Chapter 1483: Entering Second Rank (I)

“I have no desire to be enemies with you.” The person who served Void moved away when he ran through the ramifications of any action. “Except... you’re on the verge of death. Even if you survive the tribulation, you don’t have many years left.

“In addition, the Dragon Observatory exalted emperors will be here in half an hour at most. Their leader is a sixth rank!”

Li Hao had spent a day on travel, but the Dragon Observatory leader only needed half an hour. Their difference in speed was stark!

Granted, the young man hadn’t been in a hurry before, whereas those from Dragon Observatory certainly would be.

“Thank Fellow Daoist Void for me!”

“I will, but... ah, forget it.” The person smiled in the distance. His Highness didn’t like others calling him fellow daoist, but that had nothing to do with him. He quickly darted away.

A massive thundercloud hovered over Skyriver Region. Countless thunderbolts gathered around the long river.

Number Two was disgruntled and dejected. Such a humongous cloud! This would be the death of any poor cat!

Li Hao didn’t say anything. He consumed the last of his borrowed strength and raised his sword high. He wanted to use the last vestiges of strength he had to disperse the thundercloud. Even if he couldn’t, he wanted to wear down the tribulation somewhat.

One sword to break the world!

“Li Changsheng of New Martial hereby sunders the firmament!” Li Hao growled, his voice ringing through Skyriver Region.

I’m killing people for the Sword Sovereign, not myself. Therefore, the Sword Sovereign has to shoulder the blame whether he wants to or not!

Otherwise, I won’t have an easy time of things after this.

The sword illuminated the world!

Sword light radiated in all directions, formidable and overwhelming. It sparkled like the Eternal Sword—pure sword intent that was peerless and incomparable!

The blow crushed half of the thundercloud, but didn’t fully obliterate the tribulation. Li Hao immediately aged so much that the scent of decay wafted out of him.

Number Two made use of the opening to open its mouth so wide that it swallowed the entire starry expanse. The remaining half of the thundercloud disappeared down its gut.

The cat was instantly charred as thunder and lightning danced within its body. Even though Number Two had a good temper, it couldn’t help but curse, “You’re so bad!”

Was it cursing Li Hao or the tribulation?

Probably... Li Hao.

There was still thunder and lightning left. It surged into the river; Li Hao dismissed the power of time and summoned a star of life and death. The star struck down the remaining tribulation!

Qi of life and death circulated around the chaos tribulation, shaking it. The entire river quaked madly!

Li Hao’s body grew weaker. He needed to discard it and be reborn anyway, so he didn’t care about any of that. He suddenly wanted to make use of the circumstance to experience something. The young man darted into the thunder and lightning and opened his mouth, swallowing the remaining energy.

Explosions echoed in his body and a destructive force emanated from it. His body crumbled away, the remains integrating with the four walls of the river. This was body dao! With the body as dao to forge a world barrier!

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Kaboom!

His body exploded and an exceedingly weak figure appeared moments later in the waters. Li Hao raised an eyebrow. His body had been blown apart and become part of the world barrier. He was just a manifestation of dao strength now.

Li Hao quickly retrieved the river before vanishing on the spot. He’d lost another physical body, but this time, there was nothing to regret about it.

Everything about a fourth rank, third rank, second rank, and two first ranks was his. He’d also fully utilized his own body and the chaos tribulation.

Once I walk the path of life and death and reappear in the world again, I’ll be a second rank for sure. Third rank... let’s see if I’m lucky enough to get there!

Li Hao disappeared, leaving the statement of “Li Changsheng of New Martial hereby sunders the firmament!” echoing through the air.

The Sword Sovereign!

......

It wasn’t long before the world shook after Li Hao’s departure. Multiple exalted emperors popped into view. It was the leader of Dragon Observatory and two of his mid rank exalted emperors. Apart from that, two other fourth rank exalted emperors close to Skyriver had come. There were suddenly five exalted emperors in the area.

Li Hao’s yell still lingered on the wind. Sword intent, thunder and lightning, and water energy oscillated.

“The Sword Sovereign? New Martial!” one of them gasped.

The Dragon Observatory leader frowned slightly in all directions, landing in the Skyriver administrative complex. Apart from some exalted emperors dying and a few guards missing, everyone else in the complex was only unconscious.

“That’s not it...” The Dragon Observatory leader’s frown deepened. “It can’t be the Sword Sovereign of New Martial. Although I’ve never personally encountered his sword intent, there is only offensive power within his moves. The sword intent found here is clearly dominated by water energy.”

Was someone fishing in troubled waters? This someone was a sixth rank exalted emperor!

He looked around for a while and said, “It may not be a sixth rank exalted emperor—it could be a mid rank who utilized the unique characteristics of a dao foundation site to trigger the water aura. They’ll be a sword user, possibly a mid rank sword cultivator!”

He quickly came to some conclusions, but guessed that this person was a mid rank water attribute swordsman. They’d borrowed the water heritage here through unknown methods, thereby completely laying waste to it.

The Dragon Observatory leader didn’t consider the possibility of a first rank. He guessed it was either fourth or fifth rank.

“They seem to have provoked a chaos tribulation as well!”

But it was swiftly defeated in turn. This also meant that the other was very strong. In addition, such a technique of borrowing strength was a heaven-defying method. All the same, the thunder tribulation that resulted didn’t seem that strong. They wouldn’t have easily been defeated otherwise.

“Skyriver is dead, as are Scintillating and the rest!”

“Five exalted emperors!”

Even the leader of Dragon Observatory grew stern. That was five powerhouses! Exalted emperors rarely died, unless there was a war between worlds. Even a mid rank had been involved this time!

This meant that the unknown assailant could rival him in strength. Being able to kill a fourth rank meant that the unknown was definitely stronger than fourth rank. They might even be fifth or sixth rank.

The Dragon Observatory leader extended his senses; the culprit seems to have made their getaway.

“There are hints of decay here...” the fifth rank said softly. “This might be the work of an elderly sword cultivator. He was taking a risk in order to obtain a turn of fortune...”

Decrepit and elderly... These kinds of exalted emperors were the hardest to resolve. Some exalted emperors would throw all caution to the wind when they were so old that they were on the verge of death. It was normal if they had special techniques up their sleeves.

The presence of decay made the group pause and think a bit more. Murky speculations solidified into the image of an exalted emperor at the end of the road. They had no choice but to take an extreme risk and borrow the strength of the dao foundation site to kill the Exalted Skyriver Emperor.

Skyriver was a water attributed exalted emperor. If that one could borrow the strength of water, that might put him in the same elemental attribute.

This picture seemed more likely the more they thought about it.

It would be a thorny opponent indeed. What did one fear when one was on death’s doorstep?

Added to that the recent confusion in Red Moon Region... it made sense if someone was borrowing the Sword Sovereign’s name to create smokescreens and fish in troubled waters.

None of the Dragon Observatory group thought this was actually the work of the New Martial Sword Sovereign. Why would that personage bother with killing Skyriver if he made his way here?

Scintillating was a third rank. If Sword Sovereign wanted to kill him, he wouldn’t have permitted the man to escape from Suncloud. After all, the Sword Sovereign was at least a fifth rank.

“They’re still in Skyward!” The leader of Dragon Observatory furrowed his brows. “They shouldn’t have passed through the world gates yet! We need to be careful if it really is an elderly exalted emperor. An exalted emperor who’s reached the end of the road will stop at nothing to extend his lifespan!”

“Fellow Daoist Dragon, will this person continue to attack exalted emperors?” asked an uneasy fourth rank from a neighboring region. Then the situation would be too dangerous, he was only a fourth rank.

The battle that had taken place here had been over in the blink of an eye, resulting in the deaths of five exalted emperors!

“It’s possible!” was the response. “If you are worried about your safety... the two fellow daoists can visit my Dragon Observatory for a while.”

This was his chance! Apart from the three from Dragon Observatory, there were two more fourth ranks from other regions. Other than Dragon Observatory, there were nine mid rank region masters in the southern region. With one dead today, that left eight.

If these two follow me back to Dragon Observatory, we will boast of six mid ranks in our roster. The fifth rank from Utmost Dark has come in contact with me. Once I recruit him as well, I will have seven mid ranks!

That level of strength was sufficient to suppress the other three major factions. Granted, the one who’d killed Skyriver might be an obstacle to his plans.

The other unaffiliated forth rank hesitated, then volunteered, “Fellow Daoist Dragon, I seemed to sense the departure of a mid rank on my way here. We passed by each other—he might be a fifth rank. At least, he seemed a bit stronger than me.

“However, there were tribulation clouds here at that time, so he might be a nearby powerhouse here to investigate. He isn’t necessarily the culprit.”

“Oh?” The Dragon Observatory leader paused. “Fifth rank? Do you know who?”

“We stayed far out of each other’s way.”

Now this was getting complicated. Or had a fifth rank been involved in the battle earlier as well? Or perhaps observed? What was the truth?

He was well aware of how many mid ranks there were in the southern region. Somehow, the situation seemed to be racing out of control. Could that person be here from one of the other regions? No one passing through the southern gate could be kept a secret from him.