Chapter 1222: A Minor Victory (I)

The Forbidden Sea ran through the entire world.

Due to everyone receiving word ahead of time, numerous Silver Moon powerhouses hovered watchfully over a vast sea current. Thus, they were prepared when Forbidden Sea abruptly burst out of its banks and erupted with energy!

In Ash Mountain, untold numbers of monster spirits were suddenly devoured. Their pained wails reverberated through the world.

Enormous quakes shook Great Li, toppling their mountain ranges. The Forbidden Sea swiftly swept through everything and eroded all obstacles in its path. The livid Great Li king snarled with fury as he brought his might down on the errant body of water.

Although the Forbidden Sea also appeared in the central region, Capsize Sea appeared alongside Boundless. The golden cow directed the ancient city to smash down on the rampaging waves!

Energy in the environment built to heretofore unseen levels. Sky canopies appeared, broadcasting Lin Hongyu’s coolly composed face of confidence.

“Energy has grown thin in our environment as of late, due to the increase of new dao cultivators in the world. In order to facilitate a better cultivation environment, Marquis Li—that is, Commander Li—has opened the seal of the world and activated the Forbidden Sea. They exude energy to help all life beneath the heavens take another step forward.

“Everyone shall be a dragon! There is no need to worry, everyone. Just cultivate with peace of mind, but do not set foot into the Forbidden Sea. It possesses the ability to corrode all things!”

Cheers rang out from the land—whoops and hollers of sheer joy. Fervor once more capered through Skystar Dynasty!

The commander, no, the marquis simply took such good care of everyone! He knew that there wasn’t enough energy to go around, so he opened the seal of the world and the Forbidden Sea—whatever those things were. No wonder there was such a commotion throughout the world!

The marquis was definitely a god! He was quiet as could be when he didn’t do anything, but remade the world whenever he took action!

The entire world seemed to be changing and ambient energy increased in density. Powerhouses rapidly absorbed the new bounty, taking in some Red Moon power along with the harvest.

Ying Hongyue had once released a vast quantity of Red Moon power within the Forbidden Sea. It was spreading further today, a fact known by all Silver Moon powerhouses. However, no one stopped the people from absorbing energy.

Such were the marquis’ orders. As for whether or not anything undesirable would develop from these actions... that was up to Li Hao to deal with.

......

Within Galewind.

Zheng Yu’s expression shifted drastically. The Forbidden Sea had reawakened! Everyone he’d sent out was dead!

Clearly, something had gone wrong.

He knew that Li Hao was behind it, even without being in contact with his people in the outside world. The young man had killed everyone and was now chasing down Ying Hongyue. Ying Hongyue had mobilized the Forbidden Sea also to send a message—he couldn’t hold out!

He needed backup!

Zheng Yu raised his head to the sky. The seal was still there, but it was beginning to loosen.

“The world’s energy revitalizes and can barely tolerate some initial Saints now. My replica will journey to the west. The rest of you, follow me!”

He pointed at some people in the crowd, collecting eight Saints for this trip. With him made for nine Saints in his battle force. It wasn’t that he didn’t want a more sizable force, but that he was concerned about problems developing with the seal if too many walked out. He might not be able to react in time then.

Li Hao!

You’re crazy!

You know full well that Ying Hongyue shouldn’t be killed and neither should the Moon God of the west, but you insist on proceeding down this course of action. It looks like your teacher’s death has caused you to go completely nuts!

You’ll be going down with them!

Zheng Yu wasn’t confident of fighting the exalted emperor at the moment, not even if his opponent had been sealed away for many years. Li Hao, that bastard! Zheng Yu wouldn’t be so caught on the back foot if he had control over Silver Moon and the new dao, damn it!

Nine powerhouses immediately departed from Galewind and disappeared. Zheng Yu’s primary body remained inside the ancient city and looked up at the sky. The Red Moon exalted emperor should be very happy now, shouldn’t he?

Zheng Yu frowned. The seal would steadily weaken at this rate; not even Ying Hongyue continuously pulling on Red Moon power would be able to offset the effects. This couldn’t stand. The man grew frantic; his thoughts turned to Tranquil Star again.

Perhaps... he should send some more people over there to take a look. His only concern was that the Saints of Battle Heaven would also be there, which would be troublesome indeed.

Zheng Yu rubbed his temples, sighing to himself. How vexing. A tiny new age cultivator was giving him, a half step emperor, a headache! What a little bastard!

......

The western continent.

Li Hao continued to attack and enveloped the four sides with his sword intent. Energy density continued to rise in the surroundings, as did strength build in Ying Hongyue. He was slightly worse for the wear and very solemn.

Li Hao really was trying to kill him! But why? The young man shouldn’t be doing so at the moment. Li Hao was smart—the smarter someone was, the less they’d want to kill Ying Hongyue. So why had everything changed?

Boom!

A sword pierced through the sky; Ying Hongyue’s eyes widened with dismay. A long whip cracked through the void—the Nine Segment Whip of the Zhengs.

Bam!

The long whip was swept away. Li Hao reached out with a hand and caught the whip behind him. The weapon struggled, but the young man had a firm hold on it.

Of the eight heritage weapons, Li Hao had broken the Windchaser Boots, stone blade of the Zhangs, Stellaris, and mallet of the Hongs. The remaining Zheng Nine Segment Whip, boxing gloves of the Zhaos, and spear of the Zhous were in Ying Hongyue’s hands. The Black Tortoise Armor remained out of either of their grasp.

The whip distracting Li Hao also gave Ying Hongyue another chance to flee. Up ahead, the queen was running faster than him.

Ying Hongyue fled with confusion dogging his footsteps. He looked back at Li Hao—was this an act, or was this real?

Rays of scintillating light appeared in the world as numerous figures materialized around Li Hao. Each of the supernatural characters turned into copies of the young man and the various supernatural abilities were gathered in full. Blood qi shot out from the young man and he tore apart the Nine Segment Whip with a loud yell. The pieces were assimilated into the broken Stellaris.

The sword struck!

Boom!

A massive collision rang out as Ying Hongyue’s body jerked violently. He spat out a mouthful of blood. In the sky over Silver City, the part of the eight trigram that belonged to the Zhengs spontaneously dimmed.

Galewind.

Another one of Zheng Yu’s replicas appeared and transformed into blood qi. It melded into the diagram of the eight trigrams. Meanwhile, Zheng Yu watched on unpleasantly within the city.

Li Hao had truly made up his mind to kill Ying Hongyue and was determined to break the seal. The young man should already be aware after breaking the heritage weapons that he already had that each instance further weakened the seal.

Since he was continuing these actions, that could only mean that Li Hao really had lost his mind!

......

Ying Hongyue was fully convinced that Li Hao would not spare his life anymore. The young man was out for blood!

He didn’t scream or howl with despair; he simply fled with utmost solemnity. The Celestial Sword Immortal and Yonder lord were still part of his group. Even now, Ying Hongyue did not give them up.

The bloodlines of the eight families continued to shake. Li Hao had broken the Nine Segment Whip of the Zhengs! He should know what the consequences would be if he continued breaking more.

......

In the rear.

Li Hao laughed after his latest act of snapping a heritage weapon. “Ying Hongyue, why not take out the fists of the Zhaos and spear of the Zhous? Ah, look at you being so nice to the Celestial Sword Immortal and Yonder lord all this time. When are you going to kill them?”

The two in Ying Hongyue’s hands twitched.

Ying Hongyue darted into the void and answered in a wispy voice, “You really are trying everything you can to kill me, Li Hao. Why would I want to kill them?”

“I don’t know!” Li Hao followed him in an unhurried fashion. “I only know that you’re sex-crazed demon who doesn’t care about the death of his own women, so why do you care so much about two burdens? I only know that they participated in the first awakening, just like you, and were contaminated by Red Moon powerhouses at one point...

“I only know that the three great organizations are of the same breath and branches. Oh, wait, I should say four great organizations!

“I only know that these two probably had their constitutions changed when they participated in the awakening. Perhaps they’re more suited to store Red Moon power and too much of that power will cause you to lose control. But, it can also be used to save your life at a critical moment.

“Are these two your energy storage bins? Or am I thinking too much and you’ve fallen in love with them?”

The Celestial Sword Immortal and Yonder lord further twitched at these words, but Ying Hongyue remained coolly composed.

“Li Hao, anything becomes an excuse when you seek to pin a crime on a person.” His tone was as placid as ever. “You think too much. They’re just mid Sun and Moon, how much Red Moon power can they store? Do you think that little of me in proposing that I would use them as additional capacity?”

Li Hao looked around, that was true. While there was Red Moon power present on the two, it wasn’t as dense as he thought there would be. All the same, Li Hao couldn’t figure out why Ying Hongyue insisted on keeping the two nearby.

His guess had been that the two might be instruments through which Ying Hongyue would absorb Red Moon power at critical moments. But his guess was wrong—the man’s response made sense.

Regardless, the two had to be useful for something. As for what, Li Hao was no god and couldn’t be omnipotent. No god could either. He couldn’t be bothered to guess further.

Ying Hongyue would bring out whatever trump cards he had yet to play when he was backed into a corner.

The void shattered again as the young man picked up speed.