Chapter 1069: Being Known Throughout the Ages (II)

Just when Li Hao thought that no one else had reached second level Sun and Moon, Director General Wang cleared his throat.

“Um... I guess I count? I have 260 acupoints, but dao meridians of the physical body and thunder.”

Li Hao blinked and stared at the man. “Where did your physical body meridian come from?”

I didn’t make one for you!

“When you went to the Hao Cosmos, I went out and asked Ole Qi for help,” chuckled Director General Wang. “That’s... alright it, is it?”

“......” Li Hao stared, then broke out laughing. Vice Head Qi had created it? Alright, then.

Clearing 260 acupoints meant fully opening sixteen dao meridians. When considered with the meridians of thunder and physical body, that meant the director general had eighteen dao meridians. Apart from Li Hao and a few others favored by heaven, this was the limit of the world at present.

Eighteen dao meridians made one a peak third level Sun and Moon. This might be the strongest aside from Li Hao, the Divine Nation queen, and the Great Li king. What was meant by the limit of the world was that the cultivator would not be attacked by the void when it demonstrated its strength. The god of prophecy had utilized certain special methods to exceed its limits and paid a correspondingly high price to attain that level of strength. That was another matter entirely.

Jiang Li had to use the bones of Initial Martial to reach the same step.

At the same time, Director General Wang’s accomplishments seemed normal. He was an Immortal to begin with! His current body was one of a simpler construction. It utilized his core origin dao to force open a passageway to the Hao Cosmos. Apart from it being not the most stable, all else was fine.

“Not bad,” Li Hao smiled. “Director General Wang is a cultivator converted from a premier powerhouse, alright! You’ve outright opened eighteen dao meridians in one go! Nicely done!”

The director general smiled modestly. His accomplishments were simply average! If in New Martial, this would make him a mid Apex. Granted, he was stronger in modern times, comparatively speaking. He’d be able to fight regular initial Immortals in the ruins if they hadn’t fully awakened.

Li Hao was in a good mood. Although Director General Wang didn’t count as a modern Silver Moon citizen, his body did. And now that he was fully part of the new cultivation system, he was one of the young man’s direct lineage of subordinates. It was nice to have someone under his command with eighteen dao meridians.

Apart from a select one or two of the divine spirits, none of them were as ferocious as Director General Wang. Only the god of war and goddess of life were more valiant among divine spirits. But if they fought the director general now, they stood only an equal chance of defeating the man.

Li Hao grinned. This was good enough!

None of the others were weak either; they were much stronger than before. Everyone had dramatically increased their strength in a day and would no longer be so firmly suppressed by the divine spirits that they wouldn’t be able to lift their heads.

Li Hao looked at another person—Deputy Zhou. The young man said with some regret, “Apart from some core origin energy that I collected earlier, I haven’t collected much lately. That means the deputy...”

It was such a pity!

“That’s fine,” smiled the deputy. “My strength has actually been improving as the limits of the world have risen. It’s nice to have sufficient energy. In addition... I have a favor to ask...”

“What is it?”

“Um...” Director General Wang coughed gently. “Didn’t Director General Wang change to another body recently? The body that took numerous Immortal trunks to resurrect is still sitting there. It cost quite a lot to build, so I’m thinking that... it shouldn’t be wasted. Why don’t I uh... you know?”

“......” The group stared.

“You want to eat me?” Director General Wang’s jaw dropped.

“No no,” comforted the deputy. “Your body was made out of Immortal-level wood, the bodies of plant spirits. Since you don’t need it anymore after your conversion to the Hao Cosmos dao, we can’t waste it. As the commander isn’t killing large sums of plant spirits anymore, what do you think...”

“No.” The idea was unbearable to the director general. “That’s my body! It looks exactly like me. Are you still human if you eat fellow humans??”

“That’s not what I mean...”

Director General Wang wouldn’t entertain the thought. The body was exactly the same as him. It was too unbearable if someone were to eat him. Although he knew that it would be hard to turn back after he set foot on this path, this was still a hurdle that he could not cross.

Of course, it had indeed cost a fair bit to craft that body. It would be a waste to simply set it aside.

“Don’t bother having any designs about the body. Have Commander Li find your own source of core origin energy and indestructible matter. My physical body won’t be going to waste either!” Director General Wang looked at Li Hao. “I’d like to give it to Ole Nine. What does the commander think?”

“Ole Nine?”

“Li Daozong!” laughed the director general. “The guy’s not willing to forge a new body or walk the new martial dao. He’s lost some core origin with this battle, so I’m thinking I can give him my old body. That will save the commander some trouble when you go back next. That guy won’t jeer at you for losing his replica.”

That was a good idea. Director General Wang didn’t want Deputy Zhou to eat his body, but he didn’t mind if the Ninth Division leader ate his body. He could just pretend he didn’t see anything.

“That works!” Li Hao smiled. Director General Wang sighed with relief. The young man continued, “I’ll... see what I can do for Deputy Zhou.”

He looked at the others. Of them, Liu Long was who he was most concerned about.

“190 acupoints, three attributed meridians, one physical body meridian,” the man rumbled when he sensed Li Hao’s gaze. Six meridians total made for sixth level Mountain and Sea!

This truly was a mediocre level of strength. Although he was the equivalent of six element Arcanus and thus had improved rapidly, he was still much weaker than the rest.

“It’s enough to have opened your physical body dao meridian.” Li Hao didn’t mind. “What the army needs most is teamwork. So long as you can endure greater strength, that means the blood qi of the troops can be brought to bear with even more formidable force!”

Liu Long led the Demon Hunters—they were much stronger than before. Once they came back together as a team, they would be very strong so long as Liu Long could withstand their joint blood qi. The prerequisite was that his body was capable enough!

If even Liu Long was sixth level Mountain and Sea, the rest wouldn’t be much weaker. The weakest they would be was Mountain and Sea. Li Hao was even more satisfied with the situation!

First level Mountain and Sea was the equivalent of the previous Arcanus. There was no one here weaker than that. That was good enough. One had to remember that it wasn’t long ago that the young man claimed to have ten thousand Mountain and Sea under his command. That had been pure bullshit.

Well, it was still bullshit. He didn’t have that many. The hundred or so on the premises had set foot into Mountain and Sea. There were a few Sun and Moon. Of the rest, he had some Arcanus, but none of those were his direct troops. Those that he would count as his own were all in the mine.

“Are you interested in using the bodies of the new humans?” Li Hao turned to the troop leaders of Battle Heaven. “Or ones of New Martial still? This decision is up to you, but there is a path ahead for humans of this age. Your future may be very troublesome with a New Martial body. You might need core origin energy like Deputy Zhou, as well as vast sums of indestructible matter to improve your strength!

“If you choose one of the new age like Director General Wang, you’ll be able to catch up to us very quickly,” cajoled the young man. “You were all Apexes back in the day. Even if you are not now, you’re pretty much at that level. You’ll be able to make it into Sun and Moon soon!”

The troop leaders looked at each other for a while before the Seventh Troop leader said, “Ah... we need to ask the division leader about this.”

“There’s no need to go to so much trouble!” laughed Li Hao. “The division leader said before that it’s up to you. You can also ask General Pagoda and the guardian. Their replicas are also here.”

It was these two powerhouses who kept two immensely strong divine spirits preoccupied in the previous battle. The general didn’t have much of a chance to demonstrate its strength since it had sealed off the premises. They were also replicas at the end of the day; they wouldn’t have made much of a difference to the outcome of battle.

The troop leaders hesitated, debating whether to choose bodies of the new era. There would be no need for delay if they just wanted one of New Martial again.

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

They’d been tapped to join the meeting, a sign that they’d truly made it to Li Hao’s inner circle. But giving up their New Martial bodies was still an uncomfortable thought. They weren’t as thick-skinned as Director General Wang.

“If the division leader has no opinion, then... we’ll let the Eleventh Division leader decide!” the Seventh Division leader said in a muffled voice.

“......” Li Hao grinned.

What? Me decide? But I get you.

They wanted bodies of the new age. There were too many restrictions levied on bodies of New Martial in this era. Those of New Martial could improve their cultivation only if they killed someone or something from the ancient times. That was very much of a hassle.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll be recovering bodies for the troop leaders, the commissioner of Supervisory, and some Evenround Martial students. It’ll be a dozen people or so, not that many. The rest can wait!”

The troop leaders didn’t say anything, tacitly agreeing to what Li Hao had said.

The young man looked at the imperial guard, not sure of what to do. He would just... still treat the imperial guard as a tree. There was nothing he could do for plant spirits at present.

And for Panther, the young man was equally out of ideas. The dog had been sleeping a lot in the depths of the mine lately; it was up to its own fortune if it could access the dao meridians of monster spirit dao.

He had numerous Sun and Moon powerhouses by his side now. Li Hao was much more confident compared to before.

“Divine Nation has suffered their share of casualties in the earlier skirmish,” said Director General Zhao. “Their god of prophecy and the Moon God are also severely injured. They won’t be able to proceed for a bit, unless they see that our bodies have collapsed.

“At the same time, Great Li, Barren Dynasty, and Watercloud Dynasty won’t give up! Although we’ve demonstrated our might against Divine Nation, we were unable to secure a definitive victory. This will make them think that there’s not much to us!”

The other nations might know that the two sides were strong, but since Li Hao was unable to take down Divine Nation, they would lose their previous reservations. In fact, they might turn around and think that Li Hao wouldn’t easily engage the other three nations because he was wary of the Divine Nation.

“Who cares about them, let them attack!” snorted He Yong. “If it wasn’t for the people suddenly betraying us, how could we have lost? Li Hao had already suppressed the Divine Nation queen. It was all because of those bastards losing faith in us that the situation reversed itself!”

He couldn’t forget what had happened earlier. It sucked! If it wasn’t for the citizens being suddenly afraid of divine spirits and lacking sufficient confidence in Li Hao, the young man had already suppressed the queen. They just need to continue to bolster the young man! Instead, the army’s previous efforts were all wasted!

He Yong seethed with resentment!