Chapter 1377: My Turn to Take the Stage (I)

The world shuddered intensely. The queen’s actions were outside the realm of everyone’s expectations. The Moon God was dead, the heavenly will had been shattered, the queen was thoroughly free of everyone’s control, and even Li Hao had been part of her scheme to win her freedom.

The Red Moon exalted emperor had lost a replica without gaining anything in return, whereas the queen hadn’t suffered any loss to her strength.

She was almost late Empyrean King before and had more or less reached that cultivation level after fully devouring the Moon God. Her strength hadn’t drastically improved, but she was in a much different state.

Previously, her strength had belonged to someone else and could be stripped from her at any time. Everything was different now. She’d replaced the primary body with herself, a replica!

This threw Li Hao’s plans into disarray. His thoughts had been that if Hongxiu really was the Moon God’s replica, then using the river of time to kill the past and future would also result in a replica replacing the primary body.

The queen had stolen a march on him!

She’d reaped a massive harvest from the events of the day and made a clean escape. All eyes were once more on Li Hao.

There was no helping it—Li Hao was raising much more of a fuss than the queen. The crux was that even though the latter was in control of her own destiny now, she wasn’t a threat to either the half step emperors or exalted emperor. One could only say that when a rough fish jumped out of the pond, it was acceptable to ignore them all the same.

Li Hao, however, could not be set aside.

The young man had gained a bit thus far as well—not terribly much. Whether it was the heavenly will or the Red Moon exalted emperor’s replica, he’d given most of their ensuing energy to Hong Yitang in the form of the river of chaos.

Li Hao had only taken a small portion of it. He’d focused on combining more stars throughout the fight. The disturbance was growing so immense that he could no longer hide it. When the queen fought the Moon God, that’d concealed his movements to a certain degree. But with the queen gone, it was difficult to keep his actions a secret.

The immaterial dao universe.

Li Daoheng watched the proceedings, then suddenly turned to Zheng Yu. The former had lost a great deal. The Moon God was dead—she’d been his key to devouring the world. The queen, however, had killed her instead.

Zheng Yu had said that he was putting everything on the line. Had he?

Where are your people?

The two had laid plans in Silver Moon for many years. Although they were primarily aimed at the exalted emperor and wanting to elevate themselves to that level, did they really have nothing prepared for Li Hao?

“There’s not much point in anyone else stopping him now.” Zheng Yu shook his head. “We’d just be giving him resources for free. It’s better for you to figure out how to bring the dao universe to Silver Moon.”

Zheng Yu looked at Li Hao, then at the river of chaos nearby. “Why does Li Hao insist on differentiating between the river of chaos and river of time?” He frowned slightly. “Isn’t it better to command the chaos with time?

“Also, what is taking place to induce a chaos tribulation to appear? Can a simple devouring of the world through great dao create chaos tribulations?”

Nearby, the Red Moon exalted emperor’s replica had recovered from his earlier dissatisfaction. “You two are known as the twin stars of Silver Moon and are quite skilled at plotting against this emperor, but keep being stymied by Li Hao and that Moon God puppet. You guys are such trash to have your hands tied now!”

“The exalted emperor is too strong, powerhouses only know to scheme against the strong,” Zheng Yu chuckled. “What is the point of plotting against the weak? Who would set their eyes on a pile of ants? Even if the ant is particularly strong, it is only an ant. Prior to its rise, would you have ever fathomed that it could swallow an elephant?”

Scheming against the strong was a necessary part of cultivation and a joyful pastime. But scheming against the weak... why not outright kill the person in question if one possessed the strength to do so? Why employ any plots?

Zheng Yu spoke the truth. The two had given very little thought to weaklings. Even if there were any plans prepared, it wasn’t aimed at a later descendant such as Li Hao. They had a few plans in mind for the heavenly will, so that they could pursue their desire of verifying dao and becoming an exalted emperor...

They wouldn’t target weaklings for the sake of targeting them.

However, it turned out that these weaklings continuously hopped off of the chessboard. It was extremely aggravating and a blow to him and Li Daoheng.

As the trio in the sky spoke, Li Hao’s presence continued to build. The patch of thunderclouds overhead nearly covered the world!

“This kid isn’t just swallowing the land,” frowned the Red Moon exalted emperor. “Problems may develop if we don’t descend upon Silver Moon soon!”

The other two could see it just as well. No one had any attention to spare for the queen anymore. They didn’t care about her. It didn’t matter that she’d reached late Empyrean King. It was Li Hao who possessed a high battle strength despite a moderate cultivation level. If he had more gains from this undertaking, then he might truly be able to rival a half step emperor!

The addition of another opponent would make life difficult.

“I just need another moment!” Li Daoheng looked at the sky. “The chaos tribulation is not yet upon us, which means he hasn’t succeeded. There’s still time!”

There’s still time!

The other two didn’t say a word after this response and silently turned to watch the happenings.

......

A furious upheaval rocked Li Hao’s mental world. He’d combined nearly one hundred stars, but was still a marked distance away from success. He frowned slightly and looked around.

Those guys weren’t dogging his footsteps anymore. It was actually good if people tried to interfere with him.

Their actions and his responses would mask the truth of what he was doing, and he could take advantage of the opportunity to kill some annoying characters and eliminate future threats. But now... reality fell short of desire with his enemies ignoring him.

The three powerhouses simply hovered in the air and watched him silently, exerting more pressure. Li Hao was sure to face a devastating blow once the immaterial dao universe descended upon the world. He could also determine from the environment that Li Daoheng had almost succeeded with this goal.

“He might have been making preparations for this a long time ago!” Li Hao murmured. Not enough time had elapsed between the start of his own preparations and the completion of Li Daoheng’s goals.

Granted, perhaps just Li Hao’s actions alone were sufficient to bring Li Daoheng into the world. With the death of the heavenly will and Moon God, all of Silver Moon was thrown into an uproar. Endless energy careened everywhere, filling the world. This would enable the land to support half step emperors before long.

......

Time passed bit by bit. A universe was about to fully arrive in the world.

Within the immaterial dao universe, Zheng Yu suddenly said, “I think I might’ve identified something. Li Hao might be combining his fake dao universe with the real dao universe. The fake dao universe somewhat resembles the immaterial dao universe. He may be trying to assimilate the immaterial with the corporeal. What do you think, Li Daoheng?”

“It’s possible!” Li Daoheng answered through the void, agreeing with the assessment. “The combination of immaterial and corporeal, one real and one fake... A real river of chaos and a fake river of time... Did he split them into two to combine them?”

“That’s very possible!”

The Red Moon exalted emperor’s eyes darted around as they conversed. “Can he succeed this way?”

“It’s hard to say,” Zheng Yu responded. “The fake dao universe is too weak and the real dao universe is very strong! Their strength is not balanced, so theoretically speaking, adverse reactions should easily occur in the process. He should be constantly holding off self-detonation, so therefore, he might have other tricks up his sleeve...

“Perhaps...” Zheng Yu looked to the depths of the universe. “Perhaps the star of time will appear!”

The trio were tempted by the possibility. Zheng Yu said nothing else and simply looked ahead, then down at Li Hao. Finally, he looked to the north, a meaningful look in his eyes.

Things were growing ever more interesting! If the star of time came again, could they capture it this time?

......

BOOM!

The world shook and thunderbolts exploded. The tribulation drew closer. It was very weak and didn’t attack Li Hao. It seemed to be accumulating strength, which caused a portion of thunder and lightning to spill through the void.

The firmament exploded!

By now, even the fleeing queen was silently observing in a corner. She watched the disturbance around Li Hao as she absorbed the Moon God’s energy, sinking into deep thought. Was the young man planning on fighting half step emperors here?

She wasn’t in a partnership with Li Hao at the moment, but he was her shield. Once he fell in battle, her end wouldn’t be that great either. All Silver Moon powerhouses were in the same boat. If Li Hao couldn’t withstand this critical testing point, then a new crisis would be upon her even though she’d won her freedom.

As the queen pondered the future, Li Hao’s presence continued to blaze with ferocity. Massive dragons seemed to be coiled around him!

He once more returned to the vicinity of Silver City and looked up into the sky with a solemn look in his eyes. It would be soon now—not his success, but the arrival of the immaterial dao universe.

What remarkable timing! His opponents would be here before he was finished. This could also be a test from the world and chaos—a tribulation in itself!

Assimilating a fake dao universe with the real thing was truly defying the heavens. It was up to him to see if he could turn the situation around.

Li Hao scanned the three in the sky again, his face darkening. Li Daoheng was a bit less than what he’d anticipated, but Zheng Yu hadn’t expressed anything from beginning to end. This made the young man increasingly wary of him!

Zheng Yu was another person who looked like a fool and had suffered multiple losses in Li Hao’s hands. Not only that, but he’d almost lost everything to his name in the end and entered the immaterial dao universe by himself.

Apart from the strength of a half step emperor, he seemed to possess nothing else. Certainly not brains.

But... why did he seem so inscrutable?

Having just suffered a setback from the queen, the first person who came to mind when one spoke of powerful fools, Li Hao was now wary of anyone seen in a similar light.

What kind of backup plans would I have if I was Zheng Yu?

Even if I had any, I’d have them in place for Li Daoheng and the Red Moon exalted emperor.

Li Hao also knew that none of these people would view him as a rival. Their enemies were only each other.