Chapter 1704: Divvying Up the Spoils, Ascension (I)

At the same time.

Fog Mountain finally dispatched the seventh rank on Skywave and eliminated most of their exalted emperors. Some of them escaped, of which he and the Sword Sovereign were of a mind to hunt the survivors down. However, this was when their strength began raging out of control.

They were forced to give up the hunt; not that many had gotten away, anyhow.

When it came to the nearby major worlds, a large sum of exalted emperors had been struck dead by the thunder and lightning. They did not have powerhouses sitting in residence, so the seventh rank tribulation killed many during its first passthrough.

A portion of those that survived encountered Li Zhu at their world gates. An untold number of them were dead after Li Zhu finished his slaughter.

The entire region soon quieted down. New Martial powerhouses dragged the other three major worlds toward Red Moon!

Red Moon was quiet as well. Clearly, it’d been fully taken over. Exalted emperors on Li Hao’s side were beside themselves with joy. This was four major worlds! They were really rich this time!

Just the dao universes themselves were astounding wealth, to say nothing of the rich reserves these worlds undoubtedly possessed after so many years of existence.

They supported one eighth rank, nearly ten seventh ranks, and a total of another two hundred exalted emperors. How could their vaults not be overflowing?

The Sword Sovereign dragged Skywave in his wake, Li Zhu came with Cold River, and Void rolled Nether Moon along. The three grinned gleefully, even Li Zhu was noticeably happy. They’d simply gained so much for their efforts!

Meanwhile, Fog Mountain’s strength was beginning to dissipate. He returned to his listless state and with it, came the onset of fear.

Can I... get a share of anything? I’m a lamb to the slaughter right now!

......

The four major worlds shook wildly as heavyweights convened with Red Moon. Countless denizens wailed and sobbed with horror within them. A bloody rain showered down from the skies. Indomitable beings like the exalted emperors had been executed right in front of them today or fled for the chaos!

The Empyrean Kings and Saints wanted nothing more than to hide themselves in a crack of the earth. Demons were invading their home!

Were they wrong to label the intruders as demons?

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Not... entirely.

None of these weaker beings could affect a war between worlds—that was the prerogative of the world masters. All they knew was that their home had been invaded and countless of their fellow brethren had died. The invincible exalted emperors died in grim and grisly fashions!

The Sword Sovereign and others watched as panic and terror engulfed the worlds; they were unmoved. Such was the world of cultivation. The weak were prey for the strong!

There was no right or wrong in the chaos, just a matter of one’s strength.

Minor worlds or weak worlds were even worse off. They were easily completely purged when they encountered a heavyweight, because said heavyweight wished to refine the world or give it to a junior.

No one said anything or intervened in the general hysteria. They weren’t interested in slaughtering weaklings, but neither were they inclined to mollify the civilians of an enemy faction. Everyone set their sights on Red Moon.

That major world quaked violently as a dao universe descended upon it. The powerhouses frowned when they saw it. It was much weaker than before—an eighth rank dao universe should not be this fragile. Something must have happened to it.

But for it to appear in its entirety now meant that the Red Moon master had completely lost control over it. That further stoked the crowd’s excitement.

This was wonderful!

They’d taken both Red Moon major world and its dao universe! This was better than what they’d planned for!

A crack split the dao universe as Li Hao walked out of the Red Moon dao universe—his minor worlds were still absorbing dao strength. That was the last thing on his mind at present.

“Orchid Forest exalted emperors, come join hands to move your world out of the Red Moon dao universe,” he addressed the crowd. “It is under our control now, which means Orchid Forest is free! The Orchid Forest master is still alive, nothing has happened to him. Be at ease!”

Yan Fang looked at Li Hao with a complicated expression. Red Moon was... no more! It’d truly been erased.

With even its dao universe having been taken, Orchid Forest could indeed be split out since it had not been fully integrated yet. And since the master of the dao universe was no longer the Red Moon master, there were no more restrictions levied on Orchid Forest world.

“Our thanks to Fellow Daoist Myriad Dao!”

“You are too kind, this is what I should have done!” Li Hao smiled. Orchid Forest really did need to be separated from the Red Moon dao universe as soon as possible. If his worlds kept pulling from the dao universe, they would soon absorb even Orchid Forest’s dao strength.

Yan Fang and the rest of the Orchid Forest exalted emperors quickly busied themselves with detaching their world. Without anyone restraining or manipulating them, the process went smoothly with Li Hao’s support. It wasn’t too hard since the assimilation hadn’t taken place that long ago.

Li Hao turned his attention to the three major worlds. “The Sword Sovereign is to be given Skywave major world and its dao universe. Are you able to take them, Sword Sovereign?”

The man looked at Li Hao. Since the Skywave master had died in her world, not that much energy had been lost. The combined amount of world strength and dao strength would propel him to almost seventh rank, if not over the threshold.

It should be enough for him to break through because he was enjoying the fruits by himself, not sharing it with anyone else. A dao universe supported many exalted emperors. Now it would go only to him, which should be sufficient for his needs.

“I have no opinions otherwise!” he nodded. While he’d contributed heavily to their efforts, his tasks hadn’t been that difficult since he’d worked with Fog Mountain. Everything had gone much more smoothly than anticipated.

If not, killing a seventh rank would be much more difficult than he imagined.

“Senior Li Zhu...” Li Hao turned to his next assignment. “Nether Moon focused on the dao of nether dark. The senior was once the king of the Earth Dwellers and has made the dao of hiding your foundation. Nether Moon is more suited to you, so you can have its dao universe!”

Li Zhu nodded at the young man. It was only the dao universe and not the major world in conjunction with it. The two were closely tied to each other, but not the same entity. It was... to be expected that he hadn’t been awarded with a complete major world. It was nice enough to have a dao universe.

“Senior Fog Mountain!” The young man addressed the crippled seventh rank. “I am not aware of the particulars of the senior’s dao of the skies, mist, and fog. If I give you Cold River’s dao universe and Skywave major world, will that return you to peak strength?”

His reward was just recovery and not ascension.

“It shouldn’t be hard to recover my strength as a peak seventh rank.” Fog Mountain nodded after running an internal assessment. “I’ll be sure to do so with a dao universe as my foundation.”

It’s just...

He was still contemplating when Li Hao gave his next orders, “Everyone is to swallow their dao universe and not wield it!”

Those rewarded with one blinked. It wasn’t that they wanted to control a dao universe, but... they were all wandering cultivators at the moment without a dao universe to ground them. What did the young man mean by this?

With the Red Moon dao universe as the base and incorporating the three major worlds into it, that would turn the dao universe into a stronger eighth rank one, if not ninth rank. Fog Mountain would then stand a great chance to set foot into eighth rank, while Li Zhu and the Sword Sovereign could reach seventh rank.

One could say that they could absolutely form an eighth rank world themselves to fill in the hole left by Red Moon.

“The situation at large is unclear and having to safeguard a world at this stage will turn it into a burden for us! The Red Moon master is not yet dead, he has simply broken free of his dao universe and become a wandering cultivator. I don’t know if he’ll die, but he’s still alive for now!

“Although a dao universe can be moved, a world cannot. Yet, without moving the foundation of the dao universe, the world will be impossible to shift. Once we are confined to standing guard over a world, we’ll be trapped in a cage!” Li Hao analyzed. “We need to devour our gains and leave nothing behind!”

Devouring it would completely change the situation. There would be nothing to worry about then! All would be done after they swallowed the dao universe!

Raised eyebrows could be seen within the group, but no one said anything. This was just as well.

“The Orchid Forest master has contributed a great deal to this operation!” Li Hao continued. “Many Orchid Forest exalted emperors have died for our goals. The Nether Moon world strength will be reserved for Orchid Forest to help consolidate and stabilize its new status as a seventh rank!

“In addition, Silver Moon will find it difficult to digest all of the strength in the eighth rank Red Moon. After we have a go at it, the remaining dao strength can go to Orchid Forest!”

Yan Fang blinked with surprise.

What? We get Red Moon too?

Void started to speak, then stopped.

What about me? Orchid Forest gets Nether Moon major world and a lot of Red Moon strength.

Yet he and Li Hao were the co-conspirators and didn’t seem to be walking away with much. At least Li Hao was getting quite a bit of Red Moon energy.

“We’ll extract all of Red Moon’s world strength,” Li Hao said at this time. “Void, you’re in charge of that assignment. Whether you silence the world or revitalize it, it’s yours to experiment with. The strength of an eighth rank world is sufficient for your purposes!”

“Then what about you?” Void couldn’t help but ask.

Aren’t you walking away empty-handed then?

Well, not entirely since Li Hao would have some Red Moon energy to show for his troubles. However, he and his comrades wouldn’t be able to absorb much from an eighth rank dao universe. Neither would they be able to empty it via other means.

Li Hao was suffering a heavy loss!

“All of this is for everyone who participated,” Li Hao grinned. “The rest—the personal wealth of the exalted emperors and the vaults of the worlds—goes to Silver Moon! It’ll be like opening blind boxes! I’ll take whatever I end up finding!

“If I’m lucky, I might find some dozen billion of dao crystals, a couple dozen imperial weapons, and perhaps several hundred worlds. Keep in mind that we’re looking at four major worlds here. If we’re lucky, perhaps my loot will be worth more than the major world itself!

“There’s more than one hundred exalted emperors we’re looking at. They can’t all have been poor sods, can they?”

Indeed, Silver Moon didn’t need any of what he was giving away. He would have some fun with blind boxes! Whatever he ended up finding was his harvest.

Was this a terrible loss to him?

Not at all.

A world was similar to a house—real estate. However, billionaires wouldn’t only have real estate in their portfolio. They would have some fluid assets at the end of the day. Li Hao didn’t want any of the fixed assets in the form of the major worlds. He was betting on the unknown amount of fluid assets they’d held.

Their occupants had saved for millions of years, surely the amount was staggering!

It was hard to estimate. The fixed assets were much easier to size up.