Chapter 1656: Fish in a Barrel (I)

Pages from the book of great dao slowly materialized and transformed into shadows of their wielders. Individual daos took shape and melded with the river!

The shadows walked toward the minor worlds relevant to them. The pages enveloped those worlds and slowly assimilated into them as well. Various understandings of great dao suddenly surged into Li Hao’s mind. The blade of the Human King, the sword of the Sword Sovereign, the book of Supreme Zhang, the refinement methods of the Exalted Divine Forge Emperor, the suppression methods of the Suppression King...

Zhang An knew so, so much. He knew almost all of the dao methods commanded by the premier exalted emperors of New Martial.

A dao star suddenly materialized over Zhang An’s head. It came from the Silver Moon dao universe and was coalesced from Silver Moon’s dao. But now, Zhang An could no longer contain Silver Moon dao within him.

He could only relinquish it!

A choice had to be made!

Zhang An breathed out gently; the star overhead began to change. It slowly melted—he reached out and began refining it. Li Hao watched on with surprise as the man did not choose to destroy it. He crafted it into a weapon instead!

The dao star turned into the spine of a book and silk threads of a myriad daos extended from it. They reached toward the minor worlds, which then responded in kind. The worlds shifted toward the book spine in Zhang An’s hands, vaguely taking the shape of book pages themselves.

He was... going to forge the worlds into a book and the book as dao!

Li Hao fully understood in this moment!

To be honest, since the young man was a fourth rank and had a multitude of experience with seventh and even eighth ranks, he could easily snuff a half step emperor out of existence. But now, he felt something different from Zhang An.

The grandson of New Martial’s supreme demonstrated many New Martial daos to Li Hao. This facilitated the young man to judge if the New Martial heritage was as crude as outsiders said it was!

It was not!

Li Hao gaped at the sight; Zhang An suddenly reached out with a hand and turned a small world into a supernatural character...

The young man’s eyebrows shot up. So Zhang An wielded supernatural characters as well??

“Are the supernatural characters derived from the secret art of Tranquil Star?” rang Zhang An’s voice.

Li Hao blinked, then nodded. He’d almost forgotten the source of supernatural characters. It was a bit embarrassing to remember them only now. New Martial’s Tranquil Star was most renowned for its character invocation. One word represented one dao. What the young man had witnessed was a watered down legacy after countless generations.

He’d never seen anyone employ the true battle method of Tranquil Star.

A page fell upon the spine of the book and instantly melted into it, becoming a page of a book. A character appeared on the page—fire!

The world of fire!

The shadow that melded into the world of fire also carried the power of fire.

“The dao of refinement!” murmured Number Two. In the dao of refinement, the element of fire came first.

A figure took shape in Li Hao’s mind. It was muscular, robust, and wielded a massive mallet. It crafted the world, weapons, heaven and earth with the treasure. It was the Exalted Divine Forge Emperor!

A sword transformed into a page and was swiftly absorbed into the book. A single character appeared on the page—sword!

Another person appeared in Li Hao’s mind. Its sword was unparalleled and lived eternally. It was the Eternal Sword of New Martial!

Pages upon pages were absorbed and organized into the book. Zhang An’s presence expanded explosively!

Zhang An utilized Silver Moon’s dao as the bones and New Martial’s dao as the heart. He hadn’t fully relinquished Silver Moon’s dao, just turned it into the foundation for his own dao! It bore certain similarities with Li Hao establishing his own worlds and river of dao!

The young man sat down cross-legged. He was making it convenient for Zhang An to verify his dao, but at the same time, it was also a chance for Li Hao to enhance his own knowledge.

Zhang An had seen and experienced so much of existence. The integration of dao into the worlds also displayed the various strengths of the New Martial exalted emperors to Li Hao. It showcased the profound mysteries of their dao.

All of the New Martial exalted emperors possessed unique daos. The tyranny of the Exalted Hard-Headed Emperor, Exalted Emperor Qin answering to no man, the bow and arrow dao of the Exalted Blood Emperor...

Zhang An’s comprehension may not be the most complete, but it was far more than Li Hao commanded. As Zhang An verified his dao, the young man also understood the differences between them.

Various minor worlds disappeared from the riverbanks. The river undulated wildly.

Zhang An’s body began to sink and the book in his hand grew heavy. Not only that, but he looked at Li Hao and suddenly said, “It’s better to use the river as the bone, but it is not the foundation of my dao! I recommend that you give it a try if an opportunity comes around. You should incorporate everything, meld all daos as one, and utilize the river as the structure!”

The river should be the framework of the book of dao.

A new thought struck Li Hao. The Firmament Sword ensconced the river at present, but it was also a kind of suppression. Did Zhang An mean to nurture the book of dao inside the sword?

Should I use the world as a supernatural character and write the myriad of daos into the supernatural characters? The sword would hide a book and the book would hide a sword!

Or perhaps it would be a book in one hand and a sword in another, the combination of civilization and savagery!

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

The integration of civilization and martial might! If logic and words proved ineffective, then he would cut everything down with a sword!

Zhang An’s presence swelled dramatically and the book of dao encompassed him. He spontaneously became an exalted emperor in a much easier fashion than anyone else. Li Hao watched it with a mixture of emotions.

Being rocked by waves, the river of dao slightly retracted upon itself. No imperial tribulation interjected itself since Zhang An’s was not integrating his dao mark into the world of dao origin.

Instead, he’d ascended through Li Hao’s incomplete river of dao. This was where his great dao could be found.

It was a similar case to Lin Hongyu.

......

At the same time, Li Hao opened his eyes and looked at Zhang An with a smile. “Congratulations!”

Zhang An smiled as well. There were no earth-shattering changes or thunder tribulation. He was very satisfied nonetheless. The world in his eyes had changed. Pages of a book hovered within his body. Dao foundation wafted out of him.

“My thanks!” Zhang An inclined at the waist.

What was he thanking Li Hao for?

He thanked the young man for the opportunity of incorporating his dao into the myriad of worlds. He thanked the young man for sheltering his great dao and thereby preventing him from becoming a wandering cultivator for the moment. It would be very hard to improve once he partook of the disorderly chaos dao.

He also thanked Li Hao for forcing him to take action and verify his dao. Zhang An was struck by a mixture of emotions when he truly was an exalted emperor.

Perhaps... perhaps this is the path I was always meant to take.

“It is I who should thank the senior!” Li Hao laughed with a sparkle in his eyes. “I’ve reached new enlightenment as well, regarding the order of a myriad daos. With the worlds recorded in your book, this completes some of the dreams and flights of fancies I had before!

“Perhaps... I’ll write an essay that belongs to my own myriad of supernatural characters! I’ll leave behind some heritage and dao methods unique to me. I’d thought about letting the supernatural characters stay in Silver Moon. Perhaps... all of the chaos is my target in the future?

“I utilize supernatural characters to materialize dao methods, then use dao methods to describe my dao!” the young man reflected with emotion. “When there comes a day in which the world is shocked by a single supernatural character and that character can suppress the world, that may be when my dao method has reached great perfection!

With the long river as bone and the myriad of dao stars as the book. They were crafting a book of a myriad of worlds!

Zhang An started laughing, suddenly proud of himself. He wasn’t the creator of the book of dao, that was his grandfather. Clearly, Li Hao felt that there was something useful about this art of integration. He wanted to borrow it—which was good news. It was also a kind of validation.

Zhang An knew that Li Hao was a highly proud person himself, but it wasn’t the first time he mentioned creating a book of a myriad daos or forging such an object... That meant that Li Hao also felt that there was much to learn from a method that turned a myriad worlds into supernatural characters.

To be met with approval from someone like Li Hao... was absolutely something to be proud of.

“If the book encompasses a myriad of daos, one such book would form a chaos universe by itself,” said Number Two. “Books are a form of culture, an emblem of a civilization. To be honest, they are also compatible with the daos of heaven and earth.

“Now this is what cultivators should be doing! It’s an affront to our dignity when brutes cultivate dao as well.”

“......” Li Hao looked at the cat. Who was it trying to obliquely insult, eh?

“I’m not talking about the Human King, he’s just pretending not to know things,” explained the cat when Li Hao looked at it. “He’s very much aware of what’s going on. I’m talking about Big Cat!”

“......” Li Hao burst out laughing.

You... whatever.

The big cat seemed to miss Number Two quite a lot, but Number Two disparaged it from day to night.

The Ash Emperor might scratch you if it finds out!

But Big Cat was probably the entity that Number Two mentioned the most. Clearly, it didn’t take joy in tearing others down. Perhaps it was also missing the cat that shared the same origins. The War Sovereign was no longer present in the world, so likely the Ash Emperor was the closest being left to it.

“Can you create the phenomena that comes with the supreme’s presence?” Li Hao turned to Zhang An.

“Almost.” Zhang An shook his head. “I’m still too weak since I’ve just entered first rank! Even though I’m very familiar with my grandfather, it’ll be hard for me to create an illusion that confounds an eighth rank.”

Li Hao frowned.

“But we’re not entirely without ideas,” Zhang An grinned.

“Why be mysterious, senior?” Li Hao chuckled. “Just come out with it!”

“Give me a minor world or a mid world. A myriad of daos will sound in unison and presence shake the heavens when it explodes. The dao river will circulate the surroundings then. With Senior Number Two in residence and me utilizing the book of dao, who will believe that I am only first rank then?”

Li Hao blinked, caught in a quandary. So it comes down to money in the end!

I’m spending a lot of it lately!

I have no more worlds... I had two before, but I used them up! And detonating a world, huh? Those of New Martial are certainly violent down to the core.