Chapter 294: The Name of Pride Resounds Through the World!

Once he finished sorting out Zhou Hui's affairs, he turned his attention to his ennoblement. Bestowing a noble title wasn't as simple as issuing an announcement; a long, tedious string of procedures followed.

After a full day of exhausting work, his status as a noble was finally cemented. The Royal Family also granted each of them a noble manor.

Notably, this included selecting a family crest. Every noble possessed an exclusive crest, serving as a symbol of their status.

Su Mu chose the Ouroboros as his crest. Lin Nanxing picked a bow and arrow, Su Qing went with a small sun, and Yan Wu drew at random, ending up with a shield.

Lin Lingling's choice was a bit more abstract—she simply drew three zeroes.

That evening, the group gathered for dinner at Su Mu's new manor. With over fifty servants waiting on them, they finally got to experience the decadent corruption of the nobles.

Of course, Lin Nanxing was the only one actually experiencing it. The extravagance Su Mu conjured in his dreams was far beyond anything a mere noble could match. Su Qing was King Chi, which went without saying. Yan Wu was a puppet incapable of enjoyment, and Lin Lingling—someone who literally tripped over money every time she went outside—had never known a day of poverty.

This relaxed, idyllic life only lasted through the night. The very next day, a sudden news report sent shockwaves through the Chiyan Empire and the world at large.

The report hadn't been published by the Chiyan Empire, but was simultaneously released by major newspapers across the Blood Moon Empire, instantly dominating their front pages.

Because the content was so shocking, it rapidly spread from the Blood Moon Empire to all the other major empires.

The headline read: Head of the Seven Deadly Sins, Pride, Makes a Fool of King Chi!

With a title like that, the newspapers sold out instantly; people didn't even need to read the article.

One was the leader of a terrorist organization that had recently risen to infamy. The other was King Chi, one of the seven rulers of the world. Even a simple meeting between the two would have been enough to dominate the headlines, let alone the phrase makes a fool of.

Su Mu learned the news that morning. His new butler was highly professional and brought him the latest newspapers every day.

Upon seeing the headline, the corners of his lips curled up involuntarily. "It's been a while since King Chi deployed the False Supreme Heaven. The Blood Moon Empire finally couldn't help but stir up trouble."

He lowered his gaze to read the article, the smile on his lips gradually turning cold. "The Blood Moon Empire really played their hand well. They want to force King Chi and me into a fight to the death?"

The article was quite long and heavily embellished, but the core of the story was simply what had happened recently at Prison 749: Pride making a move right in front of King Chi to rescue the Revolutionary Army commander, Specter.

Such a simple event had been spun into a veritable short story.

It claimed that Pride had moved as if entering an uninhabited realm, engaging in a fierce battle with King Chi and a host of Royal Family experts, eventually slaughtering hundreds of them and severely wounding King Chi before swaggering away.

They had even fabricated quite a few classic quotes for him.

"The person I wish to protect, no one in this world can touch. They cannot, and you, King Chi, cannot either!"

"The Chiyan Imperial Capital is my backyard. I come as I please, and I leave as I please. Who can stop me? Who would dare!"

"King Chi? Nothing more than this."

Reading it almost made Su Mu laugh. If he hadn't been one of the people involved, he might have believed it himself—the writing was simply too detailed and too vivid.

The Blood Moon Empire's goal was crystal clear: elevate Pride and trample on King Chi.

As a head of state, suffering such extreme humiliation meant that if King Chi failed to kill Pride, she would lose all face. It could even shake the foundation of her empire.

This was putting King Chi over the fire to roast. For a King, losing their absolute majesty was a fatal blow.

If King Chi truly deployed the Supreme Heaven to kill Pride, she would inevitably pay an unimaginable price. After all, in the eyes of the world, Pride was already a supreme powerhouse on par with a Gold King.

Specter, renowned as the number one under heaven, had suffered a crushing defeat against King Chi. Yet, Pride had managed to rescue Specter right in front of her, slaughtering hundreds of Royal Family experts in the process. If that level of strength didn't belong to a Gold King, what did?

The Blood Moon Empire would naturally be thrilled to see King Chi pay a grueling price to kill Pride, as it would severely weaken the Chiyan Empire.

And if she didn't kill him, that was fine too. King Chi's prestige would suffer an unprecedented blow, inciting domestic unrest—a result the Blood Moon Empire was equally happy to see.

That was exactly why Su Mu commended the Blood Moon Empire for playing their hand so well.

With zero effort, simply by publishing a news article, they had forced King Chi into an impossible dilemma. Was there any better bargain in the world?

It was a blatant, open conspiracy—an unsolvable one!

The Chiyan Imperial Family naturally understood this as well, but they were completely helpless against it. As for bypassing Pride entirely and using the Supreme Heaven to assassinate the Blood Moon Empire's Undead King instead? That was simply unfeasible.

As a true Gold King, his foundation was bound to be unfathomably deep. King Chi had the Supreme Heaven, but did the Undead King not have his own Royal Power Artifact?

The price required to kill the Undead King would be utterly unbearable for the Chiyan Imperial Family.

If the Chiyan Imperial Family truly possessed that kind of overwhelming strength, how could the Seven Great Empires possibly co-exist?

Moreover, even if they succeeded in killing the Undead King, the Chiyan Empire would be doomed regardless. They would plunge into a state of unprecedented weakness, and the other empires would swarm in to devour them, because the Chiyan Empire simply couldn't afford the cost of killing two Kings.

The current Chiyan Empire was like a weak young woman holding a pistol loaded with a single bullet.

Her opponents were six burly men. They were wary of one another, yet every one of them wanted to claim her for themselves. The moment she fired that gun and killed one of them, the remaining men would lose all reservations.

The Undead King was certain King Chi wouldn't dare pull the trigger, but he was equally afraid to deploy his own troops to attack the Chiyan Empire directly. Fortunately for him, Pride had stepped onto the world stage, allowing him to use Pride to force King Chi's hand.

"What a flawless, open conspiracy," Su Mu praised, his eyes still on the newspaper.

He had already guessed that word of the incident at Prison 749 might leak, but he hadn't expected it to happen this fast. After all, he had caused a massive commotion that day. With so many witnesses present, keeping it under wraps would have been extremely difficult—especially from the Blood Moon Empire.

The Blood Moon Empire had once managed to convert several Chiyan Empire nobles into members of the Blood Clan. Their infiltration capabilities were easy to imagine. Even though those Blood Clan members had since been eradicated, they had left behind intricate, tangled webs of connections—and those webs couldn't simply be uprooted.

The Blood Moon Empire had undoubtedly exploited the people within those networks to acquire intelligence on Prison 749, heavily embellishing the truth before releasing it to the public.

Now the Chiyan Empire was trapped riding a tiger; even trying to defend themselves would be useless. Once they fell into the trap of trying to prove their innocence, they would never be able to recover.

The Chiyan Empire could issue a public statement declaring the news to be fake, but the problem was that the incident had actually happened. If King Chi issued that statement, how would the Revolutionary Army react? How would the Seven Deadly Sins react?

Even if neither of them reacted, the Blood Moon Empire would still make a move—such as impersonating Pride and issuing a response on behalf of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Moreover, the public would never believe it. The masses weren't fools. Even if the incident had been entirely fabricated, the best way to prove it would be for the Royal Family to simply execute Pride and wipe out the Seven Deadly Sins, wouldn't it? Not by issuing a flimsy statement while leaving the Seven Deadly Sins at large.