Star Gate-Chapter 1528: Rules (IV)
Li Hao listened quietly to feedback from Number Two. So the War Sovereign had also felt that living for long wasn’t a good thing?
Exalted emperors lived almost forever, which inevitably led to changes later on in their personalities. How many out there retained their original ideals and passions? One didn’t even have to consider exalted emperors—just take the New Martial citizens sealed away on a minor world for one hundred thousand years. Didn’t some of them change after being in Silver Moon for a while?
How many people could stay true to themselves over such a long period of time?
I can’t!
“Time...”
Time was the most frightening construct of all. It caused changes in people, altering their original intentions. It led to decline and decay, making people lose themselves in debauchery.
With life and death as the foundation, time as the accelerant... birth, old age, sickness, death... Such should be the cycle of life and death and the rules!
Li Hao ran through numerous thoughts in this moment. He didn’t know why they’d popped into his mind. Perhaps the conditions of the chaos had shattered some of his fantasies regarding cultivation.
Or perhaps he truly felt that he hadn’t accomplished much recently, that his days were meaningless. He’d achieved nothing apart from kill people. Was this truly his purpose in cultivation?
I’d like to see more dao, stuff like dao chess. Li Hao quite liked the treasure. If possible, he wanted to stay there forever to comprehend dao. Why can’t I?
Because someone wants to kill those of New Martial, so I have to leave the chessboard and see if I can help. Silver Moon is also still threatened by danger, so that’s another reason to leave. Otherwise, I could’ve continued to play in the treasure.
Now he was rushing toward a battlefield with these chaos wanderers. They were all exalted emperors, the fellow daoists of his imagination that he could converse and share reflections on dao with.
Sadly, these people didn’t seem to focus on pure dao. They were affected by the environment and ran hither and to for resources. They participated in various wars without thought for who was right or wrong, who was enemy and friend.
The chaos... is too unorganized! There are too few rules! People need rules, as do all living beings and even the entire world! The lifespan of a world should not be unlimited either. Countless worlds are being born all the time. At this rate, the saturation of the chaos will result in wars between worlds! 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
Everyone should undergo life and death. Even cultivators of life and death like me should not be infinitely reborn. Even though nine times is the limit, that still seems a bit much.
If an exalted emperor lives one million years under normal conditions, I can live for nine since I can be reborn nine times!
How many generations is that in mundane terms?
If I alone can rule over mundanes for millions of generations, then even if there are only ten billion souls to each generation of Silver Moon inhabitants...
It was an overwhelming thought to think of ten billion people being overseen by one person. That’s horrifying!
“What are you thinking about, Hao Moon?” Mo interrupted his train of thought with curiosity and confusion. They’d only exchanged a few words before the young man fell silent.
He’d stayed silent, like he was contemplating something. The slight frown he wore appeared like Hao Moon was considering a major facet of his life.
“Are you afraid?” laughed the woman.
Li Hao blinked, then laughed, “How would I ever be?”
“You must be!” Mo’s laughter deepened. “You’re so young that you probably haven’t experienced too many battles in your time, especially ones that involve exalted emperors. You can be honest and tell big sis how old you are. I can sense that you’re very young, perhaps very incredibly young.”
“How old are you, big sis Mo?” Li Hao smiled.
“It’s rude in any world to ask a lady how old she is,” Mo couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m still young, among exalted emperors at least. I’m the youngest in my world and the one with the most potential.
“I verified my dao at three thousand years old and have been an exalted emperor for two thousand years. That makes me five thousand years old. I don’t measure up to those New Martial guys, of course, but that’s because this is their first connection to the chaos. Their trajectory will be normal later on!
“Five thousand years... is young, isn’t it?”
“......” Li Hao glanced at her, a little too embarrassed to tell a blatant lie. Is five thousand years young?
I’ve always thought Lin Hongyu was a bit too old when she’s just ten-plus years older than me. I’m the one losing out being engaged to her! But she’s in her early thirties.
You’re five thousand years old... How am I supposed to give you a compliment?
“Not bad!” The young man managed in the end. You’re so damn old! You’re five thousand years old!
Granted, it was normal for exalted emperors to be thousands of years old. People like Zhang An who’d been sealed away for one hundred thousand years were now more than one hundred thousand years old. Well... they were still young from the perspective of the chaos.
“How about you?”
“I... I...” Li Hao thought about it for a while before holding up two fingers. I’m in my twenties...
“Two thousand years old?” Mo repeated with a look of comprehension. “That is very young. No wonder you seem a bit naive. New Martial is unique in that their major world was sealed away from the beginning of their inception all the way to exalted emperors being produced. Thus, a lot of their exalted emperors are very young.
“Under normal circumstances, those who become an exalted emperor under two thousand years are premier geniuses! Of course, there are those who are even younger!” Mo laughed. “Take your friend, the crown prince of Light. If that’s really him, then he’s only one thousand years old, according to public knowledge!
“It’s hard to believe that he was already a fifth rank five hundred years ago. Being able to reach fifth rank in five hundred years... To be honest, he almost rivals the New Martial Human King.”
It also had to do with the Light crown prince having an impressive background. His father was an eighth rank and had supported his son to attaining fifth rank in five hundred years.
At the same time, it went without saying that Void was extremely talented himself.
“However, he wouldn’t have caught up with the Human King if he didn’t benefit from great opportunities as well. The Human King is said to be only in his twenties, yet he’s already a sixth rank. Now that’s terrifying!”
Mo spoke of New Martial with a mix of fear and awe, seeing as their operation was targeted at New Martial. “He spent less than a thousand years to reach seventh rank and is making headway toward eighth rank. Yin and Yang must be filled with the incredible and unbelievable. The eighth ranks in nearby regions, such as the masters of Skycloud, Light, and Red Moon are tens of thousands of years old!”
“Based on what I know, the Human King doesn’t have a deep understanding of dao,” Li Hao asked curiously. “Why has he improved so quickly?”
Entering eighth rank in one thousand years, was that fast?
It was very fast! And the key was, the Human King’s level of enlightenment didn’t seem to be very high.
“That’s what everyone’s curious about too!” Mo laughed. “And that’s why Red Moon has launched an offensive at New Martial! It’s not just the New Martial Human King, but also their Sun God and Ash Emperor who’s set foot into seventh rank. Keep in mind that it’s difficult for a major world to give birth to one seventh rank under normal conditions, but they have three!”
That was even more incredible!
New Martial counted as a newly born world and the core origin universe hadn’t existed for that many years. If it wasn’t for the Heavenly Emperor being killed, he would be a seventh rank as well. How could a new world give birth to so many seventh ranks?
It’d taken Red Moon countless eons to progress from seventh rank to eighth rank, and they only had a handful of seventh ranks after all this time!
Many seventh ranks were born from the destruction of other worlds. Rare were those that came from a dao universe itself, like New Martial had accomplished.
“I’m guessing that New Martial possesses a twin dao universe!” Li Hao said after some thought. “They say they have a core origin universe, but in my view, it should be one of yin and yang. That will make it a twin dao universe, which entails a minimum of two seventh ranks. That would explain everything.”
The fourth rank up ahead looked back with a laugh. “Don’t listen to hearsay, Fellow Daoist Hao Moon! What twin dao universe? The dao universe is the dao universe. Twin daos? Do you mean two dao universes overlaid on top of each other? I’ve never even heard of that.”
Never heard of that? Li Hao started. But that’s not possible! My Silver Moon is a twin dao universe too—one of the immaterial and corporeal!
Since Silver Moon comes from New Martial, then New Martial must be a twin dao universe. Yin and Yang, the world name already makes it so obvious. How is this not the truth?
The Human King and Ash Emperor were the twin dao masters of yin and yang. Li Hao could determine that much. So therefore, he could understand New Martial having several seventh ranks.
“Twin dao universe... is there not a single one in the chaos universe?” He frowned slightly. “Or is New Martial the only one with it?”
“You’re really too young,” Ming Hao laughed faintly. “The overlapping of dao universes will come with inherent conflict unless one swallows the other. Plopping two of them next to each other doesn’t make for a twin dao universe! Their daos are different!
“Therefore, there is no such thing as twin dao universes. It’s that their dao universe is dominated by the yin and yang daos, not that there are two separate ones. Do you understand?”
Li Hao nodded and didn’t carry on the conversation. That’s not right! Based on my understanding, it is indeed two separate dao universes, not a singular one dominated by yin and yang!
He knew New Martial, that was not a dao universe that featured yin and yang. The yang dao came first, then the Human King discovered or created the yin dao after he became an exalted emperor so that he could resurrect those who’d fallen in battle.
The two dao universes hadn’t been together from the beginning, nor did they come into existence at the same time. The Human King had discovered it himself later on and combined the two to create the major world that everyone knew now.
This guy doesn’t know shit and is just shooting off his mouth. So twin dao universes are not known by the general public, but New Martial and Silver Moon both have them. How interesting!
Silver Moon hailed from New Martial. Putting this in order made Li Hao think of a new idea—did Skyward also possess twin dao universes?
The Skyward master was adept at the dao of space. If analyzed from the lens of the dao itself, it wasn’t one of two extremes. Then that meant the Skyward master’s dao universe was simply one dominated by one dao—space.
Time was not of two extremes either, not unless he considered it a dao of past and future. Then could the same be applied to space?
Inner and outer space? Immaterial and corporeal space? Yin and yang space? Life and death space? Could space be organized in such a manner?
