Chapter 1550: Entering Skyward Again (III)

At the same time.

Li Hao rushed toward Skyward with Panther and a few others; he traveled at an extremely swift pace. The unfortunate detail was that it was very difficult to minimize Panther’s body. The dog contained a world, so it was very, very challenging to compress it and attain freedom of movement.

Panther couldn’t manage it at its current stage of cultivation, not unless it set foot into seventh rank. When it reached that level, it would be on similar footing with the Ash Emperor. The dog would then be able to minimize itself however it’d like.

Currently, it was so massive that it was eye-catching even in the chaos.

Taking Panther to Skyward was not an option. It would be fine if the dog went after spitting out Silver Moon; Skyward was not opposed to chaos beasts.

But once someone stumbled upon the stray world... It was absent its master of dao and master of the world. With Li Hao gone, any random exalted emperor would devour a master-less mid world before doing anything else!

Even the most foolish of sorts would think to devour a treasure that they could not take with them!

On the other hand, it was better to take Panther to Skyward with him. If Li Hao only brought Gan Wuliang, he might not be able to put on the show of a real dao universe. It would be best if even Silver Moon could be moved close to Skyward. Otherwise, it would be hard to conceive a compelling act if the dao universe was too far away.

These were all the troubles that Li Hao needed to manage first!

There was another point of consideration—how they might enter Skyward. There were guardians at each of the four gates. New exalted emperors easily drew attention.

“Gan Wuliang!”

“Here, milord!”

“Panther’s too big to draw near Skyward.” Li Hao continued to make fast time. “But if Panth’s not close to Skyward, Silver Moon won’t be close to Skyward. I won’t be able to have the dao universe affect the major world then. Do you have a solution for this?”

Gan Wuliang looked on glumly.

You never ask me easy questions, it’s always something tough!

“I do!” the man answered crisply. “Does milord wish to hear it?”

“......”

What do you think?? And, you really have an answer?

“Your Lordship, a world can be compressed.”

No shit, I know that.

However, Li Hao kept listening. Gan Wuliang’s mind worked very quickly; sometimes the man could come up with some more reliable ideas.”

“The issue is that Panther isn’t too strong. Compressing the world might cause it to collapse and the deaths of untold Silver Moon citizens as a result!”

Li Hao nodded.

“Therefore, my idea is to find a minor world and kill everyone in it! Kill that world’s master and substitute ourselves for it. We’ll temporarily move everyone from Silver Moon into it and then have Panther compress Silver Moon!

“If we pull this off properly, Silver Moon will be able to hide for a while yet. There are many mid worlds in the chaos—milord happens to have a map. There are some minor worlds adjacent to major worlds. No one will come looking for them in the short run and no one will care about them!”

Slaughter a world’s inhabitants and migrate Silver Moon’s population over!

It was one solution, but it was too cruel. Although Silver Moon was a mid world, it only had ten billion or so people. That was the general population of some minor worlds—it could absolutely fit inside a minor world.

In this regard, the young man would be able to shrink Silver Moon and easily take it with him.

Worlds could naturally be minimized. If not, no one would be able to transact with worlds. Some factions in Skyward even openly sold worlds for exalted emperors to devour. Those were worlds that had been compressed; there was no one living remaining in it.

Even if there were survivors, there were very few. A world would collapse when compressed by someone less than seventh rank.

Gan Wuliang’s methods had always been more ruthless. Li Hao was used to his style. However, the young man shook his head in rejection.

“There are at least ten billion souls in a world. For the moment, we maintain the attitude of not pointing our swords at others if they do not run afoul of us. Unless someone attacks me, exterminating a world for any other reason would be inappropriate.”

“If milord finds it inconvenient, I can do the deed...” Gan Wuliang said hauntingly.

“Wouldn’t that be burying my head in the sand and pretending ignorance?” Li Hao laughed.

Gan Wuliang shrugged with resignation.

Then I’m out of ideas. But it’s a good idea!

Not only will this conceal our movements, but it will help Silver Moon vanish from the public eye. If we pull this off properly, we might go undetected for millions of years. Who would investigate minor worlds one by one to see if the inhabitants are the original denizens?

Sometimes, Gan Wuliang found the young man to be hypocritical.

In reality, Li Hao didn’t think of himself as a benevolent person. He simply carried the ideals of the martial world with him.

I do not provoke you if you do not provoke me. If you provoke me, then I will kill you. It’s that simple.

He was interested in killing powerhouses, but weaklings... especially massacring an entire world... He wasn’t that interested unless the target was Red Moon.

Red Moon was the enemy. Enemies needed to be thoroughly uprooted! Gan Wuliang’s idea wasn’t very feasible, but it was an idea.

“Senior Number Two, you’re a second rank,” Li Hao suddenly said. “You should be able to do what the Ash Emperor does and devour a world, much like a chaos beast. And you might be able to do so better than Panth.

“If the senior doesn’t mind, can you house Silver Moon for a bit? It will travel separately from me for a while and hover near Skyward. I’ll bring Panth into the major world, have it connect with Silver Moon in its capacity of the heavenly will, and open the dao universe...”

Within the river, the cat turned over and continued snoring.

Screw you! Don’t force a cat to use human insults! I’ve given you a pass or two, but you continue to bother me every day. You’re so annoying!

I’ve finally found a place to nap, but you keep waking me up to do something. I just ate a chaos tribulation two days ago and nearly burst open from being so full. Here you are again! This cat isn’t Big Cat!

Big Cat likes to swallow a world and run away with it, that’s not me!

Could Number Two devour a world?

Of course it could.

It could do whatever the big cat could because the two were one. Or rather, they were nearly the same. Big Cat had improved a lot over the years, whereas Number Two hadn’t. That was the only difference between the two.

But... I’m not doing it!

Li Hao didn’t want to leave Panther outside Skyward because it was indeed very dangerous. But he was willing to leave Number Two outside because... he felt that the cat was more experienced and possibly stronger than Panther. Another factor was that the cat possessed unique abilities that helped it dodge investigation.

Number Two wasn’t that big—it might grow bigger after swallowing a world, but it shouldn’t be as noticeable as Panther. In addition, it was very good at concealing its presence. There was almost no hint the cat’s might to be found.

These were all abilities that Panther could not measure up to.

Li Hao was also stymied by the situation. Number Two was hard to deal with. It lacked goals and desires, whereas the young man owed it a mountain of debt. Each chaos tribulation added to the pile. With how much his debt had built up... there was no helping it. He couldn’t whittle away at the pile if Number Two didn’t want anything!

“Senior Number Two, this is an important matter that might affect my ascension. I wouldn’t be willing to have the senior take on a risk otherwise...”

“So don’t do it!” came the cat’s quick response. Li Hao coughed awkwardly. “This cat doesn’t want to do it!”

“......” Li Hao’s shoulders drooped. “Is there no room for discussion?”

“There is!” was the surprising response. “Coalesce the star of time again so that I can play with it for a while...”

“That easily attracts a chaos tribulation,” Li Hao frowned. “I also need to take it to Skyward with me, just in case!”

That thing could be a toy for Number Two in regular times, but not this time. He might need it in the major world.

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Number Two flicked its tail unhappily. But it also knew that time would not grow stronger if Li Hao did not break through. If it wasn’t stronger, it was unable to stand against a chaos tribulation. Each usage attracted a tribulation and the cat was unable to do as before—sink into the depths of the river with the star to have fun with the one who taught.

“Then just this one time. You’re not allowed to come to me next time!”

Li Hao breathed out. “Just this one time!”

“I’ve heard that before.”

Li Hao scratched his head awkwardly.

Have I said that before?

Number Two was grumpy, whereas Panther was depressed.

The dog understood that Li Hao felt Number Two was more reliable than it. The cat was stronger and better at concealing things than it. Although the young man said that taking Panther with him to Skyward was for the purposes of communicating with the world and great dao, Gan Wuliang was a master of dao. It didn’t matter if the dog was present or not.

Panther didn’t make a sound after Number Two agreed. It opened its mouth wide in the chaos and spat out a world.

A very big world!

The cat swallowed it in return and grimaced. “The little dog has bad breath!”

“......” Panther looked on wordlessly, then swiftly shrank down. While it remained very big, it wasn’t as infinitely big as before. Right now, it was just a creature one hundred meters long that didn’t resemble any specific animal.

It’d reached one thousand kilometers before, the standard size for a chaos beast. However, those in the know would be able to tell from a single glance that the dog contained a world in its stomach.

Number Two’s body swiftly grew bigger after it devoured Silver Moon. It was indeed much stronger than Panther, or its internal compression attributes were more impressive. The cat only grew several thousand times bigger.

It was the length of a human before, now it was a giant cat several thousand meters across. That was a drop of water in the chaos.

Li Hao heaved a sigh of relief. Just as he thought, Number Two’s powers of devouring and internal space were much stronger than Panth’s. This had only turned it into a cat several thousand meters long...

Fine, that was still massive, but inconspicuous within the chaos.

The quiet Gan Wuliang suddenly spoke up, “Senior, it’s best if you change your appearance. Otherwise, any powerhouses you encounter in the chaos might mistake you for the New Martial Ash Emperor.”

“......” Number Two was incredibly dejected.

Big Cat has made so many enemies that this cat can’t even maintain my original form! Woe is me!

It was true—it wouldn’t raise a ripple if people saw a chaos beast several thousand meters long. But if they saw a cat several thousand meters long... one that looked like the big cat... Then that would be perilous. Some high ranks might immediately show up to take it out!