Chapter 1004: Sparks (II)

The Silver Moon provincial government.

Sounds of the crowd outside shook the rafters. Cries calling for Zhao Shuguang’s impeachment were loud enough to wake the dead. The guard outside the main doors was very conflicted and quite distressed.

Silver Moon had always supported Li Hao; the province had sent its deputy director general, commander of the provincial army, inspector general, and director of the Night Watchers to the young man! There was only the director general left overseeing the vast province. And yet, these bastards couldn’t tell right from wrong. They just wanted to rebel!

The guards wanted to kill all those protesting fools at the doors! The situation was too aggravating!

Meanwhile, Director General Zhao was quite noncommittal. He stared outside the window, lost in thought.

The enemies were not at the gates yet, but disorder was already on their doorstep. Everyone hailed Commander Li’s name; no one paid attention to the cold of winter. Skystar’s citizens were the most timid and fearful. It was fine if they had enough food to keep from starving to death—their demands were never high.

Starvation and homelessness were not issues in Silver Moon, yet the people were thus. What about the other areas?

Things could not continue like this, in any case. They might as well... rebel!

“Sparks are sufficient to set a plain ablaze... Li Hao is starting to burn the plains!” murmured Director General Zhao in disbelief.

The ninety-nine provinces of the dynasty were so large that they could not be fathomed. An ordinary person could spend their entire lives and still not travel through them, but Li Hao had taken only half a year to walk out from Silver City and another three months to establish a foundation in Skystar City.

He spent just a day to let everyone in the world know that a new age had come!

One cultivation method! That was all it’d taken! And a few words that didn’t ring of lofty sentiments or instigate the people of other continents to rise up. But word was quickly spreading in all directions that everyone could cultivate martial dao, the central region was teaching everyone how to read and write, that the people could one day ascend to the heavens and enter the Mountain and Sea cultivation realm...

This sent everyone on all sides into an uproar!

We can do this too!

Most of them wouldn’t have the courage or resolution to do so if they’d never come in contact with martial dao or the supernatural. Today, however, many cleared their first acupoint. It was the first time in their life that they felt they were no longer a weakling, a mundane at the behest of others. They could also become superhuman. Everyone was superhuman! Everyone was equal!

The social classes of society had been shattered!

Indeed, once ordinary people and children cleared their first acupoint and entered Slayer of Tens, everyone’s reverence toward superhumans abruptly evaporated.

So... it turns out we’re all the same! Do you guys have an extra set of eyes or another mouth? No! One of us cannot stand against you, but now there are ten, one hundred, one thousand

—

a world full of us!

......

As upheaval rippled through the world, an ancient that had been silent for millennia walked out of an ancient residence in an underground city. He tilted his head back at the void.

“The new dao has arrived... the martial dao of the Hao Cosmos, Li Hao!” murmured the powerhouse who appeared as if a god. “All of the energy of the world has been spontaneously depleted. The amount born of this revitalizing world had been enough to support the second awakening, but now... it is no more.”

All energy was gone in the blink of an eye. However much was produced was however much consumed. Blowing up the Skystar mine wouldn’t even have much of an effect anymore. Hundreds of millions of people would suck it dry in a heartbeat. The only option left to them was to wait.

Wait for what?

For people to stabilize their cultivation and the world to produce enough energy for the people’s usage. The second awakening would be at hand once this energy activity strengthened the world to the point of supporting the appearance of powerhouses.

Otherwise, even detonating the great mine would be useless before that. It was... ludicrous and horrifying. No one ever thought that the second awakening would be disrupted by a bunch of mundanes.

How ironic was that?

They originally felt that it was fine if the Skystar mine remained out of their hands; they could trigger the second awakening all the same. They’d seized two-thirds of the mine back in the day. So long as they were willing to invest sufficient resources, they could absolutely bring about the second awakening.

Li Hao extinguished their hope before the idea occurred to them, before they met to discuss the feasibility of their thoughts or undertake specific action.

Forget it! Don’t bother! I’ll empty everything you’ve got even if you blow up three mines now. I can’t do it alone, but one hundred million, one billion people can do it for me. I’ll absorb however much you’ve got!

“Is Ying Hongyue and the others coming?” whispered the man who was as if a god.

“In response to milord...” Someone bent cautiously at the waist. “No. Ying Hongyue sent word that they are avoiding capture by the Skystar Commander Office. He will not be coming to prevent them from learning of our location.”

“He sent word, not the scarlet cloak?” commented the man.

“It... it was Ying Hongyue!”

“What about the scarlet cloak?”

“It... seems... to have disappeared...”

“Disappeared?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“We don’t know.”

“Can it be... that Ying Hongyue has eaten it?” the man chuckled.

“How can that be...” gasped someone next to him. “The scarlet shadow’s mental strength is enormous. Although he is only peak seven elements according to the standards of this time, it comes and goes without a trace. How can Ying Hongyue kill it before his seven meridians are combined as one?”

“He can if he wishes to!” the man said quietly. “Didn’t the Human King accomplish the ultimate comeback against the Earth Dwellers when he was weak? We were equally astonished by that feat.”

“But... that was the Human King!” How could these modern humans be compared to that one? What a joke! Even Li Hao wasn’t worthy of the comparison, much less Ying Hongyue!

Although they were traitors and did not consider themselves to be of New Martial, they widely acknowledged how strong, terrifying, and ruthless the Human King was.

That was a truly invincible powerhouse, one that would never taste defeat. Any enemy would ultimately fall beneath his blade.

His sword had truly brought order to troubled times. No matter if one was of the primordial Initial Martial, the nine kings and four emperors—no matter who one was, the Human King had slayed the Heavenly Emperor, erased the consciousness of the world, and completed his dominion of the heavens.

“I only said that anyone can do so if they wish to. I didn’t say that he compares to the Human King,” smiled the man before regaining his composure. “Send someone to Jade Mountain Town to notify Earthflare that he needs to be careful!”

Jade Mountain Town had been the first place to revive in Silver Moon Territory. There was a heavyweight in residence there who’d set the first awakening into motion. A mine used to stand there—its detonation had swept through the world and drew out the energy that flared to life from the first awakening.

However, due to the restrictions of the world, that heavyweight had been trapped there ever since.

“Milord...” trembled someone next to the speaker.

“Send word!” repeated the man. “That place is no longer safe if the scarlet shadow is dead. Skystar Town... may be lost and the mine in Li Hao’s hand! It doesn’t matter if the ten thousand Mountain and Sea he speaks of is true or not.

“The young man will not lack for powerhouses. If he’s aided by a few more fellows from the ruins... They might find it hard to kill Saints, but it won’t be impossible!”

There were Saints in residence at Skystar Town. It was hard to determine if they’d recovered their physical bodies, but the ruin was more likely than not lost to the enemy. That would mean a complete failure of their plan for the second awakening.

The man wasn’t surprised. Plans were made to be broken. They were of New Martial, after all. Everyone knew that plans were the most unreliable. The Human King had countless plans for every second, broke them himself, and then... No one knew what he thought after that.

Not even the Human King knew what he was thinking.

As unexpected as Li Hao was, he had not reached the Human King’s level of invoking fright and despair in others.

The Human King’s figure once more gathered in the man’s mind. That was a terrifying existence! Sometimes, he wondered how things might be if the Human King really did return one day?

There wasn’t much to be said about that, it was better for him to go to his death. What else could he do?

“Ying Hongyue has his own plans in mind,” the man chuckled. “Whether it’s cooperating with me, with others, or those guys near the Star Gate, it’s just consorting with tigers in the end! There is no such thing as a free lunch in this world!

“It’s up to ourselves after all! Li Hao may be just intimidating us at present. Or perhaps he does have many experts at his command and is waiting for us to act against him. Or he may be marching to us as we speak. No matter what, we need to avoid conflict with him at present.”

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

He knew all too well the dangers of keeping a tiger as a pet. It inevitably turned on its master!

The Human King was a tiger that many had nurtured to adulthood, but it ate everyone in the end! A previous example was right in front of him, but the man was quite resigned. Perhaps... such was heaven’s intent and the counterattack of the world!

“Right now, the enemy is in a position that they can easily attack or defend from. How many core origin replicas will it take from our side? We may be just sending him war trophies with each of our skirmishes, and it continuously weakens us. Right now, our most pressing task is to consolidate the strength of the world!”

Hastening the second awakening was the real goal. Otherwise, they were all just going to their deaths.