Chapter 1735: Quiet (I)

Number Two ignored the rest of the crowd. It darted back into the river after eating the thunder and lightning.

Li Hao was an old hat at the cycle of life and death and proceeded in a much more skilled fashion than ever before. He quickly rose from the river and depleted an endless amount of energy. What was left of his dao crystal reserve continuously crumbled away.

Not only that, but the dao strength remaining from the two seventh ranks he’d killed also became part of his consumption. It served to help mitigate his expenditure.

Each death emptied nearly all of his energy. Thus, he needed a lot of resources.

Li Hao had almost none in reserve. Only the seventh rank power of dao could be his fodder for revitalization. It was a huge waste, but he didn’t care.

He should spend what he owned!

In this regard, he quite agreed with the Human King’s choices.

This time, Li Hao revitalized not as a baby. It took only a moment for a young man to appear. He looked roughly eleven or twelve years old. His memories were almost fully intact, but Li Hao was not the least bit happy.

This meant that his body’s potential had potentially decreased after walking the cycle of life and death for the fourth time. Granted, potential was potential. It wasn’t that important in the future.

Minor worlds swiftly manifested as the strength of great dao was immolated. They once more connected to Li Hao. Soon enough, a dapper young man walked out of the river.

Everyone looked at him; the Sword Sovereign and others seemed to glimpse something.

“The dao of life and death is very useful,” the Sword Sovereign transmitted with a frown. “But possessing it does not mean that one is unafraid of death!”

Li Hao nodded without a word. He knew full well that normal fifth ranks enjoyed roughly eight hundred thousand years of life. Meanwhile, he only possessed half of that.

Four hundred thousand years was a very long period of time, there was nothing to be regretful about his actions. Perhaps it was a pity in the eyes of others, but Li Hao didn’t think much of it.

Four hundred thousand years was enough!

“Stop looking at me like that, Brother Void. The migration is almost complete. It’s time for us to silence Skyward while everyone else is deep in conversation on how to handle us. It’d be best if you can enter seventh rank. But even if you can’t, it’ll be a gain all the same if you attain sufficient comprehension and just need to accumulate sufficient energy.”

Void said no more; he was champing at the bit to get started. “Alright!”

Silencing a ninth rank world was a very exciting prospect!

The dao chess’ shadow materialized in the depths of the dao universe. It’d been keeping watch on the proceedings the entire time and prayed after hearing their discussion.

You two better not stir up anything scary...

......

Skyward.

There weren’t many original inhabitants left in the world. Truth be told, they weren’t original inhabitants either, they had come later on. As the region masters departed, some of them took their inhabitants with them. Those that were left behind were reassigned to a minor world.

They were all cultivators that’d moved to Skyward from the chaos. Whether it was those born later or ones that’d initially moved here, they were all cultivators. The energy of a ninth rank world was so dense that even babies were born as cultivators.

Large numbers of personnel began to evacuate. A portion of Skyward exalted emperors chose to stay to join Orchid Forest. A portion had already left with their people. They didn’t dare linger when there were four seventh ranks in residence.

As dissatisfied as they were by these people occupying Skyward, the major world lacked a master. Whoever was strong could claim it.

Except, they were puzzled by these actions. Skyward’s dao universe had not yet awakened. What was the purpose of occupying the world now?

......

People steadily streamed off Skyward onto a minor world. That minor world was then sent into exile and began to drift through the chaos. Many of its new denizens looked back at Skyward with reluctance.

A ninth rank world was much better than a minor world like this; just its energy alone was much denser. What a pity that they might never have a chance to return to Skyward! At least the Silver Moon king was merciful enough to bequeath them a minor world.

If he didn’t, then those of them who weren’t exalted emperors would die when they entered the chaos.

There were many exalted emperors who’d migrated to the minor world. Some were curious and mused, “Do you guys think they sent us away because they can access the dao universe?”

“Wouldn’t those seventh and eighth ranks be here in person if they could?” someone else retorted.

These exalted emperors had all entered Skyward’s dao universe once before and determined that it wouldn’t be accessible in the short term. They wouldn’t have left so easily otherwise.

Fine then!

“I’m curious myself what relationship the Silver Moon king has with New Martial,” asked another exalted emperor. “A fifth rank joined forces with the Light crown prince to kill Waterpeak. In addition, it doesn’t seem like the New Martial Sword Sovereign is the one calling the shots on Skyward. That seems to be the Silver Moon king instead!”

General bafflement reigned as in the public’s eyes, Silver Moon was just a New Martial vassal world. They hadn’t thought much of it before this and treated it as a New Martial subordinate.

But this time, with four seventh ranks in residence, it didn’t seem like New Martial was their leader. That appeared to be Silver Moon instead!

It was an immensely confusing fact. Could the king of a vassal world direct the seventh rank of a major world? New Martial was Silver Moon’s origin world, at the end of the day. No matter what, it wouldn’t be up to Li Hao to issue orders.

Not only that, but the son of the Exalted Light Emperor seemed to listen to the Silver Moon king as well. This was even more confounding. Fog Mountain and the Orchid Forest master were overlords of their respective regions, but they’d gathered together to keep watch over a world gate!

“I don’t care about this that much, I’m more concerned that two New Martial seventh ranks have been born here. They already have the Human King, Ash Emperor, Sun God, and apparently their supreme has set foot into seventh rank as well. New Martial is really extraordinary to produce six seventh ranks!”

That was the crux of the issue. No one cared about the Silver Moon king’s secrets; they didn’t know anything. But for a seventh rank major world to suddenly see so many new seventh ranks... that was vital.

Two of them didn’t seem to have ascended through their dao universe, which made them even more terrifying. How could one set foot into seventh rank without needing a dao universe??

“Blazing Sun Region is about to be undone by mayhem! I hear that New Martial lacks yang qi and needs an infusion of extreme yang. Flaming Sun major world from earlier was just a seventh rank world. With the kind of foundations that New Martial possesses, I think it’ll take an infusion from an eighth rank world to solve their issues. The Blazing Sun master might have a headache on his hands right now.”

The group of exalted emperors gossiped merrily with each other since there was nothing else to do. The chaos was not been a quiet place these days. Large numbers of exalted emperors had died in a very short period of time, many of them high rank.

......

As the exalted emperors chitchatted, Skyward turned entirely into Li Hao’s territory once everyone else was invited to leave.

The Skyward dao universe split open, producing Silver Moon. The mid world hovered within Skyward’s world domain, like a city in the sky. It was so much smaller compared to the ninth rank major world.

Silver Moon was still very small despite having devoured countless worlds. It was in the process of transforming to a fifth rank mid world, so it didn’t occupy too much of the southern region’s territory when it landed within Skyward.

All the same, it was much bigger than Dragon Observatory territory.

The newly ascended exalted emperors, Fused Dao, Sun and Moon, and some Mountain and Sea flew out of the Star Gate. Some landed within Skyward and others circled around Silver Moon, inspecting this new land.

Their visions were being broadened today!

So this was all there was to Silver Moon. So this was what the world outside looked like. It’d always been the chaos universe surrounding Silver Moon, so they had not qualified to leave their world. Then it was the Skyward dao universe outside a sealed Star Gate. They were still not qualified to leave their home then.

It wasn’t until today that they could set foot off their home world for the first time.

This was a rare opportunity as when could a world ever be situated within a ninth rank major world? Any typically revitalized world would somewhat exclude another world, even if it tolerated the interloper.

Skyward was the only exception since its great dao had fallen silent, so there was no sense of repulsion.

Many had walked out of Silver Moon. Li Hao was giving them a few days to observe all of Skyward. They could compare and contrast Skyward before it was silenced. This kind of opportunity and knowledge would be invaluable to the cultivators in their future endeavors to come.

......

“So this is Skyward?” A group of youngsters walked through the land. Liu Yin and some of the younger generation were immensely curious. They greedily absorbed the world’s energy since Silver Moon’s had been nearly depleted after five hundred years.

It had become a barren place by the time they were born. Although they were second generations of veteran families, they didn’t enjoy as many resources as one might think they could.

Although Silver Moon had spontaneously raised its concentration of energy over this period of time, it was also depleted by the enormous numbers of exalted emperors ascending. The world had advanced as well—all that took a prodigious amount of energy.

There were hundreds of millions of regular cultivators furiously absorbing energy. Those didn’t take in much, however. Everyone was starved for energy.

But after entering Skyward, one could find an abundance of basic energy. This was a ninth rank world after all. It could pull from the chaos and convert the energy for its own use, even with its great dao silent.

This place wouldn’t have been able to support hundreds of exalted emperors otherwise. So although the major world possessed a much richer environment than Silver Moon, these frogs at the bottom of a well were overwhelmed by bliss.

And this was a silenced world without its great dao! If its great dao was present, wouldn’t there be so much energy at its peak that it would take the form of rain?

“Brother Yin, apparently the marquis is going to silence this entire world. How big is this world?”

How big?

“I don’t know either.” Liu Yin shook his head. “I’ve only heard that this world is divided into forty minor regions and we’re in one of them right now. It’s enough to keep us traveling through it for eight days! It’ll take a few months for us to journey through all of the regions!”

And that was if they tackled the endeavor with full force. This world was frightfully big!