Chapter 1720: Returning to Silver Moon (I)

“Teacher.” Li Hao looked at Yuan Shuo and spoke in wistful tones, “Other people’s teachers are either seventh or eighth rank. They’re really strong...”

Yuan Shuo scowled!

Lin Hongyu and the others blinked, then quickly avoided looking at the duo. They were spontaneously fascinated by their surroundings and struggling to hold in their laughter.

“Other people’s fathers are eighth or ninth rank...” Li Hao continued in a heartless tone.

Void looked deadpan at his friend.

My father is an eighth rank, not ninth rank!

Yuan Shuo was rendered speechless!

“Teacher, my dad is dead and I only have a teacher... who’s of the Empyrean King level!” Li Hao sighed helplessly.

“......” Yuan Shuo was fully at a loss. He glowered at Li Hao.

“The Human King was just here,” the young man said innocently. “When he left, the Sword Sovereign gave him some reminders to be careful. The Sword Sovereign is a seventh rank!”

“......” Yuan Shuo couldn’t keep his temper under control anymore. “And how old is the Sword Sovereign?? One thousand years old! How old am I?! Seventy! Give me a thousand years and I’ll turn even a dog into a seventh rank exalted emperor!”

“......”

Killing intent flared in the surroundings!

Yuan Shuo suddenly realized what kind of audience he had and coughed dryly. “Apologies, I’m instructing my disciple and... spoke a bit out of turn!”

Even though he’d vented some of his feelings, he was still immensely resigned. Yuan Shuo ground his teeth!

I’m an... Empyrean King!

It pained him too much to be in this conversation.

More importantly, the little bastard hauled me out in front of everyone and suddenly said to me that I’m too weak. He says to look at other people, at how strong their fathers and masters are...

That’s the lowest blow ever!

He gnashed his teeth and flung himself into the river, ready to quit existence from abject humiliation.

I’m not coming out until I become an exalted emperor!

Li Hao grinned when the old man was gone and addressed the crowd, “My teacher is a genius! It’s only a matter of time before he reaches seventh rank!”

Who would say anything against that? Except, the Sword Sovereign and others were slightly surprised as well.

Genius? Really? We don’t think so! Is a seventy year old Empyrean King supposed to be impressive?

The Sword Sovereign thought it over.

Seventy years old... I began my rise when I was sixty or seventy. I wasn’t even an Apex then. So... I guess there’s a chance.

He was mostly surprised by the interaction between Li Hao and his teacher. The young man greatly seemed to wish for his teacher to grow strong.

But... you are such a genius yourself. Can your teacher really catch up to you?

Why do you levy such pressure on your teacher?

Li Hao smiled without a word.

My teacher is a genius, truly! He’ll create his own path sooner or later. I just need to create the sparks for it. He erupts with brilliance every time I prod him.

The young man looked around, then at the sky and earth. “Skyward is mine!” he smiled.

At least, it’s mine for now!

The Orchid Forest master stood close by, completely ignored by the Human King. His shadow trembled as he said, “King of Silver Moon, since the Human King doesn’t want any of that dao strength... then consider my portion as my greeting gift to you for taking Skyward!”

“Very well!” Li Hao nodded with a smile when he looked at the man.

The Orchid Forest master sighed with relief. This was good. It would be very awkward if Li Hao didn’t want the strength either. Although it was a present of rejected energy from the Human King... all was well since Li Hao accepted it.

“Silver Moon is poor, so I’ll have to trouble everyone for the time being,” Li Hao laughed easily. “We have three seventh ranks with us... so the Orchid Forest master should return to your world as soon as possible. Orchid Forest is not safe where it is and I need only three seventh ranks to hold the world gates!

“Brother Void, you are in charge of rounding up all living beings within the world. They are all to be expelled to a minor world! We’re going to clean up Skyward!”

Void nodded with delight. Damn if it wouldn’t feel good to silence a ninth rank world!

Seventh rank, here I come!

......

All high ranks had retreated from Skyward. In Void’s eyes, the task was easily accomplished. However, no one else would dare say the same as the feat had been achieved only through killing two seventh ranks. Anyone who thought that was within casual reach could try it for themselves!

Li Hao had not borrowed the strength of time to accomplish his goal, but he’d made use of New Martial, Light, Orchid Forest, and Fog Mountain to send his opponents away. One could say that without them, the young man wouldn’t have the faintest chance in seizing Skyward.

Too many exalted emperors wanted a piece of the major world.

Light and New Martial were both the equivalent of eighth rank major worlds. Fog Mountain and Orchid Forest were seventh rank forces. Li Hao had utilized many different factions in conjunction to temporarily seize Skyward.

This was also his reward for coordinating the takeover of four major worlds. He hadn’t claimed any for himself, so everyone responded with a ninth rank major world. They were all hot-blooded people!

Humans were a social species. These were the most worthwhile friends that Li Hao had made since entering the chaos.

Three seventh ranks stood guard over the world gates—the Orchid Forest master did not leave in the end. There was more than one world gate in Skyward; his concern was that Li Hao lacked sufficient ability to guard four world gates. Ultimately, he decided to stay and help the young man for a while.

Four seventh ranks were in residence at the four world gates! Even Li Zhu silently took up a position. Skyward was incomparably secure for the moment. It would take approximately six or seven seventh ranks to overrun Li Hao’s garrison.

Or perhaps two eighth ranks would do. Otherwise, it would take the combined effort of an eighth rank dao universe to breach the gates when there were four seventh ranks holding down the fort.

......

Li Hao hovered in the air, taking stock of the world. Skyward was ginormous! It was so vast that it boggled the mind.

It was sectioned into four regions of north, south, east, west, which were further divided into ten smaller regions. Dragon Observatory had been one such region and it was the size of a pre-ascension Silver Moon.

In other words, Skyward was the size of forty Silver Moons.

No, more than that!

There were large tracts of uninhabited land within Skyward. While Silver Moon held a population of ten billion, one could toss forty billion into Skyward and still find the area very spacious.

It was an incredulously big world!

And this was after the world shrank upon the destruction of its dao universe. In its prime, Skyward could’ve housed one hundred billion denizens.

Li Hao could not span the entire southern region when he sent his consciousness out, to say nothing of all of Skyward.

“It’s too big!”

“Yeah!” Void nodded. “It’s so big that it’s almost the size of Light!”

“......” Li Hao tilted his head at his friend.

“Really!” Void looked seriously back at the young man.

The hell?! So Light is this big as well?? Then what are you being impressed with?

Li Hao only ever been to Red Moon. As large as that world had been, it wasn’t as big as Skyward. Hence, the young man thought the same of Light. So it looked like Light was bigger. Was it stronger?

“A lot of exalted emperors have run away from Skyward.” Void wasn’t in the mood to discuss which world was bigger. “But there were hundreds of exalted emperors in Skyward before. There’s about one hundred left, which is a huge headache!”

There were forty small regions in total, each of which would house one or two exalted emperors at least, and a dozen at most. There’d been plenty of wandering cultivators among Skyward’s factions before.

Although many had run off when the seventh ranks arrived, there were still at least one hundred left. Some of them were wandering cultivators and some from mid or minor worlds.

Chaos wanderers were without a world. Exalted emperors of mid or minor worlds differed from them only in the sense that they had a world. Possessing a world gave one the hope of producing a dao universe. Without a world, there was no general population. Without that, there was no hope of giving birth to a dao universe.

That was the difference!

Although people like the Sword Sovereign could form a dao net, that was not a dao universe. It could only count as something similar to a dao universe—a dao domain!

A dao domain was not a dao universe. Li Hao’s river would be the same without the daos of the people in it.

“That many?”

“Yep!” Void repeated. “In addition, there are many dao foundation sites within Skyward. There were a lot within Dragon Observatory territory before, such as Demon Summit, Coiled Dragon Well, and the volcano. The other regions have a fair number as well.

“To wandering cultivators, these dao foundation sites are treasure troves. Although a lot has been destroyed, they aren’t willing to leave.” Here, Void’s tone drooped from his earlier excitement. “It’ll be difficult to expel one hundred exalted emperors at once. The only way it’ll be easy is if we start massacring them!”

Should they?

They were targeting mostly chaos wanderers. Although there were no benign souls in the chaos, life was indeed difficult for the wanderers. They finally found a place of succor in Skyward and could stumble upon some opportunities here. Was Li Hao’s group to throw them all out or even kill them all just to silence the world?

“If we have to, we can migrate all those below exalted emperor,” smiled Li Hao. “We’ll throw out some of the exalted emperors, keep some, and see if the Orchid Forest master wants to recruit a batch as well.”

The seventh rank Orchid Forest major world had roughly three dozen exalted emperors at the start. A dozen died when they fought Red Moon. Li Hao didn’t know if that was an accident or a function of a weak world master, or if reality really was that harsh.

It only had two dozen exalted emperors now, whereas a seventh rank major world could support fifty to sixty exalted emperors. An eighth rank world could support up to one hundred. More exalted emperors was also a form of stabilization for the dao universe. Chaos wanderers were happy to join a major world as well.

The caveat being, the major world had to be willing to accept them.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Orchid Forest only had two dozen, which left them room to accept thirty to forty more. Of course, the world master wouldn’t fully fill out the ranks since that would leave no hope for Orchid Forest locals.

But taking another ten or twenty would be no problem. Orchid Forest wouldn’t be producing that many exalted emperors in a short period of time.