Chapter 1119: It Begins (III)

“I seem... to sense my cosmic expanse...” someone murmured. It was the projection of their dao meridian, their celestial body among the great dao.

Except, it was very far away.

“Is this the great dao universe?” For many martial masters, it was their first foray into this locale. It was a stunning experience. An heretofore unfelt sense of incredible insignificance made them unsure of what to do with themselves.

Tiny thunderbolts suddenly swept toward them. The Great Li king jerked with alarm, but Li Hao quickly spoke up to reassure them.

“It’s fine, don’t worry, everyone. This is the baptism of the heavens and will bring you great benefits!”

The group settled back down with peace of mind.

At least a dozen aboard the warship were struck by lightning. Some were confused and others were surprised. Did this baptism not extend to everyone?

Li Hao glanced at those who were smote by the dao universe. There were quite a few. Of them, Liu Long of the Demon Hunters suffered the most. The young man’s eyes widened and he frowned at the implications. Silver City... might have been contaminated by Red Moon all this time. That exalted emperor might’ve polluted some of the city’s rainwater...

Understanding dawned in Li Hao’s heart, followed by cold ruthlessness. There was something wrong with Silver City’s rainwater. Or rather, that that wasn’t rainwater. It was rain intermixed with Red Moon power. The rain would arouse the bloodline power of the eight families because the bloodlines would automatically defend themselves from the power within the rain.

That meant to say... it was very likely that the one million inhabitants of Silver City... might have suffered enormously simply living in their homes. There were varying degrees of trace Red Moon power in all of them.

It was likely a function of prolonged inhabitation in Silver City that made the people thus. As a martial master that’d spent a great deal of his life in Silver City, Liu Long was particularly affected by the Red Moon power.

Li Hao’s teeth threatened to chatter in horror from the insinuations!

If the exalted emperor had infected the entire city, then all of the Silver City denizens would become his troops, his puppets as soon as he broke the seal. That was horrifying!

But now, this was good. The great dao erased Red Moon power and left behind dao power. This was a rare opportunity for improvement for these people.

Li Hao turned his gaze to Director General Zhao, ignoring those that’d caught the dao universe’s interest. The thunder and lightning didn’t want to kill them, it just wanted to help cleanse them. The added benefit of this reaction was that they could easily determine who had been contaminated.

This would ensure the continued sterility of the team!

Director General Zhao didn’t say anything when he saw the sight. A seal floated up from his ams and took humanoid form. It looked exactly the same as the director general—this was the Eight Directions Seal of the Silver City martial university.

Li Hao extended his senses toward it. The seal did indeed contain traces of the eight bloodlines. He only needed to make a brief scan before he found familiar ripples.

This replica looked to have been modified before, it was quite strong at third level Sun and Moon. Director General Zhao himself was fourth level Sun and Moon and had opened twenty meridians. When his two bodies were combined, he stood a high chance of entering peak fifth level. He would be at the same level as Li Hao with twenty-four meridians.

Strange looks were present in both the Great Li king and Watercloud empress dowager’s eyes.

A replica?

Replicas weren’t unusual, they were all familiar with them. But Zhao Shuguang’s replica... seemed special. It was hard to identify which was the replica and which was the primary body.

“My replica wasn’t that strong a few years ago,” smiled the director general. “It wasn’t until the commander’s supernatural character dao was taught that I reconsolidated it with the methods of the dao meridians and supernatural characters.

“That noticeably strengthened my replica. Then I utilized the Eight Directions Seal as the base and supernatural characters as a supplement to strip off a few dao meridians and insert them into my replica...”

“Strip... off dao meridians?” Li Hao’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

“I mean moving some dao meridians from my body into my replica,” explained Director General Zhao when he saw Li Hao’s curiosity. “The human body has many dao meridians, but we have limited vigor and can’t cultivate all of them. I separated some of them and transplanted them into my replica.

“It differs from the commander creating dao meridians in that the ones in my replica are from my original body as well. After my two selves come back together, some of them will automatically close because my physical body too weak to maintain all of the opened meridians..”

“Dao meridians are intangible, how are you able to transplant them?” When Li Hao created bodies for Director General Wang and the others, he’d crafted dao meridians out of thin air. He’d used energy and life force to shape them—not transplant other people’s meridians.

This was a completely new idea.

“I’m just transplanting them between my own bodies, not giving them to someone else,” Director General Zhao quickly added. “That would be too hard and almost impossible to achieve!

“I used my own flesh and blood, as well as Water of Life, like I was recovering from a wound. For example, I cut off one of my arms, then used Water of Life to heal the wound and grow a new arm. I tried this process bit by bit until I could replicate the dao meridians.”

The group sucked a sharp breath at his words. Those actions were... extremely ruthless to himself!

The Great Li king looked strangely at the director general. Great Li and Silver Moon had fought each other many times, albeit a long time ago. Those of Silver Moon had always been fierce and unyielding, but it was surprising that a bureaucrat such as Zhao Shuguang could be so ruthless as well.

“Then... what about the head?” the king couldn’t help but ask. “Did you cut off your own head and create another? But in that case, isn’t death guaranteed?”

There hadn’t been that much Water of Life or mental strength in the world before. One was most likely dead if they cut off their head.

“There is indeed danger, but I managed to pull through. It wasn’t that dangerous either.” Director General Zhao smiled. Plainly, what the king asked was precisely what he had done.

“You’re seriously brutal to yourself!” Kong Jie burst out. “You cut off your own head! You’re ridiculous! We’ve been colleagues for so long, Ole Zhao, but I never realized that you’re so cruel to yourself. You kept all of the Water of Life for yourself, didn’t you? No matter how we asked, you only gave us a few drops.”

The times then were not the times now. Water of Life was scarce and auras were weak. Dao meridians were undiscovered then—they were treated as supernatural locks. It was clear to see that Director General Zhao had wanted his primary body to walk the path of martial masters and his replica to walk the path of supernaturals.

That was why he replicated the dao meridians—or rather, supernatural locks. With the advent of the new martial dao, he switched to training dao meridians.

“There was no way around it, we needed something to base our confidence in,” laughed the director general. “My replica walked the path of supernaturals and had broken quite a few supernatural locks. It’s always been strong.”

Li Hao nodded without saying anything in particular. It wasn’t that surprising that Director General Zhao was so unforgiving when it came to himself. It was incredible that he could hold down the fort in Silver Moon for forty years, have dealings with various sides, and still maintain the province’s balance.

His only oversight was being contaminated by Earthflare.

Granted, the director general probably hadn’t cared about this then.

“Then... let’s combine them!” Li Hao wanted to take advantage of their presence in the Hao Cosmos and lack of restrictions from the world to conduct the operation. Perhaps there would be another fifth level Sun and Moon on his side after this was complete.

Two figures walked toward each other without hesitation. However, they seemed to share a mutual distaste of each other. The replica of the Eight Directions Seal didn’t seem that willing to combine with the primary body again.

Li Hao identified the problem with a quick glance and grunted, shooting out an arrow of blood from his mouth. A ray of sword intent undulated through the area as sword light rose from the seal. The two clashed with each other.

The sword light shattered, leaving an opening for Li Hao’s blood to invade. A tiny diagram of the eight trigrams manifested over the seal. There also seemed to be eight shadowy figures, but they were very weak. This seal had likely been used to suppress students of the eight families in the past!

Li Hao’s blood swiftly seeped into the seal. The eight figures crumbled as they were suppressed in turn. The Eight Directions Seal could not withstand the young man. The Li bloodline was the most noble and fearsome of the eight bloodlines.

After a momentary struggle, the seal turned docile and quiet. All of its previous resistance disappeared.

Director General Zhao was surprised, but could understand the outcome. He could only sigh with appreciation at how fierce the Li bloodline was. Otherwise, it would be difficult for him to reintegrate his replica as well.

The two figures no longer repelled each other and came together as one. The Eight Directions Seal slowly melded into the body, sinking into Director General Zhao. His number of open meridians multiplied for a split second—thirty of them, to be exact.

However, the man’s body promptly started crumbling away. Not only that, but the great dao itself seemed to be preventing him from breaking through.

It took only a blink of the eye for some dao meridians to start closing and his body to return to normal. There were more open meridians left in his body compared to when his replica still roamed free. Director General Zhao possessed twenty-three meridians and gradually started moving to twenty-four meridians.

It took a few minutes for the twenty-fourth to open. He was officially a peak fifth level Sun and Moon. Progress was halted at this stage; there were no more meridians accessible to him because Li Hao had only reached twenty-four meridians.

The ‘dao’ character within Li Hao’s body trembled and seemed to grow stronger, but the change wasn’t noticeable.

A seal floated out of Director General Zhao’s hand. He opened his eyes, a twinkle sparkling from them. “My thanks to the commander for your aid!”

“This is all a result of the director general’s own cultivation. What does it have to do with me?” Li Hao smiled.

The Great Li king and Watercloud empress dowager were shocked by the man’s change in presence. He’d spontaneously exceeded both of them! It was incredible!

But... this was all he soared to, he did not advance any further. That was a source of relief.

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

The others simply envied Director General Zhao. Laughter of the Silver Moon Guards had certainly hidden himself well! The commanders of that old royal force to exterminate martial masters were certainly unusual.

“Ole Zhao, Laughter was known in Silver Moon’s martial world for many years, but none of us knew what you were skilled at,” He Yong remarked with curiosity. “Was laughing your special ability? Cannibal Huang Yu practiced the spear, Sickly Hou Xiaochen also practiced the spear. What about you?”

Of the three commanders of the Silver Moon Guards, Laughter was the most mysterious. If it wasn’t for Huang Yu and Hou Xiaochen revealing their identities, followed by Director General Zhao revealing his battle strength, then very few would connect him to Laughter. Most suspected Yuan Shuo instead!

But what was Laughter’s trade of choice? The blade, spear, sword, or halberd? Or the fists of the Zhaos? O something else?

“You’ll see,” smiled the director general.

He Yong snorted.

Still playing coy huh? Who cares!

The group’s battle strength had been increased to a maximum peak.