Chapter 930: Battle With the Scarlet Shadow (I)

The cosmos.

Stars filled the void.

A tiger of fire shone brilliantly in space. A variety of other creatures traveled through the void—dragons, phoenixes, brown bears... It was a dreamscape.

Li Hao was in the form of a ferocious tiger. He no longer cared about the outside world. He wandered around leisurely in the cosmos, not daring to go anywhere else. He tilted his head up to look at the stars around him. What a rare moment of peace!

Li Hao smiled at the existences around him that were mentioned only in legends. In the distance, a longsword illuminated the void. He looked at it quizzically. A sword?

Is that my sword intent? Sword aura? Or someone else’s?

According to his teacher and his own conjectures, this patch of universe was the great dao universe. The supernatural locks of modern humans might all be found here. The sword might belong to a swordsman.

A certain possibility occurred to him—was it Hong Yitang?

He didn’t think further on it as the sword was too far away for confirmation. Li Hao didn’t dare move about randomly at the moment.

Further inspiration then occurred to him. Since his physical body had entered the secondary dimension, then... could his physical body directly absorb energy from the universe?

The energy here was very unique in that it perfectly supplemented the issue of the human body being weak. To think of the idea was to execute it; the young man operated the Breathing Method of the Five Styles. As for what changes or unexpected developments might result from it, the daredevil Li Hao didn’t care.

One could die immediately after learning the true meaning of dao. Understanding what the final destination of martial dao was a much more meaningful undertaking than killing people. If it wasn’t for his teacher people outside, he’d want to roam freely through this universe!

If it wasn’t for his tie to his teacher, nothing in the world would be able to stop him. The pursuit of absolute freedom was a very thrilling prospect.

The breathing method operated in full glory! Tendrils of unique energy quickly gathered around him. A shift took place through the universe as various celestial bodies hovered in and out of view. Li Hao’s presence seemed to light up the cosmos. He was the brightest star among the vault of heaven.

The secondary dimension... doesn’t have a name yet.

Li Hao’s thoughts ran wild. There was no master of this universe. It belonged to this age. Perhaps it was a great dao universe that had just formed. It should have a name, should it not?

I like picking names.

A smile appeared on Li Hao’s face. He had nothing else better to do anyway, so why not choose a name for this universe? There was the core origin universe in New Martial, which later gave birth to core origin dao.

The core origin universe... What a lousy name.

“The myriad of stars are resplendent and a myriad of daos cross the void. Why not call it... the Hao Cosmos!” Li Hao declared with satisfaction. A name was boring unless it contained his own name!

My name is Li Hao. This place has a bright moon as the backdrop and thousands of sparkling stars dotting the surroundings. The character for ‘bright’ is the same as my ‘Hao’, so I shall call this universe the Hao Cosmos. That makes me very happy indeed!

As he operated the breathing method, several other major celestial bodies appeared next to him. There were ones of wind, thunder, fire... Li Hao manifested his supernatural characters and sent them out with a single thought.

They vanished and reappeared as brands on nearby stars. There seemed to be a Li Hao on each of the celestial bodies. This piqued Li Hao’s interest—or rather, his heart of pursuing dao.

Five of the celestial bodies were respectively shaped like a willow tree, golden egg, the seas, a ferocious tiger, and a mountain peak. They draw near each other and formed a massive circle, separate from others in the void.

The celestial bodies of wind and thunder were ostracized.

Seven Li Haos peered curiously around them and paid particular attention to the five celestial bodies in the circle. Five secret arts operated, those of the Weeping Willow Sword, Skyshaker Fist, Nine Forged Force, Earthturner Sword, and Golden Spear Method. Some of them came from the Steppe Prince’s collection, some came from the heritages of Silver Moon martial masters. Some came from Yuan Shuo’s teaching.

Five secret arts operated in conjunction and Li Hao temporarily set the Five Styles aside. Instead, he directed the five celestial bodies to deploy the five secret arts. The void shook as energy surged into them.

“Revolve!” Li Hao shouted and sent them into a jerky revolution. After some thought, he called out, “The Breathing Method of the Five Styles!”

Boom!

The five celestial bodies operated the breathing method at the same time; their revolution abruptly smoothed out. Not only did they lose their previous jerkiness, but they circulated at a much faster speed.

Li Hao’s eyes widened. His teacher’s breathing method was awesome! It could operate even in the Hao Cosmos. This was a circulation, wasn’t it? A complete circulation!

His wind and thunder elements were ostracized because they couldn’t become part of the Five Styles. They could only watch on as the five elements had their fun.

“What a pity...” The young man found it regretful, but soon thought of something else. He deployed the Wind Thunder Sword and sent the two planets revolving as well.

He then closed his eyes in meditation. A dark star abruptly appeared—there was no Li Hao on it. The was the star of darkness. It started turning as well when the Ghost Shadow Sword was deployed.

The young man then activated the light secret art and produced a star of light. There was no Li Hao in residence on it either. He had nine elements that produced nine celestial bodies. Of them, the five elements were of one system and wind and thunder of another. Light and darkness were independent of each other and didn’t combine as one.

“Nine elements... If I can combine them as one, I might be able to become a nine element Arcanus!”

But how should he accomplish that? Li Hao thought of

The Accounts of Evenround,

the microcosmic disassembly and reassembly that it described. That was the heart of battle methods!

Secret arts such as the Five Styles were different as they were a combination of breathing method and unique ripple. His teacher must have observed a special shared resonance to create the secret art. Only then could he combine five secret arts together to form the Five Styles Breathing Method.

It’s not as apparent in the outside world, but it will certainly be apparent in here...

He commanded the five stars to disperse and operated the five secret arts again. While his teacher may not have used the same secret arts to create his Breathing Method of the Five Styles, all roads led to the same end. It was all the same; there must be a special point of connection between them.

He might be able to discover something if he took the microscopic perspective. He could then connect the nine stars to each other and form a secret art of nine elements. By then, he wouldn’t need to cultivate nine secret arts separately. He could do them as one.

Not only would that save a lot of time, but it would combine nine elements as one to strengthen the organs, body, and skeleton.

By now, Li Hao had almost forgotten that he had business to attend to outside. He utilized a macroscopic view to assess the dao universe, then used microscopic methods to analyze and dissect it. The Hao Cosmos was a heaven of martial dao. One could infinitely magnify supernatural abilities or infinitely zoom in on secret arts.

It was incredible!

As for the special energy in this universe that strengthened the body, Li Hao now found it to be of secondary importance. It was only a matter of time before the body was strengthened. Comprehending dao, however, was an opportunity to be fully grasped when it presented itself.

The young man lost himself in taking apart what was in front of him, continuously rearranging the celestial bodies. The more he reassembled them, the more he found the dao of all things to be endlessly changing and incredibly interesting. So there was a certain basic logic and rules to them!

Fire and water could coexist, but they needed to be disassembled to their basic foundation to do so. There was a reason that his fire and water had become one before.

Two celestial bodies collided in the void. A star of water with waves rearing over it, and a star of fire with a ferocious tiger howling from it. The tiger swallowed the waves until it could gradually step on them, thus melding fire and water together.

“I see...”

......

At the same time, the outside world.

Heaven and earth overturned. Rain suddenly poured from the sky, followed by a sunset that glowed like a fiery rainbow in the firmament. Multiple powerhouses lifted their eyes to the sky. Earthturner Sword, Sky Sword...

These premier martial masters looked overhead, finding the world shaking beneath their feet. Fire and water energy seemed particularly active; the rate of energy production in the world accelerated.

Outside Skystar City, the Skystar Sea rocked and waves reached for the sky.

Inside the royal palace.

Hong Yitang looked at the sky. A couple of royal descendants found the phenomena strange and looked at the sky. It was blinding as the power of fire manifested.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.”

“Energy seems to be available in a denser concentration around us.”

“Is it the second awakening?”

“Not that, it wouldn’t come around so slowly. There’s just a bit more energy in the environment...” Conversation flourished as Hong Yitang watched the sky. He closed his eyes. An empty universe appeared behind them and he seemed to see fire and water melding together, as well as a tiger walking over the waves.

......

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

In the ruins underground.

Yuan Shuo and the others were furtively digging a hole when Yuan Shuo suddenly stopped. Fire and water glimmered in his eyes as he quickly shut them and sat down cross-legged. The Black Armor tilted his head curiously at the old man.

Yuan Shuo didn’t explain himself and continued taking stock of what he’d sensed. After a while, he rose and transmitted, “Continue.”

“What was that?” transmitted a baffled Director General Wang.

“Nothing, just that a new era is about to arrive!” Yuan Shuo suddenly laughed with blatant cockiness. “New Martial is New Martial and Silver Moon is Silver Moon. Perhaps Silver Moon’s heritage stems from New Martial, but it has been one hundred thousand years since New Martial! The seas have turned into mulberry fields and Silver Moon has become the home of its people. Silver Moon denizens are not of New Martial, and New Martial’s martial dao is not Silver Moon’s martial dao!"

“Whatever you like,” the Black Armor transmitted calmly. “Innumerable worlds abound in the multiverse, New Martial is only one of them and not the entire universe. Pursuing a new dao instead of New Martial might be the beginning of civilization.”

“Senior is certainly an open-minded person!”

“No, just that... I am unable to feel a kinship with this separate age,” the Black Armor answered honestly.