Star Gate-Chapter 1477: I Hope They’re Alright (II)

“A chaos tribulation, again?” Number Two sighed with immense resignation. “This cat can’t handle it either if I eat too much of that...”

“Just this one time,” Li Hao smiled bashfully. “I won’t need the senior to absorb the tribulation anymore after this, and it shouldn’t be that strong this time.”

“......” Bullshit! You’re an exalted emperor now. Any tribulation you cause to appear will certainly be even stronger than before!

How annoying!

Number Two was silent for a while before asking, “Why do you kill people?”

“I don’t have enough energy.”

"Then cultivate for it!”

“There’s not enough time,” Li Hao sighed. “I don’t mind spending more time on this endeavour, but the Human King on New Martial’s side is stirring up trouble too quickly. I owe them some big favors.

“I could... ignore my debt as I’ll just hit the road if worst comes to worst. I can avoid New Martial and never have to pay up. But... we only live once, and we have to live for it, don’t we?”

Some things had to be acknowledged, even though he was a new person after being resurrected. Those things weren’t karmic repercussions, but the weight of favors owed!

This was the most troublesome of all. Any powerhouse or heavyweight with their name known in the chaos was afraid of favors. They had to be paid back even if one put their lives on the line for it!

Otherwise, what kind of martial master in the martial world would they be?

Being a martial master of the martial world is my root! Therefore, he needed to pay back his debts to those of New Martial...

Number Two understood and mumbled, “It’s Big Cat and them again... The one who teaches took action last time for Big Cat and the others too!”

Indeed, that was what had happened last time. And this time... that was what this one was doing.

New Martial, the Human King, Fang Ping, Big Cat...

These people were such troublemakers!

Big Cat wants to give me dried fish... I don’t even want them anymore.

But since this matter had to deal with Big Cat and whether Li Hao could help them... Number Two gave it long thought and felt that... Li Hao should be able to, right? The young man was a bit like the one who taught at his core.

The one who taught was very strong. He’d just chosen to end himself as his final decision. That was an immense source of pain for Number Two. When there was nothing worth living for in this world to someone like that, they might head to an extreme destination.

Since life had nothing to do with them, would they fear death? They’d enjoyed everything interesting in this world, so why remain further?

“Just this one time!” the cat responded when this thought rose in its mind. “Don’t come to this cat next time!”

“Alright, just this one time!” Li Hao laughed.

“We’re agreed! You can’t change your mind!”

“Absolutely not!” Li Hao nodded. To be honest, the cat had already given him plenty of help. Although it did so due to the ability of time, Number Two had truly blocked several chaos tribulations for him. He wouldn’t have that easy a time of things otherwise.

Since his mind was made up, Li Hao walked out of his closed door cultivation session. It was just a short seclusion—it’d been five days since Void left. As he thought, there was no sensation of time passing when exalted emperors cultivated.

Five days had passed while he’d crafted only fifty bridges. And this was five days in the chaos universe. If he’d still been on a sealed Silver Moon, several decades would’ve passed.

Granted, that wasn’t how time was measured.

“I’ll kill this one, ascend to second rank, then return to Silver Moon for a visit!”

I wonder how Panth is getting along? Nothing major should’ve happened, Lin Hongyu’s star of life and death is with me. I’ll know if anything really is taking place.

These days, many people were looking for them. The key was that Silver Moon had vanished. Their enemies might know that it was due to a chaos beast, so chaos beasts would become the focus of attention.

Panther was too big in its present form. It wasn’t much in the grand scheme of the chaos, but the dog wouldn’t have many opportunities to escape once it was discovered.

In contrast, a second rank exalted emperor wasn’t worth much. Panther wasn’t Li Hao either. And this was all compared to a master of a world.

A variety of thoughts vied for attention in Li Hao’s mind. He walked out of the volcano crater, prompting Big Claw to rise to his feet. The latter hadn’t dared fully immerse himself in cultivation. Even so, his presence was slightly different after five days.

Li Hao hadn’t given him any benefits, but Big Claw felt that he’d benefit massively all the same. He even felt that his changes over the past five days would determine whether he could ascend to the position of exalted emperor or not.

“Milord, the Observatory has given orders.” There was even more respect in his tones compared to before. “Milord is now the seventeen exalted emperor of Dragon Observatory! There are sixteen other exalted emperors aside from the lord.

“There is the sixth rank observatory leader, fifth rank Exalted Azure Dragon Emperor, fourth rank Exalted Void Emperor, Exalted Nihil Emperor, three third ranks, six second ranks, and three first ranks...”

Sixteen exalted emperors! Such a faction was quite strong—much stronger than regular mid worlds. On the other hand, it couldn’t measure up to a major world. Most major worlds could typically support one hundred exalted emperors at maximum. The strongest ones might host even more.

However, Dragon Observatory having four mid rank exalted emperors was a significant number as well. Some mid worlds might boast of only one or two. The weaker ones might have only their master of the world as a newly ascended third rank. This was typical for newly promoted mid worlds—those exalted emperors would quickly enter fourth rank.

Silver Moon was a unique case, it was too weak!

“With the Exalted Void Emperor vouching for milord, you will be given no missions within this year or be asked to do anything,” Big Claw continued after Li Hao nodded. “But if milord is still with Dragon Observatory after a year, you will need to conduct some missions. Without that, the lord will not be qualified to visit the dao foundation sites. Access will be granted only after a mission is carried out!”

Li Hao nodded again. That was fair. Of course there would be no reward without hard work. And if someone undertook an assignment, no matter what the results were, at least their good intentions would be compensated.

“Seventeen exalted emperors... There are nine other minor regions in the south. Even if they’re weaker, they should have a fourth rank in residence, as well as a few other exalted emperors. If we ballpark five exalted emperors for each region, then doesn’t that mean more than sixty exalted emperors in Skyward’s southern region alone? 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

“So that totals more than two hundred exalted emperors if we sum up all four regions in Skyward? Combined with some chaos wanderers and others, that makes for at least 300 exalted emperors in the entire major world!”

Li Hao sucked in a sharp breath, that was so many! He hadn’t had such a clear understanding of the situation before, but now could clearly see how many exalted emperors were in Skyward.

Just where did so many exalted emperors come from?

“Milord, there’s certainly more than that,” Big Claw volunteered in a small voice. “But some of the exalted emperors... overlap with each other!”

“Overlap?”

Big Claw nodded and whispered, “For example, some of the notable exalted emperors in other major worlds might be amongst us, but they don’t go by their usual names! Some of the masters of mid worlds might... might be here, but they don’t go by their usual names either!”

Li Hao understood. So it would seem that many of the powerhouses from the various mid and major worlds were here, but they were using aliases. The exalted emperor of Dragon Observatory might come from another faction. Therefore, some of the exalted emperors ‘overlapped’ with each other. There weren't actually that many on Skyward.

“It looks like they have some designs on Skyward!” the young man laughed.

“Naturally!” Big Claw relaxed. “This is a major world, after all, and one without a master. The key is, this is a major world where a ninth rank once resided! No one is as indifferent about Skyward as they appear to be!”

And is that Exalted Void Emperor really who he said he was? He’d said so himself that he chose that name because it dovetailed with his dao. That didn’t mean he didn’t have other identities at hand. Perhaps his original name was something else entirely.

“Do you have information regarding the third rank from Suncloud?”

“Yes! Master Void himself sent it to me!” Big Claw was quite impressed by how much the fourth rank valued the newcomer. A message containing everything they knew about the Suncloud third rank had arrived on the second day of Li Hao’s seclusion.

“Only two exalted emperors survived the destruction of Suncloud. One was... the one who died earlier! The other is named the Exalted Scintillating Emperor! He is a third rank who focuses on the art of kaleidoscopic light. There’s not much else in his arsenal.

“According to Master Void, the only noteworthy point about this man is that he’s very fast! He can create rainbows with a wave of his hand. When the Sword Sovereign killed the Suncloud master, this exalted emperor got away by transforming into a rainbow. The Sword Sovereign elected not to pursue him, which is how he survived.

“If you wish to kill him, speed will be critical. Or, you can outright fence him in!” For some reason, even though Big Claw knew full well that the person in front of him was just a first rank exalted emperor, he felt that the sole Suncloud survivor was dead without a doubt!

It was a bizarre certainty, but absolute nonetheless.

“This person is currently weighing up all offers and choosing which faction to join. But an exalted emperor of a mid world... even if he’s third rank... isn’t as in demand as one might think. This is even more so the case considering Skyward is hosting exalted emperors that fled from Utmost Dark and Elysian Fields.

“Since they are exalted emperors of major worlds, everyone’s eyes are mostly on them. This makes the Suncloud Scintillating Emperor even less important in comparison.

“He’s currently in Skyriver Region within the southern region, in talks with that region master—a fourth rank exalted emperor. The four main factions are preoccupied with the two fifth ranks, so this one has been contacting mostly small region masters!”

Li Hao nodded continuously, the report was detailed. For an exalted emperor to offer such detailed intelligence and even a description of the enemy’s abilities... that was quite the show of support.

Big Claw smiled as well when he saw that Li Hao was satisfied. “In addition, Master Void suggests using the previously vanished exalted emperor as the lure. You might be able to lure out the other with that excuse!”

“My deepest thanks!” Li Hao said sincerely. “Please thank the Exalted Void Emperor for me!”

As they said, one had to rely on friends when traveling the world. Although they weren’t friends, neither Li Hao nor Void thought much of Scintillating. Thus, Void took advantage of the opportunity to do Li Hao a favor.

“I will relay the message!” Big Claw quickly said. “In addition, if milord decides to head to Skyriver... this humble one can keep you company. As a Dragon Observatory exalted emperor, milord possesses the qualification to visit! It’s just... the news will be hard to conceal.”

Li Hao’s movements would be hard to keep a secret. And if that third rank ended up dead as well... the young man would come under suspicion. Void had clamped down on news of the one that’d died before. But if another died...

This would cause quite a commotion!

Li Hao sank into deep thought. He wouldn’t always have help from Void. Granted, killing the Suncloud third rank wouldn’t be much of a problem if the commotion wasn’t great.