Chapter 1869: Thunder Region (III) |
Li Hao took another look at the Great Li king. Ever since Yuan Shuo verified his dao and Silver moon rose to sixth rank, almost all Silver Moon veterans that the young man was familiar with had become exalted emperors.
That included his honorary junior sister Li Meng and junior brother Hu Hao, old friends Hao Lianchuan and Wang Ming, and even Liu Long’s son Liu Yin. All of them were exalted emperors now.
The inaugural members of the Demon Hunters and even the Watercloud empress dowager were exalted emperors. Only the Great Li king, the former tyrant of the dao of kings, was still a fellow daoist.
One had to know that he’d previously been one of two half step emperors under Li Hao’s banner. One of them had been the queen, the other was the Great Li king. And now he was the only half step emperor of the older generation!
Granted, only four years had passed, but that was an age ago in other people’s eyes!
“Great Li king, I would like to seal your Great Li World away,” Li Hao raised. “I want to send in Gan Wuliang to help you unify these people and create a true dynasty!
“Civilization, a written language, habits, custom, and tolerance for each other are all exceedingly troublesome matters that will take a long time to accomplish. You won’t find success in a short period of time. Ten, one hundred years would be a common timespan to spend on them…
“I don’t have additional energy to offer for this pursuit, so your world might not improve at all from the attempt. Are you willing to undertake this endeavor?” The young man looked at the king, then at the crowd around them. “I said a long time ago that I’d like to travel independently and journey through the universe.
“I also know that you guys don’t want me to make my way through the chaos alone and see only my back. Therefore, I hope that everyone can keep up with my pace.
Jiang Li rose and bent at the waist. “I am willing to assist my king!”
Li Hao nodded
“I’d like to give it a try too,” offered Director General Zhao. “Integrating different worlds, cultures, and civilizations… I’ve administered Silver Moon for five hundred years, so I should be of some help to the Great Li king.”
Some other exalted emperors volunteered as well.
“So you mean…” asked the Great Li king with a complicated look in his eyes. “That I will cultivate virgin land with some people, that if I cannot unify my rule and verify my dao, I do not need to emerge from the world again?”
Li Hao stared steadily at him.
“I understand!” sighed the Great Li king. What use am I if I do not succeed? Why should I leave my world then? Everyone around me has become an exalted emperor, but I have not. This is the road I chose, however, so I should keep walking it no matter how difficult it is!
“It’s not just the Great Li king, but I hope that more people will enter this world to comprehend different daos,” said Li Hao. “This includes life and death, as well as faith. Ling Yue’s faith is too rootless and needs time to settle! Hongyu’s dao of life and death also needs time to fully establish.
“None of you lack energy, opportunities or dao comprehension now. You just need time to digest everything! I will use the star of time to create a secret realm with the Great Li World. This will be a secret world of time!
“One moment in the outside world will be one year inside. Other than not being able to absorb energy from the surroundings, Great Li World will be a regular sixth rank world. Not even seventh or eighth ranks are able to fully seal off such a world, but we have a chance to do so now!”
This was indeed an opportunity for them all.
“Everyone is improving too quickly. I am happy, but also worried. It’s been too soon since our rise! New Martial spent one thousand years to reach its current heights, whereas we have weathered only three years! We have fought and killed our way through everything, but lack the quiet contemplation afforded through the passage of time!”
As for Li Hao himself, he wasn’t short on adequate time.
He’d once journeyed through New Martial and visited Skyward. He’d walked the cycle of life and death and experienced reincarnation. He had triumphed in hundreds of battles. While his biological age was in his twenties, he was long past that age mentally speaking.
Even the Human King might not have experienced as much as him over one thousand years. The Human King was not old—he was very young and full of vigor. And I… am younger than him, but mentally older than him.
The Thunder master had been listening quietly, shaken by what he heard. The Silver Moon king wasn’t willing to give up on anyone! He hoped that they would grow alongside him! How difficult was that? How many seventh ranks were there in existence?
But Li Hao seemed to hope for all of his people to become seventh or eighth rank. That was a farfetched tale.
The young man’s plans for all of these people, sending them down paths of appropriate daos for them to try… left the Thunder master envious and slightly self conscious. I’ve never done anything like that. The road is simple for Thunder exalted emperors—the dao of thunder!
My… exalted emperors live a pretty sad life in comparison.
The Great Li king took a deep breath and stood. “Since everyone is willing to help me, then I will take full advantage of it. I will establish a new dynasty in Great Li World! If I am unable to verify my dao there, then I shall die of old age in it. Li Hao, you can guide the others out if they’d like to leave!”
He was equally anxious at seeing everyone else advance and leave him behind. Since this opportunity had been presented to him today, he would give it a try!
“I once buried a star of the human emperor dao in the river of daos,” said Li Hao. “I will bury it in Great Li World now. If you really can’t proceed down your own path and verify your dao… then try that path!”
The king was aware of what Li Hao spoke of—the queen had created it. It was a terrifying prospect to consider one hundred billion people’s faith and trust flooding into him at the same time.
The king took a deep breath and nodded.
Li Hao summoned a world from Number Two’s stomach; those who’d volunteered walked forward without a word. After they entered, the young man installed the Star Gate as its world gates and shut it tight.
The sixth rank world would not fall silent even with the Star Gate closed on it. It would need the suppression of the star of time. When the entire world was enveloped by the star of time, that would better prevent the world from sinking into a crack of the chaos universe and be subjected to conflicting space and time.
The Thunder emperor looked on in high spirits. Meanwhile, the dao chess and Void quietly sensed the changes. Damn if the star of time wasn’t something good!
Li Hao was studying that dao star as well.
“I’ve always been a fan of taking action once coming up with a plan,” he suddenly said. “I’ve been waiting for the day in which I’ve fully comprehended time. I want to rebuild time then, but perhaps… I should burn all of my boats ahead of time!”
What did he mean? The crowd didn’t understand.
Only Li Hao himself was aware that it might be the moment to break time into pieces. Not now, but soon. Otherwise, he might not be able to set foot into seventh rank.
Or rather, he could only set foot into seventh rank through time!
By then, he wouldn’t be able to make up his mind to break time then!
I must break the dao star before I become a seventh rank and rebuild a time of my own. Even if it’s just a dao domain and not time, only then will I stand a chance of perfecting my dao!
The Dragon master’s appearance had helped him realize that what the sixth rank War Sovereign had created wasn’t that perfect. It was detectable by others because War had been too weak. That caused some of the daos within the star to be weak, so very weak.
An outsider like Li Hao wasn’t able to repair or strengthen them at all. Problems might develop if he continued down the path of time. He might be able to raise the dao star to ninth rank, but he still wouldn’t truly understand what time was then!
He could give cultivation pointers to others, but no one could help him. Perhaps he could only rely on himself.
The young man suddenly looked in a certain direction, as did Number Two and the Thunder master. The Thunder master was nervous, whereas Li Hao looked on strangely.
“It’s that guy…” mumbled Number Two.
The Exalted Blood Emperor!
Indeed, Li Hao had sensed it, that the Exalted Blood Emperor was drawing closer. That was because Silver Moon, or rather the Firmament Sword, was shaking. The weapon had absorbed the two Battle Heaven characters—they were vibrating.
The one hailed as the Human King’s teacher and inducted the Human King into martial cultivation was supposed to be Exalted Blood Emperor. Long had his name resounded throughout the land, but Li Hao had never met the man. He’d seen the Exalted Blood Emperor a few times in New Martial’s past, but never met him in the flesh. Perhaps the chance was at hand today.
“New Martial…” Li Hao murmured. This was a marvelous civilization. The most marvelous of all was that the Human King, Supreme Zhang, Exalted Blood Emperor, Sword Sovereign, and others might all be aware of the star of time, but no one cultivated it!
Li Hao truly wanted to meet with the Exalted Blood Emperor and ask, why don’t you cultivate it? You are regarded as the reincarnation of the War Sovereign. Why don’t you want it either?
What a bunch of interesting people.
……
Everyone had just settled down when the Exalted Blood Emperor came calling. The Thunder master went on the alert when he sensed the impending visitor. Li Hao didn’t wait in Thunder World, this was the Thunder master’s territory, after all.
It was very dangerous to let a seventh rank into a world, in case they broke the world domain. It didn’t matter that the world master had just risen to eighth rank. Not to mention, the Exalted Blood Emperor might not be alone.
“Senior Number Two, let’s go out for a look.”
The cat kept up a running litany of inaudible mutterings under its breath. No one knew what it was saying and it didn’t clue Li Hao in. One human and a cat rose into the air, flying outside the world.
After some thought, the Thunder master and Void followed suit. Although New Martial was closely tied to Silver Moon, they had to be on guard. They’d just killed a bunch of Dragon Region powerhouses, so some danger was afoot.
……
Thunder Region.
Thunder and lightning crashed through the void.
A blood-red long blade cut through a lightning bolt. Behind the Exalted Blood Emperor, Fog Mountain reached out to snuff out some bolts. He was looking a bit worse for the wear.
“And they say this is the lull period… If we were in a period of activity, I bet even eighth ranks would die.” Fog Mountain quickly avoided another thunder pillar.
The tribulations were stronger around the thunderbolts. He’d suffered a bit after entering the region before learning the lay of the land. The pillars were to be evaded.
He looked at the Exalted Blood Emperor in the lead and had to admit, there was a reason why New Martial was so strong. The Exalted Blood Emperor was not famous in the chaos, but he possessed a steady hand and felt much more dependable than the Human King.
There were too few reliable characters in New Martial. The Exalted Blood Emperor had been worried that he was traveling with another Human King. It looked like reality was much better.
If his travel companion was the Human King, that man would’ve long started dueling the thunderbolts and forgotten about their destination.