Star Gate-Chapter 1481: Complete Eradication (III)

“Do the other three exalted emperors feel the same way?” Li Hao looked at the rest of the group.

“Fellow Daoist Hao Moon, you are quite out of line to be asking this!” Yu Ji frowned faintly. “This is Skyriver Region, not Dragon Observatory Region! Even if it was Dragon Observatory territory, Skyriver would naturally advance and retreat together given our shared unity.

“Or does the fellow daoist think that a few empty words and a so-called threat from New Martial is sufficient to make Skyriver fall apart?”

What was the kid thinking!

This was a moment of truth. The rest of the exalted emperors declared themselves for Skyriver Region and indicated that they wouldn’t give Dragon Observatory the time of day even if the faction tried to recruit them.

That immediately eased Skyriver’s foreboding expression.

“Yun Cang was killed by a New Martial powerhouse?” Scintillating demanded frostily. “Who?”

He looked at Li Hao, somehow irritated by the newcomer’s presence. There was something about the young man that annoyed him at first glance. He didn’t care for the way the kid talked and held himself either.

If it wasn’t for Scintillating having some reservations, he would’ve already attacked the newcomer. There was a very distasteful presence rising from the young man.

It belonged to the Sword Sovereign!

On the other hand, this person likely wasn’t the Sword Sovereign. He was just a sword cultivator, which made him just as nauseating.

“The culprit is said to be the Silver Moon king!” Li Hao explained seriously. “Silver Moon is a world born from New Martial!”

The group paused when they heard his response.

“What?! The Silver Moon king?!” Scintillating immediately flew into a rage. “That bastard courts death! How dare an exalted emperor of a desolate backwater be so outrageous! I’ll tear him apart with my bare hands!”

The Silver Moon king? What the hell was that? He ruled over a new world that hadn’t appeared for long. It was said to not even be a minor world! For the master of such a world to kill Yun Cang absolutely meant that he deserved death!

As for how he’d done the deed, no one was certain.

Li Hao ignored him and looked at Skyriver. “Exalted Skyriver Emperor, the Silver Moon king impudently declared that he wished to kill the Exalted Scintillating Emperor after the demise of Yun Cang. If Skyriver shelters Scintillating at this moment, it will be putting itself against the Silver Moon king.”

Skyriver laughed, so angry that he was amused. “Hao Moon! Do you represent Dragon Observatory?! Even the fellow daoists of Dragon Observatory would not dare question this seat thus! The Silver Moon king? He’s just the master of a desolate backwater! If he dared show his face here, this seat would pulverize him and avenge Fellow Daoist Yun Cang!

“Also, don’t be fancying yourself to be something just because you’ve joined Dragon Observatory!” He frowned at the young man. This kid was making him increasingly uncomfortable. He spoke like he was the leader of Dragon Observatory! How dare you be so insolent to a fourth rank!

Li Hao didn’t immediately respond. Instead, he was silent in thought and looked at the group. “Seniors, will you lend me some of your time?”

They blinked. What did that mean?

Li Hao sat down cross-legged; a long river appeared in front of him. The others stared, completely befuddled by his motions. They had no idea what the young man intended. He was only a first rank, so they weren’t much concerned about any potential danger.

After all, there were five exalted emperors on their side, including a mid rank!

But that river...

The group took a closer look. What was that? Great dao?

It didn’t seem like it—it wasn’t connected to a dao universe. So what was it then?

Next to Li Hao, Exalted Emperor Yu Ji growled with annoyance, “Fellow Daoist Hao Moon! We will not take you to task for your words due to you being part of Dragon Observatory. However, what are you doing? You are an affront of the dignity of exalted emperors and are being ridiculous!”

Li Hao’s river was circling through the premises; even Skyriver could barely help himself. He wanted to leap into action and gravely injure the other. The young man went too far!

Where do you think you are?! Is this a place for you to run wild? Are you cultivating here or what?

The visitor had presented a confusing mess from the moment he set foot into the complex. Skyriver had been baffled and now was enraged.

On the other hand, Li Hao didn’t care about any of that. Since this person insisted on tying himself to Suncloud... very well then.

“It’s said that this dao foundation site is the heritage of a sixth rank exalted emperor,” he raised as he directed the river around them. “And that it’s the work of a water attribute exalted emperor. I wonder how far off the Exalted Skyriver Emperor is compared to a sixth rank exalted emperor?”

The look in Skyriver’s eyes was vicious as he walked down from his throne and stalked toward the young man. He wasn’t interested in answering questions!

The only thought in his mind was that this person showed such blatant disregard for him. This humiliation in front of Scintillating could not be allowed to stand, even at the risk of offending Dragon Observatory!

How could he maintain his authority if a mere first rank was permitted to act so wantonly like this?

Li Hao didn’t hesitate when the man approached him. I’ve made myself very clear, let’s go at it since you insist!

I thought that I wouldn’t have enough power of life and death if I killed one exalted emperor, then what if I kill a bunch? Maybe I’ll have enough energy to ascend to even third rank!

This is just as well! I can take care of everything in one go!

I just wonder how much of that sixth rank’s strength I’ll be able to borrow. I should be able to, since I’m at their dao foundation site, right?

It was feasible under normal circumstances, the caveat being that the exalted emperor was still alive. If they were dead... then they would have no past or future. That would be difficult then. Li Hao had no way of knowing if his target was still alive.

The two seventh ranks that he’d encountered thus far were still alive, so... he could give the sixth rank a try. If the experiment failed, he could say that he was here to cultivate. The worst he would receive was a beating for his impertinence. They wouldn’t kill him since he was part of Dragon Observatory.

At least, such were Li Hao’s thoughts.

As Skyriver approached him, his star of time suddenly burst with immense power of time. The chaos tribulation that had been dispersing outside Skyward abruptly returned!

Even though the young man had sealed off both ends of the river, the chaos tribulation was here again. However, it seemed to be looking or searching for something. The vastness and strength of the major world was interfering with the tribulation’s operations.

......

Li Hao’s star of life and death vanished, replaced by the star of time. The entire river became the river of time again. However, the young man’s breadth of vision was much more expansive than before. He needed only a glance to tell that his river was quite feeble. It lacked the profound mysteries of the power of time.

As he began to reverse time, his lifespan depleted. The river pierced through the world and seemed to touch upon something!

This was Li Hao’s first instance of reversing time to connect to another powerhouse’s past. While the Great Li king and others had done so before, they’d utilized weapons as a medium through which to contact past shadows.

This time, he was using the dao foundation site in hopes of summoning a sixth rank exalted emperor!

The young man’s expression suddenly changed drastically—his lifespan was depleting at a furious rate. He was growing older at a pace visible to the naked eye!

Do I have to consume so many resources to connect to a sixth rank? I’m an exalted emperor!

For exalted emperors to noticeably deplete their lifespans meant that this was a tremendous rate of consumption. The other was yet to appear even now. Didn’t this mean that he’d need numerous lives to summon the other?

As his face flickered through various expressions, he abruptly appeared within his own river and set one foot upstream. A shadow hovered in and out of sight there—it seemed to see Li Hao.

It was a woman!

Her shadow was magnificent as she leveled an arctic gaze at Li Hao through time.

“I am borrowing the fellow daoist’s past strength in my capacity as a potential master of time!” Dao notes rippled through the air as Li Hao looked at the woman. “If you are willing, I will owe you a favor and repay it if we are destined to meet again!”

The woman seemed to hear him and thought it over for only a split second. “Granted!”

A potential master of time! A cultivator of time was asking to borrow her strength—should she lend it?

She should!

So long as it wouldn’t affect her own survival, lending what she could to an existence like this would lead to benefits down the road, so long as this existence survived. The shadow stepped through the river and melted into Li Hao’s body. Water energy surged within the river of time!

A great dao of water materialized, concealing the daos of life and death and of time. A sixth rank’s dao eclipsed the current peaks of time and light and death. The entire river filled with water energy. The Firmament Sword appeared at this time!

The sword pierced through the world!

Skyriver had previously sensed a hint of something untoward. His eyes widened when the sword appeared and stabbed through the air. The man sought to run—this blow was too strong!

Sixth rank??

How was that possible?! This Exalted Hao Moon Emperor was a sixth rank?! And of water??

Skyriver was also a water attribute Empyrean King, but one of the sixth rank could fully suppress him. At the same time, the river transformed into a world that overshadowed the complex. The longsword convened a myriad of daos sword strokes unto itself.

The five exalted emperors were enclosed within. Skyriver sought to run when Li Hao’s sword broke through the void, but there was no place for second rank Yu Ji to run to. It took only a second before the weapon ran him through. His mess of great daos collapsed and all of the dao origin energy he wielded dispersed.

Yu Ji was a bit lost at the unexpected turn on events.

Li Hao’s primary body could kill a second rank by himself, much less when he borrowed the strength of a sixth rank. Although it wasn’t quite his strength, it still exceeded the limits of what a second rank could do.

It took only a single blow to end a second rank!

“The Eternal Sword!” Scintillating trembled like a leaf. He seemed to glimpse the Eternal Swordsman through the move!

The Sword Sovereign!

It was this kind of blow that’d ended the Suncloud master. That had been a peak fourth rank who held a mid world in the grasp of his hand! He had even been about to set foot into fifth rank and wielded the power of a world.

And yet, he was cut down with one blow!

Scintillating was spontaneously thrown back to that moment, that mixture of fear, panic, horror, unease...

Everything boiled down to one notion—flee!

He was adept at creating rainbows, which was exactly what he blurred into in a heartbeat. He needed to get out of here, he didn’t dare come face-to-face with such a move!

Li Hao ignored everyone else and Skyriver. He erected a wall of water in front of Scintillating; the man crashed right into it and dented it, but could go no further.

But how was this possible?! Water abilities? Wasn’t his enemy a swordsman?! The Eternal Swordsman only knew how to attack, nothing else. He wouldn’t know how to block and obstruct like this.

“Who are you??” Scintillating streaked forward as a rainbow again.

A ray of sword light flashed through the world—Eternal Sword intent intermixed with dense water energy. It shook the entire world!