Chapter 1450: Verifying the Dao of an Exalted Emperor (II)

Li Hao propped up his chin with a hand and reminisced on his youth. “When I was young, my family was a picture of harmony. We didn’t have many troubles. While we weren’t rich, life was good. There aren’t many unforgettable memories from that period of time.

“There were some, of course, but I’m not sure if those will be sufficient to awaken myself with. Well, it’s not a big problem if I can’t be awoken during this period of time. I firmly believe that I’ll be able to recover by myself in the later stages.

“It’s just that if I’m not aware of my true self during this time...” Li Hao frowned. “That might cause some aberrations in my comprehension of life and death. It’s best if you guys can awaken me when I’m six, ten, and fifteen years old. I’ll be cultivating with a connate dao constitution. That will ensure that I ascend as an exalted emperor as soon as possible!”

The group exchanged planes. This... would be difficult to achieve. They could put their brains together and think of ideas for any other way, but how were they supposed to know what would trigger his memories at a young age?

“We don’t know much about your childhood...” Lin Hongyu was immensely conflicted. “Why don’t we ask Teacher Yuan to come?”

“Teacher doesn’t know either.” Li Hao shook his head. He’d studied under his teacher only in university. Li Hao was certain that he could recover his memories on his own at that age, so he didn’t need to trouble his teacher.

“I’ll tell you guys a few things that I still remember.” He stroked his chin in thought. “Then you act as you see fit. If you’re really out of ideas... then...

“Try anything you can.” He smiled wryly at the group. “See if you can find some of my old neighbors, elementary classmates, or elementary teachers. Maybe they can awaken me. If not, we can forget about my earlier memories!”

The group was equally resigned. This was a difficult task to carry out. It was based purely on luck!

Li Hao didn’t have any better ideas either. “Let’s leave it at that,” he smiled. “To be honest, the memories of my childhood don’t matter as much compared to my later ones. It’s fine if there’s some missing.”

While that was the case, that would lead to a more incomplete life for the young man. There were always some more unforgettable memories during one’s childhood. If he lost them all, Li Hao would probably feel the emptiness as well, no?

Such were the trio’s thoughts, but they had no better ideas in mind.

“This is just one aspect, the second is that I need the help of the corporeal and immaterial dao if I am to walk the path of life and death! I’ll also need you to guide me, Hongyu!

“I’ll walk the corporeal path until I die, then live again from the immaterial dao. That will involve crossing the river of time, or perhaps we should call it the river of life and death now... I will march toward death in order to live again

“That will form a closed loop and start my life anew! The key will lie in being guided from death to life!” The young man looked at Lin Hongyu. “What you need to do isn’t hard. You just need to set your star of life and death as the center point. Once I cross it, you will use the dao of life and death to collect my spirit and toss it into the river!”

Lin Hongyu hesitated before asking, “Will you be reborn as a baby?”

“Yes!”

“Then... doesn’t that make me your mother?” She couldn’t help but ask. Li Hao was essentially asking her to go into labor and deliver him as a baby!

Entering the star of life and death, using life and death as the boundary, then tossing Li Hao into the river... wasn’t that the process of childbirth?

I haven’t even become your wife yet, but I’m going to be your mother first? The hell?!

Li Hao was equally speechless.

I’m cultivating dao here! What is this woman thinking about? But... technically speaking, she makes a certain degree of sense.

Hong Yitang and Gan Wuliang were suddenly completely fascinated with their hands and shoes. The weather was lovely in the chaos, wasn’t it? Oh yes, yes it was.

This was a conversation that they had to stay out of at all cost!

Li Hao rolled his eyes and sputtered for a while. “Walking through your star of life and death and reappearing again... that is indeed similar to childbirth. Of course, you can also change the form of how it takes place...”

“How??” Lin Hongyu asked urgently.

“You can treat your star as a nostril or a butt, do you get me?”

“......” Ringing silence reigned. The trio gaped at the young man.

What... kind of answer is that?

Gan Wuliang was highly perturbed and didn’t dare laugh. Hong Yitang could barely hold in his laughter, but managed because Lin Hongyu was his junior. As such, his dignity needed to be maintained in front of one.

Panther, on the other hand, couldn’t help itself. The massive chaos beast body shook with repressed laughter. It really couldn’t keep it together.

Li Hao was being so ridiculous! He was describing himself as poop or a booger in order to put Lin Hongyu at ease. She wouldn’t feel like this was a process of childbirth then!

Lin Hongyu was completely speechless.

...ew. Gross. The guy’s brain operates in such a different manner sometimes.

Upon closer thought, what he said also made sense. But... considering the scene that would result... did he not care about his image at all?

“Forget it, I’ll pretend this conversation never took place,” she said weakly. “These are just trifling details. Do you need us to do anything else apart from this?”

“Yes... I’m going to be a genius, an unparalleled genius!” Li Hao nodded. “I need the most basic Five Styles method to be my foundation. Feed the secret art to me when I’m one, that’s also when I’ll grasp the aura.

“Toss me the acupoint method when I’m three, I’m going to clear my acupoints then! Give me the supernatural character method when I’m six, I’m going to combine the supernatural characters with the aura...”

“Will you be able to learn all that when you’re so young?”

“I’m just starting over, not turning into an imbecile.” Li Hao looked wordlessly at them. “I’ll be a favored child of the world when I start anew, the kind of genius that grasps knowledge without being taught. I’ll be born of the dao! I simply need a catalyst to learn it all...”

Very well then!

The trio was curious. Could this really be done? If so, he would be defying the heavens!

“Ah, yes, some energy will be depleted during the process. However, it’ll be negligible to you guys since it’s just the early stage of cultivation, so it’s not worthy of mention. In the later stages though, energy consumption will be high. When that happens, you can feed me the life energy that I’ll leave behind after I die...”

The three nodded continuously. It was their first time attempting something like this. They were all very curious and apprehensive. As of late, Li Hao was in the habit of trying things that no one else dared.

“Do we need to notify the others?”

“No!” Li Hao shook his head. “That would just be adding to their troubles. Why make them worry? This is just a regular cultivation session.”

Regular?

This wasn’t regular at all!

Who plays around like you?!

“Alright, we can stop here for now. I’m going to take the corporeal path to its end and deplete my life force. Everything will be done in a few days if I’m fast enough. If I’m slower... or if I don’t grow up fast enough... then eight to ten years might be necessary.

“You guys need to be careful in the meantime. Red Moon powerhouses are after us and you won’t be able to do anything during this process. Therefore, you have to run well, Panth!”

The giant chaos beast shook in understanding.

“...you’re the heavenly will now and have control of the world and this chaos beast,” Li Hao griped. “You’re an exalted emperor! How do you still not know how to transmit your thoughts? Do you take me for a fool??”

“......” The three blinked. That was right, why couldn’t Panther talk? The dog was already an exalted emperor!

It might be the first exalted emperor in Silver Moon history—albeit through unorthodox methods.

The dog’s giant body trembled once more. It was a cow now, but very faint barking could be heard.

“Arf!”

“......” Li Hao slapped his forehead. There was... definitely something wrong with the dog. Why couldn’t it talk? It was the freaking heavenly will!

“You’ve most definitely got a baby voice! But no one’s going to make fun of you for it!”

Li Hao shook his head with resignation. Forget it. It was obviously too mortified to face them with its real self. So even a dog cared about face! Ah, whatever. Panth could do as it wished.

“Let’s go back to Silver Moon. Keep the Star Gate open, Panth. Don’t cut off our connection to the void.”

The four quickly vanished from the dog’s back.

......

Silver Moon.

The world was slightly different from before. Three rivers traversed it, with the two rivers of corporeal and immaterial dao surrounding the word. The river of life and death was a bridge that connected them in the center.

Li Hao was very decisive when he went about his business. He didn’t take his leave from anyone when he returned to Silver Moon and set foot straight into the river of corporeal dao. With the connection of corporeal and immaterial as his starting point, he walked steadily onward until the river waters covered his head.

His body instantly aged as he did so—he was supposed to be this old at this stage.

The waters of chaos and a myriad of daos washed over him. They returned him to his true nature—his feeble and doddering self. He was old in the true sense of the concept, his face melted away in a mess of wrinkles and the presence of decay rose from his body.

As Li Hao waded further into the river, the three powerhouses could sense something else developing. Cracks were appearing on the young man, like he was a broken porcelain doll that’d been pieced back together.

Such was Li Hao’s true nature now. He’d died repeatedly and been resurrected repeatedly. He was a patchwork doll. Each of the cracks made one’s heart jolt with alarm!

It was difficult to sense anything amiss from the young man in usual times. So his real condition was so poor?

Some more people appeared in the world—Celestial Pole, Yuan Shuo, and Number Two. Rather than being immersed in the past, the cat hovered in the sky. It wasn’t long before Zhang An joined them as well.

They were all shocked by the decrepit, infirm elder they saw.

How could this be??

They weren’t aware of the situation and didn’t dare disturb Li Hao. They could only watch as he continued to age and walk through the river of corporeal dao.

A puzzled Celestial Pole looked at Zhang An; the latter shook his head in return. He didn’t understand either!

The current Li Hao had come in contact with three dao universes, fought powerful exalted emperors, grasped the power of time, exchanged blows with a chaos tribulation, and experienced New Martial...

The young man’s knowledge and vision were second to none.

It was Number Two who realized a few things. It was the one with the most knowledge and experience out of everyone present. The cat crouched down in the air, unmoving. Curiosity and confusion marked its gaze.

Did this have to be done?

The young man could become an exalted emperor through regular means as well. Some of his injuries would dissipate that way. Of course, the final result might pale in comparison to what he was doing now, but his current actions bore a large risk.

What a daredevil this child was!

A lost look appeared in the cat’s eyes—it was reminded of something. Or rather, someone. The one who taught.

He liked to study a bunch of random stuff too. He was always in his own world, unshaken by anything else. It wasn’t until there was nothing in the world holding his attention that he found it all to be boring.