Chapter 2127: Three Become One (I)

“No matter what, we should kill Li Hao first if the chance arises, since he no longer wields time!” Calamity intoned. “We’ll completely cut off his chances of taking back that dao. That will save us some trouble and prevent us from falling for one of his schemes again!

“This guy picks and counts each of his steps, he’s not to be underestimated. We’ve all suffered at his hands at one point or another...”

Nods rose and fell through the group. That, everyone was in agreement with.

It didn’t matter how much Li Hao had planned, they would strike with everything they had once they descended!

“Let the worlds suffer,” the gravely wounded dao master of life and death suddenly said. “It’s good for these guys to be so bloodthirsty. That will cause so much spirit to gather in the short term that it will facilitate our return!

“Skyward, when we first arrived here, you said that we would be able to freely come and go once the dao of time matured. Time... is not weak now, but why are we still prevented from returning?”

“That’s right! You said that it’d be quick for spirit to recover naturally, that we would be able to come and go at will soon. But now? It’s been a million years and the spirit of the chaos still has not recovered. We probably won’t have much support for our great daos either when we return...”

Repeated mishaps were stoking unhappiness. They’d all believed Skyward back in the day and were smart themselves. They’d also determined that the chaos should've been repaired in a natural fashion after so many years.

Much of its spirit should’ve come back without their massive draw on it. And yet, only a tiny amount had returned after all these years. It wasn’t even enough to support the return of just one ninth rank.

Suspicion was starting to swirl.

Having offended Skyward last time, Calamity decided that the gloves were off now. He wanted to get to the bottom of the skepticism and doubts that he was nursing.

“Brother Skyward, your passageway has stood in the chaos for so many years and so is your world at the root of the chaos. I just want to know... have you absorbed any spirit during this time?” He was wary of this line of questioning, but wasn’t willing to play dumb anymore. “Therefore, I’d like to ask if... this is really all the spirit that’s been replenished over the years.

“Or has some of it secretly been intercepted by someone else? We can sense some of the flow of chaos strength, but it is hard to detect spirit while we are isolated here. We wouldn’t know if someone secretly stole some of it.”

And who might that someone be?

Skyward, of course!

He was the ninth rank most closely tied to the chaos, and he was very strong himself. His world was situated within the root of the chaos and his spatial dao had always been present in the void.

Could not even a single ninth rank at full strength be supported after a million years?

It really was a very suspicious situation!

The group had been skeptical early on as well, but everything had been quiet and they were awaiting the formation of time.

But now... they were very restless.

“That’s right, the spirit of the chaos is recovering too slowly!” concurred the dao master of yin and yang. “Not a single new ninth rank has been born in a million years. Things shouldn’t be proceeding this slowly!

“Chaos Sky inherited some of Order’s spirit, Long Zhan inherited some from the chaos. It hasn’t been long since the rise of Li Hao, Fang Ping, and a few others. They can’t have possibly absorbed all of the spirit in just one thousand years.

“Although Spring Autumn isn’t weak, she’s not much in the greater picture of things. Why hasn’t enough spirit gathered over a million years to support our return??

“I’m even more curious what the first generation of time said to Brother Skyward when he entered Skyward. How did that lead to your decision to seal off the chaos for a million years?”

“......” Multiple ninth ranks expressed their bafflement, skepticism, and anger.

They’d followed Skyward here back in the day for self-preservation, and for the sake of the future. Skyward had jointly forecasted the future with them to see that the chaos would ultimately fall into permanent silence if they continued with their current lifestyle.

The ninth ranks had come thinking that perhaps all would be well after a short period of time. Who’d known that this short period would turn into a million years?

Spirit continued to dissipate during this time as well, it did not fully recover.

After a while, the ninth ranks had already invested too much to deviate from their path. They couldn’t leave and could only accept their fate. But now, no one wanted to accept their fate anymore. Skyward must be hiding something from them!

Meanwhile, the Skyward master quietly listened to their complaints\.

“Everyone was aware of the situation back in the day,” he said slowly. “I explained it to everyone and even projected our future with the dao master of fortune. Spirit would not be able to recover if we did not leave and it was only a matter of time before the chaos fell completely silent.

“The chaos would collapse! That was when War traveled through time and visited me. He didn’t say much, just a few things of the future. He saw endless darkness, silence, annihilation, and despair. Perhaps that had to do with the ninth ranks depleting spirit!

“I freely spoke of this to all of you and didn’t hide anything,” sighed Skyward. “Everyone knew about this, so why bring up old matters? We’ve all lost a great deal, so have I. I’ve already lost one replica and many of my powerhouses have been killed...

“It’s a tough pill for me to swallow as well. As for only a little bit of spirit recovering in the past one million years...” he sighed. “Too many ninth ranks were born in our time. It harmed the root of the chaos. We’ve been located at the center of the chaos for the past one million years and sealed off chaos dao.

“Although we’ve sealed ourselves away at the same time, we’ve still been depleting spirit. Naturally, not that much of it will recover.

“The key lies with time. We must use time to stabilize spirit and solidify it. That will ensure that it is not destroyed in the long run. This is what we’ve been waiting for and working on all along...” Skyward sighed. “Time is about to appear and our chance is at hand. Why revolt against me now, everyone?”

“It’s not that we’re rising against you, Brother Skyward,” intoned Calamity, “But that we’ve waited for too long! And now we cannot descend upon the chaos... We want to know when we’ll finally be able to return in peak condition!

“This is our most pressing question! You are the strongest and the one who invited all of us here. We trusted you, but now...”

“I know everyone’s in a rush, as am I.” Skyward nodded heavily. “It’ll be soon. Time just needs to appear again. Disorder and a lot of powerhouses have fallen. That is a good thing. New Martial destroying worlds is another good thing! A lot of spirit will gather in the short term and there will be a temporary explosion of spirit in the chaos.

“After that, we just need the dao of time to return to the chaos. With the chaos stabilized, there won’t be much of an issue with our return!

“Once time rises to ninth rank and completes the solidification of spirit, perhaps... we won’t need anyone to control time then. Spirit might be stable by itself!” The look in Skyward’s eyes shifted. “We won’t have to care about who the cultivator of time is then. If they don’t listen to us, we’ll kill them.

“But the precursor to that is that time completes the solidification of spirit!

“It’s best if they are willing to cooperate and listen to us. We are not people who seek senseless slaughter. If the dao master of time is willing to work together, then it will be a further stabilization factor for the chaos.”

The group pondered over his words. Were they to keep waiting longer?

“Then, are you unable to locate the new chaos?”

“It’s very hard to do so!” Skyward shook his head. “The chaos is not small and it’s only my replica out there. Although Chaos Sky’s order dao seems to be in it as well, he’s not the master of order without the Heaven’s Stratagem.

“I don’t think there’s a high chance of us locating it, but I’ve been following him just in case. It would be very troublesome if he actually did find it!”

Skyward patiently answered all of their questions, but Calamity wanted to repeat a concern.

“It’s not that I suspect you, Brother Skyward, but that many of us are confused. Too little spirit has returned to the chaos after a million years. Do you think any part of it is hiding somewhere? Or are there other hidden heavyweights in the chaos that have been extracting it?”

Skyward looked piercingly at the man. Clearly, Calamity was alluding to the one he called brother.

“Is there a need for this between you and me, Calamity?” Skyward chuckled. “If I really have concealed a large portion of spirit, I would’ve descended upon the chaos a long time ago. Do you think Fang Ping, Li Hao, and Chaos Sky can handled my primary body? Why would we be in these straits if that was the chaos?”

The group digested his response, still skeptical. Was Skyward hiding spirit or not?

It was hard to say, they didn’t know.

If he was, why didn’t he return to the chaos? Was he waiting for time to become a ninth rank dao, or perhaps he was scheming after more than time.

Perhaps he was plotting about them as well!

As strong as Skyward was, there were so many ninth ranks present. He might be able to fight two or three or four, but five?

Ten?

Whatever it was, this guy was keeping something back. But now, it was hard to say anything else. If he did, that might really spark open hostilities.

“Let’s wait for chaos dao to settle down first,” said Skyward. “Once it does, we can continue to send our replicas through even if our primary bodies can’t return yet... It’ll be better than the current state we’re in.”

Calamity didn’t say anything. Losing two replicas had taken an enormous toll on him. Who had that many replicas to keep sending?

He raised his head to look at the sky above them. A heart seemed to be beating there. It hadn’t been that noticeable at first, but now it seemed to be suffering from shock and injury after Disorder’s self detonation nearly broke chaos dao.

“The origin of the chaos... has recovered a lot thanks to it being so quiet over the years,” Calamity said after studying it for a while. “We haven’t extracted much energy from it either... Brother Skyward, what if we take only a little...”

“This is the core of the chaos!” Skyward frowned. “It might cause the entire chaos to collapse if you drain it. Do you think we would survive then??”

“It wouldn’t be that serious, will it?” laughed Calamity. “Long Zhan was daring enough to take a small bite of it before. Disorder wanted to try as well. None of them were afraid...”

“That’s up to you,” laughed Calamity. “Of course, the core origin of the chaos is the fountain of life. It is connected to chaos dao. You saw it yourself too that life recoils when attacked. Long Zhan suffered from the backlash.

“You probably won’t be able to handle it by yourself. However, it might break if everyone tries. We’ll be in for it then!”

A dark look entered Skyward’s eyes. Calamity!

This guy was growing ever more bold. He wanted to disturb the origin of the chaos! It might be nice for everyone in the short run, but it was definitely a bad long term course of action.