The night in which Zhang Yuan was killed had been a night of raging wind and rain. Everyone had gone to bed early, but sounds of struggle eventually traveled out of the dorm room next door. The disturbance gradually grew greater and even shouts were heard.

That was when Li Hao rose from his bed and walked out of his room to see what was going on. It resulted in a sight that he wouldn’t forget for the rest of his life.

He hadn’t known that Little Yuan had already given up the struggle prior to this and accepted his fate. But ultimately... his friend forced himself to move again. Was it because he’d see that the last line in the diagram of the eight trigrams connected to Li Hao?

A person crawled with all his might in the darkness. The room door was very close to him, but he writhed, slithered, and dragged himself along the ground like a bug. The locked door became his greatest obstacle, one that he could not pass.

Zhang Yuan butted his head against the door, startling everyone else in the room awake.

Someone turned on the light and gasped with astonishment. Another person quickly opened the door. A third roommate sought to help Zhang Yuan to his feet, but shrieked from pain when he was burned instead. He shrieked again when he saw flames erupt from Zhang Yuan’s body.

As for Zhang Yuan... he continued to crawl forward when he saw the door open.

He inched his way out the door. Students lined the hallway by now, but no one dared dare near him. All of them stared at him with fear and horror, shouting and yelling...

Until the door to the neighboring room opened. The sight of Li Hao from that age walking out permitted some relief to enter Zhang Yuan’s charred eyes. His mouth opened and closed, as if saying something...

Li Hao knew what he was saying.

Run!

Indeed, Li Hao’s memories of this day were clear. His brother had died that night and everyone was sent into a panic. No one heard what Zhang Yuan said. No one made out the words that he mouthed. They just saw his mouth open and close, as if he was begging for help...

Only Li Hao knew that his friend wanted him to flee!

......

Past memories welled up. Number Two hadn’t been aware of this past before, so it was learning all of this for the first time. It watched with its heart in its mouth, stunned that a mundane could crawl out of the room under such conditions. He’d found Li Hao just to tell him to run!

If it wasn’t for Zhang Yuan’s struggle, Li Hao might’ve met the same end on a rainy evening a year later. He would’ve gone silently into the night. That would ensure that Silver Moon and the chaos would not look like the way it currently did.

It was Zhang Yuan’s warning that wisened Li Hao to the presence of scarlet shadows. That was how the young man sensed that suffocating presence of danger!

It had directly contributed to who Li Hao was today.

He’d walked out of the Veteris Institute and into the Inspectorate in search of the truth. He’d come to known supernaturals and fully set foot into the system of martial masters. The young man had shrugged off his mundane identity to become the current Li Hao.

Number Two had thought it knew the young man well. But now it suddenly discovered, no one knew Li Hao.

No one had ever seen these scenes before.

Even if they knew that Li Hao’s parents and childhood friend had died because of the Red Moon organization, no one knew of the precise details.

They had no idea that if Zhang Yuan had given up the fight, he would’ve died quietly and quickly. The scarlet shadow would’ve disappeared and Li Hao wouldn’t see it. He would think there was nothing wrong and wouldn’t leave the Veteris Institute.

Once he died a year later, all eight family bloodlines would belong to Ying Hongyue...

Perhaps they would be living in Ying Hongyue’s story now then.

The river of memories continued to flow. Number Two saw a lot, such as Li Hao slowly happening upon the truth in the Inspectorate. The cat came to know supernaturals, martial masters, and Red Moon...

The cat caught up on past events until the river reached the point of Number Two’s revival.

......

River waters undulated. Li Hao and Number Two’s mind disengaged from it.

Space and time rippled while the young man regained his calm.

“Do you want to revive him?” Number Two looked at Li Hao with some sympathy.

The young man resurrect on calmly, unperturbed by the experience.

“I do! Why not? I gave Ying Hongyue an easy death when I killed him! Had I known that this was how Little Yuan died, I would’ve made sure he experienced even more pain!”

Number Two wanted to reply, but ultimately said nothing.

Ying Hongyue was dead. His backer of Red Moon had only one survivor at present—its world master.

Li Hao’s vengeance was at hand, but the one he cared about could not come back to life.

A mundane who’d never cultivated and activated his dao meridians was just one of so many within Silver Moon. Even if his dao stars existed, they would be drifting through Silver Moon’s dao universe like a speck of dust.

There were hundreds of billions of stars in the dao universe! Which one of them belonged to Zhang Yuan the mundane?

Even someone as strong as Li Hao couldn’t revive them all. If he did, he’d pay the price of his own life.

Li Hao didn’t agonize over this. Instead, he looked at Number Two. “You’ve seen all of my memories now, not just listened to me recount them. You’ve witnessed them from within and without. Do you have any thoughts?”

Number Two rolled its eyes. What thoughts could it have?

Replicating Li Hao? How would it be that easy? Besides, it wasn’t sure if that was its dao in the first place.

The cat shoved down the memories it’d just witnessed. Clearly, Li Hao was yet to fully walk out of their influence. He’d left Silver Moon and targeted Red Moon not just for New Martial’s sake. That had been his justification.

Perhaps Zhang Yuan and his parents were the greatest reasons why.

Ying Hongyue was dead and the exalted emperor from Red Moon was also dead. But everything stemmed from Red Moon’s invasion of Silver Moon. It was a foregone conclusion that Li Hao would target Red Moon.

The young man was a very petty-minded individual.

“Replication...” Number Two brought up the topic with a headache. “It’s very hard to copy you. You grasp too many daos. Even if I can do it, it’s hard for me to fully copy you...”

“It doesn’t have to be the same,” Li Hao nodded. “Even just copying one dao is sufficient. That will mean that you have the ability to attain this.”

It would completely change the game if the cat could copy him.

Currently, Li Hao wouldn’t receive much of a boost from incorporating the Silver Moon dao universe into himself. But if the seventh and eighth ranks could copy his dao, that would be a great stroke of fortune.

He would be able to integrate them and strengthen himself in a way that wasn’t borrowing strength. It would be something that he was equipped with in the first place!

If some of his great daos were strengthened to eighth rank and some to seventh rank, then with the daos of some fifth and sixth ranks incorporated within... And then those daos were overlaid upon themselves, Li Hao might be able to erupt with force that he’d yet to display thus far.

Number Two also knew that this was an opportunity to fully find Li Hao’s footing. The young man wouldn’t have to rely on anyone else then.

Well, he might have to rely on a cat.

The cat sank into deep thought, rather conflicted. Copying the young man?

That was so hard!

It didn’t have any inspiration, but some ideas came to mind after a while. If it really was a dao spirit... then it was a spirit to begin with. There wasn’t anything about ‘descending to reality’ that it’d had to accomplish.

Absorbing a large sum of world origin and life origin had simply further perfected the body that was Number Two. It didn’t mean that it was dead without life origin.

Perhaps that kind of state was more suited to copy great dao.

At the moment, Number Two faced a decision.

“I think I might be limited by this body...” it said to Li Hao. “I might have to give up this seventh rank body that’s materialized and return to what I was before. I’ll see if I can copy you then. But I’m not sure if I can recreate another physical body if I do that...”

It would lose seventh rank strength if it did so, which meant Li Hao would be down one seventh rank member. Was this a worthy gamble?

Could it return to seventh rank after it gave up this body, even if it devoured more?

Number Two wasn’t certain.

Li Hao frowned slightly, to which the cat said, “I don’t mind, but you need to consider carefully that you might be down one seventh rank if I relinquish my current body. If you think that’s alright...”

“It’s alright!” the young man breathed out.

The cat stared speechlessly at the young man, quite irritated. I was just being polite! How are you actually alright with that? You’re so direct!

“I can just locate another world origin for you if it comes down to that. It’s not like we have a shortage of enemies these days!” Li Hao laughed. “Let’s give it a try. It’s fine. Not to mention, will all of the previous world origin you absorbed disappear just because you give up this physical body?

“You’ll just consume some of it at most. Give it a try. If you succeed, then who cares about a seventh rank? If you fail, then it’s not like a seventh rank will make or break things.”

Number Two wilted. The young man was savage!

“Then... I really will give up my body?”

“Mmhmm, hurry up.”

Number Two narrowed its eyes. Li Hao had no respect for his elders! He was such a little bastard!

They’d spent so much time and effort for this body, and it’d considered its decision for a very long time. There had been an immense psychological struggle and it’d even bid farewell to the one who taught...

And now the little jerk wanted it to hurry up and give it up?

You’re worse than a dog!

As resigned and reluctant as the cat was, Number Two had to agree that they weren’t short on opponents at the moment. They could just break another major world if it came down to it and devour its world origin...

With that thought in mind, the cat no longer hesitated. A large amount of life force emanated from its body...

Li Hao absorbed it without hesitation. Waste not, want not.

A world origin was not meant to strengthen one’s own energy, but to function as a kind of vitality. The young man had expended some of his own life span and vitality when he walked the path of time. This would be a perfect replenishment of his resources.

It was grand!

A seventh rank’s vitality would be sufficient to make up for his losses.