“I’m still out here,” grinned Yuan Shuo. “You’ll take another step forward once I become part of the worlds. My dao of the five elements is quite strong...”

Li Hao’s five elements were individual worlds, as opposed to one combined whole. Yuan Shuo had been contemplating if he should create a new world of all five elements, then integrate with that one?

“Teacher, you’ve just entered seventh rank,” Li Hao laughed. “Even if you become part of my worlds, the resulting increase won’t be that great. I might go from four thousand daos to forty-one hundred?”

That could be the extent of his teacher’s addition.

Yuan Shuo listened wordlessly. Was that all he was good for?

“Then you’ve made all these preparations for such a long time... only to be able to take on a Peng Cheng,” he said gravely. “You won’t be able to handle Reincarnation even when our three eighth ranks join you!”

Did this mean that everything had been for nothing? Li Hao needed to reach at least Reincarnation’s level to have a hope of blocking the attack to come. How about you stall for a bit of time before opening Allheaven Hall?

Li Hao looked overhead. Chaos dao manifested in his eyes. He’d become part of the chaos and all daos were connected to the chaos. He focused on one star above his head—the star of time!

Ten thousand daos were within the star, but they weren’t that strong. All of them combined would only reach sixth rank. That represented that none of these daos had reached a decent level. Their strongest was only sixth rank, or not even.

This was the star of time left behind by the War Sovereign. Or rather, the seed of the star of time.

Li Hao looked at the panting Number Two. The cat was sprawled over the river and couldn’t be bothered to move. It was dead tired after recent efforts, so tired that it didn’t want to twitch its tail.

“Four thousand dao rules are not enough...” Li Hao said slowly. “If the four thousand dao rules are a mess, then there’s not much difference between them and four thousand individual cultivators. But what if... they’re neatly organized?”

There was order in time. There had to be!

Li Hao smiled and looked at Number Two. “Number Two, I’d like to ask you for one final thing.”

That cat wanted to burst into tears!

What?!?!

“Copy the star of time, just in a general sense. I want to break the star of time and incorporate the strength of a myriad daos into my river. That will change my river into an orderly construct!”

“I can’t do that...” Number Two’s teeth ached and its head wanted to explode.

“I know, but it’ll be fine if you copy the ten thousand daos before I break it. They’re very weak, so I can reconstruct them later!”

Number Two blinked and looked at Li Hao, stunned. Do you mean that? There won’t be time anymore if you fail. Breaking it now will also make the river of time disappear, right? Won’t that spell the end of your Allheaven Hall?

“Can you... reconstruct it?” Number Two asked uncertainly.

“I wouldn’t be able to if I completely lacked all foundation,” Li Hao laughed. “But once you copy all the thousand daos, then I’m just simply rearranging them. Of course I’ll be able to recreate it then!”

Is that so?

Number Two hesitated, then nodded, “Time is just a sixth rank dao. I should be able to copy it if you take it apart...”

It wasn’t like it was a very strong dao. It was just too complicated for the cat to copy fully.

With that, Li Hao set his hesitations aside. He plucked the star, shaking it slightly. The young man took a deep breath and... stripped out one of the great daos from the stars amid everyone’s shocked eyes.

The entire star began to crumble amongst a bewildering miasma. Feeble great daos surged out of the star. Number Two hastily copied them and looked extremely nervously at Li Hao. They were really going overboard!

The kid really had dismantled the star of time. That madman!

Li Hao, however, was overjoyed. I’ve been wanting to take it apart, but haven’t dared to or couldn’t bring myself to do it. It’s been a frightening prospect to consider operating without time.

But today, I did it!

Time was about to vanish.

The young man forgot even about the impending arrival of enemies. Countless great daos danced in his eyes and he continuously observed and investigated them. The river of time that ran throughout the eastern region also began to fall apart.

Since the star of time was no more, then naturally the river connected to it would collapse.

None of the exalted emperors within Allheaven Hall had sensed it yet. If they did... they would realize that their mental strength wouldn’t be able to return to their bodies once the river crumbled away.

......

At the same time, within the chaos.

Certain figures chased the ripples. One of them frowned and looked around them. The ripples of the river they’d been following had abruptly gotten more violent.

It even seemed about to... fall to pieces.

What was going on here?

Reincarnation had almost tracked the ripples to their source. He looked sharply at their finish line. Something... seemed to be taking place there.

“Something’s gone wrong with Li Hao’s time!” The look in his eyes shifted.

The other exalted emperors were confused since they hadn’t sensed anything. What had gone wrong?

......

Outside the four regions.

Long Zhan also paused briefly and rumbled, “Weird... has Li Hao been attacked?”

Would things happen so quickly?

The kid’s ripples of time are vanishing. What does that mean?

Is time collapsing?

......

In the depths of the chaos, where the statues were.

The Skyward master abruptly opened his eyes with shock, incredulity, and an unspeakable mix of other emotions.

“Bastard!” his voice rang out.

“Skyward, is time... fading away?” Another statue opened its eyes with confusion.

The Skyward master didn’t say a word. Time did indeed appear to be fading. He wanted to rage with madness!

Time was fading!!

Why was this happening??

Battle had not yet broken out, so why was this happening?!?!

Had that bastard broken time himself??

Why would anyone choose to destroy time?!

That wasn’t possible! No one could withstand its temptation! Why would anyone ruin time themselves??

He didn’t believe it!

A powerhouse like the Skyward master didn’t believe his senses. Instead, he wondered if someone had attacked Li Hao without his realization. This was too incredible to put into words!

......

Allheaven Hall.

The sparkling doorframes dimmed.

No one noticed the change at first, but once the doors started closing, that attracted a lot of attention. Some people’s eyes widened and the troublemakers whipped their heads around, looking at the passageway behind them.

What was happening?

Someone in the crowd couldn’t help themselves and shouted, interrupting the insults between the Thunder Emperor and the rest. “What are you guys doing?! Why are the passageways inoperable all of a sudden??”

His words gave rise to a general uproar. They couldn’t teleport anymore? Then... they were in a lot of trouble!

Although mental strength wasn’t the entirety of an exalted emperor, dying here would be a loss to them nonetheless. Some had come just to watch the show, others had come truly to discuss dao. The sudden loss of connection to their primary bodies was immensely alarming.

Even those who supported Li Hao were in shock. Was the young man really going to devour everyone’s mental strength? Why else would he break off the passages?

Many tried to leave, with some attempting to enter the door they’d come through. However... the original doorway was now completely shut and unable to be opened.

The uproar built to an intense hubbub.

“What is the purpose of this?!”

“Are you really here to discuss dao?!”

“And here I thought this was our opportunity, that Allheaven Hall is a wondrous place for the chaos...”

“......” Exalted emperors flew into a rage! Damn the perpetrators!

The Thunder Emperor and others looked askance at each other. They hadn’t anticipated that the passageway would suddenly be severed either.

That hadn’t been part of the plan.

Li Hao wouldn’t create all of this just to devour everyone’s mental strength. That was too much of a waste.

“Everyone, please settle down!” The Thunder Emperor called for quiet, despite being at a loss for what to do as well. “We absolutely do not mean to swallow your mental strength! Strong enemies might have attacked and broken the passages. There is nothing to be concerned about!”

They could only point fingers at their enemies now, but questions swirled in their own hearts. Had enemies broken the passages? Who could do so in a split second? Surely that wasn’t possible?

Or was Li Hao up to something instead?

The Thunder Emperor was growing nervous, not about potential danger, but that Allheaven Hall’s reputation might be destroyed if this continued. It would be very difficult to salvage once ruined.

How annoying!

Everything they worked for would be wasted once people refrained from coming out of fear for their safety.

The exalted emperors gathered below did not fall silent. Under the leadership of some powerhouses, they grew even more rowdy.

“Isn’t Allheaven Hall supposed to be very safe? Why can someone break the passageways? Where is Li Hao? Why hasn’t he shown up yet? Or is he going after our primary bodies since our mental strength is in here? Is he going to devour our worlds??”

Even those who were relatively calm and collected lost their cool at these suggestions. Surely not?