Come to think of it, the queen rather enjoyed having so many exalted emperors run around on her behalf. It was like she’d returned to the days of Silver Moon, when she was still the queen of the west. Many powerhouses had marched under her banner then.

What a pity that the times are much different!

She hadn’t enjoyed such treatment ever since Li Hao defeated her.

The queen was scrambling for a silver lining in her condition, but it did put her in a much better mood.

“Um... if Ling Yue takes all of the power of faith, then... what about me?” the Great Li king suddenly asked with a conflicted expression.

“......” The group looked blankly at him. That was true, what about him?

Well, what about you, huh?

No one told you to run off earlier. Now the queen needs endless amount of faith to consolidate the divine nation and herself. She’s going to be the priority recipient. So as for you... figure it out yourself!

“There’s no point in just growing stronger,” coughed Celestial Pole. “I need an errand boy, Bei Wu. Come work for me.”

The Great Li king curled his lip. Piss off! If it wasn’t for you being so much stronger and having been the protector god of Great Li when you lived there, I would punch your lights out!

Who wants to be an errand boy?!

But he only dared think about this to himself. Celestial Pole was now a fourth rank; the Great Li king could not afford to revoke him!

“Do you want to become a god through faith as well?” Li Hao smiled.

“Well... not really. I just want to be a true king for once through the dao of the people’s heart!”

The Great Li king’s goal was not the same as the queen’s. One centered on faith, the other on the will of the people. The two did not conflict with each other, but with all of the people taking up residence in the divine nation, was he supposed to administer the divine nation?

That was the crux of the problem!

“The divine nation is just an illusory world,” Li Hao said after some thought. “It’s not a tangible world. Those with faith can enter it, but there are bound to be those who do not believe in the queen. If you don’t find it too much of a hassle, you can collect those people in a world of your own.

“This will be an incredibly difficult path. You’ll need to integrate all of the humans that don’t believe in divine spirits and nurture them, helping them flourish...”

There were always bound to be people who didn’t believe in the gods. Not all of them would put their faith in the divine. They’d existed on Rat World as well, but due to the urgency of the situation... they’d been... abandoned.

Li Hao didn’t inquire further, but he knew that some people must have been led behind on Rat World. He didn’t delve into it.

Could a world of ten billion humans all place their faith in a single target?

Of course not!

Even if ninety percent of the world shared that faith, there would be ten percent that didn’t. If they didn’t, they were unable to enter the divine nation. And did they deserve death just because they were nonbelievers of divine spirits?

Once more, of course not.

They would’ve been left to their own devices before, but if the Great Li king was so inclined, they might be provided for now. It would be an extremely arduous undertaking to integrate the various worlds of humans that did not believe in the gods. But once these people tried settling in, they might become the most stalwart supporters of royal authority!

They didn’t believe in the divine, but once they started living a good life, they would be more steadfast than the most fanatic believers!

The Great Li king blinked, then looked at Li Hao. He hesitated before asking, “Are you saying... that you’ll give me all of the people that Ling Yue doesn’t want. I’m to lead them in forming my own government?”

“Yes!”

“That... will be very hard, won’t it?” The king scratched his head.

“Very hard!” Li Hao nodded. “You’ll be starting from zero, but these people don’t believe in gods. Once they place their loyalty in you, they’ll become a group of true warriors! Those who easily put their faith in the divine actually suffer from irresolute willpower. The group that remains behind are the real fighters!

“I know you don’t like this, and so... If there are powerhouses left of the Great Li citizens, you can take them with you. They can help you. Head Priest Jiang Li can also go with you if you’re willing!”

“But I have no world...” the king said after a stunned pause.

“There’s worlds a-plenty out there. You can choose one of the best, the most exemplary, to be your territory!”

“But I can’t take a world with me!” the king protested.

“Then hide it. Bide your time. One day, when you’re strong enough, you’ll be able to easily move a mid world.”

The Great Li king blinked again. Is this the path I should take?

I don’t know.

He suddenly felt rather lost. When the queen had been with him, he’d felt that it was nice to coordinate with someone familiar. But now... he was to do it alone?

Li Hao ignored the man. If the Great Li king didn’t accept the job, he would have someone else do it. It didn’t matter who took up the mantle. Time was of the essence and he had none to spare.

“Alright, everyone go about your business. The queen needs to hurry and strengthen your dao meridians!”

The queen stared wordlessly at him. Hadn’t they just been talking about the Great Li king? Why was the attention suddenly on her?

There was no helping it, she didn’t dare offend Li Hao.

A large sum of faith and chaos strength surged into her dao meridians. She didn’t really want to train her dao meridians because if they grew too strong, wouldn’t she fall under the control of the dao universe?

But... there was no helping it.

Gan Wuliang and Hong Yitang quickly melded into the dao universe and locked onto the queen’s dao meridians. There were many meridians in a human body—360 corporeal ones and 360 immaterial ones.

All of them being open put one at peak ninth level Fused Dao—half step emperor. To become an exalted emperor from there, one needed to focus on one dao meridian. The domineering strength of one and forming dao branches from it made one an exalted emperor.

Li Hao wanted them to focus on the 360 dao stars. The rest didn’t matter. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Ninth level Fused Dao was easy for the queen. Chaos strength quickly surged into the dao meridians. Dao stars glimmered with light, but with dim, mixed colors. If they forcefully strengthened her dao meridians under such conditions, it would be a forced ascension that was neither pure nor profound.

The queen looked on quizzically. What was the point of focusing on those dao meridians? Was she supposed to direct the chaos strength into the dao universe?

But... only Gan Wuliang and Hong Yitang were working on them. While they were both fifth ranks, did they have the ability to help her?

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust them... alright, she didn’t trust them.

She was Sky God Ling Yue. Naturally she didn’t think much of these guys. So what if they were much stronger than her? They had to make do with dao universes that Li Hao didn’t want! Hence, who cared about them?

As confused as the queen was, she quickly fortified her dao meridians. In her current state, strengthening all of her dao meridians didn’t consume that much chaos strength. In fact, it depleted very little energy. It was nearly ineffective in depleting the flow of chaos strength.

Meanwhile, the dao masters quickly identified and moved dao stars out of the universe.

“Move all of the dao stars out!” said Li Hao. He hovered in the void. “Teacher, come move them. Move all of them into my star of time.” The young man thought about it some and looked at the queen. “Should we leave some in the dao universe?”

The queen blinked. Where were they moving the dao stars?

Beneath them, Lin Hongyu frowned slightly, but didn’t say anything.

“Should we leave some?” Li Hao asked again.

The queen blinked, then shook her head. “No!” Why would they leave any for?

“Time to get to work, teacher!”

“Am I just moving them in or what?” Yuan Shuo was speechless.

“It’s best if the stars can be placed according to their relevant dao meridian in the star of time...” Li Hao thought for a bit longer and said, “Also, the daos in the star of time shift and change. It will be hard to pin down a corresponding location. How about this, teacher can find a place unaffected by the power of time and just fix those stars there.”

Yuan Shuo frowned and looked at his student, switching to transmission, “If her dao stars explode one day... and I think it’s very possible, given this trend, she might damage the star of time!”

“Just the little bit of dao she grasps?” Li Hao transmitted back. “She’s far from doing that! No worries.”

So long as you’re aware.

Yuan Shuo said nothing else. He was familiar with this type of work. He’d gone inside the star once already, so moving some dao stars around was no trouble at all.

Since Li Hao had already spoken thus... then he would get to work.

“What everyone needs to do now is to connect all of the worlds in my river of dao with the star of time.” Li Hao looked at the rest. “I’ll think of a way to extract all of the corresponding daos. Since my teacher is doing the heavy lifting, it’s best if we can find a relevant dao each time he enters and exits.

“Teacher, I’m going to have to trouble you to make a few hundred trips. That will do the trick. You can just move them one at a time since you need to go back and forth anyway...”

Yuan Shuo was growing ever more speechless. This damned kid!

But this was just as well. He hadn’t had a chance to look at the star closely last time. Since the opportunity presented itself today, he could study it in closer detail. There was nothing bad about this job.

The various exalted emperors seemed to understand something. Number Two looked at the young man with puzzled comprehension.

“Do you want to use the star of time to shift her chaos energy into your minor worlds? But the energy is not pure and also mixed in with a lot of other things...”

“I know!” Li Hao nodded. “Therefore, I’ll wrap the star of time with the world of ingress. I’ll purify the energy and then transfer it to the other worlds! Time may be able to decrease the flow of strength as well, neutralizing and limiting the flow!”

“It’s a good idea,” the cat nodded. “My only concern is that... you won’t be able to absorb it all in the end. Although one thousand minor worlds sounds like a lot, she’s connected to the entire chaos now.

“The chaos has unlimited strength. Just Dragon Region alone has a couple thousand worlds, many of them major and mid. You just have minor worlds. You can’t swallow even a Dragon Region, but she’s connected to the entire chaos dao!”

You’ll be the one to explode instead of her!

“It’s fine,” Li Hao laughed. “If it comes down to that, I’ll cut the queen loose. I’ll have absorbed enough energy by then!’

“......” I’m not deaf, y’know! I’m right here! What do you mean by that? You mean you’ll abandon me then?? The heck??