Chapter 1426: The Chaos and Past (III)

Since there was a bit of time left before the alliance of major worlds formed, the chaos beast decided to investigate the location where a world seemed to be ascending in status. Perhaps there would be a bite of something delicious to be had.

If it didn’t gain anything for its troubles, the chaos beast was prepared to depart for other locales. This area had seen a lot of action these years and wasn’t very safe.

While the Human King gave the excuse of being perpetually lost, no one believed him. All sides thought that he was secretly accumulating his strength. Whether it was chaos beasts or wandering rogues in this area, many had fallen to his sword.

There were even sightings of the Human King roasting chaos beasts in the void!

This terrifying place had broken the balance and tranquility of the chaos.

......

Silver Moon world.

Li Hao and the rest were blithely unaware of the happenings outside. Apart from some New Martial citizens, not even the most genius or strongest of Silver Moon denizens had ever set foot off the world.

They didn’t know how large the chaos was, how many worlds were within it, and how many powerhouses there were out there. They didn’t know how many years it’d been in the outside world, just that all was peaceful in Silver Moon. Martial dao flourished; this was their golden age after one hundred thousand years.

The world was rising in status and the Silver Moon marquis’ sword dao covered the land. It was free to study for everyone, so there were bound to be some geniuses among the ten billion general population who could make use of this opportunity. An endless stream of people broke through these days.

Whether it was the corporeal or immaterial dao, both daos benefited immensely from the influx of strong cultivators. Those who could comprehend the aura walked the immaterial path, those who could not walked the corporeal path. Given the myriad of daos out there, there was bound to be one suitable for each person.

Cultivators of the Mountain and Sea, Sun and Moon levels were too many to count. Although Fused Dao were relatively rare, there were plenty of would-be hopefuls making inroads on that threshold. Only when it came to an integration of the corporeal and immaterial dao was there a dearth of cultivators.

The powerhouses of the world made full use of this rare lull; Gan Wuliang and Hong Yitang propagated their daos with extreme proactivity. They traveled through the world, sharing their insights on dao and holding lessons. Conflict between the two dao theories even appeared in various martial academies. Was immaterial dao stronger or corporeal dao?

There were some academies that eventually chose to focus only on one dao.

No one forestalled these developments. Based on what Li Hao said, to each their own. So long as everything remained surface level in terms of debates, arguments, and even sparring matches, none of it was worth speaking of.

Peace and tranquility reigned through the world after all of its strong foes were eliminated. Cultivators were the type to have an overabundance of vitality. If even sparring matches and practice fights were forbidden, that might be the precursor to greater trouble.

Li Hao didn’t spend his days being idle either. At the moment, he was chatting with someone and occasionally caressing their book of great dao. After repeated touches, Zhang An could no longer keep himself in check.

“Are you listening to me or not?!”

Li Hao nodded merrily. “I am!”

“So what do you think?”

“Wouldn’t I just be sending you to your death if I opened the Star Gate for you to probe our surroundings? If you die and your grandfather comes in search of revenge, wouldn’t we just harming our own?” Li Hao chuckled. He was much more caring and talkative than before after resurrecting those he cared most deeply about. “You don’t need to worry about me or Silver Moon. Everything will right itself in due course. I do have a favor to ask, however...”

“What is it?”

“Lend me your book of dao. And not just the book, but the senior yourself!”

“Me?”

“Yes!” Li Hao smiled meaningfully. “Senior is a veteran who was around in the early days of New Martial. Is the senior interested in exploring the past with me? I’ll be able to experience New Martial through the senior’s eyes!”

Zhang An’s eyes widened.

“Recently, I’ve sensed the difficulties in progressing further with my cultivation,” Li Hao said seriously. “The problem lies with my lack of knowledge of the world. I’ve never truly set eyes on real powerhouses. Even though I might’ve seen them in scattered illusions, I’ve never really experienced their might for myself. I’ve never lived in such an age!

“Therefore, I’d like to visit the past with the senior!” Li Hao looked at Zhang An in the eyes. “This would also be a good thing for Dean Zhang. Your dao is too scattered, too intermingled, and too random!

“You’ve seen so much of the world that you’ve lost your way. You and I can assess your past from a third party’s perspective! Neither you nor I will be changing or interacting with the past. We’ll be relatively safe! Your identity is also critical, so there shouldn’t be anyone who wants to kill me...”

“Kill you?” Zhang An blinked.

“There are many powerhouses in New Martial,” the young man nodded. “Based on what I’ve read from your histories and memoirs, there are many people who can sense certain anomalies. The Human King and his companions in the later days of New Martial, the Heavenly Emperor and War Sovereign in the early days, even the world’s consciousness—the consciousness of the seed!

“We may be just taking a trip to the illusory past, but it might result in a fatal blow from them!” Li Hao explained gravely. “Anything is possible as these existences are too strong! Therefore, viewing the past from your perspective may help me avoid a lot of danger!

“I can also make use of this opportunity to study all of the New Martial heavyweights. Out of all the worlds in the universe, Silver Moon has encountered New Martial’s main world the most. At the same time, the strongest civilization that we are aware of is New Martial. Granted, Red Moon might count as well, but since Bone Eclipse is dead without a body, it’ll be hard to trace his past.”

The young man wanted to observe history through his eyes! Zhang An was astonished by the idea. He took a look at Li Hao and sank into deep thought.

“Stop hesitating!” said Li Hao. “Senior, you think too much. I don’t mean to do you harm or anything else to you. We’re just each taking what we need from this. I get to observe powerhouses and the senior gets to revisit yourself. You’re an Empyrean King now and you cultivate the new dao and core origin dao at the same time. That is not a long-term solution!”

Zhang An’s potential was sound and his knowledge vast; there weren’t many New Martial citizens who knew more than him. However, his knowledge banks were too disorganized!

His book of great dao contained the Human King’s dao, his grandfather’s dao, the dao of various exalted emperors, and a jumbled mess of others. They were unable to be fully integrated with each other, causing him to stagnate at peak Saint despite his peers setting foot into Empyrean King early on or even exalted emperor...

When it came to his grandfather, Supreme Zhang’s status in New Martial was either top five or top three in the entire civilization. The Human King’s younger sister was an exalted emperor, but Zhang An... remained a Saint.

Although he was an Empyrean King now, that was due to fortification from the new dao. It wasn’t because he’d attained any major breakthroughs or developments on his own core origin dao.

The man considered Li Hao’s words and said solemnly, “Are you sure you want to take a look at my past? It seems to me that you have to deplete a large portion of your lifespan with each trip. Do you have any left that you can consume like this?”

Li Hao seemed to be on the verge of death. The sensation of decay could be felt in his presence. Wasn’t he afraid that he’d die along the path of time if he traveled back any further?

“It’s just being a bystander, we’re not really going back to that time. Of course, the depths of our memories are more profound than memories themselves,” Li Hao explained. “The actual past and memories of the past are different!

“If we really revisit the past, then that means everyone will be aware of me. They will see me and possibly discover me. But if we just revisit past memories, only the truly premier will notice a thing or two different.

“Not to mention, it’s tough for me to actually revisit the past. I’m just a ninth level Fused Dao. I haven’t reached the stage of manipulating time as I would!”

“This is feasible...” Zhang An nodded upon some thought. “I think that the truly strong won’t care about anything being revealed from their past. But I’ll say this upfront, you cannot pry into my privacy!”

Privacy?

“What kind of privacy does the senior mean?” Li Hao laughed. “The kind in brothels or something else?”

“......” Zhang An flicked a glance at him and didn’t want to say anything else. This kid was very irritating at times.

Seeing as Li Hao didn’t seem to care about what was going on outside the Star Gate, he felt compelled to remind, “The world’s ascension is at hand—it might actually arouse attention from heavyweights wandering through the chaos. Anyone who can freely travel through the chaos by themselves... will be an exalted emperor at the weakest. They won’t be an ordinary exalted emperor either!”

“Therefore... I must grow stronger and take a walk through your past,” Li Hao nodded. “Does the senior think that I can grow stronger simply from worrying?” He laughed with a note of resignation. “I know that the senior worries about me, but we’ve got to do something. Words are less than action, are they not?”

Zhang An blinked, then nodded himself. He’d gotten off on a tangent!

“It’s best not to think too much in all matters, senior,” Li Hao offered. “Sometimes, we must be decisive when the situation calls for it. That the senior thinks so much is likely influence from your grandfather. But since you cannot become like him, why not go for the second best option?

“What Senior Celestial Pole’s done in terms of simple brute force or just washing his hands of everything is one option as well!”

Zhang An wanted to imitate his grandfather and become the strategist of New Martial or even the Human King’s mentor of sorts. He wanted to be a comprehensive existence of all trades.

The thought was lovely, but reality was harsh.

There was only one supreme of New Martial. Not everyone could imitate Supreme Zhang!

Zhang An didn’t make a sound, but he knew where his deficiencies were now. There was one thing that Li Daoheng had been correct in—he and Zhang An may look completely different, but they were similar in the depths of their hearts. They’d seen so much and thought highly of their potential. While they couldn’t surpass those who came before them, they also didn’t accept being less than them. All they concentrated on was exceeding their seniors.

Otherwise, Zhang An could’ve easily walked his grandfather’s dao, or the Human King’s, or any other exalted emperor’s dao. With their help, he’d be at least a half step emperor, if not exalted emperor.

But now?

He was neither here nor there!

Li Hao didn’t say anything else; Zhang An was well aware of what he spoke of. The young man was just giving a word of advice. These people all knew what he spoke of, they just couldn’t bring their own line of thinking around.

Zhang An’s agreement to his proposal was good news for Li Hao. It was a perfect opportunity to experiment how his dao of time might affect others. He could peek in on the past!

To be honest, this

was

prying into people’s privacy. Well, that was from Zhang An’s perspective. Li Hao might not dare peek at a true powerhouse’s past. That was a surefire express ride to death!

He just wanted to see what the real New Martial was, even if it was one of the past!

Just the

Logs of Zhang Discipline

had helped him understand a great deal. If combined with everything he knew and had seen, perhaps he would make unexpected gains to perfect his dao system.