Chapter 1611: Being Poor Makes Me Rise With Force and Spirit (II)

The rat spirit shook its head, as if caught in a very difficult position. Li Hao didn’t rush it.

You guys want nothing more than for Orchid Forest to be a complete mess. One exalted emperor more is one additional source of trouble. You should even be letting me in for free!

But a certain amount of haggling was also to be expected. It was difficult for chaos wanderers to earn money, even exalted emperors had to tighten the drawstrings. Those who were particularly generous were either very strong or came from various major factions.

Real chaos wanderers were very stingy.

Although Li Hao didn’t roam through the chaos like other chaos wanderers, he’d once traveled with them. A fourth rank like Ming Hao had been very miserly along the way. The man had been deathly afraid of his dao strength leaking when he cultivated, not wanting anyone to take advantage of him.

This was how all true chaos wanderers were.

As for Sword Sovereign and the others, Li Hao didn’t want to venture an opinion of them. They were veterans of the martial world. Someone like Void didn’t appear like a chaos wanderer, whereas the Sword Sovereign... was even more of a chaos wanderer than regular chaos wanderers. He didn’t need Li Hao’s concern at all.

“Fellow daoist, one hundred dao crystals is too few,” the rat spirit said with difficulty. “You need to know that we’re taking a risk here too...”

“One thousand will do!” Li Hao responded through transmission. “But you need to give me a complete dossier on Orchid Forest, all of its exalted emperors, the ones that’ve newly come to the world and their backgrounds...”

The rat spirit cursed to itself.

Dream on! Where does such a cheap chaos wanderer come from?? Giving you all this for one thousand dao crystals? Do you think yours are better than anyone else’s?

“We can’t collect this either fellow daoist...”

“Then one hundred it is!” Li Hao’s back and forth drew another silent curse from the rat spirit.

This guy is so cheap! I thought I was cheap enough already, but he’s even cheaper! However there’s orders from upstairs that no matter what wandering cultivator shows up, we need to try and get them inside.

The more exalted emperors there are inside Orchid Forest, the more deeply their conflicts will run. That will create more trouble for Orchid Forest!

People should be allowed in even if they don’t pay.

But of course, visitors would be highly encouraged to give a small token of their sentiments. Their group of exalted emperors depended on income like this. Profit and interests were the only topics of note in the chaos. Without those, it wouldn’t matter who came.

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

“Five hundred!”

“One hundred!”

“Please consider adding some more, fellow daoist. Is entry to Orchid Forest not worth even a year of effort? Three hundred!”

“Very well!” Li Hao nodded after some thought.

The rat spirit breathed out with relief. How damned unlucky to encounter a stingy chaos wanderer. What a headache! It was about to demand payment when Li Hao declared, “I’ll pay after I’m inside!”

The rat spirit was at a complete loss and didn’t know what to say. Since Li Hao was an exalted emperor, it didn’t worry that the human would go back on its words. Thus, it took Li Hao on a wide circle of the Orchid Forest world barrier. It took a while before they slowed near a crack in the barrier.

“Do you see that, fellow daoist?” sniggered the rat spirit. “This is a fissure that we took with great difficulty after circling the entire major world and fighting another gang for it...”

Li Hao nodded. Both of them were equally aware that this was bullshit. There was no need for sham excuses. It was either Red Moon powerhouses supporting them from the shadows or ones from other major worlds in the surroundings behind this occupation.

There were another two exalted emperors sitting in residence at this crack. The rat spirit made three, which was an extravagant level of staffing despite their low ranks!

Li Hao approached it, prompting the other two exalted emperors to walk out. They looked at the rat spirit; it transmitted a few words. The two exalted emperors assessed Li Hao, finding it difficult to determine the young man’s strength.

He looked to be a low rank, particularly with the sword on his back. True sword dao heavyweights bore invisible weapons. The presence of actual weapons for exalted emperors either indicated someone very, very strong or someone very, very weak.

Everyone was aware of premier exalted emperors such as the Human King and his blade. That weapon was very powerful and one should strive to get out of its way.

But when low ranks traveled with weapons... they were typically low rank weapons or exalted emperors unused to fighting through dao methods. Weak weapons sometimes became a burden instead as they restrained a dao method from being utilized to its fullest.

The possibility of Li Hao being very, very strong was... nonexistent. There was no presence of a dao universe from him.

After quick assessment, an exalted emperor with a dog’s head looked cheerfully at Li Hao. “How does the fellow daoist call himself?”

“Are you going to investigate me?”

“Not that, just that I see that the fellow daoist is also a chaos wanderer. As big as the chaos is, perhaps we share enough fate that we might meet again in the future. We might also be able to work with each other for certain objectives...”

“Fair enough,” Li Hao nodded. “I’m from the world of Myriad Dao, you can call me that...”

The expressions on the exalted emperors’ faces didn’t change, but they inwardly jeered at the newcomer.

The Exalted Myriad Dao Emperor? You sure think highly of yourself, huh!

That was only to be expected.

Exalted emperors of minor worlds knew little of the universe and commonly thought of themselves as the boss when they first left their worlds. The trio had met a variety of exalted emperors with assorted monikers—the Exalted Myriad Dao Emperor was no surprise at all.

The lower ranked the world, the more arrogant they were. Some called themselves War God, Undying, or Unparalleled...

Some were indeed invincible in their minor worlds; only when they emerged from their world did they understand that their words held no weight in the chaos.

“Fellow Daoist Myriad Dao!” Dog Head smiled in a perfunctory manner and said nothing else. He pointed at the crack behind him. “This is the fissure to enter Orchid Forest. The fellow daoist should keep a low profile after you enter and be careful. Orchid Forest is a major world, after all. There are many local exalted emperors around and around eight mid ranks. Those are all existences that we cannot afford to offend!”

“Thank you for your tips!” Li Hao nodded. He walked into the fissure and took out three hundred dao crystals. The young man even counted them piece by piece before handing them to the rat spirit.

With that, he passed through the fissure and entered Orchid Forest.

“This guy... is so damn stingy!” The rat spirit couldn’t help but complain when the human was gone. “It’s just three hundred dao crystals! How would that be the price to enter a major world in regular times?”

Dog Head ignored it. Below them, the last exalted emperor was imprinting Li Hao’s features, presence, and moniker on a bronze mirror. An estimation of strength was the last line of information—second or third rank.

The human wouldn’t be first rank, at the very least. First ranks wouldn’t have such stable presences.

The information on the mirror quickly disappeared, freeing up the third exalted emperor to say, “Alright, that doesn’t matter since we’re just earning some extra income! Send in all the chaos wanderers we can find. Each one brings us some rewards!”

The other two nodded.

“Guys, how long do you think it’ll be before Orchid Forest becomes a complete mess?” the rat spirit asked carefully. Conflicts between major worlds like these were very dangerous to them.

“It won’t be too long,” answered Dog Head. “Red Moon wants to finish this as quickly as possible. They want to take Orchid Forest and recover from their losses. Can they really turn a blind eye to Skyward? The New Martial Human King is there, as are Skycloud and Light.

“Apparently, the Skyward dao universe is about to revitalize. The Human King killed multiple Red Moon seventh ranks when he’s just a seventh rank himself. Don’t you think Red Moon will be afraid after he reaches eighth rank?”

“Be careful of what you say!” cautioned the third exalted emperor. “We are not far from Red Moon!”

Dog Head didn’t say anything else. Its opinion was that mass confusion would happen soon, regardless. Would the Red Moon master dare leave this region before he took down Orchid Forest to make his world whole? But would he let the situation at Skyward continue to develop in his absence?

Not at all!

It wouldn’t be long before a battle of exalted emperors erupted at Orchid Forest. Who knew how many exalted emperors would die this time?

“The four regions have been in a huge uproar lately!” Dog Head transmitted incredulously. “How many exalted emperors have died recently? New Martial and Red Moon have been at war for fifty years, how many worlds are gone because of it? There’s already five seventh ranks dead!”

It shook its head with resignation. Seventh ranks were invincible! But five of them had died in two short years. It was a terrifying thought!

“Isn’t that right,” sighed the rat spirit. “Those who survived lost even more for their lives! We also need to be careful—apparently New Martial is behind the death of the Exalted Clarity Emperor. That happened on the fringes of Red Moon territory, not too far from here!

“New Martial isn’t a faction to provoke either. With how much Red Moon has lost lately, perhaps they’ll come straight for us...”

“Surely not, the New Martial Human King is still at Skyward!”

“Aren’t you concerned that he’ll double back?”

“He’s really bad at directions...”

“Are you an idiot or is he an idiot? Do you actually believe that claim?” The rat spirit felt that Dog Head was a complete fool. “If he really didn’t know the way, why would he exterminate everyone but Red Moon? Red Moon is an eighth rank world with the biggest sphere of influence. He goes everywhere but there and kills masters of the world connected to Red Moon. Do you honestly believe that he sucks at finding his way?”

Dog Head simply shook its head. It didn’t matter if they believed it or not. The most important thing was that New Martial claimed this to be true. It was also verified by the Human King. What else could they say?

The low ranks could only engage in a bit of gossip. As for whether or not those of New Martial dared outright attack them... there were several major worlds in the vicinity. Orchid Forest was safer than the chaos, at least.

The trio would go on the run once Orchid Forest raged out of control. They could watch from the surrounding worlds. Who would dare take a risk here?