Chapter 1645: How Long Will This Arrogance Last? (II)

“Red Moon’s sent one sixth rank and two fifth ranks to Orchid Forest!” Li Hao introduced the situation as he and Void walked. “We won’t kill the sixth rank, that would levy too much threat on them and might induce a seventh rank to appear!

“We want to give them the idea that we can pose a fatal threat to sixth ranks if we join hands, that we might even be able to kill two sixth ranks. They’ll need at least three or four sixth ranks to make sure they can kill us!

“We’ll need to tread delicately.”

“That I understand,” Void inclined his head. “Sixth ranks aren’t easy to handle either. Although I’m a sixth rank, I completed my breakthrough in a hurry. I’m not the Sword Sovereign, so don’t think too much of me. I’m not afraid in single combat, but fighting two... would be difficult for me at present.”

“Being able to firmly suppress one sixth rank is enough!” Li Hao smiled.

Void nodded. He would have no issues with that. If he couldn’t manage even one sixth rank... then he would’ve wasted five hundred years and all this effort in switching to the dao of emptiness from light!

Had he stayed on the path of light, he would already be a sixth rank now.

“Other than manifesting the dao universe, use all the other methods at your disposal!” Li Hao looked at the rest. “Our goal is to kill the two fifth ranks, and we must be quick!

“Don’t give those wandering cultivators and those lurking in the shadows any chances! Otherwise, once they intervene, it’ll be an enormous hassle for us if there’s too many exalted emperors! I don’t want them to affect the plan!”

The group exchanged glances—that was a bit of pressure. Although they had numerous third ranks among them, killing a fifth rank was a leap of two cultivation levels.

“You guys just need to kill one,” Li Hao continued. “I’ll take care of one when we work together. It’s very hard for me to kill a fifth rank as well, but I can keep one preoccupied!”

Void could face the sixth rank, Li Hao would handle one fifth rank, and the remaining low ranks would... still not have a large chance of killing a fifth rank. They had strength in numbers, but they did not have the ability to kill fight ranks.

Celestial Pole hesitated before saying with some dejection, “How about I... combine with my replica! While I won’t be a fourth rank after that, I’ll be able to stand against a peak third rank, at least!”

It wouldn’t be a big change, but he would be a peak third rank of Initial Martial and core origin. He would be able to take a beating, if nothing else! A fifth rank may not be able to kill him with one blow. Once he was one with his replica, his durability would be second to only Li Hao and Void.

This personage was finally willing to become one with his replica! Even the replica was surprised, but quickly understood the reason why.

The Pagoda King had gone off on a mission—a very risky one, at that. He was doing so so that they could lie down and do nothing in the future. Clearly, Celestial Pole understood the same logic. If he didn’t put his back into it at a critical time, he wouldn’t be able to kick back and relax in the future.

“I can be a shield a few times after we are one,” said Celestial Pole’s primary body. “But I do not have the ability to kill fifth ranks. I can only manage to take the brunt of some of their major moves...”

“That would be just as nice!” Li Hao nodded after some thought. “But... which of the two will be the primary consciousness?”

Neither the primary body nor the replica had been willing to take the lead. And now?

The primary body looked at the replica with dejection. “What do you say?”

The replica didn’t say a word.

Not saying! I’m just a replica.

Even Void’s interest was piqued. He assessed the two and couldn’t help but transmit, “So the replica wants to seize control from the primary body? It looks like there are grave drawbacks to forming replicas...”

“No, both of them don’t want control!”

“......” Void abruptly had no idea what to say. Celestial Pole of New Martial lived up to his reputation, alright!

People said that New Martial had two hooligans—Celestial Pole and the Pagoda King. One could gloss over the Pagoda King since that one didn’t have an impressive background. Celestial Pole, however, had an illustrious one.

His father was the Western Emperor, a mid rank in his own right. It was said that he was a fifth or even sixth rank... those of New Martial improved at a furious pace. However, Celestial Pole was such a professional slacker that he’d barely managed to make it to third rank after one thousand years.

And now he didn’t even want control over his body... What a strange person!

“Then we’ll do it at random,” said Celestial Pole’s resigned primary body after a while. “It doesn’t matter who’s in charge. We’ll base it off of whoever’s memories are clearer. It’s all me in the end, so whatever!”

Integration at random!

The replica didn’t have any objections to this. If relations were this harmonious between all replicas and primary bodies, then there would be no talk of the drawbacks of having too many replicas. There would also be no issue with a replica fighting a primary body for control.

Celestial Pole’s primary body and replica were a very well matched duo!

Li Hao was speechless and left the two to it.

Moments later, the two Celestial Poles acted decisively since they’d finished discussions. They merged their bodies together and began to integrate!

No matter how great their fortune was, they would not make it to fourth rank this time. The master of Silver Moon’s dao was not fourth rank.

Thus, the entire process integration went smoothly. They didn’t seek to accomplish anything apart from coming back together. Celestial Pole’s goal wasn’t to reach fourth rank as well.

Li Hao was impressed all the same when he took a look. The dao method was so natural! Since when did not caring at all become a natural expression of dao?

Was it a peaceful mentality or a strong mindset?

Although the two Celestial Poles showed no signs of setting foot into fourth rank, there was no error or misstep in the procedure. His strength grew slowly in a very natural fashion and his presence remained incredibly steady!

Steady and stable were the only descriptors that could be used to describe him!

“Brother Void, take the replica’s appearance. That will make up for one less exalted emperor among us!”

Void didn’t mind; he quickly changed into Celestial Pole’s previous appearance. That perfectly rounded out the numbers.

Celestial Pole’s expression didn’t change by much; it was the others who looked oddly at him. While it was their first time seeing an exalted emperor integrate a replica back into himself, they’d known that Director General Zhao had done so before on Silver Moon.

It had been a very arduous process, one in which the replica struggled ferociously. It had not been like this at all.

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Well, some conflict did occur. There were two voices in Celestial Pole’s mind at the moment.

“This goes beyond the pale, primary body! Where are your memories?!”

“Memories? Other than some fights, I spent those couple of decades in New Martial sleeping my ass off. What memories can I have?”

“You...” The replica had no idea what to say. This was ridiculous!

The primary body only had a couple of fights and putting in a customary showing at a few places for more than five decades of existence. The rest of the time was spent sleeping!

Are you the Ash Emperor?! What’s with all the sleeping??

Well, the replica had been sleeping as well, but one hundred thousand years had passed in Silver Moon. Fun matters had taken place now and then, so he’d spent some time awake. Even if he was awake only once per thousand years, the accumulation after one hundred thousand years meant that he’d been awake for several hundred!

Thus, his memories far outstripped what the primary body had accumulated after they separated.

Their earlier memories were the same—the differences came after their split. The primary body almost had no memories after that, whereas the replica had experienced a great deal.

After the integration... it turned out that the replica was in control more.

Whether it was the primary body or replica, their memories began to fuse with each other. All of their experiences were stored in the memory banks. Celestial Pole opened his eyes after an indeterminate period of time.

“What are you guys all looking at me for?” He looked curiously at the group.

“......” Li Hao was rather curious. “Are you... alright?”

“Why shouldn’t I be?” Celestial Pole laughed. “I am me, my replica is also me. What can happen when I combine with myself?”

“Then...”

“Do you want to ask who’s in charge?”

“Um... yeah well, I do,” Li Hao admitted awkwardly.

“I’ve actually discovered that I’m just me.” Celestial Pole didn’t mind the question. “It’s all me, no matter who’s in charge. There’s no talk of one mind being the primary consciousness. I just have more Silver Moon memories later on and fewer New Martial memories, but there’s not much of a difference there.”

Li Hao nodded, was that the case? Then what did you guys argue about? And... it was so strange to see a replica come back into the fold so willingly!

This was not what I expected at all!

Celestial Pole’s strength did improve somewhat. Li Hao could tell that his presence was much stronger than before. He’d had the addition of a second rank to himself, after all. However, he was still affected by the restrictions of the great dao, so he couldn’t enter fourth rank.

The two masters of dao didn’t show a difference. Adding a second rank to their dao universes didn’t mean much. For the moment, it was still a massive problem for the two of them to break through to fourth rank.

Who knew if they would have an opportunity to do so after the plan succeeded? Maybe they’d be able to break some of the shackles currently on them.

Li Hao’s side had attained peak condition. Sixth rank Void, fourth rank Li Hao, third rank Hong Yitang, Gan Wuliang, Xun Ruo, Panther, Celestial Pole, second rank Lin Hongyu, the Pagoda King, Cicada, and the almost-second rank Mo.

They did not include Number Two, since it was difficult for the young man to determine the cat’s situation.

Number Two had also been a projection all along. Now that it was ready to enter reality, Li Hao wasn’t aware if it was still a second rank or not. He’d never asked.