Chapter 957: Rising With the Wind (II)

“Although this humble old man can hear from five hundred kilometers away, this place has a powerful energy shield in place,” the scrawny old man responded carefully. “There are many powerhouses gathered as well, so I didn’t dare eavesdrop too much. I didn’t have the courage to!”

“Then let’s give it a try,” Li Hao laughed. “A range of five hundred kilometers, is it?”

Even he couldn’t extend his abilities five hundred kilometers. No one could accomplish that in this day and age. After thinking it over, the young man proposed, “According to what you say, you can also sense a bit of energy when you listen for sounds. Look for the strongest person, the one with the densest energy within five hundred kilometers and listen in on his conversation...”

“Commander,” Old Scrawny paled. “This humble old man has limited abilities. Great disaster will be upon me if someone senses my actions and strikes back...”

“Disaster? Can any disaster be greater than me?” Li Hao roared with laughter.

“No no no, of course not.” Old Scrawny’s expression shifted with dismay and he hastily beamed fawningly. “The commander is mighty and valiant, you are the strongest in the city! Then... I shall search for the strongest person outside the City of Supernaturals. Please wait for a moment.”

His ears twitched; Li Hao extended his senses at the same time. He perceived a ripple undulating from the scrawny old man—

hmm, interesting.

A red light sparkled out of Li Hao’s eyes when he opened them again. The scrawny old man in front of him was pale-faced and unable to move. His ability was rather peculiar and seemed to involve the secondary dimension.

How strange!

One did not know the depths of one’s ignorance until one came face to face with it.

The scrawny old man continuously twitched his ears until he heard something moments later. His expression shifted wildly as a massive energy ripple ricocheted back to him, ready to explode next to his ear!

Li Hao reached out with a hand and crushed the ripple with his fingers. A bloody mark appeared on them. His expression twitched as he looked into the distance, then at the old man. “What did you hear?”

“I heard...” Old Scrawny was as white as a sheet. “I heard someone say that the nine ministries might have fallen, that something might have developed at Skystar Town. They want the people to gather and kill someone. I don’t know who they want to kill, they spoke ambiguously because they soon discovered me.”

Li Hao’s eyes widened.

The nine ministries might have fallen...

No one here knew that. Clearly, this old man had truly heard a conversation outside of the city. The target had also followed the old man’s energy ripple back to the source to deliver a counterblow. This level of strength was not to be underestimated.

The world could at most tolerate weaker Apexes and seven element Arcanus at present. Of this, Li Hao was aware of. This person might be on the tipping point with their cultivation. Who could it be?

Ying Hongyue?

Li Hao couldn’t think of any other possibility. Or was it the scarlet cloak behind Ying Hongyue?

“How far away was this person?”

“About one hundred and fifty kilometers...”

Li Hao didn’t respond. The earth driller appeared instead. “There?” He pointed in a direction.

“Yes!”

“City Lord Lin, keep an eye here. I’ll be right back!”

“Understood!” Lin Hongyu was also surprised that they’d discovered a secret in an impromptu assessment. Accidents could be found everywhere, it seemed.

“Be careful, commander!” she reminded. Their opponent must be strong if they could strike back. Could Li Hao handle them?

She didn’t know, but wasn’t at liberty to say anything else.

......

At the same time.

Someone tilted their head in a certain direction and sighed softly after a moment. “How... audacious! A supernatural of a special attribute peeked in on us from the direction of the City of Supernaturals. We must withdraw from this place as soon as possible!”

“Now that’s interesting,” someone else chuckled from the void. “The City of Supernaturals isn’t close to this place. That they could peer into our meeting... shall we look for this person?”

“There’s no need, they instantly dispelled my counterattack. Although we’re very far from each other and I simply followed their energy ripple, my blow was immediately dispersed. There is a heavyweight by their side, let’s go! We need to be careful of creating an undesirable tangent from our goals!”

“What are you afraid of? With the current state of the world...” This person didn’t have a chance to finish before the first speaker jerked with shock.

“We need to go! There’s someone fast approaching us via a great treasure!”

Too fast!

The figures in the void started and spontaneously vanished. The first speaker wanted to leave as well, but chose to stay with a slight furrow of his brows. He... seemed to know who was coming.

......

Li Hao popped out of the ground less than ten seconds later. He looked at the person in front of him and smiled. “So it is you, Ying Hongyue. We meet again!”

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

“You’re at the City of Supernaturals?” Ying Hongyue responded calmly. “So you’ve secretly made the city yours. That’s certainly surprising.”

“Ying Hongyue, you killed my parents and my best friend. How about... we have some fun today?” Li Hao suddenly vanished on the spot; a longsword stabbed from the void without forewarning!

A folding fan appeared in Ying Hongyue’s hand. He snapped it open, manifesting a painting of mountains and rivers in the air. A massive mountain bore down on Stellaris as rivers thundered through the world, churning straight at Li Hao!

Ying Hongyue frowned at their exchange. Li Hao’s sword intent was growing ever stronger! The young man’s supernatural abilities seemed the same as before, but his sword intent was significantly stronger than previous.

Bam!

The void shattered as Li Hao transformed into a ferocious tier. It disappeared, then reappeared as a tiger breaking out of its cage and ripped through the void.

Ying Hongyue grunted, sending blood streaming out of his body. His blood turned into a sea of blood! The strength of bloodlines flared from his being. It was seven streams of blood at first, those then turned into six, five, four...

Li Hao’s blood frothed as well! Stellaris erupted with scintillating light. He thrust the sword forward, to which Ying Hongyue answered with a reverberation of bloodline. The man abruptly threw down the fan, transforming it into a world that enclosed Li Hao within.

“I’ll play with you next time, I have business to attend to now...” He disappeared, leaving the treasure behind.

It was a very powerful fan—the former weapon of a Saint, if not an Empyrean King. Li Hao materialized from the void and stared coldly in the direction that the other had disappeared in. Stellaris fell into his hand and the shadow of a mallet collected over it.

Li Hao roared and spat out a mouthful of blood, shaping it into a sword of blood. He stabbed it into the mallet’s shadow, breaking it with a crunch.

Far away in the distance, Ying Hongyue grunted with pain as blood qi exploded from his body. He spat out a mouthful of blood and turned back to look at Li Hao. “The shadow of the divine mallet... you have some ability to your name, Li Hao!”

He disappeared again. Li Hao didn’t answer with a taunt since he was lacking in some of his usual methods. He’d encountered Ying Hongyue by accident before his supernatural characters were redrawn. There was nothing he could do if the man wanted to leave.

Ying Hongyue was much stronger than imagined. He could already gather the seven bloodlines. Encountering Li Hao hadn’t required him to draw on them too much. However, wouldn’t Li Hao be letting the man think less of him if he could just walk off like that?

Two more items formed over Stellaris—a pair of boots and a stone blade. They were just shadows. Li Hao pounded his heart and forced out a drop of golden blood. Sword intent flared after it oozed out of his body.

“Break!” snarled the young man.

BOOM!

The two shadows shattered, shaking the void. Ying Hongyue once more spat blood in the distance. His bloodlines shook violently and he looked at Li Hao with incredulous shock.

“The seven bloodlines have become one... I underestimated you!” A cold light glinted in the young man’s eyes. “But Ying Hongyue, you can escape once, you won’t escape a second time. If you do not kill me today, I will kill you tomorrow. I will only become stronger and stronger. And you? What can you count on?”

Ying Hongyue no longer looked backward. He soared through the air, a grave bearing marking his footsteps.

Li Hao pummeled the world created by the fan with stroke after stroke, taking a dozen seconds to defeat it. The fan struggled to get away, but he ran it through!

The premises were finally quiet. Li Hao frowned and looked around. There had been more than Ying Hongyue present just now. They’d physically gathered here as opposed to transmitting messages. Ying Hongyue had also emerged from his headquarters to meet... who?

The scarlet shadow hadn’t been present—was he avoiding it? The scrawny old man had said that Ying Hongyue pointed to something being amiss at the nine ministries. Therefore, he wanted to kill someone. Who? Li Hao?

No, that’s not right! There’s no need to come so far if they want to kill me. Is there a need to conceal their intent to execute me? Is there a need to hide anything at all?

Absolutely not! They’d be able to summon a ton of helpers if they simply announced that they wanted to kill me.

“So they weren’t here to kill me, then... who?”

They demonstrated such a need for secrecy, and to purposefully avoid the scarlet shadow...

A thought struck Li Hao—did they want to target the shadow? That wasn’t out of the question.

It was completely unexpected that the two sides had encountered each other in the wilderness. The young man once more wondered who Ying Hongyue had been meeting.

Yama? Celestial? Or someone else?

The three great organizations had dominated the world ever since he set foot on the path of martial dao. Even now, they roamed freely throughout the world. They were... highly unusual. The Celestial Sword Immortal, Yama, Ying Hongyue, and the lord of Yonder Mountain might have an agreement in place between them.

No, there’s one more. Director General Zhao.

He’d also been part of the first batch of explorers to find the ruins and facilitate the first awakening.

Li Hao had thought that Ying Hongyue and the rest didn’t dare be too brazen in Silver Moon because of the ancient fossils that existed in the province. But since the ancients could not leave the ruins, were the three great organizations so cautious of the ancient civilization or Director General Zhao?

There must be something between them, there must!

Li Hao snorted. He shattered the shadows of three heritage weapons in such close proximity to Ying Hongyue that the action was sure to deliver a heavy blow. These weapons were tied to the bloodlines of their families. Ying Hongyue was in for it now!

This move was useless against others, but perfectly targeted against Ying Hongyue.

That guy can combine his seven bloodlines...

Li Hao glared coldly into the distance before vanishing.