Chapter 1364: Comprehending Dao (III)

The three Saints promptly popped onto the scene when the coast was clear.

“How can you act so recklessly?” The sword tree still palpitated with fear. “The Exalted Blood Emperor’s strength is second only to the Human King and his companions when it comes to killing enemies. There are very few in the world who can battle the Human King if they are of the same cultivation level!”

The sword tree was deathly afraid that Li Hao would randomly summon more exalted emperors, given the young man’s ignorance. It continued explaining, “New Martial has held numerous martial dao gatherings between cultivators of the same generation and cultivation level. The Exalted Blood Emperor battled the Human King once and did not walk away completely defeated.

“He later assimilated the dao reflections of the War Sovereign into his current self. He was a premier powerhouse to begin with and will certainly have taken a step forward after so many years. You were far too brash!”

“He is indeed very strong!” Li Hao smiled weakly as he was still recovering. “But... isn’t this a good thing? Who among my peers can overcome me in this age? This battle helped me understand how strong the premier existences of New Martial are, even if we’re of the same cultivation level.

“Otherwise, I’m almost being completely misdirected by those Empyrean Kings and Saints. I genuinely think I’m invincible in my cultivation level and can sweep through New Martial! But what kind of book is the

Logs of Zhang Discipline?

Can it be found on Silver Moon?”

“It’s the martial dao heritage left by the supreme,” explained the tree. “Well, we call it a martial dao heritage, but it doesn’t really count as one. It doesn’t contain any logs of real battle techniques, just coming-of-age stories and experiences of the Human King, Imperial Majesty, and the Exalted Blood Emperor.

“Supreme Zhang started making his record as the Human King rose to power. Everything was meticulously written down! After the Human King reached the apex, he listed the book as taboo and forbade it from circulating...”

“Why?” Li Hao laughed.

“There’s some ah... embarrassing history in it,” the tree explained awkwardly. “It’s said that the Human King was quite the smooth talker in his youth and... and once swindled... well, often swindled the Exalted Blood Emperor and others.

“The Exalted Blood Emperor didn’t really fall for it, but... apparently the Exalted Hard-Headed Emperor... almost... almost ended up calling the Human King ‘master’... Or perhaps he really did do so...

“Anyway, it’s very complicated. This book has been kept out of circulation since the early days of New Martial.”

“So... does it still exist?” Li Hao shook his head with amusement. This was taboo material that they were talking about!

“I don’t know, maybe... maybe in Evenround Martial University? Or perhaps Zhang An will have a copy...”

Li Hao nodded. The shadow of the Exalted Blood Emperor had told him not to overly value practical dao methods. That was surface level knowledge; true dao methods were not these.

That made sense. Having just been hacked to death eight times in a row, Li Hao had gained many new understandings from the experience. The Exalted Blood Emperor’s blade... was truly brutal!

It was a blade method meant for killing, and as such, terrifying!

However, it also seemed to match Li Hao’s mindset. Whether it was a blade or a sword method, weren’t they all meant to kill people for the sake of killing? Or did one practice the blade or sword to join the circus?

“Li Hao, why could the projection of the Exalted Blood Emperor from years past talk and even think for itself...” the sword tree asked solemnly.

“Now that’s an exaggeration,” Li Hao laughed. “It was just some lingering will within the blade. He used the blade for many years and was its sole master. It was also kept in peak condition all this time. Therefore, that was the equivalent of the blade speaking.”

The others blinked and looked at the completely quiet blade of blood. So... it had been the weapon... talking just now?

The blade trembled, whereupon Li Hao said, “It’s just the concept of using the blade as a medium, it wasn’t the blade itself. Well, that’s more or less the same thing.”

The sword tree no longer dwelled on it and simply cautioned solemnly, “Do not undertake this next time. The Exalted Blood Emperor is a gentle enough person. At least, he’s not too harsh on juniors. If you’d summoned the Human King, he would’ve cut you down without a second word!”

“I won’t be doing that!” Li Hao nodded. “The Human King’s dao is not a good fit for me. He also selects the best from a hundred disciplines and lacks personal characteristics. I may walk a similar path to him, but it’s not entirely the same.”

The sword tree paused.

A similar path?

It felt that Li Hao’s dao had nothing to do with the Human King. It was more similar to the Sword Sovereign’s, so why was it closer to the Human King?

“Our dao is similar, not in terms of outward appearance, but in terms of origins and true nature!” Li Hao could sense the tree’s confusion. “The Human King looks to have combined a myriad daos as well, gleaning their strengths and distilling the essence from them.

“Hence, his unique qualities don't come across particularly strongly on the surface, but he’s extremely domineering in reality! That’s the path I want to walk as well. This was the Sword Sovereign’s dao from beginning to end. He focused on what he was strong in and shored up his weaknesses...”

The sword tree didn’t say much since it didn’t really understand. “Then... are we able to support your integration of the corporal and intangible universes?”

“There shouldn’t be much of a problem with that!” Li Hao said. “I’ll collect 180 dao stars first. Once I’m done with that, I’ll go to Senior Zhang An to borrow the book. Perhaps it will help me incorporate more of the great dao.”

He said nothing further and sat down cross-legged, not concealing any of his movements. The three Saints were free to observe if they wished.

The long river was fragmented among the stars. It came back anew as the stars, but it was dimmer than before since it’d been depleted. More stars manifested and new stars came into existence. They coalesced at an exceedingly fast speed and seemed to bear some characteristics of the Exalted Blood Emperor.

The blade of blood seemed to be observing in the void and the cat... showed definite signs of opening its eyes while it hovered in and out of sight.

When the Exalted Blood Emperor’s shadow dissipated, part of its will seemed to enter the blade. Added to that the Firmament Sword spitting out the eight bloodlines, they made for marked progress for the cat’s resurrection.

Not only that, but the ‘Battle Heaven’ characters also exuded illumination. Li Hao could see the cat taking in a peculiar force, but he paid it no heed. Those two characters were on loan from Battle Heaven; he would return them after this trip.

As for how much the cat absorbed, that had nothing to do with him. Whether it was Battle Heaven, the blade, or anything else that the Exalted Blood Emperor had left behind, it had nothing to do with Li Hao if the cat absorbed all of the exalted emperor’s possessions.

The number of stars steadily increased. 160... 170...

Sword intent raced through the mental world with the addition of a unique killing intent that had not been present before. It continued for several days until 180 stars twinkled in the sky.

Boom!

The mental world shook, completing a significant metamorphosis. 179 stars revolved around the star of time, feting it in their midst and highlighting its importance.

When Li Hao opened his eyes for a look, he smiled. Not bad! 180 stars of corporeal dao and 180 stars of immaterial dao. It was a perfect balance and even numbers for integration. However, which of the corporeal stars was a match for the star of time?

Any of the other 179 would be easy to handle!

“Or perhaps we can refrain from assimilating the star of time and just treat it as the center of the cosmos? I can create another immaterial dao star of sword intent?”

That was feasible, but the star of time was still a bit illusory and didn’t seem to truly exist.

“I may have to absorb the real star of time first!”

The real star of time was half illusory and half tangible. Perhaps assimilating it was the key to truly integrating the corporeal and immaterial sides. The fusion would be completed in the true sense of the word with that as the core.

“But that star is hard to capture and might run away even if I do capture it...” Li Hao mused over how to keep it by his side. He needed something so amusing on his side that it would entice the other to stay.

The young man shook his head helplessly. It was so troublesome for a star to give them so much trouble.

......

Moments later, Li Hao vanished from his multiple days of seclusion.

Great Li.

The blade instantly flew back to its bearer. Celestial Pole immediately cursed out loud when he gripped the weapon again; the blade had clearly been depleted by quite a lot! However, he blinked the next moment as he took a closer look at the cat inside the blade.

“Strange... why does it feel like... it’s about to come back to life?” he murmured. It was no problem that Li Hao had weakened the blade. The problem was why it felt like the cat was about to be fully resurrected?

In that case, this wasn’t much of a loss after all.

......

Silver City.

Battle Heaven.

The two characters instantly materialized when Li Hao appeared in the ancient city. As they settled over the city gates, the Saints in residence appeared.

The old turtle looked at the characters with surprise. What were they doing back here? Was Li Hao not borrowing them anymore?

“This is perfect timing, Your Lordship,” said General Pagoda despite its surprise. “The Great Li king paid us a visit from the north, hoping to borrow the two characters...”

“There’s no need!” Li Hao shook his head. “Not anymore.”

The king wanted those two characters for the cat. Now that the cat had absorbed the unique energy from them, there was no need for this course of action anymore.

The others didn’t understand, but since Li Hao said it was unnecessary, then it was unnecessary.

“My lord, the immaterial dao universe is very quiet lately,” said the old turtle. “We could sense some battles before, but nothing has come from it as of late.”

“I see!” Li Hao nodded. He knew about that. What was there to fight over since the star of time had run off? It’d popped into his dao universe when he handed it over to Hong Yitang.

“Your Lordship...”

“Go to Lin Hongyu with anything else. I’m going back into closed door cultivation!” Li Hao vanished without giving them a chance to speak.

“Everyone, have you found that this one is becoming... more mysterious?” the old turtle commented with resignation after Li Hao was gone. The young man would at least manage some affairs before. Now, he was rarely involved.

The others exchanged glances and didn’t say anything. There was nothing they could do about this. With the presence of half step emperors and exalted emperors in the world, ones that might appear in their line of sight at any time, it was understandable if Li Hao was under a lot of pressure.