Chapter 1211: The Silver Moon in the Sky (I)

A bunch of members from the three organizations were dead, instilling a desire to withdraw in the Celestial Sword Immortal. The lord of Yonder Mountain didn’t say a word, but he clearly felt the same way. Enormous pressure bore down on them after Yama’s death.

They’d come to the west in hopes of allying with the Moon God; that would secure a certain degree of protection for themselves.

And yet, the Moon God wanted nothing to do with them. She ran as soon as she saw them or attacked them instead. The three great organizations couldn’t overcome Li Hao to begin with and had lost a few more dozen members in recent days. The Celestial Sword Immortal and Yonder lord had lost their patience.

“Don’t worry, I’ll reach an agreement with Divine Nation within three days!” Ying Hongyue was well aware of their mood. “The Moon God is being too impetuous and rather stupid for it. Damn it, things would not be this way if that god of prophecy was still alive!

“I’ll just have to help them revitalize their god of prophecy first. That one is a sage and would not keep me at an arm’s length like this Moon God!”

Ying Hongyue was highly resigned as well. It was easier to discuss matters with another intelligent person. Negotiations should be easy between them since the two sides had the same enemy! But for some reason, he had to deal with a counterparty who didn’t know the meaning of reason!

It should’ve been a solid partnership, but the Moon God had turned it into a kill-on-sight situation. If this continued, they might see Li Hao in the west once he resolved the threat of the ancient cities in the central region and dispatched the rest of the four nations.

They didn’t have time to waste like this!

“Then you have a final three days!” the Celestial Sword Immortal announced after flicking a glance at the man. “If they are still unwilling to cooperate and you are unable to form an alliance, I will leave! We are but a handful of scattered sand right now. Yonder will be going with me as well! We have trusted you all this time, but you should be well aware of what you have brought to us in exchange for our trust!”

Only grievous losses and a life of scurrying around for cover like rats. They’d had enough of living like this!

Lacking some of his usual aplomb, Ying Hongyue took a deep breath. He nodded and looked at the distance, hoping for no further surprises to crop up.

......

At the same time.

One human and one dog dashed through the void, heading toward the west. Gan Wuliang could handle negotiations with the ancient cities for now, Li Hao was going to put all of that out of mind. He wanted to make a trip west and see if there was anything good to be picked up. He also wanted to exert a little pressure on Ying Hongyue so that the guy would borrow more Red Moon power.

The young man was also curious if there would be Li family members to the west.

Barren laid to the east. The desolate beasts had run rampant over that territory before, so the Lis shouldn’t be hiding there.

Great Li could be found in the north; the situation there was uncertain given the presence of an Initial Martial god.

It was rather the west that was a good choice. The revival of the divine spirits, specifically the Moon God, further stabilized the seal. The Lis might have had a hand in their revitalization.

Not to mention, the west only held enemies. It didn’t matter if Li Hao completely destroyed the land over the course of fighting. It was good that all of his enemies were gathered here.

“Let’s see how sharp your nose is,” Li Hao laughed as he hauled Panther in his wake. “Let’s ferret out all of the rats!”

The black dog’s nose twitched and it nodded. It’d finally emerged from seclusion, so now it was time to hunt down treasure.

It was just as when they’d left Silver Moon province—one human and one dog traveled through the world.

......

Divine Nation in the west.

This was a prosperous nation that enjoyed the protection of divine spirits. Climate and the environment was good in the western reaches—this was not a land of extreme heat or cold. The oversight of divine spirits meant that no war touched its soil. The nation’s buildings were big and tall, imparting a few hints of an exotic locale.

This was Li Hao’s first time setting foot in a foreign country. He’d sent a replica to Great Li once, but that replica had not returned. His experience with the other nations had been limited to the borders and their armies. He’d never entered their territory.

Li Hao sensed some divine spirit presences as soon as he entered the exotic Divine Nation. This might drift through their environment on a regular basis, or it might be the result of recent awakenings. A sound echoed imperceptibly in his mind, seeking to unobtrusively assimilate mundanes that entered Divine Nation.

The nation had been in disarray for a while after Li Hao killed many divine spirits. But since their queen was still alive, life quickly settled back down into its previous patterns.

There were many temples here. Each city held numerous ones dedicated to various divine spirits. Different ones could be found at different cities, but each one held a Moon God temple. This was the strongest divine spirit among those worshiped in Divine Nation.

The Moon God represented the silver crescent in the sky. However, red was starting to tinge the moon these days. That was the result of Red Moon power. Mundanes did not understand the phenomenon and neither did they care

The citizens of Divine Nation were also different from that of the central plains. There were those with blond hair and blue eyes, and those with black hair and black eyes.

As the strongest of the four nations, they possessed a high number of cultivators. Their cultivation style resembled more of those employed by supernaturals than the Initial Martial methods of Great Li. Cultivators here were adept at borrowing divine spirit strength. In Li Hao’s eyes, that was borrowing strength from the great dao.

Divine Nation cultivators were accessories of the divine spirits. Their cultivation further aided their god.

When a divine spirit died, their great dao broke, and their dao star shattered, the cultivators that trained in that divine spirit’s path would lose all of their strength. This was pure external force and much more unreliable than the supernatural abilities of the central plains.

Li Hao walked down the street with Panther by his side, but no one noticed his existence. They strode into a temple at random. Worshippers were on their knees and priests bustling to and fro. Still, no one discovered the young man’s presence.

He smiled at the sculpture in the center of the temple. These foolish divine spirits!

Or rather, the divine spirits had no alternatives.

Each sculpture had a tiny hint of the divine spirit’s mental strength attached to it. That made it easier to receive the faith of their followers, but also made it easy for enemies to trace the connection back to their primary bodies.

Many divine spirits had died recently; there were some still alive. Li Hao had entered the temple of the god of death. This was the same god as the king of hell in the central plains. It was a powerful divine spirit among its brethren.

The grimacing sculpture of the god of death trembled when Li Hao crossed the threshold. A faint mental strength swept through the temple, as if knowing something or having felt the presence of death intrude on its domain.

But how was a mere tendril of mental strength to detect Li Hao’s presence?

Panther’s nose twitched and it glanced at Li Hao. It’d located the source of the scent. This guy’s primary body was located not too far away.

Li Hao lingered for a while before entering the next temple with Panth. This time, he picked the ubiquitous Moon God temple.

A stately, sacred, and beautiful sculpture stood in the center. It was stunningly lifelike and bore similarities to the queen, but not entirely. It might have been made in the image of the first generation Moon God. The current queen was the second generation.

Some power of faith existed within the sculpture. Li Hao collected some with a grasp of his hand and studied it. The young man raised a brow with interest. The faith of Divine Nation was a type of great dao power. This meant that the nation had started studying the great dao many years ago, or discovered it accidentally.

The dao universe had always existed; everyone simply discovered it at different times. Li Hao and Yuan Shuo had found it through deep study and entered it through utilizing the dao meridians.

Perhaps other people can enter the dao universe apart from me. It just might be very dangerous for them and they could easily get lost within the dao universe. The dao star from last time... was probably Zhang An?

Li Hao pondered the possibilities. If Zhang An had gathered the new dao, then he might’ve previously entered the dao universe without Li Hao being aware. That meant that others could freely come and go from the dao universe.

When it came to cultivators of the new dao, the dao universe did not refuse them entry. The Hao Cosmos did not belong to Li Hao alone. The only caveat was the entrance was easy and departure was hard.

The divine spirits should be studying the dao universe as well; their power of faith was starting to resemble the strength of the great dao. If Li Daoheng and others similar to him were wandering around outside, they might very likely come to Divine Nation. They would be able to locate the dao universe through studying this faith.

But I’m certain that I’m the first one to discover the dao meridians and connect them to their dao stars!

If that wasn’t the case, the world wouldn’t have rewarded him with the ‘dao’ supernatural character. Therefore, he must be the pioneer in this field.

Those who came before him may not have had dao meridians. Even if they did, it would just be some divine spirits that had unknowingly formed dao meridians. No one noticed what they’d accomplished.

He and his teacher were certainly the vanguard when it came to entering the dao universe through dao meridians.

The sculpture cracked open its eyes as a variety of thoughts ran through Li Hao’s mind. It seemed to have sensed something. Meanwhile, the believers around it didn’t notice anything.

These temples seemed to function as an information network. The Moon God sculpture fully opened its eyes and looked around with confusion.

A sudden thought occurred to Li Hao and he laughed, revealing himself. The sculpture had been about to close its eyes when they shot open again. It saw a young man and a dog.

The sculpture stiffened, the look in its eyes changing from surprise to anger to false bravado. It was Li Hao!

Li Hao had come to Divine Nation!

......

At the same time.

The fleeing Moon God suddenly narrowed her eyes. Several divine spirits hastily looked at their queen.

“This is bad!”

“Your Majesty...?”

“Li Hao is here!”

“What?!” gasped the divine spirits.