As the foremost powerhouse of the east, the Reincarnation master was aware of certain situations. This was a rare conversation with the overlord of the west, so he asked, “Are all those dao masters who left back in the day... still alive?”

“Some of them are...” Chaos Sky answered readily. He didn’t keep any knowledge to himself, but neither did he go into any detail either. “They won’t be able to win their freedom that easily. Most of them are stuck in grim trouble.

“If you and I are unable to set foot into ninth rank... if this era is unable to make it to ninth rank... the real ninth ranks will find it nigh impossible to enjoy their days in the chaos!

“Whether it is your dao of life and death, the five elements, or any other dao, we might have to break certain things in order to enter ninth rank. Do you understand what I meant?”

The Reincarnation master mulled over his words before inclining his head. “I do. So you mean that... some people have become obstacles to our improvement?”

“Pretty much!” Chaos Sky said a few words more before concluding, “Those who came before us might be waiting for a cultivator who can truly wield time and reverse the heavens, flipping yin and yang. I’m uncertain of any other specifics, just that I’ve felt certain thoughts through the chaos. These are just hazy guesses!

“Whether it is Spring Autumn or the Silver Moon King Li Hao, either of these might be who they’re waiting for. Or these two might not be. It’s not important. What is important is that I’d like to see what exactly time is.”

“I will do my best! And since they think that we are limping and licking our wounds, I might be able to catch them off guard if I revive Drifting Life and the others in secret!”

“Very good!”

“......” The two overlords conversed for a while longer before the ripple vanished.

Reincarnation took a deep breath and said nothing further. He looked quietly into the distance, then at the four regions. Do you want a piece of the pie, Long Zhan? I won’t let you have your way even if it means submitting to the west!

You’ve expelled New Martial and Silver Moon from the four regions to claim dominion over your territory and throw the outer regions into an uproar. You’ve certainly got quite a racket going!

......

On this day, to the ignorance of outsiders and complete lack of consideration for this possibility, the Reincarnation master reached an agreement with Chaos Sky of the west as soon as he suffered one loss.

No one fathomed that he would submit so easily as Reincarnation had always been the mightiest world of the east.

......

Also on this day, Thunder World.

The Thunder master came to some decisions. He looked at Li Hao with an exhale and shared his thoughts. “Fellow Daoist Li Hao, if your plan to build a false chaos, I’d like to reserve a world as the future site of Thunder World...

“Cultivators at our level have exceeded the existence of regular humans, but our presence interferes with the development of a world and the future of the entire race. A world to us represents the combination of a myriad daos and setting foot into ninth rank.

“In reality, there is almost no hope of doing so. Hence, there are many eighth ranks in the chaos, but I only hear of Chaos Sky being in ninth rank.

“I’d like little friend Void to silence all of the living beings in my world! I do not wish for them to enter the divine nation. I only hope that when they wake again, they will see that their home is still Thunder World!”

The Thunder master had made up his mind and continued, “The existence of a world has become a limitation upon us! Thunder World and its dao universe have both entered eighth rank. I will devour part of it and integrate the rest into the fellow daoist’s river of dao. It will be a second Thunder World and the future land of survival for my people!”

He would absorb part of his world and meld the other part into Li Hao’s Thunder World. The world he wished to reserve would be kept for his people.

“Senior Thunder Emperor, there is no need to act this way...” Li Hao said after a long look at the man.

“No!” refuted the Thunder master. “The chaos is in turmoil—and not because of you guys. It is because the quiet of a million years has given birth to a ninth rank. This was an inevitable outcome! No one can rise beyond this disturbance and no one can escape the impending calamity!

“When all worlds suffer from disaster, can my Thunder World stand apart from it?

“In that case, I might as well silence it. Not that many will need to die if the period of time is short. If the conflict drags on and we cannot unseal them, then they can gradually die in the silence!”

Silencing a world could stop everything but time. Its passage would march on unabated. Lifespans would continue to be depleted, just at a slower pace.

Everything would be fine for a decade or two, or even a century. But after a thousand or ten thousand years... there wouldn’t be that many left of those who’d been silenced.

“My world will undergo the same treatment!” sighed the Orchid Forest master. “Given what we face, carting a world around makes a bigger target out of me. I’m too noticeable!”

Li Hao nodded with agreement. Not to mention, almost no one can move around a seventh or eighth rank world. Worlds such as Silver Moon and Great Li were only sixth rank. Number Two and Panther could still transport mid rank worlds.

But once Silver Moon set foot into seventh rank... that would be beyond Panther’s abilities. They might have to leave it in the false chaos then and take a course of action similar to what the two world masters were proposing.

“If the two seniors have thought this over carefully... then I have no opinions otherwise,” said Li Hao. “It’s just, it was a hard trek to ascend your worlds to this stage. It’s a bit of a pity.”

The young man did find it regretful. The only way this outcome could be avoided was if the two didn’t travel with him. But since they did and their worlds had been exposed, it would be more dangerous to stay here with their worlds.

“That’s just how things have worked out,” smiled the Thunder master. “Not to mention, if it wasn’t for the fellow daoist’s earlier help, Thunder World would’ve long ceased to exist! It would not have advanced to eighth rank!”

The Orchid Forest master nodded as well. He was in the same situation as Thunder World. If it wasn’t for Li Hao’s assistance, his world would've been assimilated by Red Moon. In that case, anything now was better than that outcome.

They would voluntarily absorb their dao universe and world strength. That would strengthen themselves. What was left would be diverted to a world of their choosing. That would give them a leg up on a future settlement site.

“Then let’s do so right now...” Li Hao nodded without hesitation. “We can leave the two worlds behind as empty husks for disguise. After we silence them, devour the dao universe and world strength, we’ll leave the worlds in the void. No one will investigate them under normal circumstances!

“If anyone does mount an offensive one day, they’ll find nothing and that we’re long gone!”

While everyone had generally benefited from this excursion to the eastern region and killed numerous powerhouses, that didn’t mean that the east was safe. They were hardly invincible within the region.

That would never come to pass.

It was only a matter of time before someone attacked Thunder World if they left it here. It was better to leave before the various worlds in the region reached an accord.

“This is good, it’ll be nice to be a wandering cultivator!” smiled Fog Mountain. “As nice as the worlds are, they also come with many limitations. If we can find a safe spot and create our false chaos, it’ll be even safer for the people we move inside if we can seal the false chaos afterward!”

Li Hao nodded, that was true. However, this wouldn’t be something that was accomplished in one day.

“Then let’s get to work! We need to make haste. A lot of trouble will befall us once the various outer region factions start reacting.”

“Alright!” A flurry of motion commenced

Void was in charge of silencing two worlds. The Thunder master and Orchid Forest master began extracting large sums of dao strength while maintaining the illusion that the world looked whole and complete.

Fog Mountain and the rest were also busy.

Great Li and Silver Moon were respectively sealed off and self-cultivating. Both were yet to set foot into seventh rank. Number Two and Panther could still move them around, whereas the population of the silenced worlds had to be temporarily migrated to the divine nation.

The Thunder master and Orchid Forest master were loath to leave their people there, but it was the only option at this point. Only this way could they fight for a better opportunity for their people.

......

Time passed day by day.

There were two formidable worlds in Li Hao’s river of dao. One was the Thunder World, the other was Orchid Forest.

Currently, the power of calamity was the strongest among Li Hao’s thousand worlds. It was a seventh rank world. The other great daos were not that strong. But after the inclusion of dao strength from the Thunder master and Orchid Forest master, their respective worlds were much stronger.

These days, Li Hao focused on creating more worlds. He would establish more minor worlds, fill them with energy, then strengthen them. The power of one thousand worlds was immensely powerful to the young man, but far lacking when compared to Reincarnation and the rest.

If the worlds were considered as dao rules, he was indeed a bit stronger than eighth ranks with dao rules—if they were of the same level. But no matter how strong the thousand worlds grew, they could not measure up to the strength of two thousand dao rules.

With the current strength he wielded, he fell a little short when it came to eighth ranks, even the weakest eighth ranks.

His strength had risen somewhat after entering seventh rank. Li Hao didn’t rival the Human King when the man was at this level, but he could suppress eighth ranks as a seventh rank.

He’d also just set foot into this level with only one of his daos. It was to be expected that he didn’t match the Human King yet. But given enough time to strengthen his thousand worlds or even two thousand, that might not be the case anymore.

......

At the same time.

All sides were taking action.

Within the four regions.

The Dragon master was currently meditating over something in Skyward. He had not gone outside after returning. Red Moon stood next to him like a guard, observing the dragon.

As opposed to being a protection detail, it was more that Red Moon wanted to glean whatever pickings there were to be had. He didn’t know what the Dragon master was looking at or contemplating.

The fight between the Dragon master and Reincarnation had shocked him to the core. The dragon was utterly formidable!

Red Moon was turning over more thoughts in his mind when multiple stars abruptly appeared in front of the Dragon master. The man blinked. Most of these stars... twinkled with light. Some of them were also dull and inert.

These were the dao stars that had been taken out of the Skyward dao universe. Many of them had been given to seventh ranks. So it seemed that the Dragon master had reclaimed quite a few. Did he want to enter the Skyward dao universe?