Chapter 1370: One Popping Up (II)

“So you guys cultivate just so you can endlessly swallow others?” Li Hao looked at the Red Moon exalted emperor. “You guys are a major world at the end of the day, can’t you think of another way to achieve your goals?”

“Why should we? This is the fastest, easiest, and most direct! Even if one hundred thousand years really have elapsed in the outside world, it’s still worth it to spend one hundred thousand years attacking a world!” The exalted emperor didn’t find anything wrong with what he’d said. He only felt that Li Hao didn’t understand and wasn’t interested in explaining further to the young man.

“It’s too slow for you to cultivate on your own. Even though you control the corporeal dao universe, it will still be very difficult to ascend to half step emperor! Li Hao, work with me...” The exalted emperor was finding something amiss in the situation as he spoke on. More energy was gathering in the surroundings and even some of his Red Moon power was disappearing into the child.

“You are so undiscerning in what you eat!” frowned the exalted emperor.

How dare you swallow my Red Moon power?

The seal was no longer what it’d once been.

I’ll be able to emerge if you absorb too much and kill you!

Li Hao didn’t mind the potential threat, instead focusing on a tendril of Red Moon power. “Does Red Moon power center on desires?”

“Desires?” laughed the exalted emperor. “You could say that! Will cultivators have any motivation and drive if they spend their lives lacking wants and desires? You don’t know how terrifying it is to live too long and lose all cravings! This is how countless worlds have decayed away!

“There was once a world ruled by a formidable master of the world. But in his final moments, he permitted Red Moon to devour him as we would. He didn’t put up a fight. Why?

“Because he’d lived too long! He’d lived so long that he felt there was no difference between living and dying! It is only my Red Moon world that remains full of vitality countless years later!”

Li Hao blinked, then nodded in concurrence. There was indeed such a thing as living too long! Masters of the world could live for millions, tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of years. They would witness seas turn into mulberry fields and back again, the rise and fall of endless civilizations, and perhaps only be by themselves at the end of time.

There would be nothing but unbounded loneliness and emptiness yawning ahead. If one lacked all desire at a time like that, then... seeking death or suicide seemed to be a normal reaction.

They would only fear that there was no one around who could kill them.

It was truly a rare occurrence that Red Moon major world would still have the desire to go on the offensive and expand after existing for countless years.

“Are your daos the same?” Li Hao continued to ask. Meanwhile, the Red Moon exalted emperor looked around with a frown. What was the young man absorbing so much energy for?

“Such is the definition of a high level world, do you understand?” he sneered in response.

“Understand what?”

“All daos ultimately become one! All manner of fancy veneers and complicated surfaces only exist in the beginning! All daos are one in the later stages, such is the ultimate form of a world!”

“That makes sense!” Li Hao nodded, taking in this new information. “So does that mean all daos are one in Red Moon world and everyone who follows after cultivates the same dao?”

“Of course!”

“Then... is there no hope for later descendants to surpass those who came before them?” Li Hao asked with confusion.

The Red Moon exalted emperor blinked and looked at the young man. “Why would they want to move past those who came before them? Are those people not people? Later descendants can bask in the benefits of their seniors creating the world for them. What, are they going to rebel for being handed an easy life?”

Li Hao paused, then said slowly after a while, “So... the point of all daos becoming one is a loss of innovation. Future descendants will never measure up to their forebears and the hierarchy is completely solidified! The master of the world will always be the master of the world and exalted emperors will always be exalted emperors. There is no hope for latecomers to achieve something different?”

“That’s not the case either!” The exalted emperor shook his head. “Opportunities naturally come about when we invade a major world and establish our own enterprise! This is why we keep fighting.

“Just as you say, we cannot extinguish hope for all future generations and neither would the master of our world be so unwise. That is why we continuously go to war. Each successful invasion creates some premier powerhouses!”

Li Hao’s eyebrows rose at the thought of this new idea. A hardened hierarchy would be unable to contain internal divisions. Then one could use external warfare to resolve civil discord.

If later generations have no chances... then I’ll create them for you!

War!

Endless warfare!

The precursor to that was that one needed to be strong enough and would not needlessly expend its armies on futile campaigns. Red Moon universe clearly possessed those qualifications; the immensely formidable New Martial was no match for it.

“New Martial doesn’t seem to have existed for long... but judging from what you say, it’s not a weak presence among the various universes?”

The Red Moon exalted emperor was looking around him, growing more baffled the more he took in. The disturbance in the surroundings seemed to be growing.

“New Martial dynasties changed so quickly and each generation was stronger than the last.” The exalted emperor was willing to divulge this to Li Hao since it wasn’t classified information. “The later generations overturned their predecessors so quickly that their battle strength climbed continuously with no end in sight.

“Logically speaking, it would have been normal for Initial Martial to continue for another several hundred thousand, even million years. But they quickly made it past the Core Origin Era, then came New Martial. Their battle strength grew so furiously that they won a place for themselves among the major worlds.”

“Logically speaking, the world is a seed.” Li Hao was still perplexed. “A young seed can’t absorb much chaos strength and the world itself contains a constant amount of energy. So how has it surpassed Red Moon?”

“It hasn’t surpassed Red Moon!” The exalted emperor was immensely dissatisfied with this question. “As strong as New Martial may be, it does not measure up to Red Moon! There are multiple factors in play that have prevented our swift takedown of New Martial, in addition...

“Don’t be thinking that the Human King and his companions are good people,” the exalted emperor sneered derisively. “They speak of self preservation, but do you think the Sun God of New Martial really did simply journey through the universe and visit a lot of different worlds? What a joke!

“That person often devoured large sums of energy from the worlds he happened upon. And it wasn’t just him, many New Martial powerhouses traveled through the universe in search of energy!

“New Martial has two masters of the world because one of them could withstand loneliness. The Human King wasn’t afraid of his counterpart rebelling, so he could often spend a great deal of time wandering around...”

“Do you mean that New Martial secretly swallowed some worlds as well?” Li Hao raised an eyebrow.

“They didn’t swallow the worlds!” The exalted emperor shook his head. “But were bandits instead. When they entered a new universe, they spoke of traveling for pleasure, but in reality they were collecting energy from a variety of worlds!

“They say that they won’t go on the offensive, but they commit more than their fair share of dirty deeds in secret. How else do you think New Martial could’ve grown so strong so quickly?”

“Surely not?” Li Hao stroked his chin.

“Heh!” jeered the exalted emperor. “Let’s put it this way... these people are a deft hand at fishing! They send a random person on a journey anywhere. As soon as that person is obstructed or killed, the Human King, their supreme, Sun God, and others will quickly rush to the scene. They’ll either want payment in blood or energy!

“Many worlds that were originally close to New Martial chose to relocate elsewhere! Why? Because New Martial is too tyrannical! If it wasn’t for my Red Moon universe being strong enough, the Sun God would’ve run off with endless energy!”

Is that so? That rather sounded like New Martial was the aggressor, but it clashed with the tale of events given by the Human King. The New Martial ruler said that while they did not start trouble, they were not afraid of trouble.

If you want to kill me, then I’ll kill you first...

These two versions of the story were different. New Martial had existed for a very short period of time—a thousand at most. Then it’d lost contact and Silver Moon had become independent.

“Don’t they say that it’s very difficult to pinpoint location in the chaos? That many years might pass when a person leaves, yet they are still unable to find their way home?

“That’s what we all say, but premier powerhouses won’t be lost that easily. And the New Martial Human King...” sneered the exalted emperor. “He left a few times and used the excuse of being lost to barge into some major worlds. Somehow, conflict always developed when he asked them for directions.

“What a ludicrous excuse! Would the master of a world lose his way? How flimsy!”

“It’s hard to say.” Li Hao stroked his chin. “I did read in a few books that the Human King of New Martial... has an awful sense of direction. He often got lost as a child, so what if he really was lost and just wanted to ask for directions, but you guys misunderstood him?”

The Red Moon exalted emperor snorted, not even considering that as a possibility. Who were they trying to fool?!

The chaos was indeed confusing for even a master of a world, but to get lost so easily, be unable to find his home universe, yet sharp enough wander into someone else’s... Who would believe that?

The two chatted idly until the exalted emperor suddenly said, “What are you doing?”

Energy was gathering from the four corners, converging on Li Hao like tornados. An energy storm was developing over the young man’s head and sweeping through the land. Was this still an ordinary cultivation session?

Not even half step emperors would raise such a fuss. What was he doing?

“Nothing! Just cultivating!” Li Hao laughed. “I’m just kicking up more of a fuss than usual. The exalted emperor doesn’t mind, do you?

“Ah, yes, if I may be so bold as to ask, is the exalted emperor’s replica made of Red Moon power? Then why have you not been smote to death after so many days in the immaterial dao universe? Is there no thunder tribulation in that dao universe?”

The exalted emperor wasn’t in a mood to respond. He looked around, confusion brewing in his eyes. He raised his head up to the sky, seeing that the seal formed by the eight cities appeared to be loosening.

What was the young man up to now?

Li Hao abruptly erupted in open hostility when he saw that he was being ignored. “If you won’t answer my questions, then what do I keep you around for?!”

Bam!

A palm strike obliterated the projection that lacked any sort of strength. He’d turned on the exalted emperor with stunning speed!

The exalted emperor dispersed with some fury and irritation. That little bastard had destroyed his projection just because he didn’t answer one question!

And, just what was Li Hao doing?