Chapter 1766: Meeting Once More (I)

“We’ll undertake combat to support more combat!” Li Hao answered calmly. “I have more than one thousand minor worlds now, but ones truly equipped with energy number no more than six hundred. That’s less than one half! When all of my worlds are filled with energy, I’ll be able to fight a seventh rank by myself!”

Granted, those were just the expected results. Reality might prove entirely different.

“There are many world domains in Dragon Region...” Li Hao said slowly as he looked into the four corners. “Based on the sayings of my world, this trip is to uproot the strong and support the weak. We will uphold justice!

“That gives us enough of a reason to eradicate them!” Li Hao looked into the desolate chaos, the look in his eyes growing firm. “And that’s not it! The fault lies not with the chaos beasts of Dragon Territory. Or rather, they’re not the only ones in the wrong.

“The disorderly nature of the rules and apathy of heavyweights are both at fault! I once said to Director Yao Si of the Night Watchers that everyone should adhere to the duties and responsibilities of their position!

“If one wishes to occupy a superior position and be an overlord of the chaos or the leader of a region, then they must act like it! The ones we have now act strongly toward their own people, but huddle and cower toward outsiders!

“This reminds me of some people that I killed in the past. They came down with an iron fist on the human-ruled Silver Moon, but bowed and scraped before monster spirits in the outside world despite the latter’s weakness...

“It was like they felt a higher sense of achievement oppressing weaklings and their own kind!” sneered Li Hao. “And when it came to external enemies, they could just give up territory or offer up fellow humans in exchange for temporary peace. That seemed to be the best outcome and was all too frequently seen in history.

“Even when the nation and world grew strong, they still acted like this. In their eyes, outsiders possess a higher status even if they are supremely weak! They would rather fete these outsiders and avoid offending them!

“Those eighth ranks shout commands at their own seventh ranks, but might be the very picture of courtesy to the sixth and seventh ranks of Dragon Region. They reserve their imposing might and cruelty for their own people, while serving up respect and dignity to outsiders...”

Void stared at his friend, at a loss for the moment. Was this the case?

Upon further thought... perhaps it was.

Human eighth ranks displayed haughty solemnity when they encountered other seventh ranks masters. But when they ventured into Dragon Region, they were exceedingly courteous to chaos beast seventh ranks.

That was a given. Anyone would do so, even his father.

“This... is a show of respect to all living beings...”

“No, respect goes both ways,” Li Hao shook his head. “We respect someone only when they respect us! Brother Void, respect is not one-sided! If one side offers respect and the other views you as food, that’s groveling, not respect!

“Therefore, I’m considering an idea. Even if we kill all of these chaos beasts—well, we can’t keep killing them ad infinitum or make them go extinct. There’s bound to be some innocents among them. Therefore, so long as these people rule over the four regions, the situation at Dragon Region is bound to repeat itself!

“Based on what I’m thinking,” Li Hao said calmly. “Those so-called leaders of humanity also need to die!”

The bombshell was delivered with complete tranquillity; Void froze. His impression of Li Hao was a decisive person who killed when the occasion called for it, but he wasn’t ruthless or cold-hearted.

“When I lived on Silver Moon, the country was administered by the nine ministries. Not everyone in the nine ministries deserved to die and not all of their leaders were rotten to the core. And yet, I killed nearly all of them. Do you know why?”

“No.” A stern look entered Void’s eyes and he shook his head. “Was it because they were in your way?”

“No, it was because they neglected their duties. In my eyes, malpractice is even worse than corruption, brutality, and incompetence!

“I do not judge the seventh ranks because they do not have the ability to do anything about the situation. But while all of the eighth ranks seek to conquer the four regions, none of them are worthy of the position. Whether in terms of morals or talent, they are found lacking. It would be the start of true disaster and doom if they really did reign supreme over the four regions!”

This was as far as Li Hao could go. He was only fifth rank at present, but... what did that matter? When the nine ministries had ruled the world, his province had been one of the lowest on the totem pole. But what of it?

“C’mon, Panth, let’s go find the queen and Great Li king!”

The dog blinked. Although they were along the way, it’d thought that Li Hao would immediately race to Phoenix major world, given the depths of his current fury. Why were they looking for those two?

Li Hao was turning over more thoughts in his mind. He murmured a stream of consciousness, possibly for his own benefit, possibly talking to the others.

“Those two... won’t be loafing around here, particularly the queen. She’s skilled at bewitching others, faith, and dissemination of knowledge. She’s a smart person. If she’s there, she’ll have identified an opportunity to have faith erupt!

“The humans of Dragon Region have long suffered under monster spirits and chaos beasts! Here, you only need to do some good deeds to reap a rich harvest of believers. Both of those two were monarchs back in their day and skilled at the propagation of faith. What do you think they’re doing right now?”

Panther understood. Those two were probably collecting faith. The dog also knew that these two weren’t the sort to sit idly by. Li Hao had seen certain things immediately after he arrived. Clearly, this situation was repeated throughout the region. And with these two being here...

It would be strange if they weren’t furiously collecting faith, given their personalities!

“Verifying dao through faith and utilizing faith to become an exalted emperor... I’m not a fan of that path as the limitations are too many. But for them, this is a wide avenue straight to the heavens. So long as the faith doesn’t falter, they’ll be able to improve swiftly. They’ll leisurely set foot into fourth rank and even... seventh rank!”

If they had a large enough population base and sufficiently fervent faith... If ten billion didn’t do the trick, then one hundred billion, then a trillion, ten trillion...

Enough faith and disciples would propel them to the heavens!

The dao of faith was similar to the dao of the people. This would be a chance for the two to rapidly grow stronger.

“I need to seize a world, a very big world, and use it as my base of operations,” said Li Hao. “I’ll have some people practice the dao of faith, conquer some worlds, and take away their humans. I’d like to gather humanity together... The queen and Great Li king should be very suited for this work.”

“If you have other people train the dao of faith, then you...” Void raised an eyebrow.

Li Hao cultivated the path of a myriad daos, why didn’t he walk this path himself? If this was really what was on his mind, then this was a massive opportunity.

Of course, the caveat was that they survived the attempt.

“Faith.. is both good and bad. Just as I am unwilling to be the master of dao, I am actually an irresponsible person.” Li Hao shook his head. “I do not wish for these daos to restrict my freedom. Silver Moon martial masters pursue a free and unfettered life.

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

“I want a bit more compared to other Silver Moon martial masters. I’m all too aware that faith is a kind of restraint.”

It easily recoiled onto the wielder!

Granted, many people wouldn’t care about potential backlash given the kind of opportunity this was.

Panther didn’t make a sound as it flew in the relevant direction.

Great Li king and queen of the west, you guys have caught Li Hao’s eyes again.

The dog didn’t know whether to pity or envy the two. Li Hao seemed to want them to take charge of some changes to come. They might be the vanguard or the commander in the rear, responsible for the newly recruited humans.

Conquering a world to take over its countless humans was a very difficult task. The general population would need to be clothed, fed, and housed. Their different cultures needed to be integrated with one another and their daily needs taken care of...

It sounded easy and was doable for ten thousand, one hundred thousand people. But when it came to one hundred million, one billion, ten billion...

Even an exalted emperor would go mad with this level of responsibility!

Just taking care of their day-to-day boggled the mind. Li Hao wanted to have a mental breakdown when he thought of it. He wouldn’t house the people in Silver Moon, no matter what. His home’s systems would break down if he shoved an unending stream of newcomers into it.

He had to find another world to shelter them. All he could do in the beginning was prevent them from dying of starvation. The rest would be up to those two. This would be a tremendous opportunity for the duo if they accomplished their tasks with aplomb!

......

“Achoo!” The Great Li king was about to verify his dao when he sneezed. He didn’t feel that comfortable, which was an astonishing sensation. He looked at the queen. “Do you think... something unexpected is about to happen?”

The queen frowned without a response; she simply stared at the sky.

Something unexpected? I have a bad feeling brewing... This was only prompted by Li Hao in the past.

But Li Hao should be fighting Red Moon and Skycloud at the moment. I’ve come this far, to a place full of chaos beasts and monster spirits. Surely he hasn’t followed me here...

She was confused as well. The two of them had risked their lives to go on the run in order to get away from that irritating gnat. Was Li Hao in Dragon Region as well?

Unease took root in her heart—the queen didn’t even fear the world master of this tiny world.

“It can’t be that Li Hao’s here, is it?” she asked apprehensively.

“It can’t be that!” laughed the Great Li king. “Do you really need to be that afraid of him? Not to mention, he’s probably still tangled up with those high ranks at the moment or being hunted down. Dragon Region is ruled by monster spirits and chaos beasts. What would he come here for?”

“That’s hard to say,” sighed the queen. “Whatever it is, it’s best if we stay far away from him.”

“Don’t worry, it’s probably this world’s master wanting to kill us. Be careful and don’t make a misstep at this stage.”

The queen nodded without further word. That was true, that was their more pressing concern. As for Li Hao... the chaos was so vast. They shouldn’t encounter each other so easily.