Star Gate

Li Hao looked at Panther before sitting down cross-legged. "You should've inherited some of your ancestor's power of devouring and thunder. Thunder and lightning dispel evil and filth, whereas devouring cleanses everything..."

Panther blinked. Devouring was cleansing?

Alright, after it swallowed everything, those things were indeed cleansed.

"You and I left Silver City together and undertook our journey till present day. Everyone's battle strength is improving, but you've only just set foot into fourth level Sun and Moon. That barely makes you an Immortal, which is a low cultivation level. I take you with me because I can't bear to leave you behind, but I would be bringing you into a great deal of danger."

Panther was quite depressed by the talk.

"I have an idea..."

"Arf?"

"The Human King has the Green Emperor, the Heavenly Emperor has the world seed, and Li Daoheng has the Moon God. One person reigns over the world and the other fills in the capacity of the heavenly will..."

The dog looked blankly at the young man.

"I want to refine the Barren wasteland into my own world!" Li Hao continued. "To that end, I will capture the heavenly will and the will of the chaos. I might kill them, or assimilate them through devouring them! You're skilled at swallowing thunder and lightning. Whether it's to cleanse the wills or dispel them, this is your chance!

"You might become the heavenly will of my small world instead of them. Of course, you would still be you—there would just be some more danger than before. Whether it is Li Daoheng or anyone else, they'll probably all want to kill you..."

Panther blinked and shook its head—not to decline the proposed course of action, but not minding the danger.

"Another point to take note of is that if you accept this lousy job, your future opponent is probably the Moon God." Li Hao grinned. "You'll be fighting them for control over this world! Are you confident in facing the first god in the world?"

Not the Divine Nation queen, but the true Moon God. This was an existence so powerful that not even the Sword Sovereign had been able to kill it. Or perhaps the Sword Sovereign couldn't be bothered to slay it. The Moon God's primary body was the moon. Killing the god might cause the moon to collapse, which wasn't necessarily a good thing for the world.

"Arf arf arf!" Panth seemed to be saying that it was unafraid!

"You'll have to make a lot of preparations if you agree to this course of action!" Li Hao nodded. "I need to comprehend the auras and enclose the Barren wasteland with my personal domain. You'll need to come in contact with the will of chaos and then the heavenly will. You'll also need to think of a way to lure more heavenly will to you..."

Now that was a tall order for the dog. How was it to accomplish the last task?

"Therefore, you need to approach the white horse! Show it around. The heavenly will hates the will of chaos, so wherever it is will raise some attention from the heavenly will!"

Panth nodded. It understood.

"And another thing, do you know supernatural characters?" Li Hao smiled.

The dog didn't make a sound.

"If you do, then you should know what the domain is. You need to form a domain! No matter how strong or weak it is, you need a domain to hide yourself from the heavenly will. Only then will you have a chance to capture it!"

"Arf arf arf!" The black dog nodded.

"Well, what are you still doing here?" Li Hao patted its head. "Go on! Everyone's gaze is focused on me, not you. Accomplish all of this for me. We'll live it up when I succeed! If I fail... then we can go find master and the rest."

The dog immediately departed when it heard this, off in search of the white horse.

Li Hao breathed out gently when Panther was gone. He didn't stay in the wasteland either; he was off to Silver City. Some time was needed before all of the preparations were complete. If he traveled to Silver City, he would be able to provoke the queen and others into cultivating harder.

The sooner they enter the dao universe, the faster they can kill me...

He might gain some other benefits with this proposed plan. In addition, he wanted to visit home in order to cultivate more heritages of Silver Moon martial masters. He needed to comprehend more auras.

......

Li Hao traveled very swiftly these days. He came and went without a trace.

Silver City had been emptied when Great Li waged war upon the central plains. All of its people had been evacuated, leaving an empty city behind.

One solitary figure stood in Silver City's airspace.

Figures in the shadows stirred when the young man showed himself. Some wanted to curse Li Hao's name, whereas others wanted to rip off his head. There was no end to the little bastard! He was back!

Everyone thought that Li Hao wanted to break the seal when he lifted his head at the sky. Fists clenched and hearts beat nervously. Saint presences rose from the surroundings.

However, Li Hao didn't make a move. He hovered in and out of sight in the air, as if he would leave at any time.

"Zheng Yu, you'll find it hard to kill me if you don't enter the dao universe!" The young man's voice traveled through the air. "Unless your primary body walks out of the ruins and instantly seals off the dao universe with the strength of a half step emperor... Otherwise, a replica with initial Saint strength will not be killing me!

"I'm not here to break the seal—it's too hard to break! I'm here with only one goal!" Li Hao smiled radiantly. "I lack cultivation resources, so you will supply me with one hundred thousand energy stones a day. Additionally, I want all cultivation methods of New Martial! You will also supply me with Saint strength, Immortal strength, core origin energy, Red Moon power..."

Another shadow appeared in the void. Zheng Yu stood with his hands behind his back and addressed the young man calmly, "Have you lost your mind? What can you do if I don't agree?"

More Saint presences flared into existence around them.

"Well, I can't do anything but smack the seal around when I'm bored!" Li Hao grinned rakishly. "Silver City is my territory, after all. Although I don't have all of the eight bloodlines, I do command all of their heritage weapons. While they're broken, they're all stored within Stellaris.

"I may not be able to release that one simply by disturbing the seal a few times a day, but if I keep this up... You'd better hold onto your pants then! The seal might actually break if I smack it hard a few times."

"You better not provoke us this way," Zheng Yu declared coldly. "I won't have any further reservations if that really comes to pass. It will be your doomsday when my primary body walks out of Galewind!"

"I'm barefoot, whereas you have shoes on!" Li Hao smirked. "Those barefoot have never been afraid of those wearing shoes! You stand a chance of ascending to exalted emperor, but I've only just made it to Fused Dao. I'm just an initial Saint, way far off from exalted emperor!

"I won't be taking freely from you. You're a half step emperor and possess the dignity of one! I'll trade dao power for these resources."

Zheng Yu blinked. Was Li Hao touched in the head? He cultivated the new dao, but traded dao power for New Martial strength. What were these, if not the actions of a deranged person?

What did he want? What was he plotting?

Zheng Yu couldn't be sure and couldn't even read Li Hao.Why? Why is he doing all this?

"Stop churning your brain," Li Hao chuckled. "I want all that because just dao power isn't enough. I also need to pay salaries to the cultivators of the world. The Skystar mine is almost empty, so I have no other options available!

"You're the best one no matter how I approach the problem. The key is, you guys aren't able to absorb power from the new dao either. Even if you can, the amount will be so low that it'll be negligible. So why not?

"You and I... have a blood feud with each other. But that's alright. We are also rulers of our respective domains. When we need to work together or compromise, we can do that just as well. What say you, Zheng Yu?"

Zheng Yu simply looked at the young man and didn't say a word.

"Then it's settled," Li Hao concluded for them. "I'll cultivate here and provide you guys with some dao power everyday, right in front of you. You guys will also provide enough for my needs. Is that acceptable?"

Zheng Yu grappled with a myriad of thoughts. Li Hao was... too surprising!

"That is acceptable," the man said slowly after a moment of silence. The young man wanted to cultivate right under their noses and give them dao power. Was Li Hao really not concerned about a powerhouse of the new dao appearing on Zheng Yu's side and sealing away the dao universe?

The man frowned ferociously, but didn't say anything otherwise. Expending some energy stones on a daily basis wasn't much of a price. He'd seized many energy stones back in the day. Because he'd been ready for the changes to come, he had far more than the stones of Skystar mine.

The two sides reached a temporary truce for the first time, an exchange of strength.

On that day, Li Hao really did take a position in the skies over Silver City and opened the passageway to the dao universe. Dao power emanated faintly from the passageway. It was absorbed into the void and extracted by another.

Whether it was Zheng Yu himself who claimed it, or if he gave it to Ying Hongyue or the Moon God out of concern that this was a trap, Li Hao did not bother to speculate. Zheng Yu most likely wouldn't use it himself and someone as smart as Ying Hongyue would think the dao power might be laced with other things.

As for the queen... she wouldn't think so much. She was also in a hurry to grow stronger, so the dao power would probably go to her.

Li Hao stayed at Silver City to reassure his enemies, encouraging them to be still and not start trouble elsewhere.I'm right here! You can watch how I cultivate and how strong I grow.

And that was precisely what the group did. They were quite speechless after a day of observation. Li Hao was a lackadaisical martial master!

He spent his time paging through some New Martial battle methods, then casually popped a few acupoints open. Sometimes he turned his attention to ad hoc duties, and other times to books unrelated to cultivation.

He was indeed cultivating, just at... a very slow pace. With the group of powerhouses staring at him, any changes in his strength were quickly detected.

Whether it was Zheng Yu or Ying Hongyue within Galewind, they both thought that he was up to something. But no matter how they speculated, they couldn't figure out what the fellow wanted.

"He's studying so many New Martial cultivation methods... Does he want to switch to our cultivation system instead?" someone wondered. Li Hao spent most of his time on New Martial methods. That was very strange indeed!

If it wasn't for the fact that he could run away at any time since the passageway to the dao universe was open, someone would've attacked him long ago.

......

Silver City.

Li Hao continued to study, cultivate, and clear acupoints over the empty city. One, two, three acupoints...

Surges of dao power appeared, some of it was diverted elsewhere.

Zheng Yu kept his promise and delivered energy stones to Li Hao. It wasn't that he wanted to feed his enemy, but that Li Hao was feeding his enemy instead. After the appearance of the new dao, energy stones were made inferior to dao power.

Energy stones were useful for clearing acupoints, but less effective than dao power at that. Li Hao only absorbed a tiny bit of energy stones every day. Someone came along to retrieve the rest. Zheng Yu sent his people to investigate their usage and found that the little bastard really did use them on paying salaries!

Everyone found this incredulous.

Li Hao had come to negotiate with his arch rival, to supply his enemies with precious dao power for a bit of wealth that he used on wages for those lesser than him... What was going on in his mind??

It was so very strange!