Chapter 1360: The Journey of a Hero (III)

“Does it matter if you are number five or five hundred in the world?” Celestial Pole cast an odd glance at the Great Li king.

The king thought for a while before nodding. “I feel better if my ranking is higher!” He smiled when a new thought struck him. “Senior, Tranquil Star ruins are no more and the senior has retrieved the blade. Do I still need to stand guard at the ruins?”

Splendid! After what Li Hao did, I don’t need to go there anymore, do I?

“You do not,” Celestial Pole nodded. “There’s nothing left there, so why bother? I have another mission for you that replaces the previous one.”

“What is it?”

“Enter the seal and suppress Sword City! Seven of the eight main cities are outside. With only one city inside the seal, I worry that someone might damage it. I’ll send you inside the seal to protect it. Although your strength is mediocre, you’re an Empyrean King at the end of the day.

“Unless those stronger than you make a move, no one should be able to destroy Sword City. You will be in residence so that no one can threaten it.”

“Senior, is there a point in doing that?” The Great Li king was quite resigned about the proposal. “I can’t fight anyone who can damage it, and it won’t matter if I’m there or not for those who can’t damage it. It’s the same result no matter what, so why do I need to go?”

Do you just want to get me out of your hair? You seem to make a lot of sense on the surface, but...

Indeed, Celestial Pole couldn’t bear the sight of the Great Li king having an easy life. He wanted to rip his hair out at the thought of owing Li Hao a favor, so the king could also rip his hair out as well! That was only fair!

Besides, you owe me one for helping you increase your cultivation, so pay up!

“You are correct, but as the sovereign of a nation and a king, you need to keep your eyes on the struggle for supremacy over the world. These people might break Silver Moon at any time and my mission is not yet complete. I need a few more things, so you can resolve these small problems for me!”

“Please go ahead, senior!”

“Go to Li Hao and get the ‘Battle Heaven’ characters from him!” Celestial Pole said with an impassive expression. “Then go to the eight main cities and extract power from them. Finally, I need a portion of the heavenly will. You have some strength to your name now. I don’t care what methods you use, capture some heavenly will for me!”

The king’s jaw sagged; no words were forthcoming.

The fuck?! Just the first one of getting those two characters back from Li Hao... not to mention the rest... You’re just making life difficult for me!

“These are trifling matters!” frowned Celestial Pole. “Li Hao will give them to you when you mention it. Can you not even handle that? The real difficulty lies with the fact that the heavenly will has gone into hiding and is hard to capture. You’ll have to figure that out yourself!

“It may voluntarily approach you once you leave me. You need to do all of this as soon as possible as I have a foreboding feeling that... we may have a war of the world soon!”

“A war of the world?” blinked the king. “Will it be between Li Hao and the other heavyweights, or will it be between the three themselves? But Li Hao doesn’t possess enough strength at present and the world does not support half step emperors. Is the exalted emperor about to break out of the seal?”

“I’m not certain and it does look like we still have a bit of time left,” frowned Celestial Pole. “It will take another significant change in the world before it can support half step emperors.”

“Ah, yes, senior. Why can you...” The king wanted to ask why the Initial Martial god enjoyed personal freedom with the world being unable to tolerate half step emperors.

“It’s obviously because I was here at the very start!” Celestial Pole rolled his eyes. “I slept here after the world was divided into eight. It has accepted me as part of it, so why can part of the world not move freely through it??”

The king blinked. That was an option as well?

“I thought it was due to the senior’s Initial Martial background, that your body was so strong that it could withstand the pressure from the world.”

“It’s one thing to withstand the pressure, but wouldn’t the world continue to target me more fiercely the longer I stay out?” Celestial Pole was quite disdainful of the Great Li king. “Do you have any brains at all? You’ve yet to realize things that other people have long understood. I was part of the world from a long time ago, do you understand?!”

What Initial Martial physical body... I ceased cultivating the Initial Martial system a long time ago! Who told you that I have an Initial Martial background??

Great Li’s god couldn’t be bothered to communicate with his king anymore. He did indeed have a hunch that the ultimate war was soon to break out in Silver Moon. It wouldn’t be too long now and it would be much faster than anticipated. That was because Li Hao kept breaking the normal operations of the system.

“Move quickly now and collect these things for me. Otherwise, it might turn into a struggle of four emperors once the war breaks out!”

“Half step emperors?”

“Exalted emperors!”

“Isn’t there only one exalted emperor in the world?” blinked the king.

“Hello, can’t they achieve breakthroughs in their cultivation?” Celestial Pole grew snappish as the Great Li king was incredibly dumb. “Li Daoheng and Zheng Yu have been preparing for one hundred thousand years, it’s not like they haven’t done anything during this time!

“They might be able to verify the dao at a crucial moment in battle. They haven’t yet because they hope to maximize their personal benefits! Once the war reaches the peak, there might be four exalted emperors on the battlefield!”

“But that would only make three of them...”

“Get out of here!” Celestial Pole nearly snarled, highly irritated by the king’s ignorance.

“I mean it, senior. The fourth that you speak of... can’t be Li Hao, can it?” The king was immensely perturbed by the idea. “Li Hao possesses a lot of potential, skill, and has even made this era his age of glory, but I still wouldn’t believe that he’ll be able to make it to exalted emperor soon!”

“Go do your job!” Celestial Pole cut him off. “Cut the bullshit! Not to mention, it’s no big deal to verify one’s dao and become an exalted emperor. What need is there to believe?

“The exalted emperors of this world are far inferior to the ones of New Martial. Even that guy from Red Moon doesn’t really count as an exalted emperor anymore. He’s degraded for one hundred thousand years and lost his connection to the Red Moon universe. He lacks the support of the Red Moon dao as well, so he’s far from one of those regular exalted emperors!”

Very well then!

The Great Li king dropped the line of questioning. He still found it astonishing that Li Hao would soon be an exalted emperor. That didn’t seem possible!

The weakest of exalted emperors was still an exalted emperor. It was already incredible for there to be one in a minor world, but based on what this one was saying, all of them stood a chance of becoming an exalted emperor!

That was terrifying!

“Senior, won’t we be in trouble once they become exalted emperors?”

“You’re the one in trouble, it will have nothing to do with me,” raged Celestial Pole. “Get out of here!”

The king was offended by the attitude, but didn’t say anything. He left, ready to carry out his tasks. They had to be completed or this one might beat him up. He’d noticed lately that the Great Li god possessed a bad temper.

The god hadn’t cared about anything before, but now seemed to want to get involved . Perhaps he was lonely after such a long period of time.

Celestial Pole ignored the king and continued to observe the world. He was puzzled by what he sensed. He’d ignored it when the Great Li king brought it up, but now that he scanned the world again, he found it... inexplicably more gentle. It lacked the berserk, cold and ruthless killing intent that Li Hao had filled it with before.

The young man looked like an easy person to get along with, but he was brutal at heart. Perhaps it had to do with his family being butchered. When he killed Ying Hongyue, he demonstrated the height of ruthlessness.

Had the young man changed after killing Ying Hongyue?

Celestial Pole was curious, but put the matter out of his mind. It would be too tiring to think too much.

......

Dao stars crumbled away in the dao universe, melting into the river below. The river began to undulate, sometimes forming a sword, sometimes forming a person. Veins seemed to float upward to the surface. A face seemed to appear in the waters and a large wave rose in the river!

Rays of light connected to the river fosters overhead. The starlight was resplendent as it scattered over the river.

“From henceforth, I will advance and retreat with the Silver Moon people and dao!” came Hong Yitang’s voice. “I live if the dao lives! I grow stronger if the dao grows stronger! I rise if the dao rises!”

Rumble!

The river trembled and became a person in the next second. Hong Yitang’s presence grew stronger as he walked toward Li Hao. Radiant stars shone overhead; the man lifted his head, opened his mouth, and sucked all of the stars into his mouth.

“You do not wish to be tied down, but this is sweet nectar to me. Since the river of stars is entering my stomach, I will become the father of Silver Moon...”

“You swallow a myriad stars like a pregnant woman. How are you the father of Silver Moon? You’re the mother!” Li Hao laughed.

Hong Yitang laughed as well, then gently swung his sword at Li Hao.

Boom!

The young man took a step back after a loud collision, but Hong Yitang remained unmoving.

“A hierarchy of seniority and strength is always maintained! Sword Pool is my territory, which makes you an outsider!”

“Martial uncle is very right.” Li Hao’s laugh deepened and he sized up the man. “It looks like you’ve gained quite a lot since you’re fifth, even almost sixth level Fused Dao. You’ve traveled hundreds of kilometers in one day!”

This rate of progress was staggering, but the price was exorbitant. Hong Yitang had lost his dao body and become part of the great dao. He might truly be tied to Silver Moon until the end of time.

“Perhaps... this is the dao of the human emperor!” Li Hao suddenly said. “Water can lift a boat, but can also capsize it! Martial uncle, the heritage of Silver Moon is better off in your hands. Otherwise, if no one in the world cultivates this path any more, martial uncle’s strength will decline as a result.”

Hong Yitang smiled and nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“Then I will revert back to the river and you can go about your business. You can come and go as you wish, I won’t be heading back outside!”

Hong Yitang could leave, but leaving at this moment would enable the premier heavyweights to detect what was wrong with him. From today onward, he would no longer leave the dao universe.

He also remembered Li Hao telling him that the young man was destined to face calamity at some point. It might happen when Li Hao fought the half step emperors or even exalted emperor. In that case, Hong Yitang needed to train and strengthen himself, so that he could defuse sure disaster for Li Hao at this critical moment.

“Alright! I need to make some preparations as well.” Li Hao’s body was a jumbled mess of dao meridians and rioting dao stars. “The dao meridians are inside my body, but I still lack a few things. At the very least, I need 180 stars of sword intent. The corporeal and immaterial need to correspond to each other!”

There were nearly 140 stars in his mental world, but he’d comprehended more than 180 types of sword intent. He needed the aid of some other things to swiftly coalesce dao stars out of them.

“Do you need my help?”

“No!” Li Hao shook his head. “The mind is the aura, so all I need is to create auras! I’m going to visit Great Li and borrow the blade of blood. The Exalted Blood Emperor’s blade will help me form auras! That will also cancel the debt, so that he doesn’t feel mentally burdened by its existence.”

“What?” Hong Yitang blinked. “You...”

Paying back the favor just by lending the blade of blood?

Um...