Star Gate-Chapter 1575: Ascension (I)

“What kind of price are you talking about?” Void asked with resignation.

“Nothing too high, I wouldn’t be able to take it with me if it was. At most... three mid rank worlds!” Fog Mountain chuckled. “Crimson Cloud was a sixth rank, after all. One world for his family, one world for Skycloud, and one world for me because I made this trip! It will be for my travel expenses.”

As for the leader of Dragon Observatory... that wasn’t within his range of consideration.

He can go wherever he likes and find whoever he wants. It has nothing to do with me. If the world master feels like being generous and gives him that world, that’s fine. He’s an errand boy, so it makes sense for him to be rewarded for running around.

Void could only nod. Fog Mountain had clearly read some part of the situation and knew that certain things existed at Demon Summit. He might even know that it was dao chess!

However, he didn’t care about them. What he wanted was the Skyward dao universe! With that in hand, the dao chess would only be an accessory. He had no need for it.

“Alright!” Void agreed. Fog Mountain smiled and turned to leave when Void asked, “The dao chess is refined out of an eighth rank dao universe. Why... doesn’t the senior want it?”

“An eighth rank dao universe?” Fog Mountain didn’t even turn back to look at the other. “Eighth rank, and one forged into a treasure. Its dao strength has been depleted—can it help me with ascending to eighth rank?

“It cannot! Its master of dao is only eighth rank, and he’s half crippled! Will that facilitate my breakthrough to eighth rank? What sixth and seventh ranks are interested in holds no interest for me. If I wish to become an eighth rank, I need a more sophisticated dao universe!

“Also, Crown Prince Ming Tang... no, Crown Prince Void, remember one thing. All dao universes are born from the comprehension of cultivators!”

Fog Mountain left without another word, leaving behind a deeply thoughtful Void. All dao universes were born from the comprehension of cultivators! His father had never mentioned the concept.

“He’s right!” The shadow appeared only after the man left.

“Senior, so what Fog Mountain means...”

“It’s simple, a dao universe born of an eighth rank’s understanding of dao, and a half crippled one, will render Fog Mountain almost no hope of taking a step further. That’s why he thinks of me as trash and wants no part of me!

“Even if a ninth rank universe born of the Skyward master’s comprehension is empty, it can help Fog Mountain take another step forward. So that is a treasure to him. Does he want treasure or trash?”

“......” Void was speechless. I’m not the one who said any of that...

Fog Mountain was a brazen one, alright. The dao chess treasure refined from an eighth rank dao universe was useless in his eyes.

Void looked once more in the direction that the other had left in. It’s not only Li Hao who underestimated him, but I did the same as well. Even though I’ve seen more of the world, I didn’t expect that Fog Mountain would unravel the truth the moment he arrived. I didn’t fathom that he’d understand everything, seize the perfect timing, and reach an agreement with Li Hao in the blink of an eye.

He’s right, what meaning is there in killing Li Hao? If Fog Mountain enters Skyward dao universe and successfully becomes an eighth rank, he’ll be able to seize the ninth rank dao universe and create Fog Mountain world. That’s his ultimate goal!

And he has the capital to do so.

“The Skycloud master...” Void suddenly laughed. “Perhaps Skycloud will lose a premier exalted emperor from this. That’s just as nice! No wonder Fog Mountain wishes to break free and set out on his own. He’s in charge of all errands like these, even though he’s a seventh rank! It’s normal that he wants out.”

Seventh rank was a king anywhere in the universe. But perhaps the Skycloud master trusted Fog Mountain too much, or thought so highly of him that Fog Mountain was in charge of all things, big or small.

It was why Void had known that it was most likely Fog Mountain who would be sent to Skyward after the commotion took place. Clearly, the seventh rank wasn’t willing to act in this capacity.

Now that was most interesting!

Anyone else might’ve ran off to chase Li Hao, but anyone else might not have noticed that something was amiss.

“The current state of the chaos is rather curious,” the shadow remarked. “It has been many years since I’ve last ventured out. Apparently there is also a New Martial that is quite intriguing.”

Void didn’t respond—he closed his eyes in continued cultivation. It is interesting... but I’m too weak at the moment. The chaos will be more interesting once I reach seventh rank.

I wonder if you know all this, Li Hao. If you don’t reach mid rank this time, you’ll probably be hard pressed to do anything else. It won’t be interesting then.

......

When Fog Mountain left Demon Summit, he raised his eyes to the sky with a smile. Youngsters are so very fun! I hope that this region becomes more lively as well. I’m not betraying you, world master. It’s just that... I’m a seventh rank, alright? It’s too tiring running around all the time. I hope that someone else runs errands for me in the future. I need to enter closed door cultivation too!

......

The chaos was still full of wonders that didn’t just involve killing. Void and Fog Mountain were all fascinating characters, and they weren’t the only ones. The leader of Dragon Observatory that Li Hao wished to kill was equally riveting.

Now that the young man thought about it, this was a merchant who treated cultivation as a business. From the free guides he arranged at the southern gate and free cultivation resources for exalted emperors, all of these plans indicated that the faction leader was actually a business person.

The chaos was not simply filled with violence as Li Hao might have expected. It wasn’t a place that only brimmed with conquest.

Of course, anything fun and interesting was predicated on the basis of sufficient strength.

Void was the son of an eighth rank and he himself was a fifth rank. He had the right to find the chaos to be fun and interesting.

Fog Mountain was a seventh rank. That in itself gave him the right to find everything fun.

The leader of Dragon Observatory was a sixth rank with Skycloud behind him; he had the right as well.

Only Li Hao lacked the sufficient qualification. Did he count as a third rank of great perfection with New Martial behind him?

Perhaps!

If New Martial wasn’t fighting Red Moon, then it would be an immense patron for the young man. The key was that New Martial dared go to war with an eighth rank world. In that way, New Martial became Li Hao’s restraint instead.

Fog Mountain’s words had helped Li Hao understand one thing—the weak were not qualified to scheme against the strong.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t do so, but that they needed to pay too high of a price to do so. They needed to consider too much and required too much time. It wasn’t as if the enemy would fall for the ploy with just one single trick.

Take the fake dao universe, for example. Given enough time, Li Hao could absolutely make it more realistic. When those in the know plotted against the unsuspecting, it was possible to ensnare a high rank.

But, where would he get so much time and energy from? With that amount of bandwidth on his hands, he could break through to another level.

Li Hao avoided the usual routes that Red Moon would take in the chaos. He searched for an uninhabited area out of the way, a spot in which there weren't even worlds nearby. Here, he sat down cross-legged to cultivate.

Since the path of yin and yang could not be easily obtained, he would switch to another one. Emptiness and revitalization, light and dark, and the five elements were viable options. The critical question was, which was more suited?

Which one would help him enter sixth rank after he entered fourth rank?

Just as first rank to third rank was a simple accumulation of energy, he likewise needed a correct path throughout the process. His bridges of life and death, for example, were the way to ascension.

After becoming a fourth rank, he would need to consider how to enter sixth rank. Whichever would be successful was the way, not whichever was the strongest.

In Li Hao’s eyes, the other daos were similar if yin and yang were not on the table. Granted, emptiness might be a little more suited since the two were somewhat of the same origin as life and death.

Strictly speaking, emptiness was death and revitalization was life. Perhaps they originated from the same source.

These two daos were also verified from Void’s side. He’d attained some minor enlightenment just on the path of revitalization itself. That alone was sufficient to instantly recover Li Hao’s strength... the implications were terrifying!

It made one a super team healer!

Li Hao wanted to learn it for himself so he could heal himself. How nice would that be?

The dao of emptiness was one that killed and an extreme crowd control method that could conceal a chaos tribulation. If it wasn’t a chaos tribulation being too strong, regular exalted emperors might not sense anything if they stood right next to a chaos tribulation contained within a field of emptiness.

Such were the terrifying aspects of this dao.

“It’s just that Void himself isn’t too clear on the dao of revitalization. It’ll be even harder for me.”

Li Hao had seen much of the world—he’d experienced dao chess, met some Skyward exalted emperors, observed New Martial’s rise, witnessed some of their sophisticated battle methods, conversed with the son of an eighth rank...

High ranks were typically hard to find, but he’d come in contact with many thanks to a variety of methods. When it came to breadth of knowledge, many sixth ranks were less than him.

But sometimes, comprehending dao came down to fortune and opportunity. It also depended on experience and timing. He’d been alive for too short a period of time and simply witnessed many things instead of living them.

Void had lived for one thousand years—how old was Li Hao? He might not be able to gain a better understanding of emptiness and revitalization compared to Void.

My goal is simply to enter fourth rank...

Li Hao came to a decision. He was going to walk the paths of emptiness and revitalization, continuing the paths of life and death.

Light and dark, as well as the five elements were all good. It wasn’t that he thought any less of them or that he didn’t know them, but that whether it was light and dark or the five elements, they weren’t necessarily a good fit for life and death.

The five elements had come under strong consideration due to the Five Styles.

The idea had occurred to him long ago that if he cultivated the Five Styles and comprehended the five auras, then he could cultivate the five elements with a ferocious tiger in his heart. That was an idea as well.

He possessed the comprehensions of water and fire at the moment, one from a sixth rank, the other from a seventh rank.

But after some thought, Li Hao relinquished the notion.

If he made the five elements his major dao, then he would have to collect vast sums of the energy in the future. The five elements were a mainstream dao and the major dao of his teacher. If there was a chance for his teacher and the others to become exalted emperors, they would need a vast sum of elemental energy as well.

If all them cultivated the five styles, then the resources he had on hand would not be sufficient.