Brother Who Determines the Fate of the Nation: My Great Emperor's Cultivation Level Exposed by

A brief silence.

The global network seemed to be choked by an invisible hand, pausing for a full three seconds.

Then, the US internet completely crashed.

Hundreds of millions of bullet comments flooded into major platforms at the same time, causing server overload, pages to fail to load, blank screens, spinning circles, and crashes.

In the last comment that loaded, someone typed a line in all capital letters: "IMPOSSIBLE! THIS IS RIGGED!"

impossible.

There's definitely something going on inside.

The forbidden area system has a bug.

The resources poured into the Twelve Nations Alliance could have propelled an ordinary person to the peak of the War King realm. How could Arthur possibly be just second?

The system is wrong.

The system must be faulty.

This self-deceptive rhetoric is spreading wildly on American social media, like a drowning person grasping at a last straw.

Inside the underground conference room in the United States, the atmosphere exploded even before the internet outside.

The Minister of Defense kicked over the chair in front of him, the sound of it hitting the conference table echoing in the enclosed space.

"What's going on?" he yelled, veins bulging from the base of his neck to his temples.

"Arthur was created by all the resources of our twelve kingdoms; we burned through 37 million spirit stones! Why is he only second?"

No one responded.

The president slumped in his seat, his face, which had been rosy just ten minutes ago, now ashen as if it had been plastered with lime, his fingers unconsciously scraping the table with a harsh sound.

"Who the hell is number one?"

His voice was hoarse.

The CIA director flipped through the tablet in his hand, his hands trembling violently. The real-time monitoring screen of the intelligence system was completely blank; no country had reported any news of anyone being promoted to War King.

"I can't find it," he said.

"No relevant information has been found through any intelligence channels, and no country has announced a second War King."

"Did this person spring out of a crack in a rock?!"

Before the words were finished, the light in the sky moved again.

All eyes were fixed on the top of their heads.

Golden light surged and coalesced below Arthur's ranking, forming a new line of text—a detailed evaluation of the second-place finisher from the heavens.

[Second Place: Arthur. Detailed Evaluation—He forcibly elevated his cultivation level by relying on abundant external resources, resulting in a weak foundation and combat strength far below the average level for his cultivation level. Overall Assessment: Pseudo-Battle King. (In parentheses: Weakest Nascent Soul cultivator.)]

The False War King.

Those three words were like three slaps to the face of every single person in the United States.

No one spoke in the meeting room.

The chair the Defense Minister had just kicked was still lying in the corner, and no one was helping it up. Everyone's expression was frozen; only their breathing grew heavier.

The president's lips trembled several times before he managed to squeeze out the words: "What does 'pseudo-war king' mean?"

When he asked the question, he already knew the answer.

The CIA director slammed the tablet down on the table with a dull thud.

"It means that our twelve-nation alliance burned through 37 million spirit stones, emptied the strategic reserves of all our allies, and created a complete waste."

"Not useless!" The president stood up, his hands gripping the table, his knuckles turning white from the force.

"The Heavenly Curtain is referring to the weakest Nascent Soul cultivator, but that's still the Nascent Soul realm! And still a Battle King!"

"The second-ranked pseudo-war king," the CIA director added expressionlessly.

This sentence was like a nail, nailing away the last shred of hope.

Second place: Pseudo-War King, weakest Nascent Soul cultivator.

Thirty-seven million spirit stones, the entire fortune of the Twelve Kingdoms Alliance, were exchanged for a counterfeit product stamped and certified by the Heavenly Curtain.

Not only did they fail to win the national honor for first place, they also squandered all their accumulated resources.

The Minister of Defense leaned against the wall, the color gradually fading from his face.

He suddenly realized something, and it was as if his bones had been removed.

"How will we explain this to our allies?" His voice was weak.

"We promised that after Arthur won first place, we would control the allocation of resources in the forbidden area, which is why all the countries handed over all their spirit stones. Now Arthur is a false war king, and the resources are gone. They will—"

"Shut up," the president interrupted him.

But everyone knew that from this moment on, the alliance of twelve nations was a disorganized mess.

Los Angeles, a temporary settlement for renegade citizens.

The group of people who were so high-spirited in front of the camera just three days ago, announcing that they were giving up their Chinese citizenship, are now standing in the square, craning their necks to look at the sky, their faces looking like they've swallowed a live fly.

"A fake war king?" A middle-aged man dressed in designer clothes murmured repeatedly, his face extremely grim.

Just three days ago, he said in a live broadcast that "China's 1.4 billion people deserve to be stepping stones for the United States." Now, Tianmu is telling him that the big ship he has joined is full of holes.

The phone of a woman next to her kept vibrating. When she opened it, she saw that it was full of messages from people she knew in China.

"See that? Your American daddy, the fake war king."

"Is it too late to come back? It's too late, haha."

"How did you insult China back then? Doesn't your face hurt now?"

She held her phone screen-down in her palm, her knuckles white from clenching it. A chill ran down her spine, freezing her in place.

In China, the first place winner hasn't been announced yet.

If the first place is someone from the Dragon Kingdom—

She dared not think any further.

At this moment, the Dragon Kingdom has gone mad.

The density of bullet comments on all live streaming platforms broke historical records, and even after three emergency server expansions, frame drops still occurred due to lag. The comment section was like a floodgate opening, with tens of thousands of new messages pouring in every second.

"Hahaha, this is hilarious! This fake war king! The twelve-nation alliance scraped together everything they had to create this drug-addicted trash!"

"Thirty-seven million spirit stones were used to feed a weakest Nascent Soul cultivator. That money was well spent, America. Should I calculate the unit price for you?"

"If the US is second, then who's first? Need I even ask?! The only true god in the entire arena! God Su!"

"Su Ruo! Su Ruo, go for it! Let the whole world see who the true chosen one is!"

"Those traitorous dogs who renounced their citizenship, do you enjoy the free air in America? Open your eyes wide and see what a true god is!"

The communications rooms on the fleet's warships were packed with people.

The young private, whose eyes were red just ten minutes ago, now had his whole face flushed red, not from grievance, but from excitement.

He gripped the deformed water cup and slapped his comrade's shoulder hard.

"False War King! Ah! I told you the Dragon Kingdom wouldn't lose!"

The class monitor didn't pat the back of his head because the monitor himself was laughing, his mouth practically stretched to his ears.

Inside the defense building, the duty officer stared at the live broadcast on the screen. He lightly punched his thigh with his fist, but the curve of his lips betrayed him.

The morale of the entire Dragon Kingdom rebounded from rock bottom at this moment.

The wound inflicted by their own people was still bleeding, but Tianmu gave everyone a shot in the arm.

The US's trump card has been used up, and the number one player hasn't even been revealed yet.

Everyone is waiting.

Seven billion people around the world are waiting.

The golden light on the sky began to vibrate violently, its brightness suddenly increasing to more than ten times that of when the second place was announced.

The light pierced through the clouds and the atmosphere, enveloping the entire blue planet in a pure gold glow.

In the White House's underground conference room, everyone unconsciously held their breath.

The pupils of the renuncians in Los Angeles constricted, and some began to take a step back.

The comment section of the live stream in China suddenly fell silent; all the bullet comments disappeared, and hundreds of millions of people shut their mouths at the same second.

Golden light converged in the center of the sky.

In the center of the sky, golden light solidified into a tangible form.

The mechanical voice sounded again, but this time, everyone could tell it was different.

That cold, emotionless voice rose slightly as it read these words, as if even the very heavens themselves were making way for the name to be announced.

[First place, the Chosen One of the Dragon Kingdom, Su Xuan.]

Seven billion people around the world caught their breath in the same second.

Within the forbidden area, Su Ruo froze on the spot as if struck by lightning. Her lips trembled violently, and tears welled up in her eyes and burst forth in a fraction of a second, splattering large drops onto the stone slabs beneath her feet.

"elder brother…"

Her voice was so soft it was almost inaudible, and her legs buckled as she was about to kneel down, but Anna, who was next to her, caught her just in time.

Everyone told her that her brother was dead, and she thought he was dead too. But now Tianmu is telling the whole world that her brother is alive and is number one.

He was the only one to come in first place throughout the entire event.

Alice's face turned pale.

She took two steps back, her fingers unconsciously gripping the hem of her clothes. She remembered every word she had said to Su Ruoruo, such as "a poor wretch who can't even afford a bulletproof vest."

What do you mean, "Your Dragon Country is destined to be at the bottom"? The current number one has the exact same surname as Su Ruoruo, while her country, the United States, is the second-place country that is ridiculed by the whole world.

Victoria's lips were pressed into a thin line, her arms were crossed in front of her chest, and her knuckles were clenched so tightly they turned blue.

She didn't speak, but most of the arrogance in her eyes had shattered.

Yukina stood expressionless in the corner, but the hand holding the kunai tightened.

Her brother, Miyamoto Hanzo, once asserted that it was impossible for China to produce top-tier experts, but now that judgment has been slapped back in the face.

On the celestial screen, the mechanical voice continued to broadcast.

[Time required to advance to the Transcendent level: Thirty years. Combat strength assessment: Number one below the Nascent Soul stage.]

Thirty years.

When this number hit everyone's head, the expressions of cultivators around the world collectively changed.

How long did it take for Arthur from the United States to take his turn?

He quickly reached the Nascent Soul stage by spending 37 million spirit stones and consuming countless rare and precious herbs through the alliance of twelve nations.

As a result, Tianmu gave him the evaluation of "pseudo-war king".

This Su Xuan, who fought his way up purely on his own for thirty years, is considered by Tianmu to be the number one person below the Nascent Soul stage.

In the White House underground conference room, the Secretary of Defense's lips trembled slightly.

What does it mean to be the number one person below the Nascent Soul stage?

No one answered him, because everyone present knew what it meant.

At the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, he crushes all beings of the same level; only those at the Divine Transformation Realm can pose a threat to him.

Among the chosen ones in the world, there is not a single one at the Nascent Soul stage.

not a single one.

This means that Su Xuan is currently the ceiling of the Blue Star.

The scene on the sky suddenly unfolded.

The previous leaderboard interface was replaced by a terrifying scene of the world changing color.

Dark clouds rolled in, lightning tore through the sky, and the whole world seemed to have entered the apocalypse.

Nine thick, purple lightning bolts hung in the sky, each carrying a devastating pressure.

In the very center of the image, a figure in white stands with his hands behind his back.

Su Xuan.

He stood at the highest point of that dead land, looking up at the nine lightning tribulations, without the slightest fear on his face.

He had no magical artifacts, no weapons, and couldn't even erect a defensive spiritual shield.

He simply used his physical body to take it.

The first bolt of lightning struck, shattering his white robes and revealing his scarred body beneath. He remained motionless.

The second, the third, and the fourth.

His skin changed from normal to charred black, and then golden light shone through the charred black, as if something was undergoing a violent transformation within him.

The fifth, the sixth, and the seventh.

The ground beneath his feet shattered and sank more than ten feet, yet he remained standing, his back ramrod straight.

The eighth and ninth steps.

The last two lightning bolts merged into one, ten times more terrifying than the previous seven combined, crashing down with a world-destroying roar.

Su Xuan finally made a move; he raised his head and a slight smirk appeared on his lips.

The lightning engulfed him completely.

In the forbidden area, Anna gasped.

"Has he gone mad? To withstand nine lightning strikes with his bare body?"

Su Ruo clenched her fists and pressed them against her chest, her nails digging into her flesh but she felt no pain.

She stared intently at the figure engulfed by lightning in the sky, tears still streaming down her face, but she didn't cry out; she just bit her lower lip hard.

She recognized the gesture.

When my brother was a child, he carried cement on construction sites. No matter how heavy the bags were on his shoulders, his back never bent.

Everyone saw it the instant the lightning dissipated.

Within Su Xuan's dantian, the golden core had shattered, replaced by a small, entirely golden figure sitting there, with the exact same face and the same arrogance, yet radiating a terrifying pressure that made heaven and earth submit.

The Nascent Soul has been formed.

Without the aid of elixirs or the accumulation of spirit stones, it fought its way up from the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and under the tribulation of the Nine Heavens, it completed the most domineering transformation.

The next second, Su Xuan opened his eyes.

He raised his right hand, joined two fingers together, and casually pointed at the still churning tribulation clouds in the sky.

A sword aura shot into the sky.

There are no fancy special effects, no complicated techniques; it's just the purest and most violent sword strike.

That sword energy was like a divine weapon that cleaved through chaos, splitting the hundred-mile-long cloud of tribulation in two from the very center.

Sunlight poured down.

The golden beam of light shone directly on Su Xuan, his white robes billowing in the wind, and the overwhelming pressure of his Nascent Soul form.

The entire global live stream froze on this moment.

New York, the United States.

Arthur was standing in front of a giant screen, with the entire nation's live broadcast camera pointed at him. He was the "War King" that the United States had spent 37 million spirit stones to create, and just ten minutes ago he was the second strongest person in the world.

Now, as he watched the image of a sword cleaving through the clouds of calamity on the sky, his legs went weak, his knees buckled, and he knelt down directly in front of the camera.

His eyes were filled with fear.

He knew all too well the power of that sword strike. If that sword energy were aimed at him, he wouldn't even have time to react before being crushed into dust.

The difference between him and Su Xuan wasn't even a matter of realm; it was the difference between an ant and a true dragon.

The image of Arthur kneeling was broadcast live across the United States and then spread around the world.

The White House basement was deathly silent.

The president loosened his grip on the chair armrests, because he no longer knew what to hold onto.

Thirty-seven million spirit stones, all the hard work of the Twelve Kingdoms Alliance, have become a joke.

Dragon Kingdom.

In the communications room of a warship, a young private, watching Arthur kneel, kicked over the stool in front of him and yelled at the top of his lungs, "He's kneeling! That fake war king has knelt!"

The entire communications room erupted in chaos, with everyone shouting.

On the street, all the large screens that were still running were crowded with people.