Chapter 1291: Next Steps (I)

The Moon God’s primary body was nearly completely demolished and the man with a sword on his back was so strong that he was forced to take shelter in the dao universe. The world would crush him otherwise. He would not be able to return to Silver Moon before the Moon God recovered!

Ying Hongyue realized that if he continued to fight, death was the only outcome in store for him!

With that in mind, nothing else was important. The Empyrean King-level body could be abandoned! He wanted to run away.

Unlimited fear flooded his heart! Infinite unease dominated his mind! He turned and ran!

Li Hao threw his sword at the fleeing Ying Hongyue, having anticipated the man’s reaction. It was then that someone disappeared from the also escaping Galewind city.

Zheng Yu frowned, but raised a hand to stop his Empyrean Kings from reacting.

The Celestial Sword Immortal appeared in front of Ying Hongyue and slashed her sword. Thunder and lightning raged!

Bam!

Li Hao’s longsword was actually obstructed for a split second. That opening was enough for the Celestial Sword Immortal to grab Ying Hongyue and scramble into the void!

The young man wanted to give chase, but the skeleton behind him burst with a formidable presence and spontaneously gathered untold energy. It seemed ready to self-detonate, an inclination verified by the harsh look on Ying Hongyue’s face.

Since matters had reached this point... there was no need to leave any card unplayed! Li Hao was completely crazy!

Seeing as the skeleton was about to explode, a fist suddenly descended from the sky. It smashed the bones apart. A faint wisp of sound traveled from the skeleton when it was obliterated, but that was also erased from the world.

The weak shadow that the punch had originated from hovered in and out of sight, rather incensed. “All of you, get lost!” With that, it vanished.

“Li Hao, you’re quite a character, but stop chasing him,” the figure’s voice traveled back on the wind. “Do you really want to release the exalted emperor? That will happen if you really do kill him.”

“Thank you for the pointer, senior!” Li Hao laughed heartily and looked up at the sky. “Hey, you in the immaterial universe. You’re not mad at what happened today, are ya? Senior Zheng Yu suffered such ehavy losses that I decided to blow up half of the Moon God’s body to make things even between you guys. Heh!

“Half step emperor? A half step emperor of sword dao? You’re really something! But... the world doesn’t tolerate your presence. Dare you walk out of the moon after slaughtering the Li family?

“This world belongs to the Lis, after all!” Li Hao spoke with arrogant confidence and crazed domination!

I win!

As for Ying Hongyue, he hadn’t planned on killing the man to begin with. The seal might really break with the man’s death. Plus, it was better not to kill him.

Ying Hongyue had nothing left!

The body of the Empyrean King body was gone, the Forbidden Sea was gone. Ying Hongyue would surely go crazy now.

And that’s precisely what I want. I want him to suffer unending misery! I want him to taste the pain of having all of his plans ruined and all that effort going to waste!

“Ying Hongyue, I’ll wait for you to get revenge! Just like how I planned on getting my vengeance, I know all too well the pain and helplessness involved in this. You’ll hurt so badly that you’ll wish for death! I’ll make sure you experience everything I’ve gone through!”

Ying Hongyue coughed up blood in the distance, his face growing ever paler.

Damn you to the fiery pits of hell, Li Hao!

Oh how he regretted not killing the brat when he could!

......

Galewind.

Zheng Yu suddenly broke into gales of laughter, rocking back and forth with mirth. He hooted with amusement at the sky, so delighted that people didn’t know what to make of it.

“Hahaha, damn I pity you!” These days, it was enough that someone else was suffering more than him. It didn’t matter how bad his own circumstances were.

The Moon God’s primary body had been nearly blown to pieces and her companion was now trapped in the dao universe. They’d lost their control over the world, and it was a question whether or not the Moon God would ever recover!

However much you schemed and plotted, you were blown out of the depths by a droplet of exalted emperor blood essence!

Technically speaking, Zheng Yu had lost a lot of Saints, so he looked worse off. But in reality, the primary body of the Moon God was too important. Those Saints couldn’t begin to compare!

And the key was, the queen was furiously absorbing lunar strength dissipating from the moon’s primary body! It would be difficult to say who was the real Moon God after today!

As foolish as the queen was, she might be able to replace the Moon God once she absorbed sufficient energy. The Moon God was the key to controlling the world. From this, it went without saying who had come out worse from today’s battle!

Zheng Yu threw his head back with laughter, he’d only lost a group of Saints! That didn’t amount to much! The most terrifying was Li Hao and the biggest loser was the guy who’d been forced into the dao universe. He’d lost more than Ying Hongyue!

“Li Hao... the Human King might not have compared to you in a similar era!” Zheng Yu reflected. The young man really had quite the ability! All sides had lost important powerhouses in the battle; only Li Hao had truly cleared the obstacles in his way!

Zheng Yu admitted to himself that he wouldn’t have been able to detonate the droplet of exalted emperor blood essence if he’d been the one to lay hands on it. It was worth too much to him/ Perhaps he would be able to determine how to break through in his cultivation through it!

And yet, Li Hao blew it up without another thought!

It was due to this that he was able to gravely injure the Moon God. Otherwise, an Empyrean King would find the Moon God a thorny opponent as well. There were pros and cons to this course of action, but how many people would possess such resolve?

At the very least, Zheng Yu himself would hesitate!

Am I... really less than that kid?

......

Even further out, the queen was so excited that she was about to lose her mind. Having lost the grounding effect of the moon’s primary body, endless lunar strength rushed into her. They were attracted to her because she controlled a portion of the moon. As a great amount of strength surged toward her, she was thrilled, exhilarated, and incredibly afraid...

Li Hao was a terrifying guy!

She knew how fearsome the Moon God was, but that being had been blown to pieces as soon as she entered the battlefield today. What a tragic downfall!

The queen snickered.

You like to say that I suffered losses at Li Hao’s hands, but what about you? You’re so pathetic!

You almost died the first time you showed up. And now? You may not recover. The damage delivered by a droplet of exalted emperor blood essence isn’t so easy to heal from!

“Idiot first generation!” the queen sneered at the sky.

So dumb! How could you underestimate Li Hao?

......

The Moon God had been blown up, the Saints were all dead, Zheng Yu had run off, the man with a sword on his back had been forced into the dao universe, and Thunderblast had been wiped clean. One could say that Li Hao had dominated the battlefield!

He’d lost almost no one because everyone had been there just to put in a showing. The young man had the drop on his enemies for the entire battle. It’d been his solo efforts against multiple hostile factions, extinguishing all unexpected factors before they developed.

Even the Initial Martial god’s appearance at the last possible second had been barely accounted for, so Li Hao was prepared. However, he hadn’t gambled with everything he had because the god had left just as quickly as he came.

Since the god wasn’t willing to overly interfere, Li Hao wasn’t willing to fight to the death with him either. This was a very strong entity and the world didn’t seem to exert much pressure on him. He was very strong, so it might not be effective to cast everything on a throw of the dice.

By the shore of the tattered Forbidden Sea.

Powerhouses stood with varying degrees of excitement, agitation, and trepidation. Everyone looked at Li Hao, at the young man who’d turned the tides. They were too stunned for words, whereas Li Hao was as composed as ever.

He quietly walked toward the group. Ying Hongyue had fled thanks to the Celestial Sword Immortal. Clearly, Li Hao’s guess had been correct. The Celestial Sword immortal was very likely to be Violet Moon. As for whether Violet Moon was Ying Hongyue’s daughter or his primary body... that was difficult to determine.

The queen had run off, but she’d reaped quite a harvest from the battle. Empyrean King was in sight for her after she absorbed a large sum of Silver Moon power—she wouldn’t be suppressed by the world either.

Zheng Yu had left after losing some Saints. That wasn’t a significant loss for Galewind.

Li Daoheng had retreated. A half step emperor of sword dao had been forced into the dao universe not only due to being targeted by the world, but also because he’d massacred Sword City.

The Sword Sovereign of the Li family had administered Silver Moon world for many years. For the one who’d ended them to walk around in the world... Silver Moon might target him much more fiercely than it did anyone else.

It might react so strongly that the seal broke instead. Hence, he was forced into the dao universe.

Li Hao still had the same number of enemies as ever, but nearly all sides had been taken to account for a reckoning. The battle strength of the world had been reset.

Nearby, Zhang An looked at Li Hao with a mixture of emotions. No one had imagined this to be the outcome of battle. Li Hao had won a resounding victory! It was more glorious than they anticipated!

“The battle is over, so we will now take our leave!” Zhang An said after a long moment.

“Congratulations to Marquis Li for eliminating a large number of invaders and traitors!” The other Saints were particularly polite. “Please come visit Star River at some time!”

These guys... were being quite deferential. There was no helping it. For one, Li Hao was not their enemy and had, in fact, eliminated many of their enemies for them. For another, he was so ruthless and strong at such a young age. He was also very shrewd. If he hadn’t shown himself to Zhang An, no one would’ve guessed that he had so much hidden up his sleeves.

It would be very dangerous to set themselves against the young man.

Li Hao turned back and smiled faintly at the group. He reached out, materializing two faintly golden pills.

“The seniors went to great effort in the battle and I should allocate more to you, but I need these pills more. They are Empyrean King-level blood pearls! While they may not help someone break through to Empyrean King, it might help you advance on the Saint path!”

The pills flew toward Zhang An; the man hesitated and didn’t immediately take them.

“You might not need them, Dean Zhang, but the various seniors do,” Li Hao said calmly. “Those who are not traitors have been silent for many years and still struggle with many latent injuries. I can see them on the Zhang senior, to say nothing of anyone else. How else would the blade of the Zhangs be so weak?”

Two Empyrean King blood pearls!

Zhang An knew that Li Hao had created three over the course of fighting. As for the first two that died... Li Hao had been able to refine the one that Zhang An killed, but hadn’t been able to do the same for the tree. Thus, Li Hao had gained four Empyrean King-level blood pearls from the battle.

He’d given half of his gains to Zhang An.

Granted, it would’ve been hard for Li Hao to triumph in this battle had Zhang An not helped. But... killing traitors and those of Red Moon was part of his own duties, so it didn’t count as helping Li Hao.

At the same time, he understood Li Hao’s intentions.

I’m paying you back for your efforts, so no one owes anyone.

This was a fellow who drew the lines very clearly and didn’t want to talk about matters in terms of doing favors.

“Then I accept!” Zhang An capitulated and swiftly left with his people.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Star River materialized, Zhang An entered and took a position on the city walls. He looked at Li Hao before the city darted into the void and vanished.