Chapter 2082: The Human King Knows Me Well (III)

“That works, I thank the fellow daoist for your generosity.” Li Hao nodded with a smile. “But since the fellow daoist has voluntarily melded Heaven’s Stratagem into my dao river... it’s such a complete part of it that I can’t fully separate it. I probably can’t return it to the fellow daoist...”

The atmosphere grew tense again. Spring Autumn jerked and frowned at Li Hao.

The Heaven’s Stratagem...

“You can separate it...” she had to say.

“It’s not that simple.” Li Hao shrugged with resignation. “I’m not hanging onto it because I want it, but because it’s completely become part of the dao river. If the fellow daoist wants it, I can give it to him...”

Heaven’s Stratagem materialized out of the river. It was a bit tattered compared to before. But that wasn’t key!

Chaos Sky’s expression shifted when he looked at it. “Li Hao, did you do that on purpose??”

There was more than the strength of order on Heaven’s Stratagem, but also endless strength of faith. It was like hundreds of billions of humans worshipped it!

It was an existence that blazed like the sun!

Its mere appearance made the cultivators in the river shift uncomfortably. Countless thoughts appeared in their minds. Protect humanity, stand guard over humanity, safeguard humanity...

Chaos Sky frowned as well. He utilized faith as well, but not like Li Hao... He couldn’t even begin to describe what the young man was doing. There was too much power of faith mixed in with order. Even he would be heavily affected if he took it back.

He was beginning to understand how Li Hao had withstood the invasion of the Heaven’s Stratagem. He’d fought fire with fire!

You want me to protect order, then I want you to protect humanity. Not just protect humans, but be willing to die, sacrifice yourself, and satisfy all of their desires...

That ran counter to Chaos Sky’s dao of order. His order was one in which everyone relinquished desire!

You should not have any desires. You just need to live an honest life.

However, Li Hao’s faith encompassed all of this. It was also particularly dense in it. If Chaos Sky took back Heaven’s Stratagem, it might conflict with his own great dao.

No wonder the young man had said that he could have it if he wanted. The caveat was, he needed to want it.

Chaos Sky looked downward, contemplating something.

“Heaven’s Stratagem is the symbol of order,” he said after a moment. “It is also the source of order! Li Hao, I don’t wish to clash with you. You should be able to strip out everything foreign from it. If you can’t, Hong Yitang under your banner should be able to do so. Returning Heaven’s Stratagem will mark the end of everything!”

The man was starting to become impatient. Li Hao seemed to be playing games with him!

“That can’t be done.” The young man shrugged. “Martial Uncle Hong is still a normal person for now. He’ll really become a puppet if he absorbs so much more strength of faith.

“You figure out a way to slowly filter out the faith in Heaven’s Stratagem. I’ll give it back to you if you want it, or I’ll keep it with me for now if you don’t...”

“Li Hao!” snapped Chaos Sky. “Stop testing my patience! Or do you think you can do whatever you want now that Spring Autumn and the rest are here?”

“It’s not that I’m testing your patience.” Li Hao recovered his calm. “It’s that you integrated your treasure with my dao river. I had to utilize the power of faith to defend against your incursion. That’s how I balanced your order!

“Is it somehow my fault that the two of them are incredibly intertwined now? I’m giving the treasure back to you since you want it. What else do you want from me?”

Chaos Sky was really growing irritated. He couldn’t tell if Li Hao was being provocative or really lacked the ability to rectify the situation. He himself was developing a headache from the situation.

Should he take the Heaven’s Stratagem back?

If he did, stripping out the power of faith from it would be a huge problem.

This was a very difficult issue!

And if he didn’t take it back, then order in the west might rage out of control. While he also wielded the dao of order, the strength of order within Heaven’s Stratagem was the source of order. It didn’t even exist in chaos dao.

He’d made a great investment in trying to take down Li Hao. And now, he needed this power to suppress the surging darkness within him.

“So... it seems like you don’t care if Yuan Shuo survives?” he asked slowly.

“I’m not a cold-blooded person.” Li Hao shook his head. “Everyone loves to misunderstand me. I care about my teacher a lot. Wouldn’t you agree, teacher?

“You see, fellow daoist, I’m trading six eighth ranks and Chaos Sky major world for him. He’s just an initial eighth rank, which means he’s almost uselessly weak. Honestly, are you not satisfied with this kind of trade?”

Chaos Sky only looked at Yuan Shuo.

“What are you looking at me for?” The old man shrugged helplessly. “I’m a war captive, I have no good ideas. He’s returning your people, world, and Heaven’s Stratagem... You just have to invest some elbow grease and clean it up a little. It’s not that much of an issue!”

Chaos Sky’s expression began to grow ugly. This master and disciple duo didn’t know what was good for them!

Spring Autumn seemed ready to interject, but Li Hao smiled at her.

“I can understand that Fellow Daoist Spring Autumn means well. What’s left on the Heaven’s Stratagem is a bit of faith intermixed with desire. It actually neutralizes the power of order, which is a good thing because it can restrain Fellow Daoist Chaos Sky’s heart of darkness. It helps him regain clarity.”

Spring Autumn raised an eyebrow. She’d only wanted everyone to temporarily set aside hostilities before, but now other ideas came to mind.

Hmm, faith and desire can be used to suppress pure order. All of it can be mixed together as a neutralized whole and possibly used to counter a dark Chaos Sky. That’s... not a bad thing.

“Chaos Sky, it’s just some power of faith,” said Spring Autumn. “Since Li Hao is willing to return the strategy, just take it! That’s even faith from humanity. You’re a human. I’m a monster spirit and I don’t mind this, so what do you care about?”

“......” Chaos Sky turned toward the little girl and said softly, “Spring Autumn, are you pretending to be dumb or actually this dumb?” The look in his eyes sharpened. “I’ve always known of what you seek, but you should be treasuring the fact that you’ve broken the reincarnation cycle of your destiny.

“You should not be desiring even more. Desire is a bottomless pit. Your desire has exceeded proper order and the rules!”

He then turned his attention to Long Zhan in the distance. “The rise of the chaos race does not have to go hand-in-hand with conquering the chaos. See how Peng Cheng lives a good life? So long as your chaos beasts respect the rules of the chaos or join a dao universe from the chaos, you’ll naturally resolve a lot of troubles...”

Long Zhan didn’t do anything apart from sigh. “Isn’t a chaos beast that joins a dao universe... just a monster spirit? No, they are even less! Chaos beasts were supposed to be the favored children of the chaos. But after they join this system, they become the servants of the chaos and the myriad of worlds.

“Chaos Sky, since you only care about the rules, why don’t I oversee them for you?” The dragon grinned and decided to voice what he really had in mind. “I’m not asking for much, there aren’t that many of my race. I actually have a framework laid out. Humanity is formidable and there are too many of them, I can’t actually exterminate them all!

“Totems and symbols for various beliefs exist in some civilizations. I have a proposal for the rest of you to consider. My chaos race can exist independently outside of the myriad of worlds, but in order to preserve our spirit and heritage, humanity... can choose something to be a totem for their faith!

“It’ll simply be a symbol to find mental comfort in, we will not interfere in any of humanity’s affairs. All you need to do is commit to placing your belief in my race for generation upon generation. We will have no conflicts then!”

Everyone’s eyes widened at what they heard.

“Humanity places our belief in only ourselves.” The Human King curled his lip. “We do not put our faith in anything else. Okay fine, I’m just speaking for myself. I have no opinions otherwise if anyone else wants to do this, that’s their decision. But New Martial... will not worship an animal!”

Long Zhan looked at Chaos Sky. The Human King’s opinion wasn’t important, he just cared about what Chaos Sky thought.

“I have not come to set myself against the fellow daoist. I am simply fighting for a future for my people! If the fellow daoist agrees, I can even set aside some of my earlier aspirations and no longer pursue chaos race domination over the chaos universe. I can withdraw my bid for supremacy...”

This was a very difficult decision to come to, but he knew that it might be even harder for the chaos beasts to conquer the universe. Since that was the case, it might be better to give way and find another avenue to proceed down.

Chaos Sky didn’t say a word. He’d be able to bring Long Zhan to his side with a simple agreement, but... giving chaos beasts their belief?

Was that possible?

His order did not encompass personal desire or need. All negative aspects would be dismissed. Meanwhile, chaos beasts represented savagery, ambition, and madness. Order was the only faith in the west. It would never be... a chaos beast.

Even though Long Zhan had taken a step back, the dragon was still setting himself against Chaos Sky with his proposal. Hence, the man didn’t deign to respond.

His silence spoke volumes. Long Zhan understood and smiled with some comfort and relief.

“I understand,” he chuckled. “I also know that something begged for is not... the most reliable. I was just feeling a bit timid given how strong everyone is!”

He was fully comfortable with the outcome now. No amount of compromise would result in a deal, so... battle was the only option!

He would have to fight for what he wanted himself!

Some of the chaos beasts behind him looked on with complicated expressions. So their liege had demonstrated a cowardly side to the various overlords, simply because he wanted to secure a chance for their survival. He’d even been willing to give up his original plans for it.

And yet, none of the overlords were willing to grant him that chance. Even when Long Zhan was very strong.

His proposal was unacceptable to them, despite wanting only to be a symbolic figure.

You don’t have the right to request that!

The other chaos beasts stirred with growing anger and indignation. They sank into an ominous silence, much like their liege.

The situation was in a stalemate. There were checks and balances on each side, but Chaos Sky was not willing to give up Heaven’s Stratagem.

“There is another way...” he raised. “Since you are unwilling to give up Heaven’s Stratagem, Li Hao, then... become part of order and oversee it for the west. I stand by my earlier decision. You will be the master of order once you join it!”

The young man shook his head.

“I have endured repeated rebuttals and given way again and again!” A dark light started gleaming out of Chaos Sky’s eyes. An immense presence drifted out of him and shook the void.

Eighth ranks released their might as well, looming over the vicinity in an intimidating fashion.

The Human King yawned and grumbled at no one in particular, “Just fight if that was what you guys wanted from the very beginning. Isn’t that what you two are going to do anyway after wasting half a day with your blather? Once again, it’s coming down to who has a bigger fist. Is there a need for this nonsense?”

Spring Autumn and the rest rolled their eyes at the Human King. They’d been keeping themselves in check before this because there were ninth ranks in existence. If they weren’t an issue, full scale war would’ve broken out a long time ago. They wouldn’t have wasted this much time talking.

But at the moment, if they fought to the bitter end and a ninth rank or two descended after all of the fighting... wouldn’t that just make things incredibly easy for the ninth ranks to clean up?