Chapter 1485: Entering Second Rank (III)

Li Hao had not departed Skyward despite his impending death. Instead, he was prepared to walk the path of life and death while on the major world. Each instance was both danger and opportunity. Most of all, it was a significant consumption of his resources.

For one, he needed a large quantity of energy. For another, he ran the high risk of losing his memories and even being lost in the process, becoming another person. And lastly, each attempt always met with a chaos tribulation.

He could go through this process multiple times if he didn’t care about that. However, Li Hao also knew that drawbacks were certain to develop if he repeated it too many times. He might encounter unforeseen danger. If he could refrain from employing it, he should.

This venture had been quite fruitful for him. He’d killed five exalted emperors, all of whom had stocked reserves. There were a lot of dao crystals and one exalted emperor-level treasure sitting pretty on him now.

Regular exalted emperor-level treasures weren’t that useful, but the defensive item that Skyriver had used last was quite strong. Li Hao hadn’t been able to break through it with one blow.

I owe someone else a favor now!

Li Hao sighed to himself. His debtors were the water sixth rank, the dragon seventh rank, the fire seventh rank, the New Martial Human King, Supreme Zhang, and Number Two...

This was the grand total of his current debts. Four high rank exalted emperors, one sixth rank, and one cat. As for Void... their dealings did not result in a new debt. Each was taking from the other what they needed.

Even if he did come to stand guard over Li Hao, the young man would permit him to observe the dao of life and death. That made it an exchange of great dao and not an incurrence of debt.

Li Hao smiled wryly at himself. Was there any first rank like him who managed to owe so many personal debts to high rank exalted emperors? When the debts grew too much, it was the debtors on the hook, wasn’t it? That looked to be the philosophy that he was practicing these days.

I should refrain from committing more of these actions in the future. This is getting out of hand and exceeding the limits of my abilities. Owing a favor to a sixth rank in order to kill a fourth rank is a very bad deal. These guys are probably still alive, since I can trace their past.

There was once a ninth rank exalted emperor in Skyward! But these guys are perfectly willing to do me a favor. Why would they do that, unless they really needed it?

That’s the most troublesome of all!

Now that Li Hao had formed a karmic relationship with Skyward, their affairs might drag him down into exhaustion. New Martial alone was giving him no rest. With another major world in the mix, one that used to be helmed by a ninth rank... he could scarcely imagine how frightful his future was going to be.

But that was not a top priority at present.

......

A person appeared soundlessly after a while of waiting.

“Fellow Daoist Li!” Void sized up the young man and smiled faintly. “You don’t... look too good.”

“I’m alright!” Li Hao smiled. “Just dying of old age, is all. But this is my soul. My body is already gone.”

Void could tell. He took another glance at Li Hao, slightly puzzled. “The cycle of life and death. You look to have experienced it before. Are there no restrictions to the cycle?”

It would be horrifying if it was free game.

“There are a couple.” Li Hao didn’t hide anything; it was also normal for Void to detect something. The young man was so gravely injured that it would have to take something as drastic as the cycle of life and death to save him.

If that wasn’t an option, then Li Hao wouldn’t be so coolly composed and invite the other to stand guard over him in cultivation.

“Undergoing the process too many times will erase one’s original marks. Revitalization at that time will result in a new life, not the old self!”

Void furrowed his brows and nodded. “That makes sense. So this means that this method should be employed as little as possible. Although it can reverse everything, the price for such an effect is too high. Nine is the ultimate limit for all daos in the chaos. Under normal conditions, the same should apply to you.

“If this is your second time, then I think you can undergo this seven more times at most. If you exceed nine, then it will have to be a new beginning and a new reincarnation cycle!”

“Is that so?” Li Hao’s eyes shot wide open. “I hadn’t considered there might be a limit. What you say is sound! Nine as the limit? That’s very likely!”

“That’s the typical case!” Void explained. “Take a chaos tribulation, for example. Nine is the number of cycles. Nine levels is also the limit of exalted emperors! The same applies for lifespan. Under normal conditions, exalted emperors can live for 999,999 years. There are anomalies, of course, but we don’t need to speak of those.”

Li Hao nodded again with new understanding. Nine! There was something about this number that made it different.

“Are you going to reincarnate here?” Void looked around them.

“Yes!” Li Hao nodded. “This is also a prevention tactic. If I meet with danger again and have no way of handling it, I can see if I can borrow a seventh rank’s strength once more.”

“Will you be struck with a thunder tribulation?”

“Yes,” the young man nodded. “I might not if I didn’t go through the cycle, but I certainly will this time. Fellow daoist just needs to obscure the commotion I cause in the early stage! The chaos tribulation will descend when I reach second rank, but it won’t be that strong...”

“I’d like to see it,” Void laughed. “A chaos tribulation normally won’t target a third party! I’d like to try and see if I can capture one. We can give up on the idea if it’s not feasible—what do you think?”

Most people would be horrified by the thought of encountering a chaos tribulation; they would want nothing to do with one. And yet, Void was very much interested.

“Sure!” Li Hao laughed. It was up to the one whether or not he succeeded. Regardless, Li Hao would never turn down an offer to deal with a chaos tribulation for him.

“Then I’ll be giving it a try!” Void smiled. A chaos tribulation... was a wondrous thing. A cultivator would have no right to call themselves a heaven-defying cultivator if they didn’t experience one in their lifetime.

Clearly, the person in front of him had experienced more than one.

“Ah, right, I’ll need my memories stimulated when I walk the path of life and death. I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble the fellow daoist for this!”

“Me? What should I do?”

“I have some recordings from last time, fellow daoist can take a look!”

Some memories appeared in Void’s mind when Li Hao pointed. “If I do this to you, won’t you want to kill me after you grow stronger?” he laughed wryly. It was a very interesting way of resurrection, one that seemed to lend itself to vengeance.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

I’m not your teacher.

“What will happen if I do not stimulate the fellow daoist’s memories?”

“Nothing much, just that I’ll lose a touch of my humanity without them!”

Void turned over the idea in his mind. So the young man would resemble more of the heartless great dao? In that case, that wasn’t good.

“Do you have any other questions?”

“I see that there’s a dao universe in the memories...” Void raised. There was none here.

“That’s alright, this iteration will be a special one as well. This is a site of fire dao, I was at one of water dao before. As such, I’ve grasped a bit of both daos. I will utilize fire and water as the base this time to summon the power of both daos. The star of life and death will be the boundary...”

He wouldn’t need the twin universes this time, just the daos of fire and water. The effects should be similar. In fact, it might help improve his knowledge of the two daos.

“Very well!” Void had no further concerns. He immediately quieted the premises!

The entire world seemed to still in the blink of an eye. The volcano that’d previously roared with fire energy fell completely silent. There wasn’t a single hint of noise or ripple of movement. Everything was enveloped by Void’s creation.

Li Hao was inwardly surprised. Stillness and reawakening. Life and death. Yin and yang. All of these daos bore similarities to each other. This person had reached a peak with his dao of stillness. If he could go through the same reawakening cycle, then sixth rank might easily be within reach.

The Human King of New Martial walked the path of yin and yang. He was seventh rank now, which indicated that eighth and ninth rank were possibilities when someone cultivated a path to maximum potential.

“What marvelous methods!” Li Hao sighed with appreciation. “Ordinary exalted emperors won’t be able to sense a thing after this.”

The disturbance he caused would not be great then. A long river materialized without further ado, running through the world of emptiness.

Void watched silently, watching how an exalted emperor of life and death headed toward revitalization from stillness, how he walked toward new life from death. Advancing in cultivation level was of secondary concern. What he would observe this time would be far more profound than a simple breakthrough.

This was his fortuitous opportunity.

Void smiled to think that he was seeing his chance thanks to a first rank. One had to say, fortune was wondrously fickle. He’d been stuck at fourth rank for a very long period of time and he didn’t really care about fifth or sixth rank. There wasn’t much significance to them.

He wished to comprehend the meaning of emptiness and how resurrection might arise from stillness. He didn’t wish to just see how strong the dao of emptiness could be. There was no point in pursuing that as it wouldn’t lead to seventh rank.

If he could awaken in the midst of silence, then he had a hope of reaching seventh rank!

Li Hao erupted with force and gathered endless energy to him. This was the joint accumulation of five exalted emperors. All of their power transformed into a river of water and a river of fire.

Fire and water came together!

The river of life and death formed between them. Number Two had already disappeared and the Star Gate was open once more. Three rivers passed through it.

Void watched for a while, astonished by what he saw. Mid rank would be no trouble for the young man even if he only pursued the paths of fire and water. He’d gleaned quite a bit for his troubles.

Li Hao repeated what he’d gone through once already, this time with two bystanders. One was Void and the other was Big Claw. Big Claw was so excited that his hands were shaking.

I... might be witnessing something incredible again!

He’d felt a change in the world once Void’s world of emptiness appeared. A tiny world seemed to have been born in the major world. And when Li Hao’s long river appeared, Big Claw felt that he’d seen something even more amazing.

The rivers of life and death, fire, and water.

Li Hao walked through the river of water preparing to greet the end of his life and be reborn from the flames in the river of fire. The strength of multiple exalted emperors was concentrated in the three rivers. Each step he took was marked with a partial collapse of the waters. All of the strength was concentrated in his body.

Li Hao swiftly aged even further; even his soul was withering.

One step after another!

Void watched silently without interference. He looked on as Li Hao reached the end of the river of water, died as the river of water abruptly collapsed, then flew toward the star of life and death as an enormous ball of light.

“Big Claw, if we sever the river of life and death in this moment... he’ll be fully dead!” Void suddenly said.

Color drained from Big Claw’s face! What did the exalted emperor mean by that?? If Void decided to make a move now... he himself was just an Empyrean King. Any first rank exalted emperor could easily kill him, to say nothing of a fourth rank!