Chapter 1381: Plans Do Not Keep Up With Changes (II)

“Seniors, lend me a hand and use the mental world to block one thunderbolt.” Li Hao set his jaw. “I... need some time to recover!”

The seal, stone, and sword tree widened their eyes. The thunderbolts looked quite overwhelming. Since the mental world counted as part of Li Hao, they were able to interact with the tribulation. But it was very likely that one thunderbolt would outright destroy the foundations that the young man had worked so hard for.

He’d given up the dao universe and everything else, keeping only the mental world. Once that was destroyed, the river of time would collapse.

There was no time for the three heavyweights to consider anything. Seeing a thunderbolt crash down on them, they roared and transformed the mental world into a massive seal. It rushed for the thunder and lightning!

Blood streamed from Li Hao’s orifices the moment it drew near the thunderbolt! The three Saints yelped with agony!

The mental world shook violently. If it wasn’t for three Saints forging its foundations, it would’ve immediately been blown to pieces. Numerous stars flared with a brilliant light in the mental world.

Rumble!

Enormous collisions rang through it as stars dimmed. Some even cracked open.

Li Hao had spent so much time and effort to combine them—all of it was rendered futile now. The entire mental world stilled, like it was dead.

The giant thunderbolt was still blasting away; the mental world groaned with collapse!

Li Hao waved his hand and slashed the Firmament Sword through the air! One stroke to cut through the world!

Boom!

The fourth thunderbolt winked out, but so did cracks mar the longsword. The three Saints were completely quiet in the mental world, much like it was a region of death!

Blood streaming down his face, Li Hao tilted his head at the sky. The mental world had fallen. It vanished from Silver Moon and sank into his mind. Stars that’d yet to combine ceased their movement. As Li Hao looked up at the firmament, the fifth thunderbolt was descending upon him.

There was no time for him to recover.

The river of time was still incredibly weak and the mental world was nearly completely destroyed. The thunderbolts wanted to sever Li Hao’s hope—he’d only endured four of them so far!

Lin Hongyu screamed with abject fury and split the void with her sword. She suddenly hurtled straight for the thunderclouds!

She wanted to split the clouds open!

Li Daoheng didn’t stop her; he watched with a thoughtful expression.

“Get away...” Li Hao roared after coughing up a mouthful of blood.

Boom!

The sword broke through the firmament, but it sailed through the thunderclouds like the two existed in a different dimension. Lin Hongyu... couldn’t touch them.

The world stilled for a split second.

“The thunderbolts... are not in the same dimension... as us...” blinked the Red Moon exalted emperor. This meant to say no one could substitute themselves for Li Hao! He was the only one who could endure the onslaught!

The mental world was his, so it could take one of the thunderbolts for him. But despite Lin Hongyu’s determination to hack through the thunderclouds even if it caused her death, she was unable to touch them. That meant there was nothing anyone could do, even when they wished to stand in front of Li Hao.

The thunder and lightning were in a different plane from them.

“It’s futile!” Celestial Pole sighed even further away. “I knew this was enormous trouble as soon as the tribulation appeared. No one can touch it apart from Li Hao. It won’t harm anyone else either, just him!

“I’d thought that it was a fake chaos tribulation, but it turns out to be real!” Celestial Pole sighed with emotion. “There was only one person who experienced a chaos tribulation in New Martial, but I didn’t probe the in detail. I simply know that it’s incredibly dangerous and much more tricky than an exalted emperor tribulation!”

There was nothing he could do about it, absolutely nothing at all. He’d never weathered one himself, but someone else had and lived to tell the tale.

“So tell us how that person survived it!” yelled the Great Li king.

Bam!

He was once more pierced through by the whip. Zhang An slashed with his blade, sending the whip off course. Zheng Yu didn’t mind. He tilted his head at Celestial Pole; everyone was equally curious in this moment.

Could anyone endure this tribulation? They didn’t know anyone who’d done so in New Martial. It seemed like they weren’t required to kill Li Hao anymore. The young man might die to the next thunderbolt. Once he did, the power of time would dissipate. The Great Li king and Lin Hongyu would no longer be able to maintain their current level of strength and would instantly die.

Zheng Yu was quite curious how one might survive an encounter with the chaos tribulation.

Celestial Pole’s mental ripples came reluctantly. Although he didn’t want to be involved, he quickly said, “The one who did so was the Human King!”

The crowd blinked. The Human King?

“He once encountered a chaos tribulation, but for what reason I’m not sure. I only knew that he was met with it once. As for how he endured it... probably... through the Human King storing it in his inner world and giving it to the Ash Emperor to swallow!

“Which means to say that the Human King and Ash Emperor jointly resolved the chaos tribulation! Logically speaking, outsiders cannot be involved, but the Ash Emperor is unique and jointly rules the world with the Human King. They are yin and yang, two sides of the same coin. That is why they can work together.

“The Ash Emperor swallows everything possible! Even the chaos tribulation that trapped the Human King became food in its mouth!”

The surroundings were absolutely silent, no one made a sound. Was this method... a kind of joke?

The Human King had trapped the thunder and lightning and the Ash Emperor devoured it. This was a problem that could only be solved by these two New Martial powerhouses, invincible heavyweights, and masters of the world. But this answer seemed completely useless after learning about it.

“You must have done something.” Celestial Pole was equally confused. “Why would the integration of the corporeal and immaterial great dao elicit attention from a chaos tribulation? If you can, you should let go of everything. That might make the thunder and lightning disperse!”

Therein lay Li Hao’s only possibility of survival. As for the idea that Celestial Pole knew of... how was Li Hao supposed to repeat it?

Was he as strong as the Human King? Did he have help from the Ash Emperor?

A tribulation encountered by two masters of the world was certainly much stronger than the one Li Hao faced. Regardless, the Human King hadn’t been able to resolve the situation on his own. Or perhaps he’d purposefully turned it into rations for the Ash Emperor.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t anything that Li Hao could access at his cultivation level.

......

“Give up?” Li Hao looked up at the sky with resignation. What was he supposed to give up? His mental world was almost no more, but the tribulation was still overhead. Clearly, nothing would change on its end even if he did give up what he was doing.

What a joke! It wouldn’t leave without smiting him dead!

A river of chaos swirled around him and Hong Yitang’s voice echoed in his mind. “I’ll try to block the fifth thunderbolt! I’m the great dao, not a human being. Dao is intangible as well, so I should be able to block one bolt...

“Hurry and recover your power of time. You stand a chance of making it past nine bolts so long as you can recover it!”

He was just speaking bracing words of comfort. Even if Hong Yitang blocked one thunderbolt, there were four more that Li Hao could not endure.

There was no way out! The half step emperors hadn’t become the young man’s greatest challenge; it was this ridiculous thunder and lightning that was forcing him into despair.

“They say that the heavens always give one a way out,” sighed Li Hao as he looked at the sky. “Is this my retribution for killing the heavenly will?”

He laughed at himself and stood up.

Lin Hongyu blazed with a deathly presence not too far away. She looked at Li Hao with some despair and helplessness. “Since there is no path forward for us... then release the Red Moon exalted emperor! Have Red Moon and these bastards be our burial goods!”

She ended on a furious howl, one filled with reluctance, fury, and sorrow. Why was this their ending?!

Li Hao had told her a few things before attempting everything and she also believed that the two half step emperors would be no match for everyone after Li Hao succeeded. But this tribulation... was too ridiculous and uncanny!

In that case, they might as well break the seal of the eight cities and throw this world into utter chaos! These exalted emperors and half step emperors could fight each other! Someone would be dead at the end of it!

They could be Li Hao and everyone else’s burial goods. It wouldn’t be a loss then if the Red Moon exalted emperor killed them, or they kill the one from Red Moon.

Lin Hongyu’s presence rose in an unsteady jumble. She looked at the man with a sword on his back, then at the seven main cities in the distance. The light of death flickered in her eyes; she was ready to break the seal of the eight cities!

Whether it was Zheng Yu or Li Daoheng, both men watched her warily. They were quite resigned by the situation as well!

They were truly worried that the woman would throw caution to the wind and outright break the seal. Meanwhile, the exalted emperor’s replica itched with anticipation and eagerness.

This was an opportunity!

Li Hao was certain to die and there was no way ahead for Lin Hongyu and the rest. It only made sense that they would gamble on breaking the seal when the future seemed bleak. That way, the exalted emperor could benefit and break out of the seal with his primary body!

This was wonderful!

Was today his lucky day?

Although he would lose a replica in the process, so what?

“It only targets me?” Li Hao suddenly laughed. “The others are in another void and different dimension. The Human King could capture it...“

The young man suddenly thought of something. He looked around, at Lin Hongyul, the Great Li king, and Zheng Yu’s trio. “I see!” Li Hao abruptly laughed.

Hearts quaked. See what?

Li Hao looked up at the sky, at the fifth thunderbolt about to descend, and murmured, “The thunder and lightning cannot harm anyone else but me. You really are bullying the crap out of me!”

He leered and looked around him, baring his teeth. “I’d wanted to let you guys fight it out among yourselves, I don’t care about any of this. But now... let’s enjoy everything together!”

What did he mean by that?

As thoughts ran wildly, Li Hao summoned the mental world again with a howl. It was quite dilapidated and tattered.

“Since this is the case... then let us all partake in the festivities,” Li Hao murmured as he looked at his mental world. “Let’s see if this tribulation is indeed invincible!”

The mental world suddenly started expanding without pause!