Chapter 1413: One Voice (III)

Li Hao glanced at the queen. She immediately shot back a look of wariness—nothing good would be forthcoming from this.

“Your Majesty... Do you have a real name?” Li Hao smiled tenderly.

“Nope!” The queen refused to reveal it.

The young man smiled, he didn’t mind the reaction. “I previously borrowed your lunar strength to transform it into the heavenly will and said that I would repay you. I’ll gift you a fortuitous occurrence in return!”

“Nope, there’s no need!” the queen immediately replied.

“No, I must always repay my debts!” Li Hao’s tone brooked no doubt. “This is truly an opportunity for you! You’re in a similar state to the Great Li king and have taken in too much external force. You have a muddied flow of energies inside of you and the Moon God’s strength was also very much a melting pot...”

“What does the Silver Moon marquis mean by this?” the queen said solemnly.

“There is also a lot of power of faith inside of you. That’s another messy assortment of strength that’s collected from millions of people. It hasn’t been baptized by the great dao, so it’s a very unwieldy collection!

“Your problem is also easy to resolve—you don’t even need to be immersed in time! You just need to swim through the river of chaos and wash the impurities from yourself!” Li Hao smiled. “I’ll give you the chance to do so in Martial Uncle Hong’s river of chaos. This chance is normally not extended to outsiders!”

“What kind of price do I need to pay?” asked the queen after some quick thought.

“I already told you, this is to pay you back for your earlier help.”

Really? I don’t need to do anything?

The queen contemplated the offer. If it was truly what it appeared on the surface, then she could give it a try. However, to be frank, it was very hard to blithely trust what Li Hao said. It rather felt more reassuring that the Great Li king was being asked to pay the price of blood qi. Since she didn’t need to offer anything... it seemed rather unsettling.

“That won’t do, this queen only lent a bit of strength before and didn’t do much,” the queen quickly countered. “The river of chaos is an extremely vital part of the dao universe. This queen doesn’t like owing favors either. Speak of something that I can tackle and this queen will resolve it for you!”

“Your Majesty is far too kind!” Li Hao laughed with appreciation. “In that case, far be it for me to turn down this generosity! After my death—I mean when I died before—Silver Moon was without a heavenly will.

“You devoured the moon’s strength and was the only god in Silver Moon for a while, which meant you inherited the world. You were also born of the heavenly will, so if my theorizing is correct, you are now temporarily filling in for the heavenly will.”

The queen started!

“Of course, that’s inconsequential in the grand scheme of things,” chuckled the young man. “What Your Majesty needs to do is simply—collect the strength of the world to forge the bones and foundation of those who are revitalized!

“Produce some of the fragments of the heavenly will that drifted around after I died. You’ve taken in such a random assortment of energy! Give me part of it so I can use it on those coming back. The world’s status has risen, so it will benefit them to absorb some of that energy.”

The queen silently considered the request and nodded without further word. Li Hao was well aware of everything, he just didn’t speak of it.

Indeed, the young man was no longer the heavenly will. She’d swallowed a large amount of lunar strength and become the only god of the world. Given the lack of a heavenly will these days, she was it.

Li Hao wanted her to spit out part of her harvest. Could she refuse?

No!

This guy understood everything all too well. She would need to be careful if she dared refuse. Not to mention, the world was still in the process of increasing its status. If she declined to help now, she might be shut out from any benefits the world gained as a whole.

“I don’t mind!”

Li Hao nodded with a smile. “The queen sees the greater picture! As for the hundreds of thousands of Silver Moon citizens that you killed before...”

The queen’s face twitched! Her followers had been citizens and disciples of Divine Nation, how had they become Silver Moon citizens??

Well, technically speaking, that was true.

But what she’d done had also been a great benefit to Li Hao. Those religious fanatics were a very severe lurking bomb. She’d taken them all out in one go! There were almost no more fanatics in Divine Nation anymore. That was a great boon to the goal of Skystar controlling the entire world.

But now...

“This matter is complicated and I do not wish to pursue it further,” Li Hao continued. “But slaughtering so many mundanes with such brazen decisiveness is a sin nonetheless. Divine Nation is under Skystar rule now. It would dishearten the people if this remained unaddressed.

“Let’s do away with gods as retribution! There will be no more divine spirits in the land. The day my teacher and the rest of them come back is the day when I end all divine spirits!”

Li Hao looked at the queen. “Immolate all faith within your body, irradiate the world with it, and eradicate all divine spirits. That is fine, is it not?”

“It is!” The queen’s eyes widened and she nodded after a beat. This wasn’t a big issue, just that it would be very hard to collect faith in the future!

“This is also for your own good! There is no future in store for divine spirits!” Li Hao laughed. “The queen is certain to have a brighter future ahead of you. The less you partake of the power of faith, the better. Such is a display of my good intentions toward you!”

Screw you!

The queen didn’t say anything. The rest remained quiet as well as they goggled inwardly. Li Hao certainly was ruthless! He’d completely cowed two powerhouses as soon as he returned. And the key was, he said he was doing all this for their own good. That even made a bit of sense!

But who knew if it really was for their own good or not?

After Li Hao’s arrangements, the newly resurrected would have higher foundations than before given that their blood was of Empyrean King blood and their bones were of the world. The young man had easily taken care of most of his upcoming tasks.

“The immaterial and corporeal daos are separate for the moment,” Li Hao added. “But they must come together. Only when they are one is the great dao complete!”

Gan Wuliang colored slightly at the statement, but he quickly brought his panic under control.

“It is Gan Wuliang’s stroke of fortune that he has become the master of the immaterial dao. It is also Martial Uncle Hong’s fortune that he wields the corporeal dao! It is inappropriate to tell either one of them to leave.” Li Hao looked at them both. “I’ve given it quite some thought and feel that there will be drawbacks to combining the two daos as one.

“For one, the star of time is the heart of the great dao and I’ve taken it. For two, the prime opportunity for doing so has come and gone. It also happens that Silver Moon is about to soar to a higher standing now! The corporeal and immaterial are two sides of the dao universe, and the center is the heart. What is meant by the heart and what is meant by coming together as one?

“Let the Silver Moon world be the heart!”

What did he mean?

“On the day the world settles into its new standing, the two dao masters will set foot into their dao universes and revolve around Silver Moon!” Li Hao explained for the benefit of the group. “They will each control their side of the dao universe, but be connected through the world!”

“Will the dao universe still count as one, in this regard?” Zhang An couldn’t help but ask.

“It will!” Li Hao nodded. “Not only will it count as one, but there’s another benefit to it. With two dao masters at the helm, it won’t matter if the people cultivate the corporeal or immaterial dao. It will all be part of one dao universe.

“They can be one with corporeal dao or one with immaterial dao. It all depends on their inclination, their preferences, and which we wish to promote!

“If the people have a fondness for the corporeal dao, then the corporeal dao universe will be stronger!” Li Hao smiled. “If the people prefer the immaterial dao, then the immaterial dao will be strong! The immaterial dao will collapse if the people abandon it, making room for the corporeal dao to prosper. In a similar vein, the immaterial dao will flourish if people flock to it instead!

“Do you two gentlemen understand what I mean?”

Gan Wuliang’s mouth opened and closed; he was doing his best imitation of a goldfish.

“Your Lordship...” He was immensely conflicted and resigned. “The immaterial dao is currently the exclusive domain of mental strength... I...”

Almost everyone in the world walked the path of corporeal dao. How many were there that dedicated themselves to immaterial dao?

Fuck! Doesn’t all my hard work go to benefit another this way? You’re really too merciless!

“You’re wrong!” Li Hao shook his head solemnly. “The corporeal dao is absolutely weaker than the immaterial dao! But it’ll be up to you to work hard and disseminate it among the people.

“How? Through supernatural characters and the aura! The people were not educated before and could only cultivate the simplest of the corporeal dao. But now with everyone’s access to knowledge, this is your chance!

“The more enlightened they are, the more they’ll understand that the corporeal dao is a base and crude thing! It focuses on close body combat, whereas the immaterial dao is the crux of cultivation!” Li Hao focused on Gan Wuliang. “Roll out corporeal dao to the general population and make its might known far and wide. You will be as strong as the people’s acceptance, or as weak as their ignorance!

“The more difficult a task is, the greater the rewards! If you can make the immaterial dao become mainstream in the world, then Martial Uncle Hong will only be fit to carry your shoes for you!”

“That’s right!” Hong Yitang nodded with a laugh. “The potential of the immaterial dao is immense. Of that, there is no doubt.”

Gan Wuliang was heavily resigned. This was easy to say, but exceedingly hard to achieve. Everyone only knew of the corporeal cultivation methods. The immaterial dao... was abstract and unfathomable.

But Li Hao had one point right in that the corporeal dao was a crude construct and immaterial dao a profound one. The stronger one was, the more they would like to study the immaterial dao.

One heavyweight was worth tens of thousands of weaklings. If Gan Wuliang could entice heavyweights to focus on the immaterial dao, someone like Tyrant Blade would be worth multiple regular cultivators!

But Gan Wuliang also knew that this was evidence of Li Hao’s bias toward Hong Yitang. He couldn’t say that the young man had made a mistake because if Gan Wuliang really had the ability to, he could turn the tables!

He still didn’t quite measure up to Hong Yitang, after all. Li Hao was already being quite benevolent in giving him this opportunity! If it was anyone else, the young man would outright command him to relinquish his spot. A swift death would be in order if he refused!

“The marquis says that we are strong if the people are strong, then...” Gan Wuliang suddenly asked.

“Be good to the people.” Li Hao nodded in anticipation of what he wanted to say. “After the world increases in stature and the Star Gate opens, I may need to leave Silver Moon. You and Martial Uncle Hong will be the Human King and Human Emperor of this world!

“When it comes to cultivation, you will hold the people’s hearts in your hands. It is not a path that lacks emotions. There will be many benefits to this as you will work on what the people need and make their worries your own.

“Given enough time, your deeds will be all that people look at, and not your intentions. So what if you have to be a saint? Whether your actions are hypocritical or truly stem from the heart, will anyone care if they continuously compliment you for doing something good?”

Gan Wuliang didn’t know what to say.

So this means I have to be a good person from now on? A good person from head to toe? Is that what you mean?

I’m going to be an employee for the general population, that’s the heart of the matter!

It sounds simple that I’ll be invincible once everyone is strong, trusts me, and cultivates the immaterial dao, but it’s actually as hard as ascending the heavens!

I’m someone with great ambitions! Why has my life suddenly turned into this?!