Chapter 1408: A Contest of Swords (I)

Those who pursued the dao were undefinable and ethereal. People such as the Human King and others were humans, not of the dao.

There were pros and cons to everything, it wasn’t a matter of who was better or not. Li Hao simply leaned more toward the War Sovereign’s style.

I have no ties in the world and I decide if I wish to leave or stay.

What was the point in living forever?

Bone Eclipse had mentioned that Red Moon once invaded a major world and devoured the master of that world. Their opponent could resist, but chose to dissipate into nothing instead. There was nothing left in this world for them anymore. In the absence of that, living was a kind of torment.

Such were the thoughts of the elderly. While Li Hao was very young, an impulse to leap free of everything cropped up in his mind every now and then.

His desires and wants had gradually been snuffed out after the death of his teacher and the rest. If it wasn’t for the last bit of aspiration to resurrect them, then... he might not have left behind that tendril of time.

The human heart was complicated, and he was even more so than the rest.

“That one is indeed very terrifying and very strong.” Celestial Pole inclined his head upon hearing Li Hao’s words. “Therefore... don’t get any ideas in mind about Number Two.”

“I won’t. It’s just at the end of the river and immersed in the past,” Li Hao laughed. “The cat is fully aware of what it’s doing. I’m slightly confused, however. The Exalted Blood Emperor might have meant well in resurrecting the cat, but what was the point in doing so? The War Sovereign is dead, bringing the cat back is just adding to its troubles.”

“Being alive is the point!”

Li Hao shook his head. He didn’t agree with Celestial Pole’s words. This was a cat without an owner—the owner that had kept it company for ten million years. The cat had chosen to die with its owner in its final moments. That was what it wanted and hoped for.

But now, they had revived it. The Exalted Blood Emperor and others should not have done so.

“Is the War Sovereign about to return?”

Celestial Pole shook his head at the question. “No way! He scattered everything that he was throughout the world, incorporating it into New Martial and giving it to the Human King and Exalted Blood Emperor. He’s unable to come back from that.”

“Incorporated into New Martial...” Li Hao blinked. “Silver Moon is born from New Martial...”

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The young man paused and looked at the world outside. “Is the source of Silver Moon’s energy... the War Sovereign?”

“Surely... not?” Celestial Pole murmured, also startled. “This world is just the energy randomly seeped out from the New Martial main world.”

“Can randomly seeped out energy form another world so easily? Can it... forge a dao of time?”

Time was such a unique dao, yet it’s been born in a minor world!

From the fragments of Battle Heaven’s past that Li Hao had viewed, he could see that they’d touched upon the notion of time. There just hadn’t been such a concept in New Martial back then.

Some thoughts materialized in Li Hao’s heart and he suddenly sighed, “Perhaps Silver Moon is formed out of a tendril of the War Sovereign’s power. That is why you guys resurrected Number Two. Perhaps the Exalted Blood Emperor wishes for the cat to keep the sovereign company.”

Celestial Pole paused.

Really?

Surely not!

“You...” He looked skeptically at Li Hao.

You’re not saying this on purpose so you can take Number Two from me, are you?

You wield the power of time and are the king of Silver Moon. If this world really is formed out of the remnants of power from the War Sovereign, then it’s fine for Number Two to belong to you.

But that also was too much of a coincidence!

The War Sovereign had died a long time ago and the power he left behind had gone to benefit the Human King and Exalted Blood Emperor. Was there any left over for Silver Moon?

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m not that shameless!” Li Hao said softly. “I’m just wondering how naturally leaking energy can form a world on its own without someone shaping it. If that’s possible, then minor worlds are invincible throughout the universe!

“I think the birth of Silver Moon is tied to whatever the War Sovereign left behind. Otherwise, with his domineering personality, would he have allowed New Martial’s energy to seep out like that?”

“It was for the Sword Sovereign...” Celestial Pole frowned.

“The Sword Sovereign coalesced a myriad of daos together and traced them to the same end.” Li Hao shook his head again. “It made no difference to him whether he devoured them or not. Of course, you can also explain it that way. I’m just offering my opinion and how I think that’s not necessarily right.

“I just think it was a bit out of character for the Exalted Blood Emperor to resurrect the cat. As much as he would miss the cat, he wouldn’t have taken it away from the War Sovereign. That would be too selfish as it would leave Number Two all alone in the world.”

Selfish? Resurrecting someone is being selfish?

Celestial Pole didn’t know what to say. Dying was the last thing he wanted, so being alive was wonderful. He didn’t quite agree with some of Li Hao’s ideas.

But given closer scrutiny, the young man did make some sense. So the birth of Silver Moon resulted from the War Sovereign’s power?

“New Martial’s main world is split into yin and yang,” Celestial Pole suddenly said. “The yin world was present from the beginning, but it remained undetected. It was the War Sovereign who discovered it!”

He’d actually pulled the Human King out of the yin world. So this meant that the War Sovereign had comprehended yin and yang early on!

He was the only one in that age to realize that the world was two sides of the same coin. After that, parts of his legacy had helped shape the Human King.

Li Hao nodded, completely unsurprised. “Since he could capture parts of the past, he could naturally determine yin from yang and define life and death.”

“That’s... true.” Celestial Pole’s jaw dropped. “I’ve never thought about this. But that doesn’t matter, Number Two doesn’t belong to you!”

“......”

I won’t care no matter how much you say, Number Two isn’t yours!

“You saw yourself when the Ash Emperor’s projection was present that Number Two was invited to eat fish. As forgetful as the Ash Emperor is, you might face the Imperial Majesty’s wrath if you seize Number Two!”

You better think twice about what you’re doing!

“How am I seizing the cat?” Li Hao laughed. “It’s the one that swam up the river and back to the past...”

“The Ash Emperor won’t listen to reason!” Celestial Pole shook his head. “It doesn’t mean anything for you to tell me this. The Ash Emperor doesn’t bother with logic. It wouldn’t be the Ash Emperor if it did! Anyway, it’s up to you if you want to take Number Two with you. Just keep the consequences in mind!”

“He won’t,” Lin Hongyu laughed softly. “Don’t worry, Senior Celestial Pole. It’s just... if I may be so bold, how strong is the Ash Emperor?”

Celestial Pole wanted to roll his eyes.

What, are you trying to figure out if you can fight the Imperial Majesty? You think too much!

“How strong? Let me put it this way... New Martial doesn’t further categorize cultivators once they reach exalted emperor. There’s not much point in doing so, but there are indeed levels of difference in exalted emperors!

“Stronger ones, such as the Heavenly Emperor, can fight five premier exalted emperors without breaking a sweat. The Human King cut down the Heavenly Emperor and shares his strength with the Ash Emperor, so the two of them are on the same level. This was during the final battle of New Martial!

"A premier exalted emperor refers to those such as Supreme Zhang and his peers. Those below premier exalted emperors include my father and his peers, the old guard of the nine emperors and four sovereigns.

“After that comes exalted emperors like the Sword Sovereign. And after them are weaker people like me, the Human King Consort, the Nether King...

“And after

that

are those such as the Pagoda King and his peers, as well as some exalted emperors of Tranquil Star...

“And finally, you have Capsize Sea’s father—Unbounded Strength—and other pseudo exalted emperors, like the Monster Spirit Envoy, the Cat Tree...” Celestial Pole looked at Li Hao. “This last batch is roughly on par with the Exalted Bone Eclipse Emperor.

“What Bone Eclipse displayed was weakened strength after losing the fortification of the Red Moon great dao. He would not have been this weak in his prime! He would be a little stronger than you...”

In other words, even the current Li Hao was less than a peak Bone Eclipse. He would be weaker than the most humble batch of exalted emperors in New Martial, which were also the half step emperors of this age.

Meanwhile, the Ash Emperor was an apex exalted emperor.

Given the comparison, Lin Hongyu felt that there was no need to set themselves against a New Martial powerhouse for the sake of a cat. Li Hao, however, smiled.

“Why are you saying all this, senior? I haven’t said anything about taking the cat. Not to mention, Senior Number Two has its own thoughts. It’s not an object for me to take just because I want it.”

“I’m just reminding you!” Celestial Pole was indifferent on the surface, but cursed madly to himself inwardly.

I need to warn you, what if you just take the cat?

Li Hao ceased to continue the conversation and looked outside. “Nothing else happened when I was asleep, right?”

“No!” Lin Hongyu didn’t continue to have an attitude toward the young man. “Not enough time has elapsed for even Gan Wuliang to behave abnormally. He’s a smart man and won’t choose to rebel at this moment unless he’s completely certain that you won’t be returning to life!

“But was it part of your plan for him to control the immaterial dao?”

“What plan?” Li Hao burst out laughing. “You give me too much credit. I’d be omnipotent if everything was part of a plan. I was just having him lie low for a bit and act opportunistically.

“Of course, this was always a possible outcome when Li Daoheng or Zheng Yu proved unable to match me. They’d want to stick it to me then. But that was just one possibility, the greater one was that they would’ve blown up the immaterial dao universe.”

Plan?

There had been no plan.

This had just been a possibility, one out of millions with a very low likelihood.

If Zheng Yu hadn’t reached that step and didn’t fall into Li Daoheng’s schemes... None of this would have happened. He only gave the immaterial dao universe to Gan Wuliang in order to take a shot at Li Daoheng.

“Gan Wuliang won’t betray us, at least not now!” said Li Hao. “The unexpected factor I’m thinking of is Li Daoheng.”

“Li Daoheng?” Lin Hongyu paused. “He’s dead! The thunder and lightning got to him, even his great dao was severed.”

Bone Eclipse was dead, much less Li Daoheng. They went down together!

“He won’t die that easily.” Li Hao shook his head upon further thought. “Even if his great dao broke, that was just the one of core origin. He also cultivated the new dao—he had to, if he was able to absorb Zheng Yu’s power! It’s just that the power was limited, so there wasn’t much of an effect.”

“He’s still alive?” Lin Hongyu tensed. Weren’t they in trouble then?

“It’s fine if he is, he’s much weaker than before. C’mon, let’s go see him!”

“What?” Lin Hongyu started.

You know where he is?

Celestial Pole was also skeptical.

Even I don’t know where he is, how do you know?

“Is he Dao Sword?”

“No, just come with me!”

Celestial Pole was curious and decided to follow along. So Li Daoheng was still alive?

The trio vanished.