Chapter 1199: Ascending to Fused Dao (III)

Capsize Sea was rather surprised by the redwood’s good fortune in developing to this stage. It was rare for wild plant spirits to have this breadth of vision. They were often described as blockheads; it was all too difficult to produce a proper talent among the plant spirits.

The golden cow thought for a while. There was certain to be a lot of plant spirits vying over the life sector, and even humans in the mix since it was a major dao.

“I recommend you switch to one that people don’t care about as much, but one that is suited for plant spirits. For example... the chaos!”

“What?” The redwood blinked. What chaos?

“Haven’t you realized that a chaos dao has been born? Not that many people are paying attention to it yet or treat it as the exclusive domain of desolate beasts when they do. But I tell you, there is a massively powerful desolate beast that exists in the universe. It has taken root in the cosmos like a master of a world. Its roots stretch throughout the chaos and it is unparalleled!

“My grandfather once walked out of New Martial and roamed the universe. He was so lucky as to encounter a chaos tree traveling through the cosmos. For plant spirits, the chaos and you are a perfect match! There is great potential in plant spirits!

“But of course, this is a gamble. You would be betting on whether or not you can walk out of the universe. Otherwise, your future is limited in a minor or even major world.

“If you take the gamble and are able to walk out of the world into the universe, then everything will be different! Your chance will be at hand! You will control the chaos and take root in it. A tree of life or wood dao would be less than one of chaos!”

The redwood tree was highly tempted. A gamble! It would be gambling that Li Hao could walk out of Silver Moon world to soar through the chaos. At that time, its chance to grasp the chaos would be at hand...

But, that was all a bit far away for now.

The tree glanced at Capsize Sea. The life and wood attributes were most suited for plant spirits. Was this one offering suggestions with genuine sincerity, or doing so to suppress a potential challenger?

But what the water cow said made sense.

No one paid much attention to the chaos now. The redwood itself wasn’t even aware that a chaos dao had been born. No one fought for it at the moment; there weren’t even many cultivators. The Barren king was more familiar with it, but he didn’t count as a direct cultivator of the dao.

Even if the king and rest of Barren Dynasty surrendered, they would only be the redwood’s vassals.

Various thoughts flashed through the tree’s mind as it struggled with its decision.

It only wanted to be the king of a small hill—a small hill in the form of the minor world. Once it chose the chaos, that meant it would have to hope and pray for Li Hao to walk further down his path. The young man would have to reach such heights that he could bring the great dao out of the world and into the universe!

The redwood quite wanted the life sector, but when it considered the foolish imperial guard again... That guy had come before it. It wouldn’t have much of a chance against that tree.

As a smart tree, the redwood knew that sometimes it was hard to win. Victory didn’t come down to strength, but strength of relationships.

“Thank you for your pointers, senior.” It came to a decision after some thought. “Then I’ll scope out the chaos sector...”

“You’ve got a bright future ahead of you!” Capsize Sea smiled. Choosing the chaos meant that one had to bet on Li Hao walking out of the world and defeating the exalted emperor. Otherwise, chaos dao was absolutely less than the other daos of this world.

That sector hadn’t been its choice because body dao was good enough. There was too much luck involved with chaos dao!

That made it more suited for the weaker, yet ambitious plant spirits. If they won, then it would be the start of plant spirit ascension. If they lost, they wouldn’t lose much. Not to mention, there was more than the redwood among the plant spirits.

The redwood disappeared without a word. It went to the imperial guard first before going to the chaos sector. Since its mind was made, it could do the imperial guard a casual favor. It would help the other familiarize itself with the life sector in preparation for switching its dao.

Although plant spirits lacked dao meridians, they just needed to connect their core origin dao to a sector of their choosing and create a dao star by hand. Just as Capsize Sea said, they could take advantage of when the great dao was still weak. Their dao stars would naturally become part of the dao universe when the great dao grew stronger.

The redwood left after leading the imperial guard to the sector of life. It was off in search of the feeble chaos sector. The only person cultivating it now was Li Hao, making the sector an inconspicuous speck tumbling through the long river. That made a search very difficult. There also seemed to be a dim future ahead for this path, but that also meant no one would compete with the redwood for it.

......

The plant spirits had stirred to motion, whereas Li Daozong and the rest from Battle Heaven sank into silence.

“A big star suddenly appeared in battle,” the old turtle said after an indeterminate period of time. “It came from the depths of the universe. That was probably a powerhouse of the new dao. Judging from its strength, it must have been a Saint, and not an ordinary Saint!”

The celestial body that’d appeared at the last possible second had outright crushed their opponent to death. It was formidably strong and indicated the cultivator was at least a Saint! They were of the new dao, but Li Hao wasn’t familiar with them.

What did this mean?

It represented that the cultivator had completed their own grafting of core origin dao into the new dao.

Who could it be?

They needed to have in-depth knowledge of the new dao, be familiar with how to graft their core origin dao to the new dao universe, and possess Saint level battle strength...

The group actually had a hunch of who it could be, but found the conclusion incredulous. When had that guy completed everything?

Li Daozong nodded. So it seemed that all of them were guessing the same name, but no one voiced it out loud. There was no need to say anything. Since the man himself hadn’t said anything, perhaps he had his own thoughts in mind.

“What do you two think of what the Sea Pacification Envoy just said?” asked Li Daozong.

“There is sense in what it voiced,” General Pagoda responded after a moment of thought. “Whether it is the new dao or old dao, everything is in pursuit of strengthening oneself. So long as our hearts do not change, we do not need to be overly concerned about the form it takes. I... agree with that. There are too many limitations for core origin dao in this new age!”

Clearly, it very much agreed with Capsize Sea.

The old turtle sighed and also assented, “I also recommend... to change our paths while the new dao universe is still weak. Once it grows stronger and we are unable to graft our daos to it, we will be in true trouble then!”

An Empyrean King had died in here, leading the group to think that it might be time to change their paths. The limitations of core origin dao were on full display. Without its fortification and a steady stream of core origin energy, there wasn’t much to the stamina of an Empyrean King either.

It also required a long period of time to recover after one battle, which were the straits that they were in right now. But Li Hao and the rest recovered very quickly.

Why was that?

Because their dao universe was here! All they needed to do was collect dao power!

“Let’s wait for him to come out before we discuss it.” Li Daozong nodded.

The trio fell silent. They’d invested their city, army, they themselves, and now their great dao... So be it, since matters had reached this step!

......

Li Hao was naturally unaware of the sentiments from those outside. At the moment, thirty-six dao meridians had appeared within his body and were swiftly melding together. A sword floated out of them, as tangible as an actual sword!

Thirty-six dao meridians—thirty-six dragons—began coming together. Not in a scattered fashion, but in a way that enhanced Li Hao’s body, blood qi, bones, overall flesh and blood.

The little sword swam through his body; the young man sensed his strength changing! Fierce sword intent wafted out of his being.

Rumble!

The dao universe trembled. A new cultivation level had been born! Li Hao was the first powerhouse of the new dao to officially set foot into Fused Dao.

As for the formidable star that’d appeared before, as strong as it was, it hadn’t truly reached the Fused Dao stage. It simply possessed immense battle strength and had fortified its original abilities after switching to a new path.

“This is... the Fused Dao realm!” Liu Yan murmured to himself.

The long river of dao shook and reverberated the young man’s voice on all of the celestial bodies. Any cultivator with open meridians or dao stars [1] had a new thought pop into their mind—Fused Dao!

This was the cultivation level after Sun and Moon. Someone had reached it!

Those of the Mountain and Sea level felt their heart skip a beat. The world’s first Fused Dao cultivator had been born!

......

Silver Moon world.

The immensely worried group abruptly relaxed.

“The marquis has broken through!” someone heaved a sigh of relief.

They knew that the disturbance had to have been Li Hao. As for how he’d done it, who knew?

Perhaps his grasp of the great dao was even greater than before. Hearts settled into place. Not only had Li Hao survived, but he’d also set foot into the Fused Dao Realm. He had officially progressed into the cultivation realm on par with Saints!

What a joyous occasion!

......

At the same time, the west.

Ying Hongyue’s group paused as the man raised his head to the sky. The look in his eyes shifted as he murmured, “Fused Dao...”

Next to him, the Celestial Sword Immortal and others wore exceedingly complicated looks. They, too, cultivated the new dao, so they’d opened dao meridians. They could also hear the voice in their subconscious. After Sun and Moon came Fused Dao!

Someone had set foot into the Fused Dao realm! It must be Li Hao! The young man was absolutely terrifying!

While they themselves were not weak—the leaders were almost all Sun and Moon—there were thirty-six meridians that defined this level. Opening the tenth meridian placed one at this level, and opening the thirty-sixth finally placed one in Fused Dao. How difficult it was to become a Fused Dao cultivator!

How long had it been since Li Hao started cultivating? But he’d already set foot into Fused Dao and could impact everyone with his progress. It was horrifying!

......

In a place not too far away from Ying Hongyue’s group, some divine spirits greeted the news with shock.

Fused Dao!

Divine spirits were born of great dao; they also heard the voice emanating from the dao universe. There’d been some changes in the new dao, Sun and Moon was no longer the limit. That belonged to Fused Dao now!

Even the world was shaking.

It’d trembled when an Empyrean King died before, as if in celebration. Now that Fused Dao appeared, it shook again. Heavenly will unfurled in all directions.

Blessed with heavenly favor, the Moon God’s eyes widened with stunned fear. She... could sense that the heavenly will was departing from her.

1. Those who reached Mountain and Sea would have dao stars. ☜