Chapter 1195: An Empyrean King Falls (IV)

Li Hao’s group erupted with force. The young man sent a large sword through the void; countless stars gathered around him. Stroke followed stroke. Among the five, his battle strength was comparable to Capsize Sea’s and far greater than the Ninth Division leader and the old pagoda tree’s. At the very least, his was more destructive!

The sword broke through space, blazing with a variety of special abilities. Mountains of blades and seas of fire churned toward Zheng Hongyuan.

The man smiled brilliantly!

Good!

Fighting Li Hao would help him understand the new dao more. This was excellent!

BOOM!

The two sides repeatedly clashed against each other as six figures threaded through the cosmos. The universe shook from their battle!

On the perimeter, the redwood tree and other plant spirits labored under enormous pressure. Thousands of thunderbolts had gathered outside the formation. The plant spirits had only one mission—stabilize the formation so that more thunderbolts could gather. Zheng Hongyuan possessed such dense Red Moon power that it compelled the tribulation to continue building so long as the dao universe was unable to destroy the energy.

This might be the key in determining victory between the two sides!

The redwood tree, imperial guard, and others were well aware that once the battle ended in a triumph, they would have achieved a great deed even without directly participating in the fighting!

But if the formation broke ahead of time and the accumulated power of thunder and lightning was unable to kill or injure Zheng Hongyuan, they would be the greatest transgressors of this engagement.

“Hold!!” the redwood furiously transmitted to the other plant spirits. “We must withstand the pressure and build up more thunderbolts. Once we kill this guy, we plant spirits will have accomplished a heroic deed! When the world is fully revitalized, we plant spirits will be able to produce an exalted emperor!”

“Milord, my only concern is that... the honorable Saints won’t be able to withstand the enemy much longer!” fretted a plant spirit.

The redwood jerked with shock and looked to the center of the universe. It was just in time to see Zheng Hongyuan fracture a piece of turtle shell with his whip. The tree paled with horror!

The turtle was a premier weapon and the weapon soul itself was of the Saint level. But now, just one crack of the whip was sufficient to fracture the turtle’s primary body. If this continued, Li Hao’s side would be done for before sufficient thunder and lightning gathered.

Was Zheng Hongyuan that strong?

......

Li Hao also frowned at this point in the battle. Too strong! The situation couldn’t continue like this. Not enough of the thunder tribulation had gathered yet, but everyone would die if things continued in this vein.

The young man quickly ran through a list of possibilities and looked around.

Supernatural characters hovered into view, including the ones of the five characters that were situated far away. As for whether or not Liu Yan and the rest would be killed because their supernatural characters suddenly disappeared... That was beyond his scope of consideration for the moment.

They shouldn’t be...

Supernatural characters hovered in front of him, including one of the long vanished ‘dao’ character. There were those of the five elements, dao character, wind, thunder, light, and darkness.

Li Hao’s presence expanded by two times what it was before, but that still wasn’t enough!

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Broken metal shards appeared among space and collected together, piling up with the supernatural characters and forming a longsword.

“Stellaris?” Zheng Hongyuan blinked. Were those the fragments of Stellaris?

The sword of the Lis quickly came back together. All sorts of energy and abilities brewed. Numerous acupoints appeared in the young man’s body. 360 of them lit up, forming a short sword. More acupoints lit up the next second, but only roughly 150 this time. There was a long ways to completing a second round of 360.

Li Hao had cleared many acupoints in the ten days of moving the cities, but it wasn’t enough to access the second round of sword dao abilities.

Just when Zheng Hongyuan sent Capsize Sea flying with a punch, Li Hao set his jaw and swallowed the longsword. More acupoints swiftly lit up—200, 240, 260...

There was still a gap between what he’d accessed and 360. It wasn’t enough! If he couldn’t access the second round of sword dao abilities, that meant no corresponding metamorphosis even if he’d cleared 359 acupoints.

Zheng Hongyuan’s eyes brightened. What an amazing method! He read it with a single glance! If Li Hao was able to complete another 360, he would be much stronger than now. Although the young man would still be no match for him, he wouldn’t be spontaneously defeated.

What a splendid ability, what a wonderful dao method!

And what a pity that the young man lacked sufficient foundations. Even forcefully swallowing Stellaris was insufficient to complete a second round.

What a pity!

“You don’t... seem to have enough strength!” Zheng Hongyuan was regretful on Li Hao’s behalf. His smile widened.

“Perhaps I do have enough!” The young man suddenly grinned after a cold glare.

Zheng Hongyuan blinked; Li Hao abruptly flared with incredibly dense blood qi. That blood qi penetrated each acupoint and overlaid a faint shadow on top of Li Hao’s body. It was a person with a bloody blade at his waist and a longbow on his back.

“The Exalted Blood Emperor...” blinked the rest of the group.

The ‘Battle Heaven’ characters materialized in the void. It instantly set Li Hao’s remaining seventy-odd acupoints aflame.

Battle Heaven!

In the distance, Battle Heaven city trembled slightly. Blood qi spontaneously vanished from the revitalized Battle Heaven soldiers on the perimeter. It melded into Li Hao’s body and the young man roared with fury.

“Die!!” The two characters enabled him to forcefully clear all of the acupoints from the remaining second circulation. He would not have managed it otherwise.

His longsword pierced the world—the sword of dao!

Wind, fire, thunder, and lightning forcefully churned toward Zheng Hongyuan when the sword struck. The rest of the group watched with delight. The young man had done it!

“KILL!” snarled the powerhouses.

They’d been heavily suppressed, but now Li Hao became the main force. His strength instantly eclipsed Capsize Sea—strongest among them. Zheng Hongyuan had to take a few steps back when Li Hao’s sword struck, but he was still injured by the sword qi!

“That’s certainly something!” snorted Zheng Hongyuan. He cracked his whip and snapped the current of sword qi to pieces, but it instantly turned into more currents of sword qi!

The others could finally relax and take a breath from the constant threat of impending death that they’d been fighting under. However, Li Hao also knew that even the second round of sword dao abilities could not defeat an Empyrean King.

The gap in strength was enormous!

Li Hao could only just manage to hold his ground against Zheng Hongyuan’s previously overwhelming momentum. If the man had been able to continue attacking like he had, all of them would quickly be doomed.

Zheng Hongyuan growled and cracked his whip again and again!

Snap snap snap!

The powerhouses were sent flying and fractures crisscrossed the old turtle’s armor. General Pagoda was nearly a bald tree and Capsize Sea had multiple injuries on top of a snapped horn. The Ninth Division leader was the weakest among the group. One crack of the whip pierced through his body and nearly shattered half of it.

Their enemy was too strong! This was a bitterly fought battle!

The group hung on with tooth and nail while Li Hao erupted with full strength. Although his blows were lethal and overpowering, the young man couldn’t escape being injured in turn. The whip connected with him repeatedly, splitting skin apart. There were only a few bloody marks left on Zheng Hongyuan in return. His presence declined slightly, but there was no sign of major injury on him.

Zheng Hongyuan laughed—

not bad! What a pity that it’s me that you guys have run into! A newly ascended Empyrean King might actually fall to your hands. Unfortunately for you, I am not one of those.

The formation around the perimeter shook violently from their battle. Dozens of plant spirits were nearly bent double from the pressure. But since Li Hao was yet to give orders otherwise, they grimly hung on.

That was the only thing they could do!

Battle raged on inside the formation. The Orange Armor on the perimeter suddenly transmitted in a burst of very weak ripples, “Patriarch Zheng, I will break the formation in a bit. Leave first. Battle Heaven has yet to activate and Li Hao is prepared to deliver a devastating blow to you. Leave the formation or you’ll easily be dealt an explosive blow from Battle Heaven!”

Zheng Hongyuan’s eyebrows twitched, he didn’t actually trust this fellow that much. This proposed course of action seemed... inappropriate.

But it was fine if he was voluntarily offering to break the formation. It wouldn’t affect the bigger picture. In fact, it was better if the formation broke, but it didn't matter if it didn’t. These plant spirits weren’t exerting too much pressure on him.

Granted, Battle Heaven was not on the scene. If it was and it erupted with full strength, that would be a considerable force to contend with. Thus, it would be nice if Wu Peng really shattered the formation so he could walk out.

The Orange Armor shifted into action and suddenly punched one of the plant spirits. It swayed violently as its presence dwindled precipitously.

“Wu Peng!” Li Hao roared, thoroughly enraged. This was also a signal. The young man didn’t have high hopes for the other believing their actions. If he did, then the thunder tribulation would fully strike the man. If not, that didn’t matter to the bigger picture.

Li Hao would take whatever he could get!

‘Wu Peng’ had punched a plant spirit into submission and yelled, “Break!”

Rumble!

The formation began losing its integrity as plant spirits spat out golden blood. The redwood tree materialized with extreme shock. “You... damn you...”

Zheng Hongyuan jerked to a halt before laughing uproariously. Wu Peng really had broken the formation! It teetered on the edge of collapse! Who would’ve thought that an unexpected surprise would be waiting for him here?

It would be for the best if he could walk out of the formation.

Zheng Hongyuan disappeared and reappeared near Wu Peng, one step away from freedom. Wu Peng was punching another plant spirit out of position and created a massive opening in the array. The other plant spirits were vomiting blood—truly vomiting blood as they threw up even core origin energy.

This wasn’t a result of Wu Peng’s actions, but that the thunder tribulation was too strong. They couldn’t hold up beneath it; the formation was being crushed under the weight.

Zheng Hongyuan walked out and wanted to throw his head back with laughter when his face drew taught. His opponents chased him furiously while a thunderbolt loomed overhead. It was so massive that it seemed more like a sky pillar. A mighty rumble echoed in the universe as it descended with unbounded fury!

Although the dao universe belonged to a newly born dao, Red Moon power had challenged it for a prolonged period of time without it being able to exterminate the enemy power. Even the dao universe was infuriated!

It must kill this person!