“Your dao of time can hide things from a lot of people, but there’s one part that it cannot hide,” Number Two raised worriedly after Wan Qiu left. “Someone can follow its ripples and locate you through it! They’ll be able to determine our strength, and New Martial’s, once they attack us.

“Exalted emperors from Arctic Frost and the other worlds might plague us on that day as well. They might interfere with New Martial coming to reinforce us...”

The cat was also feeling that they were slightly in over their heads this time. It wanted to shrink the range of their operations and permit only a portion of exalted emperors to enter. That might be more ideal, and it would enable them to slowly accumulate strength.

But Li Hao was encompassing the east straight from the get-go and scattering one thousand entrances through one thousand worlds! The gathering of a myriad of exalted emperors raised an undeniable fuss.

Conducting their affairs on such a massive scale made things difficult to oversee.

New Martial was still vying with Arctic Frost and the other worlds, not to mention it was not a Silver Moon subordinate. It might not have time for Silver Moon.

Dao Chess, Fog Mountain, and Thunder Emperor were new eighth ranks. Nor did they have many seventh ranks. The enemy only needed to send a few more eighth ranks to overwhelm them.

In fact, only Reincarnation needed to take action. The other three regions didn’t need to do anything. Reincarnation still possessed three eighth ranks. If Peng Cheng came, that would be four. If New Martial did not intervene in an attack by four eighth ranks, Li Hao might find himself unable to stand against the enemy.

Reincarnation was very strong!

“This is my dao!” said Li Hao. “This is also the fastest way to gather ten thousand daos and create ten thousand worlds! How long would it take to reach my goals if I had to study them one by one and communicate with exalted emperors one by one? The degree of great dao we see now is just the commonly found ones. The further down the path we proceed, the harder it is to comprehend more!”

Collecting three thousand great daos was easy. An additional one thousand might consume more time than all three thousand prior to it demanded. The further down one’s path of cultivation, the more difficult it was because the more the daos repeated.

Li Hao might fail to perfect time even after ten million years if he didn’t utilize this method.

Number Two was aware of this, but fretted nonetheless. “Then... can you stand against an eighth rank now?”

“I might be able to against an incredibly weak one if I perfect my twelve hundred worlds...”

The cat stared wordlessly at the young man. This was nonsense. Li Hao was proceeding very quickly and strong enough already, but that was still... not enough. He needed to be on the Human King’s level, at least five thousand great daos, to have the right to find his footing in the chaos.

Someone like the Human King was a true premier heavyweight of the universe.

“So what should we do?” Number Two looked at the young man. “Do we just grin and bear it if they come for us? Or do we make a run for it? If we do, we’ll be wasting all the resources that we invested and several months of time. People will laugh at us.”

If they didn’t succeed this time, no one would believe a second attempt. Therefore, they had to succeed this time.

Li Hao inclined his head and looked into the chaos, seeming to consider something. “This upcoming meeting is both a risk and an opportunity! My Allheaven Hall will be formally established if we pass with flying colors. It will inspire confidence.

“It might be a better idea not to ask New Martial for help since they might not have any to spare. They’re stuck in their own troubles as well!

“Therefore...” Li Hao paused and turned to the cat, saying slowly, “Therefore, I will assimilate the one thousand worlds if need be! I will borrow strength from those external worlds. It will be hard for my physical body to endure the strain, so I’ll need you to extract chaos strength for me...”

Number Two wanted to roll its eyes at the proposal, but relented since this was a minor detail. It didn’t think that would be enough, however.

“You might match an eighth rank with three thousand dao rules then, but what if Reincarnation and his people ambush us? He and Peng Cheng are both powerhouses stronger than you...”

Li Hao nodded. His current arrangements were not enough. He would not be able to inflict lethal blows onto his enemies! It was so hard to find his footing in the chaos, even when he had multiple eighth ranks on his side.

“I will walk the path of the future!” smiled the young man. “The three bodies shall become one!”

A flinty look entered Li Hao’s eyes.

“If it comes down to it, I’ll walk life and death again! I will become part of the past and incorporate the future! The three bodies will not just be mine, but also the Human King’s! I will incorporate his future self to integrate the internal world, river of dao, and dao rules as one.

“I will complete this construction even if I have to die once more!

“Number Two, I will communicate with the future starting from today. Make a trip to New Martial and convey to the Ash Emperor and Human King that I will traverse time at a critical moment to borrow from the past and future. I hope the Human King can help me somewhat. Just because I haven’t borrowed strength for a while doesn’t mean I can’t...”

He’d walked the cycle of life and death four times already! His lifespan had already decreased by four hundred thousand years. So what of another instance if he could build Allheaven Hall?

This would be his true foundation in the chaos. If Reincarnation dared pay a visit, he would ensure that the man received a warm welcome!

Li Hao was prepared to be truly ruthless. It’s fine to create trouble for me, but if you try to end my future, I’ll end your life!

I hope that person sleeping in the future can agree to my request. If he lends me ordered strength and helps me organize it, then I’ll be able to match Reincarnation when I bring ordered strength against unordered strength. It doesn’t matter if I have fewer than five thousand dao rules then!

It’s just...

That person doesn’t seem very friendly. He snores in the river of time and seems to wake up pissy. Hopefully he doesn’t send me flying with a sword stroke as soon as he sees me.

......

What was considered the future was notn’t one possibility or untraceable. Li Hao wasn’t confident that he would encounter the same person again if he traced the river to the future. He might end up in another spacetime instead.

There were infinite futures!

And would he meet the same person as last time if he did run across that being again?

The young man did not know.

But if that person was one of the possibilities in the future, then he would surely be one of the premier existences. To reach that level in the false chaos would indicate that his potential, strength, and mindset were top tier.

Thus, if the future was endless branches of the river, that person would stand in the widest branch, wouldn’t he?

It was highly likely that Li Hao came across him again!

Time was the most frightening existence among the myriad of daos. To walk the past and chase the future...

Li Hao’s own strength wasn’t enough to support Allheaven Hall by himself. It was also highly likely that he was attacked by strong foes in a month. Even with the supreme’s plots, there might be at least fifteen eighth ranks waiting for them.

The slightest misstep would result in all of their dooms!

It was up to Li Hao to find an answer for his own issues.

The star of time materialized once more. Unseen by others, a river appeared in front of the young man. Li Hao studied it for a while before setting foot in its waters. Would he see that person again?

He might not be able to connect to the future if he didn’t make some preparations now.

......

The river undulated gently. Some fragmented images appeared in front of his eyes. The future was very blurry.

No one in the current chaos could gain a clear view of it. Only in walking this river could they peek into a hint or two.

The river shook beneath Li Hao’s feet. He followed its currents, not knowing where he was going. His lifespan was being depleted—though not a lot of it. That represented time passing in this place as well.

Vitality was not expanded through the course of passing time, but in communicating with the future. If Li Hao simply followed the river and passively watched what he encountered, he would just be predicting the future once he returned to his time.

But if he participated in what he saw, he would be defying the heavens!

The two were entirely different concepts.

When he’d traveled through New Martial’s past, that’d led to almost no depletion of lifespan since there was only one past. Borrowing his future and past self to combine them as one had only required one instant of his future. That, too, had resulted in minimal depletion.

Now that he walked the future again, it seemed that the future at the end of the river was not his. That seemed to confirm that he truly might not be the master of the river later on.

Many trains of thoughts ran through Li Hao’s mind. Color started draining from his face and he began to wither away.

A long time seemed to pass, but perhaps it was only a second.

Thunderous snoring made its way into his ears. It rose and fell over the river like waves. Confusion appeared in Li Hao’s eyes. Had he returned to the same moment as last time, or had that person fallen asleep again after he left?

What kind of person insisted on sleeping in the river of time?

Li Hao did not understand.

Or was the person so incredibly bored by existence after conquering the chaos that he chose to sleep instead?

Li Hao seemed to set foot in another portion of the river. The waters rose and fell; the loud snoring immediately stopped.

“Eh?” voiced slightly irritated tones.

At the end of the river.

A person hovered there, their features indistinct. Just as Li Hao couldn’t make him out, neither could he clearly see Li Hao. They stared at each other through the river, just like last time!

However, the other was annoyed. Why are you interrupting me again and again? Is it that hard to get a nap around here??

The person across the way looked upriver and saw a person coming down the river. He... seemed to have an impression of this. Time was jumbled in the river. There were only some disorderly memories to pull from.

Perhaps he’d slept too long and forgotten all of this, but he knew that this person might be the master of time from the past.

This person entered the river again and again, leaving countless tales behind in the worlds. Had this invincible one encountered danger again?

Just as the man was lost in his thoughts, a wave of sword energy came toward him. Its strength was slightly intermingled. In response, the man waved a surge of energy back.

Waves rocked the river.

Whether it was Li Hao or the young man at the end of the river, both of them sensed the unique strength traveling across space and time.

Li Hao could sense clearly ordered strength again. It completely lacked the disorder of the chaos. The young man thought over things deeply, feeling it more prominently than last time. There were clear delineations and the power of great dao was pure. Infinitely pure. All of the impurities from disordered dao were gone.