Chapter 1456: A Horse Off the Reins (II)

The newcomer looked warily in Li Hao’s direction, a reaction echoed by the young man. The latter quietly took stock of the situation.

As an exalted emperor of life and death, it was easy for Li Hao to size up a target’s life force. He breathed a slight sigh of relief after extending his senses. They hadn’t run across someone too strong. This person was roughly the same level as the chaos beast that Panther had taken possession of.

It wasn’t the weakest kind of exalted emperor, but neither was the newcomer overly strong. This was good! They just... needed to be more careful.

The person in the distance had wanted to circle around whoever he’d stumbled upon, but seemingly changed his mind upon determining how strong the others were. A second rank chaos beast and a first rank exalted emperor... were manageable.

Taking the long way around might result in a very extended journey and more dangers if he set the wrong course.

“Fellow daoists up ahead, I am a wanderer in the chaos. My name is Zu An and I am headed toward Skyward major world. Are the two daoists also headed in the same direction?” The person called out from a distance, his voice reverberating through the chaos instead of drawing nearer.

“Where might Skyward be?” Li Hao responded after a look. “I am Li Hao, the master of Hao Moon world. Hao Moon is a newly born world and as such, we do not know much about the chaos. There was a great disturbance to the rear a few days ago. This chaos beast and I are preparing to take shelter!”

A newbie? A master of a minor world?

Zu An blinked. How would the master of a minor world run around with a chaos beast? It was strange no matter how he looked at it!

He took another glance at the chaos beast, puzzled by the duo. A master of a minor world typically never left their world, not unless their world was swallowed by another!

The situation was more complicated than he anticipated. He didn’t ask further; it was sufficient to know that they weren’t a major world heavyweight. Under normal conditions, those from major worlds wouldn’t deign to pose as someone else.

Not unless they were the infamous crew from New Martial. Those weren’t worth mention!

“Daoist Li... Li Hao... may I come closer?”

“Of course you may, fellow daoist,” Li Hao nodded. “There is no need to be so polite. This is the chaos, not my backyard. You can walk around anywhere...”

Definitely a newbie! Walk around anywhere? You’re joking. There are more dangers in the chaos than you can imagine.

And willing to let random people in close... Alright, I’m also not that strong. Otherwise, people generally try to stay as far away from each other as possible, unless they know the other. Who would let a stranger in close quarters?

Zu An took another close probe of the surroundings, just in case this was a trap. It didn’t seem like one. Reassured, he broke through the void and approached the chaos beast. Why... didn’t it speak?

“You can come on up, fellow daoist!” said Li Hao before Zu An had a chance to ask. “This chaos beast is my pet and grew up with me. I didn’t know anything and never ended up teaching it how to speak.”

“......” Zu An wanted to burst into laughter.

Utter bullshit! A second rank exalted emperor is your pet? And it doesn’t talk? You’re only first rank!

But upon further look at Li Hao’s demeanor, perhaps it was true. Existence was vast and unbounded, all manner of oddities abounded. Anything could happen in the chaos. It was common for young chaos beasts to be lost in the worlds or take shelter after being injured.

That resulted in great strokes of fortune for those who found them.

Zu An wasn’t completely suspicious of Li Hao; he simply felt that a chaos beast that still didn’t know how to talk as a second rank exalted emperor... may simply be unwilling to talk.

Perhaps there was a story it’d rather forget.

He wholeheartedly answered Li Hao’s invitation and set foot through the void. This was his first close glance at the young man.

Damn, he really is the master of a world!

As expected, even masters of a minor world were favored by the heavens and unlimited in potential. This Li Hao brimmed with vitality. There was a youthful hint to his face and the look in his eyes was clear...

This was plainly a true young man!

Only newly risen worlds could give birth to such a young exalted emperor. There were many opportunities in new worlds. While they didn’t possess many powerhouses, the ones they did were typically very young.

Li Hao was also delighted by this turn of events. He’d finally found someone alive! And in humanoid form!

There were all sorts of existences in the worlds. Humanoids... were a common sight, but they weren’t necessarily human.

“Well met, fellow daoist!” Li Hao spoke frankly with the bold candor of inexperience. “I’d been fretting over what to do about my ignorance of the chaos! I didn’t know where to go or how to converse with the fellow daoists in the void.

“There are some ancient civilizations in my world that mention the chaos, but there isn’t much information. I invited fellow daoist to join me also because I wish to learn more from you...”

He said this because had the other been strong beyond imagination, Li Hao would’ve never invited him to join the group. He would stay far away if possible. But since this person was on par with Panther, he wasn’t that concerned.

In that case, there was no need to pretend he was familiar with the chaos. They were both powerhouses, so he might reveal his lack of knowledge upon further conversation. It was better to pretend more ignorance than not.

Besides, he really didn’t know much about the chaos. It was a shared destiny to encounter each other here.

“The chaos wanderer that fellow daoist speaks of... is that the wandering heroes that my world speaks of?” Li Hao quickly followed up.

“Heroes?” Zu An blinked, then laughed. “You could say that! But... heroes might be what it was translated to in your local language. In the chaos, those who travel through it are regarded as chaos wanderers!

“Under normal circumstances, they are existences without the support of a world. Those with a world backing them usually identify with it. The caveat with that is that they come from a major world. Mid and minor worlds are too unknown and don’t have the right to be associated with a name!”

The two were conversing through mental strength. Although there was no shared language in the chaos, heavyweights did not have need for that.

There were countless languages in one world alone, not to mention the entire chaos. It was a waste of time to learn them all. Communicating through the mind was extremely convenient and saved a lot of hassle.

Zu An was further put at ease. He was looking for a place to rest as well, but afraid of any inherent dangers. Seeing how inexperienced Li Hao was, a thought struck him.

“Fellow Daoist Li, might I rest here for a while? I was hit with some of the recoil from the great battle that took place earlier and suffered some injuries...”

“Of course you can!” Li Hao quickly said. “Do you need my help?”

“That won’t be necessary!” Zu An sat down cross-legged and began recovering from his wounds. However, he remained conscious and alert, not daring to lose his concentration.

This was his first time meeting Li Hao. As young as the master of the world was, he’d emerged at the top of the pack from an entire world. It wasn’t possible for the young man to be as pure-hearted as he appeared to be.

Anyone who believed that someone was a kind, simple, and honest person in the chaos was a complete idiot. It was simply that disputes were often avoided under normal circumstances if there was no conflict of interest.

Seeing as Li Hao was very excited to see him, Zu An decided to be equally forthright.

“Does Daoist Li wish to ask me about the chaos?” he smiled. “There’s no need to stand on ceremony, you can ask me anything you’re curious about. But I don’t know much about the chaos either. People like us don’t travel around that much.”

“Fellow daoist said before that you were impacted by the great battle...” Li Hao immediately jumped in. “I saw a few images that day, like something had exploded. Can the fellow daoist enlighten me a bit? I’d just walked out of the minor world when I saw that, it was terrifying!”

Minor world... the chaos beast!

Zu An was surprised that the minor world this one ruled over was inside the chaos beast.

How bold!

He didn’t speak of his conjectures.

“That was the explosion of a major world’s dao universe! Does fellow daoist know about the New Martial main world of Yin and Yang?”

“I do,” Li Hao nodded.

You do?

“Some New Martial powerhouses seemed to have passed by my world back in the day,” Li Hao explained. “They left traces of an ancient civilization behind, but that was many years ago. Tens of thousands of years ago.”

“Tens of thousands?” Zu An blinked, then quickly nodded. “It looks like your world was indeed sealed away and time flowed at a different pace! New Martial has appeared in the chaos for only a few thousand years. Could they have visited you...?

“Well, many of their heavyweights travel through the chaos. It looks like your world isn’t that strong since it’d just ascended. That’s one redeeming factor about these New Martial guys. If you’re too weak and don’t provoke them, they’ll leave you alone.

“Since fellow daoist knows about them, that makes my explanation easier! New Martial suddenly attacked Elysian Fields and Utmost Dark a few days ago, conquering them in one battle and killing two premier exalted emperors!

“The Human King detonated the Utmost Dark dao universe, killing many powerful exalted emperors and a sixth rank master of dao! He’s horrifying, ai!” Zu An shook his head. “It’s also a hassle for us when these premier existences fight. I was unlucky enough to be right next to Nether Dark when they decided to move their world. They almost smashed me to pieces!

“Thankfully, I was lucky enough to avoid disaster. I had to flee that area to stay alive!”

Li Hao still didn’t really understand, but now knew that New Martial had defeated two major worlds in one day. That was so impressive!

“Are major worlds... very strong? What level is sixth rank?”

“......” Zu An burst out laughing. This one really didn’t know anything; there were quite a few like him in the chaos. Under normal circumstances, masters of minor worlds rarely ventured out of their territory. When they did, they were completely ignorant of their new surroundings.

“The worlds are divided into four categories within the chaos—major, mid, minor, and desolate backwaters. The birth of one exalted emperor makes a world a minor world. That represents that it has the basic qualification to travel through the chaos!”

Li Hao nodded.

“There are many masters of the world in the chaos, ergo many exalted emperors. In order to more easily understand everyone’s level of strength, the exalted emperor level is divided into nine ranks!

“First rank is a newly ascended exalted emperor, such as fellow daoist Li Hao here!”

“Is that really weak?” Li Hao asked awkwardly.

“Not really!” Zu An smiled. “Just in terms of the entire universe. The chaos is so vast and the worlds so many that there’s more of them in comparison. Every world produces at least one exalted emperor when it rises to minor world status, so they’re the most common sight.

“Next comes second rank exalted emperor. It’s usually not difficult to reach that stage. A first rank exalted emperor roaming the chaos for a few years will easily make that leap after breathing in the chaos qi and perfecting their own cultivation system!”

Li Hao inclined his head.