The separation of Silver Moon had caused the dark passageway to disappear, as well as the mysterious world near New Martial to vanish. Was there a connection between the two events?

Li Hao didn’t go into further analysis as this was just his speculation.

If this was the case, it was very possible that his conversation with the person sleeping in the river of the future had indeed that person. Or was it that person affecting him instead?

The more Li Hao thought about it, the more his head threatened to explode!

Magic?

Was magic what ordered dao looked like when deployed through supernatural characters? Each dao was clearly distinct from each other—fire was fire, water was water. No other dao was intermingled with them. Was this the magic that the supreme spoke of?

Neither the supreme nor the Human King knew much of the world back then, so they might not have been able to accurately identify what they’d observed. The Sword Sovereign hadn’t even been an exalted emperor then. It would’ve been even harder for him to make a proper assessment.

“What are you guys mumbling about?” prodded the Human King. “You guys have been transmitting to each other for a very long period of time. Do you think I’m deaf? You keep yapping at each other and don’t include me in the conversation. What do you mean by this?”

“......” Li Hao looked awkwardly at the man, whereas the supreme smiled indifferently.

“We’re saying that you’re actually afraid of Long Zhan. Otherwise, you would’ve gone for him a long time ago. But you don’t even curse his name at the moment...”

The Human King scowled. Whatever! And you guys definitely weren’t talking about this. You think I’m an idiot, don’t you??

He looked at Ole Zhang, then at Li Hao.

“Don’t grow too close to Ole Zhang, he’s nothing good,” reminded the Human King. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you if he tricks you into something!”

“I thank the senior for warning me,” Li Hao smiled wryly. “I know!”

The supreme repressed an eye roll. Uh, hello? Who’s the real family here? We are! Why do you always back up outsiders?

As much as they joked around, it’d saved everyone a bit of trouble that no further conflict had developed from this venture. They ceased talking and quickly vacated the area.

When they were gone, Long Zhan looked out from the four regions. There was a vicious look in the dragon’s eyes.

Li Hao... might interfere with his plans.

He needed to be careful as the young man had some dealings with Skyward. The human was a shit stirrer, and now that he ran around with Fang Ping the thug, the duo might easily ruin Long Zhan’s preparations.

He needed to further perfect his plan so that no accidents occurred.

Li Hao, I hope you don’t have a death wish!

The dragon put everything out of mind and closed his eyes. Massive dragons invisible to everyone else continued to wrap around Skyward.

......

Energy sprang forth without end after Li Hao melded his dao into the chaos. It wasn’t a very dangerous process. The future was the true source of danger.

The future was still very far away for the young man, but he was already thinking a great deal. He’d seen too much and thought of too much on this trip. And with the conversation he’d shared with the supreme, as well as some of his own discoveries...

Li Hao was growing ever more convinced that certain things in the chaos weren’t nearly as simple as they appeared on the surface.

Skyward!

He shifted in the direction of the four regions. There were great secrets hidden in Skyward. Its greatest secret was the Skyward master.

Why had the man left? Where did all of the ninth ranks he’d gathered disappear to? Why did they not return?

What kind of tie did the War Sovereign have with the Skyward master? Who had the War Sovereign been guarding against when he sealed off New Martial?

Questions and doubts swirled in his heart, but Li Hao didn’t dwell on them. His current priority wasn’t these, but two other tasks—saturating his minor worlds and creating more worlds!

He had become part of the chaos to saturate his worlds. A mirage realm of a myriad daos was needed to further develop new worlds.

Time waits for no one! The situation’s gotten worse since we entered the chaos proper. Everyone has schemes and ulterior motives in mind, whereas I have prepared too little. Skyward’s return might be another hard battle.

I should take advantage of this rare moment of quiet to set up everything.

Li Hao wasn’t as decisive as the Human King. While making decisions swiftly was a good thing, it also often created mistakes that might not be reparable.

......

After bidding farewell to New Martial, Li Hao’s group returned to the Ninth City of the alliance. It’d been roughly two weeks since they battled the Reincarnation master.

Time was meaningless in the chaos. Two weeks was truly the snap of a finger to many.

Li Hao had already spent three years in the chaos, but didn’t feel much different for it. Three years was very short. They might feel like a very prolonged period of time in Silver Moon, but three years in the chaos was but the matter of a heartbeat.

Age was often forgotten here.

It’d been almost six years since Li Hao first set foot into martial dao in Silver Moon. That was just a nap for many, yet titanic changes had taken place in the chaos!

Exalted Emperor Wan Qiu immediately showed herself when Li Hao and the rest returned to the Ninth City. Her presence was different from what it had been as well. She’d clearly devoured the body of a seventh rank that she’d requested from Li Hao.

The woman was now in a state of metamorphosis and logically speaking, needed closed door cultivation the most. Walking around outside was the last thing she needed. But how dared she remain in seclusion when she sensed Li Hao’s presence?

She hastily walked out of her dao universe, accompanied by an old man. White hair flowed from his head as he presented the image of an ethereal and otherworldly man.

Ironically, Li Hao’s first thought upon meeting people like this wasn’t that they possessed strong morals and ethics, but that they might be... insidious demons!

Having traveled through New Martial’s past and other places, the young man had come to think that anyone who appeared to be a fabled immortal was nothing good.

This is the Exalted Myriad Changes Emperor, isn’t it? Someone who relied only on themselves to establish a dao domain and not a dao universe is someone to be careful of!

The light in Li Hao’s eyes twinkled as he looked over. What came into view was something visible only to himself. The dao domain!

It was like a large bowl had clamped down over the old man. Dao rules appeared in front of Li Hao and he gave them a cursory glance. This time, he could count them clearly.

There were almost two thousand!

According to Li Hao’s estimation, one thousand dao rules made one a seventh rank. Two thousand was peak seventh rank, nearing eighth rank.

The Sword Sovereign had possessed roughly three thousand when he established his dao domain, but that didn’t mean that all of his dao rules reached the requisite requirements. Only half of them could be considered in that regard, which meant that the Sword Sovereign needed a bit of time to consolidate his cultivation.

That invincible sixth rank would require some more time to strengthen his dao rules before he could truly rival an eighth rank.

Meanwhile, the one in front of Li Hao only possessed two thousand dao rules. However, each of them was wide and strong. The old man was clearly not a newly ascended seventh rank, but a veteran one.

Strictly speaking, he looked to be slightly stronger than Fog Mountain and Thunder Emperor back in the day. But now he was slightly less than the two who’d set foot into eighth rank.

Peak seventh rank!

A glint likewise flashed through the old man’s eyes, but he didn’t sense anything. His mind was not as powerful as Long Zhan’s. However, he could also sense that the other seemed to be... observing him.

The old man didn’t mind. He smiled instead. “Myriad Changes greets the senior.”

Age and tenure were not considerations when it came to cultivation, just strength. The strong were revered!

Although he was much more senior in age compared to the group of youngsters, power was king. Even someone as wizened as him had to hail the young man as senior.

“I wouldn’t dare!” Li Hao smiled. “Fellow Daoist Myriad Changes is too courteous!”

“Congratulations to Senior Hao Moon for taking a large leap forward...” Wan Qiu quickly spoke up. “Would the seniors like to grace my humble abode for a cup of tea? We can sit down and discuss dao.”

“Then we will impose on Fellow Daoist Wan Qiu.”

“As things should be!” Wan Qiu hastily responded and led the way. “Some of the elders from the alliance will also be coming, but they have a long road to travel and might need a bit more time. Senior Myriad Changes is powerful, so he arrived before them. The elders sent messages, however. So long as Senior Myriad Changes has no opinions otherwise, the alliance of mid worlds will follow any agreement that is reached.”

Myriad Changes didn’t say anything. Did the alliance dare refuse the Silver Moon king?

They did not.

Therefore, giving him authority to make decisions was just empty courtesies. In reality, they hoped for him to fight for more benefits and not just strictly work for Silver Moon.

The alliance was on tenterhooks after Reincarnation was defeated and the rest of the eastern eighth rank worlds huddled together for warmth. Everyone was deathly afraid of another conflict breaking out and dragging all of the worlds in the east into it.

......

The group quickly reached a residence in the center of the island. It wasn’t Wan Qiu’s world—she wouldn’t dare invite these powerhouses to her personal domain. This was where she normally rested and was the heart of the island.

With the upheaval in the chaos, there were much fewer exalted emperors willing to visit the islands these days. Li Hao sent his people away to find a place to rest and entered the residence by himself.

Only three were attending, no one else was allowed to join this meeting. Wan Qiu counted as a half step seventh rank now, but played the role of a servant. She arranged for the two men to take their seats and served them refreshments.

Li Hao wasn’t putting on an overly polite demeanor. Myriad Changes spent his time secretly observing the young man.

Li Hao, the Silver Moon king, hailed from a newly born vassal world of New Martial. He was a cultivator from that world and very young. It’d only been a few years since Silver Moon emerged in the chaos. He’d just verified his dao then and was now a seventh rank..

Seventh rank was an incredible level. Recruiting the crown prince of Light, second-in-command of Skycloud, Thunder Emperor of Thunder World, and the treasure that the Skyward master had left behind...

And doing it all in such a short period of time was the most frightening of all.