Chapter 1356: Full of Confidence (II)

“Take my master, for example...” Li Hao’s tone warmed when he mentioned Yuan Shuo. “My master created the secret art of the Five Styles based on the foundations of the ancients. This art is the basis through which I reached my current heights. It incorporates many things and achieves its mastery through a harmonious blend!

“If my master could demonstrate such creativity, why can I not do so as the disciple? I’m stronger than my master and have seen more of the world. I know more about the great dao! Even if I don’t surpass anyone else, the pupil should be able to eclipse the master!”

“......” Hong Yitang burst out laughing. “Yuan Shuo probably wouldn’t be too happy!”

“That’s true,” Li Hao laughed as well. “My teacher likes to say that it’s good for the pupil to eclipse the master, but he’s incredibly conceited. He thinks that his potential is the best in the world, so one should be able to surpass him. It’s my teacher who’s seen too little of the world. He’s too short-sighted!”

“......”

“Has he ever witnessed the might of an Empyrean King or a half step emperor?” Li Hao roared with laughter. “Has he fought an exalted emperor? I’ve experienced all that! Thus, potential is not everything. The key lies in knowledge, experience, luck, fortune, hard work, and finally potential at the end to determine how far we may proceed.”

The two didn’t discuss the dao universe or Hong Yitang being a potential replica anymore. It was as if that was all inconsequential.

After a while of conversation, Li Hao suddenly brought up, “I still have some preparations to attend to and need a bit of time. Martial uncle may wish to visit Martial Aunt Hongxiu during this lull. The queen may have spoken the truth!”

Although he knew that the queen was very unreliable, the news that she’d brought them may be real.

Hong Yitang grew slightly solemn, but Li Hao continued to smile easily. “There’s nothing to worry about! Whether you’re a replica or a primary body,

you

wouldn’t be you if the two of you separated because of this. When I used the river of chaos as my primary body and formed my replica, I discovered the drawbacks of this practice.

“A replica is also a person! It has flesh and blood, as well as its own thoughts. It’s a living, breathing person! We should not create replicas. When I utilized the method of the three selves, I understood one concept—I am the only one in the world!

“The future me is not me!” he said softly. “Perhaps in the eyes of others, the future me is me, the past me is me, and the present me is me. They might consider replicas to be me as well, but that is not the case! In reality, there is only a singular me!

“It’s not a good habit for Li Daoheng and the rest to be enamored with replicas. It’s only that the major problems haven’t developed yet, but they most certainly will as time goes on. These flaws are inevitable so long as one creates a replica. It’s simply that the cultivator is unaware of it.”

“So you’re saying that... the replica method of New Martial isn’t a good idea?” Hong Yitang furrowed his brows.

“Of course!” Li Hao nodded. “I’ve studied ancient records and realized that almost none of the New Martial exalted emperors regularly split themselves off. Only Supreme Zhang did so in the early days in order to increase their battle strength. But the Human King and the rest stalwartly remained one!

“Is it that they cannot create replicas? Of course not! But why don’t they?

“Can the Sword Sovereign not create a replica? Of course he can. So can the one in the north. Then why doesn’t the Sword Sovereign leave a replica behind to oversee Silver Moon? If one of his replicas led the formation of the eight trigrams, he’d stand a chance of outright killing an exalted emperor!”

And it wouldn’t have much of an effect on himself if he created a replica, so why hadn’t the Sword Sovereign done so?

It was because his dao was that of being only himself in the world and great daos. Such was Li Hao’s recent conclusion. He mentioned it only briefly and didn’t go into further detail.

“Therefore, if Martial Aunt Hongxiu is a replica of the Moon God as the queen says, that’s fine as well. Everything will fall apart once we kill the Moon God!”

Kill the Moon God?

“She’s not easy to kill,” Hong Yitang countered. “You weren’t able to do so on multiple occasions. She’s the core of the world, the world itself will not let her die. She was even the first generation heavenly will in the true sense of the concept.”

The Moon God was not an easy target. She would be long dead if she was.

“No, it’s just that I didn’t want to kill her.” Li Hao shook his head. “And I didn’t want to waste too much time on her. It’s not hard if I actually want to kill her!

“She may be the first generation heavenly will, but it’s the second generation in charge now. She wants to capture it as well. The heavenly will isn’t worth much. Martial uncle, it’s easy if we want to kill the Moon God or heavenly will...”

Hong Yitang looked at Li Hao. How could it be easy? They hadn’t even located the heavenly will thus far! The Moon God had run away into the immaterial dao universe and there was no sign of her to be seen now either. How were they to kill her?

Seeing at how the man was subtly hopeful, Li Hao could understand his frame of mind. Hong Yitang was worried that whatever happened would affect his beloved disciple that’d turned into his wife. The young man grinned and waggled his eyebrows at the other.

“You have a wife too... even though you aren’t married yet!” Hong Yitang was speechless at the reaction.

“I don’t feel awkward, so what is martial uncle being awkward for?” Li Hao chuckled.

“......”

“Let’s do it this way, I’ll create a chance for martial uncle!” proposed the young man. “If I create a world inside myself, it’s bound to kick up a large fuss. I’ll need martial uncle to cover a thing or two for me!

“Please do just one thing the day I create my world—open the dao universe and devour the Hao Cosmos Continent!”

Hong Yitang jerked with shock!

“We’ll pull the rug from everyone’s feet and incorporate all ten billion Silver Moon denizens into the dao universe! How can a place without people be called a world? We’ll see a collapse of the heavenly will. Whether it’s the Moon God or heavenly will, neither will actually permit that to happen. They’ll even seize the opportunity to slip into the dao universe!

“If Martial Aunt Hongxiu really is the replica of the Moon God, she’ll be looking to gather faith again and collect her true self!

“She and the Moon God are the key players, the third is the queen. The queen has taken too much lunar strength to date. The truth might be that the Moon God is living through the queen. The Moon God wants to imitate Li Daoheng and combine her replicas as one!

“Whether it’s the heavenly will or Moon God, they’re both being affected by Li Daoheng and like to play at creating multiple replicas. There may be more than one heavenly will and more than one Moon God...” Li Hao thought it over some more. “I might be able to lure out the star of time when I create my world! That will be a critical step.

“If martial uncle can think of a way to capture part of them, I’ll figure out how to use the star of time to travel to the past and future. I’ll kill every version of the heavenly will and Moon God! I’ll leave behind only Martial Aunt Hongxiu.

“When there is only one left in the entire great dao, that one is the real being!

“The world will tremble when the heavenly will collapses, which will create an opening for the great dao to enter the world and recollect the heavenly will. I will be that heavenly will! Well, when I say ‘I’, I mean martial uncle. The great dao will be the heavenly will...”

“Was this... your plan all along?” Hong Yitang stared dumbly at him.

Li Hao seemed to have planned this a long time ago. It seemed to be a solid idea, perhaps he’d planned to do so himself before.

“Yes, but I had more options later on, so I didn’t give it more thought!” Li Hao inclined his head. “There’s drawbacks to this too because it will deeply tie myself to Silver Moon. That level of duty is too great and I would need to be responsible for more than ten billion people... I don’t wish for this to ultimately take the wrong turn!”

I also don’t wish to be tied down to Silver Moon!

He didn’t voice the last sentence out loud, but Hong Yitang understood.

“In that case, will half step emperors be able to walk freely?” Hong Yitang took a deep breath.

“Possibly!” Li Hao nodded. “But when that day comes, I will not be afraid of them since I’ll have my own world! It’s fine if half step emperors regain their freedom. Not to mention, they’re in a tricky situation right now and may not have time to cause trouble for us!”

Hong Yitang nodded and said nothing else. “Is there anything you’ll need for this?”

“I’m going to withdraw my 360 dao stars, even the ones that are yet to be activated. The river of time may be slightly weakened, so martial uncle will have to make up for that yourself!

“That’s the first point. The second is that if the star of time appears... I may... trap it inside my own universe. The precursor to that is that it is willing to be trapped. I will not be able to do so if it is unwilling.

“The third...” Li Hao paused for a long time. “We can talk about that later, I don’t wish to have too many things tying me down. But if Lin Hongyu is willing to leave with me... I might take her dao star with me. We’ll see about that!”

Hong Yitang laughed and nodded.

“From today forth, martial uncle is to attempt to command the river through the ‘sword’ character! I’ll slowly withdraw my dao stars. You can proceed according to your schedule, there’s no need to worry about anything else!”

“I’m... benefiting immensely from your course of action!” Hong Yitang nodded with great emotion. “If you are willing to give the corporeal dao universe to Li Daoheng or Zheng Yu, they’d probably be so grateful that they would no longer target you...”

As villainous as the two were, they might not attack Li Hao anymore if the young man did so. Having reached their level of cultivation... they might only admire and respect the young man. Of course, the caveat was that they weren’t afraid of Li Hao seeking revenge on them either. Otherwise, it was possible that they’d still kill him to eliminate trouble at the roots.

Li Hao suddenly laughed with a cocky edge. “They can only take what I’m willing to give! What are they worth if I’m not willing?”

He was abruptly very different from moments before, like he was switching between multiple personalities! And yet, it all made sense somehow.

I am happy to hand over whatever I am willing to give. Anything I’m unwilling, yet you guys seek to rip it from my hands... Well then, you’ll have to get past my sword first!

Li Hao ripped through the void, revealing the dao universe. A long river undulated; Li Hao set foot inside, followed swiftly by Hong Yitang.

“I’m going to enter closed door cultivation again to comprehend sword dao!” Li Hao’s voice rang in the outside world. “Martial Uncle Hong will join me. Hongyu can handle the affairs of education!”

Some raised an eyebrow at his words, others felt a vague unease. The queen was far away, but turned back when she heard the instruction.

“You believed me in the end,” she snorted. “You’re such a heartless and ruthless bastard. You kill whoever it is you need to kill in pursuit of your own interests!”

What closed door cultivation! Hong Yitang was done for!

The queen was certain that Hong Yitang would not be walking out of the dao universe. She curled her lip, but it made sense. If it was her... this threat was so enormous that she’d eliminate it as well.

Except, some disappointment still marked her heart.

I thought you would have a better way!

Although killing Hong Yitang did seem to be the best option, that was the decision of the mediocre. Li Hao was a magical guy who toyed with the people and all powerhouses in the palm in his hand. Was that all he could do?

This made Li Daoheng appear more capable in comparison.

“Pity!” The queen flew further. With Li Hao’s decision to take Hong Yitang with him, the queen felt that her fear of Li Hao was lessening. It was a better idea to stay further away from him.

She’d been wondering if she should join Li Hao’s side, but now thought better of it.

This guy is so cruel and cold-hearted.