Chapter 1320: Placing the Pawn (II)

“I’ve had some gains,” Li Hao nodded slightly. “The Eternal Sword intent is truly incomparable and unique! I can find in it shadows of everything I’ve learned before! The Sword Sovereign was such an unrivaled genius! He was so knowledgeable that he could truly combine all daos into one stroke! He wove them all together into one assembly... The Sword Sovereign was truly first beneath the heavens!”

The sword tree looked wordlessly at the young man.

We know.

We don’t need you to tell us this. Just tell us what you comprehended! Have you improved or not? That’s what we want to know!

We know better than you how strong the Sword Sovereign is. Damn you’re annoying!

“I’ve more or less collected some new understanding,” Li Hao laughed. “But not in terms of strength, just knowledge and comprehension of dao. My gains were not focused purely on cultivation level, do you understand?”

“No!” the sword tree answered glumly. “We’d like to know if your strength has improved, if you’ve become an Empyrean King...?”

“No.”

“......” The three teetered on the edge of a mental breakdown.

Have you not had any improvement after dying thirty-one times?! You were already a premier Saint to begin with!!

“I am a cultivator of the new dao who needs to open at least 144 dao meridians if I wish to advance a level,” Li Hao continued. “Those dao meridians also need to complete four circulation cycles.

“As of now, I’ve only opened 122 meridians. That’s a gap of twenty-two meridians compared to the 144. Even once I open those twenty-two, I’ll need to complete a circulation with them. Thus, I still have a bit to go before I reach Empyrean King.”

“......” The three were incredibly depressed.

“Cultivation level is not the only point of consideration when assessing someone’s capabilities,” the young man grinned. “My future path will be smooth and easy once I sort out the way! I’ll be able to travel hundreds of kilometers in one day then! Right now, I’m laying down firm foundations and establishing my understanding of sword dao.

“I’ve already perceived the 188 different types of sword intent within the Eternal Sword. This is a great start and noticeable improvement, even if I haven’t fully grasped all of them yet.”

The sword tree didn’t want to hear any of this. “Can you kill mid Empyrean Kings now?” it asked bluntly.

“I don’t know,” Li Hao laughed. “The true test is in the battlefield. There’s no use in idle theorizing!

“There are two kinds of cultivation. What I’ve practiced until now is the corporeal type—the one of dao meridians! Sword intent is immaterial as it isn’t tangible!”

The young man went on, not caring if his audience understood or not. “The immaterial and corporeal... a balance of yin and yang! Sword intent and its various frames of mind are an immaterial dao. Perhaps I’ll need to create another place to contain them. I’ll store them in my body for now.

“When the immaterial dao universe opens, I’ll rush into it with ten thousand rays of sword intent. A fight to the death will be at hand then! Li Daoheng will also be accessing the corporeal dao as well. Perhaps he won’t even need to enter the corporeal universe to gather thousands of dao stars. He might accumulate them in a single day and destroy my river...”

What the young man spoke of was so complicated that the trio didn’t understand. He didn’t mind their lack of understanding.

It was simple—sword intent was an immaterial dao because it was one of the mind. He didn’t dare enter the immaterial dao universe at present or utilize his sword intent to coalesce dao stars.

At the same time, the dao meridians within the body were a corporeal dao. Li Daoheng might have opened many meridians, but he didn’t dare set foot into the corporeal dao universe for the same reason.

Both of them harbored the same thoughts of wanting to take over the other dao universe in one move—coalescing thousands of dao stars in one day!

“If the brain could encompass the three cavities in New Martial, then I can excavate the brain and the sea of the mind to be a temporary resting place for sword intent... In the absence of an accessible immaterial dao universe, I can temporarily create one using the corporeal dao universe as a model...”

“Li Hao, what are you saying?” the sword tree’s head ached ferociously.

I don’t understand anything you’re talking about. Why is a Saint pretending to be an exalted emperor?

Li Hao smiled at the response and explained, “I’m saying that I cannot enter the other universe for now, the one of mental strength! Therefore, I want to create a fake one in my head to temporarily store all sorts of sword intent. If I place them in my body, they’ll conflict with my other dao meridians!

“To put it more simply, I’m going to create a dao universe of mental strength to hold ten thousand swords and my Hao Moon Sword! The dao meridians strengthen my body and the dao sword strengthens my mind. When the two daos become one, that is when I will ascend to the heavens!”

The dao sword...

Li Hao blinked, suddenly reminded of Dao Sword in the outside world. The one that he meant was the sword intent of the great dao.

“Of course, it’s always easy to talk about stuff like this and hard to execute on it. How do I go about creating a universe of mental strength? Now that’s a complicated subject... ai!”

“Li Hao, just come out with it,” the stone said dejectedly. “Will you grow stronger after doing this?”

“Of course!”

“Oh, okay then!” the stone happily approved.

What’s the point of doing all this if you won’t grow stronger from it?

“You know a great deal of the corporeal dao.” The sword tree was starting to understand more of the new dao after this period of exposure. “Why not just focus on opening dao meridians? You might’ve already become a fourth level Fused Dao—an Empyrean King—if you hadn’t split your attention like this!”

You cultivate this and that, never focusing on one area for long. What was the point of that?

“That’s not the case!” Li Hao laughed. “It’s not that I’m not focused. Simply opening dao meridians might result in fast progress, but it would be a quick progression without knowledge of why.

“There’s not much benefit in simply opening dao meridians quickly. Also, the more I open, the more stable the dao universe and the world is. If I set foot into Empyrean King... Perhaps that will free late or peak Empyrean Kings from the ruins, to say nothing of half step emperors. That would be such a hassle!

“Since I’m training the corporeal and immaterial together, everything will change when I meld them together one day. I may stand a chance of spontaneously ascending to half step emperor! When the enemy emerges in the world then, I’ll be able to easily kill them!” Li Hao explained himself more than he normally would, this place was safe.

The three in front of him were also very simple souls. They’d seen little of the world and thought very little as well. They were the purest of cultivators—or rather, purest of mascots. The Sword Sovereign’s relationship with them wasn’t like the one between Li Hao and Panther. It was more like Li Hao and some decorative trinkets at home.

The Sword Sovereign never expected them to become powerhouses, so he’d never taught them any particular principles. These three were blank pieces of paper.

Thus, Li Hao didn’t mind telling them a bit more. They wouldn’t think too much.

“It’s been a few months already, do you want to keep dying?” As expected, the sword tree quickly put the new knowledge out of mind.

“No... there’s no meaning in continuously dying. Not to mention, I’ve comprehended a lot of sword intent, but haven’t been able to coalesce it. Or rather, my most critical issue is a lack of a mental universe to store all of this in. I need to resolve this problem or I’ll have to take the risk of entering the immaterial dao universe!”

Coalescing dao stars was the stabilization of a cultivation level. One could abstain from doing so, but that would result in a stagnation of strength. Since he couldn’t enter the immaterial dao universe for now, he would create a fake one to use for the moment!

“The immaterial dao, the daos of mental strength, aura, intent... It’s too difficult to separate them out one by one. I’ll just create a sea! A sea holds and embraces everything. Just like there are a myriad of daos in the river, first it’s chaos, then clarity...” Li Hao sat down cross-legged, murmuring to himself.

The three Saints were curious cats and sat down next to him as well. The stone took the form of a simple and honest muscular man. The seal was a middle-aged man with a square face and a stern air. The sword tree was as curvaceous as ever.

Having recovered quite a bit over the past couple of months, they were much more solid and defined compared to before. They listened silently, looking at Li Hao with curiosity.

“Those of New Martial grasped the doors of the three cavities, which encompassed infinite power,” Li Hao began. “They were a passageway to the core origin universe, a link between real space and the dao universe. They were the world barrier of the core origin universe, is that right?”

The three exchanged glances and shook their heads. They didn’t know!

We were just in charge of cultivation and didn’t research this in detail. We trained however everyone else trained.

“Therefore, I’m going to create a sea of mental strength and place it between me and the immaterial dao universe. I’ll be able to break into that dao universe at any time and utilize its might to stabilize my sea!” Li Hao proclaimed. “But... I don’t know enough about the immaterial dao universe yet. It might be difficult to attach my sea to its barrier. It’ll to take Li Daoheng ripping open the immaterial dao universe in front of me so I can take a look...”

“You’re not going to draw him out, are you?!” the sword tree sucked in a sharp breath. “He’s very strong! You’ll die!”

This is nothing to joke about!

“What’s the harm in trying?” Li Hao grinned. “But... it would indeed be very dangerous! Yet if I succeed, I should be able to create my own blow of one hundred moves! I’ll be able to fight any Empyrean King then, and potentially even a half step emperor!”

“......” The three stared wordlessly at each other.

Why are you so talented? Don’t you feel like taking a break and following in everyone else’s footsteps instead?

“So how can I lure him out...?” Li Hao mused. “I got it! He’ll show up if I try to destroy the seal, he must! Otherwise, he’ll be pissed if I release the exalted emperor. Right now, the only way he can show up is to rip through the dao universe.

“Granted, he’ll try to kill me as soon as he sees me. But... he won’t dare stay for too long. If he does, he’ll be in for it once the exalted emperor locks onto his immaterial dao universe!

“So... should I attack the exalted emperor?”

The three jerked.

Again??

“Not attack him, but release him!” Li Hao shook his head. “I’m going to destroy the seal in order to attack Li Daoheng! He’ll show up to stop me, which will give me a chance to deepen my understanding of the immaterial dao universe!

“The Red Moon exalted emperor is the key to my contest with Li Daoheng. To put it simply, the exalted emperor is our pawn! That sounds pretty arrogant, but it is what it is!”

Li Hao smiled brilliantly. It was so much more fun to use powerhouses as pawns in a game of chess! He would tame the strong with the weak!

How boring would it be to have powerhouses use the weak as pawns. For the weak to play with the strong and tread the line of life and death... now that was the martial world!

“Let’s go and take a look. Even if I die, it won’t matter so long as my power of time isn’t obliterated. Thirty seconds is my limit, I’ll be able to come back! He won’t dare stay for thirty seconds—that will give the exalted emperor enough time to lock onto him!”

“But... what if your power is erased?” The sword tree was apprehensive.

Won’t you die then?

“It’s fine, he won’t be able to do so that easily. Not unless... his sword intent rivals the Sword Sovereign’s. Otherwise, it’ll take his primary body to kill me!”

As fearful as the three were, there was nothing else they could do at the moment!