Star Gate-Chapter 1410: A Contest of Swords (III)

“Although the Sword Sovereign taught me sword intent, he was unwilling to draw his sword on me,” Li Daoheng said harshly. “I wished to... experience one blow from him. I would die without regret if that was the last thing I ever did! Since he wasn’t willing, I waited for him to take me to account for my crimes!”

“The Sword Sovereign would not be the Sword Sovereign if he pointed his sword at his own!” Li Hao frowned slightly. “You are truly a very stubborn and extreme person.”

“Perhaps!” Li Daoheng’s laughter rang through the void. “Don’t tell Li Daozong that I died again. Dead is dead, telling him it happened again is meaningless!”

“Alright!” Li Hao nodded. The body in front of him had completely crumbled away, leaving behind only a stroke of sword intent much like a thunderbolt.

Whether it was Celestial Pole or Lin Hongyu, both were surprised at how events had turned out. Lin Hongyu took to the air and studied the streak of sword intent, then looked at Li Hao with wariness. “Is he... faking his death again?”

Not even the chaos tribulation had eradicated Li Daoheng! And the key was, he’d known that Li Hao could come back to life and had been waiting here for him. The two then exchanged some simple moves that weren’t particularly flashy or earth-shattering, but Li Daoheng was somehow dead?

Was there another conspiracy afoot?

“He’s not faking his death, he’s really dead.” Li Hao sighed and shook his head. “This guy was too proud, stubborn, and ruthless!”

Ruthless?

Because he massacred the Lis?

Li Hao’s river of the world suddenly materialized. When Lin Hongyu focused her gaze on it, she blinked. Thunder and lightning raged within its waters—they looked very similar to the chaos tribulation!

The woman stared, what was that?

“It’s from his last blow!” Li Hao’s body briefly grew indistinct before quickly re-stabilizing. He swiftly enveloped the thunder and lightning within the river and suppressed it in the river’s depths.

“This guy’s sword intent is seriously strong!” Celestial Pole exclaimed. “He infiltrated your inner world, I almost misjudged him!”

“He’s imitated Sword Sovereign to the highest level possible,” Li Hao nodded. “But he was too obstinate and wasn’t willing to coalesce the Eternal Sword intent. When the chaos tribulation appeared, he wanted to use it as the core of his dao, just as I’ve made time the core of mine.

“But... chaos tribulation is a double-edged sword. If he’d coalesced the Eternal Sword intent before the tenth thunderbolt arrived, he might’ve still had a chance to fight me!” The young man took some time to explain further when he looked at Lin Hongyu. “The tenth thunderbolt was his wild gamble. He wanted to use his sword bones as the fuel to ignite his sword intent. The severing of his core origin dao was the price that he was willing to pay for a sword of chaos lightning!

“I brought up time against his thunder and lightning in our 181st move. If it wasn’t for him being so gravely weakened, time would’ve been weaker than the thunder and lightning!”

“Will it have an effect on you since it’s infiltrated your river?” Lin Hongyu didn’t care about the particulars of Li Daoheng’s potential. Who cared what he wanted to do? He was dead.

“A little!” Li Hao nodded and looked at the sky. “There was a fifty percent chance that I would’ve attracted a chaos tribulation when I walked out of Silver Moon, now there’s at least a ninety percent chance after what he’s done!”

There didn’t seem to be much of a difference in the outcome, just that he was in greater danger than before.

Since Li Hao had weathered two chaos tribulations already, Lin Hongyu felt that he would have no issues with a third. That was good!

She looked to the side, at the sword intent lingering after Li Daoheng’s death. “What should we do with that?”

“It’s just a collection of Eternal Sword intent in the absence of chaos lightning. Comprehending it entirely would give one a chance of ascending to exalted emperor. This sword intent is neutral and peaceful, with none of his arrogance or others intermixed. He should’ve won with his last blow, so let’s honor his wishes and give it to the Ninth Division leader!”

“But...” Lin Hongyu was slightly worried.

“It’s fine!” Li Hao shook his head and grabbed the sword intent. It was indeed very neutral and tranquil. There was a boundless variety of sword intent encompassed within, all of it clearly delineated. They might have formed the real Eternal Sword if they were combined.

Unfortunately, Li Daoheng hadn’t been willing to completely trace the Sword Sovereign’s footsteps, otherwise... 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Granted, Li Hao didn’t find it much of a pity either. Those who were immensely self assured always thought they were different from the rest. He was the same way.

But where there were successes, there would also be failures. It was because of this aspiration that later descendants were sometimes able to surpass their forebears. Otherwise, they could only live off the accomplishments of the ancients.

Celestial Pole floated upward as well, having digested the emotional impact of what’d just taken place. “This guy... if I was him, I would’ve gone into hiding or taken a risk to see if I could set foot outside the Star Gate. But he just waited here for you... He was definitely destined to die.”

Li Hao smiled and didn’t say anything. Everyone had their own decisions to make. Li Daoheng had known that there was a high likelihood Li Hao would be resurrected. There wasn’t much of a point to going into hiding, just more humiliation once he was eventually captured by Li Hao.

This way, at least, he had another chance of sparring with Li Hao again.

In actuality, Li Daoheng was the victor when it came to pure sword intent.

Meanwhile, Lin Hongyu was still terribly suspicious, even paranoid that there was a greater conspiracy at play. “Why don’t we go back and investigate the Ninth Division leader and Dao Sword? Even... Martial Uncle Hong... Just in case Li Daoheng’s taken possession or stolen one of their bodies.”

Li Daoheng had survived ten thunderbolts from a chaos tribulation and lived to fight Li Hao again. She really felt that Li Daoheng might come back to life.

“He’s truly dead!” Li Hao shook his head.

Who can say that for sure? Lin Hongyu wanted to refute the young man, but Li Hao shook his head again.

“No, really, he’s dead! If he’s not dead after this, he’s not worth my attention anyhow. For a swordsman to reach this point, the point of forsaking the chaos sword intent that he’s gathered, this means he’s relinquished his sense of self. I’ve also satisfied his desire to match our sword daos against each other. He’s as good as dead even if he’s still alive!”

Lin Hongyu wasn’t sure she understood.

“To put it simply, it’s a matter of foundation! Dao foundation!” Li Hao laughed. “All dao must have its origin. If you give up even the root and source of your dao, the most primitive wishes and desires of your heart, then you are no longer Lin Hongyu. You’d be dead even if you were alive.”

My most primitive wishes and desires?

Li Hao thought it over. What were her most primitive desires?

“I don’t know what they are, you might not know yourself either,” Li Hao said before she had a chance to ask. “But not knowing is a kind of bliss! Li Daoheng knew, so he was tormented by them.

“Senior Celestial Pole knows, but he lives a very comfortable and easy life. His source of dao is noninterference in all matters, to eat and sleep well everyday, and live eternally. This kind of dao origin is very simple and content.”

Celestial Pole wanted to roll his eyes! Why do you guys keep dragging me into your examples? Do you remember who I am?? You’re cocky now, aren’t you kid? If my primary body was here... I’d want to smack you to death with one punch!

You make it sound nice with “noninterference in all matters”, but you might as well come out and say that I’m afraid of death!

Lin Hongyu mulled over Li Hao’s words. The young man left her to her thoughts and looked at Calm Tranquility.

“There should be only the Ninth Division leader left of the Lis,” he sighed with emotion. “Li Daoheng spared his life. If he really was that ruthless, he would’ve killed the division leader at first light!”

“You’re saying he’s a merciful soul?” asked Lin Hongyu. “He doesn’t seem the benevolent type at all!”

That was plainly a villain, through and through. But Li Hao seemed to mean that the other had shown restraint?

“We can’t say that either, or that he’s a good guy.” Li Hao shook his head. “Just that even he didn’t trust himself, so how could he have emerged the final victor? If he felt that he could do whatever he wanted after exterminating the Lis, why bother leaving someone alive? That was completely superfluous!

“Either he should not do anything, or he should see something through to the end if he does something. But he didn’t trust himself and hemmed and hawed. Why subject himself through that?

“Therefore, he was destined to fail from the very beginning!”

Even Celestial Pole couldn’t help but glance at him sharply with this declaration. The kid was being quite vicious! If Li Hao had been Li Daoheng, he might’ve massacred the entire world one hundred thousand years ago!

It was a simple conversation they were having, but it made the hairs on the back of Celestial Pole’s neck stand up.

Lin Hongyu didn’t make out Li Hao’s connotations since he spoke in a casual tone, but Celestial Pole did with his infinite wisdom. A chill started from his very bones.

The kid looked urbane and genteel, always conducting his affairs in an unhurried manner. He also spoke in cultured, measured tones and rarely issued threats. But it was a quiet dog that proved to bite others... and that was Li Hao!

Celestial Pole had thought that Li Hao was similar to the War Sovereign before—now he knew how wrong he was. The War Sovereign was not a ruthless character, and that precisely defined Li Hao.

“Let’s go!” Li Hao looked down, not up at where the Star Gate was. He traveled through the void with a smile. “We can’t waste the people’s prayers, so we should make use of this opportunity to do something. Let’s see... if we can revive my teacher and the others. That will make all the favors I owe feel somewhat worth it!”

“Can you do that?” Lin Hongyu blinked. Could Li Hao accomplish what he spoke of?

“I couldn’t before, but now... I can give it a try! It was hard to find their dao stars before, but now I can try reversing time. Although it’s been a long while, I just need to capture some traces!

“They’ve been asleep for too long, I hope that they can all return! With Senior Cat at the end of the past and helping me suppress the river of time, I can give it a try. Otherwise, it’s a bit troublesome that the world is so weak!”

Celestial Pole did roll his eyes now!

What the fuck? Did you just admit to scheming against Number Two so that it would enter the river? You wanted an invincible anchor!

If this was the case, he could only say that Li Hao was rotten inside and out!

Celestial Pole couldn’t begin to estimate what level of strength the cat was at. From the last battle it participated in, the one in which Number Two transformed into an arrow and pierced through the Heavenly Emperor, it was an existence that could swat ordinary exalted emperors out of existence!

Although it’d been the War Sovereign behind that blow, Number Two would have to be formidable itself to carry out the sovereign’s plans. With it in place in the river of time, Li Hao might really be able to achieve something remarkable.

Li Hao needed to reverse time and capture some hints from the past if he wanted to revive his teacher. Number Two’s presence would immensely alleviate the difficulty.

The more Celestial Pole thought this over, the more he felt that he needed to stay away from the young man.

“I actually remember that I’m busy and need to go. Farewell!”

“Senior, Senior Cat is still...”

Celestial Pole was already gone. “We’re in no rush, I’m going back to rest for a while from my grave, grave injuries. Until next time!”

More like, until never. This kid’s giving me constant heart attacks!

Startled, Li Hao laughed silently. Lin Hongyu shared his mirth. “The senior... is very interesting!”

Interesting?

Li Hao’s laughter became audible. More like he’s petrified of dying! I suppose it’s interesting that there’s an exalted emperor with his personality. No wonder he’s lived so long! He’s certainly an... unique exalted emperor.