Star Gate-Chapter 1518: Emerging From Demon Summit (I)

Li Hao chose to continue studying dao in Demon Summit, this time with more care and caution. The shadow didn’t say anything or even make a move. It was like nothing had happened to either of them.

No one cared about Drouth’s death. Li Hao continued moving through squares on the chessboard at a steady pace.

His speed picked up slightly as he encountered more great daos. There were so many bridges of life and death being formed that he neared grand perfection of third rank. The young man didn’t dare dawdle to absorb more energy.

Once he reached peak third rank, all additional energy would go into his reserves. He wasn’t able to absorb anymore because he’d saturated himself with energy!

The star of yang had barely managed to take shape, but he’d yet to discover the dao of extreme yin. Li Hao didn’t know where it was, he could only take things one step at a time.

......

The young man took nearly ten days for the first one thousand squares. He took seven days for the next thousand. All 360 of his bridges of life and death were completed after two thousand squares. He had well and truly reached grand perfection of third rank.

Sword dao had formed a massive circulation loop within his body. These were his dao meridians, 360 ones of corporeal and immaterial dao that were fully open. They were completely saturated and integrated as one. Life and death formed their core.

Li Hao had nearly excavated the limit of the human body to its fullest potential. The uses of the connate dao constitution of Silver Moon denizens were utilized to the maximum.

There were some other dao meridians left in the human body, but they were not of the main daos. Since they were of other daos, they were not the mainstream Silver Moon dao meridians either.

In other words, Silver Moon’s dao universe was based off of these 360 dao meridians of corporeal and immaterial dao. They were nearly all under Li Hao’s complete control.

His presence billowed with great perfection when he walked out of the two thousandth square. It’d been twenty-six days since he entered Demon Summit. Only a few days remained until the one month deadline.

He’d spent seventeen days in dao chess, three days in the first trial against the dark puppets, and another six days outside the Hall of Darkness. A month passed by so easily for an exalted emperor.

“I’ve made it past two thousand squares!” Li Hao looked at the shadow. That seemed to jerk it out of its reverie.

“So you have, what would you like?”

Based on their previous agreement, candidates could make one request after walking through one thousand squares. Li Hao had made it past two thousand and hadn’t raised his first request yet.

“I have two chances, right?” Li Hao calculated briefly.

“Yes.”

“I’ve reached great perfection of third rank, but do not have a deep understanding of yin and yang yet,” the young man said. “I have not even encountered the dao of extreme yin after two thousand steps. Is it further down the line?”

“Yes.”

“That wasn’t a request, was it?”

“No,” smiled the shadow. “That was just a basic question.”

“Then may I ask where it is?”

The shadow was quiet for a while before responding, “Around the six thousandth square or so.”

“Why is it so far away?” Li Hao started.

“Since there was the dao of extreme yang within the first thousand squares, the heritage of powerhouses will be placed around the six thousandth square. This is in accordance with rules of great dao. The union of yin and yang can help one set foot into seventh rank. Do you understand what I mean?”

Li Hao raised a brow and nodded. Seventh rank would result from the combination of yin and yang!

“Then do you mean that if some daos are paired in terms of being extremities of each other, if one extreme is found in the early squares, the other is nearly all after six thousand squares?”

“Correct!” the shadow sighed with gratification. The young man was very smart! “You are correct. The dao of life and death you cultivate, for example, will see the dao of life around the three thousandth square, but the dao of death will only appear after six thousand squares. Almost all daos that are extremes of another correspond to each other this way!

“And of course, the basic five elements do not count as part of this category.”

Li Hao understood. I see! After six thousand squares! No wonder I saw the dao of extreme yang before one thousand squares, but I still haven’t encountered the dao of extreme yin.

“Is it allowed to have one of my requests be experiencing the dao of yang ahead of time?” the young man asked after some thought.

“You may!” the shadow answered decisively. “Are you sure?”

Li Hao blinked and didn’t respond. Was he sure?

It would be immensely beneficial to study the dao of yang at this point—it would familiarize him with yin and yang ahead of time. Although he wouldn’t necessarily be able to combine them as one, it would still be very useful for his future attempts to do so. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The young man knew full well that he wouldn’t be able to make it to six thousand squares. He was already feeling the strain at two thousand. There was probably a hope for him to make it to three thousand, but four or five thousand... would be incredibly difficult. His comprehension of dao had not reached those levels yet.

Experiencing a dao ahead of time meant forgoing the process leading up to it. It would be hard for him to incorporate future reflections on that dao. The integration of yin and yang should be easy and smooth if he naturally made his way to six thousand squares.

But he’d spent almost a month here; Li Hao did not wish to pass up his chance to find Celestial Pole and the Pagoda King. He might be able to save them, for one. Another consideration was that once he spent too much time here, the Dragon Observatory leader might barge inside in search of them.

He could continue until he reached six thousand squares, but that would take another few years. He needed to digest some of his newly gained knowledge before he could continue so smoothly.

Countless thoughts rose in his mind before Li Hao asked, “Then can I make another request instead?”

“Speak of it.”

“Can you come with me? Or... can I take the dao chess with me?”

“......” The shadow burst out laughing. “No!”

“Why not? Didn’t you say that you would fulfill any request?”

“You actually can take the dao chess with you, but not now!” the shadow continued softly. “You can raise this request when you reach seven thousand squares, because the dao chess is not an ordinary weapon!

“It was refined from the dao universe and major world overseen by an eighth rank. Once you take it with you and leave Skyward, you won’t be able to keep it under control without this world’s help. The dao chess will spontaneously revert back into a major world. Are you sure you can hang onto it then?”

Li Hao blinked, then rapidly shook his head. He wouldn’t. An eighth rank major world without a master... People would attack him so feverishly that there wouldn’t be bone dust left of him. Many masters of major worlds would immediately come for his head.

Making it past seven thousand squares would indicate that his own comprehension had reached seventh rank exalted emperor, or that his strength had reached that level. He would count as a high rank exalted emperor after achieving seven thousand squares, whether in terms of dao comprehension or actual strength. He would be able to safeguard the dao chess then if he took it with him.

So it wasn’t that he couldn’t take it with him, but that it would become the source of his crimes. What a pity.

“Then...” The young man was starting to develop a headache. “I’d like to leave now, but I wish to continue in dao chess. What can I do about that?”

“You can come back anytime!” The shadow was very affable. “The Hall of Darkness welcomes all exalted emperors to come and discuss dao at any time!”

Come back anytime.

Li Hao thought it over before asking, “Then can I use one request for a single entry to dao chess, even if I am not located on Skyward at that time?”

Um... The shadow fell silent.

“Do you mean to say that you’d like an opportunity to enter dao chess without returning to the Hall of Darkness? That you might utilize it at a good timing in the outside world or when you encounter danger?”

“Correct!” Li Hao nodded. “I need to head out for a bit and might end up in battles or kill people. Or I might be blessed with spontaneous enlightenment. In that case, I’ll need a guaranteed safe house. The best choice would be dao chess. I’d like to enter it to comprehend dao again...”

“Well...” The shadow mused over the idea. “I can agree to the request, but you’re the one who has to put forth the effort!”

“How?”

“Dao chess lacks energy. You might be situated very far away once you leave. The dao chess itself is incomparably formidable since it is made out of an eight rank dao universe and was wielded by a ninth rank. This makes it possible for you to summon it anywhere within three thousand chaos meters of Skyward. The caveat is that you’ll ned to expend a lot of energy.”

“Is the corpse of a five rank enough?” asked Li Hao.

The shadow nearly burst out laughing again. This guy...

“That is enough at this distance. But if you’re too far away or happen to be precisely at three thousand chaos meters, then it will be difficult. You might need more energy then.”

Li Hao nodded with understanding. “Then that’s what I want for my request!”

This wasn’t just a simple chance to return at any time, but an ace up his sleeve to pull out if he was caught in dire straits. Not even a seventh rank should be able to catch up to him when an eighth rank weapon crafted by a ninth rank powerhouse spontaneously took him away.

This would be a key to survival!

The prerequisite was that he stayed within three thousand chaos meters of Skyward. That wasn’t a short distance as it was three thousand lengths of a first rank’s maximum distance in one move, and one thousand lengths of a third rank’s. It was quite far, now that he thought about it.

“Very well, then I’ll leave a mark on you,” smiled the shadow. “When you have need, you can infuse energy into the mark and summon the dao chess to you. In addition, although the dao chess is strong, it lacks a master at present. It does not possess strong offensive capabilities either.

“It will manage to conceal itself from a seventh rank, but an eighth rank might be able to follow its energy ripples and trace it to its primary body. Not only will you be in trouble then, but so will the dao chess.”

“Why would I antagonize an eighth rank?” Li Hao asked with surprise.

“......” That’s hard to say! You’re just a third rank, but you’ve already killed a fifth rank! It was one thing when I didn’t know you cultivated time, but now... I have no idea what you would or would not dare do!