Star Gate

Chapter 2030: Descend (III)

Li Hao floated through the air. The statue seemed to be both alive and dead. It... opened its eyes when he took a step forward.

The look in the young man’s eyes did not change.

He’d known early on that this statue might be the container for the Skyward master’s replica. He was simply taking a look since this was only a fragment of the past. It wasn’t the real Skyward major world!

“There’s not enough spirit in the environment to support your replica,” Li Hao sighed after observing for a while. “It looks like you’re prepared to sweep the four corners and kill a lot of cultivators to release sufficient spirit. That will facilitate your arrival as well. If not...

“There is spirit in your Skyward powerhouses. If enough of them die, that enables you to reach your goal all the same. An overlord is an overlord, alright! You leave no stone unturned in your plans. You’re ruthless!”

The Skyward master was well deserving of the title of overlord!

He had a contingency plan in place for every eventuality.

If the Skyward contingent could find their footing in a dominating fashion, then the spirit in the surroundings would stabilize given enough time and the great dao expand. His replica would naturally be able to descend then.

But if unexpected developments took place and a large number of Skyward cultivators died, they also possessed enough spirit to bring their world master back!

The only unknown was how much strength the Skyward master would be able to travel back with.

The statue stared silently back at him. Li Hao turned to leave.

“Li Hao, why be enemies with Skyward?” the statue suddenly asked. “Do you know how many have tried to persuade me to give up on you when you rose? But I never paid attention to them. Is there enmity between you and I?”

“No!” Li Hao wasn’t surprised that the statue was suddenly addressing him. At their level, their abilities were so much more than met the eye.

“You and I share no feud,” the young man said without looking back. “It’s just that no one can control my fate. You are no exception! Give up on me? What gives you the right to say that?! Or do you think that you’re the reason why I have everything I have? Perhaps you think that War bequeathed it all to me instead?

“You’re completely wrong. I fought for every single one of my accomplishments myself!”

The young man never felt that what he possessed was a function of opportunities supplied by others. I did all this! So what if he owned the star of time? I got that for myself!

There are so many heavyweights and people in Silver Moon. I was nothing when I started! I eliminated almost all of my enemies in order to claim the star of time. I did all of this with my own two hands!

True, there was no grudge between himself and the Skyward master, but the latter gave himself such lofty airs and looked down his nose at everyone. He acted like everything was under his control and that he’d made Li Hao who the young man was. He was the one to give the young man all these chances in life...

That’s so wrong!

Li Hao would never think so.

You can’t stop me from taking what I want. That’s a sign of your incompetence. It doesn't mean that you wouldn’t change the situation if you had the ability to. Take the dao of time for yourself if you can!

The statue fell silent, then smiled after a long moment. “Perhaps you’re right. I’ve gotten off on a tangent...”

“A word of advice, it’s better for your replica to not descend.” Li Hao rose into the air with a smile. “I’m only targeting Calamity this time, not you. But if your replica comes and puts me in danger, then I... might ally with the others against you!

“It’s not that we have any bad blood between us, but that you guys don’t have the right to dictate my life!”

Skyward didn’t say anything.

Li Hao had already entered the depths of the river and disappeared from the past. This section of time began to fade away as well.

“Li Hao...” murmured Skyward before he slowly vanished amid the crumbling fragments of the past.

......

Boom!

The river trembled. Thunder tribulations erupted once more when Li Hao appeared and the emperor from the future yelped. His hair was a fried mess and he looked like a lump of charcoal!

“The hell?!” he cursed audibly. Damn it! Why was this tribulation so strong?

Su Yu purpled with rage when he saw Li Hao appear. The old geezer really did me in! Is this really an eighth rank tribulation that can be found anywhere? Why does it seem... so ridiculously strong?!

It hasn’t killed me, but c’mon, how strong am I??

I am invincible in the chaos...

Fine, the false chaos. But I am invincible all the same. Is there a need for all this?! Is a tribulation supposed to be able to fry me like barbecue??

......

Li Hao stuck his thumb up when he peeked in on the guy from the future.

Damn!

Not even the thunder tribulation is taking him out. He’s seriously strong! I thought he might only be seventh or eighth rank when he beat back Drifting Life with one blow. But now it looks like that was only a display of strength prior to truly descending upon this time period.

Li Hao had reversed time to yank the other out of the river. This enabled the future youngster to demonstrate his true strength.

He was very strong, on par with Long Zhan.

Is the chaos I created that strong? Strong enough to the point of supporting a powerhouse near ninth rank?

Then that means I’m not making it soon. I don’t have that level of strength yet. I only have five thousand daos under my belt, that puts me less than this guy.

He didn’t do anything other than take a look. Whether this guy was strong or weak, he was limited to the river at present. He couldn’t walk out of it!

Li Hao looked at Thunder Region in the distance. Battle was still raging there. For them to not have dispatched their enemies yet... that was a bit too slow.

When Li Hao next looked at the Skyward battlefield, he blinked. Eh? The envoys of yin and yang are gone?

The Sun God and Supreme Zhang... Wait, the Sun God. That one usually looks a bit unserious in his flowery pants. He seems... a bit different today. What’s going on?

The supernatural characters...

Something registered to Li Hao’s senses. His art of supernatural characters stemmed from the ultimate art of Tranquil Star. They were of the same origin, but there were also differences between the two.

The ultimate art of Tranquil Star was characters without aura or spirit!

Hence, it was an art, and not supernatural characters.

But today... the Sun God’s supernatural characters... seemed different from before.

Another thought occurred to Li Hao as he connected the dots in a prior conversation with the supreme. He hummed thoughtfully. Where had that world near New Martial come from? The young man had given it some thought before and today... might have gotten some answers!

He was also momentarily dazed by the implications of those answers.

So this means... that the Sun God’s dao of characters... might have come from the future!

And the dao of characters from the future comes from me, but my dao comes from the Sun God...

The hell??

What kind of crazy loop is this?!

Li Hao didn’t know what to make of the situation. Did the chicken come first or the egg?

The thunder tribulation weakened slightly after his return. It’d expended so much energy already, plus the young man was no longer in the past. With that, the tribulation calmed down somewhat.

But was that what he wanted?

Li Hao smiled and looked around him, then at the sky overhead. His smile was radiant. “What is the origin of life?”

He abruptly deployed time once more. It wasn’t aimed at anyone, but at chaos dao. He wanted to reverse chaos dao and see how it was born!

He’d almost been the death of himself when he once reversed the life source of a minor world. It was Number Two who saved his life by swallowing that tribulation. Clearly, poking into the source of the chaos and life touched upon the innermost secrets of the chaos.

But Li Hao suddenly decided to go all the way. He began to reverse time as he wanted to delve into chaos dao. The source of life was suddenly very interesting to him!

The entire chaos shook in response!

“Fucking hell, that’s enough, old geezer!” cursed the quiet emperor from the future. He was almost out of his mind with irritation!

He now knew where thunder tribulations came from. Su Yu had been able to stand against the weakened thunder tribulation moments ago, but now it was agitating anew and several times bigger than before. More energy was stripped out of Thunder Region!

It wanted to stop Li Hao!

Tracing chaos dao and exploring the origin of the universe...

That was an irredeemable crime!

This was something that even the Calamity master wouldn’t be able to control at this point. It wouldn’t make a difference if he was here in person.

The star of time shook violently as well!

It was one thing to reverse a minor world, but reversing chaos dao was the equivalent of reversing the entire chaos. At the end of the day, the star of time was not yet a final product. It trembled like a leaf, as did the river of time!

Countless thunder tribulations came snaking over, filling the void!

Over at Thunder Region, the Exalted Thunder Emperor and others paled with horror.

“Crazy... he’s gone completely crazy... A ninth rank tribulation might be upon us...” they mumbled.

......

Color likewise drained from Long Zhan and the Human King’s faces.

“Yo, that’s enough!” shouted the Human King. “We can kill them now...”

Stop playing around!

Kid, the thunder tribulation is covering all of the four regions. They’re coming down bolt after bolt and not just targeting you or the river anymore. It’s expanded to the entire four regions!

World masters in the surroundings fled for their lives. Seventh ranks were ashen-faced with fright.

Shit! He’s crazy!

Well, at least it's perfect timing to run. Thunder Region is almost completely decimated after the fight. We need to make it out of the four regions first. Who cares about our worlds at a time like this?? Who has the presence of mind to spare for that now?!

Staying alive is the most important!

Long Zhan also struggled with a headache. When New Martial came, they just wanted to kill people. When Li Hao came, he didn’t want to do only that. He wanted to completely end Thunder Region and turn all of the four regions into rubble!

The endless thunder tribulations grew steadily stronger!

RUMBLE!

Thunderbolts sizzled into everything, no longer targeting just one or two people as the power of time had emanated to all corners of the four regions.

Li Hao saw nothing in his gaze. None of this had to do with him!

An incredibly thick dao appeared in his eyes. It was gigantic and seemed to support the entire chaos. Only now did he clearly see the entire chaos dao.

There were endless dao rules within it!

Some were quiet within the dense array, others leapt with vitality. Some seemed to be completely broken...

And further in, there seemed to be something... that resembled a heart.

The origin of the chaos!

Or perhaps the origin of all life in the chaos. This was where the great dao sprang from.

Badump...

An almost imperceptible heartbeat traveled into Li Hao’s ear. It was a world reborn or a land made anew. He was temporarily in a daze, lost in the sensation.

The young man jerked to his senses when he thought of something and the desire within his eyes was hard to conceal. “This is... the origin of life in the chaos. They must be here!”