Chapter 1752: The World Revitalizes (III)

Skyward.

“The dao of high ranks being constrained is a good opportunity for everyone to comprehend the dao of mid and low ranks!” Li Hao’s voice echoed throughout the world. “The world origin has bestowed the dao foundation sites with sufficient vitality for them to stir to full activity!

"This is a rare chance bestowed to Silver Moon by the heavens! Make full use of it and treasure what we have!

“This is how dangerous the chaos is and how practical it can be. If it wasn’t for four seventh ranks sitting in residence today and Fellow Daoist Void’s father—the eighth rank Exalted Light Emperor—holding down the fort, we would not have been able to hang onto Skyward.

“Even with their help, I had to relinquish my control over the heritage of the high ranks and hand over a ninth rank dao universe! This was the only way everyone’s safety could be assured!”

As calm as Li Hao’s tones were, the Fused Dao listening outside were despondent. Some clenched their fists!

Indeed, they had seen it. They’d seen those powerhouses claim powerful dao foundation shadows and the relevant dao stars. They’d seen the Silver Moon marquis forced into compromise and giving up the biggest share of Skyward’s interests!

It was all because Silver Moon was too weak.

They didn’t know what Li Hao had in mind. Even the four seventh ranks felt that it was a bit of shame how everything had turned out. If it wasn’t for people throwing a wrench into the works and them being the only ones suppressing the world, then they would have great use for those high rank shadows!

Revitalizing high rank dao foundation sites and studying the shadows... would be immensely beneficial to understanding great dao, even if that didn’t help them become a high rank themselves.

What a pity!

So many high rank dao foundation sites were gone, just like that. Not only did other powerhouses take them, but they’d also obtained a portion of the dao universe’s control.

He Yong had been all smiles moments ago; he quieted down with a soft sigh. Silver Moon was a burden on Li Hao.

It has always been a burden!

They’d tried their best to catch up ever since leaving Silver Moon, but they were too slow and too late. They relied on Li Hao to enter Fused Dao and relied on the young man again to become an exalted emperor.

He had burned so many resources for them—dozens of worlds and billions of dao crystals!

And now, he relinquished a ninth rank world for them.

He Yong suddenly felt that they were completely useless. They only knew how to spend money, but couldn’t offer any help or profit to the young man!

It was just, first ranks or even third ranks had seemed useless in the situation earlier. So what if they had strength in numbers? Thirty-some exalted emperors would’ve been butchered by one seventh rank!

Such was the might of a high rank!

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

There wasn’t a single high rank in all of Silver Moon. Only Li Hao walked the tightrope again and again to fight for them time and time again.

......

All of the Silver Moon cultivators in Skyward fell silent. Some were observing the dao foundation sites, others were absorbing energy. Some were studying great dao and others had their eyes shut in meditation.

No one said a word because there was nothing to say. Those who fell behind deserved a beating.

In actuality, Silver Moon had improved at an astonishing pace. It was a fourth rank world a few years after the Star Gate was opened and now swiftly climbed toward fifth rank!

However...

That was still too slow!

This was a chaos universe that was the playground of seventh and eighth ranks now. What did it matter that Silver Moon had more than three dozen exalted emperors? How many of them were mid ranks?

Li Hao had won far more opportunities for them than were available to sixth rank worlds. And yet...

Silver Moon martial masters were not willing to be thus, but there was nothing they could do. It induced unending despair!

We are improving fast, but still so slowly when it matters.

Becoming an exalted emperor had been the stuff of legends in the past. Everyone had been very excited about it, but today they’d witnessed untold powerhouses enter Skyward like they were taking a walk through the park.

These heavyweights claimed dao foundation shadows right in front of them, and there was nothing they could do but just watch!

It had been a very long time since they’d last felt such helplessness and despair.

......

In the upper reaches of the sky.

The Sword Sovereign watched silently. These had been the straits that New Martial had found themselves in in the past. Circumstances had been even more difficult then. Those of Silver Moon seemed to be prouder and had a stronger ego than New Martial citizens.

Perhaps it was because they’d never tasted failure in their lives. Life had been a series of successes under the Silver Moon king’s leadership. Even though the young man wasn’t the strongest around, he’d made one correct decision after another. All of his plans had been a success, and so those of Silver Moon were very proud.

However, pride itself was useless. New Martial had been very proud as well. But after entering the chaos, New Martial had wandered from one location to another.

The Sword Sovereign glanced at Li Hao. He didn’t know whether giving up those dao stars had been part of Li Hao’s plans, or if it’d been action taken out of no recourse. It might have been very troublesome had they fought back just now, but they might have stood a chance.

At the very least, they could have escaped and retained control over Skyward’s dao universe.

However, Li Hao had given that up.

It was only now that the Sword Sovereign felt that he couldn’t see through the young man. The Sword Sovereign himself was very young among exalted emperors and was the cream of the crop when it came to seventh ranks. He was very young, but Li Hao was only in his twenties.

Li Hao was as young as the Human King had once been. At least the Human King had those such as Ole Zhang and the Sword Sovereign following and advising him. Ole Zhang, Little Wang, the Earth Emperor and others had been present at the critical battle against the Heavenly Emperor. They’d all participated in that fight to join forces with the Human King.

New Martial did not belong to just the Human King alone. Whereas Silver Moon... at least for now, was shouldered by only this one. How difficult must it be for one person alone to bear responsibility for the rise of an entire world!

Silver Moon’s foundations were too poor. It had not even been a mainstream world, just a desolate backwater. Although the dao of time was present within it, it was just a prototype. That it had produced several dozen exalted emperors and one fifth rank in such a short period of time was staggering enough.

......

As the Sword Sovereign mused through his thoughts, Li Hao smiled after giving that speech to his people. He didn’t think there was anything bad about the current situation.

The young man landed near the world origin.

Boom boom boom!

It continued to pound like a heart, but it was at the end of its tether. There was nothing it could do to fight back.

“You are the source of life and an existence that gives birth to life,” Li Hao suddenly said. “You should be able to sense that we are simply silencing the world, not destroying it. I have a friend who cultivates the paths of emptiness and revitalization. They are not of destruction and creation. We can reawaken Skyward!

“The more you resist now and consume resources, the less likely it is that we can revitalize you. Why don’t you conserve your strength for now and fall silent? You can figure out a way to recover if my friend fails to awaken you. It’s better than putting up a fight like this now!”

Li Hao looked at the dao crystals around them.

“You’ve consumed nearly one billion dao crystals out of eight in such a short period of time. This only serves to benefit others. I’ll leave one billion for you, that will be enough for you to recover with. Give me the less than six billion dao crystals!”

The world origin pounded ferociously, as if it was without a consciousness. But how could it retaliate if it didn’t possess an awareness of its own?

Clearly, it had a bit of a consciousness.

“Are you reluctant or unwilling? I don’t want much—most of it is going to Senior Dao Chess, if I’m being honest. That is the imperial weapon of your world. I won’t keep much for myself, perhaps a couple hundred million or a billion for our own cultivation.

“You’re not losing much! You’ll be able to collect a large number of dao crystals again soon. But if you insist on going down this path, I might... destroy you!”

Faint killing intent dawned in the young man’s eyes.

Moments later, the beating heart finally quieted down and refrained from consuming the dao crystals around it. In the distance, some shadows began to fade away.

Clearly, the world origin had chosen to give up the fight, but not because of Li Hao’s threat. It didn’t seem that concerned about the young man’s words. However, a river had manifested and a cat hovered over it. It looked at the world origin with curiosity.

That was when it acquiesced!

Number Two!

This was a cat that loved feasting on world origin. It was different from the Ash Emperor in that regard because the Ash Emperor ate everything. Number Two was very picky and only ate world origin. It had a voracious appetite, all of which served to pose a great threat to the world origin!

“What a big fish!” Number Two licked its lips with reluctance. This was a super big fish!

It could probably outright descend upon this world if it ate this fish. Not only that, but it could likely soar to the ranks of premier heavyweights in one leap. At the very least, it wouldn’t be weaker than big cat.

It really wanted to eat this fish!

The cat cast a yearning look at Li Hao.

How about... we eat this fish? It can’t fight back!

“The Skyward master is a master of space,” Li Hao shook his head. “We have yet to sense any secondary dimension in the world. Therefore, Skyward might be a world of the corporeal and intangible—of two planes!

“We are simply in the surface layer, so be careful of creating big trouble if you eat this guy. You might even accidentally summon the Skyward master. He won’t care about what we do on the surface, but if our actions touch upon the deeper level, he might smack us to death!”

Number Two nodded at those words. Meanwhile, Li Hao summoned the dao crystals to his hand with a wave.

“Aren’t you going to keep them for yourself?” transmitted the cat. “There’s so many. If you hadn’t randomly used the ones before, you might be able to set foot into sixth rank!”

They’d depleted nearly ten billion dao crystals before and was newly in possession of seven billion. Added to that the one billion that Skycloud had paid... that meant a total of twenty billion dao crystals had passed through Li Hao’s hands at some point. A regular seventh rank only required ten billion dao crystals.

It was easy to see from this just how great the young man’s consumption rate was.

If he’d kept all of the crystals for himself, he might have set foot into sixth rank. For a perverse cultivator of a myriad worlds like Li Hao, it was harder for him to set foot into sixth rank than it was for others to attain seventh rank.