Chapter 1499: Each With Their Own Schemes (IV)

Li Hao jerked back to the present moment and looked at the Utmost Dark second rank; he wasn’t surprised by the man’s actions. In critical moments, it was others who had to die.

To the second rank, it was best if he could drag anyone else down with him. It was far preferable to him dying alone.

Second rank was decent enough strength, but there were multiple wounds on the exalted emperor’s body after prolonged battle with the dark puppet. He was better than a regular first rank, but in a limited sense.

Li Hao debated whether he should kill the second rank or retreat. If he killed the man, he might have to face the dark puppet himself. He wasn’t afraid of one puppet, but the young man felt that there might be more than one around. What if more came?

Upon second thought, he already had 220 bridges of life and death. 240 would give him a chance to set foot into third rank. Even if a second rank exalted emperor had limited energy, that should be sufficient to facilitate another twenty bridges, no?

“It’s not me making the first move...” Li Hao mumbled to himself. Void had forbidden him from randomly killing people, just in case that led to greater trouble. But this time, he wasn’t the one stirring the pot. He was just defending himself!

It was also just an excuse he was using to defend his actions; Li Hao didn’t actually care. There were only seven exalted emperors in the dao foundation site. It would definitely be making life difficult for himself if he killed someone.

But now with these entities on the loose, it seemed perfectly reasonable that an exalted emperor would fall to them. Even if further trouble arose as a result, the dark puppets were another ready-made excuse.

Killing intent brewed in the young man’s heart!

These Utmost Dark exalted emperors could be killed without hesitation. It was only a matter of time before they died, even without him taking action.

With that in mind, Li Hao didn’t utilize sword methods. He summoned the power of life and death instead. As a fellow second rank and his opponent being in poor shape, the young man wasn’t afraid, even if he didn’t utilize his sword methods.

The dao star of life and death materialized, bringing with it the strength of death.

The Utmost Dark exalted emperor felt a sudden surge of death as soon as Li Hao’s attack reached him. His expression shifted slightly, but the young man was extremely fast and sent a current of death into his body in the blink of an eye.

The exalted emperor wanted to erupt with power of darkness to suppress Li Hao with, but a supernatural character appeared as he did so and neatly swallowed all of the force. The exalted emperor’s expression shifted drastically!

What was that??

The power of death exploded within his body just as the question crossed his mind. A destructive force detonated within, shaking his great dao and the strength that he’d brought out with him from Utmost Dark. His power of great dao was immediately overshadowed by the power of death.

Li Hao’s star of life and death overshadowed his opponent, stripping vitality away from the man.

“An exalted emperor of life and death!” gasped the Utmost Dark second rank.

He could clearly sense in this moment that the person he faced wasn’t just an exalted emperor of death, but of life

and

death. This was bad!

Most exalted emperors were greatly experienced. Life and death, yin and yang, light and dark, fire and water...

Exalted emperors of opposing attributes like these were often much stronger when they combined the two extremes. And the key was, Hao Moon was not a first rank!

He was a second rank like the Utmost Dark exalted emperor! This was very, very bad indeed!

......

At the same time, outside.

The Dragon Observatory leader’s face twitched. He’d seen a while ago that the two had encountered each other, and that Li Hao’s dot of light had suddenly burst with so much force that he eclipsed the board of light.

In response, all of Demon Summit was abruptly enveloped by something that isolated it and severed its connection to the outside world. The leader studied the dao foundation site with a fixed gaze, both expectant and apprehensive.

He was hit with some recoil for his actions, but didn’t care. He just wanted to see... nothing happened to Li Hao’s dot of light?? Disappointment and some despair hit. Nothing had happened!

Was he not a dao universe heavyweight? But that wasn’t right!

He had had a strong hunch that Hao Moon was the Silver Moon king. But even if he was, he did not possess a dao universe. Otherwise, the isolation of Demon Summit would weaken him.

Those from Utmost Dark were almost completely unaffected due to their lack of a dao universe, but the same went for Hao Moon as well. That was incredibly disappointing. Hao Moon wasn’t the Silver Moon king! Or even if he was, he lacked a dao universe. Perhaps the world master had guessed incorrectly.

“Damn it!” cursed the Dragon Observatory leader. He was both regretful and dejected, but quickly recovered his spirits. Perhaps... it was simply that Hao Moon was yet to utilize the strength of a dao universe.

Right, that must be the case. Perhaps this person was more than second rank. This could be his regular level of strength without having to utilize his dao universe.

That’s right, that was a possibility!

The Dragon Observatory leader had to comfort himself this way. Otherwise, the results of this operation would be terribly disappointing.

The other point of light had disappeared by now—to the leader’s complete indifference. The second rank had been injured before, what did it matter that Hao Moon had killed him?

Out of the Utmost Dark exalted emperors, the only one he valued was the fifth rank. In fact, it was a good thing that Hao Moon had killed the second rank. Dragon Observatory currently had three fifth ranks under its banner. If some conflict could be manufactured between Void and Drouth, that would be a way of managing his people.

If the other two fifth ranks were on good terms with each other, they might become a threat to him instead.

Let’s wait a little longer... perhaps a second rank is insufficient to make this Hao Moon demonstrate his abilities... Perhaps a third rank will do...

The Dragon Observatory leader wasn’t willing to accept the results of what he saw.

......

When Li Hao’s power of life and death erupted, vitality flooded out to make room for the arrival of death. The second rank withered away, like he’d been sucked dry.

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

His energy of darkness completely vanished. When the long river materialized and swept through the world, it swept the second rank into its waters and melted the man!

Li Hao, however, frowned and raised his head up at the sky. For a split second there, he’d sensed the area being sealed away. That sensation had quickly disappeared.

Sealing off Demon Summit...

Was it the faction leader? Or someone else? What did they want?

Li Hao was puzzled, since nothing had resulted from the incident. What did the Dragon Observatory leader want? It was so strange!

Or could he have detected something, including the death of an exalted emperor? Perhaps he knew that Li Hao was behind it! That would not be good!

Is he keeping us under surveillance?

The idea suddenly popped into Li Hao’s mind. With that, he swiftly retreated from the premises, even with the wild man retargeting the offensive at him. The young man constantly took peeks at the sky, a solemn expression on his face.

It didn’t feel good to be kept under watch. The dao foundation site had been sealed off when he was about to kill his opponent. It hadn’t affected him, but... what if he’d been a cultivator of a dao universe?

Would that have severed his connection to the great dao? If that’d taken place, would he have spontaneously weakened and been killed in return?

The dao universe...

Li Hao raised an eyebrow. Was this the motivation behind such action? Did the leader of Dragon Observatory suspect that he was a cultivator from a dao universe?

Many thoughts ran through the young man’s mind; he wasn’t certain of any of them. If they were true, then that meant that the Dragon Observatory leader might truly suspect his identity. However, how did the man know that Silver Moon possessed a dao universe?

Li Hao himself wasn’t a dao universe cultivator. If Gan Wuliang or the others were here, they might be affected by the sudden seal. While they would experience a momentary weakness, he would not. All of his dao was in the river of life and death.

These thoughts quickly flashed through his mind as Li Hao darted through the air, permitting the wild man to chase him as it would. The young man was busy concentrating the second rank’s power in his river of dao. He wanted to try building bridges of life and death in the dao foundation site. While that wouldn’t propel him to third rank, he needed to have the ability to make that leap anytime he wished to.

......

At the same time, the outside world.

Void suddenly looked toward the internals of the palace. Dragon had been up to something just now. It’d felt like... the entire Observatory had suddenly been devoid of the strength from the dao foundation site.

Had the faction leader sealed off Demon Summit?

Sealing off the dao foundation site... isolating the dao universe? Is he suspecting the kid’s identity?

If that was the case, Dragon had put on a good act before. He hadn’t let a hint of anything slip. That in turn meant that Li Hao was up to something. Was he fighting or killing someone?

Void smiled, he didn’t really care. So the kid killed someone! So what if some exalted emperors that’d survived the destruction of the dao universe died? If Drouth was dissatisfied... then he would kill Drouth.

Would Dragon engage in open hostilities with Void just because he’d lost a fifth rank? He would lose another fifth rank then, and even offend that one.

That would not be the decision of a smart man. It would be easy to resolve the issue; that wasn’t a problem at all!

However, they would expose certain things about himself, but that was fine. Playing the pig to eat the tiger wasn’t his original intention, there was no need to do that. He just hadn’t felt the need to be ferocious or ruthless in ordinary times.

Mmhmm, that’s how I’ll do it. I won’t do anything if Drouth keeps his mouth shut after exiting, but if he doesn’t, I’ll kill him!

This was not a tough issue to settle; there was no need to pay attention to the faction leader. Since Void could kill a fifth rank, he did not fear a sixth rank. Dragon was a very socially flexible person. If what Void said came to pass, the faction leader would have to curry favor with him.

If push came to shove, Void would reveal his backer. It wasn’t that he couldn’t mention them, just that he didn’t want to. Jeering would inevitably result if he went that route—he’d left Light major world so proudly back in the day, but ended up having to borrow its name in the end. That would be embarrassing either way.

Void laughed and set the matter aside.

Why do I need to care what others think?

He’d given many thoughts ample consideration after one instance of the leader’s show of course. Things were certainly becoming interesting.