Star Gate-Chapter 1118: It Begins (II)

Silver City, 11pm.

The Great Li king appeared in Silver City and looked wordlessly at Li Hao. Some of the group was surprised, but the young man was not. He inclined his head at the newcomer.

The king waited silently for half an hour until he asked, “Who does this king need to handle?” He didn’t inquire further about the situation.

“Can you fight peak Immortal?”

Peak Immortal was at least sixth level Sun and Moon to seventh level. Any stronger would make one a half step Saint—eighth to ninth level Sun and Moon.

The Great Li king was only fourth level Sun and Moon, near fifth level. That was when he was being specifically bolstered by the heavenly will. Otherwise, he was normally a fourth level. Granted, his was a different story since he also possessed the Tyrant Sovereign’s boxing gloves.

“Where is Zhang An?” the Great Li king asked calmly.

“In the ruins. This is a Silver Moon matter.”

“Are we going to our deaths?” The king raised his eyebrows.

“I’m going to kill a Saint!”

“You are too arrogant!” The look in the king’s eyes chilled. He had thought that Li Hao was joking, that Zhang An would participate to neutralize the enemy’s Saint.

But it was Li Hao instead. Did the kid really think of himself as something??

“Why not?” Li Hao responded calmly.

“Do you want this king to die?”

“You can leave!” Li Hao looked at him, as composed as he was before. “We won’t miss you!”

The Great Li king took a deep breath to recover himself. He looked around him, at the martial masters with faces full of provocation and arrogance. That was the typical condition of a Silver Moon martial master.

This kind of martial master liked to declare that they reigned supreme beneath the heavens. Their ego and conceit knew no parallel!

The Great Li king tamped down the irritation brewing in his heart and didn’t make a sound. If Li Hao dares set out, why not this king?

He settled down to wait with the rest. Who were they waiting for?

He didn’t know.

The Watercloud empress dowager?

It could only be her.

Of the four nations, Barren Dynasty wouldn’t leave their wasteland and the Divine Nation queen would never cooperate with Li Hao. Divine Nation wouldn’t lose much even with the second awakening. They would be afraid of nothing once their divine spirits recovered to the Saint level. Therefore, Divine Nation did not share any common interests with Li Hao.

That left only the Watercloud empress dowager. Would she come?

She was just a woman! If she had that level of courage, she would’ve proclaimed herself emperor. Was there a need to install a puppet emperor?

In the Great Li king’s eyes, women were not fit for the big stage. She was the greatest of her nation, but let a child be emperor. What meaning was there in those actions? It was just shutting the barn door after the horse bolted!

Time ticked by, second by second. Midnight was soon at hand.

Li Hao didn’t wait any longer, the warship materialized. “Board the ship, we’re off. The ruins are fifty kilometers away from here, Gan Wuliang is the lead!”

“Understood, sir!”

As the group boarded the ship, the Great Li king materialized on the deck with a snort. “You actually placed your hopes in a woman... How laughable! The parley of five will take place the day after tomorrow—no, tomorrow! The Watercloud empress dowager is probably already on her way to Barren Dynasty!”

“It doesn’t matter.” Li Hao was coolly unconcerned. “It was just a try. Aren’t you here?”

The Great Li king frowned slightly and ignored the young man.

The warship threaded through the void with a silent crew. It was so quiet that individual breathing could be heard. Everyone was immersed in their own thoughts.

After an indeterminate period of time, Li Hao’s eyes darted to a particular spot outside the ship. The gesture was matched by the Great Li king. The void split open and a figure appeared.

“I have been waiting for a while,” she said gently with a soft laugh. “The commander... seems to be traveling slower than anticipated.”

Li Hao raised an eyebrow. The Great Li king was surprised by the development; he looked closely at the woman in charge of Watercloud Dynasty to the south. Their respective nations were situated at cardinal opposites. As the tyrant of the north, he didn’t think much about a nation to the south.

But to think that the mistress of Watercloud would dare to come!

The Watercloud empress dowager bent at the waist when she saw the Great Li king. “Greetings to the Great Li majesty. Long have I heard your name!”

The Great Li king inclined his head and didn’t say anything else. The empress dowager didn’t mind his reaction, she turned back to Li Hao and looked at the people around them.

“Is it... just us?” she asked mildly.

“Yep.”

The empress dowager’s first instinct was to share the same thoughts as the Great Li king... Li Hao was crazy. Both of them had thought that Zhang An would be participating, which was why the young man was confident in his course of action. Apart from Zhang An, perhaps the hundreds of student puppets on par with Apexes and Battle Heaven might offer their full support as well.

But as it turned out...

Apart from Director General Wang with decent enough strength, the rest of the group were familiar faces. There were a few that looked less familiar, but their presences were weak. Was this it?

There was no one among them that could stand against a Saint!

The empress dowager was resigned by her findings and suddenly felt that she’d been scammed into signing up. “The commander’s... bravery is commendable!”

That was a polite way of putting it. What she really wanted to say was that the kid was wholly ignorant of death. I wouldn’t have come had I known this would be the case!

“I didn’t think that Your Majesty would come,” Li Hao laughed. “Now with the Great Li king... this fulfills my expectations.”

Both of them had come. While Jiang Li was absent, the young man was aware of some of the king’s concerns, so he didn’t say anything. The full crew had been assembled.

They weren’t too far from Boundless, so Li Hao smiled, “Your Majesties, would you care to spend some time in the Hao Cosmos with me?”

Both of them brightened at the prospect. Neither of the two were practitioners of the new martial dao. The empress dowager followed the path of New Martial and the Great Li king trained more in the Initial Martial sense. Both of them focused on strengthening the body, blood qi, and mental strength.

Given the lack of core origin dao, it was a difficult feat for the two to have smashed through the world’s limits and reach their current level of achievement.

“There shouldn’t be a problem with the Great Li king, but the empress dowager has absorbed quite a bit of core origin power... We can give it a try,” Li Hao added.

Apart from the Watercloud empress dowager, the imperial guard was also present. That was another core origin dao cultivator. Although they didn’t have much core origin dao energy within their bodies, it was still present.

Li Hao was curious how fiercely the Hao Cosmos would target core origin energy. Would the reaction be as severe as when it encountered Red Moon power?

Deputy Zhou also walked the core origin path, but he wasn’t as strong as those two.

“Then I will not stand on ceremony!” The empress dowager smiled. “I shall have to trouble the commander to take us!”

It was a fine opportunity if they could see the dao universe with their own eyes. The two were fully prepared for the risks of this trip. If the young man wasn’t afraid of anything, then there was nothing for them to say.

“Wuliang.” Li Hao looked at Gan Wuliang. “You, my teacher, and Deputy Zhou will continue to travel to Boundless! Set the location near the guardian plant spirit! You will be in charge of determining the right timing. Once you think the opportunity is at hand, activate Stellaris. I will make my move then!”

“I will do everything in my capacity to ensure this!” Gan Wuliang responded crisply.

“I trust you.” Li Hao nodded slightly with a smile. He thrust his sword out and ripped through the void, sailing the ship into the dao universe. Stellaris was left behind.

Gan Wuliang took a deep breath and reached out for the weapon. It vibrated slightly, as if unwilling to be held by another, but quieted down in the end.

“Seniors, we bear a great responsibility!” Gan Wuliang took another deep breath. “My apologies for the disrespect! I will have to trouble you two to listen to my commands.”

Yuan Shuo and the deputy looked at each other and nodded without saying anything.

“In addition, our clear increase in strength will be easily detected!” Gan Wuliang continued. “Therefore, Professor Yuan must be careful. Deputy Zhou is safe enough. Our reason for visiting is the parley of five. We need help from the ancient cities—that is the angle we’ll take!”

The two nodded again.

“You are my seniors, so you’re more adept at controlling emotion than I am.” Gan Wuliang rubbed his cheeks. “We need to be fearful, anxious, and yearning. We’re afraid of the meeting, beside ourselves with worry, and yearn to receive support from the ancient city...”

Their emotions shifted after he laid out the desired state. Of the two, one was an old demon who’d long dominated the martial world; the other was a bureaucrat steeped in many decades of political experience. This was an easy state for both of them to manage.

Gan Wuliang was surprised by their change. Silver Moon martial masters certainly had their strong suits. He’d only raised an idea or two, but they turned it into reality.

“We need to travel a bit faster, a bit more urgently. We’re traveling so fast that we’re covered by road dust...”

The three shot forward in the sky after Gan Wuliang finished speaking. He continued to give more instructions and the other two mutely made changes. All was fine so long as all went well with Gan Wuliang.

......

Within the Hao Cosmos.

A stifling sensation wrapped around the Watercloud empress dowager when she entered the dao universe, but it didn’t expel or attack her. It was the same result with the Great Li king. Li Hao was slightly confused by the results.

Was this because Silver Moon world and New Martial were one entity, so there was a connection between their dao universes as well? Did that mean that the Hao Cosmos only targeted Red Moon universe because of a vast difference between their great daos? Were there similarities in nature between core origin dao and the Hao Cosmos?

Deputy Zhou hadn’t been targeted when he last entered. Li Hao had thought it was because there wasn’t much core origin energy within the man’s body. But now this didn’t seem to be the case.

The young man thought back to when he grafted core origin dao into the Hao Cosmos—the latter hadn’t targeted core origin dao then either. Director General Wang and the others had easily completed their integration. Plainly, the Hao Cosmos was very tolerant of core origin dao.

Not only was it the Great Li king and Watercloud empress dowager’s first time in the dao universe, it was the rest of the group’s first time as well. Everything seemed surreal and dreamlike. They walked among the stars, the universe! Countless celestial bodies drifted around them!

The universe seemed to be defined by various sectors. They didn’t know this was Li Hao’s work since it was their first time visiting this place. The group thought that this was how things should be in a dao universe.