Star Gate-Chapter 1581: Chance Encounter (III)

Large sums of powerhouses rushed toward Skyward on this day. Li Hao’s group proceeded in a diametrically opposite direction.. They traveled away from Skyward and rushed toward Red Moon Region.

Everything could wait until Li Hao was reunited with his people.

It wasn’t until they’d put a long distance between themselves and Skyward that the young man sat down cross-legged once more. Only now did he have the energy to spare for comprehending more things, including the dao method that the stranger had previously traded with him.

“Stealing the sky to substitute a fake sun... Ah...” The more Li Hao mediated over it, the more astonished he was. This dao method was extraordinary!

He’d been acquainted with similar dao methods before—they were simple ones of concealing one’s presence or body. Li Hao knew all those, but it wasn’t feasible to hide from the chaos tribulation through such techniques.

This method, however, would enable him to do so.

After a close perusal, he came to some initial conclusions. This dao method... did not originate from the core origin dao universe! No wonder he hadn’t sensed that familiar presence. He was familiar enough with core origin.

This dao method came from the chaos!

“This person is a chaos wanderer!” Li Hao realized with astonishment. So was this the Li Zhu of his speculation or not? If that was, was Li Zhu not a core origin cultivator?

But this dao method seemed to have broken away from core origin and was not rooted in that dao universe. It was rooted in the great daos of the chaos instead, forming a dao domain similar to Li Hao’s river.

While there were differences, their overall function was the same. They were both in pursuit of creating one’s own world and domain.

Stealing the sky to substitute the sun... This dao method utilized the characteristics of establishing a domain to hide oneself from the connection with the chaos. It severed one from the chaos and broke off its connection with the universe. Hence, that enabled one to avoid a chaos tribulation.

So chaos tribulations spring from my connection with the chaos?

Li Hao felt that this must be so after some thought. He’d been struck by thunder tribulations before in Silver Moon, but they hadn’t occurred with such regularity. They also fell apart when he struck them with time.

He’d been hit by a chaos tribulation only when the Star Gate had been about to open. Some of the tribulation had seeped in through the cracks to stretch toward the world.

So did this mean to say that because of his connection with the chaos, it caused the power of time to seep into the universe and bring the thunder and lightning down on his head?

Then... do I only need to isolate time within my domain to avoid further trouble from chaos tribulations?

Inspiration sprang forth. The other’s dao methods were incredible, that was one point. Another point was that it made Li Hao think on a level deeper and want to avoid the chaos tribulation entirely.

The issue came down to the power of time emanating through the river. It seemed to somewhat solve the problem when he plugged either end with Number Two and the Star Gate. However, that hadn’t been enough.

The entire river was leaking to the outside world. It hadn’t been isolated enough.

“Therefore, the river needs to be sealed away even more! I should integrate the domain into the river, comprehend all sorts of dao related to supernatural characters, use them as domains, and fully seal off the waters!

“I happen to want to understand more dao and form more stars. Three hundred and sixty aren’t enough. I should know more daos, strengthen emptiness and revitalization, and complete the world of the river!”

The person’s dao methods solidified Li Hao’s thoughts. This had been his previous plan, but he hadn’t been able to determine before if he could really isolate himself from the chaos. Now someone had proven to him, he could!

So long as he severed the connection between himself and the chaos, the tribulation would not come for him.

“It’d be interesting if that person really was the one from New Martial. These premier New Martial heavyweights have stronger dao methods than I think!” Li Hao was surprised by the encounter. New Martial had shattered some of his preconceptions again.

In the eyes of outsiders, all New Martial heavyweights lacked an appropriately deep understanding of dao. But when it came down to it, Supreme Zhang’s book of dao was one of a myriad daos coming together as one.

The Sword Sovereign’s Eternal Sword was one of a myriad daos coming together as one.

The Human King had also combined yin and yang!

If this person was Li Zhu, then he’d separated himself from the New Martial core origin universe and entered the chaos. He cultivated the mix of daos in the chaos, but somehow felt similar to Li Hao in that he was perfecting his own little world.

The domain!

This person’s dao methods were not weak in the slightest. They were much stronger than some of the sixth ranks that Li Hao had seen before. Didn’t they say that New Martial heavyweights had subpar comprehension when it came to the great dao?

Li Hao shook his head, looking at Number Two, then at Gan Wuliang. Finally, his gaze rested on Panther. Who said these guys didn’t know dao?

The young man was yet to meet the Exalted Blood Emperor and the rest. Perhaps they would be different from rumors as well. New Martial was quite an extraordinary place.

Its citizens had entered the chaos for only one thousand years, but many of them were sixth ranks, to say nothing of the seventh ranks. Void was also one thousand years old. Didn’t that mean to say that they were all similar to Void?

“Celestial Pole misled me!” Li Hao suddenly said. Celestial Pole gave me the misconception that all New Martial exalted emperors suck at comprehending the great dao. That they have no special understanding and can be summed up with one concept—a bull in a china shop!

Granted, he’d come to similar conclusions himself when he visited New Martial. But now, the young man’s mentality changed. What he saw wasn’t necessarily real.

Not to mention, he had only followed Zhang An into the man’s past. Zhang An had been a minor character then and hadn’t fully understood some things. Perhaps his impression of the Human King was also wrong.

The Human King gave Li Hao the image of someone brash, impulsive, brazen, and crazy...

But combining the yin and yang daos was not something that a mad cultivator could do. Perhaps Li Hao was carrying too many prejudices against the ancient civilization.

And that Sun God...

He’d neared seventh rank before New Martial had even appeared in the chaos. Now that had also been an extraordinary feat in itself.

Yet these people had all been martial brutes in Li Hao’s eyes. Was that true?

More thoughts rose in his mind, but Li Hao set them aside. He would have a chance to meet them in the future. It was time for him to officially set foot into fourth rank.

The domain of emptiness materialized and two stars began to combine in the river of life and death. A peculiar strength of body dao also began to rise from Li Hao’s body. Next to him, Crimson Cloud’s corpse crumbled away.

It’d been in a tattered condition to begin with, but now the condensed energy began to assimilate into the river as well. The strength of a sixth rank would save Li Hao a lot of time in his ascension.

Vast sums of fire energy melded into the young man’s dao. A sentence still reverberated in his mind—humans create dao.

Didn’t that mean that humans were also the creators of time? That they’d created time, space, life and death?

But... didn’t these concepts exist from the very beginning?

Li Hao continuously turned over the idea in his mind—not thinking of any particular conspiracy, just wondering if his dao of time really wasn’t complete enough. It was missing too much and this was possibly just a foundation.

Some people laid the foundation after comprehending dao. It was up to them how the rest of the building would be built. The foundation was very important, but how the rest of the structure looked—a mansion or a cottage, a traditional courtyard with houses on all sides or a skyscraper, or even a shack—all of that was up to oneself.

Whether it was life and death or all of the others, they were just the foundation. Meanwhile, he perfected it bit by bit, building the house brick by brick.

“I’m so far behind compared to them!” Whether he compared himself to Li Zhu or Fog Mountain, or even Void, Li Hao found himself rather inferior.

If these guys strolled through dao chess, even the weakest of Void might make it past six thousand squares. It went without saying that Fog Mountain could manage it, and the fellow daoist that’d just made Li Hao’s acquaintance might match Fog Mountain.

All of these people had the potential to enter seventh rank. The current Li Hao was not yet on their level. He was just a little short of the goal.

He understood a lot of dao, but not deeply enough. His foundations were a little insufficient. If he entered seventh rank right now, he would find it hard to take a single step. The fire energy that he’d borrowed before let him firmly know that he was just a false seventh rank!

A real seventh rank would never be as he was.

The two stars intersected within the river and slowly began to meld together. A large sum of energy was depleted and some of it leaked out, but none of it was wasted. Panther and Gan Wuliang devoured everything they came across, downing however much energy that dissipated through the void.

Strength from a sixth rank was an enormous treasure to them! Even dredges expelled by Li Hao were a marvelous feast.

A long time after.

Boom!

A loud explosion rang out as the river shook violently. Stars sparkled with light and the severed bridges of life and death reformed, quickly recovering. The entire river began expanding rapidly, traversing the entire world!

The power of emptiness and death intermixed within the river. However, the power of revitalization was a bit weak. Void could produce a blade of grass at the end of the day. When Li Hao tried, he couldn’t even manage the roots, much less grass.

As the power of revitalization flowed into his body, Li Hao shook his head after tasting it. He’d just consumed the energy of revitalization and also wanted to recover other types of energy. But as it turned out, the results were less than ideal. His were far inferior to Void being able to recover a fake seventh rank’s strength with his own of a fifth rank.

My comprehension isn’t enough, I need to grow stronger!

Although he’d familiarized himself with a lot of daos in the dao chess, he’d exercised prudence and caution as he didn’t wish to bite off more than he could chew. This time, he could try coalescing some stars of major daos.

He would then collect them as supernatural characters and turn the river into a massive region of assorted daos.

This would be the prototype of a world!

“Dao is made from people, as are the worlds and dao universes...” He understood this concept more than Void did.