Chapter 1509: A Commandant All By His Lonesome (III)

The longsword stabbed into the Utmost Dark third rank’s body! This was when the man finally realized that something was wrong. This did not seem to be an attack from a dark puppet!

He tilted his head and saw Li Hao out of the corner of his eye. Disbelief blossomed.

The Exalted Hao Moon Emperor??

How was this possible?! Hadn’t it been the dark puppets chasing him this entire time?! Why was it Hao Moon?? How could this be?! It wasn’t possible!!

There seemed to be a large number of dark puppets behind the young man. Were they after him or Hao Moon??

The presence of death exploded within his body as soon as the thought crossed his mind. Life force streamed out of him. The Utmost Dark exalted emperor had expended a lot of energy to begin with; he rapidly declined as death qi expelled vitality out of him.

The power of darkness within his body congregated in one area and sought to strike back. However, strength of emptiness flared when the desire occurred to him and froze his last strand of darkness. Fire and water subsequently exploded within his body!

The great dao inside of him immediately collapsed. The man was completely astonished by what was occurring.

This is... Hao Moon? A first rank? That’s not right!

The last dregs of his vitality dissipated. A third rank had easily fallen to Li Hao, thanks to a full day and night of being hunted down beforehand! It had been a simple cleanup duty for the young man.

A large sum of life and death melded into the river of life and death. This one had died to his great dao. Li Hao grinned widely.

Another one.

These people from Utmost Dark are so nice. I’ve killed three out of their group of six, the dark puppets got to another one outside, which means there’s only two left.

His next target was the remaining third rank, as well as the dark puppets chasing him. As for Drouth, he was no match for the man at present.

The young man wasn’t worried about dark puppets chasing him because most of the dark energy in the surroundings had been exhausted. He only needed to deplete it a bit more to weaken all of the puppets. Their dao foundation crystals would be his for the reaping after he killed them one hundred times.

After a moment, Li Hao fixed his eyes on the other exalted emperor. Not only had the young man collected a great deal of dao foundation crystals at this point, but he’d also fashioned many more bridges of life and death. Setting aside the energy that’d been consumed over the course of a full day and night’s chase, he’d crafted another ten bridges.

Where he had 250 before, he now had 260. He’d saved so much time and effort!

If in the outside world, it might take him at least a year to build one bridge. That would be very normal in the absence of fortuitous circumstances. Perhaps one hundred years would be required to reach peak third rank.

And that was him. For anyone else, it might take them thousands or ten thousand years to rise from first rank to peak third rank.

......

Li Hao repeated the same course of action with the second exalted emperor. He first hunted down the other’s dark puppets one by one, taking all of their dao foundation crystals.

This exalted emperor was utterly exhausted. Whenever he felt that this was the end, that he had no more strength left to keep running and that he should strike back... he would turn back and lose all confidence at the sight of two dozen dark puppets baying for his blood.

The only thing he could do was to keep running!

Thankfully, the heavens had left a chance of survival for him. These dark puppets weren’t that fast and seemed to be growing weaker. They weren’t able to catch up to him, which greatly delighted him.

Although it was unknown how long it would take to resolve this troublesome circumstance, he wouldn’t die, at the very least. The key was, the dark presence within the hall wasn’t that strong anymore.

The exalted emperor quickly assessed the situation. The dark energy might fully dissipate after a day. That could be his chance then!

Li Hao clearly wouldn’t permit him such a chance. He plunged his sword into the nearly exhausted exalted emperor on the second night, eliminating the last low rank Utmost Dark exalted emperor with an eruption of life and death.

There were eighteen dao foundation crystals in his collection. If counting the two that he’d already consumed, he’d picked up twenty dao foundation crystals on this trip.

The dozen dark puppets chasing after him were clearly much weaker than before. They were walking treasure in his eyes; he’d accumulate another dozen crystals after killing them.

However... the darkness within the hall had decreased significantly. There was only a thin layer of darkness left. It might not be long before that was gone as well.

This speed of depletion was faster than Li Hao had previously estimated.

......

After another day, the dark puppets were visibly feeble with the dissipation of darkness. Though they would strike back at Li Hao and even mob the young man, they were becoming fewer in number as he took them out one by one.

There were only a few third ranks left behind him now.

By now, Li Hao could sometimes kill a puppet after just a few dozen deaths. The emergence of their dao foundation crystal was a sign that they were truly dead. Clearly, the ambient energy left was insufficient to maintain their operations.

In the distance, Drouth killed a fourth rank puppet for the first time. He stared incredulously at the dao foundation crystal when he picked it up. These things could be killed?

He was covered with wounds and breathing heavily, having expended enormous energy over the past couple of days. Excitement descended upon him nonetheless when he obtained the dark crystal. This was a fourth rank dao foundation crystal! It contained the reflections of dao from an eighth rank!

If it wasn’t for him sensing a steady outflow of energy from the surroundings over the past two days, Drouth wouldn’t have been able to hold on. Thanks to Li Hao tirelessly killing the puppets, he sensed an opportunity through the weakening darkness.

That gave him motivation to forge onward and a refusal to give up, which led to the harvest in his hand. Drouth was overjoyed at possibly locating his fortuitous opportunity!

He looked at the dark puppets left behind him. There were now four after he killed one. They were all treasure waiting to be collected in his eyes. Although he’d drained his own reserves, it would be worth it if he killed all four dark puppets and obtained their crystals. Two of them were fifth rank!

Puppets of this caliber would surely drop incredible crystals upon their death. Awash with delight, Drouth didn’t care about his wounds. His only thought was to kill the puppets!

A berserk Drouth struck back with everything he could muster. On his side, Li Hao was also swiftly executing his dark puppets. The power of darkness quickly receded in the hall.

......

After endless time passed.

Li Hao breathed a slight sigh of relief after he killed the last dark puppet, but his expression quickly turned grave again.

He’d gained a lot over the past three days—52 dao foundation crystals, to be exact. This was an unfathomable level of wealth.

There were now 280 bridges of life and death in his world. That meant an additional forty bridges over three days. Who knew how long that would take in the outside world? It’d been only three days in here.

He was eighty bridges out from peak third rank. At this rate, it would take another ten days or half a month to reach it. What a pity that the strength of darkness was dissipating completely!

Just as the thought crossed Li Hao’s mind, Drouth punched the last dark puppet to death. A dao foundation crystal dropped to the ground, brightening the gleeful man’s face.

The strength of darkness around them completely vanished. While he’d heard some sounds all along, he’d assumed it was the two brethren that’d entered the hall with him. It was impressive that they’d managed to survive until now.

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

He was very happy that the crisis was defused and proven so rewarding for him. As Drouth bent down to pick up the crystal, he scanned the premises. Although the hall was still dark and gloomy, it might as well be daytime to a powerhouse.

He didn’t see anyone else in the tens of thousands of meters around him, just someone who shouldn’t be here.

Hao Moon!

Drouth blinked and focused his eyes on the boy. Meanwhile, Li Hao wasn’t surprised in the slightest. He looked at the dao crystal at the man’s feet and clucked his tongue. A fifth rank dao foundation crystal?

This guy’s rich!

“Greetings to the Exalted Drouth Emperor!” Li Hao said quite politely.

“Hao Moon?” Drouth nearly stammered after an incredulous stare.

How was this possible?! Where were those from Utmost Dark? What about the other two inside the hall with him?? What was Hao Moon doing here?!

“It’s me!” Li Hao grinned. The other guy had consumed a lot of resources! Granted, he was still no match for an exhausted fifth rank. He was only a third rank. The gap between the two was enormous.

However, there was also nothing he needed to fear.

Drouth was still reeling from disbelief; his eyes narrowed threateningly. “Third rank?” He could sense that the boy’s presence wasn’t that of a first rank, but a third rank!

Li Hao had improved so quickly that his presence couldn’t be fully concealed anymore. Even the river of life and death constantly leaked energy. Its waters held too much!

“Where’s my people?” A hard look entered Drouth’s eyes.

“I don’t know, I just got here and bumped into the Exalted Drouth Emperor,” Li Hao responded innocently. “Have the other fellow daoists not made it here?”

The look on Drouth’s face grew more unpleasant.

You just got here? Is that even possible?!

He brooded, quietly putting away the fifth rank dao foundation crystal and even absorbing some of its power to compensate for his expenditure. At the same time, he was on the alert.

Although the boy was only a third rank... he’d been a first rank before they entered Demon Summit. Who knew, maybe he was hiding his strength even now. Drouth himself had consumed so much of his reserves that his current strength was less than half of his prime condition. He only counted as a fourth rank now.

He would be under so much threat if this person was hiding more up his sleeves!

And where are my comrades?? Why isn’t there a single one of them to be found?! Hao Moon looks so relaxed, whereas I’m huffing and panting. Did he really just get here?

Drouth glowered at Li Hao. “Fellow Daoist Hao Moon hid yourself well, you’re a third rank...”

“First and third rank are both but low rank exalted emperors!” Li Hao laughed and pointed at a small door in the depths of the hall. “Senior Drouth, I think you should be more concerned about that. Is there treasure to be found behind the door?”

They hadn’t encountered any obstacles throughout the course of their chase, but now discovered that there were walls around him. There was even a door at the end of this space.

Drouth’s attention was aroused.

Treasure? The core of the Hall of Darkness?

He inwardly danced with joy, but also quickly went on the alert. What kind of person was this Hao Moon?

It was astonishing that a fifth rank would be wary of Li Hao.