Chapter 972: The Way Forward Is Beneath Your Feet (II)

On new year’s eve, whether it was the four continents or the central region, all skirmishes paused for this day.

Inside the ruins.

Li Hao smiled at the massive model of a human body in front of him. A week’s effort had finally produced some noticeable results. This was a model that was almost identical to him. There seemed to be a universe inside its body, an illusory cosmos with twinkling stars.

There were a lot more people inside the ruins now, all of them studying the model. A few female martial masters looked at a certain part of the model, then at Li Hao. The young man kept a relaxed expression on his face, pretending not to see their expressions.

“Senior Dean, does this count as finished?” he smiled.

“Not quite, but it’ll pass muster for use.” The Black Armor walked out and smiled at the massive model as well. “Give it a try!”

Li Hao sent a supernatural character into the model’s heart. A supernatural lock manifested over it and sank into the character, somehow extracting some life force from the void.

“We can’t input energy from the Hao Cosmos into the model, so we’re substituting with energy of life,” explained the Black Armor. “The effects won’t be exactly the same, but they’ll be informative nonetheless.”

Li Hao nodded; the model shifted. The heart was as if a black hole. It gradually erupted with golden light and began absorbing the energy of life that was an imitation of energy from the Hao Cosmos.

The sight enthralled the onlookers! How incredible was it that the model seemed to be self-cultivating? How did it do that?

Countless supernatural locks manifested and Li Hao directed supernatural characters into all of them. “All of you have your preferences when it comes to auras and supernatural characters. You can choose the corresponding body part and operate it on my command!”

Supernatural characters appeared in the air and sank into the model. This trial wouldn’t be possible with a real person, but this model encompassed all possibilities and could contain all of the characters.

Li Hao began manipulating them as martial masters and supernaturals watched with interest. Supernatural locks were enveloped by supernatural characters. “Have your characters enter the secondary dimension!” the young man grunted.

The crowd sent their characters into the Hao Cosmos, causing many locks to disappear from the model. Only the unattributed ones were left, as well as a few attributed locks that no one was manipulating. The complicated model was suddenly much emptier, bringing the unorganized system into clear view.

Li Hao glanced sharply at the model; Yuan Shuo and the rest quickly ran through some calculations. A piece of paper appeared in front of Yuan Shuo as he traced some patterns. The old man’s expression grew more varied the more he drew.

“This isn’t enough,” Yuan Shuo said. “Senior, please erase all of the attributed locks!”

The Black Armor immediately hid all of the attributed locks not under someone’s control.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“The... locks that remain... resemble an item...” Northern Fist couldn’t help himself. There were a lot of dim supernatural locks left in the model—all of them unattributed.

The crowd looked at them closely, the remaining locks appeared to be drawing an image.

“Is that a sword?” A light flashed through Li Hao’s eyes.

“No, it’s a stick!”

“Bullshit, that’s obviously a mallet!” A variety of rebuttals came; Li Hao rolled his eyes.

“It’s obviously a sword! Look, the part that juts out is the hilt! But it doesn’t seem complete...”

“That’s right, it’s incomplete,” Yuan Shuo rumbled. “It lacks some parts to it, maybe from locks that we haven’t discovered yet. However, they well and truly do exist! The image looks like a sword if we fill in those gaps!”

The crowd exchanged glances with each other. Some things could not be randomly filled in. They either existed, or they did not. One could not haphazardly fill in the gaps just to make the image look more like a sword.

Yuan Shuo ignored their concerns and drew supernatural locks in the gaps. “Li Hao, absorb Water of Life according to these positions. Target these positions in your body and see if supernatural locks appear there.”

The human body was as vast as the cosmos. Randomly absorbing energy made it difficult to use the energy effectively, and Li Hao wouldn’t be able to stand it if he absorbed too much.

The locations that Yuan Shuo pointed out were originally blank. If supernatural locks appeared there... that meant they could use this as a basis of comparison to locate more unknown locks.

Li Hao quickly absorbed Water of Life and melded it into his body, directing it to the places that his teacher had circled.

The young man frowned after a while—nothing appeared.

He didn’t give up and continued to absorb Water of Life. It streamed into his body like it was regular water. Regular people might not discover these locks in their entire lifetime if this was the necessary step to discover them.

After a very long time, a subtle energy ripple came from his body. A supernatural lock floated into existence in the next moment, fragile as could be.

“There

is

a lock there!” Li Hao gasped with delight, prompting cheers from the crowd. Even the Black Armor couldn’t help but look at Li Hao, then at Yuan Shuo. He quickly drew a powerful, intangible lock where Yuan Shuo was targeting.

“So there really is a supernatural lock here!” Zhang An breathed.

Yuan Shuo lit up and darted into the model and tapped red dots into being. “Li Hao, try here and here. Hurry and see if there’s anything there!”

“Plant spirit seniors, provide Water of Life for me!” Li Hao requested excitedly.

The plant spirits around them promptly flooded the area with Water of Life, sending all of it into Li Hao’s body. The young man quickly directed it to the spots that his teacher had delineated.

More and more supernatural locks hovered in and out of sight at the targeted spots. They really did exist!

Li Hao was overjoyed; the others sweat profusely from nerves. It wasn’t a major issue if they made a mistake, but once a supernatural lock failed to appear where they expected it to, that represented some of their earlier work had been in vain.

It would be a waste of a lot of time and resources.

But now that the locks appeared one after another, it indicated that the model of the human body was exceedingly successful.

“This

is

a sword!” exulted an exuberant Yuan Shuo. “The locks follow the diagram of a sword and are symmetrical. If we fill in the holes and find one lock, that might mean we find two! Li Hao, the unattributed locks follow a pattern!”

“Am I unique, or is everyone thus?” wondered an overjoyed Li Hao. “A sword! Then...”

“This might be normal!” offered the Black Armor. “This world originally belonged to the Sword Sovereign. The humans and will of heaven in the new age is immensely affected by the Sword Sovereign—particularly the will of heaven! It was influenced by the Sword Sovereign’s sword intent before it was born. The dao meridians that you speak of... connate dao entities... The will of heaven will certainly imitate the existence that it believes to be the strongest and craft the bodies of the new age accordingly...”

Li Hao’s expression shifted, this was a distinct possibility! Humans of the new age had been modified according to heaven’s subconsciousness. They were a closer match for the will of the world. Connate dao entities were naturally the strongest and the greatest existence in heaven’s eye was the Sword Sovereign.

Therefore, the unattributed supernatural locks formed a sword!

“How interesting...” Li Hao’s face flickered through a variety of expressions. “In that case, what will happen if we fully outline the sword and open all of its supernatural locks?”

“We’ll know if we try!” Zhang An’s visor had disappeared. A keen light shot out of his eyes as energy surged into the locks.

“We can’t haphazardly connect them together!” Yuan Shuo quickly said upon seeing the Black Armor’s enthusiasm. “We need to connect them in the proper order...”

“I know!” nodded Zhang An. “I’ll just infuse them with energy first, I won’t do anything with them!”

The dim supernatural locks lit up one by one, resembling the stars after they were filled with energy. The second they lit up...

boom!

A vigorous presence immediately appeared.

“It’s just a simple infusion of energy, but that is sufficient to cause a change...” The Black Armor was rather surprised.

Kaboom!

The formidable model of the human body exploded, leaving stunned expressions in its wake. The Black Armor murmured, “It couldn’t withstand the energy and the detonation was so strong that it destroyed the model...

“Have no fear, all is well. The model can be replicated anytime after it has been successfully built!” He reached out with a hand, gathering endless energy and built another model. Energy once more infused it to light up various supernatural locks.

“Wait,” Yuan Shuo quickly spoke up. “One of the most important locks has not appeared yet. Energy not forming the basic circulatory loop was the key to that explosion. We need to complete the overall circulation of energy even if we haven’t located all of the supernatural locks. Senior, let’s light up all of the locks on the perimeter of the sword first...”

“Alright!” The Black Armor followed the good advice. Yuan Shuo stepped forward to fill in the gaps with illusory locks. Some of the other martial masters also stepped forward.

“That one’s wrong, it should move to the side a bit,” someone muttered. “I can sense energy gathering in my body in that spot...”

“Everyone should study the model together,” Li Hao quickly instructed. “Locate all of the areas in which you typically find yourself absorbing the most energy. Teacher may not be able to find them all by himself.”

The group trotted forward without another word, all of them searching, locating, and crafting supernatural locks. The process took a few hours and the outside world bustled with activity the entire time, but inside the ruins, a group of martial masters were diligently perfecting the new cultivation system.

Finally, the outline of a sword was fully lit up. The model burst forth with a domineering presence as soon as that was complete, surprising the Black Armor.

“Back away, let me try its strength!” he shouted. Everyone gave him space, also creating enough room for the model to swing a fist at Director General Wang.

The director general hadn’t minded being the target at first—he answered with a punch when the blow loomed in his eyes. However, he was the one who flew backward with a pained cry after the loud impact.

“How is this possible...” gasped the Black Armor. “I only infused the strength of peak Apex, but I’ve defeated an Immortal...”

“Even if my physical body isn’t as strong as it once was, even though I haven’t brought my full strength to bear, an Apex should never be able to defeat me...” Director General Wang sprang up from the ground.

“It’s not that, but that power converges after the supernatural locks are lit,” the Black Armor quickly said. “It even brings out strength from the Hao Cosmos and erupts in a surge similar to the enhancement of core origin dao. However, it’s different in that this strength comes from the body!”

“The strength of dao!” Director General Wang’s eyes widened. “The strength of a new dao!”

Indeed, this was the strength of dao.