Li Hao was once more face to face with how weak he was. Everyone was stronger than him, which made his future path hard to walk. Even though some of the overlords were sending resources to him, it was still too hard for him to quickly catch up to them.
He wouldn’t have a chance of changing that unless he established his own chaos!
But if he did, he would have to face more troubles that way. This was a closed loop!
Should he recruit some people for the cause? The overlords, maybe? They were different from the ninth ranks of a million years ago. They weren’t of the same dao as him, but... they had their own share of feuds.
Li Hao contemplated silently. The other exalted emperors frowned because they could sense how conflicted the young man was.
“Everyone has been comprehending the myriad of daos during this period of time,” Li Hao said after a long moment. “The dao chess has been receiving everyone’s comprehensions as well. Does the senior have any ideas?”
“Ideas?” The dao chess shadow materialized and asked with some trepidation. Ninth rank?
You’re kidding, right?
“I meant the dao domain.” Li Hao almost rolled his eyes. “Has the senior not gotten a single clue about it?”
You won’t be able to make it to peak eighth rank if you don’t have your own dao domain!
Well, it was possible to make it with just one dao. The Human King’s great dao was a bit mediocre, but it was the only one he utilized. However, that dao was also unique in that it contained all daos and all daos were the Human King.
Can you match the Human King, dao chess? If you can, then you don’t need to establish a dao domain! It’s not just me, but also the dao comprehension of some eighth rank overlords that you received this time. Do you still not have a single clue? Is a domain that hard to attain?
The Sword Sovereign and others had established a dao domain when they were seventh ranks, albeit weak ones.
But they were dao domains all the same!
Can’t you do it?
The dao chess, however, breathed out with relief. He had a subconscious fear when it came to Li Hao. Not because the young man was strong, but because there was something in his memories of this group of people daring to reverse time and return to the past to challenge ninth ranks!
That was flabbergasting!
“I... think I just about can?” The dao chess didn’t want to be extremely affirmative either way. “I am an imperial spirit at the end of the day. It’s difficult for me to break through the constraints of being one...”
Li Hao nodded with understanding, then turned to the others such as the Thunder Emperor and Fog Mountain.
Fog Mountain was muttering oddly to himself and said with emotion to the young man, “Destiny is fickle...”
“Can the senior establish a dao domain?”
“Truth can be found in the darkness...”
“Can the senior establish a dao domain?”
“......” Fog Mountain stared expressionlessly at Li Hao. “Just about, but...”
“So long as the senior can do so!”
“......” Fog Mountain shut his mouth. Forget it.
“I think I just about can!” The Thunder Emperor offered without needing Li Hao to say anything. “Umm... I mean yes, just about!”
Li Hao looked at Void.
“What are you considering me for?” Void regarded his friend with a conflicted look. “I’m already an eighth rank, but I’ve improved too quickly recently. Life and death, emptiness and revitalization, light and darkness are all stagnating. I have a dao domain, but it’s not that strong. I’m only a weak eighth rank of two thousand some dao rules.”
It was a bitter pill to swallow, to go from dominating his peers to becoming a weakling eighth rank. But no matter how weak he was, he was stronger than before.
It just sucked.
He couldn’t really lift his head when among eighth ranks. It was mortifying!
Li Hao said nothing else and turned his attention to the seventh rank Gan Wuliang. The man was much more steady and dependable than before. He was also much stronger.
“I don’t have a dao domain, just a river of dao and a dao universe...” he said carefully as soon as the young man looked at him. Would that suffice?
“You...” Li Hao thought for a bit. “You should focus on your dao for now and help Panth as much as possible. Try to get it to seventh rank...”
He summoned a supernatural character when his thoughts traveled here and sent it to Panther.
“Study the ‘calamity’ character and enter seventh rank as quickly as possible. Thunder Domain might stir to action with Skyward’s return. They know that I wield the dao of calamity now, but I don’t like others knowing everything about me!
“If you can wield this dao, that means you can pretend to be me at a critical time!”
Everyone knew that Li Hao could command calamity, which meant they would be on guard against him. But now, the young man tossed it to Panther without second thought. The dog had also steadily improved under Li Hao’s nurturing, but it wasn’t that exemplary.
At the same time, it didn’t mind being Li Hao’s shadow. That was what it wanted. Whether Li Hao was a dao master or world master to others, it was just... master to the dog.
That was different!
Panther could be mediocre or incompetent. It didn’t need to have its own way either. Only Li Hao needed to be strong. It just needed to be able to help the young man.
“Ah, Panth, you should uh... spend some time with... uh... Hu Qingfeng lately,” Li Hao continued. “Gan Wuliang, help Hu Qingfeng grow stronger. Even if he doesn’t make it to seventh rank, let me know what he lacks to make it to sixth!”
Gan Wuliang’s eyes brightened. Hu Qingfeng!
That was a weak guy who was decent enough for the moment as he approached fourth rank. His only strong suit made others not know whether to laugh or cry.
He could summon Li Hao!
Granted, he could only summon a shadow, but it was very, very close to the real thing. Even Li Hao himself sometimes couldn’t determine real from fake. Other than a difference in strength, the Li Hao that Hu Qingfeng created was even more perfect than the actual Li Hao!
It was the young man as dreamed of by the cultivator!
Everyone’s minds were starting to move in the same direction. If Panther wielded the dao of calamity and Hu Qingfeng could summon a fake Li Hao, then... did they want to play a game of smoke and mirrors?
Clearly, Li Hao was plotting against someone again. Did it have to do with Skyward’s revitalization?
“Don’t worry, Your Lordship. I know what to do.” Gan Wuliang inclined his head. “Milord, Professor Yuan has gone to the north. We haven’t had word of him since. And... and Headmaster Hong... he...”
“What’s with Martial Uncle Hong?”
Gan Wuliang hesitated, but said, “Headmaster Hong has headed to the four regions!”
Li Hao frowned. He hadn’t been aware of that. “Did he say what he wants to do?”
“He said that if... something was to develop in the four regions... then he wanted to bring back a portion of the humans. Things are fine enough elsewhere, but chaos beasts are in charge of the four regions. They are too brutal to mankind...”
In other words, Hong Yitang was suffering from a saintly heart.
But he couldn’t be blamed for that because the man had incorporated the faith of hundreds of billions of humans to ensure Li Hao’s victory that day. In the young man’s eyes, his martial uncle was currently in very tragic straits.
That was a piece of shit great dao that turned any of its cultivators into puppets!
“We need to figure out a way to separate martial uncle from that dao...” Li Hao murmured.
“I think... Martial Uncle Hong... has retained his consciousness through all of this!” Gan Wuliang interjected. “He... is not controlled by the great dao! He had a magnanimous heart to begin with and pitied the state of humanity.
“When we were still in Silver Moon, he was willing to save orphans that he did not know! Perhaps the humans of the four regions are very similar to the people who’d lost their homes due to war that he once saw!
“His moniker is Earthturner Sword. Mother Earth is tolerant, all-encompassing, and possesses great virtue! Therefore, I think Headmaster Hong is relishing his integration with the dao of the human emperor. It might not have been a desperate act like the marquis thinks!”
Li Hao frowned slightly, but didn’t refute these words.
Great virtue... and responsibility... Hong Yitang!
The Silver Moon martial master that he’d known for a very long time had always been a kind person. That made him one of a kind among the martial world, didn’t it?
As for the others... he couldn’t say that they were bad, but neither were they that good. Everyone had committed their fair share of killing others for their treasures.
Southern Fist often failed to pay off his debts. Thunderleg had quite a few dalliances back in the day. It was too hard to pursue whether all of those dalliances had been completely consensual. He was no one good, in any case.
Hou Xiaochen’s hands were stained with blood. So when it came to Hong Yitang... he was indeed more honest and sincere than the rest.
“Let’s set Martial Uncle Hong aside for now,” Li Hao said as thoughts flickered through his mind. “He’s gone to the four regions. Long Zhan won’t do anything to him now even if he comes across the martial uncle.
“The dragon’s in difficult circumstances these days. Although there’s a grudge between us, he won’t risk offending me now. He’ll even want me to take those three Skyward cultivators away with me. That will decrease the pressure on his shoulders.
“Our strength... is not enough. But of course, I don’t mean you guys. I mean me!” Li Hao breathed out. “It’s tough to find our footing in the chaos at present if we don’t have more than six thousand daos. We won’t really be in control of our fates that way. I’ve saturated two thousand worlds right now and have only reached around three thousand dao rules. I’m far from that level!
“Gan Wuliang, keep pushing the method of supernatural characters. Have all Silver Moon cultivators train in it!”
Gan Wuliang nodded continuously.
“This is a script of supernatural characters.” Li Hao manifested a book. “Pass it on and incorporate it into the dao universe for all cultivators to study. I might borrow the supernatural characters at a critical moment to nurture my dao spirit... You can tell everyone else!”
Gan Wuliang didn’t say anything. This wasn’t a big deal. People wouldn’t have any opinions.
Li Hao then looked at the cat fading in and out of sight, one that blended with the background.
“...and what are you looking at me for?” Number Two asked wearily. What do you want with a cat?
It was starting to understand why Big Cat said that cats did not fight. It wanted to say that cats did not work!
I’m a cat! I don’t want to work anymore! Stop bothering me!
“Senior Number Two...” Li Hao smiled.
“I’m not your senior, I’m a cat!” Number Two refuted. Don’t call me your senior, nothing good ever comes from that.
“Please don’t say that, Senior Number Two,” Li Hao chuckled. “The senior has your own personality and is an independent entity...”
Number Two rolled its eyes. Here it comes!
“So this time, I’d like to bother the senior to help me replicate... the daos of the four emperors!”
“Who?”
“The four exalted emperors that entered the dao chess this time, apart from myself...”
Go to the hottest hell! The cat wanted to spit. Those guys are premier eighth ranks, even though they’re not ninth ranks! How dare you!
“I’m a seventh rank cat!”
So I can’t copy eighth rank dao! Don’t even think about it!
“I know, so I’d like to raise the senior to eighth rank this time!” Li Hao nodded. “The senior is a dao spirit. I didn’t know how to help you improve before, but now I know...”
I...
Number Two wanted to die!
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