Li Hao wanted to study more entities further when the formless dragon around Long Zhan, the dao of the dragon, roared with irritation. It was as if a clap of thunder that went unnoticed by others. Only the young man’s mind was severely shaken!

BOOM!

The cry was a devastating blow upon the consciousness, like the spirit of an aura!

It was generally held that the minds of chaos beasts were very weak, so it was best to use mental strength against them. However, the Dragon master’s great dao churned forth like an aura spirit, taking tangible form!

Boom!

Not even the three eighth ranks detected the formless cry, yet Li Hao was so severely impacted that his river of dao undulated violently. He almost lost control over it!

In the distance.

The Dragon master whipped his head around!

Golden light sparked in his eyes, he hadn’t misread the situation. Li Hao was indeed spying on him. The kid had some nerve!

Li Hao’s primary body opened his eyes and spat out a mouthful of blood. It landed amid the chaos, but it wasn’t blood. It was from the mind!

The strength of the aura!

His aura was crumbling and fading away. Color drained from Li Hao’s face like he’d suffered an immense blow. The shimmering draconic eyes far away manifested in front of him. Li Hao grunted at the golden sight and stared it down, then looked around him. Everyone was immensely nervous, but no one seemed to have sensed anything.

“Long Zhan...” coughed Li Hao. The golden dragon seemed to have injured some parts of his foundation. The young man sighed heavily and suppressed the unrest in the river of dao, then looked in the Dragon master’s direction again.

A million thoughts ran through Li Hao’s mind. The Dragon master’s mind was terrifyingly strong! Or rather, the abundance of dao rules naturally made one’s mind strong.

Seven thousand daos!

It was incredible that a chaos beast could form a dao domain and comprehend seven thousand dao rules. The kunpeng beast they’d previously encountered only possessed a strong physical body and fast speed. Everything else about it had been very ordinary.

In the past, the Dragon master had simply given others the impression that he could employ very forceful punch. But today, Li Hao gained a new understanding of his opponent. If he brought typical methods against chaos beasts to bear against Long Zhan and attempted to cut down his spirit, the young man might be the one killed instead.

Li Hao’s spirit was very strong. It was formed from integrating auras and each dao was an aura. His auras were part of the supernatural characters, so the latter was also a materialization of spirit.

But the dragon had injured an aura of so many daos with just one blow!

Li Hao’s brows knit together in a frown. Just how had a dragon of the chaos cultivated so many daos?

There were differences between chaos beasts and humans. The former naturally resided within the chaos, so to be able to organize it and identify not one or two, but seven thousand daos from it meant that Long Zhan must possess a unique heritage.

Interest piqued, Li Hao grew curious about Long Zhan and wanted to know more of the dragon’s background. Was this guy really a chaos beast born and bred of Skyward Region?

I don’t think I really believe that anymore!

Skyward was only so big and the greatest opportunity within the four regions was found in Skyward major world. But the world had been in a constant state of silence. How had the dragon cultivated so many daos?

Long Zhan gazed through the void with a sharp look, then considered the restless chaos. Had Li Hao peeked in on him through the chaos dao?

What had the young man seen?

Li Hao averted his eyes from that direction to avoid truly angering the dragon. Although he wasn’t afraid of conflict, a clash would leave both sides very injured. That wasn’t worth it. The Human King likely couldn’t match the Dragon master either.

Alright, it should be more accurately said that the Human King definitely wasn’t a match for the Dragon master.

Fang Ping only possessed around five thousand daos while the Dragon master had more than seven thousand. Long Zhan also had a stronger physical body and an equally capable mind. He had almost no weaknesses. Under such conditions, a joint force between the Human King, Supreme Zhang, and others might not be able to defeat the dragon.

When Long Zhan defeated Reincarnation, the human had enjoyed home world advantage and even lost one of his eighth ranks right in front of him. It was clear to see from that just how much the Dragon master overpowered the rest.

Li Hao didn’t look any further, but focused on bringing the river of dao under control and extracting dao strength. He joined hands with the others to organize the chaos strength surging into the river waters and nourishing his minor worlds with it.

The passageway in front of him vanished, like it’d never existed.

Li Hao realized that it might take returning his attention to the chaos to be able to glimpse that passage. He wasn’t focused on the chaos dao in regular times, so the construct was invisible to him then.

The Skyward master had left a passageway behind... so did this mean that Skyward’s exalted emperors would return through it?

Or something else?

His mind mulled over many ideas while his physical body continued to corral the river of dao. Restless chaos energy began to slow down when the chaos strength in the immediate surroundings was depleted. Li Hao’s river of dao and chaos energy was approaching an equilibrium.

It’d taken only a short while for almost one hundred new worlds to reach saturation. Although his worlds were in slight disarray, it only required a bit of sorting through before he could set those one hundred worlds in the sky over the river.

This process was much faster than devouring worlds. He’d devoured the equivalent of a seventh or eighth rank world in several heartbeats.

Of course, this was because it was his first integration into a spot with dense chaos energy. Future assimilations would be much slower, but this occasion was startlingly pleasant.

According to Li Hao’s assessment, if he cultivated in a place with dense chaos strength, he would be able to saturate one minor world in one day. All one thousand of his new worlds would be saturated in three worlds.

While this sounded fast, what would happen after he ascended into eighth rank? Not to mention, the queen was also supplying him with chaos energy. In other words, this meant that Li Hao needed to improve once every two or three years. Otherwise, he would burst from the energy.

Yet who could promise a breakthrough every two or three years at the seventh or eighth rank level?

Li Hao stowed the thought and focused on suppressing dao strength.

......

The instance lasted several days. No one interrupted Li Hao and Long Zhan ignored the young man. Not even the chaos beasts came by for a look.

Perhaps they didn’t dare to, or perhaps Long Zhan had warned them off. Whatever it was, the dragon permitted Li Hao to extract endless chaos strength from this spot.

......

Three days later.

Chaos strength no longer streamed into Li Hao’s river of dao. It had reached an equilibrium. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. They’d been on edge the past couple of days, ready for battle at any time or wary of an ambush.

Nothing of the sort had taken place.

“So Long Zhan just talks a tough talk, but picks on easy targets!” grumbled a surprised and irritated Thunder master. He acted so viciously toward my Thunder World and blockaded it for several hundred thousand years!

But Li Hao’s in his territory now and taking energy from beneath his nose. That dragon doesn’t even dare fart in Li Hao’s direction!

The young man, however, furrowed his brows and looked at Skyward in the distance. A shifting look entered his eyes and said after a while, “Let’s go. Let’s not return to the four regions if we have nothing else to take care of in the future.”

The group blinked. Why was that? Long Zhan was clearly more apprehensive this time than last. There was nothing to fear when New Martial and Silver Moon worked together.

Li Hao didn’t explain himself. He simply looked into the distance, studying how Skyward was surrounded by a giant dragon!

A dragon of dao rules!

Long Zhan didn’t seem crazed on the surface, but was secretly wild. What was he planning? Did he want to swallow Skyward? Or did he have some other idea in mind?

This guy must have certain arrangements in mind for Skyward, ones that were tied to reaching ninth rank. Li Hao frowned in thought, hoping that whatever it was, it wouldn’t involve him.

That was probably a farfetched thought. He owed some favors to Skyward. Therefore, he might have to pay them back when Skyward returned!

The young man’s frown deepened.

He suddenly knew what he might have to do. Skyward’s return was likely not that much of a hassle before... and it could’ve been very smooth. There’s probably going to be issues now.

The problem is Long Zhan!

When I traveled to the past, Daoist Coiling Dragon and Flamefire all said that I’d have to pay a hefty price in the future.

...can I not pay it?

But if he didn’t, he would have something weighing on his heart—an internal demon.

Li Hao sighed to himself. I might have to fight Long Zhan when Skyward returns. Even though we’re avoiding each other right now, that’s only because our interests don’t conflict for the moment.

But Long Zhan clearly has designs for Skyward.

I need to save Flamefire, Coiling Dragon, and the water daoist. I might even need to revive them, which will interfere with Long Zhan’s interests.

Li Hao was finally understanding just how troublesome his previous borrowing of strength was. He’d borrowed pseudo seventh rank strength at most, but now needed to return it in the form of battling a peak eighth rank...

But neither did the young man regret his actions, because he had indeed received a great deal of help back then. It was just... not a very worthwhile trade.

Borrowing a few instances of sixth or seventh rank in return for an eighth rank life wasn’t quite profitable.

Li Hao shook his head and walked away, looking at the worlds in the area. It was densely forested with worlds as almost all of the human worlds in the four regions had been shifted over.

Li Hao frowned once more. There seemed to be a peculiar strength that drifted through them. It was... hard to make out. Perhaps he’d have to become part of the chaos again to see it clearly.

Did Long Zhan shatter my spying earlier simply to shake me off him, or to prevent me from looking at the other worlds?

Is he planning something again?