Chapter 1543: The Silver Moon King (III)

“Don’t misunderstand, milord,” Xun Re quickly protested. “I’m just worried that our strength is too weak, that we’ll be wasting the openings in a dao universe’s exalted emperor ranks if we join the Silver Moon dao universe!

“We are so weak. If the dao universe is weak as well, there will be a limit to how many exalted emperors it can support,” the man said earnestly. “At its current stage, I don’t think it can support that many. Not only will our addition prevent the dao universe from ascending, but we might easily fill to the point of explosion instead. The three of us might be wasting three spots.”

In actuality, he was telling Li Hao that

I alone will do, I’m a third rank. You can forget about the other two, that’d be too much of a waste. They’re so weak they might as well die!

While a dao universe was strengthened by devouring more exalted emperor strength, it might explode as well if it couldn’t break through from the additional energy. That occurred when the master of dao was unable to endure the additional strength. In turn, that meant that the dao universe could not support more exalted emperors. Any newcomers might strain it over capacity instead.

Such was the limit of a dao master’s strength!

If the dao master didn’t break through, it would be exceedingly difficult to advance the dao universe one step further. It wasn’t the more the merrier.

“We’re not in a hurry for now,” Li Hao smiled. “It’d also be for the best if the three of you are willing! I don’t want to keep killing people either...”

The trio’s hearts quailed.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

You’ve just killed more than a dozen exalted emperors, but say that you don’t want to kill people. You also said that you killed another dozen on Skyward. This means that nearly thirty exalted emperors have died in your hands!

That was more terrifying than demolishing a mid dao universe!

This killing fiend says that he didn’t like to kill people??

A seventh rank dao universe hosts approximately one hundred exalted emperors. You killed almost thirty by yourself. You’ve killed one third of the exalted emperors in a major world!

And how long did it take you??

Li Hao was such a brutal, terrifying person... Even Mo didn’t find the young man to be genteel and scholarly anymore. This was a wolf in sheep’s clothing! He was exceedingly bloodthirsty and horrifying!

“Since you three have made a decision, join Silver Moon!” Li Hao said slowly as he ran his eyes over the trio. “In my world’s categorization, Xun Re of Glimmer should count as part of the corporeal dao. Mo, you practice something similar to illusions and Cicada became an exalted emperor through body dao. Then you guys can respectively join the immaterial and corporeal dao universes.

“Martial Uncle Hong and Gan Wuliang, you guys should have no issues entering second rank after the three of them integrate their dao with Silver Moon. First to third rank is just an accumulation of energy. If it’s not enough, I’ll incorporate some fourth rank energy. That should be enough then!”

“Your Lordship, you should save that one for your own use,” Gan Wuliang hastily said.

“That’s alright. I don’t have much use for a fourth rank. It’s too little energy!” Li Hao shook his head. He wasn’t any weaker than some fourth ranks. What would he need that energy for?

It wasn’t very useful!

A fourth rank wouldn’t be able to access dao chess; it’d be a waste to retain that energy. He would spend part of it to help them ascend. If there was any left, he would give it to Celestial Pole’s replica so he could break through to second rank.

He would use that fourth rank down to their last drop!

He wasn’t able to break through, but it was nice enough to help others do so. It was fine that they would still be low ranks!

Silver Moon had five exalted emperors to begin with. When adding in himself and then these three, that made for nine. After all was said and done, everyone except for Mo and Lin Hongyu would be second ranks. That was fine enough.

This was the full force that many weaker mid worlds could bring to bear. If he entered fourth rank, that would just manage to fulfill the requirements of a mid world. Some mid world masters were only third ranks—the newly risen ones, that was.

Gan Wuliang didn’t have a second opinion after seeing Li Hao had made up his mind. Meanwhile, Mo and the rest were a little confused.

So there were two masters of dao in Silver Moon—this dao universe was quite something. But... why didn’t Hao Moon want to be the master of dao?

Everyone could tell that Li Hao wasn’t the master of dao. Although he’d incorporated the masters into himself earlier, that didn’t mean he could exercise control over the dao universe. He was simply using the star of time to combine them with him. The young man might be even stronger if he wielded the dao universe himself.

He could possibly set foot into fourth rank.

The trio didn’t understand it. Under normal circumstances, they would’ve already devoured such a rare resource. What was the point of creating a fake dao river?

It was better off to outright take control of the dao universe!

The two masters of dao seemed exceedingly respectful of the young man. Being as they were exalted emperors, it might be more trouble than it was worth for them to relinquish their positions as masters of dao. They might die as a result. But would that killing fiend mind killing two more first ranks?

Li Hao didn’t say a word; he was in a hurry to travel quickly. They needed to get as far away from here as possible.

The trio didn’t dare drag their feet. What if Li Hao cut them down for being a bit slower? They quickly discussed how to assimilate their dao with Silver Moon’s.

The age-old answer for that was to build a branch from the river of dao and graft their dao to it. This might be a slight hassle for cultivators of major worlds, but it was very easy for exalted emperors lacking a dao universe.

Their dao was one of the daos in the chaos, and it was a very natural process for such a dao to become part of a dao universe. The difficulty involved was much lower.

In contrast, exalted emperors of dao universes needed to sever their connection to their original dao universe if they wished to join another. Under normal circumstances, major worlds would not accept an exalted emperor of another major world.

It might easily lead to a war between worlds.

Li Hao didn’t pay attention to any of that. His only thought was to move as quickly as possible.

Integration of the three new exalted emperors went well. To be honest, their addition wouldn’t be enough to propel the dao universe into an ascension. The three weren’t that strong and it was more difficult for a dao universe to break through as it was an enhancement of the overall limits of the dao universe.

Li Hao began infusing it with the remaining energy he had from the fourth rank.

The dao universe took a slight leap forward after half of it was consumed. The two masters of dao would have needed a lot of time to accumulate enough energy to reach second rank, but the process went by much faster thanks to Li Hao’s help. Second rank was a natural, foregone conclusion.

Panther, Gan Wuliang, Hong Yitang, Cicada, and Xun Re were all second ranks. Li Hao couldn’t be bothered to retain the remaining energy and gave it to Celestial Pole’s replica.

Celestial Pole happily accepted everything that came his way!

Since Li Hao was back, he didn’t need to be the vanguard anymore. In that case, having a bit more energy and strength was a good thing. It would give him more confidence when he met his primary body.

Once he absorbed enough energy, he would be able to outright set foot into second rank. One only needed to accumulate enough energy from first to third rank for those ascensions. There was no need for any dao comprehension. Besides, his primary body had also been a second rank before.

That made for one third rank, six second ranks, and two first ranks on Li Hao’s side. If he didn’t count Number Two, he had precisely ten exalted emperors. Silver Moon had accumulated a great deal of strength in a very short amount of time.

Li Hao also had some thoughts in mind as well. He had a sufficient number of exalted emperors for his current use; the young man wasn’t prepared to take in anymore people. If it hadn’t been for his earlier decision, he wouldn’t have accepted these three either. His time and effort needed to go to Silver Moon denizens!

A dao universe could support a limited number of exalted emperors. Giving some spots to outsiders meant fewer spaces for his own.

Panther did not occupy one of these spots as it was the master of the world. The dog was in a unique category of its own.

Celestial Pole didn’t occupy a spot either. He was just a replica. Although his strength was at the exalted emperor level, he was a core origin exalted emperor in his core essence.

Number Two didn’t occupy a spot either, it was even more special. Li Hao wasn’t able to determine what kind of exalted emperor the cat was. Was it one of a dao universe, of the mess of daos in the chaos, or one from another space?

Who knew?

Lin Hongyu didn’t take up a space either, so that meant there were only five exalted emperors in the dao universe for the moment. Two of them were the masters of dao.

They’re just second rank... Dao masters below third rank can’t support too many people. I can’t randomly recruit people anymore or let them integrate into the dao universe. If they lack dao strength, then I’ll just kill them!

Silver Moon as a whole has improved by quite a lot. As for me, I need to be making headway on the dao of extreme yin. Otherwise, I won’t even dare utilize dao chess...

If he’d comprehended some of that dao, then he would’ve chosen to enter dao chess today and comprehend more dao. He would not have walked life and death again.

That had been such a loss!

And yet, he was yet to encounter the path of extreme yin, but Li Hao knew that Yin and Yang must contain that dao. He had Celestial Pole’s replica from that world and Zhang An who was not yet an exalted emperor. However, Celestial Pole’s primary body was on his way...

Celestial Pole cultivated the way of the fist and was very strong for it. Yet the Pagoda King was described as devious, calculating, and extremely cowardly... Were those character traits for the dao of extreme yin?

Li Hao smirked to himself. No matter what, it might help him to converse with two exalted emperors truly from the core origin universe. Based on what Celestial Pole’s replica said, there might be the supreme’s replica or a sixth rank following them. Perhaps further conversation could be had.

As for the supreme having replicas of himself... Li Hao was aware of that fact. He’d traveled through New Martial and learned that the supreme was everywhere. Supreme Zhang had countless replicas of himself!

The young man had always felt that that wasn’t necessarily a good thing—splitting oneself off too many times easily led to perversion of one’s mind. But since the supreme was still completely sane, perhaps he had a way to safeguard against that.

Or perhaps he was already mentally twisted and Li Hao simply hadn’t seen through it.

“Senior Celestial Pole, let’s go find your primary body!” Li Hao laughed and darted into the void.

Celestial Pole’s replica laughed as well, but in a slightly haunting manner.

Whose memories should take precedence when I encounter my primary body again? Or can both of us be the primary body?

Although he felt that it was better to have one less thing to worry about, that integrating back with the primary body would save him a lot of hassle, it was indeed a little sorrowful to throw away his memories of all these years.

Although, it would be nice to not have to fight anymore once the primary body absorbs me.

Celestial Pole quickly cheered up again.

I’m just a replica... who cares.