Chapter 1505: The Hall of Darkness (III)

Boom!

Sword light clashed with black light. Li Hao stumbled a few steps back; his opponent’s shadowed radiance broke apart as well, revealing his face. It was the third rank that Li Hao had seen before.

The man wore a ruthless expression on his face. Despite not finding success with his opening move, he didn’t hesitate. Since he hadn’t prevailed with his ambush, he would give up killing Hao Moon and leave with the dao foundation crystals!

It wouldn’t be easy for this outsider to respond to his attack. All he needed to do was to find Drouth; they would easily dispatch the young man then. There was no need to take a risk here.

“Wanting to leave after you take what’s mine?” Li Hao’s eyes glinted with a hard look.

I’m the one who takes from others, you’ve got to at least ask if you want to take from me, yeah?

How dare you take anything when I haven’t given you permission to?!

“Life and death!”

A star of black and white appeared in the world with his grunt. It bore down on the vicinity, accompanied by an eruption of life and death within Li Hao’s body. Vitality surged as the young man’s strength grew explosively.

Death qi permeated the air, sinking its claws into the Utmost dark exalted emperor and binding the great dao within his body. The man’s eyes widened as he oscillated his strength of darkness, repelling the death qi.

However, the power of emptiness stole into his body. All of his energy stilled. His body jerked to a halt!

A chaos tribulation suddenly appeared in the void—Li Hao’s power of destruction. The formidable thunder and lightning struck with a roar, scoring a direct hit on the man!

The Utmost Dark exalted emperor stiffened, the power of darkness within his body somewhat dissipating from the destructive assault. His vitality also greatly dissipated.

“An exalted emperor of life and death!” He was shaken, finally understanding who he faced.

Li Hao hadn’t demonstrated his powers of life and death when he fought the giant bear as they didn’t have much of an effect on dark puppets. It was only when he fought the living that his abilities were displayed in full, horrifying fashion. He extracted vitality and laid down a blanket of death qi in its wake.

The exalted emperor immediately felt danger loom over him and sensed the arrival of death. This was bad!

There would be nothing to fear if his opponent was an ordinary third rank; they would be peers. But an exalted emperor of life and death... Life and death, yin and yang were major daos in the chaos universe. It wasn’t just Li Hao who cultivated them.

These types of exalted emperors made for very difficult opponents when regular exalted emperors encountered them. Although Li Hao could not bridge a major gap and kill a fourth rank, almost no third ranks would be able to match him. Only those who cultivated similar major daos could put up a fight.

The Utmost Dark exalted emperor’s expression changed drastically when he sensed his vitality slip away. He grunted to summon more life force, spontaneously aging as he did so. Immense power of life and death dissipated through the world, thrusting Li Hao’s power away from the man.

Streaking into a ray of dark light, the Utmost Dark exalted emperor prepared to escape. However, a river rose to block his way. It turned into a whip and wrapped around him. The giant bear that the river had been contending with previously had disappeared.

The power of a myriad daos erupted in the river, transforming into countless swords that shot at the exalted emperor.

“Is this... a river of great dao??” gasped the man. But that wasn’t possible! How could a dao master be here?!

Indeed, a dao master. One who wielded the great dao was hailed a dao master. Rivers like these that contained a myriad of daos were the hallmark of one. Thus, the Utmost Dark exalted emperor was stunned. How was a river of great dao suddenly on the premises?

The weakest masters of great daos were sixth ranks; they represented major worlds! How could Hao Moon be the master of a great dao?

The world trembled at this moment, seemingly sealed away again. “Isolation!” beamed the exalted emperor. Demon Summit seemed to have been sealed once before, but he’d ignored it since it didn’t affect him. This time, he was utterly delighted.

Sealing off the world and severing the connection to great dao... If his opponent was a master of dao, then his strength would spontaneously decrease. However, the Utmost Dark exalted emperor blinked in the next moment.

The river flowing around him wasn’t the least bit affected. How could that be?

So this isn’t a river of great dao?

The thought popped into his mind. That... wasn’t right, though! How could a river of dao not be from a dao universe?

The truth was, if Hong Yitang or Gan Wuliang were here and couldn’t maintain a connection to their dao universe, their river of great dao would indeed vastly weaken when Demon Summit was sealed away.

Li Hao, however, was different because his river truly didn’t count as one of great dao. It was coalesced from his own strength and did not center on external force. The entire river was crafted from the young man’s personal strength.

Thus, whether one sealed off the land or world, it wouldn’t affect him in the least. He didn’t care at all!

The river circled around the man and tightened in a grip of death. A longsword emanating the light of death slashed through the air, enveloping the third rank with the presence of death.

“The Drouth King will hunt you down if you dare kill me!” screamed the Utmost Dark exalted emperor.

“Hmph!” Li Hao couldn’t be bothered to respond.

So what if I kill you? You’re the one who attacked me in the first place. I wanted to kill you even if you didn’t ambush me. I fear absolutely no one.

The man’s eyes widened with horror as the sword continued to descend. He made a desperate decision—self-detonation of his physical body! A dark light cut through the air and attempted to flee.

Exalted emperors weren’t that easy to kill either. The immense explosion rocked the river of life and death, shattering the sword light descending upon the man.

“Emptiness!” Li Hao called out. The power of stillness immediately spread through the vicinity, silencing everything.

All things wilted, having lost their vitality. The ray of dark light also stuttered for a second.

Just as the Utmost Dark exalted emperor was about to recover himself, another blow of destructive power rained down with a loud rumble. Thunder and lightning roared and detonated once more, splitting the dark light into many pieces!

“Fire and water!” Li Hao struck again with his word, commingling fire and water in the air. There were even two shadow figures that appeared as a result—one from the volcano and one from the dao foundation site at Skyriver.

Fire and water intermingled!

The two different types of force swept through the world, exploding with a boom and eradicating the dark light!

Life and death had come about from Li Hao’s own comprehension. Destruction from the chaos tribulation. Emptiness from void. Fire and water from the two Skyward exalted emperors—one was a seventh rank, the other was a sixth rank.

If this accumulation of heritage and methods was still insufficient for him to kill someone of his level, then Li Hao could just end himself on the spot. He would be a waste of air and space!

Ghastly screams split the air. Li Hao ignored them, instead looking up at the sky with a severe look in his eyes. One occurence was a coincidence, but a second time was not!

The land had been sealed away the last two times he sought to kill someone. If he was a cultivator of a dao universe, this would be enough to doom him. His enemies could kill him in return!

“Dragon Observatory!” An unpleasant expression crossed the young man’s face. This was blatant targeting or a probe into his abilities. The faction leader had sealed off the dao foundation site twice in a row, which meant he could likely sense part of what was taking place in Demon Summit.

Perhaps he could see who was encountering who, on the attack, or about to erupt with strength. That was when he chose to seal off the premises.

Wouldn’t Li Hao be already done for if his river of life and death was part of a dao universe?

He hadn’t borne much thought before for the smooth talking faction leader. It was the man’s own business if he wanted to kill New Martial powerhouses; the young man would only respond to the limits of his abilities.

But now, the man had tested him twice in a row. Only Li Hao’s good luck had saved him from disaster.

By now, there was a grudge between the two!

“Dragon Observatory!” repeated the young man. The frosty glint in his eyes vanished. He would have that guy’s head! Although he was only a third rank and the other was a sixth rank, Li Hao didn’t care. He would not let the man off the hook.

Repeatedly sealing away Demon Summit was so infuriating!

The long river swept through the land, bringing everything—including the dao foundation crystal from the giant bear—into Li Hao’s hands. The river was already hard at work on the third rank, washing away and purifying his energy.

The third rank should provide enough energy for Li Hao to build a few more bridges. The young man would digest not only his energy, but the three dao foundation crystals from the dark puppets. He would leave simply the bear’s.

Reaching out with a hand, he snatched the bear's crystal out of the air. The young man looked around, finding that he’d come across a stroke of good luck with this development. He could see approximately eight thousand meters around him!

This crystal was a fantastic item!

Looking up at the sky once more, Li Hao rushed in a certain direction.

......

Dragon Observatory.

The leader spat out a mouthful of blood and frowned with disappointment. Hao Moon really wasn’t the Silver Moon king! He had nothing to do with a dao universe.

In fact, he was very strong. He’d killed both a dark puppet and an Utmost Dark third rank when they attacked him at the same time. How had he killed the dark puppet? Those things were almost indestructible.

Hao Moon carried secrets on him. Regardless, he most likely wasn’t a major world or dao universe powerhouse.

All exalted emperors had their own secrets. For the peak sixth rank faction leader, an exalted emperor bearing a few secrets was useless knowledge. He wanted a dao universe—one without a master or a very weak one!

But... his target was not it.

The leader was gravely disappointed.

My only hopes are pinned on Skyward then. I won’t be able to make it into seventh rank if Skyward does not recover. The only other possibility is if another major world is toppled and its dao universe left behind for me to claim.

But that’s never happening!

Even if his backer—Skycloud major world—destroyed a major world, the master would not give him the dao universe. There are other sixth ranks in Skycloud and while the Dragon Observatory leader was the master’s direct subordinate, he wasn’t to that degree of importance. The spoils would most likely not fall to him.

Skycloud also kept a low profile and didn’t conduct its business like New Martial. It would be hard pressed to come by such an opportunity if it didn’t raise all matters of trouble.