Chapter 1038: Unparalleled Battle Strength (II)

“How dare you attack us, king of Great Li... You court death!” howled one of the ancients. He looked around with fury. “We fight!”

The remaining core origin replicas seemed to have received some sort of command. All of them turned the color of blood. The Great Li king frowned.

The Incantation of the Blade of Blood?

All of the surviving replicas were now blood red.

“Although we have betrayed our age, we lived through New Martial!” screamed a replica. “How will we be easily killed by ants??

KILL!”

The rest of the replicas were overcome by fits of rage. They were the ones who attacked Li Hao’s side. Based on their lord’s standing orders, they could just flee if they lost. There was nothing to it!

But the Great Li king was lying here in wait for them, that was intolerable!

The replicas also needed to bring back word of the king’s betrayal, so their battle strength soared.

Boom!

Several blood shadows exploded and forced the giant of soldiers into backing away. The giant’s footsteps broke through void in a series of crackles and anguished screams.

The look in the king’s eyes grew cold. He’d thought that he would dominate his opponents, but one counterblow from the ancients resulted in the deaths of countless soldiers. He didn’t dare delay any longer and growled at his enemies.

A massive face formed in the sky. The king tilted his head back to swallow it! Something seemed to enter his stomach as his presence ballooned once more. The king shot to an ancient and slammed his hand down like it was a prison of heaven and earth!

Bam!

“I will kill you when my primary body emerges into this world!” shrieked the blood-red figure.

Kaboom!

The replica exploded, stinging the king’s massive palm and inflicting a bit of damage. The king frowned once more. Why were these fellows stronger than what he understood them to be?

How unlucky!

These ancients had wanted to retain their replicas, so when they found that they could not defeat Li Hao, their first thought was to flee. Such were the orders that their lord had given them as well, and with someone covering their retreat, they had no reservations.

But now that the Great Li king stood in their way and them being able to clearly sense his might, it seemed impossible that the replicas could return home. All concern went out the window!

Although they were traitors of their age, they were still of New Martial. Savagery ran in their blood. Since there was no way out, they erupted with full strength. They brought out their bloodiest battle methods, the Incantation of the Blade of Blood, self-detonation, and anything else that could cause the greatest damage.

However many of themselves that they could save would do. They were just replicas at the end of the day.

Rumble!

A series of explosions ripped through the air as daunting power enveloped the land.

Kaboom!

An immensely mighty royal guard exploded; the king’s pupils contracted violently. These guards were his dynasty’s greatest elites. He’d thought that their targets would not be able to put up a fight, but they turned out to be unafraid of death and readily self-detonated. One of his elites was dead in a heartbeat!

Not only that, but the other guards hurtled backward, spewing blood. They were all heavily injured and on the verge of death.

The giant of soldiers crumbled when six replicas threw themselves at it and self-detonated. Tens of thousands of soldiers flew out. Some were annihilated by the explosions, others clung onto life thanks to their armor.

Utterly livid, the king swung a punch and obliterated a replica on the verge of exploding!

......

At the same time, in the far off distance.

Li Hao sucked a sharp breath from his hiding place in the void. Damn, they were something!

To be honest, he didn’t think much about these New Martial traitors. It was partially because they were replicas, which meant that killing them was meaningless, and partially because he didn’t think highly of those who betrayed their own.

Those under his command had easily killed replicas at battles over the Skystar Sea and in Silver City. But now... this was a different degree of viciousness!

The young man continued to heave for air; he’d just arrived. Despite the Great Li king’s cover, the young man had sensed the ripples from the great disturbance that their clash had created. To think that he would be greeted with such brutal strength as soon as he found the place!

The replicas were outright exploding without any hint of hesitation or delay. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that they were replicas, so this wouldn’t result in death. And perhaps it was because the Great Li king had chosen to betray and ambush them.

The latter development pained them like a bone stuck in their throat. They themselves were traitors and so hated traitors more than anyone. Li Hao was unable to understand such a complicated mix of emotions.

There’d been about thirty replicas that reached this spot alive—half had self-detonated in the blink of an eye and eight had been killed by Great Li. The rest took advantage of the lull in fighting to dart in all directions.

“King of Great Li... you and your dynasty will become footnotes of the past since you’ve dared to betray us!”

The look on the king’s face was unpleasant. A weapon appeared in his hand—boxing gloves.

Or rather, boxing glove. Singular. Only one golden colored glove was on his hands.

Stellaris stirred slightly in Li Hao’s hand.

The king looked coldly in a certain direction and didn’t say a word. A loud rumble and collapse of the void accompanied his punch. The ancient who’d threatened him promptly exploded in the void.

The king disappeared, then reappeared in front of another ancient.

“How is this possible?!” shrieked the frightened ancient. He seemed to recognize the gloves!

How could the Great Li king have received that person’s heritage? This wasn’t possible! That person had never visited this world, so how could he have left behind any heritage? But even if not, where did these gloves come from?

Boom!

The glove seemed to shatter the world with a loud boom. The replica was torn to pieces, still muttering in astonishment, “The Tyrant Sovereign... but it’s impossible...”

Kaboom!

The replica exploded! The glove’s might truly knew no parallel.

Li Hao’s eyes widened in the shadows. What a formidable treasure and weapon! Stellaris twitched in his hand again.

The Tyrant Sovereign? Who the heck is that?

He knew of a fair amount of New Martial exalted emperors by now, was this person one of them? It was an unfamiliar title.

The Great Li king frostily scanned the surroundings and suddenly leapt into motion. He sailed through the void, golden light sparkling from his formidable body. Punch after punch followed, killing each replica his fists met!

His battle strength was astonishing; it’d broken the limits of the world much like Li Hao’s had.

A figure shot toward Li Hao’s hiding place. Sword light illuminated the world in response.

Crack!

The void broke and the fleeing ancient was cut into two. He looked at Li Hao, then at the Great Li king behind him.

“You have both broken through the limits, but a mountain will not tolerate two tigers!” He exploded, leaving grim laughter echoing in the void. “Let’s see who dies between the two of you!”

A dozen royal guards rushed to Li Hao’s position. The king disposed of the last replica and walked through the air. He considered the young man’s presence, having felt it earlier.

“Where is Jiang Li?” was the frowning king’s only question. If the young man was here, where was the main priest?

Jiang Li should be useful enough to deter Li Hao for a period of time. At the very least, he should be able to intimidate the young man enough so that Li Hao wouldn’t leave his camp.

But here the young man was.

“Great Li has quite a few premier powerhouses.” Li Hao smiled after taking a look around. “These royal guards have a lot of abilities to use. However, I’m more curious about those gloves. Where do they come from?”

“Didn’t you hear?” The king remained aloof.

“I did, the Tyrant Sovereign, yeah? I haven’t heard of this name before.”

“That’s to be expected,” laughed the king. “There was the era of the nine emperors and four sovereigns in Initial Martial. The four sovereigns were that of War, Tyrant, Annihilation, and Conflict. They were the premier heavyweights of Initial Martial!

“When the nine emperors and Heavenly Emperor established the age of core origin, the four sovereigns lost in battle to the Heavenly Emperor. They reincarnated—the Tyrant Sovereign became the exalted emperor of New Martial that everyone knows from Capital Martial. Everyone is more willing to call him the Exalted Iron Emperor, the Capital Martial Exalted Emperor...”

“Do you mean that the Tyrant Sovereign reincarnated into the Exalted Blood Emperor?” Li Hao interrupted.

“Yes.” The king seemed to know a great deal. “But these exalted emperors do not consider themselves as reincarnations. The past is the past, the present in the present. Hence, New Martial did not mention these affairs.”

I see! No wonder Battle Heaven was so agitated when the Exalted Blood Emperor bestowed the city its name.

Li Hao recalled how the Exalted Blood Emperor had said “he is he, I am me” when he first saw the characters at the ancient city.

So those gloves used to be the personal treasure of a premier emperor?

“It looks like the Great Li king possesses some stunning inheritance!”

“No one can grow strong out of nowhere, whether in this age or any age.” The king was unusually calm. “We all have our opportunities! You’ve had your share of fortune to make it to where you are. Why be envious?”

“You make sense!” Li Hao inclined his head and looked around. “The Great Li king is mighty and unparalleled. How about... a match?”

The king’s blood qi shot into the sky! He considered Li Hao for a long moment before saying, “Where is Jiang Li?”

“Him?” A strong expression crossed the young man’s face. “He’s fine, just suffering from broken arms and a broken leg. He’s perfectly fine though and gone back to camp.”

The king quieted down and exhaled softly, “Hand them over!”

“What?”

“The white jade bones of Initial Martial!” The king looked frostily at Li Hao. “This king will permit you to leave today if you hand them over!”

Li Hao threw his head back with laughter and bared his teeth. “I’m not as tyrannical as the Great Li king. Give me seventy percent of the core origin energy you collected tonight, as well as ten thousand sets of your armor. I’ll be happy with these measly requests.”

“Very well, you may give it a try!” smiled the king.

“I’ve been wanting to test my sword against someone!” Li Hao leered. “It’s very boring before the second awakening! I would’ve started it a long time ago if it was up to me and brought my sword against the world! What a pity that this world isn’t mine!”

A longsword illuminated the sky and split the void! A space similar to a vacuum of chaos was brought into being.

“Be my guest!” Li Hao hopped in and raised his sword. “I am Li Hao, a Silver Moon martial master and of the Skystar Commander Office!”

The Great Li king regarded him coolly. His royal guards wished to run in, but he held them off with an upraised hand. “Return to camp! This king... will see how strong Demon Sword is!”

He set foot into the area of chaos.

Sword light flashed through the air with a thunderous tiger howl as a punch ripped through the world!

Boom!

The world erupted and energy swept through the land! A sword and a pair of fists seemed to appear in the skies over Silver Moon.