Chapter 1353: Unbounded Love for the People (II)

The Yuan residence.

The queen set foot through the garden gate.

“Everyone, go about your business!” came Li Hao’s voice. The group dispersed, leaving a nervous queen to walk inside by herself.

The front door opened, revealing a coolly composed Li Hao. He inclined his head at her. “Sit!”

“It’s fine!” the queen said frostily. “Li Hao, this queen isn’t afraid of you—you are but fifth level Fused Dao, which makes you a mid Empyrean King. This queen has set foot into mid Empyrean King as well and will soon be late Empyrean King...”

Li Hao looked at her with surprise, responding calmly, “So? Are you looking to kill me?”

“...no!” The queen found this exchange quite painful.

Who said I wanted to kill you?? I just wanted you to scare you a bit and tell you that I’m not easy pickings!

“There’s a traitor by your side that’s Li Daoheng’s pawn.” She cut straight to the chase. “I saw some of the truth through fragments from the Moon God. I’ll tell you who it is so long as you promise me to leave me alone!”

“I’m not interested in creating trouble for you,” Li Hao laughed. "So you think you learned some of the truth through the Moon God’s fragments?”

He treated this as an outright joke!

“That’s right!” the queen reiterated. “And the traitor is someone you wouldn’t dare believe! All of this was in the core of the Moon God’s primary body. She suffered so much damage this time that she was nearly completely annihilated. That’s how I was able to seize some core secrets!”

Li Hao had guessed that the queen wanted to trade some secrets. Everything was proceeding according to his expectations.

“So tell me, who is it?” he laughed.

“You...”

“I promise you.”

The queen was thrown off balance and uneasy upon seeing how easily Li Hao agreed to her proposal. But since things had developed to this point, it would be more of a hassle if she didn’t make good on her side.

“Li Daoheng has more than one pawn by your side—there’s one out in the open and one in the shadows!” she intoned with a clench of her jaw. “The one out in the open is the cultivator called Dao Sword, but the real heart of the matter isn’t him. It’s Earthturner Sword!”

A grim expression crossed her face. “Earthturner Sword can run through a variety of transformations and turn one sword into ten thousand! He’s the pawn that Li Daoheng has installed by your side all this time!

“Li Daoheng laid his plans a long time ago. He wouldn't possibly leave you alone since you wielded Stellaris. Therefore, he sent someone to you the moment you officially set foot on the path of martial dao—Earthturner Sword!”

The queen grew excited as she spoke since this was explosive news. Li Hao had made such a good decision to conduct this transaction with her!

“This queen also knows that Earthturner Sword is one of the few people that you value. But think about it, how many people have been by your side from the very beginning? How many of them are skilled in sword dao? Who among them bears a formidable sword dao that can change endlessly, characteristics that are very similar to the Sword Sovereign?

“Now do you know how important my information is?” The queen grew more excited the more she said. “You’ll be in trouble if he betrays you at a critical moment! He seems to be an important part of your dao universe. Once he seizes control of the dao universe, there will be no possible outcome for you other than death!

“I hadn’t wanted to tell you any of this, but I don’t want Li Daoheng to succeed either!”

She peered intently at Li Hao, wanting to see the young man explode with anger or collapse into despair. But no matter how she studied his face, Li Hao seemed to be very calm.

Did he... hear me?

The queen frowned.

Is he pretending to be unaffected? Or is this news so big that he’s unable to accept it?

Li Hao raised his tea cup to his lips and took a sip. His tea cups were rarely filled with tea, they were usually full of alcohol.

“So this is information that you gleaned from the fragments of the Moon God’s core?” he asked, completely unaffected.

“Yes!” The queen nodded solemnly. “This queen would never lie to you. The information was extremely obscured, with only a hint of mental strength remaining. Thankfully, I was fast enough to capture it before it fully faded away. I managed to collect this very important piece of intelligence!”

Earthturner Sword!

She knew that this person was critical to Li Hao’s inner circle. Someone like Dao Sword who joined later on did not occupy a prominent position in the young man’s camp. Li Hao was likely on guard against him.

But Earthturner Sword... someone who’d always been with him... Li Hao probably didn’t know that this person was a pawn as well.

The queen herself had given it some thought and felt that Earthturner Sword was here at Li Daoheng’s behest. After all, the latter had abandoned Stellaris and needed someone to guide Li Hao, or even keep the young man under surveillance. Who was more suited to this than Earthturner Sword?

Li Hao owed much of his progress in sword dao to Earthturner Sword’s company.

Seeing that Li Hao was remaining silent, the queen continued, “I’ve told you what I know, it’s your business if you can’t accept it. I know a bit about Hong Yitang—there was always something off about him, you just chose to ignore it!

“He bided his time in the early years, refusing your master’s multiple challenges. However, he easily fell in step behind you. That does not fit his personality. Not to mention, he has no relations with you, but continuously chooses to help you. He was the one who resolved many of your dangerous situations, but your master hadn’t broken the limits of the world yet!

“Only Li Daoheng doesn’t wish for you to die too early, not until you discover the new dao universe, at least. That will help realize his goal!

“And don’t you think Earthturner Sword is too selfless? Why should he help you if he desires and lacks absolutely nothing? This runs counter to his patience in earlier periods!” The queen grinned smugly. “I once ruled over countless people myself and know that his wife is currently winning people over in Divine Nation.

“Keep in mind that Divine Nation has always been this queen’s territory, as well as the Moon God and Li Daoheng’s territory. This is a critical moment to win hearts—her efforts will be very effective. If the people trust and worship her enough, she might even become the Moon God!

“I have another theory that she is actually part of the Moon God! Therefore, she’s gone to the west with ulterior motives. The Moon God is gravely injured, but she’s still alive. You’ve relaxed your guard against the Moon God, so she might deliver an unexpected blow at a critical moment!”

In this moment, the queen seemed to be the goddess of intelligence. Some of this had come from her own deductions, some from her observations. She wasn’t a fool; she felt that her thoughts perfectly fell in line with Li Daoheng’s plans.

Hongxiu had traveled to the west to fortify the Moon God in a critical moment. Although some of the nation’s faith in the Moon God had collapsed, the foundations still existed. So long as Hongxiu replaced the Moon God at a critical moment, it would be all too easy to gather faith anew given all of the countless orphans, widows, and suffering people that she’d helped.

“And one more thing, the heavenly will!” The queen smiled confidently. “Hongxiu’s been doing good deeds all this time, so it’s only to be expected if the heavenly will favors her. If she’s the alter-ego of the Moon God, the heavenly will would have delivered itself to her. They’ve been wanting to capture the heavenly will this entire time!

“This is the most sophisticated of all! Someone in your camp is obtaining the heavenly will right beneath your nose and even capturing it... With the aid of the heavenly will and the primary body of the Moon God... Li Daoheng might be able to walk freely throughout the world, the first half step emperor to emerge from various restrictions!

“When they attack you both inside and out, you’ll be dead meat!” The queen was highly confident of what she was saying. “Li Hao, this queen has saved your life and told you all of their conspiracies in advance. You owe this queen a life!”

“......” Li Hao looked silently at her. Were there any fallacies in her words?

Logically speaking, there were none. If Hongxiu had seized the heavenly will and was the Moon God in disguise, then it made sense for her to be biding her time until she could resurrect the Moon God and improve her own strength via the heavenly will.

As for Earthturner Sword... the meaning behind his myriad permutations of swords was indeed profound and mysterious. His sword character was also a special supernatural character second only to the ‘dao’ character. His character could manipulate a myriad of daos. If Li Hao’s ‘dao’ character was pulverized, Hong Yitang might truly be able to take control of the dao universe.

This was a fascinating plot from both sides!

If it’d been Li Hao coming to these conclusions, he would be surprised and even dejected. But since they came from the queen, he didn’t feel much of anything either way. He quietly looked at the queen for a while before saying, “You’re so lucky and so strong to detect even these secrets!”

“Of course!” smiled the queen. “How would this queen survive to present day if I was unlucky?”

You really have... absolutely no idea who you are!

Li Hao smirked.

“Alright, I’ve heard what you came to say.”

“And what do you intend to do about it?”

“It has nothing to do with you. You may go now!”

“......” The queen blinked, this was so blunt and different from what she anticipated. While she hadn’t expected Li Hao to break out in tears of gratitude, he should at least be a bit more moved that he’d learned about Li Daoheng’s most critical plot.

But here he was, being so indifferent and telling her to leave!

“Li Hao, this queen knows that you are very confident and thinks that the entire world is in the palm of your hand. But I must tell you that you’ll die a horrible death if you’re too confident! You better eliminate these people right now if you don’t want them to come back and bite you!”

“That’s alright, you may go now!”

“......” The queen started growing angry.

Is this how you treat your benefactors??I could’ve not said a single word and let you fall to their plotting!

Li Hao’s head started aching and he waved her off with some impatience. “Stop yelling. Get going, leave, right now! I know what you came to share, and so I promise you that I will leave you alone from now on. Just stay far away from me!”

The queen flushed with indignation.

This little bastard! I risked my neck to tell you such important secrets out of the goodness of my heart! I’ll have offended Li Daoheng and the Moon God after today! How dare you treat me this way!

Very well.

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

In that case, just die!

She didn’t want to say anything else and whirled around with a disdainful sniff.

If you don’t pay attention and don’t trust this queen, then you can’t blame me for anything!

......

Li Hao breathed out after she left, finding the situation amusing. Had she been wanting... approval from him just now?

I would never dare give it to her, that would be too dangerous.

“Li Daoheng... the Moon God...” The young man smiled again as he turned over the queen’s words. It was perfectly reasonable!

Anyone else may not be aware that Stellaris had come into his hand, but Li Daoheng must have placed him under surveillance. The entire Li family was his experimental subject, so there must be someone to verify the results.

When approached from that perspective, Earthturner Sword was the perfect candidate!

Hong Yitang had guided him down the path of sword dao and taught him some of the true meaning behind the Earthturner Sword at their first meeting. One had to say, when considering all that and the special ‘sword’ character, it was an airtight conclusion that he was one of Li Daoheng’s replicas!

Li Hao himself had full trust in the man and even placed his dao star into the river of chaos. Apart from Lin Hongyu, there was only Hong Yitang’s star being baptized by a myriad of daos in the river.

If anything happened to Li Hao, both of them stood a high chance of taking over the river, and Hong Yitang a greater one because his sword dao was a strong match for the true meaning of great dao.

The assembly of all of the dao stars was a sword.

“But... I don’t believe her!” Li Hao murmured. “Whether the queen really accidentally learned of this, or you’re trying to have me wholeheartedly trust Hong Yitang... How about I play along and not suspect him at all? What can you do about that?”

Was Li Daoheng the type to easily let others know of his plans? That would not be the case even if the process seemed utterly natural!

“Martial Uncle Hong, please come here!” Li Hao said with a chuckle. Hong Yitang quickly answered his summons.