Chapter 933: Battle With the Scarlet Shadow (IV)

The nine celestial bodies combined as one and vanished, sinking into Stellaris. Li Hao grunted and swung the sword down!

There were nine supernatural abilities contained within his blow. Seven elements were strong and two were weak, but they barely managed to come together as one. A peculiar strength surged out from the sword stroke—the scarlet shadow reacted with dismay and rapidly backed away. The void around it seemed to be sealed off!

“Break!” it shouted with surprise.

Boom!

The sealed void shattered explosively as the scarlet shadow erupted with mental strength to dismantle Li Hao’s move. Both forces were annihilated. The scarlet shadow jerked with both surprise and delight.

So this was its opponent’s final ace?

It was indeed dangerous, but this youngster wouldn’t kill it even if its mental strength wasn’t in peak condition! What was more interesting was where the other had been hiding, and how the force of nine elements had appeared!

Perhaps it would take Li Hao alive! The youngster may be the key to how the Black Armor had entered the mine.

A variety of thoughts flitted through the scarlet shadow’s mind. Meanwhile, Li Hao smiled. He gently tapped Stellaris on the stone blade that’d pulled him back. It crumbled amid the scarlet shadow’s surprised look. The Windchaser Boots quickly followed suit!

Two of the eight family weapons were broken in this moment! The mallet of the Hongs had been destroyed before, which made for three total. Stellaris’ presence expanded explosively after it swallowed the two. Countless supernatural abilities materialized over the sword and endless auras churned toward it.

Eyes glittering coldly, Li Hao brought down the sword again!

BOOM!

Countless celestial bodies floated in the air, locking onto a particular world. That wasn’t enough! Li Hao growled and transformed the stars into a sparkling longsword that melded into his!

“Sever!” The sword descended with his yell.

The scarlet shadow backed away in horror! What kind of method was this? It’d never seen the likes of it before! Stellaris... the heir of the Lis... but what kind of method was this??

This sky full of stars was similar to core origin dao, but also completely different. The scarlet shadow was unable to touch it! They seemed to be worlds away!

Its fractured body closed swiftly, wanting to envelop the scarlet shadow within. The shadow should be able to withstand this blow so long as its mental strength was contained by a powerful body. But the second the golden body was about to fully heal, a bolt of lightning darted out from an unknown source.

Soundless and with no forewarning, it smote the body, jolting it into a split second of petrification. That prevented the body from fully closing its wound.

By the edge of the chaos, a dog toppled over with extreme fatigue, its tongue lolling with seemingly no desire to live. It’d only had one mission, and that was to strike at an opportune moment. The dog was to decide for itself when that moment was.

Panther had judged that this might be the best moment. It could only strike once, so that had to be the strongest blow it could bring to bear.

Even though the formidable faux Empyrean King body stuttered from the lightning bolt, it didn’t suffer much damage. Panther was much weaker than any of the combatants in the field. And yet, the lightning bolt jolted it to a stop for a split second.

That created an opening for a strike containing Li Hao’s full force, one that encompassed held two dismantled heritage weapons, to arrive!

Humm! Crunch!

Something seemed to be shattered when the sword passed through the scarlet shadow. The body fully closed, wrapping around the tattered remains of the scarlet shadow.

Li Hao’s side gasped with horror. Had they failed? This had been the sum total of everything they could bring to bear! If even that had failed... then they were all done for this time!

Even the Black Armor looked on solemnly. Although Li Hao’s stroke had been powerful, it might not fully cut down the other. Any bit of lingering mental strength inside the fully healed body... could eradicate all of the weaklings present.

He wasn’t afraid, just found the outcome saddening.

It was at this moment that Li Hao grinned and threw his head back. “Explode!”

Kaboom!

An explosion rang in the healed body as various supernatural characters seemed to pass through worlds and explode. An agonized wail was next to follow!

Li Hao’s face drained of color as Yuan Shuo looked sharply at him. “This is...”

The supernatural characters had detonated! That was Li Hao’s auras, Li Hao’s dao! Although the situation was dire, but...

However, the young man beamed radiantly. “The great dao is in my heart and I can coalesce more whenever I want to. Don’t worry, teacher. But... is that one still alive?”

He swayed on his feet; the world started crumbling around them.

“It’s dead!” The Black Armor heaved a sigh of relief.

The tremendous world of chaos crumbled away as the massive body swiftly shrank smaller. It continued exuding golden light since it retained its strength!

Just as everyone’s attention was on the world around them, a streak of red light flashed from the body and shot outward, heading for Li Hao!

The young man brightened with joy and summoned a mirror in front of him. It sparkled with a dense light, as if lying in wait for the shadow. The treasure cracked open, releasing the world of mirrors and entrapping the hurtling red light.

“Come suppress it!” Li Hao roared when he shut the crack.

The crowd paused, even the Black Armor was at a loss. So their opponent wasn’t dead? Fucking hell, he’d read the situation incorrectly! How did Li Hao know in advance?

The mirror shook violently, as if it would explode. Heavyweights rushed over and brought their immense strength to bear to pacify it.

“Hells yeah! Caught me a big one!” Li Hao roared with laughter. “I was wondering why he didn’t scream one last time and complain about this unjust world!”

“...... The group blinked.

Was this... the basis of your judgment?

The young man laughed with abandon, tremendously excited. He’d really reeled in a huge fish! As for why he’d determined that their target was still alive, what he said really was the basis of his judgment. These ancient existences always had a few words to say when killed by a weakling like him. It didn’t matter if they only existed as a wraith, yet this one hadn’t made a single peep.

Do you take me for a fool? Of course you’d rage for a bit!

A scarlet shadow rammed itself against the mirror and bellowed with rage. It was driven into a fury when it heard Li Hao’s voice. So

that

had been the basis of Li Hao’s diagnosis?? Damn it!! Who would’ve thought that he should give a speech at his moment of death?

He was indeed in poor shape and unable to support the body of an Empyrean King. It was why he’d thought of turning on Li Hao instead and seizing Stellaris. Perhaps he would have a chance then... but who would’ve thought that he’d fall right into a copy of the Mirror of Wind and Cloud!

This was a treasure personally crafted by an exalted emperor. He was in such poor condition that it was impossible for him to break free of it.

“Release me, or I’ll...”

Boom!

Endless energy erupted in the mirror; a little sword darted in as well to hunt down the shadow! It rushed to and fro, madly destroying everything in its path like it was alive. It demonstrated such ferocity that one didn’t know if it was taking revenge for previously being sealed in the mirror, or to hunt down its master’s enemy.

Already battered from the earlier battle, the scarlet shadow was quickly cut down into an even more sorrowful condition.

All was quiet inside the mirror after a while. Li Hao and the rest panted heavily outside. Was it dead?

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

No.

Some lingering hints of red floated up to the mirror surface.

“It won’t be getting away. This son of a bitch is quite energetic!” Li Hao heaved for breath, still delighted that he’d caught a big one. The scarlet shadow had only fallen silent due to the hefty beating it’d received. The fact that it hadn’t died yet was a sign that it was a super big fish!

......

“Whew!” The group focused their gazes on Li Hao, each of them confused and doubtful. What the young man had used to determine that the scarlet shadow hadn’t died was so... farfetched. It was a trap simply because their target hadn’t issued any threats?

What kind of theory was that? Who said that someone had to call out a few words before dying?

It was such a ridiculous reason that no one was persuaded of it.

In present times, the scarlet shadow might be the strongest existence in the world that’d revived. It was even stronger than the pagoda tree and plainly stronger than the Black Armor.

And yet, this was how it’d gone down.

Most of the credit went to the Black Armor, of that there was no doubt. But Li Hao’s last move in securing their opponent’s mental strength, even when the Black Armor was convinced that it was dead, was still incredible.

Still panting heavily, Li Hao didn’t care about any of this. He grinned with sheer delight and stared at the mirror, then at the golden body lying in a heap on the ground. Finally, he took a look at the lake. What was that golden lake?

And last of all, he scanned the massive hole around them. The sight instantly struck him dumb. There were countless mysterious power stones here! They glittered on the ground, overhead, and all around them!

No, they should be called energy stones. Mysterious power stones were defective products, trash that people didn’t want. In the ancient civilization, they cultivated with energy stones. Here they all were, in the core of the great mine!

“Will those outside the mine know of what’s happened?” Li Hao suddenly asked.

“He gathered a mental domain just now.” The Black Armor shook his head in denial. “It was similar to an Initial Martial world.”

“An Initial Martial world?” Li Hao repeated blankly. What was that?

“Something akin to your domain,” the Black Armor gave a brief overview. “Initial Martial denotes the period of time at the start of the world, when martial dao first appeared. In that era, there was no core origin dao. The core origin universe had not been discovered yet, which was why there was Initial Martial.

“The powerhouses of that age created the core origin era—which was the age of the Heavenly Emperor, nine sovereigns, and four emperors. The Human King later ended that era and established the New Martial era.

“The mental world of Initial Martial is similar to your domain of the world’s auras. They’re comparable, except Initial Martial’s isolated a patch of the world to return to chaos.”

Li Hao blinked with understanding.