare anyone to provide support over here..."

"As long as we can take Great Xia’s ’Demon Capital’ in the shortest time possible! With that city’s Cultivation Resources, all five of us can be promoted to the Peak of Emperor Realm in less than half a month!"

"By then, no one on this planet will be able to do anything to us!"

His gaze finally fell upon the Holy Emperor.

"So, besides tracking down that mosquito, you have a more important task to attend to right now."

"Immediately! Confiscate all Cultivation Resources in the entire Sakura Country! Within three days, I want you to collect everything from the stockpiles of every City Lord’s Mansion and Provincial Government—anything and everything that can be used for Cultivation!"

"We must increase our strength as much as possible to ensure this invasion of Great Xia is absolutely foolproof!"

The Holy Emperor’s expression changed abruptly.

’Confiscate all the Cultivation Resources in the entire country?’

’This... this will shake the very foundations of the nation! It will cause countless nobles and local powers to rise up in rebellion!’

But this thought only flashed through his mind for an instant.

He immediately understood.

This was a do-or-die gamble!

’As long as we win! As long as we take Great Xia! The Sakura Empire will attain eternal glory for ten thousand generations!’

Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated and kowtowed heavily.

"Yes, sir! I will see to it at once! For the glory of the Lord Ancient Gods! For the future of the Empire! All sacrifices are worth it!"

...

「At the same time.」

Sakura Country, Haimachi City.

Located on the southern coast of the Sakura Country, this was the city with the most developed Spiritual Plant industry.

Above the city, a tiny black shadow appeared out of thin air. It was Chu Sheng.

Chu Sheng closed his eyes and scanned the area with his Chaos True Sight. His figure vanished again. The next second, he appeared directly above the city’s largest Spiritual Plant plantation.

As soon as he appeared, he heard waves of suppressed discussion and complaints from below.

"Sigh, most of this month’s harvest will have to be handed over again..."

"Yeah! The City Lord’s Mansion collects, the Provincial Government collects, and even the National Mansion is sending people to collect... What will be left for us? The pressure is too much!"

In the plantation, several Sakura Country workers who were in the middle of their labor gathered together, grumbling in low voices.

A young worker lowered his voice and said indignantly, "According to the rules, all Spiritual Plants of Eighth-Grade or higher are supposed to be handed over directly to the National Mansion! The City Lord’s Mansion and the Provincial Government are clearly just lining their own pockets!"

"Should we report them?"

"Idiot! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

An older worker next to him immediately scolded.

"We have no power and no influence, so what good would reporting them do? Do you think the great lords at the National Mansion can hear the voices of us common folk? Stop dreaming! You’re just asking for death!"

Chu Sheng, hiding in the shadows, listened to their conversation and became furious.

’These damn officials of the Sakura Country, taking so many good things for themselves!’

’This is practically stealing my Evolution Points!!’

’This is utterly intolerable!’

’Today, I will carry out justice on behalf of the heavens!’

A "righteous" glint flashed in Chu Sheng’s eyes. With a flicker, his figure appeared directly above the local City Lord’s Mansion.

He effortlessly located the underground vault and slipped inside with a spatial flicker.

"Hm? There’s an Array?"

Chu Sheng discovered a faint layer of Energy fluctuations covering the vault’s door, clearly protected by an Array.

He sneered and directly activated his [Realm-Breaking Claw]!

The sturdy Array was like paper-mache before him, easily torn open.

Chu Sheng squeezed into the vault and stared, his eyes wide, at the mountains of various High-Level Spiritual Plants piled inside.

All Eighth-Grade and Ninth Grade! There were even a few that had reached King-tier!

"Excellent, excellent!"

Chu Sheng was overjoyed and issued a righteous declaration.

"Today, I will carry out justice on behalf of the heavens and confiscate all of your ill-gotten gains!"