The core of Number Two was replication.

If this theory was proven true, that would overturn some previous speculation. It would also be an incredible boon to Li Hao if Number Two did prove to have the dao of replication as its central dao.

A dao spirit!

The great dao had produced a spirit and taken on order. After coming to that theory, Li Hao looked at Number Two as if he gazed upon endless wealth. He was visibly overjoyed.

The cat was starting to grow uneasy from the young man’s regard. Am I the dao of replication?

I haven’t gotten to the bottom of that yet, but Li Hao is so excited.

“Li Hao, we’re not certain of this yet...”

“It’s fine!” Li Hao was suddenly playing the role of a mother lulling a child’s fears away. He smiled a little too radiantly at the cat. “Number Two, those of Silver Moon are extraordinary. We stem from the star of time. If our theory holds up, then part of the daos in the star of time come from replication. That means they come from you!”

The young man firmly believed that the War Sovereign was a genius. But he hadn’t been such a genius that he’d been able to comprehend a myriad daos in the absence of any foundation. That would be too frightening. He’d melded a myriad daos together to form time, all without setting foot off of New Martial!

On the other hand, if he’d done so through constantly copying some daos... That would be just as perversely genius, but also just barely palatable.

If that wasn’t the case, then Li Hao would become extremely self conscious.

The young man had had the star of time with him all this time and was imitating the man. But he still didn’t have insight on how he should proceed with all the imitation. Li Hao didn’t even have three thousand daos in his grasp yet!

The War Sovereign hadn’t imitated dao, but established them. This was such an incredible gap, so big that it could not be fathomed. And this was when comparing with someone who’d set foot into seventh rank in a very short period of time.

If the other exalted emperors within the chaos wished to compare themselves to the War Sovereign, they could just end their existences, right now.

Hence, there was a ninety-nine percent chance that the dao of replication truly existed.

“So what... do we do now?” Number Two looked at Li Hao.

“Enter my river of memories first,” Li Hao said quickly. “I feel that even if it’s the dao of replication, you won’t be able to copy me if you don’t know enough about me!”

That made sense. So Number Two would enter the river of memories now?

The river of memories and the river of time was one and the same. The only difference was that peeking into memories required the core origin of a person. That was the major delineation between the two.

With Li Hao present on the scene, it wasn’t difficult to trace his memories.

One human and one cat swiftly manipulated time. A river soon appeared in front of them.

......

Waves undulated in the river.

It was different from last time as this was Li Hao’s first instance of tracing his own past. He didn’t like to think about the past, but still took Number Two with him for a walk down memory lane.

His life was very short, but there were numerous waves in his river. Each of them represented a major event. They were unceasing, which meant that Li Hao had endured too many things over the years.

When they traced it to the end, that represented they’d reached the moment of Li Hao’s birth. It took only a very short period of time to reach it.

One human and one cat quickly landed within the river.

......

This might be Li Hao’s first time... Granted, almost no one had ever had the privilege of witnessing their own birth.

Indeed, the young man of these memories had just been born.

Energy began to awaken in Silver Moon in this year, as did supernaturals officially appear on the scene. The young man’s birth seemed to herald such an age.

The small Silver City.

The house of his memories.

His neighbor was not yet an auntie, but a young married woman. She was very different from the nagging auntie that Li Hao was most familiar with.

Creation was so marvelous. A young auntie was very demure and quiet. How would she change so much in her old age?

Li Hao’s mother was also very young. His mind became part of the scene, as if he was a bystander. He watched himself grow up.

Li Hao enjoyed a very happy childhood. Family life was satisfying and fulfilling. While they weren’t rich, they also weren’t poor. They had a house and his father had bought a car later on. They were middle-class in a small place like Silver City.

If life had continued like this, Li Hao... would’ve been very happy indeed. Of course, it could’ve ended at any time because Silver City was key. A lot of people had their eyes on it.

......

Scenes of him playing with Zhang Yuan as children rose in the river of memory.

His best friend had listened well to him as a child. The two of them raced through streets and alleyways. Their exploits jogged Li Hao’s faded memories.

Repeated rebirths had caused some of his memories to fade. Tracing his past this time seemed to have stimulated them again.

His father, mother, and brother with whom he did not share a bloodline...

The figures that’d become indistinct in his mind sharpened into focus. Tracing his past was a kind of ripping open old wounds, but Li Hao readily accepted it.

He hadn’t meant for such memories to fade, but each rebirth in the cycle of life and death dimmed some of them. While his heart knew that these people had existed, he just slowly... began to forget them.

Humans were forgetful creatures.

Li Hao suddenly blinked as he watched his past. He knew his life very well. Almost nothing unusual had taken place prior to eighteen years old. He stared now not because something special had popped up, but because... he saw Yuan Shuo.

His teacher was a resident of Silver City when he was a child. He was probably there to protect himself. When supernaturals rose, Yuan Shuo was hard pressed to withstand his old enemies. And so, he chose to remain in Silver City.

It wasn't an unusual sight to see Yuan Shuo, but what was surprising was that there was a woman next to him. And it wasn’t Jadelight Sword!

Li Hao clucked his tongue.

His teacher hadn’t been young when he shut himself in Silver City. He looked to be in his fifties here. But he had the peace of mind to flirt with women!

Li Hao had always thought that his teacher was of fine character and morals. Even though other people called him Ole Demon, he thought his teacher was a right and proper gentleman. So he was so incredibly shameless!

I can’t keep watching! This will just ruin his image in my mind!

Yuan Shuo was just a tiny corner of his memories. Silver City was so small that it wasn’t unusual to bump into people he knew. Li Hao even saw Liu Long in passing at one point. Liu Long then was a regular inspector. They ran into each other when he was conducting patrols.

As the two passed each other by, they likely hadn’t the faintest clue that their lives would be so entwined a decade later.

Li Hao suddenly found it fun to watch his life from a third party perspective. Number Two hovered next to his ball of consciousness. The cat was making close observations.

It found Li Hao’s childhood to be very simple after watching for a while. There wasn’t too much unhappiness. The young man was smart from birth and well liked. He lived a good life.

But as memories continued to pass by, a young Li Hao saw two burnt and tattered bodies one day. That was when his parents had lost their lives in a car accident...

It started the waves of upheaval in the young man’s life.

Li Hao was silent when he watched that memory. His childhood had been happy; everything changed from this moment. That was also the day when the Red Moon organization invaded Silver City. The secrets of the eight families circulated and their descendants started dying.

Accident upon accident occurred in this little town.

Since Li Hao had thought his parents’ death an accident at first, he continued to live his life despite his grief. His brother Zhang Yuan checked in on him more often. That prevented Li Hao from feeling too lonely or despairing during this time.

Later on, the two attended Veteris Institute together.

Yuan Shuo selected Li Hao as a student due to his strong memory and high potential. They studied the ancient language and Li Hao became Yuan Shuo’s last disciple in the Institute.

As memories flickered by...

Li Hao’s consciousness grew slightly nervous. Number Two could sense it as well—a seventh rank was tense.

......

A rainy night appeared in his memories. The scarlet shadow was here.

Li Hao’s consciousness shook as he suddenly wanted to interfere with the past and kill this shadow. He knew!

His memory was all too clear that his brother had died on this night. Zhang Yuan had wanted him to leave the Veteris Institute right before he died, which is what later created Li Hao of the Silver City Inspectorate!

Li Hao had only known the second half of events in the past. He hadn’t known what’d taken place first. Today, he saw everything.

The scarlet shadow dithered at first, shifting back and forth between Li Hao and Zhang Yuan’s dorm room. Clearly, it hadn’t expected to find two presences of the eight families.

Or perhaps it’d sensed a stronger presence from Li Hao, but the shadow’s original target was Zhang Yuan. That caused its indecisiveness, but it ultimately listened to its wielder and entered Zhan Yuan’s room.

Li Hao’s mind quickly followed! Number Two was hot on his heels.

The room was dark and the scarlet shadow burrowed into Zhang Yuan’s body. The fast asleep boy jerked awake, feeling like he’d been set on fire. Agony filled his heart, but he couldn’t make a sound!

Self immolation!

It was the scarlet shadow burning the strength of his bloodline, the bloodline of the Zhangs.

Zhang Yuan couldn’t make a single sound in his anguish. He was being reduced to cinders and in so much pain that he gave up fighting.

It was easy for a supernatural ability like the scarlet shadow to handle a mundane. They would die in ignorance. There was nothing they could do to fight back or defend themselves.

But in this moment, Li Hao realized that the stricken Zhang Yuan seemed to have discovered or seen something. His bloodline going up in flames helped him see...

Next door!

A red thread!

It was the formation of the eight trigrams that sealed the Red Moon exalted emperor in the airspace over Silver City. Zhang Yuan could see his thread crumbling away, but there was another thread that came from Li Hao next door.

A fierce desire to survive exploded out of the boy, making him struggle off his bed. He fell to the ground in a prone position, startling the others of his room awake. Someone called out to him, but didn’t receive a response.

Zhang Yuan crawled, inch by agonizing inch, through the darkness.

It was only today that Li Hao clearly saw what had happened that day.