Chapter 1703: Enormous Gains! (IV)

Li Hao quickly arrived at the innermost depths of the dao universe. There, he saw a gigantic dao star pulsing like a heart. A red moon emanated endless power of desire. A lust for fame, gleeful greed, motivation to grow stronger, avarice for women, need for power...

The Pagoda King and Gan Wuliang were nearly out of control by this point in the journey.

Li Hao quickly threw them into his river, looking at the images that formed each time the red moon beat. Those represented the Red Moon master’s desires.

There were images of him toppling New Martial, entering ninth rank, and conquering the chaos. The Red Moon master was particularly frenzied and fey in the pictures. All of these were desires that he could not set aside!

A lost look entered the young man’s eyes—he was being affected as well. An eighth rank’s power of desire was too strong. It was taking him over and turning him into a slave to desire!

Li Hao had his own yearnings—images appeared in his mind. He seemed to have returned to the past... many years ago. This was a time when his parents and best friend were still alive. He was immersed in these memories and could not disengage from them.

Such was an eighth rank dao universe!

The world of his memories was at peace. There were no supernaturals or killing; everything was tranquil. He could happily grow up in such a world and live like that forever.

Number Two jerked awake in the river and shifted uneasily. This was bad!

It was just about to interfere when Li Hao sighed, “Desire... is such a good thing! No wonder everyone likes it. I like it too...”

Number Two blinked when the young man opened his eyes.

You’re... free? But that’s an eighth rank dao universe!

“I was just giving it a try.” Li Hao ducked his head to smile at the cat in the river. “It’s too fake. If I wanted, I could’ve traced time a long time ago and lost myself in it. Is that beyond my reach?”

I can do it! I just don’t want to!

I have desires, but they can’t be satisfied by the dao of desire. My dao of time is hard pressed to accomplish it, so what can an eighth rank’s dao offer me?

It’s so damned fake!

And here I was, despising my dao of time for not being strong or real enough. Yours is just an outright illusion! Who are you belittling, huh??

It wasn’t that Red Moon’s dao wasn’t strong enough, just that he had better options. In that case, this little mirage wasn’t a challenge. He’d just wanted to try it out for once and found that this was all there was to it!

“Senior Number Two, I want to... dismantle it!” Li Hao grinned.

You want to dismantle what?

blinked the cat.

“I want to dismantle the dao of desire!”

Time swiftly flowed backward as Li Hao aged. He threw his head back with a roar of laughter.

That’s right! I’m going to dismantle the core of an eighth rank dao universe! I’m going to do this before the Red Moon master runs off!

If he flees after he senses what I’m doing... well, nothing I can do there. But I still have a chance right now!

Li Hao quickly traced time! His eyes brightened before he plunged into the red moon. He swiftly grabbed one of the great daos—this seemed to be the one of anger!

.......

At the same time.

The Red Moon master was still defending himself. The tribulation was almost dispersed and he didn’t want to run just like this. Even though he was mobbed on all sides, he still wanted to hold out for the Skyward dao universe!

He would have a chance to strike back when the tribulation fully dispersed.

However, his face abruptly slackened the next instant. He was done for!

He knew that the seventh rank Griefstricken was dead, and that almost all Red Moon exalted emperors had been slaughtered. He was also aware of the disturbance in the dao universe. But so long as he remained alive and the dao universe remained in his hands...

But now, he’d sensed that someone had found the dao origin! The intruder had not been devoured by desire!

Not only that, but the intruder seemed to be... dismantling... his great daos?

Was that so?? How could that be?! That wasn’t possible! Who was doing that??

Boom!

A punch of light arrived as the Light master whistled with amazement. The Red Moon master was certainly strong! The tribulation was almost over; he would be getting away if they still couldn’t kill the man.

He won’t be escaping today, will he?

Just as the possibility rose in the Light master’s mind, the Red Moon master’s great dao rippled unexpectedly. He didn’t have a chance to defend himself before the Light master sent him flying with one punch!

Thunder and lightning arrived the next second! This might be the last thunderbolt. The tribulation would no longer be of concern if he survived it.

However, the Red Moon master wasn’t the slightest bit happy. He was only furious and enraged! Someone was destroying his dao origin!

Screw them! My power will rage out of control if this continues!

“You bastards!” This was the unluckiest year he’d ever experienced in life! “You guys forced me to do this! Fine... very well!”

Look what you made me do! Look what all of you made me do! I shall give up my dao universe and major world today, becoming the wandering cultivator Red Moon!

A wanderer has no restrictions, you’ll regret this!

New Martial induced so much wariness because the Ash Emperor could drag the world around and flee at will. Other world masters operated under more restrictions.

You guys have forced my hand!

BOOM!

A red moon appeared, blotting out the sky and dao universe. There seemed... to be a person atop the dao origin now.

It was only now that the Red Moon master gained a clear look at the intruder.

“The Silver Moon king!” he gnashed his teeth. “Good, very good! So it’s you!”

The Light master and the rest blinked. So... their quarry was relinquishing his dao universe? Then that meant... the Silver Moon king had made his way to the Red Moon dao origin?

How was that even possible?

The shadow flashed by, but the Red Moon master seemed to go berserk. His red moon was greatly lacking in many things and holes had appeared in it. But suddenly, he felt only lost instead of angry.

His dao of anger had been extracted! He didn’t know why he was angry anymore!

Dao strength streamed from his being. His presence dropped like a rock, declining from a strong eighth rank to the barest threshold of one!

The Light and Skycloud master widened their eyes. A wandering cultivator!

Their quarry had outright given up the dao universe, which meant he would have almost no way of improving in the future. At the same time, it indicated that he wouldn’t be subject to any limitations anymore.

“Kill him!” The Light master rushed him.

A light glinted in the Skycloud master’s eyes, but he didn’t follow his counterpart. He transmitted when Deepsea sought to give chase from behind him, “Don’t. This is good. Red Moon’s collapse will result in New Martial’s rise. Having an eighth rank wanderer out there will act as a check on New Martial!”

He smiled meaningfully, then quickly frowned. “The Silver Moon king... so this means that something has happened to the Red Moon main world. Has New Martial launched an offensive on Red Moon? Have they taken the eighth rank dao universe?”

If that was the case, then they were all in trouble.

......

KABOOM!

The red moon collapsed into pieces, violently shaking the great dao. Much of its dao strength had been extracted, but Li Hao had managed to withhold some from the Red Moon master since he’d dismantled quite a few daos.

With the demise of the dao origin, the entire dao universe seemed on the verge of breaking apart.

“What a pity!” sighed the young man. An eighth rank dao universe was very strong, but the former Red Moon master had extracted at least forty percent of its strength.

That meant to say that the entire world could only support several dozen exalted emperors and perhaps three seventh ranks. Even an eighth rank might strain its limits too much. In its pristine form, the Red Moon dao universe would’ve supported one hundred exalted emperors, one eighth rank, and multiple seventh ranks.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The dao universe was about to be reclassified from eighth rank. It might be stronger than seventh rank dao universes, but it wasn’t more stable than eighth rank ones.

Li Hao hadn’t had a chance to fully dismantle the dao origin before Red Moon sensed his actions and quickly made his decision.

What a pity!

And how is he still alive? What is the Human King doing? Not only did he not kill Red Moon, but he gave his old enemy a chance to run. Is the Human King not as strong as I thought?

The young man quickly realized something when he saw a world that was yet to be fully absorbed in the distance. It was much quieter than its surroundings because its assimilation with Red Moon was not yet complete.

Is the Human King... standing guard over the Orchid Forest master?

If that’s the case, then I need to rethink my assessment of the Human King. He’s much more, well, human than I thought. It’ll be good if he let the Red Moon master go because he was protecting the Orchid Forest master!

He quickly concluded that this must be the case. Nothing else would explain why Orchid Forest was still very stabilized and not quaking with the rest of the Red Moon dao universe. It indicated that its seventh rank was still alive!

The Orchid Forest master was not dead!

“The Human King... is not bad!” Li Hao grinned. Because he felt that he owed a stranger, even an enemy, a favor, the Human King decided to forgo a chance to kill his own enemy.

The Human King has never truly changed.

Wasn’t the core of New Martial to protect humanity?

Li Hao rather admired the Human King in this moment. Not everyone could hold fast to their original aspirations. The thug-like New Martial Human King had chosen to let Red Moon go at a critical moment like this. He’d also taken action to protect Fog Mountain before. This was a person worth befriending.

“The Red Moon dao universe!” Li Hao laughed as he released someone—Gan Wuliang. “Absorb the dao strength!”

The young man then released several hundred minor worlds and threw his sword into the void. “Absorb it all!”

Endless dao strength surged madly! They would drain Red Moon dry before anything else!

One shouldn’t be focusing on the spoils at this stage, but the great dao was shaking so much that there might not be anything to divvy up if they waited.

Their gains from this venture were enormous!