Chapter 1706: Divvying Up the Spoils, Ascension (III)

A rare moment of peaceful quiet stole across Red Moon Region, only the worlds remained a sight of disorganized mayhem. Lin Hongyu and the others were still looting the worlds—there were so many treasures to be collected.

They split up into different corners, collecting everything they found. With Panther present, nothing could hide from its nose.

Toward the end, Number Two also appeared and transmitted, “Then this cat will also take a look...”

“Senior Number Two, are you going to... absorb the world origin?”

“Can I not? There’s four major worlds here...”

“You can, but don’t absorb it all,” Li Hao quickly responded. “Leave a bit behind, so little that it’s not even a minor world anymore. The world just needs to be able to maintain life. That will stop some people from eyeing it up and allow these worlds to drift into mundanity!”

That was just as well!

His only concern was that the cat would extract every last bit of energy from the world origin. That would completely silence the four worlds—a fact that he wasn’t terribly concerned about. It was just that there were too many people in the four worlds.

There were tens of billions, even hundreds!

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

If the world origin was completely extinguished, then not even sufficient crops would be produced!

Number Two rolled its eyes.

It’s not like I don’t know that, okay? This cat doesn’t have that intention either. There’s so many living beings here. It’s extremely bad karma if they all die because I stripped their world of energy!

I don’t need you to remind me of that!

The cat ignored Li Hao and gleefully vanished. It only needed to preserve a bit of the origin of life for the four worlds. It was actually a bad thing for too much to be left behind. The world origin might draw attention from others, so all that would be permitted to remain was the minimum amount sufficient to support life.

Any normal exalted emperor would not destroy a world for such a tiny amount of world origin. That was creating too much bad karma and it would always come back around to them.

But if a lunatic happened upon them and insisted on draining the worlds dry... They would smash the worlds apart even if there was no world origin within them. There was nothing the group could do about that then.

......

Li Hao busied himself with absorbing energy to fill his minor worlds. Lin Hongyu and the others concluded their cleanup of the battlefield. They didn’t immediately go to the young man, but gathered together to tally their findings.

Joyful expressions soon spread across their faces; the harvest was good. Lin Hongyu quickly took their gains and followed Li Hao’s river into the Red Moon dao universe.

......

“How much did we get?” Li Hao knew that the battlefield had been tidied up when he saw Lin Hongyu. He was also a bit apprehensive about the final report. It would be such a loss if they didn’t gain enough for their efforts.

Apart from himself, Silver Moon would need to collect at least several billion dao crystals to make it all worthwhile, no?

Lin Hongyu grinned broadly and didn’t stretch out the suspense. “What we have most of are dao crystals since exalted emperors typically have some on them. There were a lot of exalted emperors this time and all of them were from major worlds. They were decently rich.

“After we cleaned up the battlefield and crystallized the dao strength from those who died, we also created some dao foundation crystals. But those only came from the two seventh ranks, so we obtained just roughly ten million dao foundation crystals.

“There were a lot more dao crystals, however!” Lin Hongyu smiled radiantly. “And with the vaults of the four major worlds, we walked off with more than six billion!”

Was that a lot?

To be honest, no. But it was a much better sight than the worlds full of impoverished exalted emperors that Li Hao had envisioned. A grin spread across the young man’s face. This was good!

Six billion was more than the sum total he’d anticipated on collecting. And there was more!

“We also found thirty-seven minor worlds and nine mid worlds in their inventory...” Lin Hongyu continued.

Orchid Forest had offered up a mid world back in the day. Clearly, these major worlds should have more than one in their arsenal. Nine was... not that many and not too few.

Li Hao inclined his head again. That number of worlds was the equivalent of a billion dao crystals, but it was difficult to buy so many worlds. This meant that he had forty-six worlds in his possession!

“And there are a lot of other treasures as well!” Lin Hongyu reeled off with excitement. “There are nine imperial weapons, but eight are low ranks. Only one is mid rank!”

That was a rather sobering find since there’d been so many exalted emperors among the fallen, yet only nine imperial weapons. It was further saddening that almost all of them were very low ranked.

“Come out with it all at once. Is there more?”

“Yes!” Lin Hongyu brightened at her next reveal. “There’s a lot of energy mines on Red Moon. We found more than one thousand energy stone veins...”

Li Hao stared at her.

What do you want with that since you’re an exalted emperor?

“We can transplant it all to Silver Moon!” Lin Hongyu crowed with excitement. “That will ensure that we are no longer a barren mid world! We’ll spontaneously become a fertile land that rivals the major worlds!”

Li Hao burst out laughing and approved her idea. These energy stone veins may not be worth anything, but... That was right. If they were sent back to Silver Moon, that might turn the world into a sacred land of cultivation.

He’d wanted to say that energy stone veins counted as part of a world’s power. That’d gone to Void.

Does he know that you guys have dug this up?

“Is that it?”

“There’s one more.” Lin Hongyu shook her head with a smile. “I think... you might find it useful.”

“What is it?”

“This!” Lin Hongyu took out a physical item. Li Hao cast a confused glance at it.

“What is...”

“A map!” the woman revealed joyously. “A complete map of the four regions that notes where all of the worlds are, including the number of their premier powerhouses. Their names and signature daos are also recorded!

“We found it in the Red Moon palace, so it was probably created by Red Moon powerhouses! It’s a lot more complete than the one in your hands!

“I took a look and saw that it has some cursory information about fringe territories beyond the four regions...”

Li Hao nodded; this was indeed a wondrous treasure! Void had given him a map before, but Light would not possibly give the most complete version to a stranger. Even the one that Void had applied for might not be complete.

He’d collected a complete version from Red Moon today.

“Li Hao, does this mean that Silver Moon can ascend to being a major world?” asked a highly excited Lin Hongyu. They had a twin dao universe and a massive amount of dao crystals.

Is this enough?

“The two masters of dao haven’t improved to that step yet!” Li Hao shook his head. “Although Gan Wuliang is almost a fourth rank, we won’t count as a major world before they reach seventh rank.

“It’s alright, there’s no rush! We can take this one step at a time. Since they’ve set foot into fourth rank, this means that their progress to sixth rank will be smooth. What remains is the threshold of seventh rank, but it won’t bar them for long either.”

There was no rush. Silver Moon was already developing at a very fast pace.

Their gains this time were significant, Li Hao just needed to absorb enough energy from the Red Moon dao universe to enter fifth rank. Everything else could be put aside for Silver Moon, which would facilitate its dao universe to take another large step forward. It would also help the other exalted emperors to noticeably improve.

If he dismantled the world and absorbed its world origin to perfect his own world dao, that would make sixth rank much easier.

......

The void shook. In the days to come, Li Hao sometimes left Red Moon’s dao universe to visit the other ones, dismantling their great dao and dao net for further study.

Everyone improved at a rapid pace.

Cold River was nearly depleted of energy and only a tiny speck of its world origin remained. As a result, Fog Mountain was nearly entirely recovered. Although he hadn’t entered eighth rank, he was far happier than he’d ever been.

In fact, he was so delighted that those not in the know would think that he’d set foot into eighth rank!

Having been separated from Red Moon’s dao universe, Orchid Forest stabilized as a seventh rank world after it devoured Nether Moon’s strength. It was much larger than before and its dao universe also strengthened as it continued to pull from Red Moon’s dao strength.

......

The Skyward dao universe.

Battle continued. Some people chased after the Red Moon master, others searched for the origin of great dao. The Orchid Forest master rapidly recovered from the wounds he suffered during the chaos tribulation. He healed at an astonishing rate!

The Human King had stood guard over him for three full days. He was also finding the other a bit odd. Not only did Orchid Forest’s strength not decline, but Red Moon power was dissipating from his body instead and morphing into the strength of a myriad phenomena.

It also continued to increase, despite the man having just set foot into seventh rank. It swiftly climbed toward mid seventh rank at an astonishing speed.

After a long time, the Orchid Forest master’s presence changed. He opened his eyes with a gratified sigh and looked at the Human King. “My thanks for the Human King’s protection! And also, the Silver Moon king is very impressive!”

“What makes you say that?” The Human King raised an eyebrow.

“Orchid Forest seems to have absorbed a lot, a lot of Red Moon dao strength. Its world strength is also growing at a furious pace,” the Orchid Forest master explained with a complicated expression. “My world... may have absorbed Red Moon!”

All of Red Moon?

The Orchid Forest master didn’t know the answer to that. Even if it hadn’t, it had pretty much accomplished exactly that. It was why he’d shown marked improvements over the past couple of days.

He hadn’t left the Skyward dao universe or discussed the next steps with Li Hao. The man had simply erupted on one occasion and made one decision. Because of that, Orchid Forest might have become the biggest winner in Red Moon Region!

He’d just set foot into seventh rank and hadn’t fully consolidated his world. But now he could sense that Orchid Forest was incredibly stable, as was its great dao! He himself had smoothly entered mid seventh rank, a feat that would normally take tens of thousands of years.

Could one accumulate so much energy so easily?

Yet he’d done so in the blink of an eye!