Star Gate-Chapter 1449: Verifying the Dao of an Exalted Emperor (I)

Chapter 1449: Verifying the Dao of an Exalted Emperor (I)

The chaos tribulation naturally faded away when the power of time dissipated. It was just as Li Hao had said, the chaos did not target him when he did not wield time. There were countless powerhouses in the vast chaos. Apart from the cycle of life and death, past and future... the chaos didn’t care about anything.

The chaos was all-encompassing and tolerant. It sent forth a tribulation only when something appeared to disrupt it.

A ponderous chaos beast the size of a star swam through the universe. It moved very swiftly, but also seemed incredibly slow in the infinite void. The place where fireworks had been set alight seemed to be close by, but Panther knew that it would take several years for it to reach that spot if it swam over with Silver Moon.

Such was the chaos!

Apart from a batch of premier existences, anyone would appear particularly minuscule here. There was no one like the Human King or Ash Emperor in Silver Moon. If they wished to reach New Martial, they would have to cross Red Moon territory.

Li Hao did not choose to do so, and neither did Celestial Pole or the others make such a request. They were situated on the fringes of Red Moon territory. Where New Martial had burst upon the scene was on the far side of Red Moon. It was too difficult and far too dangerous to think of crossing Red Moon territory. Thus, they set a course for the opposite of New Martial.

Silver Moon denizens knew nothing about the chaos; Celestial Pole was no exception. He could vaguely feel that his replica was in a distant location, but even he didn’t propose that they set out for New Martial. It was too perilous—the current Silver Moon couldn’t make the trip.

Escaping the influence of Red Moon major world was the best they could do.

As for whether or not New Martial would come in search of them... Celestial Pole hoped they wouldn’t.

Who knew how much trouble New Martial had landed themselves in to create such an enormous disturbance? The entire chaos seemed to be affected. Celestial Pole didn’t want New Martial to come for Silver Moon at this time; it was best if the civilization forgot about their vassal world.

Otherwise, once New Martial came in contact with Silver Moon, any random enemy would be able to easily eliminate the mid world. It was ideal to get as far away as possible and for the two sides to stay out of contact!

It’s best if I can guarantee the survival of either my primary body or replica. Such were Celestial Pole’s thoughts.

Zhang An understood this logic as well, but he was missing his home and grandfather. The Star Gate was open and New Martial still existed on the other side of the chaos.

However, he had no way of going home.

It’d only been a few decades for New Martial denizens, which was absolutely nothing at all. But it’d been one hundred thousand years for them!

Although they’d been asleep for most of it, they knew that one hundred thousand years had passed. The New Martial citizens marooned on Silver Moon missed home.

New Martial, not Silver Moon, was their home.

......

Li Hao sat cross-legged on the giant beast and looked ahead into the chaos as he cultivated. He knew that Zhang An and the rest wanted to go home, but there was no way of accomplishing that.

I can’t immediately fulfill the promise I made that day to send them back to New Martial. I need to stay as far away from Red Moon as possible. The exalted emperor that we met today was far stronger than Bone Eclipse. And was such an existence one of the strongest in the chaos or Red Moon?

Absolutely not!

I can wield some exalted emperor strength in Silver Moon, but I’m not a real exalted emperor. Number Two’s not weak, but apart from its link to the War Sovereign, it doesn’t care about anything else.

The combined efforts of Gan Wuliang and Martial Uncle Hong are less than what I can bring to bear. Can such a Silver Moon dabble in a war between worlds?

Celestial Pole’s replica wasn’t that familiar with the division of exalted emperors in the chaos. He’d split off his replica one hundred thousand years ago, and his primary body had liked to seclude himself away from the happenings of the chaos.

Therefore, his replica knew very little of the universe.

He could only conduct some basic analysis based on the power hierarchy of New Martial. But of the two exalted emperors that’d appeared today, he could only say that one was slightly strong and the other even stronger...

This kind of categorization made it impossible for Li Hao to understand how strong Red Moon, New Martial, and the chaos was!

Panther roamed through the chaos in the body of the chaos beast. A river circled around the young man; he looked to be a doddering, senile old man.

His life force had almost been completely depleted before; it’d increased slightly when his strength rose during the tribulation. It increased a bit more when he comprehended time. But as he reversed time and recovered his previous condition... he was even worse off than he was at the start!

Li Hao was yet to truly set foot into the exalted emperor level; he had not undergone a metamorphosis. He wouldn’t actually be an ordinary cultivator if he became an exalted emperor of a typical great dao. However, he currently wished to travel down some unique paths. He wanted to perfect the dao of time as the foundation and use it to ascend as an exalted emperor.

He didn’t have much time left, but Li Hao wasn’t afraid. It was easy for him to make that leap right now if he wished to. Yet, having once gazed upon even greater heights, many things were now fundamental to him.

There wasn’t much to a hill after one climbed a mountain!

A few people appeared next to him after a thought struck him. They were surprised and also overawed. They hadn’t had a chance to fully study the chaos before this. Now that they were on Panther’s back and could gaze into the open expanse, they found themselves incredibly small.

Li Hao had summoned Gan Wuliang, Hong Yitang, and Lin Hongyu. They were puzzled why the young man had moved them out of Panther’s stomach. Was something the matter?

“I need to progress to exalted emperor as soon as possible, time is not on my side.” Li Hao looked at them silently for a while. “The chaos is not safe either. Panther has taken control of the chaos beast’s body in the capacity of the heavenly will. The dog is strong enough, but that doesn’t seem to be enough in the chaos!

“Silver Moon is yet to produce its own exalted emperor!”

The three listened gravely to him. Having witnessed a battle between supreme powerhouses, they were slightly apprehensive.

“I’ve temporarily given up the dao of time, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to keep training it!” Li Hao continued. “Of course, I’m focusing my efforts more on perfecting some foundations and ascending as an afterthought. Regular exalted emperor breakthroughs should not be accompanied by a thunder tribulation.”

The trio nodded. There had been no thunder tribulations in the early stage of New Martial. The one that developed later was forged from New Martial itself.

Li Hao clearly did not need the help of one.

“But I might have to face one when I advance. It might be a chaos tribulation, but it shouldn’t be too strong!”

The atmosphere grew taut with worry. Why was this the case? You’re not cultivating time anymore!

“I’m going to train the path of life and death to make my way to exalted emperor!” Li Hao looked at Lin Hongyu. “Life and death are different from yin and yang! Life is the origin, death is the final destination. Yin and yang are two sides of the same coin, much like the corporeal and immaterial dao. When people come back to life from death, it is not a matter of life and death, but of yin and yang!”

Lin Hongyu looked thoughtful, but didn’t fully understand.

“True life and death is the progress of life toward the final destination,” said Li Hao. “And then... starting again. From start to finish, then start and finish again...

“To put it simply, I’m going to die of old age and end this life! I will use the brilliance of my final moments to give birth to my second life, much like how the imperial guard came to be!”

The three started with surprise. What... did that mean? They didn’t fully understand, but it didn’t sound simple.

“In that way, I will end my life and all of its associated karma! But I’ll be starting again from zero, much like the imperial guard did. Even my memories will be included in that! The memories of this life will become the past. In this way, even if I live out a second life, I may not be Li Hao anymore!”

The imperial guard and its father?

The trio understood now!

“Must you do this?” Lin Hongyu colored.

“I don’t have to, but this way will be the most advantageous for me,” Li Hao answered after some thought. “I borrowed from the future endless times before and may not have fully paid off that debt yet! All of the injuries and resurrections are wearing away at my foundations and reserves!

“I am riddled with injuries right now, and injuries of dao are hard to recover from!”

“Then... will you no longer be you?” The look in Lin Hongyu’s eyes grew distant. Although he would inherit his old self’s memories, memories were memories in the end. They weren’t true experiences. Wouldn’t that make him a different person?

“I would no longer be me,” Li Hao nodded. “So I don’t actually want the process to be like that. I’d like to fully inherit my memories—not inherit, but make them part of myself. I don’t want to be a new person like the imperial guard!”

Lin Hongyu sighed with relief and Gan Wuliang asked carefully, “Then the marquis has summoned us... to help you accomplish this goal?”

“That’s right,” the young man nodded again. “I’ll also need the three of you to help me perfectly cultivate the dao of life and death. I am very familiar with how to cultivate it, but the key is the perfect integration of memory...”

This would be similar to some methods that they’d seen from others before, such as the young lord of the Wind and Cloud Pavilion. However, Li Hao wasn’t going to simply send his mental strength through the process of rebirth. That was meaningless.

He was going to walk the true reincarnation of life and death!

“How should we help you?” The three were very solemn.

“It sounds hard, but it’s not!” Li Hao smiled. “I’m going to start anew and live a second life. I’ll basically be baptizing myself and I’ll do so very quickly. What you guys need to do is guide me back to myself at a critical moment!”

Guide? How? Pained expressions appeared on their faces.

“I’m going to start over as a baby and live through all the stages of life. That will make me a blank sheet of paper. What you three need to do is not let the new memories become part of me, but awaken my original memories. Only then will I be my original self!”

“How should we do that?”

“There are parts of our lives at every stage that are difficult to forget!” Li Hao said slowly. “My parents, my brother, my teacher, my friends... these are all key to waking me! But they happened later. I will be young at first, especially as a baby. Even I don’t know how to awaken my memories then...”

The three looked at each other.

How are we supposed to know if you don’t? What do we do then?