Chapter 1037: Unparalleled Battle Strength (I)

“Cough cough cough...” Director General Zhao coughed up a mouthful of blood and switched to transmission. “Something’s awry. Great Li and those traitors might not be on the same side. Jiang Li’s final reminder was for them to return to the ancient city and not to the Great Li camp. Can it be... that his king is waiting for them along the way?”

Li Hao blinked. Waiting for them along the way? What did that mean?

“Great Li needs core origin energy!” the director general transmitted with a meaningful look.

“No... way?” Li Hao jerked and smiled with understanding. “He’s... not that much of a fool, is he? His priest’s broken one bone and I took two more. Three bones from Initial Martial are worth more than the core origin, no?”

“Much more!” Li Daozong nodded emphatically. If the Great Li king truly chose what they thought he might do, then... his losses could end up being so heavy that they had to be borne by his children. The Ninth Division leader was equally surprised by the present situation. “Let’s ignore the Great Li king for now. Your strength... how are you able to clear acupoints so quickly?”

Li Hao had cleared two hundred and thirty acupoints! Not only that, but he’d turned nine supernatural abilities into characters! The little fellow had done this with none the wiser. Everyone thought his strength was still less than fifteen meridians. It’d only been a couple of days since they last saw him in action, but his strength had taken another significant leap forward.

As for the Great Li king, it didn’t matter if he really did ambush those people halfway. It was good if he did and irrelevant if he didn’t. No matter what he did, it wouldn’t affect Li Hao.

Jiang Li was a premier existence of the modern age, but was severely curtailed when he met Li Hao in battle. The void cut into the priest if he called upon too much strength, or he would easily die to the young man if he was a bit weaker. This would be a pain point shared by all powerhouses.

“It’s just two hundred and thirty acupoints.” Li Hao flashed a smile. “I cleared one hundred and eighty before. It’s already been ten days, clearing another fifty aucpoints isn’t too fast, is it?”

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

“......” No one responded; everyone was very quiet. The more acupoints one cleared, the harder the process became. Opening one acupoint after one hundred and eighty might be the equivalent of clearing ten before.

So you tell us if clearing fifty in such a short period of time is too fast or not!

“Seriously, how are you so fast?” Even Yuan Shuo couldn’t help himself. “I’m fast enough and I’m only at one hundred and ninety. I’m only slightly stronger than seven elements when taking into account my abilities of the five elements...”

He was already very fast, so he felt that it was impossible for Li Hao to be faster than him. Although his disciple had outstanding potential, this was Yuan Shuo’s period of immense breakthroughs!

“I don’t know,” Li Hao answered after a look at his master. “But my speed really is fast. It probably... has something to do with heaven’s will.” He pointed at the skies. “I seem to sense the worship of thousands of people these days. Everyone cultivating also seems to be helping my cultivation. Of course... the effects aren’t that noticeable, but I absorb power from the Hao Cosmos much faster.”

Yuan Shuo blinked and couldn’t find the words for a response. Enlightenment dawned!

Li Daozong’s expression also shifted, but it was hidden under his golden visor. As the people cultivated, so did Li Hao’s cultivation speed become faster. He’d... heard of this before. Someone had achieved this in the past—Supreme Zhang!

During the age of New Martial, as humanity grew stronger with everyone cultivating, so did Supreme Zhang. However... Li Hao was yet to conquer the world and wasn’t truly king yet. How could this be?

Li Hao had somewhat grasped the ramifications for his cultivation advancing too rapidly, but he didn’t like to put on too many airs.

It’s like I’ve become the Human King or something, I don’t care about that.

“There’s no need to give this too much attention,” the young man laughed. “I’m just curious... is the Great Li king really going to attack those fellows?”

Things would be interesting if he did.

What was more interesting was why that main priest paid such a hefty price for his king. Was there... something different going on between the two men? Otherwise, it was an enormous loss to lose three pieces of divine bone, no matter how much core origin energy they collected in return.

“None of that is important,” Li Daozong quickly said. “What’s important is that Great Li probably does have a sleeping Initial Martial god in their borders! If so, they’ll be very strong! Initial Martial cultivators will find it easier to acclimate to the current world and might break heaven’s restrictions to walk out of the ruins.

“The void didn’t cut into the priest as severely as it should despite him erupting with strength beyond the world’s restrictions. Initial Martial... we can consider the present times as Initial Martial for this minor world!”

Li Hao understood! Initial Martial cultivators might find it easier to emerge in the world than core origin powerhouses. That was an important note to take care of.

The young man quickly composed himself and looked at the dispersing core origin power. “These ancients are so nice,” he smiled. “They’ve sent me another batch of energy. I was just thinking that we were short on core origin!

“Collect the energy wafting through the air, I’m going out for a bit. Everyone should be on guard against Jiang Li—I’m going to raid the Great Li king. If he really does have his sights set on those guys, it won’t be too much to ask if I demand half, no?”

His mocking laughter lingered on the wind as he disappeared.

“That guy nearly made me collapse when he yanked away the coordinates of the great dao,” Director General Wang muttered weakly when Li Hao was gone. “Now he’s gone to make trouble for the Great Li king... It’s awful being enemies with him!”

It was becoming harder and harder to see through the young man. Although he presented an affable front, he imparted an ever more mysterious sensation to the director general.

Li Daozong didn’t say a word. Strictly speaking, Li Hao was his descendant of countless generations out. Granted, he wasn’t the young man’s direct ancestor. They were related through different family branches, and it was indeed becoming difficult to read the young man.

When Jiang Li brought out the bones of Initial Martial, Li Daozong had thought that the fight would stagnate and grow difficult. However, Li Hao easily resolved the issue. The young man would be able to do as he wished with all of them if the second awakening did not begin.

Li Daozong looked at the Great Li contingent ahead of them. If it wasn’t for the young man’s desire to train troops, he alone might be able to kill all of Great Li’s powerhouses!

The division leader was suddenly reminded of the Human King. If the Human King was present, that might be his course of action instead of training his army. Li Daozong suddenly felt that, as murderous as the Human King, he cared deeply for the human race at the end of the day.

On the other hand... Li Hao was aloof down to his bones. He didn’t care if some people died in pursuit of his goals.

Li Daozong suddenly looked around in a daze. When had he formed a habit of comparing Li Hao to the Human King? There was a world of difference between the two. He frequently compared the two on a subconscious basis in recent times. If this continued. even Li Daozong was concerned that he would betray New Martial and join the kid’s camp.

What a terrifying guy!

Li Daozong thought back to his primary body. If a second awakening came around and they were able to walk out of the ruins, his primary body was on par with a Saint. That was much stronger than Li Hao. Why did he think the young man was terrifying?

Life was taking many a strange turn lately. When Li Daozong thought of how he’d once judged Li Hao as unable to be taught, he wanted nothing more than to go back and rip up that evaluation. People would laugh at him for being blind if they saw that assessment one day!

......

South of Silver City.

A portion of core origin replicas were fleeing for their lives. Li Hao was so much stronger than they anticipated!

They’d thought that the young man would be stuck at the limits of the modern world, no matter how strong he was. Their replicas might not be as strong as him, but they wouldn’t be too far off. It should be a similar situation to when Lin Hongyu cut down a replica—while formidable, the ancients could fight in single combat and stood a chance of turning the tables.

Who would’ve thought that Li Hao exceeded the limits of this world??

The unexpected threw them off their footing and plunged them into disastrous straits. Thankfully, the Great Li main priest was strong enough to even utilize the bones of Initial Martial, thus securing their escape.

The group frantically fled through the land, each of them panicking slightly. The loss of a replica was significant to the main body. Being able to preserve it would be for the best.

“Be careful!” someone in the lead growled as they ran.

The world suddenly spun around them!

Tens of thousands of elite soldiers and several dozen Arcanus appeared in front of the group. The Great Li king stood at the front of this contingent. He smiled at the replicas. Not bad, there were more than a dozen left. That fulfilled his expectations.

“Charge!” The auras of the world pressed down upon his command and the world spun.

Armor appeared over the bodies of the elites—New Martial armor! Their armor bore a different design from that of Battle Heaven; it appeared from a more primordial time. Most stunning of all was that these people spontaneously assembled into a giant. They didn’t utilize New Martial’s formations of blood qi, but became one in the true sense of the word!

The soldiers were part of the giant. Thousands of elites became an armored behemoth. The gigantic soldier gripped a huge ax and brought it down with a swing!

Shock gripped the scattering powerhouses. This was a battle method of combination! It was one more formidable than the military formations of blood qi, but also more dangerous. The soldiers would die if the giant was broken.

As the giant swung its ax, dense blood qi ripped through the void. Countless pairs of eyes manifested and the soldiers roared in unison!

Boom!

Blood qi swelled, there was no comparison!

An ax tore through the void and obliterated a replica with a crunch.

“King of Great Li!” screamed another replica. “How dare you!”

It was the Great Li king ambushing them instead! Damn it! They were here to help the man!

The powerhouses erupted with fury and became giants themselves. The Great Li king remained unrivaled—his body magnified and he blasted through the air with two fists.

Another replica exploded!

The royal guards behind him matched their master in ferocity. They were far stronger than the ones that’d attacked Li Hao’s group. Each of them also commanded unique abilities.

Someone’s arm was golden in color; it swung around with uncontrollable might. Someone’s eyes emanated golden light, like it was a heavenly eye. Another’s mental strength churned in all directions like a ravening beast.

These guards were the ones that’d truly inherited Initial Martial’s abilities. Each of them bore incredible abilities and they rivaled certain Silver Moon martial masters. All of them made their moves.

With the Great Li king and the giant of soldiers in the field, it was a one-sided domination of core origin replicas. Replicas were much weaker than primary bodies. Not to mention, they’d exhausted themselves greatly against Li Hao. Without external energy to supplement them, their strength had declined by a fair bit.

Some among the ancient experts howled with outrage. Powerful battle techniques sailed through the air and beat the royal guards into retreat while coughing up blood. These ancients quickly became the king’s targets. He darted through the void and broke the air with his punches. Golden light sparkled over him, as if the body of an Immortal!

Punch after punch followed as he demolished his targets.