Chapter 1391: Outside of Silver Moon (IV)

Zheng Yu started struggling fiercely, but he was well and truly stuck in Li Daoheng’s trap.

“You’ve integrated with my primary body multiple times and absorbed much of my sword intent as well,” Li Daoheng laughed softly. “You and I are one, how do you think you’ll be able to break free?

“You two better not stop me either.” He looked at Li Hao and Celestial Pole. “Otherwise, I might make an example out of you guys when I fully recover!”

“Kill him!!” Zheng Yu raved, reaching a full understanding of the situation. “You won’t be absorbing me, Li Daoheng...”

Boom!

Energy roiled within his body and even an avenue of core origin dao appeared. Zheng Yu struggled fiercely, shaking the void. He was overcome by despair and bitterness!

He’d been on the cusp of success, but Li Daoheng appeared at the last second.

Or rather, he’d always been there from beginning to end, but allowed Zheng Yu to think that he’d reincarnated. Dao Sword had been a red herring all along; Li Daoheng hadn’t reincarnated at all!

Off to the side, Celestial Pole frowned. He looked at the sky—a tribulation was about to appear, one truly of the exalted emperor level. It looked like even if one verified their dao in Silver Moon, they would still attract an exalted emperor tribulation so long as they were a core origin cultivator.

This obliquely verified that New Martial and core origin still existed, that Silver Moon wasn’t too far away from New Martial.

He tilted his head at Li Hao with another furrow of his brows. “Are you able to disengage from Number Two?”

I was resurrecting a cat for the Exalted Blood Emperor, not a human cat. Li Hao’s not going to seize possession of Number Two and refuse to leave, is he?

“I am!” Li Hao responded. “It’s just that senior cat seems to be off in a daze and hasn’t fully awakened yet. I’m borrowing its body before it comes back to reality.”

“Those two guys have expended the last one hundred thousand years scheming against each other...” Celestial Pole looked at Li Daoheng, then at the struggling Zheng Yu. This was quite a strange situation!

Zheng Yu had thought that everything was in his control and decided to seize Li Daoheng’s past self. But it turned out that Li Daoheng hadn’t reincarnated at all. Instead, he’d utilized the last couple of decades to further integrate himself with Zheng Yu so he could devour the man in return.

Neither of these two was anything good!

They’d contended against each other starting one hundred thousand years ago. Today, it seemed like Li Daoheng was the overwhelming victor.

The thunder tribulation presented itself at this time, ready to verify Li Daoheng’s dao. If Celestial Pole intervened, he would be sticking his nose into an exalted emperor tribulation, not a chaos thunder tribulation. The exalted emperor tribulation would also attack anyone who interfered with it.

Celestial Pole looked at Li Hao. What did they do now? He didn’t like to think about these sorts of things. With Number Two resurrected, his mission was complete—assuming he successfully brought it back to New Martial.

But right now... with Li Daoheng verifying his dao... he most likely wouldn’t let them go once he succeeded.

Li Hao didn’t say a word and lifted his eyes up to the sky, studying the tribulation that was about to revive. So this was an exalted emperor tribulation!

Judging from the presence it emanated, it was stronger than even a chaos tribulation. The one that’d struck him was just an incredibly weekend thunder tribulation. Exalted emperor tribulations were meant to test those who would rise to that level.

The crucial point was, this thing attacked everything equally!

Unexpected developments had been the norm of the day; what’d happened had run far beyond Li Hao’s imagination.

Both Li Daoheng and Zheng Yu could be found within each other, and it looked like Zheng Yu was on the back foot. While he was yet to be fully devoured, he could not extract himself. Once the thunder and lightning arrived, Li Daoheng might use him as a shield against the calamity.

Li Hao breathed out. Since he was still inside the cat, this exhale raised quite a bit of disturbance.

Li Daoheng still grasped the river of chaos with one hand; Hong Yitang was also within his reach. Once Li Daoheng verified his dao, there would be no stopping him.

“These two guys... are seriously annoying!” Li Hao shook his head and directed a powerful surge of devouring strength to the void!

At the same time, a very feeble river of time appeared!

Some power of time floated out of the cat’s fur—it was ready to trace to past and present!

Li Daoheng was still absorbing Zheng Yu’s strength and ready for the thunder tribulation. He wasn’t concerned about interference from Li Hao and the rest, whoever did so would be greeted with their own demise. But suddenly, he jerked his head in the young man’s direction.

“Show me the past!” growled Li Hao.

Past?

Celestial Pole’s heart skipped a beat.

Dafuck? What past? You’re a cat now, so your past...

The world seemed to crumble as a second massive cat hovered out of the void and the infinite past. It shifted in and out of sight, a lost and baffled look on its face.

Li Hao ignored it and flew toward the corporeal dao universe!

A star manifested in it. It stood unmoving, doubly watching Li Hao approach, but also dumbly watching another cat that was slowly turning toward them from the end of the world.

The other cat looked the same as the one that Li Hao had attached himself to, but there were also differences. This one seemed fatter and more mischievous, and also much, much stronger!

The fat cat looked in their direction, confused, surprised, puzzled, and very much awake.

“Meow... A cat? Number Two?”

The world collapsed and the firmament split open, even the real star of time seemed about to split open. Li Hao seemed to have traced the past to something incredible!

Such a disturbance hadn’t been present when he traced back to the Exalted Blood Emperor or welcomed his own future self. But as he traced the cat’s past, he seemed to have poked a hole in the world!

Even Li Daoheng’s eyes widened and his mouth slackened. How could this be??

Zheng Yu forgot to struggle. He, too, stared dumbly at the cat at the end of the world. It seemed to want to walk forward for a look!

But the river of time that Li Hao had summoned wasn’t strong enough to support it! It started collapsing!

The real star of time trembled by his side. It seemed to be very weak and small, far less than the cat.

“Hmm? This bridge... is so weak! I can’t make it over...” murmured the cat at the end of the world. “Number Two seems to be alive again!”

The cat was too heavy and fat. When it set a foot onto the river of time, the river outright crumbled. Li Hao’s soul trembled violently and he looked on incredulously. He hadn’t summoned the past for this cat, he just wanted to pique the star of time’s curiosity so he could capture it.

But as it turned out...

The star of time wasn’t just curious, it was even afraid. The cat wanted to approach them, but the river of time couldn’t support it.

“Meow... I can’t go to you! You’re so far away... Is it that little rundown place? I can’t seem to find it anymore... We’re fighting bad guys right now! This cat won’t be going over there then... so remember to come find me!

“It’s a lot of fun here and we’ve killed a lot of people. I have a lot of fishies! Hmm? Little Celestial Pole is also there?”

It murmured to himself at the end of the void. A resigned expression crossed its face when it saw that the long river was about to collapse. “I won’t be going to you... You’re so far... where have you drifted to...?”

It seemed to see something in the next second and something like a millstone appeared over its claws. Thunder and lightning sparkled over it.

“Hmm? A tribulation...? Will it hit Number Two?” It opened its mouth and devoured a thunderbolt, burping afterward. “Then let’s not go for the tribulation... we can do it later, okay? Number Two seems to have just come back to life and it’s very weak!”

The thunder and lightning vanished from the upper skies of Silver Moon world!

Li Daoheng looked blankly at the sky, Zheng Yu looked blankly at the sky. The tribulation was suddenly gone. How was one supposed to verify their dao without the tribulation?

“Hahaha!!” Li Daoheng broke out in deranged laughter. The thunder and lightning were gone!

The river could endure no more and fully collapsed. The enormous cat looked in their direction with regret.

“I’ll come find you after I finish fighting if you don’t come to me! Fighting is boring, but I can turn them into fishies after I kill them. I saved some for you, we can have fish together!”

Boom!

The figure disappeared, leaving Silver Moon deathly quiet.

Li Hao’s very soul was trembling. He didn’t have thought to spare for what had just happened, he darted out of the cat’s body and into the real star of time!

Li Daoheng remained gaping at the sky. He suddenly roared, “You bastard!”

Although he spoke of a reluctance to weather a tribulation, how was an exalted emperor of the late New Martial era supposed to become an emperor without a tribulation??

The tribulation was gone! The thunder and lightning had outright disappeared!

The Ash Emperor had reached through time, chaos, possibly through a past projection to devour his tribulation! It told him to attempt the tribulation in a few more days so that it wouldn’t hurt Number Two!

“How did things go this way??” Li Daoheng murmured. Li Hao couldn’t have possibly summoned the Ash Emperor! His power of time was insufficient to summon this august personage!

No matter how confident or arrogant he was, he knew that not only was he not an emperor after this interlude, but he was the type of existence that could be swallowed in one gulp. But how?? Li Hao shouldn’t have been able to summon this one!

He tilted his head for a look; a star tumult violently through the void. All of Silver Moon stuttered to a halt.

The power of time dissipated through the world!

Everyone except those fighting sank into silence. They stared dumbly at the jerking star. Was this the star that supplied Li Hao with power? Clearly, it had been curious what was going on.

However, it didn’t seem sufficient to support the Ash Emperor.

“Li Hao!” Li Daoheng snarled. He raised his sword to cut down the star.

Damn it all to hell!

No one had imagined that this would be possible! The projection of the Ash Emperor had shattered his hopes of becoming an emperor. He was rather lost at the moment.

How am I supposed to break through to exalted emperor now?

Celestial Pole clucked his tongue with amazement. The young man had almost summoned the Ash Emperor! Things would be so interesting if he had. The Imperial Majesty might have swallowed the entire world in one bite!

Li Hao was certainly a lunatic! He really had incredible nerve!

Granted, Celestial Pole should’ve been able to escape that fate.

Within the star of time, Li Hao doggedly hung on. He clenched his teeth and defended himself against the solidification of time. The young man forcefully integrated himself into the star!

Since you won’t come to me for integration, I’ll go to you!

All of Silver Moon was now a mental world. He wanted to assimilate the star into his dao meridians. Of the countless surprises that had cropped up, Li Hao more or less had completed his plan.

The caveat was that he could hang onto the star.

“Stop running, I’ll take you to fun places...” Li Hao coaxed with difficulty, like he was babysitting a child. The star was yet to fully mature, so he ignored everything else and focused on lulling the star until it stopped struggling.