[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-heir-to-the-kingdom-of-1-4-billion-citizens":3,"chapter-heir-to-the-kingdom-of-1-4-billion-citizens-heir-to-the-kingdom-of-1-4-billion-citizens-chapter-71":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Heir to the Kingdom of 1.4 Billion Citizens",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2270946,4434,"Chapter 71: Opening Performance","heir-to-the-kingdom-of-1-4-billion-citizens-chapter-71",71,"\u003Cp>Birds startled and flew away, leaving the dense forest quiet and serene.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment Boge finished speaking, Xia Mingyu felt an odd force enter his body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That force converged at his eyes, bringing a series of cool, faint stings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Immediately, his jet-black, obsidian pupils gradually transformed into an exquisite ice-blue, glowing with a faint radiance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Xia Mingyu’s current vision, the entire world underwent a radical transformation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Trees, wild grass, sky, soil—all colors rapidly faded, until the whole world became monochrome.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every living being, whether animal or plant, was woven from countless black-and-white lines converging into a single point that moved swiftly across its form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How beautiful!” Xia Mingyu murmured involuntarily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wanted to see something even more beautiful, so he instinctively looked upward toward the brightest object in the sky—the sun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next instant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ow! Ow! Ow!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xia Mingyu clutched his eyes and collapsed to the ground, feeling as if multiple needles were piercing his eyeballs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your Highness, are you alright?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Boge hurriedly bent down, supporting his back and gently lifting him up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m fine.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After several deep breaths, Xia Mingyu felt the pain gradually fade, and the colors of all things returned to his vision.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But his sight flickered dimly, like a video downgraded from 4K to 480p.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The sun… is alive?” Xia Mingyu recalled the scene he had just seen, still shaken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Logically, the Death of All Things should only reveal death-points of living beings like animals and plants—but just now, though only for an instant, he had seen the sun’s death-point!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your Highness, the sun is the incarnation of the Sun and Justice God—of course it’s alive!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Boge fell silent for a long while before letting out a bitter laugh.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only a sovereign blessed with fourteen hundred million blessings would dare do such a thing; if I tried gazing directly at the sun while wielding the Death of All Things, my brain would explode in the next second.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xia Mingyu: “.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He realized that the deeply ingrained common sense he had held for nineteen years on Blue Star could not be replaced overnight with this world’s “common sense.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“An excellent blessing. I believe you will be my finest attendant,” Xia Mingyu said, patting the boy’s shoulder in admiration.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My Lord, I feel the same way,” Boge replied, momentarily stunned, then a faint, proud smile appeared on his stern face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Carry me back to the castle.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, Your Highness.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy effortlessly slung the black-haired youth, who had closed his eyes to rest, onto his back and walked toward Langbao.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though thanks to Anliya’s careful care these past days, Xia Mingyu’s weight had increased considerably, the boy’s strength had more than doubled!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides, this was also an act of loyalty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile, a thousand miles away from here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a dark, damp dungeon carpeted with dry straw, Shi San slowly opened his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Another sleepless night. I haven’t entered the sovereign’s hall for two nights,” the giant’s eyes flickered with exhaustion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since that day in the Starfire hall when he judged the wicked, he had been unable to sleep peacefully.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Memories he had deceived himself into forgetting, buried deep in his heart, surged back again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Again and again, to survive—or to get a single black bread—he had smashed fellow slaves to death with his bare hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Blood drowned his fists; the compatriots beneath him screamed in agony.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the child he had been then had merely watched coldly as the man screamed himself to death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Born a slave, unaware even of his own parents, no one had ever taught him that killing was a sin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Tameilan had said in the hall, any wicked man stained with the blood of the innocent deserved execution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet even the worst criminals on those crime records had killed no more than twenty people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he, raised since birth for combat, had been forced since age six to fight to the death against other slave children in the arena.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now twenty-one, over fifteen years—how many innocent lives had his hands claimed?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One hundred, two hundred, three hundred—countless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was a criminal; he should long ago have been dragged to the executioner’s block like those judged wicked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Overwhelmed by guilt and terror, the giant’s iron-hard muscles trembled slightly; beads of white sweat formed on his forehead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How ugly, how cowardly to cling to life—why wasn’t it me who died?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Boom!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He slammed his head hard against the dungeon’s stone wall, instantly denting it—but he felt only a faint pain, utterly unable to ease his inner guilt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tap-tap-tap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, footsteps approached, and the dungeon guard, Benson, appeared before him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Shi San, it’s your turn. This is the grandest performance of your arena career—many noble lords have traveled thousands of miles just to watch you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Benson stared blankly at the giant who had been bashing his head against the wall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, as a slave bound to obey all orders, with no freedom and no pleasures, self-harm was perfectly normal!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If I were a slave, I’d have smashed my head against the wall long ago.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides, this wasn’t even the first time the giant had harmed himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Click.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Benson opened the dungeon door and led Shi San out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your opponent this time is the Man-Eating Lion—Eury. It’s a named beast, dwelling in the wilds beyond Slave City, having devoured countless trading caravans—and then vanished, impossible to catch.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Only when our master, Sir Simon, personally ordered the formation of a lion-hunting squad did we finally capture it and bring it to the arena.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh, by the way, you probably don’t know what a named beast is. When a beast reaches a certain level of intelligence and power, it, like our human race, gains the world’s protection and receives a name bestowed by the world—hence, named beast.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The most famous named beast is undoubtedly the World-Encircling Serpent Jormungandr, lurking beyond the Wall of Sighs. They say its body stretches from the Kingdom of Sosia all the way to the world’s end—I’d love to see it!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You must be extremely careful this time. Named beasts are incredibly powerful—even someone as strong as you risks death. This is even the first time in two years your odds are higher than the beast’s.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As they walked through the dungeon corridor, Benson kept babbling warnings to the giant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shi San remained silent, offering no reply.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing his lifeless demeanor, Benson sighed, then strained to rise on his toes and patted the giant’s broad shoulder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Shi San, I’ve cared for you six years. I know you don’t want to be a slave, and you hate killing—it’s natural. If I were you, I wouldn’t want to be a slave either.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But this time is different. Many nobles will be watching. If you can kill the Man-Eating Lion before their eyes, one of them will surely take you as their attendant—then you won’t have to be a slave anymore, or kill again.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before Benson finished speaking, Shi San’s entire aura shifted abruptly—from lifeless to a terrifying predator ready to pounce.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Bring me a weapon,” Shi San growled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wanted to end this endless killing, to see what sunlight looked like beyond these walls, and most of all, to witness the sovereign’s glory in reality—not just in dreams.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Good,” Benson nodded, satisfied at seeing the giant’s fighting spirit ignited.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If this grandest performance succeeded, he too would earn Sir Simon’s reward—and no longer have to work every day in this pitch-black dungeon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thud. A two-meter-long axe, carried by four slaves working together, was placed in the giant’s hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The axe’s blade was engraved with countless intricate magical runes, painted with powdered high-quality magic crystals, granting the weapon extraordinary power—only master smiths could forge such weapons, known as “magic arms.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had it not been to fight the Man-Eating Lion, such a precious magic arm would never have reached a slave’s hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moments later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The arena’s sandy ground was scorching under the sun, the air thick with the stench of blood and sweat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shi San stood straight on the sand, like a towering bronze peak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His muscular arms bulged with veins; he gripped the heavy axe, his chest heaving, sweat streaming down his defined back into the sand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Butcher!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Butcher!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The stands were packed with countless spectators, screaming and cheering in a sea of voices so loud it threatened to drown everything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under Shi San’s gaze, the iron gate across the corridor slowly opened, revealing over a dozen frail slaves wielding broken wooden axes and hammers as weapons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They stared at the monstrous giant before them with terror, their expressions hopeless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shi San fell silent. His pupils shrank sharply; the heavy axe in his hand clattered to the ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because he realized—this was meant to be an unjust slaughter as the opening performance!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1461,"2026-06-19T22:18:43.340Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","195b8cf0ca0f4f467b3919e3109907094df55d81a447bf5aaec782d6cdca6dc7","heir-to-the-kingdom-of-1-4-billion-citizens-chapter-72","heir-to-the-kingdom-of-1-4-billion-citizens-chapter-70",186,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fheir-to-the-kingdom-of-1-4-billion-citizens-cover.jpg"]