Chapter 2132: New Era (III)

“Panth, I want you to do basically the same thing as Long Zhan,” Li Hao laughed. “But on an even more ruthless scale! I want you to break the core of the chaos. Of course, it’s really strong, so a seventh rank like you practically won’t stand a chance.

“But when you do so, you’ll experience the greatest tribulation of your doggy life. Once you survive it, you’ll have a high chance of seizing the calamity dao spirit from the Calamity master!”

Panther’s jaw dropped open. What?? Break the origin of the chaos?!

Are you joking??

How am I supposed to break something guarded by a bunch of ninth ranks? Even if no one guarded it, all Long Zhan’s mighty soul could do that day was to take a bite of it.

Disorder is strong too, yeah? But his self detonation didn’t do anything to the origin of the chaos...

Panther was just a seventh rank dog that’d depended on Li Hao to make it to its current heights. How could it break the chaos origin?? Even if it did, the backlash from the entire chaos was beyond its ability to endure!

To put it simply, it was doomed!

There was no hope!

“I’m just asking if you have the guts to do so, it doesn’t matter whether you succeed or not...”

Panther wagged its tail. It did possess the courage to try, but... that was a death sentence!

However, the confused dog promptly felt that it didn’t need to be concerned about so much as a dog. Hence, it nodded. It would do it!

“That’s more like it,” Li Hao smiled brilliantly. “Do you think I would do anything bad to you?

“Disappear once I’m done here!” he transmitted. “No one’s going to pay attention that I’m down one dog. All of the ninth ranks will be focused on the new chaos when it reappears. They’ll be looking at me, the Human King, Spring Autumn, and Chaos Sky. No one will care where you are!

“You are the spirit of Silver Moon. Silver Moon’s dao universe, or rather, any dao universe, is connected to Chaos Sky!

“The day that chaos dao settles back down may be the day in which the ninth ranks arrive. Their primary bodies will travel to us from the depths of the chaos!

“What you need to do is to infiltrate chaos dao at that time. Your greatest talent is in the arts of hiding. Conceal yourself from the ninth ranks and slip into the core of the origin. Hide there!”

Panther’s brain threatened to explode. I’m just a seventh rank! Can I really pull the wool over ninth rank eyes and become part of chaos dao?

My master thinks too highly of me! I’m just a dog, I can’t accomplish such a hard mission!

“You can do it!” Li Hao patted its head with a smile. “Your greatest strength is that you can make other people ignore you. Everyone says that a black dog is rare, but you hid yourself well when I fought with others early on...”

“Arf!”

“I know you’re weak, don’t worry. If someone does discover you, do you think the ninth ranks will actually care about a seventh rank dog in the depths of the chaos origin? In their eyes, you’re just going to your doom. Disorder himself was greatly outclassed. What can you do?”

That was true!

Panther nodded, then looked blearily at Li Hao. But like you said, I’m just a seventh rank. How am I supposed to threaten the origin of the chaos?

“It’ll be hard for you to handle the core origin of the chaos,” said Li Hao. “But I suspect that... there are some things within the core. It’s either Skyward’s dao spirit or someone else’s. Or it might have existed there from the very beginning. There’s bound to be some spirit within the chaos origin!

“It’ll be hard for you to do anything, so what you’ll do is... integrate! You’ll definitely be repelled by the others if you integrate into the origin. They’ll even try to kill you! Their spirit will definitely be stronger than yours, so you’ll easily be killed!”

Panther stared innocently at the young man. And after that?

“What you need to do then is borrow other people’s hand and force the ninth ranks to utilize their core origin. They’ll have to shift you somewhere without killing you, so they’ll move you to a suitable dao... like... calamity!”

The dog blinked, lost. So they can kill me, but won’t kill me, and they’ll help me instead??

What kind of daydream is this??

Panther listened intently when Li Hao transmitted a few words. Its eyes darted around in thought. Would this work?

Whatever, these were instructions from Li Hao. It didn’t matter if they would work or not, the dog believed them.

Screw it!

“Arf arf arf!”

“Do you understand?”

“Arf!”

“Then go when I’m completely done here. Don’t tell anyone.”

“Arf!” Panther nodded.

Li Hao breathed out with a smile. After settling Panther’s arrangements and his teacher’s path, he didn’t have much effort to spare for anyone else.

Well, there was Lin Hongyu...

A headache set in. Their relationship had been the result of a joke back in the day, as well as consideration of low cost and high benefit. But now... they really were in an awkward situation.

“Death qi...” murmured the young man. He’d cut off and incorporated a portion of death dao in the new chaos, which meant that would produce at least numerous powerhouses that specialized in death.

Lin Hongyu would not occupy any advantages as a result. There was also the dao master of life and death to consider.

On one side would be a veteran ninth rank of life and death, the other would be a cultivator from the future with a portion of that dao master’s severed dao. It would be an ordered dao of death, to boot.

Attempting to surpass the two and become a premier heavyweight of death... would be very hard!

Lin Hongyu had only been peak sixth rank when she left. Even though her gains had been enormous this time, she’d make it to seventh rank at most.

There was not much hope of eighth rank. ℯ

Seventh rank would make her the same as Panther. It would be so incredibly hard for her to occupy first mover advantage.

“Forget, I’ll figure it out later!”

One of Lin Hongyu’s opponents might be a heavyweight of the future emperor.

I suppose there’s not much of a point for a woman to be so strong. Honestly, I’ll figure it out later.

Li Hao mentally closed the book on all issues. He really couldn’t spare any thought for anyone else. Everyone could strive to do their best on their own. It would come down to individual luck.

If it comes down to it, I’ll just resurrect everyone.

“That works!” Li Hao grinned. There was less to worry about when he managed fewer people. That was so nice.

He had to keep everyone in mind with every move he made before. But now, people were more proactive after his decline in strength. It looked like he exerted too much pressure on others when he was too strong. Now they were having fun fighting New Martial for ninth rank worlds.

It was great.

......

On the other side.

The Human King had devoured so much energy that it was starting to leak out of him and form dao crystals. Clearly, he was well saturated.

His presence billowed and neared Chaos Sky’s level. He burped, then laughed. I’m full!

It’d been a marvelous feast these days. It wasn’t only him who’d improved, but all of New Martial’s heavyweights.

Fang Ping was different from Li Hao in that he prioritized satisfying himself. He was the main power of New Martial, so he had to be the strongest in order to keep charging ahead. That was a different philosophy from Li Hao’s.

The strong shouldered more responsibility, so their share of the spoils must be greater. If it was no pain, no gain, then a lot of pain should lead to a lot of gains.

“I won’t be absorbing anymore energy.” Fang Ping had eaten his fill from recent conquests. “You guys can split it among yourselves!”

That prompted everyone else to descend upon the spoils. On the other hand, the supreme drew close and assessed him with a raised eyebrow.

“Have you reached the peak of eighth rank?”

The Human King’s presence blazed mightily, seeming to match Chaos Sky when he rampaged in all directions. At the same time, he didn’t project the same feeling of invincibility that he would if he’d suppressed everything.

In the supreme’s perspective, it would come down to Fang Ping to settle the unrest in the chaos again. Whether it was Li Hao or the person from the future, it was always most reliable to rely on their own.

The Human King was sure to pacify all disturbances and enemies! No one could replace him. No one else could lead New Martial. There was only the Human King.

And yet, almost all of the fortuitous opportunities in the chaos had been exhausted. Nearly all ninth rank worlds had been eradicated. There wouldn’t be much use if any more popped up, either. What the Human King lacked now were foundation and opportunities.

If none were forthcoming, peak eighth rank was the limit of what he could reach. He was infinitely close to nine thousand daos, but could not truly set foot over this threshold.

“This is it!” nodded Fang Ping.

“How will you be after you absorb New Martial again?” asked the supreme. “Will you be able to kill ninth ranks then?”

“It’ll still be hard!” Fang Ping shook his head. “At my level, there will be a limited increase to my strength even if all of you meld into me!”

Supreme Zhang frowned, then intoned gravely, “We... left some dao heritage in the future chaos. Will it help you take another step further if we strip it out?”

“Nah, don’t consider this idea,” chuckled the Human King. “Let’s just leave it in this conversation. Li Hao created the new chaos with his own thoughts and ideas in mind. Those who can rise from this new chaos will definitely be strong.

“The Sun God said it himself, that strictly speaking, the Emperor Yu from the future is one with New Martial and Silver Moon. It’s a closed loop!

“Although all of us from New Martial are vicious sorts, we can’t be that nasty to our own, can we?”

The supreme sighed and said nothing else. He wasn’t afraid of insults or a bad reputation, nor was he concerned about offending anyone or even death. He was willing to pay everything he owned if the Human King could once more reach the top of the chaos.

But Fang Ping was sometimes... a very nostalgic soul. He viewed Silver Moon and the future chaos as splinters of New Martial. They were of the same origin, so if they didn’t provoke him, he wouldn’t proactively scheme against them.

“I understand what you mean,” the supreme nodded. “We will not do anything to them so long as they don’t take action against us. But you...”

“Don’t worry! I’ll be fine.” Fang Ping smiled. “Li Hao has ideas of his own in mind. Those walking out of the new chaos won’t be weaklings either. They’ll have their plans, so I won’t interfere with them! New Martial has to have our own trump cards too, we can’t let someone else eclipse us.

“I won’t say that we need to crush all enemies, but we can’t be bullied!”

“You’ve learned to rein in your temper,” smiled the supreme. “Based on old habits, you would’ve said that only you can keep everything under control. You’re toning down your declarations now, aren’t you?”

“Humility is the name of the game,” Fang Ping cackled. “We can’t be too over the top!”

“......” The supreme laughed wordlessly.