Star Gate

Just as Li Hao thought of the Human King.

Fang Ping wasn’t as irreverent as he usually was. New Martial was holding a solemn meeting as well. They’d just taken an eighth rank world and multiple seventh rank worlds a few days ago. Some had capitulated, others had been annihilated.

The Human King sat on a throne in a great hall and caressed the armrests before saying, “Skyward is about to return. I once said that when it does, that is when New Martial also returns to the four regions!

“Long Zhan might have thrown me out, but the four regions are the home of New Martial...” He looked at the rest. “We have three choices in front of us today! We can help Skyward, help Long Zhan, or beat them both without helping anyone!”

There was no such thing as neutrality! His choices simply distinguished between who they wanted to attack. There was no option of quietly sitting on the sidelines.

Those of New Martial were used to his style. The Light master was the only one new to it. He was about to say something when the Human King cut him off with impatience.

“Don’t be a fair-weather participant. Those who are only interested in watching the show usually die the fastest! No one will permit an enemy to sleep soundly by their side! Either we ally with one side to beat up the other, or we fight them all!

“The four regions are situated in the east, so there’s no possibility of peaceful relations between us. Don’t think of pinning our hopes on someone being good or having a conscience. All of these guys are rotten through and through!

“If we look at it from a matter of principles, I actually lean toward helping Long Zhan. Although we’re of different races, he and I have things in common!” The Human King sighed with emotion. “We are beset on all sides by enemies and are in the thick of danger. This is so similar to the situation faced by New Martial back in the day!

“But if we look at it in terms of the future, then once Long Zhan makes it through, he’ll become a strong enemy. He might not be able to measure up to someone like Chaos Sky, but he’s very dangerous with how tenacious he is!

“So no matter what, we need to participate in the upcoming battle and receive a share of the spoils!

“The return of Skyward means the reawakening of a major world. There will be a lot of dao strength, resources, and powerhouses to be had. All of that needs to be appropriately divided!” sneered the Human King. “There is no one good in the chaos! It’s hard to say who is good and who is bad. Just remember one thing—anyone stronger than you is out to get you. There’s nothing wrong with that train of thought!”

The supreme inclined his head as well. “What do you think? We probably can’t go one against two, so we need to pick a side. You’re leaning toward Long Zhan, right? He’s the underdog for now, but he has a deep grudge against Silver Moon...”

Li Hao had killed Phoenix, that was Long Zhan’s dao partner. Although the dragon had many dao partners, someone like him always had his revenge. The right timing just hadn’t presented itself yet. What would Silver Moon say if they chose to help Long Zhan now?

Although Silver Moon and New Martial were independent entities, they were also the best alliance. A rift couldn’t be permitted to develop between them, not on account of Long Zhan.

“What opinions can Li Hao have?” laughed the Human King. “The kid has great ambitions. Don’t be taken in by his apparent act of wanting nothing. In reality, his surface carelessness hides the most ambitious mind!

“He’d want nothing more than to call all the shots in the chaos! Do you think he’ll mind what action we take so long as it benefits his interests?”

It was like he knew the kid well. And in reality, that was what Li Hao thought.

“His ambitions are so big that he wants to create a second chaos! He’s already sent out feelers. The ninth ranks might be his greatest obstacle, which means he’s in bigger trouble than the rest of us! Therefore, he won’t mind it if we want to take the ninth ranks down a notch!”

“Then do we need to work with him after Skyward returns?” The supreme nodded.

“We’ll act on our own, he won’t listen to me. Of course, the reverse is true. I won’t take orders from him either!” the Human King laughed softly. “We’ll go about our own business. It’s fine even if he helps Skyward against Long Zhan. We’ll adjust on the fly. If we bump into each other, we’ll just pretend to be strangers!”

The supreme nodded again, then asked, “Do we need to factor in the west, north, and south?”

“Not for the moment. We gained that much from the exchange of dao, at least. We’ve reached a temporary truce! But there’s another issue to address... I’m lacking in strength. I don’t really have enough!

“These guys are very strong—much stronger than I anticipated! I’ve reached the limits of my inner world and it’ll be very hard for me to break through again...”

He looked at the supreme. The man blinked. What are you looking at me for?

“Therefore... give New Martial back to me. I’m going to devour it. You can return to being number two in command!”

“......” The fuck?! The supreme nearly levied an accusing finger at Fang Ping’s nose. You piece of shit! How dare you!

The Light master suddenly wanted to go on the run. His heart was in his mouth. Was this the start of a New Martial civil war?

Holy fuck, man! The Human King is telling the supreme that he wants control back! The supreme’s only been the boss for a few days and finally strengthens New Martial. And now you want it back?

Maybe I should get going...

“I knew that this day would come sooner or later.” The supreme shook his head. “Wait two more days so I can disengage from it. You’re really... such a headache!”

“It’s not like I want it!” The Human King shrugged. “I’m only doing this because we have no other options. Don’t worry, I’ll give it back to you when there are no more enemies...”

“Hah! Yeah, right!”

The Human King shrugged again. The response positively reeked of sarcasm.

The rest of the New Martial group watched raptly. No one had gotten involved. The Light master nearly rolled an eye at their reaction. So... this was passable, too, huh?

They toss around a premier eighth rank world like it’s a ball. Is the Human King really not afraid of the supreme going on strike? Won’t this cause some issues?

“Fellow Daoist Light, this is the same as if you’d given your world to Void,” the supreme chuckled. “It really doesn’t matter.”

In other words, the Human King was like his son.

Fang Ping understood the connotations and snorted. “And why isn’t it Void giving the world to his old man?”

“......” The Light master wanted to plug his ears. Forget it, I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear anything. And to be honest, I’d hesitate too if it was my son! You guys... really... I don’t know what to say.

He could also feel that this was the calm before the storm. The chaos was about to be thrown into major upheaval.

......

The Ninth City.

Two replicas and forty billion dao crystals had been the sum total of this venture. Li Hao focused on saturating his minor worlds first, ignoring everything else. Each world consumed at least ten million dao crystals.

Logically speaking, one thousand worlds needed only ten billion crystals. Reality was a completely different story!

Different attributes meant that more than twice that amount of dao strength was consumed. Forty billion would only just about saturate all of the worlds.

This had been a very profitable conversation of dao!

Li Hao’s third set of one thousand was fully created. They were governed by desire. He’d tossed the core of the first set of one thousand—calamity—to Panther. They’d been remodeled since then. Life and death were their core. This was the dao comprehension that he’d gained from Reincarnation.

Life and death, emptiness and revitalization, and desire.

Such were the core daos of Li Hao’s three thousand worlds. The ferocious tiger was the dao spirit of the worlds, but it was emotion incarnate as well. With the five elements as the dominant dao, fury was its center.

Once the three thousand worlds were fully saturated, Li Hao’s strength would nearly catch up to the Human King’s. He wouldn’t exceed Fang Ping, but the gap wouldn’t be that great. Of course, the Human King was improving at the same time. The question was which of the two improved fastest.

The Human King had always been Li Hao’s goal. Even now, the young man couldn’t forget the sight of Fang Ping’s blade cleaving through a major world when Li Hao left Silver Moon. That dashing grace had set the four regions on fire!

Endless dao strength surged into the worlds. Li Hao did not utilize the two replicas yet. He looked thoughtfully at them.

The young man had an idea of placing the dao of withering and flourishing as the center of the fourth set of one thousand. That was a formidable dao!

Order could be the core of the fifth set. It was equally domineering.

In this regard, all he needed was to create the minor worlds. There was no need to worry about the core dao or have to invest further effort into it. It was quite something for these two to have become overlords.

The seasons withered and flourished, alongside chaos and order. These were truly daunting daos. And the key was, Li Hao possessed a decent understanding of them.

Perhaps he could create all five thousand worlds first. He could then assimilate into the chaos to solve the issue of insufficient energy. He could absorb a lot of energy everyday. And when battle broke out in the chaos, he could fully seize any opportunity to absorb energy.

He might be a powerhouse of five thousand worlds soon, with his dao as worlds. While he might not be able to rival ninth ranks then, at least he wouldn’t be weaker than Long Zhan and the rest among the eighth ranks, right?

Ideas popped one after another into his mind. Order, withering... These were all premier daos. There was also Long Zhan’s dao of the body and the Human King’s all daos being him...

Li Hao suddenly realized that he had a lot of options. In fact, he had so many that he was conflicted by them and couldn’t make up his mind. Ah, yes, he also had the five elements.

But now, the combination of the five elements as one seemed too mundane. He didn’t even care about the daos of yin and yang anymore.

“I’ve really gotten a bit full of myself...” Li Hao murmured. He’d seen so many powerhouses and witnessed so many impressive daos that his ambitions were so much bigger for them. If this had been back in the day, he would be overjoyed by any one of these daos.

Li Hao quickly suppressed these thoughts and decided to proceed according to his earlier plans. If they were wrong... this was just an experimental stage. It wasn’t his final form. The external river was just an external river at the end of the day. Becoming dao itself, similar to the Human King, was Li Hao’s ultimate goal.

Of course, the Human King had also created his inner world. Li Hao didn’t want to bother with that. He just wanted to be outright dao himself.

There might be differences to their all daos being one.

He would learn from everyone’s strong suits, despite it being hard. That was what Li Hao sought. It was impossible not to learn from other people’s strengths when he could see them. While it was a very tall order for Li Hao to pick up everything he saw, the river of dao external to him gave him many chances to explore.

He’d chosen to give up the river from the very beginning. But now... maybe he could leave it for the person from the future. As for where strength would come from to nurture his own self... that bridge could be crossed when it came up.

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