Chapter 1585: Exchanging Blows! (IV)

The chaos was vast and unbounded, unending without pause. If Li Hao managed to reunite with his people, certain places would not be optimal escape locations. The young man took a look around and settled on one direction in particular. He looked quietly at it.

Perhaps... they would head toward Red Moon.

Apparently, there were numerous major worlds in that area and a large quantity of mid to minor worlds. They’d formed a prosperous belt in the chaos.

The Silver Moon and New Martial contingent stood a chance if they headed that way. Hence, Li Hao set everything out of mind and headed to the gathering spot.

The young man didn’t know that the Human King and others had run off to Skyward, whereas he was heading from Skyward to Red Moon. The two sides had swapped directions. One was running toward Skyward, while the other was determined to escape to the ring of Red Moon aligned worlds first.

......

The warship picked up speed and gave indications of wanting to flee. Within the gloom of the chaos, a formidable presence furrowed his brows. It’d gotten faster! What was going on here?

Did the ship want to run or reconvene with Silver Moon?

It was hard for the exalted emperor to make a judgment call. But he had to continue following his quarry and couldn’t let those two little guys out of sight.

The high rank stirred to action.

In another locale.

An old man with white hair looked into the distance, his eyes darting around. Celestial Pole and the Pagoda King were on the move. Those two wily old foxes should be aware of the danger around them. It was highly unusual that they’d chosen to speed up instead.

Did they want to run?

It was hard to determine.

“Celestial Pole and the Pagoda King are going to flee!” A voice traveled into his ear.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!” emphasized the supreme. “A seventh rank’s present. This would’ve been an opportunity, but sadly... The Sun God isn’t here, so we’re hard pressed to take on a seventh rank at the moment. Otherwise, we could’ve given it a try.”

“Why aren’t you here yourself?”

“Me?” laughed Supreme Zhang. “I can’t handle a seventh rank.”

“Heh!”

“Don’t ‘heh’ me,” the supreme laughed again. “I have other things to attend to and Big Cat needs to come with us. We have to give up on the seventh rank here. If Celestial Pole wishes to run, they can run. Create an opportunity for them to leave!”

“Give up here...” The Sword Sovereign thought it over. It seemed like the Martial King and others had another target in their eyes that may be more important than this seventh rank.

As for what it was, he couldn’t be bothered to ask. However, it must lead to greater gains than what they could obtain from a seventh rank if they were willing to forgo this target.

“We can also wait...” the supreme suddenly continued. “Some major developments seem to have taken place at Skyward, but we don’t know how long we’d have to wait. It’s hard to determine the situation.

“Skyward lacks a catalyst to set everything into motion and Fang Ping is out of reach. Otherwise, we can have him act as the catalyst to ignite the flames of war at Skyward!”

“So should I take action now?” The Sword Sovereign couldn’t be bothered with the supreme; he wasn’t interested in these arrangements. He just needed to carry out his duties well. Stuff that required thinking should be left to those with more brains.

That was a common sentiment shared throughout New Martial.

Those with brains should utilize more of them, and those without should be in charge of killing people. The Human King was of the same regard as well.

He couldn’t be bothered to use his brains if he didn’t have to use them. He was focused on killing. The man wouldn’t have made it to his heights so swiftly otherwise and be on the verge of setting foot into eighth rank.

“We should wait a bit longer and see if they truly mean to run away...”

But the Sword Sovereign found that idea unfeasible. “How can I tell if they really want to run, or if they’re just traveling quickly like they did before?”

I can’t. Those guys don’t have brains that operate on the same wavelength like I do. I don’t have that much practice working together with them.

Only more shrewd, wily old foxes like them would think the same way.

“It’s easy, just see if they throw out the document that I gave them.”

“Is that your replica?”

“Half a replica, not a full replica. It contains some New Martial dao and is a greeting gift to the Silver Moon king. Of course, it contains certain strength as well...”

Fine then! You’re always doing stuff like that.

The Sword Sovereign couldn’t be bothered to address the supreme’s actions.

Throw away the document, huh? Then I need to keep my eyes peeled for that. If they throw it, that means they’re going to run and I need to do something so they can.

It was just a bit of a pity.

It was best if they could take out the seventh rank here. They’d lured one over, but were giving up for some unknown reason. Was the Martial King really not considering hunting the seventh rank down?

He must have at one point.

What was it that caused him to give up the idea and send the Sword Sovereign to obstruct the seventh rank instead?

“Stop guessing, the Sun God came across a world of extreme yang in a happy coincidence!” sounded the supreme’s voice. “Many of our sixth ranks have developed some problems—severe problems. You know that!

“The ones that were resurrected all lack yang vitality. Even the entire New Martial world lacks that vitality. So you tell me, which is more important. A seventh rank or that world?”

“......” The Sword Sovereign immediately understood. “The Sun God... really has extremely good luck!”

He’d found a world of extreme yang! No wonder the supreme didn’t have anyone to deploy. A few more sixth ranks here would be nice, if not a seventh rank. The Exalted Blood Emperor, Hard-Headed, Broken Will, Earth Emperor, Ole Suppression, Ole Forge, the Western Emperor...

A combination of those people would be able to take out a seventh rank with no issues.

But now, the Sword Sovereign understood all too well.

These people had all died once in the past. New Martial was just a newly born dao universe at the end of the day. The vitality and yang qi it contained was insufficient. It was also a well known fact that Fang Ping was a very materialistic person.

The supreme and some of the others near and dear to him were full of yang qi after their resurrection. The others... were much less off. The supreme needed to resolve this internal unfairness, or it would cause cracks in New Martial’s unity. He needed to supplement part or their yang qi, particularly the sixth ranks.

Otherwise, seventh rank would be very difficult for them to attain.

They’d finally discovered a world of utmost yang, so they needed to seize it, even at the cost of relinquishing the opportunity to battle Red Moon.

“Is that world strong?”

“Very strong, and extreme yang is very suited for offense! We also can’t raise much of a fuss, just in case others detect what we’re commencing. It’s situated between Red Moon Region and Blazing Sun Region, and we also need to be on guard against Blazing Sun Region from discovering it...”

The Sword Sovereign nodded with complete understanding. Then there was nothing to be done but give up on the plans here. No wonder he hadn’t seen anyone join him after waiting for so long. He’d been thinking that Ole Zhang might send some helpers his way in critical moments.

Of course that side was more important.

Replenishing sufficient yang qi and vitality meant that a large group of people would have high hopes of entering seventh rank. It would be very different from their current situation; they had almost no hope of progressing to seventh rank despite reaching sixth rank.

“I’m the one who gave up on Celestial Pole and the Pagoda King,” said the supreme. “I’ll bear responsibility if they really die. You don’t need to go down with them!”

“Don’t worry about me!” The Sword Sovereign couldn’t be bothered with that sentiment. He kept his eyes trained on the far distance, at a warship picking up speed.

This was how Ole Zhang always was—the man was sometimes very ruthless. His original plan had been to use Celestial Pole and the Pagoda King as bait. But now that he discovered a more critical world of extreme yang, he gave up on the duo without further thought. Although he’d sent the Sword Sovereign to the premises, the Sword Sovereign was only said to do his best and not save them at all costs.

If it wasn’t for Fang Ping’s support, someone like him would’ve been beaten up in a dark alley somewhere multiple times.

But it was also due to Supreme Zhang’s existence that New Martial had weathered crisis after crisis. Everyone was also well aware of this, so there was nothing they could do but hold their noses and put up with the supreme’s arrangements.

The ship in the distance suddenly threw something out. The seventh rank following blinked and looked at the item.

The document transformed into a figure; the seventh rank understood. He looked at the figure and bared his teeth. “You guys want to run?”

They really were trying to get away! This was probably the replica of that New Martial supreme! Everyone knew that the guy liked to throw around his replicas everywhere. Since the ship had thrown this away, then they were probably trying to make an escape.

What a pity!

The seventh rank found it regretful that he wasn’t able to reel in bigger fish. And the key was, those with the Silver Moon king likely wouldn’t be coming anymore.

He reached out without pause and prepared to destroy the figure, but his brows creased with surprise.

“I still got a big one!” Delight colored his eyes.

The Sword Sovereign!

Not bad. Although he hadn’t captured the new king of Silver Moon, capturing the Sword Sovereign was just as nice. This was the master of the New Martial Human King!

The Sword Sovereign wasn’t actually Fang Ping’s master, but that was what the chaos considered him as. The Human King’s master was an enormous, first rank fish even more important than the New Martial supreme!

How did he dare show himself? Was he unaware of how big the gap between sixth and seventh rank was?

“Red Moon!” A light chuckle echoed through the void as a massive red moon descended onto the chaos. It was the only thing that existed in the void; currents of dao strength swept through the universe.

A domain appeared in the surroundings, one exclusive to seventh ranks. A domain of the self! It came down on all sides, showcasing the abilities of a seventh rank.

You guys want to run, huh? Where do you think you’re running to?