Star Gate-Chapter 1557: Killing Fiend (III)

Big Claw swept a glance around the premises. There weren’t many guards by the southern gate and they were often called away to commence guide duty. Someone was sent up from Dragon Observatory whenever a guard was deployed. Under normal circumstances, there were six guards present at the gate.

The monster spirit himself had stood guard here for many years. Based on the level classification of New Martial, the six guards were of the Empyrean King level. They were of varying degrees of strength.

According to Silver Moon’s power hierarchy, they were stronger than fourth level Fused Dao. Some of the strongest were eighth level Fused Dao. There were very few ninth levels—that would make them peak Empyrean King. Instead, they worked toward the exalted emperor level.

Big Claw looked at them, then out at the chaos. Li Hao had given him the mission of killing the guards and shutting the gate when a thundercloud appeared in the chaos.

Thus far, a thundercloud was yet to appear.

He looked at the rest and smiled faintly at them. “I’m here to take a look because Senior White Light said that he might have more companions joining him. He wants me to stay on the lookout for a few days. I’m to bring them over if they show up.”

The guards on duty cursed inaudibly. It’s been several days since we’ve last seen exalted emperors, but you’re taking whoever shows up next. How damned unlucky!

Granted, whoever shows up may be no one good. Exalted Emperor Yu Chen wouldn’t have handed that guest to Big Claw otherwise. That’s okay then. You can go to your death faster with more exalted emperors around!

Someone like Big Claw was competition to these guards. With one fewer being around, the odds of them being able to guide an exalted emperor the next time one arrived were higher.

Big Claw looked into the chaos again, seeing that a thundercloud was forming in the void out of the blue. The guards were puzzled and followed his gaze. What was that?

The monster spirit understood with this glance that Li Hao might have taken action. A frisson of apprehension ran through him. Killing these guards would mark his official betrayal of Dragon Observatory.

And yet... who cared?

The faction might not even continue to exist after offending the one he served.

“What is that?” Big Claw called out. There were some who hadn’t taken note of the thundercloud yet. They swiftly looked into the distance.

“Is that... that... a chaos tribulation?” Some were perplexed by the sight.

There didn’t seem to be anything in the chaos apart from the chaos tribulation. But what... was that doing here?

They’d heard that chaos tribulations were apt to appear wherever the Silver Moon king went. But the Silver Moon king was infinitely far from them, perhaps fighting the Observatory leader right this very moment. He wouldn’t be here.

So then... where did this thing come from? The guards were quite confused.

“Notify the Observatory that an anomaly has appeared in the chaos...” One of them finally reacted. They should send a message back to the exalted emperors of Dragon Observatory first.

Someone else abruptly felt something amiss and turned back for a look—the guard was flabbergasted beyond belief!

A massive crab had appeared in front of him, whereas the two guards to the rear had been snapped into two by the enormous claws at some point in time!

They’d died without making a sound!

Big Claw was infinitely close to being a half step emperor. Based on Silver Moon’s categorization, he had exceeded ninth step Fused Dao. He might be a ninth level Fused Dao of the combined corporeal and immaterial daos. There was no difference between him and a half step emperor.

There was only a group of Empyrean Kings present at the southern gate. The weaker ones had barely managed to cross the Empyrean King threshold.

“Big Claw!” shouted one of the guards. What was the monster spirit doing??

Bam!

The gigantic claws clipped another Empyrean King into two!

A cold look glinted out of Big Claw’s eyes. Li Hao had told him to train his claws and the variety of dao that was present in the chaos. He was not to worry about the problem of intermingled daos.

With that reassurance, Big Claw practiced with abandon. He didn’t care if his great dao was a jumbled mess. At the very least, his strength was rapidly growing for the present.

When it came to a future junction in which he was unable to organize his great daos and thus, enter the exalted emperor level... Li Hao had promised to help him one time.

That was enough! 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

His strength was sufficient to overcome these people. Three guards were instantly dead out of six. The remaining three finally reacted with fear and horror.

“Are you crazy?!”

“You betrayed Dragon Observatory!!”

KABOOM!

A massive spatial explosion sounded as the claws clamped down again, killing the fourth guard. The shocked survivors began counterattacking. That thundercloud wasn’t important anymore. Big Claw had gone crazy and wanted to kill them!

They needed to save themselves, report this to the exalted emperors, and have them kill the monster spirit!

Dragon Observatory didn’t lack for exalted emperors—there were many under its banner. Even if Big Claw ran into the chaos, he would travel at a very slow speed. He’d be easily hunted down and killed.

“You court death in killing us!” roared one of the guards. “You’re not an exalted emperor, how far can you get in the chaos?!”

Big Claw turned a deaf ear to the threats. Run? Why should he run?

The brilliance of chaos dao shone from his claws. It was a mottled mess of colors—such a churning confusion that it startled the guard. This guy was nuts! Not only was he crazy, but he didn’t even care about the great dao anymore.

He was cultivating a random hodgepodge of nonsense. Although he was strong, everything was incredibly jumbled up. He would never become an exalted emperor!

But the reality was, the guard didn’t have a chance to think about too much. Big Claw was strong enough now.

Boom!

Another massive collision sounded as blood sprayed in all directions. The fifth Empyrean King was dead and color drained from the last guard’s face. He shot into the chaos.

The chaos was vast and unbounded, and deathly dangerous to a non-exalted emperor. It was very easy for them to get lost within.

Some weaklings were instantly plunged into darkness when they entered the chaos and could not see the way ahead. This was why those below exalted emperor did not dare set foot into the chaos by themselves.

The Empyrean King swiftly darted into the chaos, but then froze on the spot, like he’d fallen into an eternal silence.

Big Claw jerked to a grave halt. They all knew that the chaos was dangerous. At the same time, however, they didn’t think much of it since exalted emperors traveled through it so easily. Only with repeated warnings from exalted emperors for them not to enter the chaos did people stick to the worlds.

Seeing an Empyrean King enter the chaos with his own eyes and immediately become lost... and even losing vitality... that was horrifying.

Big Claw didn’t dare enter the chaos to finish off his opponent; he simply sent a blow through the void.

The immense strike wafted weakly through the void, but the unmoving guard was smashed to pieces all the same. His flesh and blood were swiftly absorbed by the surroundings—the chaos seemed to be cleansing itself. All of the trash was swiftly devoured and transformed into tendrils of chaos that reinforced the universe at large.

Big Claw goggled at the sight and didn’t dare look for much longer. He quickly turned around and ran in another direction. Having been stationed here for many years, he knew what area was the key. The southern gate could be closed—which would only defend against weaklings. True powerhouses could still barge in if they wished.

Big Claw swiftly activated something after entering an area, causing the massive doorway that seemed to be an entrance to the heavens slowly creak shut.

Massive amounts of thunderclouds began to appear outside the door. The tribulation was beginning to gather.

Big Claw didn’t dare linger. It took only one glance for his heart to pound with fright.

The Silver Moon king seemed to be accompanied by this thing each time he made a move. It was quite mystifying and terrifying. Chaos tribulations were beyond the reach of ordinary people, but they were a common sight with Li Hao. They could be seen every other day.

Big Claw made a quick getaway. According to Li Hao’s plans, he needed to be in Dragon Observatory at the moment. If Li Hao couldn’t successfully weather the tribulation, the monster spirit would have to call upon Void for help.

As for how to determine whether the young man had succeeded or not, Li Hao had mentioned that if the disturbance was big enough that it could be felt in Dragon Observatory, that meant he was running back to the Observatory. That would be the cue to yell for Void.

......

At the same time, the volcano.

Crimson Cloud grew ever more delighted; he could truly sense something different now!

It wasn’t just him, but the other exalted emperors as well. Strange looks appeared in their eyes as the pressure of a seventh rank seemed to truly appear in the void!

This was Li Hao communicating with time and summoning the past strength of the fire envoy. But since the power involved was related to the fire, this was the strengthening of the dao echoes in other people’s eyes.

It was even more realistic and clearer than before!

That was because the phenomenon had been fake before, apart from the dao notes. But now, the strength and pressure were all real.

......

Inside the shadow of Flamefire.

Li Hao was calling upon the power of the past. The star of time appeared once more, traveling from the past to the present. Li Hao began to age—the strength of a sixth rank had been hard to bear last time, but that had been when he was a first rank. He was a third rank of great perfection now.

However, that wasn’t as much of a difference compared to first rank.

A surge of magnificent power and flames appeared in the river. A daoist vaguely came into view. He seemed to know Li Hao, perhaps because this was their second meeting. Or because a familiar dao echo hovered around Li Hao.

Whatever it was, he looked silently at Li Hao, quietly exerting unbounded pressure from his formidable strength!