Chapter 1398: Calamity (III)

Li Daoheng’s flesh and blood instantly vaporized when the seventh thunderbolt struck. His sword intent shot to the heavens, but shattered on its way up. The sword intent drifted back down to the ground as dao meridians manifested in the man’s body, as did his avenue of core origin dao.

Dual cultivation!

Li Daoheng was a proper cultivator of both daos! He’d even absorbed a great deal of the corporeal and immaterial daos. And now, a sword floated up from his bones!

It was clearly a sword of 360 dao meridians.

The sword stabbed through the firmament the moment it appeared, its sword intent so strong that it was unparalleled. Li Hao’s move of one hundred sword daos was much weaker compared to this sword intent.

This was a true swordsman!

The seventh thunderbolt penetrated his body with destructive force. Li Daoheng continuously wore away at it with his sword intent, his bones constantly recovering from breaking.

Off to the side, flesh flew from Bone Eclipse’s body. The enormous quantity of Red Moon power within his body was spontaneously obliterated. He himself was reduced to a red skeleton hovering the sky.

The exalted emperor looked wordlessly above him. The seventh thunderbolt already tested the limits of his capabilities.

Meanwhile, Li Hao continued to transform in an illusory realm. He actually seemed in a much better state compared to the other two.

The eighth thunderbolt could already be glimpsed among the clouds.

“Bone Eclipse, work with me. We’ll hold it off together!” Li Daoheng transmitted. He didn’t include Li Hao because he didn’t trust the young man.

Li Hao had a death wish and was dragging them down with him. The kid was completely mad! It was pointless to talk about cooperation with someone throwing their life away. He was better off seeking out Bone Eclipse!

It was a sign of how difficult the situation was when someone like Li Daoheng approached with an offer of partnership. His previous notion of using the chaos tribulation to verify his dao and ascend as an exalted emperor had been greatly dismissed. The tribulation was so much more formidable than he imagined!

Li Hao ignored their movements. He looked quietly at the sky and manifested a sword in his hand. As the catastrophic thunder and lightning came for him, he waved the longsword around.

Dao meridians came into view in his body! Dao stars appeared once more and hung high in the sky. The transient strength within his body surged into the stars as Li Hao chose to open more dao meridians.

Indeed, the young man was choosing to cultivate in this moment of time!

He’d opened 180 dao meridian to begin with, but now set foot on that path again.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit late for that?” sneered the red skeleton that was Bone Eclipse.

Opening dao meridians, now? Where were you earlier??

The hell are you doing all this for if you weren’t ready? We could’ve talked it out and waited for you. Why did you have to go and bring around a chaos tribulation for??

Is it easy to cultivate to the exalted emperor level??

I came here to be the god of this world! But the Sword Sovereign swept me through the Star Gate as soon as I showed up, nearly offing me in the process. And then the door closed as soon as I tumbled through, which was the sign for the seal to clamp down around me.

Now life’s even harder after I get out!

Bone Eclipse felt that he might’ve expended all of his good luck prior to visiting this minor world. He’d enjoyed an easy life and smoothly made his way to the exalted emperor level. Although he wasn’t that strong among his peers, he was among the ranks of forefathers in Red Moon major world.

But here, he was nothing! And this was a minor world! Where could he go to cry out this injustice?

......

Li Hao ignored Bone Eclipse; stars rose in the sky, slightly illusory because the source of the young man’s power wasn’t that solid. Apart from the star of time, the 179 other stars hovered in the air and spread out over the world.

It looked like the eighth thunderbolt would be upon them soon. Li Hao didn’t care at all, he looked quietly at the sky.

Come on, slowly now, there’s no rush. This tribulation won’t end until I’m dead. Do you guys think that it will end after nine bolts?

They probably think that they’ll survive everything after the ninth bolt is over!

The eighth thunderbolt descended.

Kaboom!

Li Hao was completely vaporized and the star of time within his body erupted with a surge of power. It withstood the destructive force; Silver Moon itself seemed to flow in reverse as the two types of strength intersected!

Li Daoheng howled with fury and utilized himself as a sword. He stabbed through the firmament!

A great sum of thunder and lightning was obliterated, but the rest split the man’s bones open and shattered them completely. Half a body remained hovering in the sky while unlimited destruction sought to erase his sword intent.

Bone Eclipse snarled with rage and raised a bony hand in a fist. He punched several hundred times in quick succession. It wasn’t until his hand was dust and half of his skeleton splintered to shards that the eighth bolt subsided.

There was only half left of both of them.

The star of time twinkled continuously within Li Hao’s body, again and again until it began giving out from the strain. It finally negated the destructive force after it had noticeably dimmed.

Li Hao appeared again. He glanced at the star of time inside its body—too much of its power had been expended. He might not be able to rely on it to endure the ninth bolt!

“Fucking hell!” Bone Eclipse crawled out of the ground again, rising into the air with half of a red skeleton. He cursed noisily before ending with a sneer, “I... think I have a chance of surviving the ninth bolt!”

There was a chance!

Although he had only half a skeleton left, he felt that there was opportunity for him to weather the tribulation.

All three were gravely injured, but Bone Eclipse had discovered that after being struck by the bolt, it swept away the motley array of random energy within his body. That made for a quick rate of recovery.

This emperor is sure to stand strong against the ninth bolt! Li Hao, you little bastard, just you wait!

Bone Eclipse had hated Li Daoheng the most before, now he had a new target. Being sealed away for one hundred thousand years hadn’t dealt as much damage to him as these eight thunderbolts did. He would’ve stayed inside the seal had he known beforehand!

Li Hao gazed upon his dao stars and watched as more continued to materialize. There were more than 200 in the void now.

That wasn’t enough!

The young man extracted energy from the surroundings. There was one major advantage to being the heavenly will—he could call upon all of the strength in Silver Moon. Energy streamed toward him and helped him light each star.

These actions were a joke in Bone Eclipse’s eyes. The young man was better off gathering energy to recover from his wounds. What was the point in enhancing his strength by that little?

These stars were clearly very illusory; they were formed by the power of the future. Once that power receded, these stars would fall apart as well. What was the point of doing all this?

To add to his experience?

The key point was, did Li Hao have a future to speak of?

“We’ll suffer it together!” Bone Eclipse suddenly shrieked and rushed to Li Daoheng. “You and I will work together and go at it in turns.”

He wouldn’t survive the ninth bolt otherwise!

Li Daoheng didn’t say anything or have opinions to the contrary. He was the one who’d proposed a partnership first. Clearly, Bone Eclipse was thinking twice about his own abilities after observing the ninth bolt.

It was the thickest one yet and it barreled down with a momentum to annihilate the world!

Celestial Pole sucked in a sharp breath not too far away and said a quick prayer. This blow had reached the strength of some of the stronger exalted emperors. While it was hard to kill an exalted emperor, none of the three possessed their former strength!

Could Li Hao withstand it?

It was a good thing that his future strength was yet to dissipate. If this was the moment that he was destined to meet his calamity, then he was dead without a doubt!

Boom!

The world quaked from the enormous impact, then grew larger again. Its rivers, continents, and mountains expanded at a furious pace. The seven cities trembled without pause and Hong Yitang summoned the great dao to keep the world in order. However, the land still split apart and countless buildings started collapsing.

Thankfully, the entire continent had been undergoing modifications over the past year. All of the buildings were made by cultivators and thus sturdy enough. If the buildings were what they’d been in the past, they would all be rubble by now.

And since the entire population cultivated, there were numerous Mountain and Sea or Sun and Moon cultivators in various parts of the world. All of them stepped forward now to help stabilize the land.

Those that’d been petrified by time had awoken when the tribulation arrived. They were now panic-stricken, deathly afraid that the world would be split apart at any moment.

Countless cultivators walked out of their shelters, either devoting themselves to saving people or filling in the fractures that split the earth. Earth supernaturals volunteered for the latter and stabilized the buildings, rendering what aid they could.

The land continued to expand. Buildings that’d been close to each other before were abruptly hundreds or one thousand meters apart. The entire world grew at a rapid pace!

Silver Moon was evolving at an unbelievable rate!

......

Near Silver City, the three powerhouses welcomed the ninth bolt.

Li Daoheng struck with his sword and Bone Eclipse brandished his fists. The two husks furiously attacked the thunder and lightning, defying it. As destructive energy washed over them, they continuously broke apart and recovered again and again.

All trump cards were being employed now. Bone Eclipse even summoned a blood-red pearl from his body. It blazed like the sun, erupting with infinite Red Moon power. This was his final ace.

He hadn’t been able to bring himself to use it all these years as it was Red Moon power that he’d painstakingly accumulated. He didn’t hesitate to unleash it all now!

Li Daoheng’s bones split apart and assembled into numerous longswords. A massive sword formation appeared with the bone as the sword! It swept through the world, the swords being blown to bits as the thunderbolt crashed into him.

The two working in tandem utilized their full force and their most fearsome might to eke out survival from a situation of certain death. They eliminated all of the thunder and lightning, leaving only one bone sword in the air and dust from the red pearl!

“Hahaha!!” Bone Eclipse roared with crazed laughter.

I live! That brat’s dead, isn’t he??

He turned to look at Li Hao, seeing the star of time appear and flare with uncontrollable power of time. The thunderbolt quickly eviscerated it, leaving the star of time dimmer than before. It’d expended almost all of its energy!

Not only that, but Li Hao’s strength from the future was nearly depleted after the last bolt. And that still wasn’t enough.

The young man had to collect strength from all sides, only to have it cut down as soon as he gathered it, again and again. The bolt didn’t end until Li Hao’s presence had wilted to an extreme.

He survived that,

Bone Eclipse reflected with some regret.

But he’s more or less done. There’s no more power of time, so he’s dead meat now!