Li Hao couldn’t actually kill a draconic seventh rank if one arrived. Not unless he was confident he could avoid the Dragon master’s ensuing hunt.

The young man frowned. This was troublesome! What was the Dragon master doing, sending back a seventh rank at a time when he should be focusing on New Martial?

What a headache!

Li Hao had not yet received word from Skyward. If he had, he would be much more at ease. The revitalization of that major world’s dao universe... and at this point in time... He was all too familiar with Skyward. It would not happen so quickly.

There was absolutely something amiss for it to be taking place now!

And it might very possibly have something to do with New Martial. He would be completely relaxed then.

Hence, it was an enormous pity that Li Hao could not receive messages from Skyward yet. The return of a draconic seventh rank did not instigate panic in him. His only fear was that the other’s arrival would lead to the Dragon master returning!

“Ai...” Li Hao sighed and set the matter out of his mind. He would play it by ear. He could not give up his enterprise here, and he would not. If worst came to worst, he’d make a run for it after reaching sixth rank.

What a damn shame!

He wouldn’t be satisfied with just this if the draconic powerhouse hadn’t returned!

“This sucks!” Li Hao muttered before settling down into meditation. He didn’t care even if more worlds gathered. None of the new arrivals would be that strong. Void was holding down the fort over there, he would be able to take care of them.

What Li Hao needed to focus on was breaking through to sixth rank! If he did so, he was confident that he would be able to truly stand against seventh rank powerhouses. He wouldn’t be a faux seventh rank anymore!

“I need to be faster...” Li Hao set his jaw and transmitted, “Have the queen break through to fourth rank as soon as possible. How many humans have we taken in? Her power of fate is even part of the chaos. Is it all going to waste? Why is she so slow?”

......

Earth Dragon major world.

The queen heard the message as it traveled through the river of time. Almost all Silver Moon exalted emperors could send messages through the river now. It was very convenient for communication.

She almost rolled her eyes. No matter how fast I am, I need some time to digest, alright? First he complains that I’ve given him too much chaos strength, that he’ll burst from it all. Now I’m too slow? He changes his mind so easily!

Are all men like this?

His mind jumps from thought to thought and he’s so damn greedy. You’re absorbing chaos strength at a very fast pace already, alright? How can you think of me being too slow?

“Fourth rank...” mumbled the queen. Her divine nation was very strong, but no matter how fast she was, some time was needed to produce more faith.

Her physical body also wasn’t strong enough. It was startling to buckle under the strain already. She needed some time to fully consolidate her recent gains! All that she’d done lately was advance in cultivation.

Although she was peak third rank now, she knew that her grasp over her cultivation level was too tenuous. Apart from ascending fast, there was almost nothing else she could show for her efforts. The only advantage she had at the moment was that she could devour other chaos daos.

That was it!

She’d wanted to linger at third rank for a bit and temper her physical body, as well as integrate all of her daos together. But now the guy was showing up as a taskmaster!

And seriously, he can eat!

He’s eaten dozens of worlds over the past couple of days, plus the ones before. I’ve seen him eat about one hundred worlds with my own eyes, but he’s still not a sixth rank!

All he does is eat worlds from day to night! Who has ever eaten as many worlds as you??

She took stock of the faith that she’d collected thus far after a round of complaining. She’d been compressing and corralling it before this, and was rather resigned by what Li Hao had said. If she had a choice, she wanted to hold off on entering fourth rank for now.

It might actually be dangerous for her to zoom ahead.

She was almost a pure energy supplier now. Apart from her dao of faith, almost none of her other daos had seen any advancement. If this continued... she would be flattened by any fourth rank she encountered in the chaos, if she wasn’t with Li Hao’s group.

But she had been a force to be reckoned with among her peers before!

Despite such thoughts, the queen didn’t hesitate. A vast quantity of faith surged into her body and a current of sacred energy spread to the four corners. Tens of billions of humans prayed for her! The prayed that their Sky God would always be strong and dominant!

The moon transformed into a moon to illuminate the land. It wasn’t that she wanted to do so, but that her human body was having difficulties supporting this burst of energy. Only in the shape of a moon could she handle it. The moon was the source of her dao origin.

Fourth rank power slowly emanated from the celestial body in the sky.

......

Not far away, Lin Hongyu frowned slightly and looked up from her task of building her hell of death. It wasn’t that she was jealous of the queen catching up in cultivation level, but that she was registering just how wispy that fourth rank strength seemed to be.

It was much inferior compared to Celestial Pole, Pagoda King, and even the defected Xun Ruo.

Although Silver Moon martial masters advanced quickly, they weren’t weaker than their peers. All of them had come in contact with the dao universe a long time ago and their dao had been purified all this time. Their knowledge of the great dao wasn’t poor either.

Li Hao had dismantled a lot of great dao for them. So although they’d improved quickly, they could match the increases in their cultivation level. The queen, however, felt like... her strength would pop with a single poke!

It was too weak!

She might not even be stronger than the third rank Lin Hongyu. One had to know that there was a great gap between third and fourth rank.

“Ling Yue, he’s just talking for the sake of talking. Is there a need to go to these depths to curry favor?” Lin Hongyu transmitted sternly. “He complains like this all the time, but that doesn’t mean you have to immediately break through!”

“None of your business!” The queen couldn’t be bothered with her. I do as I want, what you gonna do about it?? “This queen is a fourth rank now, you’re just a third rank. Mind your manners!”

“You... wouldn’t know a good deed if it bit you in the ass!”

“Pfft, and are you doing a good deed here?”

“Ling Yue, do you think you’re better than me just because you’re a fourth rank?”

“Shut up, old woman!”

“......” The two seemed ready to come to blows!

Lin Hongyu huffed with irritation. She really wanted to decapitate that woman with a single swing!

No one else involved themselves, but they were all solemn. The queen had set foot into fourth rank too quickly. She might explode at this rate!

Although Silver Moon martial masters didn’t have a deep relationship with her, they needed her to rehabilitate all of the humans from the worlds they were seizing. If not, not even an eighth rank world would be able to hold all of these people.

She better not explode!

......

Li Hao also sensed the spontaneous upswell in chaos strength. He raised a brow. I was just saying, but she advanced really quickly!

It’s almost... too quick. She spent only three months to move from half step emperor to fourth rank. This would scare the crap out of anyone who heard it, but it’s not necessarily a good thing. The faster she ascends, the more rootless her strength is and the faster she might die.

“I was just saying...”

The queen was yet to fully consolidate her cultivation level when she forced her way to fourth rank. The power of faith was very tenuous at the moment and couldn’t fully stabilize the divine nation. If that condition persisted, it was only a matter of time before she exploded from overcapacity!

He was starting to regret running his mouth. Why did he have to say that? But since the situation had progressed thus, there was nothing else for him to say.

The queen could not advance in cultivation any further. She needed to be kept at this cultivation level for a while, until her strength steadied. It would be no use to even enter seventh rank at this pace.

Not only would she completely lack all battle strength, but the amount of chaos strength that would explode in response would kill her once his minor worlds were saturated.

As more chaos strength roared through the star of time, Li Hao’s speed in filling his worlds grew faster. His river thundered with energy!

Minor worlds hovered beneath the sky and gradually assembled in the shape of a sword. Time was no longer the core of the sword—it was a star of destruction.

This was a sword of destruction!

The sword of one thousand worlds might be coming to fruition today.

A presence of death wafted over the next moment. Li Hao quirked his brows. Had Lin Hongyu broken through? It’d been a while since she became an exalted emperor, but the timing of her ascension...

It smacked of another forced breakthrough as well. How troublesome!

Why did women have to compete when it came to cultivation advancements as well? It was so pointless. Her hell of death wasn’t complete, so she would have no hope of making it to seventh rank even if she made it to sixth. What was the rush?

Although Li Hao sniffed at their actions, he was feeling quite a sense of urgency. Damn it, all of these people are fourth ranks! Is Silver Moon going to become a sixth rank world as well?

If that happens, then Martial Uncle Hong and Gan Wuliang will both be sixth ranks. I won’t be able to show my face around here if I’m still a fifth rank then!

Li Hao set all thoughts out of his mind and began to furiously absorb dao strength to dismantle the worlds. He transmitted to Void, “Brother Void, keep making sweeps of the worlds. You can go for the ones further out if you want, I need more worlds!”

Void had just decimated a group of exalted emperors. He promptly dropped off a couple of worlds and set out again. Despite not having time to catch his breath, he was in a great mood.

Li Hao had always been coolly composed before and never fought for everything. He gave everyone else what he collected. The young man never seemed to walk away with much, something that sat poorly with the rest of them.

So whether it was Silver Moon martial masters or Void, they were in happy spirits these days.

While none of the worlds went to them—all of it went to Li Hao—they were all delighted. They were finally useful! Even if they went out now to seize worlds only for Li Hao to use, they felt a sense of immense accomplishment.

Even Yuan Shuo huffed and puffed as he moved worlds back and forth.

He’d started relying on his disciple since a very long time ago. It’d gotten to the point where it was downright embarrassing. Li Hao was in closed door cultivation and the rest of them were risking their lives for him outside, but... they were so joyful about it!

The worlds around Dragon major world’s original location visibly decreased. More worlds joined them, replacing the previous batch that’d disappeared. Hence, nothing seemed off about the situation at first.

New arrivals simply felt that no one else had made it yet, or that they were just hiding somewhere...

But after this kind of atmosphere persisted for a while, latecomers started feeling something awry. It’d been almost half a month since the dao ripples traveled forth. And yet, there were only two or three dozen worlds in the vicinity.

Some of the worlds that they expected to see were around, but many more worlds seemed to have gone missing.