Star Gate-Chapter 1635: The Most Romantic Thing (III)

Li Hao waved his hand when a thought struck him. The secluded Lin Hongyu suddenly appeared on the spot. She opened her eyes and looked around with confusion, then settled on Li Hao.

“What do you sense?” He looked back at her.

She extended her senses without question. Bafflement started rising in her face.

“That’s... strange,” she said slowly after a while. “Is this... a... world?”

“Yes,” Li Hao nodded, “What do you sense?”

“What do I sense?” Lin Hongyu mulled over her response and whispered, “It... feels like... hell...”

She couldn’t articulate it, but she could feel some presence of death. All things were dying! This world was dying as well.

“This world is dead!” Li Hao confirmed.

A world could die?

Lin Hongyu stared. A world would either be silent or destroyed, what did it mean that a world was dead?

“C’mon, I’ll take you to another minor world,” the young man said after rapid thought. “You missed out on a chance last time, more’s the pity. Senior Number Two should come with us. You’ll have another small fish to eat!”

Number Two stretched lazily, knowing what Li Hao sought. The young man wanted to let Lin Hongyu see the difference between life and death. While she walked the path of life and death, her understanding of the dao was... very shallow.

Li Hao was similar, but at least he understood more than Lin Hongyu.

Since the young man had another minor world, he summoned it and took Lin Hongyu and Number Two into it. He quickly arrived in front of the world origin.

Lin Hongyu immediately detected the problem and difference between the two worlds. This world was alive! There was life in it!

She blinked, a living world.

“Eat it, senior!”

“This isn’t part of my request...” Number Two looked at the young man. I just wanted ten fish, is this one free?

“I’m giving it to the senior for a taste!”

“Then this cat will eat it!” It would be nice to snack on something.

This time, it didn’t jump toward the world origin. It flew over, landed on it, and swallowed it with one gulp.

“Immerse yourself in the world and sense its changes!” Li Hao quickly commanded. Lin Hongyu promptly followed suit.

It took only a moment, but the world seemed to die in an instant. The entire world was dead. Horror spread over her face!

A world really could die!

It hadn’t broken or been annihilated, but died! So this... was death?

She thought back to the sensation she’d had moments ago. The presence of life and death shifted over her. She’d been cultivating all of these days and wanted to force her way into second rank. It wouldn’t be hard to accomplish that feat, but she somehow felt... that it wasn’t the real dao of life or death.

Her dao seemed to be only an ornament; it didn’t seem that different from that of others.

The strength of an exalted emperor of life and death was completely self-contained. Li Hao hadn’t demonstrated too much at first. He had too many abilities to call upon and time as his primary strength, so it was fine if his dao of life and death flew under the radar.

But now, Lin Hongyu was unwilling. What good was an exalted emperor of life and death without their own defining characteristics? What difference was there between her and a regular first or second rank? Did this kind of exalted emperor dare say that they were one of life and death?

Therefore, Li Zhu had said that day that Li Hao’s dao of life and death was too shallow! All he could do was supply some qi of life and death!

Lin Hongyu felt the same way as well. They said that exalted emperors of life and death were strong, but she was supposed to be one... And Li Hao didn’t count in her eyes, he was just there to perfect his dao of time. She was the only exalted emperor of life and death in the true sense of the notion.

But she didn’t have any advantages to speak of when facing the first rank Mo, and the latter was a wandering cultivator! If Lin Hongyu encountered second rank Cicada, she might very well be defeated by the man.

What was the point of an exalted emperor of life and death who couldn’t even handle a wandering cultivator one level higher than her? They were both low ranks, there was no major divide in cultivation levels to consider.

It was also exceedingly difficult for her to cultivate. Thus far, it seemed that having multiple lives was the only advantage to walking this path. However, there was a price associated with that as well.

Lin Hongyu identified some of the peculiarities of life and death in this moment, but... they were hazy and indistinct. A veil separated them from her full understanding. She tried again and again, her presence changing, life and death qi swirling over her.

In the end, she frowned and looked at Li Hao with some regret. “I... ah... don’t think to have comprehended anything... I’m sorry!”

She seemed to have wasted an opportunity!

A minor world was worth one million dao crystals, which was the equivalent of expending the life of a first rank for one chance at comprehension. Not even rich second gens could endure such an expenditure; she hadn’t gleaned everything from Li Hao’s efforts.

“I’d be an idiot if you attained something after one try!” Li Hao smiled. “This is very normal. Let’s go slowly. I don’t know much about the dao of life and death either—I only got to some conclusions after studying it a few times.

“This was just a minor world! We can lay hands on a hundred of them and study one per day. We’ll figure out the true nature of the great dao one day!”

Nothing was being wasted in this process, either. The young man suddenly realized how nice minor worlds were!

Number Two could eat fish, he and Lin Hongyu could comprehend life and death, stillness and revitalization. He could even study their great dao and further enhance his worlds. The remaining impurities and whatever they didn’t want could then go to Panther.

A single minor world was so much better than ten million dao crystals! This was such a good trade!

All the same, Lin Hongyu remained very dejected that she hadn’t learned anything from Li Hao’s enormous expenditure. A world had died to help her understand life and death, but she still hadn’t managed to achieve it!

“Staying in seclusion all the time is very boring,” Li Hao suddenly laughed. “Sometimes you need a stroke of inspiration, a moment of brilliance! Let’s go do something fun!”

“What?” asked the mystified woman.

Number Two suddenly stretched out its paws and covered its eyes, mumbling, “You guys have fun, I won’t look.”

“......” Li Hao was absolutely speechless. He couldn’t be bothered to dignify that with a response.

The cat seemed to be more lively lately... it’d been too quiet before. It talked more now and had more thoughts swirling through its mind. It wasn’t as pure and innocent as it once was.

“Let’s dismantle some worlds for fun!” laughed the young man. “The worlds are very interesting! Countless great daos form a net—I’ll take you on some teardowns and move the dao strength into my minor worlds!

“If possible, I’d like to trace how the net of dao for a world is formed. Senior Number Two, will that summon a chaos tribulation?”

“It most likely will!” said the cat. “You better not try it. Granted, the tribulation won’t be immediately upon you like before, so you’ll probably be able to conceal yourself from it. But next time, it’ll be even stronger!”

“That’s alright, then!” laughed Li Hao. “I’ll take you guys back to see how the net of great dao is formed. How does it appear, what is its structure? Then we’ll personally get involved and dismantle it, then rebuild it. This is much more direct than any study of great dao!”

What was the point in just looking?

We should go for practical application! The net of dao is a chemical reaction. We have to experiment and try for ourselves!

This wasn’t an opportunity available to just anyone. Even seventh ranks wouldn’t be so ludicrous as to treat a world as an experimental subject.

Lin Hongyu was quite jubilant. Some exalted emperors may not encounter such a chance in their entire lives. Some seventh or eighth ranks might never see how a dao web was formed, much less regular exalted emperors.

The birth of a world was a very secret affair. It took a monumental stroke of fortune and coincidence for one to bear witness to it.

“C’mon, let’s try with this minor world. I’ll trace its past to gaze upon the point of its origin. We can’t look at the world origin itself, but we can watch how dao appears after the world is formed...”

Looking upon the world origin would be the end of him. It was better to see how the net of dao was formed after the birth of a world. That was much simpler.

Li Hao was a man of action and undertook the deed as soon as he thought of it. The star of time reappeared once more. Nowadays, he utilized this power more for exploration. While each instance demanded a large consumption of resources, Li Hao found joy in using his strength this way. Borrowing strength to kill others before had been such a losing proposition.

The entire world suddenly sank into a murky miasma. Whether it was Number Two or Lin Hongyu, they seemed to accompany Li Hao back to an exceedingly old age...

They didn’t truly travel back in time. If that was the case, Li Hao would need more than ten lives to survive such a trip. It was normal that the birth of a world would take place hundreds of thousands, even hundreds of millions of years ago. The young man would never dare really take them to the past.

He was only targeting the dao net, anyhow.

The overview of dao soon vanished from everyone’s eyes. Li Hao had materialized it for them. Lin Hongyu could see that the world was murky and undefined; it seemed to be completely empty.

A path of dao was suddenly born in the world, stretching onward like a silk thread!

It was... the dao of fire!

“So the first dao of this world was the dao of fire!” Li Hao was rather surprised. “It looks like a living being must have discovered fire, utilized it, and gave birth to the dao of fire!”

Nothing else had appeared in front of him, but Li Hao could speculate what had happened. One of this world’s denizens must have set foot onto the path of cultivation after life appeared, which paved the way for the dao of fire to be born!

Time flowed at a very fast pace, a second dao abruptly appeared in the void. It ran parallel to the first dao and did not touch it. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“Death... have they... comprehended death?” Li Hao was confused. What about life?

Was it the world origin?

It looked like this world had first comprehended fire, then death, but the two had nothing to do with each other.

Multiple other daos began appearing in quick succession as a culture of cultivation flourished. The net of dao began to weave upon itself. Even Number Two watched intently. It’d never seen the birthing process of a minor world’s dao net before.