Chapter 1404: Creating a New World (I)

Once she put herself in Li Hao’s shoes and recreated his frame of mind, Lin Hongyu felt much more confident.

Time, life and death, the eight heritage weapons.

If this was part of Li Hao’s plans, then that meant the damned brat had a certain guarantee of resurrecting. In that case, more ideas came to Lin Hongyu’s mind.

She looked at the crowd gathered in front of her—there were New Martial powerhouses, the Great Li king, and the western queen among their number. Lin Hongyu considered the queen for a few moments. That foolish woman had overturned everyone’s impression of her today.

Although too much had happened after that, which negated her efforts, the queen had stepped forward at a critical moment and lent the moon’s strength to Li Hao in the fight between exalted emperors. The key was, the queen was a peer of Li Hao’s, a fellow cultivator of the same age in the true sense of the identity.

Li Hao was ruthless when it came to his enemies. Were there any left throughout the world?

And yet, this woman who’d clashed with him numerous times and the one who’d handed him his first defeat ever, was still alive. That was unbelievable.

While these thoughts ran through Lin Hongyu’s mind, none of them showed in her face. She still wore an arctic expression and exuded copious death qi. “It will save us a lot of trouble since everyone wholeheartedly wishes to revive the marquis! We are gathered here today because we approve of His Lordship’s rule. King of Great Li and Your Majesty the Sky God, what thoughts do you have?”

“What thoughts can I have?” the king answered with a complicated look. “I don’t even have a future self, I couldn’t summon it! Li Hao promised me that if I joined the fray and killed a half step emperor, he would present me with a half step emperor body. All of that’s been blown to pieces. I can only wait for him to come back to life and keep his promise.”

Not to mention, what else can I have in mind?

Don’t you guys see a powerhouse like Celestial Pole revealing his secret of killing my ancestor just so he can draw clear lines between us? I’m just a regular Empyrean King without his help, not a half step emperor enhanced by a shadow. What can I do?

Doing nothing was the best decision of all.

The queen was also incredibly aloof. She flicked a glance at the death-shrouded Lin Hongyu, sensing the hostility from the other. A cautious air gripped the queen and she said coolly, “Li Hao borrowed a vast sum of lunar strength from this queen. I lent it to him, not gifted it. This queen can only wait for him to revive and return it to me!”

Both rulers had chosen to await Li Hao’s return. But did anyone know if the resurrection attempt would succeed?

It was a last resort for a hopeless situation!

No matter the feasibility, everyone needed a goal to work towards. Otherwise... enormous problems would develop if they truly considered Li Hao’s death. Large-scale slaughter might even take place.

“Very well, since everyone has no opinions otherwise, then this is where we will concentrate our efforts,” Lin Hongyu said calmly. “We’ll do it like we did before—prayers from the people to collect their faith, so we can accumulate dao strength in the dao universe!

“Martial Uncle Hong and Generał Gan can try a temporary combination. That might stimulate the star of time into reviving. Perhaps we might light it again!” A foreboding note crept into her voice. “The marquis trusts both of you, so do not think of entertaining other ideas. I’ll be blunt upfront. Whether it is General Gan or Martial Uncle Hong, you will be hunted down by Silver Moon if you seek to devour the other!”

“I will not do so, of course!” Hong Yitang nodded.

“How would I ever?” Gan Wuliang hastily added. “It’s all thanks to the marquis that I have my current accomplishments Of course it is my responsibility to resurrect His Lordship! How would I try to seize the power of great dao from Headmaster Hong?”

Lin Hongyu looked at him again. Gan Wuliang... was very intelligent. Absolutely very intelligent.

Smart people were very difficult to deal with at times. Gan Wuliang wasn’t displaying any changes in his mindset after Li Hao’s death or becoming the master of the immaterial dao. On the contrary, he was particularly enthusiastic about reviving Li Hao.

If the young man couldn’t come back to life, Lin Hongyu likely wouldn’t be able to keep him under control!

“Then we shall each attend to our duties...” She suddenly lifted her head to regard the indistinct threshold over her. “The Star Gate... Someone said that it can be opened when the eight heritage weapons are gathered. Can the Firmament Sword open the Star Gate now?”

That was a very important question!

Silver Moon was in an isolated state, but if the sword could access the Star Gate, then some troubles might develop.

Of course, she could’ve left this unsaid, but she chose to voice it aloud anyway. Lin Hongyu glanced at Zhang An and the rest before intoning, “If the Star Gate opens... it’s best if the outside world is New Martial. But if we’re revealed to be within Red Moon universe itself... we’ll be in trouble!

“The Ash Emperor’s projection wasn’t able to reach us, but we heard some dao notes when the Red Moon Exalted Bone Eclipse Emperor fell. From that, I guess that we’re closer to Red Moon major world instead!”

There was a basis to her speculation. The Ash Emperor was such a strong entity, but was unable to swiftly come to them. That meant it was very far away. On the other hand, they’d heard some words from Red Moon major world.

“Silver Moon has risen in status after two consecutive chaos tribulations. That’s bound to attract some notice,” Lin Hongyu continued. “We would’ve continued to remain inconspicuous if we were as negligible as before, but now that we’ve increased in stature and raised such a fuss... Will we attract attention from Red Moon powerhouses since we’re in their territory?

“They should know that Bone Eclipse set out to conquer us. Now that he’s dead and considering the fact that there was a disturbance in the chaos... I’m more worried that Red Moon powerhouses might already be near us!

“The key is, can they break through the Star Gate and bring the invasion to us?”

Eyes widened at her question. Even Celestial Pole frowned slightly. “There is logic in your theorization!”

It wasn’t random wild guessing, despite Lin Hongyu’s desire to intimidate New Martial.

Don’t you guys get up to anything now. Once you do and the door opens, there’s nothing good in it for you if Red Moon powerhouses step through!

Despite Celestial Pole not being afraid of death since he was a half step emperor replica, he was much more prudent now that he had Number Two in tow.

Lin Hongyu spoke of general danger, but her real aim was to greatly cow the New Martial powerhouses.

There’s nothing in it for you guys with Li Hao dead. On the flip side, if Li Hao is alive, he might be able to bring us safely out of Red Moon territory given his potential, strength, and intelligence.

“Don’t worry, we will not do anything,” Zhang An interjected with composure. “We will not seize the Firmament Sword to open the Star Gate! It will take more than just a simple accumulation of the eight heritage weapons to accomplish that.

“Once the gate opens and the world’s presence leaks out, we will soon be detected even if we were undiscovered up to this point. We’ve already waited one hundred thousand years. If you really can resurrect Li Hao, does a few more days matter?”

He was no fool. This group conversation was a declaration of stances. It was an agreement between the various factions to revive Li Hao.

Lin Hongyu no longer minced words. Having confirmed everyone’s intentions, she ordered, “In addition, I have a small request to make of Dao Sword, the Ninth Division leader, Your Majesty the Sky God, and the king of Great Li.

“In order to prevent misunderstandings, the four heavyweights will not be participating in His Lordship’s resurrection!” Her tone brooked no disagreement. “I trust you, but you are unfamiliar with the new dao. Senior Zhang, I would trouble you to lead these four to Great Li and study the new dao for a while!”

These were very blunt words. The king was irritated, the queen didn’t care, and Dao Sword inclined his body to indicate no protest.

Li Daozong felt a very complicated mix of emotions. How did it make sense to exclude him?

Wait, it did.

That had been his blood brother!

Li Daoheng had been his elder brother. If Li Hao had not thrown a wrench into his plans, this world would have been his. Zheng Yu had not out-schemed him and Bone Eclipse was clearly no match for Li Daoheng’s wits.

Celestial Pole’s replica was even less of an opponent.

Without Li Hao, it would be Li Daoheng standing here today, exercising control over the world. He might have even devoured the two dao universes, the world, and outright set foot into the ranks of stronger exalted emperors.

The New Martial contingent was no fool either. Although Lin Hongyu’s words weren’t the most pleasant to hear, they all fell silent and said nothing further.

The Ninth Division leader didn’t say anything either.

“Will do!” Zhang An nodded.

“And the senior needs to temporarily withdraw your corporal dao stars!”

This command drew general ire.

“There’s no need for that, is there?” interrupted the Zhang Saint. “Dean Zhang is the grandson of the supreme and will not go back on his word. Once the marquis returns to life, he will find Commander Lin’s actions inappropriate, will he not? Marquis Li was never on such guard against the dean when he was alive. Theirs was a relationship of gentlemen...”

A certain thought rose in their minds—

this woman is so petty!

Li Hao would not have treated Zhang An in this manner. He was always very courteous to the ancient; he didn’t erupt in open hostilities even when his master died in battle. The young man had simply warned to not interfere between him and New Martial, and he’d done so privately.

But today, Lin Hongyu openly declared that she didn’t trust Zhang An. That raised the hackles of many New Martial powerhouses.

“That is fine, I will withdraw for now,” Zhang An said. “It’s just... dao stars belong in a dao universe. They can’t stay outside for too long.”

“I understand!” Lin Hongyu nodded. “The senior can return when we are finished with our business!”

Zhang An had nothing else to say.

Lin Hongyu didn’t seem to care if they were happy or not. She would pay attention to this if she wanted to rule the world, seeking to recruit those she could. But... was there a need for that?

She didn’t think so!

In that case, safety came first. While everyone seemed united now, everyone was aware of what they truly thought. Precautions had to be taken, just in case.

“In that case, time is of the essence. We’ll start our preparations today,” Lin Hongyu ordered. “I’ll search through the world first and collect the fragments of the heavenly will. I’ll see if I can use them as a catalyst and gather the shattered heavenly will to revive the marquis!”

She quickly gave everyone their missions. No one protested and left to carry out their orders.

They lacked a leader for the moment.

Since Lin Hongyu had stepped forward and wanted to focus on resurrecting Li Hao first, then they would give it a try, no matter whether it seemed possible or not.