Star Gate-Chapter 1623: Want to Eat Fish (III)

“It’ll be fine!” Li Hao transmitted. “What he wields at present is just a tattered sixth rank dao universe! Once you guys really do break through, give me your dao river and I’ll give you the dao of a minor world. That will do! I can temporarily take control of the dao river and prevent slip-ups this way.”

The young man could temporarily take over the dao river and dao universe. So long as the star of time could be used to trace the past, then he would be able to continue wielding control over the dao universe.

However, Li Hao wasn’t able to fully control it anymore either. The dao universe was greatly tied to Hong Yitang and Gan Wuliang after the two became exalted emperors. It would be difficult for him to fully exert control if the two dao masters didn’t cooperate.

The only alternative was to kill the two dao masters.

But if the two agreed and Li Hao temporarily employed the star of time, then no problems would develop for a while. So long as the star of time didn’t trace anything too out of the norm and Li Hao employed the dao of hiding when he used the power, then there wouldn’t be even a chaos tribulation.

Not to mention, the real dao universe wasn’t on the premises. The two dao masters were just wielding the river of a myriad daos. The real dao universe was with Silver Moon.

Hong Yitang was more at ease after Li Hao’s response. Otherwise, there would be no helping their exposure.

“Then... do we keep killing considering how everyone’s on guard against us?”

“We wait!” said Li Hao. “Wait until we digest all of our gains! It’d be a waste if we don’t. We’ll absorb them all and then resolve those guys one by one!”

“Alright!” The group didn’t say anything else.

Li Hao quickly divvied up the dao crystals. The two dao masters each received fifty million. Since no one else wanted any, he assigned them all to Panther.

Panther was the master of the world and had long reached second rank. It’d even devoured the body of a third rank last time. Third rank was within reach for itself after it obtained a bit more energy.

Silver Moon was a mid world these days, this should not be the limit of their strength. All they lacked to advance was energy.

......

Li Hao was very busy as well. Fifty million dao crystals was sufficient for him to perfect the development of some minor worlds. He also needed to support Lin Hongyu with some energy. Since she cultivated life and death... Li Hao did not wish for her to go to the effort of reinventing the wheel. His thoughts were that she could just copy him!

She could start with building bridges of life and death. Once she succeeded with three hundred and sixty bridges, that would place her at grand perfection of third rank. She would be quite strong then.

Lin Hongyu... was the equivalent of Void back in the day. He had an eighth rank dad arranging his way, she has me. There won’t be too many shackles for her to deal with.

Li Hao was now a fourth rank and his dao river was extremely strong. It was sufficient to support Lin Hongyu reaching third rank.

Apart from them, there was another person to consider—Zhang An!

Zhang An was yet to even become an exalted emperor. He was still cultivating two daos—one of Silver Moon, the other of core origin. Currently, he was in seclusion in the dao river.

One had to be frank, this continued failure to advance... was beginning to demonstrate how useless he was.

Li Hao ran some calculations and decided that he would discuss this in detail with Zhang An after he absorbed these dao crystals. The grandson of the supreme was highly knowledgeable; it shouldn’t be hard for him to become an exalted emperor.

While Zhang An appeared genteel and removed from the conflicts of the world... he also had quite the ambition. It was his refusal to give up cultivating the book of dao that continuously barred him from advancing.

The core origin dao of New Martial and new dao of Silver Moon were a good fit with each other, but also not the best fit. Being unwilling to give up either one and wanting to integrate the heritages of two dao universes into entering the exalted emperor level... was harder than ascending the heavens.

......

Li Hao did not mind how the outside world might judge or be wary of him. He began walking his own path.

The river within the longsword trembled as the young man once more established some minor worlds. Although they were very small, they were his foundation. Once all of the daos in the river had become worlds and the worlds were strong, that was when his dao would have reached great perfection.

Li Hao was in no hurry to set foot into fifth rank. Whether it was fourth or sixth rank, they were just part of the process in crafting his foundation. He would go with the flow. So long as there were enough world domains and the river was strong enough, he would naturally set foot into fifth or sixth rank!

Seventh rank, as well, although there wasn’t much hope for that at the moment.

Based on his current progress, he would find it difficult to ascend even if he comprehended yin and yang or time when he reached sixth rank.

It might require the completion of a myriad worlds and an integration between worlds to construct a major world. Li Hao had no idea when that might come around. He’d felt that seventh rank was possible before. But now... they could wait and see.

The river rippled within the Firmament Sword. Minor worlds—Li Hao felt embarrassed to call them that. Minor domains... little black houses began appearing in the waters.

Fifty million dao crystals had established five minor worlds! It was clear to see from that just how densely concentrated the energy within the dao crystals were.

On Li Hao’s side, every minor world needed shoring up, the river needed to be replenished somewhat, and the minor worlds needed to continue operating the breathing method. These were enormous drains on his resources!

The young man sometimes felt that he’d created an enormous hassle for himself in imitating the chaos and creating a myriad of worlds. It was a depletion of his reserves that could not be fully replenished from the chaos. When would the work be finished and these things would become real world domains?

......

Within the river.

Number Two looked on silently. It slept very little these days, spending most of the time stabilizing the river.

Li Hao was increasingly pulling on the river as his number of world domains increased, but did so in an unbalanced fashion. He needed a powerhouse to suppress it. Since the young man lacked that much time and stamina, he had to ask the cat for help.

Number Two was finding the task more troublesome as time went on. But since it had offered and claimed it was a minor matter... There was no backing out once it was in the thick of things, no matter how much of a hassle everything was.

A cat could find itself in over its head in the martial world sometimes. However, admiration also shone out of its eyes as it watched various minor worlds take shape. There was just... one problem.

It was still a second rank; this level of strength was starting to prove insufficient to control the river with. Although Li Hao was fourth rank, he was making steady headway on this path. At this rate, fifth or sixth rank would not be a bottleneck for the young man. If the river was still unstable then, the cat would have a hard time doing anything.

Big Cat should be peak seventh rank now, right? Perhaps even almost eighth rank?

Meanwhile, Number Two had maintained the same level of cultivation it always had. It was very strong in that pocket of space in the past, the equivalent of an emperor-level powerhouse in that age.

But after entering the chaos, a second rank cat was not strong enough.

Meow... I’m not here to fight.

But it could see Lin Hongyu repeatedly tempering herself in the distance with the qi of life and death. These people were continuously cultivating and improving themselves. Only the cat spent its days sleeping ever since its revitalization—it’d never cultivated.

But my... cultivation methods... are different from theirs.

The cat turned its gaze to the burgeoning worlds. Should it walk the same path that big cat did?

That wasn’t what it wanted.

The big cat was it and also not it at the same time. Big Cat was Big Cat, it walked its own path. And I... don’t think I should imitate Big Cat or follow in its footsteps.

Big Cat was the bearer of Yin and Yang. Number Two felt that if it asked, Li Hao would be willing to let it bear the river as well.

But then I would be a copy of Big Cat.

Although it originated from Big Cat, Number Two didn’t want to become Big Cat. Just as the Exalted Blood Emperor didn’t wish to be the War Sovereign, and neither did War want someone to make themselves a copy of the predecessor.

I am the past and the future. I was born of time and illusion...

Number Two had always known what path it should take. But sometimes, it didn’t want to proceed down that road. Its thoughts were more complicated as it thought more deeply than Big Cat. The big cat never dwelled on these matters.

Although Big Cat was ferocious beyond compare and looked intimidating, it lived a very simple life. The Human King took very good care of it. All it did was fight and eat fish. Everything else was the same as it’d always been. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

It’s not Big Cat that’s changed, but me that’s changed.

It was never the big cat, that one was the same as it’d always been. Killing people was just a cat eating fish to Big Cat. It was no big deal.

It’s really me that’s changed.

“Li Hao!”

A figure appeared within the river at the summons. The young man was busy rushing to and fro, as well as establishing new minor worlds. However, he made sure to respond as soon as he heard the cat.

“Does the senior need something?” he asked with puzzlement. Number Two very rarely called for him. Did the cat want to go to sleep?

Did it find suppressing the river too tiring?

Surely not.

“This cat would like to eat fish!” Number Two said after a moment of silence.

Fish?

Li Hao blinked, then shuddered. I know what you mean by fish.

“Eh, ah, um, senior... I’ll... um... I’ll kill some people when I have time and turn them into fish...”

Number Two rolled its eyes, wordless disgust in its massive eyes. “I’m not Big Cat!”

“......” What does that mean?

“I am illusory, do you understand?” said the cat after another moment of silence.

Li Hao blinked again, then nodded. I see.

Number Two was one part of the Ash Emperor’s past, then made real in the present through the War Sovereign’s unique methods. That was how it’d become Number Two.

To be frank, Li Hao was quite confused and in awe of this accomplishment. How could one achieve this?

The cat being illusory was... very true.

“So the senior means...”

“I am illusory and not a real existence of the chaos!” the cat said softly. “Illusory entities nourish me, so I need the spirit of illusions! The best food for me is pure life force.”

“So I will kill people and extract their life force...” Li Hao understood.

“No!” The cat’s temper was starting to flare. Why was this dummy like the Human King? Why did they only have the idea of killing people?