Chapter 1219: Splitting the World Again (I)

“The aura is intangible and lacks substance... It forms a domain that devours the world and blocks heavenly will...” Li Hao suddenly understood what martial masters of the new age needed. “It is a given that the sword dao ability formed by unattributed meridians is very strong! But the enemy might know that unattributed dao meridians can come together in abilities of their own. If he’s studying the meridians, he’ll probably know what my trump card is—the sword dao ability!”

That meant he had no secrets or any surprises to speak of in front of his enemy. To know the enemy as one knew oneself was the key to guaranteed success!

Li Daoheng knew a great deal about Li Hao, but Li Hao didn’t know much about Li Daoheng.

If he wants to refine the Red Moon exalted emperor... then the seal won’t break that easily at all! Zheng Yu and the rest are worried that they’ll shatter the seal if they enter the world. Perhaps that's a misconception that Li Daoheng built in their minds so he can keep them trapped!

If Li Hao’s guess was correct, would Li Daoheng allow the Red Moon exalted emperor to easily win his freedom?

Of course not!

So how did the Zheng father and son have the notion that the seal would break if they walked out? It was so deeply ingrained that they didn’t even dare try. How had that idea been planted in their mind?

Someone must’ve imperceptibly built it up in their minds or interfered through the heavenly will. The most suitable candidate to do so was the Moon God!

The moon was here!

Li Hao suddenly understood that there might not be much of an impact if Zheng Yu forced his way into the world. The void wouldn’t be able to do much to him, he actually did have his freedom!

“What... a joke!” Li Hao suddenly started laughing, sardonic amusement filling his voice. Zheng Yu was a pawn, but he was blithely unaware and thought that he could change everything. He fancied himself as the favored son of the world and an existence of unparalleled talent and potential.

He thought that the Red Moon exalted emperor would be freed when he walked out. That might just be a delusion!

There would be no consequence to him setting foot in the world; the seal would not break. The key to the seal was the silver moon that the Moon God resided in and the Eight Trigrams Suppression Formation, as well the critical pawn that was Ying Hongyue.

“And another point, Li Daoheng possesses Red Moon power—he possibly has even more than I do! The Moon God’s primary body is hovering over the Red Moon exalted emperor. The exalted emperor is employing Red Moon power to defy the seal.

“As a result, the Moon God’s primary body may be constantly absorbing Red Moon power. If Li Daoheng absorbs it through the moon and can also enter the dao universe... that means he may have absorbed endless great dao power as well!

“In that case, his strength will have advanced at an incredible rate and may have even surpassed mine.” Li Hao’s eyes widened. “But I control the ‘dao’ character, so he’ll have to earn heaven’s favor if he wishes to break through the limits of the world!”

The young man could grow strong infinitely because he was beloved by the heavens. Li Daoheng should be one step behind him. He might be able to infinitely grow strong in the dao universe, but if he wanted to walk around the world, he would have to win heaven’s favor!

The heavenly will!

A light danced in Li Hao’s eyes. Didn’t this mean that Li Daoheng would either have to find a way to win the heavens over or outright seize the heavenly will?

How would he do the latter?

The heavenly will was intangible and formless—very hard to capture. It only gathered around certain people, such as the Great Li king, Li Hao, the Moon God—ah, fake Moon God...

The only other place it would appear was the Barren wastelands!

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

The white horse.

If someone killed the white horse, the heavenly will would certainly gather to devour Barren territory and strengthen the heavens.

Li Hao continued to develop his deductions; this wasn’t baseless speculation. The rest of the plot could be drawn after determining one thread of the story. His conclusion was that there was one thing that Li Daoheng must accomplish if he wished to regain personal freedom and leave the moon—seize the heavenly will.

His primary body may not be able to walk around freely. For the moment, at least, he’s unable to walk out if he exceeds me! The world does not permit the new dao to be stronger than me, so whatever his primary body does will arouse the attention of the heavenly will and heavenly dao.

Therefore, resolving the obstacle that is the heavenly will is his priority goal!

I have a very dense concentration of heavenly will on me, that might put me in a lot of danger! The fake Moon God, but real queen is also favored by the heavens, which makes her a critical component in seizing heavenly will.

If I tried to kill her before, she might’ve spontaneously broken through to the Saint level! But since I didn’t, she was also unable to advance. He is controlling her rate of cultivation.

All was clear in this moment! Li Hao had completely seen through the use of the queen as a pawn.

“Ying Hongyue must be a smokescreen cast out by Li Daoheng! First, he weakens the exalted emperor’s strength. Second, it interferes with Zheng Yu and the Red Moon exalted emperor’s judgment. Third, Ying Hongyue might be a lure for the heavenly will...

“I may be a pawn myself!” The idea suddenly occurred to Li Hao.

I have Stellaris, but it’s very likely that Li Daoheng took Stellaris out of Sword City. Maybe it’s also meant to attract the heavenly will. Li Daoheng would want to capture the heavenly will even in the absence of a new dao.

What about the Great Li king? That’s also someone that the heavenly will cares about. Is the Great Li king also one of Li Daoheng’s pawns?

“Damn, he’s something. Is everything in the world just pieces to be placed on the chessboard to him? It may not be an exception that Sun Xin survived. Perhaps the man was left behind on purpose. We learned from him the story of the Zheng betrayal.

“With the Zhengs as the main conspirators and Li Daoheng as a facilitator, a lot of things can be explained away...”

The bloodline of the eight families...

Li Hao looked around as another thought occurred to him. Just what was so special about the eight families?

Or was it not their bloodline that was key, but their duties or mission? Perhaps someone had bestowed unique properties upon the eight families. Who could that be?

The Exalted Blood Emperor!

Li Hao’s eyes widened.

Indeed, the Exalted Blood Emperor. Only those of the eight families could come close to his blade. He was the one to separate the world into eight and was also responsible for the Eight Trigrams Suppression Formation. That was the formation sealing the Red Moon exalted emperor away.

It hadn’t been the work of the Sword Sovereign since the Sword Sovereign wasn’t skilled at formations.

The Exalted Blood Emperor...

Li Hao murmured within his heart, seeming to see a lot of things more clearly now. He suddenly grasped that there was nothing special about the eight families. What elevated them above the rest was that they had built their own cities. The Exalted Blood Emperor had even personally visited Battle Heaven and bequeathed it a special meaning.

The august personage may have been plotting something in the minor world. Hence, the eight families had been bestowed a particular mission. What made their bloodline special in modern times was that their mission was not yet complete.

Ying Hongyue must be gathering the bloodlines of the eight to obtain the blade of the Exalted Blood Emperor and whatever was inside it.

The Exalted Blood Emperor had simply casually set up a scheme, and it wasn’t necessarily out of a desire to guard against the Red Moon exalted emperor. He might have done this for the cat inside the blade.

Li Daoheng might have learned of something and made use of this matter to trap the Red Moon exalted emperor.

All sorts of puzzles were starting to be clarified. It was rather the Sword Sovereign... who possessed an ambiguous position in all of this. Had he been dissatisfied with the Exalted Blood Emperor using the minor world in his plans and so directed Li Daoheng to do something?

But Li Hao had seen in an earlier scene that the Exalted Blood Emperor had tried to convince the Sword Sovereign to devour the minor world. Had the august personage wanted to do something when it proved obvious that the Sword Sovereign wouldn’t do so?

“Whatever!” Li Hao set everything aside for the moment with a smile. He knew what made the eight families special; Li Daoheng likely did as well. It wasn’t the families that were special, but their heritage weapons. The weapons had been freely passed down outside in order to bestow the so-called bloodline power upon those they came in contact with.

The eight families in the ancient cities must have handled the heritage weapons in the early days.

The old turtle!

Li Hao suddenly thought of the old turtle; it was the only weapon that still possessed a spirit. It might know whether it was the weapon that was key or the bloodline that was crucial. Granted, it may not know the most critical details, but it should know if its birth had something to do with the Exalted Blood Emperor.

The old turtle wasn’t here, but he had someone else with him.

“Who made Guardian Turtle?” Li Hao turned to ask Li Daozong. The Ninth Division had stayed nearby.

“What?”

“I ask, who made the turtle armor?”

“Um...” The man blinked. “It existed when I was a child, so I’m not sure either. General Pagoda might know.”

Li Hao vanished and reappeared in front of General Pagoda. The tree quickly presented itself.

“Who forged Guardian Turtle?” The young man skipped all of the pleasantries.

The tree also blinked, startled by the question. “Guardian Turtle...” it began after a long moment of recollection. “Forging weapons with the soul of a monster spirit was banned a very long time ago, after the Human King unified the world! Therefore, Guardian Turtle was created in the early days of New Martial.

“It should... be the work of the Exalted Blood Emperor! The Wang family is an auxiliary branch of the exalted emperor’s bloodline and they used to live in Sun City back in the day. Sun City was the home of the Human King, Exalted Blood Emperor, and the strongest Initial Martial God, the Sun God. The Exalted Blood Emperor probably gave Guardian Turtle to the Wangs early on as a protective treasure?”

It wasn’t certain, but if one dared to openly use a weapon created from the soul of a monster spirit, that meant the exalted emperors of the monster spirits didn’t object to its presence. There must be something unusual about the weapon.

Otherwise, how would the Wangs dare use it since there were exalted emperors among the monster spirits? They used it very blatantly as well!

Li Hao exhaled loudly and nodded. As he thought!

“Does the forging of Stellaris have something to do with the Exalted Blood Emperor?”

“That... I’m not sure. Legend has it that the Human King and Exalted Divine Forge Emperor created it together.”

“How is the Exalted Blood Emperor’s relationship with the Sword Sovereign?” Li Hao further asked.

“Um...” The general was a bit apprehensive, but continued, “It was fine. It was pretty good! His Majesty the Human King, Exalted Hard-Headed Emperor, Exalted Blood Emperor, Exalted Broken Will Emperor, Sword Sovereign, Supreme Zhang, and the Green Emperor all got along very well!

“There was a faction in New Martial that was very strong—Tranquil Star! The Exalted Suppression Emperor of Tranquil Star was unparalleled and the disciple of the Sun God. The Sun God was the strongest god of Initial Martial and a premier existence that freely roamed the universe. He could even fight masters of the world!

“This faction was so strong that although it was also on good terms with the Human King, it was as close as the rest I just named.”

Li Hao nodded.