Chapter 1742: Desire (IV)

Boom!

The world shook; something seemed to be on the verge of erupting. The power of light seeped out the next moment—dao remnants appeared. The light envoy’s dao foundation site seemed to have been discovered.

Light and darkness materialized over Void. Demon Summit was erupting as well. The dao of the two sites rose like a net of dao that shrouded Void.

Energy continued its interplay over Void; his dao strength was so strong that it gave one the impression he could set foot into seventh rank at any time. The flower in front of him wafted even more enticing fragrance.

I’ll be a seventh rank if I eat it!

Void shut his eyes.

I want to be a seventh rank so badly. Li Hao’s already a fifth rank. The gap between that and sixth rank isn’t big for him. We’ve basically ended up at the same starting line.

But I am the Light crown prince and he was a first rank when I first met him. I was a fourth rank, and I was a fifth rank to begin with...

He’s caught up in a few short years.

Was Void jealous?

A little. It would take a saint to not be jealous. Void was not one. There were no saints among cultivators. Even the best of friends or fellow daoists felt jealousy.

If I don’t eat it, where will I get the untold energy and dao strength that I need for ascension? Even a seventh rank dao universe isn’t enough. Am I supposed to eat my home?

As these thoughts ran through Void’s mind, he looked at Li Hao in the distance through increasingly narrowed eyes.

Perhaps I shouldn’t listen to Li Hao! Why should I revitalize Skyward? What a useless gesture, it’s a world without a master!

The Sword Sovereign and others started to sense something as well. They looked solemnly at Void—had he sunk into the grip of desire?

What should they do, if that was the case?

They rather liked the noble crown prince of Light major world; Void was a very interesting person. But now... what should they do?

Everyone harbored a goal of becoming stronger. Anyone who sought to stop them might become an enemy.

Li Hao made his move at this time, but he didn’t approach his friend. Instead, he summoned a dao star—the one of time!

The star of time pulsed when the young man reached out a hand to strum it like a musical instrument. Li Hao strummed it again, prompting the star to jump. He repeated his actions until a dao materialized over the star.

The young man smiled and snapped his fingers. The dao snapped!

The entire dao star teetered the precipice of collapsing. Void had been watching, but color drained from his face when he realized what his friend had done!

“Fucking hell!” He panicked and vanished on the spot, reappearing in front of Li Hao. The power of emptiness appeared when he lifted a hand and the crumbling dao over the star of time froze!

A horrified Void grabbed the broken dao and summoned some energy from the flower of life to mend it. He was sweating profusely.

“You’re crazy!” He swallowed hard when he looked at Li Hao. The young man shook his head with a smile.

“Not crazy, I just wanted to see if people really can overcome their desire. Desire enslaves us, but you’ll find that you can control it when you’re a bit more heartless about it!”

Fucking hell!

Void had fully returned to his senses now; his face dripped with sweat. “You don’t have to go at it this way! Wouldn’t you have lost everything if I ignored you?”

“I wasn’t just reminding you, but also testing myself!” sighed Li Hao. He looked at the star and said softly, “I wouldn’t have been willing to see its loss either.”

Void didn’t know what to say; he grappled with his emotions in the wake of recovering himself from desire. “I really wanted to eat the flower!” He swallowed hard again.

“I wouldn’t have stopped you if you did,” Li Hao nodded. “It’s just that...” He raised his eyes to the sky with a frown. “This dao universe has a master!”

Why would I stop you if you were truly going to ascend to seventh rank? There’s no need to! But if the dao universe has a master, are you going to join it to be someone else’s minion?

“Hmm?” Void blinked. “I know that, but he’s gone...”

“But he’s not dead, he’s still alive!”

Void blinked again and nodded, the look in his eyes shifting. He raised his head to the sky and snorted, “Damned irritating, so annoying!”

He voiced the same sentiments as the Human King. It was all very annoying! All desires receded at this moment and he grumbled, “Not even my old man can control me, but you want to? Bah!”

Li Hao grinned broadly when the genteel prince spat on the ground.

“This is just as good,” laughed Void after a long moment, when his nerves had settled. “I have clarified my dao heart, so this is good. But if you do this again next time, I’m hanging you out to dry!”

Li Hao laughed and nodded.

So what if you hang me out to dry? What does that matter? Just as you are controlling your desires, so am I.

Cultivation is so interesting!

......

Void successfully repressed his desires in the end. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he’d forgotten about ascension in the face of an even more shocking development. Li Hao had snapped the dao within the star of time!

That was frightening!

Time was the most incredible dao in the eyes of many. It was nearly omnipotent. Although the wielder paid a hefty price for each instance of use, one could not deny that the existence of time had enabled Li Hao to accomplish many incredible things.

When Li Hao snapped it, Void suddenly didn’t think much of being a seventh rank. Was that goal supposed to spark desire?

No!

It’s not like I’m barred from seventh rank. I made it to 6,999 squares in the dao chess on my last attempt. Now that I’m armed with more dao comprehension, I’m sure I can make it past seven thousand.

In that case, seventh rank was a piece of cake. Eating the flower of life would just accelerate that goal.

Void suppressed his greed in front of Li Hao. He looked at the young man with a complicated mix of emotions.

He was a first rank fresh out of Silver Moon when I first met him, but now he’s a bit extraordinary!

Time!

It is a dao that sparks envy and wonder, but he treats it as a toy. That is incredible.

‘Let us continue!” Void cast everything else aside. “I’m going to fully silence the world. The world origin has not yet appeared. Only when it does will that indicate we’ve reached the limits of emptiness and the entire world is about to fall silent.”

Li Hao nodded and didn’t continue his intervention. He studied the sky instead. “You should continue your silencing, I’m going up there for a look.”

The dao universe!

Void furrowed his brows, but quickly nodded. “Be careful!”

A silenced dao universe might not truly be dead. It had simply been silenced, not destroyed. The Skyward master of yesteryear had simply extracted all of the dao strength, but he remained its master!

Had he left something behind?

Neither Void nor Li Hao knew. Everyone sought to seize the Skyward dao universe, but had they ever stopped to think that the Skyward master might not be willing to let them do so?

......

Li Hao soared into the air and darted into the dao universe. Hundreds of millions of stars stood quietly against the backdrop of space. They weren’t shattered, just silenced.

Faint tendrils of light wrapped around many stars. This indicated that the eruption of the dao foundation sites had activated the stars.

The young man did not delve deeper since he knew that this dao universe had been silenced. These were just stilled dao stars.

Today, he sped for the depths of the dao universe to search for its dao origin. He wanted to know where the source of the great dao was and what it looked like.

He’d once laid eyes on the Red Moon dao origin. It resembled a heart and was located deep within the dao universe. The convergence of the daos of desire had formed a source of desire. It was the same for the other three major worlds as well.

In contrast, Silver Moon’s dao origin had been the star of time at first. The two dao rivers replaced it after Li Hao collected the star. Not every dao universe possessed a dao river. Forging one meant that fortune and calamity would be shared alike.

It wasn’t that masters of dao couldn’t forge dao rivers, but that they were unwilling. Such a construct would connect to the people.

A dao universe such as Red Moon connected to its exalted emperors instead of the people. It was the various imperial daos that connected to the dao origin. Yet it wasn’t just anyone who had the right to make the connection.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

When it came to Silver Moon, Li Hao had forged the river for Hong Yitang and Gan Wuliang. Whether the two were willing or not, the great dao was tied to the people in the end.

Li Hao moved ahead at an exceedingly fast pace. The exalted emperors that’d last entered the dao universe might have found it, or they might not have. The only thing that Li Hao was certain of was that the dao origin must be silent as well. People wouldn’t have left so easily otherwise.

Li Hao hadn’t caught a glimpse of the dao origin last time, so he searched with extreme swiftness!

Stars sparkled beside him. Since the Skyward dao universe wasn’t formed by a dao river, its stars were not gathered together. Silver Moon’s stars were, on the other hand. That created pros and cons.

The greatest trouble was that if enemies invaded, they could easily silence the entire dao universe. They would be capturing everything in one fell swoop.

Li Hao continued forward without looking at the dao stars. He seemed to reach the end of the universe after a while. Although he was a fifth rank, he was on par with a peak sixth rank. Even without any obstacles or misguided intentions, it still took Li Hao a while of flying before he reached the end. It was clear to see from this how large the dao universe was.

A massive star hovered at the end of the world. Small stars circled it. This seemed to be the dao origin of the universe. It was an existence similar to the star of time, but this one was of space.

It was completely silent without the slightest hint of activity. The other exalted emperors should’ve made their way to this spot last time as traces of battle could be seen on the massive star.

Traces of battle!

The Light master and others should’ve successfully found the dao origin and even fought over it. Perhaps they’d experimented whether they could control or activate the star, but it looked like all of them had failed.

They wouldn’t have so easily retreated otherwise.

Li Hao carefully investigated the premises, seeing threads extend from the massive star to connect with all of the dao stars in the universe. That formed a massive dao net that was the Skyward universe.

If everything here was according to what he thought, then they might be connected to 9,998 stars, or perhaps 9,999 of them. Was the connection of 9,999 stars that formed the dao of space, or was it something else?