Chapter 1056: March (III)

Inside the ruins of Skystar Town.

“Senior, the strongest divine spirit within Divine Nation is said to be the Moon God,” said Li Hao. “I’m worried that it’s reawakened. Once it does, it might lead the change and join the battlefield when Divine Nation falls. Divine spirits are favored by the heavens and might be able to deploy formidable strength!”

“Are you going to fully exterminate them?” Zhang An asked calmly. “You rarely do so. Why must you go down this path this time?”

“I am searching for dao!”

“If you bring me, I must relinquish my physical body,” Zhang An frowned. “You wouldn’t be able to take me outside otherwise! But if I forsake my physical body, my battle strength won’t be as strong as you think.”

“It’ll be enough!” Li Hao laughed. “Once this campaign concludes, I will try to resurrect all of the students at Evenround Martial. Whether it is bodies of New Martial or the modern age, they can choose as they’d like!”

“All of them?”

“Yes!”

“Aren’t you afraid...” Zhang An was rather surprised.

“No!” Li Hao shook his head. “I’ve never been afraid and trust that these people will not besiege the world with disorder!”

“Very well, then I will accompany you!” Zhang An nodded after some thought.

“Vice Head Qi, would you like to come with us?” The young man turned to the researcher.

“Me?” Vice Head Qi asked with puzzlement. “I have almost no battle strength to speak of...”

“We don’t need that,” Li Hao laughed. “How about catching a few divine spirits for research purposes?”

“Alright!” Vice Head Qi laughed with great pleasure. “Divine bodies have always been one of our research topics—it’s just a pity that the earth divine was the only one preserved after all these years. If we can obtain more divine bodies, we’re certain to uncover certain distinguishing features!”

“I’m glad that Vice Head Qi is interested,” Li Hao chuckled. “This time, I’d like to look into... the dao of the physical body!”

“Have you... discovered it?” The man’s eyebrows shot up.

“Not yet, but I’m almost there.”

“No wonder!” The man exhaled with understanding. “Then be careful and don’t let them die. You can set aside everything else in critical moments, but this person with the body dao meridian must be captured. It’s best if they’re taken alive!

“I’ve been studying your research lately and conducting a few experiments of my own. I’ve discovered that our current body of work lacks one thing—a dao meridian of the physical body! Apart from that, you also lack one of mental strength.” The vice head looked at Li Hao. “Aura is aura, mental strength is mental strength. While the mental strength one can be studied later, the one of the body is vital!”

Li Hao nodded as well. “Therefore, I need to capture this guy even if it means giving up some other things!”

“Precisely!” Vice Head Qi nodded.

Zhang An looked quietly at them during their conversation; he didn’t join in the discussion as he wasn't very interested. However, he also knew that the discovery of the body dao meridian might completely change the state of affairs.

At the very least, unattributed cultivators would be able to be on par with New Martial powerhouses!

That would be a magnificent discovery. But in Zhang An’s eyes, there was no need for Li Hao to do so. All he needed to do was to continuously open dao meridians. He would discover it sooner or later, it was just a matter of time.

There would be no problem once all the meridians were open.

Li Hao said nothing else. He summoned a large number of storage rings with a wave of his hand—they were all filled with energy stones from the mine. There were several hundred million of them!

The ‘dao’ character appeared next—he’d withdrawn it from the Hao Cosmos. It was sufficient to have confirmed the person’s identity. There was no need to cause their death through the Hao Cosmos. The young man was deathly afraid of his target self-detonating upon discovering something amiss. That would be an astronomical loss then!

Li Hao handed the character to Zhang An. “Senior, this supernatural character represents the heavenly dao. If you put it inside your body, you won’t need me to extend a personal domain for you.”

“Are you... giving this to me?” Zhang An froze, stunned.

You really treat me like one of your own! Your tears would drown the world if I crushed this!

“There should be a basic level of trust between us,” Li Hao smiled. “If I wish for the senior to help and do not trust the senior... isn't that just slapping my own face?”

Zhang An was a solemn man of few words, but he broke out in a wide grin at this moment. “If I just take this supernatural character... it will stymie a lot of your plans. I know how important this character is!”

This supernatural character was a reward from the newly born world. Perhaps it was to reward the young man for discovering the Hao Cosmos, perhaps it was because he tirelessly spread the new dao. Whatever it was, the heavenly dao felt that the young man was deserving of a prize.

Many endeavors would become very inconvenient without this character, such as body creation. And with it, Zhang An could avoid the void cutting into him. It was a very important weapon that Li Hao was so generous and bold as to just give out.

“You can take it if you like, senior!” Li Hao smiled.

“Do you think I’ll stand on ceremony with you for this?” Zhang An said faintly. “I really will take it if you give it to me!”

Who are you putting on a generous act for? I’ll take it if you really offer it up!

“You can do that if you wish!” Li Hao chuckled. “You’ll just have to shoulder some responsibilities if you take it, senior, such as strengthening the new dao! If you cannot and the great dao dissipates, remember that this character is a reward from the heavens for spreading the new dao in the world. It is the great dao character of the Hao Cosmos. Once the new dao is extinguished or disappears, this character will dissipate as well.”

Zhang An’s eyes widened. So this character... represented a kind of responsibility? It made sense upon further thought.

“Then forget it,” he smiled at Li Hao. “I’m not the type of person who likes too much responsibility. That kind of matter can be left to you!”

“And don’t be thinking that I’m trying to pull the wool over your eyes, senior. This is the truth!” Li Hao laughed. “This supernatural character is both a boon and a responsibility! At the very least, whoever possesses it has to shoulder the burden of the new dao. I’d love nothing more than for someone to take it. It’s such a hassle!”

Zhang An didn’t say anything. Sometimes, the degree of responsibility undertaken wasn’t determined by strength. Tasks such as popularizing the new dao, for example. Forget it, he wasn’t in the mood to do that.

The dean pressed the character into his body and cast off his physical body. He could avoid being attacked by the void now. What a pity that the supernatural character couldn’t protect the physical body as well.

“Do you need me to take action as soon as the fighting begins?”

“No! Not unless they really have Saints on their side. The senior doesn’t need to make a move otherwise. If you do, you might terrify them!”

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

“Mmhmm!” Zhang An said nothing else. A group of people quickly walked out of the Skystar Town ruins.

......

Almost all of Li Hao’s highest level battle strength had been mobilized. He left only a few people such as Chen Yao in charge at Skystar City. He took everyone else with him—even those such as Dao Sword.

As more and more people converged on the warships, the graver the look in Jiang Li’s eyes became. He was starting to feel that perhaps Li Hao had his eyes set on Divine Nation in the first place. The young man’s preparations were too thorough and this force too sizable!

He hadn’t brought all of this to bear against Great Li!

......

The western continent.

As Divine Nation drew closer, all of the west stirred uneasily. Their Tranquil Duke had died in Skystar City, so it was his father who’d stepped forward to administer affairs.

A tense atmosphere seized the entire western continent. Divine Nation was formidable. The north was stabilized only when Li Hao led those of the Skystar Commander Office to reinforce them and it was said that Divine Nation was even stronger than Great Li. How was the western continent supposed to defend itself with just the western provinces?

Night time was beguiling, but nerves were taut at the Tranquil Duke’s manor. All of the western leaders were gathered here, even some who were previously at each other’s throats. This was no time for internal conflict.

“Didn’t Li Hao say that the Skystar Commander Office would send reinforcements?” someone fretted in the hall. “Where are they? They haven’t even finished with Great Li after fighting for so long, how are they going to reinforce all three continents? It’s all bullshit!”

“He wants us to stand strong—how? Apparently divine spirits have awoken in Divine Nation and all of them are at least seventh level Mountain and Sea and above. They’re stronger than seven element Arcanus!”

“We have a lot of provinces on the western continent, but do we even have five of that level Mountain and Sea between all of us?”

“......” Powerhouses wilted with despair.

“We should ask for help from the Skystar Commander Office. What if... they do send us reinforcements?”

“Forget it... If push comes to shove, we can just surrender to Divine Nation...”

“Now

that’s

bullshit. We’re Skystar citizens and they’re a bunch of crazy fanatics over there. Anyone who doesn’t worship their divine spirits will be executed...”

“We can’t do this and we can’t do that, so how about you fight the enemy?”

“I’ll go, but what am I supposed to do by myself? We should gather all of our armies and perhaps hold them off for a while. Once the Skystar Commander Office is done with Great Li, they might have the time and energy to come help us!”

“Are you kidding? Do you think Great Li is that easy to take care of? Even if we do, the Barren Dynasty is attacking the east and Watercloud Dynasty attacking the south... all of the continents are in trouble!”

Despair deepened the more they discussed!

“Your Grace.” Someone looked helplessly at the old duke. “The Tranquil Duke has always been the best and brightest of the west. We need you to give us a plan for this situation!”

“Aren’t you guys all something fierce in regular times?” coughed the old duke. “But now you want me to make the decisions? And how shall we decide? Surrender? Is that wise? If we do, the Skystar Commander Office will be after us instead.

“Fight? Is that possible? In that case, we should send messages to Li Hao to save us if he can. We can... only give up if he can’t! It’s impossible for us to withstand the enemy. I know better than you that these divine spirits aren’t just seventh, eight, or even ninth level Mountain and Sea... There are some Sun and Moon among them!

“We have some powerhouses on the western continent, but they number fewer than 10 seventh level Mountain and Sea! They’d just be going to their deaths! They also have one million soldiers that are all religious fanatics! They don’t fear death once they start fighting. You’d be sending an army of ten million to their deaths against them—we don’t have the same level of strength as the Battle Heaven Army.”

Reality was quite sobering! Even though everyone cultivated martial dao these days, too little time had elapsed since its popularization. While there were large numbers of western youngsters willing to join the army and protect their homeland due to Li Hao’s influence, what use was that?

None at all!

They would be sending all of the soldiers to their deaths even if they recruited ten million soldiers.