Yuan Shuo’s presence and strength were still growing. He swiftly broke through to second rank and continued unabated to third rank. This speed eclipsed the others, including those who’d become exalted emperors before him.

Some rankled at his show of might!

But... there was nothing to do but bow their heads to the circumstances. It was depressing.

Yuan Shuo was the first exalted emperor, apart from Li Hao, to establish a dao domain before verifying his dao. Even Li Hao hadn’t formed his prior to becoming an exalted emperor. The audience could only begrudgingly accept what was happening.

They might grumble on the surface, but were inwardly admiring. Yuan Shuo had become a third rank in one day, after all. What could one say about that? They didn’t even have the capacity to be jealous.

While the rest of the audience didn’t have snarky comments to offer, Yu Luocha suddenly snorted. “My director is sure to establish a dao domain before taking another step forward on his cultivation!”

“......” While Hou Xiaochen looked blandly at everyone snapping their gazes to him, the hand behind his back was clenched so tightly that the knuckles were white. Um... I... what do I say to that?

“Very good!” Yuan Shuo roared with laughter, “I’ll wait for you, Hou Xiaochen!”

“......” Wait my ass!

Hou Xiaochen blinked noncommittally. Don’t wait for me. Go wait for someone else if you want. You’re so damn annoying and I knew that a long time ago. But you’re still just as annoying as ever!

You should’ve been stuck at half step emperor for the rest of your life. That kept you nice and quiet. But now? Ugh.

“Congratulations, teacher!” Li Hao interrupted before the situation got out of hand. “However... the upkeep of a dao domain is not easy. Since the teacher has ascended, you can figure out how to feed it with dao strength in the future!”

I was just having a hell of a headache at the thought of having to support another dao domain. Since you’re insisting on showing off... you can do it yourself. The Sword Sovereign formed his to verify his dao as a seventh rank and absorbed another seventh rank major world for it.

You’ve just a third rank right now. Entering sixth rank will be a major hassle for you, and seventh rank? You’ll probably have to absorb an eighth rank major world!

Yuan Shuo immediately fell silent. He looked at his disciple, then at Jadelight Sword with her eyes glittering in worship. He curled his lip. Fine, fine I’ll do it myself! Bah. So you’re jealous of me too, huh? Pfft.

Yuan Shuo completed the breakthrough and destroyed the chaos tribulation as the rest of the group chatted. Void was starting to be rather impressed by the strength shown by the Silver Moon group! They looked weak, but were absolutely forces to be reckoned with.

Even Hu Qingfeng, the current butt of everyone’s jokes, had an extremely unique dao. No one would dare underestimate him. Li Hao wasn’t truly invincible yet. If he did reach that level one day, then perhaps Hu Qingfeng would have created a dao that others were hard pressed to surpass!

There truly had been no exalted emperor who ever made their dao on the basis of worshipping another. Exalted emperors, even an eighth rank, didn’t need that from anyone. In Void’s eyes, Hu Qingfeng might be the most unique existence among all the worlds!

“Alright, let’s hurry and clean up the battlefield. We need to collect the world strength drifting around and absorb the dao strength. Gan Wuliang, Martial Uncle Hong, you guys should gather the scattered dao strength. Several dozen exalted emperors will lay the base for Silver Moon to reach sixth rank, if not propel the world all the way.

“We need to continue onward after we finish up here. We’ll sweep through all of the nearby worlds and enter Dragon major world’s sphere of influence. We’ll swallow all of the worlds around it!”

Everyone snapped to attention!

This was just the beginning. Li Hao was going to invade all of the worlds around Dragon major world first. Given that there were nearly one thousand worlds around Phoenix major world and even more around Dragon, the young man seemed determined to enter sixth rank before doing anything else this time.

“Clean up the battlefield!” Hong Yitang’s order sent everyone moving out. Teams picked up exalted emperor corpses, dao crystals scattered nearby, broken worlds, drifting gusts of dao strength...

All of it was quickly digested. Panther roamed through the battlefield like a sprite. No one gave it instructions, it kept to the shadows and helped out wherever it could. In this moment, everyone seemed to find their reason for living. Broad smiles spread across faces!

Li Hao grinned widely as well, absorbing dao and world strength to fill his worlds.

At the same time, Number Two also wandered around the premises, devouring whatever world origin it found. It did so without embarrassment, despite not having participated in the battle. It would be responsible for ferrying the sixth rank world to come. That was a lot of manual labor! How could it accomplish the task if it was starving?

I’m going to eat!

Everyone was highly satisfied with the outcome of the situation.

......

At the same time, Phoenix major world.

Thunder World was still biding its time. The Phoenix master was the one becoming impatient. She urgently wished to seize Thunder World.

Some of Thunder World’s denizens were venturing off world, but not enough of them and it wasn’t any of their key figures.

“Eliminate all of Thunder World’s spies on our world and sweep the other worlds for their people,” ordered the Phoenix master. “Do not permit Thunder world to bring back a single piece of dao crystal to their world! I want the Thunder master to personally emerge and make an attempt for them!”

“Understood!”

Phoenix major world had long grasped a layout of Thunder World’s various arrangements on other worlds. At this point, it was time to force the Thunder master to take a risk himself!

He wouldn’t be able to obtain any resources if he didn’t set foot off world and thus, wouldn’t be able to travel through the Thunder Region. If he waited on his world and sent people out, then whoever exited would die. That would force him into action sooner or later!

Their many years of preparation were finally proving fruitful.

The Phoenix master smiled. There’s no place left for you to hide now. I’m going to force you out even if you want to hunker down!

“Reporting to the world master, the Dragon master left orders to search for the human exalted emperor who verified their dao through faith.” Someone rushed up to the Phoenix master. “Someone also glimpsed a giant moon traveling through the void. It seemed to be... heading east.

“That area is now the territory of the Exalted Black Dog Emperor. According to Your Majesty’s instructions, we are not to trespass without sufficient cause. Should we have Black Dog capture this person?”

The Phoenix master looked at Feng Yan. She hadn’t anticipated that the one the Dragon master wanted would head over there.

“It’s a small matter,” she nodded. “Just a first rank. Black Dog is a fifth rank and oversees a territory of one hundred worlds. Send word for him to capture that human, and take them alive!”

“Understood!” It was indeed a minor matter. Granted, it was already high profile enough that the Dragon master wanted the person. But since Black Dog was a fifth rank, the target didn’t stand a chance.

“So they’ve headed in that direction,” frowned the Phoenix master with renewed attention. “That’s very bold of them. Do they think it’s safer there because Dragon major world has just left?

“What a fool!” She shook her head with a laugh. “The Dragon master is wise and brilliant. How would he leave an opening in his backyard? Although there are no seventh rank worlds in Dragon’s sphere of influence these days, there is a peak sixth rank world helmed by a seventh rank world master!”

Indeed, a seventh rank.

It was not a seventh rank world yet only because a dao universe had not been born. The world master was waiting for that to develop. It would then assimilate with the dao universe and perhaps even set foot into peak seventh rank.

This level of strength was not to be underestimated!

Do people really think that there are no heavyweights in residence in Dragon territory anymore? That would be the greatest mistake!

Even a seventh rank would be mired down if they caused battle to break out there, to say nothing of a first rank. Countless other exalted emperors would quickly arrive as reinforcements. No matter how strong the trespasser might be, they would be dead once they were unable to leave!

So general perception seems to be that that area is freely available in the Dragon master’s absence, huh? Hah!

However, that was also a trap that the Dragon master had set. Perhaps the Thunder master might set foot into it. If the Thunder master emerged from his world... Perhaps he might be of the same mindset of avoiding seventh rank major worlds and heading to Dragon’s sphere of influence first.

He might be looking for opportunistic gains. If he gets bogged down instead, that would mean even the heavens are smiling on me!

......

Li Hao wasn’t paying attention to any of this. He furiously absorbed world strength to saturate each of his immaterial worlds. He’d expended so many resources lately that it boggled the mind. Only now were six hundred of his world fully stocked. Only five hundred were on that level before.

If it wasn’t for conquering the four major worlds before, he wouldn’t be a fifth rank. And now, six hundred weren’t enough for the next cultivation level.

He estimated that 1,000 would be enough for him to officially set foot into sixth rank. Comprehension of dao was no longer his bottleneck. It was energy, pure and unlimited energy!

“There’s four hundred more to go...”

Since Phoenix major world was still present within the region, he wouldn’t collect enough energy for his purposes even if he devoured all of the worlds in the surroundings. He would have to look toward the worlds around Dragon major world.

Three days later, numerous fake worlds hovered in the void. Li Hao took all of the exalted emperors with him to where Dragon major world had stood. He didn’t leave a single person on guard.

He would sense it if anyone arrived. He'd set up the river of time here. I don’t believe that the Dragon master can still sense this place after traveling to Blazing Sun or Skyward Region!

Setting up the river meant that he might be able to instantaneously travel through the chaos.

Immaterial worlds studded Black Dog territory, as if real worlds. Li Hao had already left with his people. Panther transported Silver Moon and Number Two steered the sixth rank world of water. A group of exalted emperors moved through the void like a pack of locusts. Each of them were highly excited to be crossing borders and heading toward Dragon major world territory.

We’re coming! Silver Moon will dominate the entire chaos this time!

......

Near Skyward, the Dragon master frowned slightly and tilted his head to look toward the rear. He felt... a vague sense of unease from Dragon Region. Did it come from Thunder World or the five worlds of monster spirits?