Chapter 1066: The Path of the Dao Master (II)

Li Hao didn’t outright smash the body dao meridian to pieces. Instead, he sectioned it according to acupoints and stabilized it, then thought over his next steps.

“I’m going to open part of the meridian now... If it’s effective, we’ll be able to extract energy from the Hao Cosmos to strengthen the body. If there’s no effect, then... I’m... out of ideas.”

The young man took a breath. It was only now that he was a bit nervous. If nothing happened after he opened the dao meridian... then all of this would’ve been a major loss.

He readied himself and took another deep breath. Everyone else held their breaths, intensely nervous and awaiting for results.

Crack!

A small portion of the dao meridian cracked open. Jade-white energy flowed out of the Hao Cosmos and surged into Li Hao’s body. It was very similar to the energy from the bones of Initial Martial as the world was currently in another kind of Initial Martial age.

At the same time, this unique energy was very different from the indestructible matter of New Martial. Indestructible matter was the source of the New Martial powerhouse’s energy. But this time, white energy appeared.

It flowed into Li Hao’s body—not too much, and it spontaneously closed some of the wounds on his body. The effects were greater than Water of Life and sword energy.

Low growls echoed beneath the ground. They were charged with emotion! There really was a dao meridian of the physical body!

Outside the mine, Zhang An and the others heard the growl. They looked at the mine entrance with confusion. The army had just suffered a setback. Were these people... not dejected anymore?

......

How was there any sight of dejection to be seen inside the mine? Everyone went mad when the milky-white energy appeared on Li Hao’s body!

“Yes, that’s it!” Yuan Shuo murmured. “That’s the real source of life and the milk of humanity... This is the source energy of life!”

“That’s right,” concurred a stooping He Yong. “That’s what the color is before children are born...”

Everyone looked at him with derision.

We’re talking about the origin of life here, why are you so disgusting?

He Yong rolled his eyes. The entire Silver Moon martial master society ostracized him.

A pox on you all! Is there anything wrong with what I’ve said??

He couldn’t be bothered with these guys and looked at Li Hao excitedly. Was this the real dao meridian of the body? He’d previously thought that the unattributed dao meridians were the body dao meridians. So it turns out that wasn’t the case!

Li Hao was still opening the dao meridian bit by bit. A smile appeared on his face and his broken cheeks began recovering. Soon enough, they broke again, but they weren’t as gory a sight as before.

“The effects are good,” Li Hao frowned. “Or rather, too good. It’s just that... it doesn’t give the feeling of radical change.”

“And what kind of cultivation level are you?” Yuan Shuo couldn’t help but say. “Do you think one singular dao meridian will facilitate a metamorphosis? You’re daydreaming! But to others or anyone below Sun and Moon, opening this dao meridian will definitely grant them a tremendous change!”

Please, just look at Li Hao now. If clearing one meridian at his stage would help his strength and body transform beyond recognition, how strong would that meridian have to be?

“Dao meridians can be further strengthened even after they’re opened,” Yuan Shuo continued. “It can continue to absorb energy from the Hao Cosmos and different acupoints take in different kinds of energy. You will strengthen your dao meridians and abilities this way!”

“I’ll try opening all of it!” Li Hao nodded. He grunted and accelerated his pace of opening the dao meridian. It wasn’t long before the entire meridian was open. A ferocious energy surged into his body.

Crack!

Changes appeared in Li Hao’s skeleton. He’d been transforming them in the direction of the golden bones of New Martial—a subconscious imitation. But now as milky-white energy flowed through his body, his bones shifted from a faintly golden color to being white.

“Human bones are white to begin with,” Li Hao murmured. “So this is a... reversion to our origin?”

The jade bones of Initial Martial were white in color, but the bones and bodies of Initial Martial weren’t any weaker than that of New Martial.

The golden body dao of New Martial was a special method that forged the bones into metallic objects. But this time, the energy that Li Hao extracted turned the bones back into white. His body grew stronger; joy blossomed over his face when he assessed himself again.

The level of increase wasn’t significant to him since he’d opened numerous dao meridians before. The changes in his body were perhaps sufficient for him to open another one or two dao meridians. But to everyone else, they would be able to open three to five more dao meridians.

That made an enormous difference!

“Opening meridians is just a matter of following the proper order and gradual advancement down the proper course of action!” Li Hao smiled. “Once you open the body dao meridian, you might be able to open a few others in quick succession. You can just blow right through them, there’s no need to clear them acupoint by acupoint!

“Everyone, the body dao meridian really does exist! Our chance is at hand!”

The group was also immensely excited. However, Yuan Shuo was insistent on his previous point.

“There may be more than one body dao meridian, so I say the same as I did before. We’ll focus on this one first, Li Hao. You can look for more!”

Li Hao nodded and swept his arm over the pool. “Everyone, enter the pool to cultivate!”

He filled it with Water of Life. This had been collected from the plant spirits and he’d filled a large water jug with it. The group gasped to see him pour it into the pool. This was... quite the expenditure!

“No matter how much energy we have, it all becomes someone else’s once we’re dead,” said Li Hao. “This time, I hope for everyone to set foot into the true Sun and Moon realm no matter the cost. I hope that we will all command at least ten dao meridians!

“The world continues to stabilize and increasingly stronger powerhouses can walk through the land. At present, it looks like my limit is more than twenty meridians. But of course, this applies to those of us who are blessed by heaven’s favor or the great dao’s support. But even without that, the core origin replicas can manifest at a strength of ten meridians. Some of them are even stronger than their primary bodies.”

It hadn’t been too long ago, when they were eliminating the nine ministries, that the strongest the world could endure was seven element Arcanus.

How long had it been since then? Ten element Arcanus was supported in the world now, and as time went on and the world further stabilized, there would be even stronger cultivators that appeared.

It wasn’t just the ancients that were revitalizing, but the divine spirits that were constantly awakening as well. The more stable the world was, the stronger the divine spirits would be. They were Saints at their peak—modern divine spirits were yet to return to that level. They grew with the development of the world.

One had to say, divine spirits were also uniquely favored by heaven and possessed advantages that others did not.

No one said a word as they entered the pool of treasures. They swiftly drained it of its liquid. This pool had been meant to nurture the body of an Empyrean King, so it was very effective in repairing the body. It was put to appropriate use when everyone drew on it to recover from their wounds and open more dao meridians.

There were no concerns in sight since Li Hao was on the watch for them. Everyone began absorbing energy and materializing new dao meridians. The young man settled in to recover from his wounds as well.

The newly opened dao meridian strengthened his body, but he was having difficulty hanging on given that he’d forced three hundred and sixty acupoints open earlier. Closing some of the acupoints relieved the stress on his body.

There were nine fully open attributed dao meridians in his body and one singular meridian of the physical body. He had cleared more than one hundred and eight acupoints by now. Every five acupoints was another complete dao meridian.

Less pressure was exerted on his body as Li Hao closed some of his acupoints, but he still retained more than the two hundred and thirty he had before. He could endure some more dao meridians in his present condition.

In the end, he left two hundred and fifty sparkling acupoints. He commanded fourteen unattributed dao meridians. This was a good balance for his body and made for a total of twenty-four dao meridians.

Based on the new cultivation system, nine meridians was ninth level Mountain and Sea. There were three dao meridians for each level of Sun and Moon, so Li Hao had reached peak fifth level Sun and Moon.

If a cultivator did not command supernatural abilities and didn’t open any attributed meridians, they would have to clear three hundred acupoints to reach peak fifth level Sun and Moon.

Li Hao’s body was much more stabilized and he moved around more easily. His thoughts traveled back to the Divine Nation queen. She was slightly stronger than him at sixth level Sun and Moon.

He’d been much weaker than her before, but now the gap between them had closed. If they fought again now, could he win against her without having to force dao meridians open?

As much of a genius Li Hao was and despite the plethora of abilities he had to call upon, the queen was a divine spirit of this world. She was no weakling. It would be very hard to triumph over her now that she’d reached these heights.

All the same, Li Hao was loath to accept this conclusion. Slightly resigned, his thoughts turned from challenging those stronger than him to wondering if he should force some more dao meridians open.

There may truly be more than one dao meridian of the body. He could sense the enhancement of his body, but it wasn’t to the point of a tremendous metamorphosis. His judgment was the same as his teacher’s—there may be more than one dao meridian of the physical body out there. However, opening one meant finding the key. The rest would be easy to locate.

The young man looked at the pool of treasures. Everyone was furiously absorbing energy. Endless energy surged into their body. The weaker they were, the more they were strengthened after opening the dao meridian of the physical body. They improved by a very significant amount!

Li Hao’s new musings turned to what the effects might be if one started off with opening the dao meridian of the body when they first cultivated. The results might be entirely different!

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

If the first meridian was the one that set the foundation for the body... what might the cultivator achieve then? They might swiftly improve their strength! When the foundation was strong enough and the body sturdy enough, all that was left was speedy, smooth sailing!

If in times before, Li Hao might have immediately publicized the body dao meridian. But this time... he hesitated.

After some thought, he exhaled and decided not to make this public knowledge yet. He could run this internally for a while, including the tens of thousands of soldiers outside. Apart from the Battle Heaven Army, there were tens of thousands of his direct troops. If one of their body dao meridians were opened first... They were strong to begin with. If they improved rapidly after that...

Perhaps all of the fifty thousand troops would take one large step forward!

It was just, fifty thousand people would consume an astronomical amount of resources. Since he wished to outright open the dao meridian, that would require large sums of energy stones and vast quantities of Water of Life.

But if they all opened that meridian, these soldiers might be able to surprise people. After all of them were lifted up another level, their cultivation speed would increase.

After he ran through all of these considerations, Li Hao neither walked outside nor spoke of his new findings. Instead, he repaired his armor. Its core had been preserved, so it could be restored.