Chapter 1580: Chance Encounter (II)

“What do you think of the name ‘dao of hiding’?” smiled the newcomer.

“Name?”

“Right, does dao of hiding sound bad?”

Li Hao smiled awkwardly back at him.

Does it sound bad? It sounds super lame!

But this seemed to be the man’s exclusive creation, which made it very unique. Although he was a sixth rank, he gave Li Hao an unusual feeling. It wasn’t as if the young man hadn’t met sixth ranks before, but he’d never sensed this from any of them.

Very dangerous!

This person was a very dangerous fellow!

“It sounds good!” smiled Li Hao.

“Good,” the newcomer chuckled again. “Are you going to change your dao now, or will you change it after you weather the chaos tribulation? If you switch it now, I can cover a thing or two for you. I wouldn’t dare provoke a stronger chaos tribulation, but I can handle a mere fourth rank for a while.

“It won’t take you long to understand my method. You’ll be able to disperse the chaos tribulation and summon it again in accumulated form when you need it next.”

A million thoughts ran through Li Hao’s mind.

“Is the senior in a hurry?” asked the young man after some contemplation. “If you are... I can switch my dao method first.”

“I

am

in a hurry!” laughed the cultivator. “I have a lot of business to attend to and am kept running from day to night. Someone isn’t willing to let me rest, it’s very annoying! I need to get over to Skyward as soon as possible for a look and see if I can locate some opportunities. Once I find them, I’m gone!

“Therefore, we can start now.” He sent a surge of dao strength toward Li Hao without another word. The young man was still hesitant, but quickly let go of his reservations and permitted the dao strength to enter his body.

He immediately received an abundance of information.

To steal the sky and put up a fake sun!

The cultivator had given it to him, just like that! How was he so confident and unworried that Li Hao wouldn’t respond in kind with the reflections of life and death?

The young man probed the new knowledge for a bit, assessing its contents. As someone who’d once comprehended a seventh rank’s dao, he could determine whether this was real or not. Moments later, a star appeared over his head—the star of life and death!

Two kinds of power intermingled over it and a river of black and white soon formed in the void. Dao strength rushed forward at the daoist in the void.

The middle-aged man permitted the river to enter his body and took stock of it before frowning slightly. Li Hao registered his change in expression with alarm. What was wrong? He hadn’t falsified anything.

“It’s... alright, just missing something!” The cultivator shook his head. “It’ll do, I suppose! But these reflections of life and death... are a bit less than I expected. But that’s right, you’ve only just entered fourth rank. Life and death aren’t that easy to comprehend. It’s not only reincarnation of new life—but I can’t speak much to it since I don’t cultivate this dao either.

“It’ll do, it helps me with some of my pressing needs!” smiled the man. “I’ll come back and converse with you if I set foot into seventh rank. If not, we can forget about everything!

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

“Then I’ll be off!” He smiled dashingly. “You better leave as soon as possible as well. There seems to be a group of sixth ranks headed this way, and another two Red Moon seventh ranks rushing their way here from a distance...”

Li Hao’s heart skipped a beat, but he was then very happy. The Red Moon exalted emperor was here, and with two seventh ranks!

“I’m off!” The cultivator vanished without further dawdling.

Li Hao was taken aback by how quickly he’d left and called out, “May I know the senior’s name?”

“We met by chance like patches of drifting duckweed, what’s there in a name?” came the man’s voice upon the wind. He’d already vanished in the boundless chaos.

How weird!

Li Hao looked oddly in the direction that the man had disappeared in, finding the encounter increasingly strange the more he thought about it. It didn’t seem like the other had been following him, so this really had been a chance encounter. Except... he seemed to know the young man.

Well, that wasn’t strange since Li Hao was recognizable whenever a chaos tribulation appeared in the void.

But it’d seemed to be a type of knowing that went beyond being aware of the young man’s identity.

The man was gone after an exchange of dao methods, and this dao of hiding was very suited for Li Hao’s needs. A key point was, there was far more to it than met the eye. It was a special dao method similar to a domain, one that gave a cultivator hope of ascending to seventh rank!

And he gave it to me, just like that?

The dao of life and death was equally sophisticated, but just as the man had said, it was yet to reach grand perfection due to Li Hao’s lack of strength and comprehension. The real dao of life and death could enable one to reach ninth rank.

“Your Lordship, we need to leave right now!” exclaimed Gan Wuliang. The group of sixth ranks was likely the group from Dragon Observatory. But since there were another two Red Moon seventh ranks... they needed to hit the road!

He was much more at ease that the unknown newcomer was gone. For a moment there, Gan Wuliang had tried to see through the other. Instead, he seemed to have his thoughts read instead! It was absolutely horrifying!

Li Hao inclined his head and summoned unique dao ripples over his body. The thunderclouds overhead immediately drifted about aimlessly. He’d only utilized a hint of that strength, but it’d truly concealed him!

“Damn!” he sucked in a sharp breath and cast a baffled look in the direction where the person had vanished. What a unique dao method!

Number Two had also been staring in that direction when the cat suddenly said, “He knows me!”

Li Hao blinked, then nodded. “Possibly! Could he be... from New Martial?”

“New Martial?” Gan Wuliang started. Was that possible?

If he was from New Martial, he would’ve said something. Since he’d recognized Li Hao, he would know that New Martial and Silver Moon were of one entity. Why hadn’t he identified himself or even given his name?

Number Two also nodded its ponderous head. “I don’t know him, but judging from his behavior, he might know me or know Big Cat! I’m not sure who he is since he didn’t come out with his identity... Perhaps he’s someone who doesn’t get along with New Martial mainstream society?”

Li Hao was lost in thought and cast another look in the direction the man had left in. “He said he’d been hiding his strength all along and ended up comprehending this dao method. If he’s a New Martial powerhouse, then he wouldn’t be an insignificant nobody at sixth rank. He should be a premier exalted emperor!”

He ran over the list of those who’d followed Supreme Zhang when he journeyed through New Martial and suddenly thought of a person.

“Do you guys think... this person is the dude who kept putting himself against the supreme and the Human King?” asked the young man in an odd tone.

“Who?” Gan Wuliang asked curiously. He wasn’t familiar with New Martial as he hadn’t traveled to the past like Li Hao had before. Therefore, he didn’t know much about these apex heavyweights.

“Someone... who I’ll have difficulty talking about.” A person’s name appeared in his mind—

Li Zhu!

This had been the Human King’s biggest opponent in the early days of New Martial. Li Zhu, son of the earth emperor and king of the earth dwellers!

He’d concealed himself and his strength from the public eye, turning all of Yin and Yang into an experimental lab. Li Zhu had conducted a variety of experiments with his father, ultimately creating the strongest specimen of all, the Human King!

The entire family of four emperors had died when they killed New Martial’s greatest enemy—the Heavenly Emperor. The Human King had ultimately revived Li Zhu, his two brothers, and the earth emperor for their service.

This was a very controversial person in New Martial history. It was hard to say if he had credit or crime to his name. As humanity’s greatest enemy at the start and the king of the earth dwellers, countless humans had died because of him.

But in the end, he died because he killed the Heavenly Emperor to save mankind...

Li Zhu had never been on good terms with Supreme Zhang and the others. Those grudges had extended beyond death and come back with him after resurrection. They simply stood on the same battle lines against external foes. When it was just those of New Martial, he ignored the supreme and others.

Li Zhu was constantly roaming the chaos. Could that have been him?

The person had indeed looked familiar, but didn’t seem the same as the earth dweller king of their memories.

Li Hao’s chaos tribulation truly had faded away. Gan Wuliang registered the clear void with a jerk of surprise. What an impressive dao method!

The other had just taught it and Li Hao had only learned some of the method, but he was able to dismiss the chaos tribulation with it. How very incredible!

Everyone was afraid of a chaos tribulation!

“I did not dismiss it,” Li Hao explained. “I’m just letting it accumulate to next time. But since there are powerhouses nearby that are coming, it’s better not to weather a tribulation here. Let’s go!”

“Milord has broken through?”

“Not yet, almost!”

Not yet?

Gan Wuliang was surprised.

“I’m one step away!” One final step—the integration of two dao stars!

While he was yet to officially experience a metamorphosis, it would be soon. It looked like he could proceed with greater boldness after this person taught him this dao method. But since powerhouses were going to arrive soon, they should leave first.

Li Hao quickly left with his group to avoid any trouble.

......

At the same time.

The vanished cultivator rushed toward Skyward. He smiled at the death qi manifesting over his body. “The presence of death is too strong, I’ll convert whatever I can. There’s not enough energy of life, I have to find an opportunity to supplement it!”

No matter what, whatever little the Silver Moon king had given him was sufficient to resolve his burning needs at the moment. That was good!

The Martial King had sent him to look for the new king, but he’d come across the new king by coincidence. How lucky was that!

Of course, there was no need for further interaction. Was there a need to say anything to someone who’d swiftly entered fourth rank?

I’m only a sixth rank!

“Someone gave me a pillow just when I’m falling asleep!” laughed the person. The strength of death on him greatly dissipated. Everything was good. The events that’d taken place at Skyward and its dao universe might not be real given his most recent encounter... Since the Silver Moon king was here, it might be Silver Moon’s dao instead.

None of that was important anymore.

The most important was that a group of masters of the world would be rushing to Skyward.

And I... I might be able to enter seventh rank there!

As for being an envoy to Light... a bullshit envoy to what? Imma just wait here until Light powerhouses show up! If they don’t, forget about it!

Don’t they say that the Light crown prince is there? Now that’s someone I can meet.

“Goal: kill a seventh rank!” murmured the man. He smiled; his presence vanished. He was like a speck of dust when he approached Skyward and abruptly melted into it, not leaving a single trace behind.