Chapter 1270: Many Schemes (I)

At the same time.

Skystar City, the Skystar Commander Office.

Having locked herself away for closed door cultivation for several days, Lin Hongyu finally walked out today. She smiled at the sky overhead.

Her great dao was no longer in disarray. It flowed much more smoothly than the previous hodgepodge, but it seemed to be slightly muddied still. She was much stronger than before and had also set foot into Fused Dao.

“You succeeded, didn’t you?” she murmured. He must have.

It’d been three days since the memorial ceremony concluded. The world had recovered to the point of being able to tolerate Saints again. This should not be the case if Li Hao had failed.

Not to mention, even I’ve made it to Fused Dao. You must be stronger than before!

The firmament ripped open at this time—two humans and a dog drifted down. Lin Hongyu was suddenly very envious of the other two.

Hong Yitang, don’t you think that you’ve taken someone else’s spot?

......

They were back. Li Hao had spent almost a month in the dao universe. Although he’d popped out a few times, this might be his longest instance of closed door cultivation. He gave one a more intangible feeling now, as if he was set apart from this world.

“My lord!” Lin Hongyu greeted him as she approached.

Hong Yitang sized her up with a smile. “I’m going to check on the martial dao academies.” He turned to Li Hao. “You and Commander Lin discuss what’s next to come.”

Li Hao inclined his head. Panther wanted to stay by the young man’s side, but Hong Yitang dragged the dog off by its tail.

It had been a very ordinary situation at first, but Hong Yitang’s actions painted it with a strange flavor. Li Hao watched on with resignation.

Lin Hongyu smiled at Hong Yitang’s retreat and said, “The marquis hasn’t visited the Skystar Commander Office in a while. Come have a seat inside.”

Li Hao inclined his head, following her to the main hall.

Off in the distance, Hong Yitang turned back with a grin.

How interesting.

......

Inside the great hall.

Seeing that Lin Hongyu was still standing, Li Hao gestured with his chin. “Have a seat.”

The woman sat down gingerly.

“Well done this time, everything was accomplished perfectly! It all went well and you smoothly issued orders to the entire population. Several billion cultivators were directed in unison! Never was this feat achieved in history and it likely never will again!

“You’ve entered Fused Dao, right?”

“Yes.” Lin Hongyu nodded slightly. “Just barely. I might stand a chance against weaker Saints, but against veteran Saints...”

“There aren’t that many veteran Saints left!” Li Hao laughed. “Zheng Yu’s only got random odds and ends on his side. The real powerhouses have long departed from Silver Moon world! We’re fighting a bunch of pale imitations and rejects!”

“Your Lordship... there are Saints among Battle Heaven and the other cities on our side too.”

Although they were insulting the enemy, they still had to abstain from certain phrases. It would wound the Battle Heaven Saints to hear what they were saying.

“I’m not talking about them, they’re New Martial Saints through and through,” Li Hao smiled. “I’m talking about the imposters on Zheng Yu’s side. They were Immortals at best back in the day. They didn’t accumulate the proper battle experience, they didn’t really set foot into the Saint level, and they haven’t communicated with the core origin dao on that level. It’s only that their physical bodies and blood qi have been raised to those heights.”

The Saints now were inflated Saints and, given the lack of fortification from core origin dao, far inferior to New Martial Saints. Li Hao couldn’t even be bothered to compare them.

He would be bringing Fused Dao-level strength against these Saints now. Third level Fused Dao could sweep a bunch of them, even if they were peak Saints.

“Let’s talk about something else. Has anything major happened recently?”

“Some events, but nothing terribly big. The world has returned to normal. Director General Zhao, Gan Wuliang, and Sky Sword have entered eighth level Sun and Moon. The Evenround Martial students have nearly all set foot into Sun and Moon, with a couple seventh level Sun and Moon appearing.

“Director General Wang is eighth level Sun and Moon. On the Demon Hunter Guard side, Liu Yan is seventh level...” Lin Hongyu reeled off, quite familiar with the situation. “Of the plant spirit army, the imperial guard and some other plant spirits are comprehending the new dao. They haven’t officially transplanted their dao yet. Their line of thinking is to create a dao star in the river of stars, then imperceptibly transplant their dao in a natural process. This will ensure that they switch to the new dao with their full strength...”

Li Hao nodded slightly.

“There was some unrest in the Tranquil Star ruins. Battle Heaven went to investigate, but found it empty. However, there were signs of fighting. Guardian Turtle took a look as well and said that someone might have touched the thrones. We suspect that it’s Ying Hongyue!

“Unfortunately, the world recovered too quickly and we were busy elsewhere, so we didn’t have time to spare for him. He probably ran off at first light. We are unable to locate him at present.

“In addition...” Lin Hongyu paused. “The seal rippled a few times over at Silver City. Zheng Yu is probably very nervous about it too! Recently, some unusual phenomenon appears over Silver Moon at night. We don’t know if something’s happened in the seal or anything else—Dean Zhang and the rest have not been sighted since that day.

“Lastly, the queen of the west has vanished. We do not know if she’s dead or alive.”

There weren’t any major concerns, but there were numerous minor ones. Li Hao nodded continuously. The seal of Silver Moon! Now that the world had revitalized and permitted the presence of Saints again, was it time for Li Daoheng to show himself?

Who knew what this one had thought over the past month.

“Also, when it comes to the general public, many powerhouses have appeared lately. There are those of Mountain and Sea, as well as Sun and Moon! Should we leave them be or recruit them into the army...”

“Leave them!” Li Hao decided. “Who cares about them? Cultivation isn’t made right just because all of the powerhouses follow our orders. So long as they obey the law, it doesn’t matter if they join the army or wander around as a nomad. Everyone in the world is a cultivator these days. It’s only a matter of time before there’s a large batch of Mountain and Sea, as well as Sun and Moon. It’s not possible for all of them to join the government.”

“I see!” Lin Hongyu nodded slightly and looked at the young man. “There’s been a Sacred White Sect active among the people lately. They’ve collected quite a few powerhouses from all walks of life. There are those dissatisfied with us, as well as heavyweights from Divine Nation, Barren, Great Li, and Watercloud. They’re all people who have a bone to pick with the status quo.

“It’s said that their leader Chao Baisheng was a Sun and Moon early on. He might be a late Sun and Moon now!

“In addition, there has been some unrest with the Ash Mountain and Kui Mountain monster spirits. The snake king of the Kui Mountains seems to have gathered many powerful monster spirits and clashed with the Sacred White Sect. The two have taken up residence in the two mountains and erupted with a small skirmish. I’ve sent people to take a look—there were probably Sun and Moon involved!”

“Mmhmm, that’s good.” Li Hao smiled at Lin Hongyu giving him a sidelong glance. “I arranged for all of that.”

As I thought!

Lin Hongyu relaxed. I knew it.

The snake king should be in cahoots with Li Hao. It helped him a while back.

She even knew some of the other major monster spirits that’d joined the Kui Mountains.

She’d also speculated that Chao Baisheng was acting according to Li Hao’s orders, but was uncertain if that was true. What she could be certain was that the monster spirits of the Kui Mountains should be intricately tied to Li Hao.

The truth exceeded her expectations. This meant that all of the unstable factors in the world were neatly collected in one place. Only a few were left at large while causing their trouble.

She had nothing further to say after finishing her report. Li Hao glanced at her when he didn’t hear anything else.

“Is there nothing else?” he coughed gently upon seeing that Lin Hongyu was staring off into space.

“No,” she responded stiltedly. What else could there be?

There’s nothing! I said everything!

Li Hao laughed helplessly. Lin Hongyu looked at him, quickly ducking her head when she saw him looking back.

“There should be one more thing. You’ve forgotten,” Li Hao continued laughing.

“What?”

“You forgot to say if anyone opposed or had any other reaction to me announcing that I would marry you.”

“......” Lin Hongyu was speechless. What was the point of mentioning this? You simply gave me a title that you don’t care about. Is there a need to discuss this?

“Did no one object? Really?” laughed the young man.

“No!” The answer was very decisive.

“Then... I’m going to move against someone,” Li Hao said after some thought. “Have the other Saints seal off Galewind!”

“Ying Hongyue?”

“Yes!” Li Hao nodded without further explanation. “We can’t move against Galewind at the moment, nor can we attack the one in the sky. That leaves Ying Hongyue! I’m going to knock him around a bit and see how everyone reacts.

“Actually, you

have

forgotten one thing—the heavenly will! It won’t easily dissipate. We only dismantled part of it last time. It will have to select another person to favor, and it might shower much more favor this time to the point of producing a true child of heaven!

“You have to find out who it is! This person must bear a grudge against me and hate me. Their potential has to be strong and they might ascend three levels in a day once they receive the heavenly will. They might even quickly make it to Fused Dao!”

“I understand.” Lin Hongyu nodded quickly with alarm. “I did almost forget about the heavenly will... It’s intangible, so I didn’t pay attention to it. Now that I think about it, I really shouldn’t have done that!”

How could she have forgotten about it? She would’ve completely set it aside if Li Hao hadn’t reminded her.

“It’s not that you forgot, but that the heavenly will represents this world and can cause people to lose themselves in it. We will naturally lose our hostility toward it. It’s everywhere and very scary like that! Since you’ve been in the world all this time, you’ll naturally relax your guard against it...”

Lin Hongyu nodded solemnly. That was indeed quite scary!

People might not forget about the heavenly will if it kept attacking them, but it seemed to be a bit more mature now and had dropped the offense for the moment. It quietly slipped away, smoothly causing everyone to forget about it.

“Alright, I’ll leave you with one last word. Study my teacher’s Five Styles when you cultivate these days! The key lies with how to integrate the different styles together. I’ve organized your great dao a bit, but the results don’t seem that satisfactory for now. As time goes on, you’ll find that there is a cycle to the power of various dao. It will help you cultivate!”

Lin Hongyu nodded again.

With that, Li Hao was finished with his matters and rose to leave. Lin Hongyu stood up as well and quietly followed behind him.

The young man suddenly stopped; Lin Hongyu immediately stopped as well. Li Hao turned around—the two were very close to each other.

“Why didn’t you bump into me?” he asked with confusion.