Chapter 2161: Despair and Hopelessness (III)

“Stop looking at Li Hao. Right now... well, there’s not much I can say. Maybe even I’m not that important to him anymore!” Yuan Shuo said sadly. Perhaps Li Hao had truly extinguished all of his emotions in cultivating the great dao and becoming one with it over the course of his cultivation.

All of his desires, emotions, and ambitions had become part of Myriad Realms and produced the scene they saw today.

How could humans not have any desire?

Li Hao had extracted his emotions and desires, implanting them into other people, then created spirits out of them in Myriad Realms.

Yuan Shuo hadn’t known about that.

What he did know was that perhaps the Hei Lin that Su Yu had killed in his time might be the core of Li Hao’s desires. When it died, so did the last of Li Hao’s desires.

A multitude of thoughts ran through Yuan Shuo’s mind as he transmitted to Gan Wuliang again, “He’s extinguished his desires. When Chaos Sky consolidated the western region, he said that Chaos Sky extinguishing human nature is not the proper path. And yet... he’s gone down the same road...”

A new thought struck Gan Wuliang.

“Wuliang!” Yuan Shuo continued. “You know that emotions and desires stem from Silver Moon. Silver Moon might be the last tie to Li Hao. I want to... awaken everything about him and have him return to martial master Li Hao, the one who traveled the four corners back in the day.

“I don’t want him to be this heartless Li Hao of the great dao. Are you willing to help me?

“Even if one becomes a demon, demons have their own emotions. Hei Lin did not measure up to Emperor Su in Myriad Realms because the emperor did not lack emotions. Pure desire is not a good thing, but neither is completely lacking emotion and desire!”

Gan Wuliang seemed to catch Yuan Shuo’s drift. He always easily understood what the other was trying to convey.

“I understand, professor. The Silver Moon king is always our marquis!” he transmitted back. “I have no desire to replace him. He was the one who gave me the dao universe. In that case, I will return it to His Lordship. It would be quite worth it if that could reawaken his emotions!

“We of Silver Moon do not lack courage. We await the professor’s instruction! But, ah... those not of Silver Moon...”

“That’s good enough! Thank you for your support, Wuliang. Tell everyone to prepare for their dao star’s return to Silver Moon. The corporeal and immaterial rivers are about to fully consolidate. We will nurture dao with aura and gather our auras together!

“Our strength will be transformed into desire for you to wield. Listen to my orders. If the situation changes...”

Yuan Shuo said nothing else, but Gan Wuliang understood. He contacted everyone through the river of great dao, sounding notes of great dao in their minds.

Emotions flickered across the faces of those who were still alive. Their expressions quickly returned to normal.

Everything proceeded as before, but some looked at Li Hao ahead of them and others glanced at those of Myriad Realms nearby. Some of them had drooped with low self esteem, now raised their heads high and puffed their chests out. They were once more immensely proud of themselves!

“We’ll set aside those not of the Silver Moon system for now,” Yuan Shuo transmitted. “Ah, Panth and Number Two...”

His voice trailed off with confusion. It was normal that Panther had disappeared. Perhaps Li Hao didn’t want the dog to participate in this battle and had told it to find a spot to hole up in. The dog would return if they won, or find a place to hunker down as a normal down if they lost.

As for Number Two’s disappearance... had it... maybe run off?

Perhaps it no longer wished to work for Li Hao after the dao of time was no more. That made sense. Number Two had been primarily tied to Li Hao through this dao. Now that it’d dissipated, those ties were no more.

It was just... a somewhat emotional matter.

So it turned out that even the cat wasn’t reliable in the absence of time. Well, there was no need to admonish it for that decision.

Up ahead, Li Hao suddenly looked back at the rest. The look in his eyes changed, but he didn’t make a sound.

The Human King and Emperor Yu also looked back with raised eyebrows, but likewise remained silent. Li Hao opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again.

At the same time.

“We can’t keep watching like this!” the Human King suddenly transmitted to his people. Rumbles shook the void!

Presences flared as two powerhouses fought bitterly. The strength of calamity stretched to the four corners, but still found it difficult to affect Skyward. If this continued... the two might just continue growing stronger.

This could be an opportunity to enhance their spirit, which wasn’t a good thing!

The Human King’s powers of observation were immense. He looked at Li Hao and Su Yu. “We need to get off our asses. No matter who it is, they’re our enemy. I think Calamity won’t be able to handle Skyward, so we should make our moves and kill these guys. We need to take their dao strength. No matter what, growing stronger is always a good thing!”

Emperor Yu inclined his head. Those were his thoughts as well. Although it might be better to send the ninth ranks to help Calamity... the caveat was that these people needed to be willing to trust their backs to the New Martial, Silver Moon, Myriad Realms coalition.

That was never happening. Not to mention, the ninth ranks were here to preoccupy them to begin with.

Su Yu nodded his head more firmly and transmitted back, “Then let’s make our moves. My side can take on two of them!”

“New Martial can take two of them!”

Yuan Shuo hesitated before transmitting, “I’ll take one...”

Spring Autumn shifted uncomfortably. When everyone turned to her, she said with difficulty, “I’m... quite seriously injured. One is the most I can handle...”

What are you guys looking at me for?

I came here looking for shelter, not to court death.

Six out of the nine ninth ranks were spoken for. That left three.

“I’ll take those three,” Li Hao transmitted. “But I’ll probably have issues killing them. Since the Human King and Su Yu are taking only two each, then I’ll probably need you guys to eliminate them as quickly as possible and come help me!”

“......” The two exchanged resigned glances and didn’t say anything. Fine then! Perhaps you do have something else up your sleeve still, but we have no idea what.

The group didn’t try to guess what was on Li Hao’s mind. They might have a chance if they killed the nine ninth ranks in front of them! Calamity and Skyward being preoccupied with each other was an opportunity.

The group immediately struck without further word!

The ninth ranks on the perimeter had been on their guard the entire time. Although they’d kept an eye on the fight between Calamity and Skyward, they were also wary of those in front of them. They promptly responded to the wave of attacks and struck back in unison!

The Human King rushed out with his blade, sending forth a wave of darkness!

Emperor Yu likewise combined order and disorder. He’d fully absorbed Chaos Sky’s strength and had incorporated the Myriad Realm great daos. He suddenly encircled two ninth ranks with endless replicas and summoned a book of civilization that loomed over them.

“Enter my book and endure the tribulation of my myriad races!” he snorted.

The tribulations suffered by a myriad races seemed to descend at the same time. They borrowed from the dense power of calamity in the surroundings. A character within the book glowed brightly as it absorbed a lot of energy.

Not far away, Calamity whipped his head back and cursed, “You bastard!”

He was toe-to-toe with Skyward and death could claim either of them in a single second. And yet, Emperor Yu of Myriad Realms chose to extract some of his dao strength at this time. What a... plague!

Damn it!

He wanted to disengage from the fight so he could curse out this guy!

“Don’t worry.” Su Yu smiled at him. “The power will return once I kill the two. It will be stronger after I borrow it...”

Calamity glowered, but didn’t say anything. Su Yu had spoken truly. The loss of the ninth ranks wouldn’t mean much to him, but a deepening of calamity would strengthen him.

All the same, this felt horrible.

What an animal!

Meanwhile, the Human King grew stronger after darkness converged upon him. He immediately engaged the two ninth ranks.

Yuan Shuo howled and combined his five elements as one. He led those of Silver Moon in a charge at one of the ninth ranks.

Spring Autumn was torn and cast a glance at Li Hao. She set her jaw and rushed one of the ninth ranks! Whatever!

Li Hao said before that there’s still use for me. That guy has a lot of tricks up his sleeves. He’ll help me when push comes to shove.

The remaining ninth ranks had just pivoted toward Su Yu when Li Hao made his move. A domain of heaven and earth appeared, enshrouding them. Formidable sword qi crisscrossed inside.

“Why don’t the three of you spar with me?”

The three of them scowled, but didn’t say anything. Li Hao was very strong!

He’d aggregated the flesh and blood from a myriad worlds and his will was mighty. Just the pressure of his might alone made it difficult for the three to breathe. They didn’t need Li Hao to say anything before they erupted with full force.

“We’ll go down fighting!” one of the growled. “Folks, even if we do end up dying today, we must expand the catastrophe and help Calamity grow stronger. We’ll help him kill all of these bastards and bring our wishes to fruition!”

Living or dying no longer mattered. It was good if they won, but fine if they died and fortified Calamity. They would fight to the death!

Loud rumbles broke out as endless dao strength erupted, like tangible matter. All of chaos dao materialized in the void, shaking in all directions!

......

In the depths of chaos dao.

A dog continued to swim upwards. The origin that looked like a massive heart was right in front of it. No one paid it any attention because battle had broken out. They were either too preoccupied or couldn’t spare any effort for it.

Panther was a bit nervous. Li Hao wanted it to seize the dao of calamity, but it was the strongest dao in all of chaos dao after spatial dao. How was the dog supposed to take it? As for damaging the core origin of chaos dao...

The core origin gave the dog immense pressure at the moment. It felt that it would die as soon as it approached the gigantic heart. Panther looked at it with wariness.

Li Hao had said that there would be a chance, but it didn’t see one even now.

What should it do?

There was a massive battle in the chaos right now. Panther could sense it. Was the opportunity Li Hao talked about Calamity losing? Should it seize the dao of calamity then?

It would have a chance then, but... what was the point when Calamity himself lost?