Star Gate

The little sword had taken Li Hao to an unknown location; the young man's best guess was that he was in a place similar to a city lord manor.

Was this someplace that the Sword Sovereign had once spent time in? Or did this belong to the Sword Sovereign's grand-niece, the real ancestor of the Li family?

The entire city seemed to have fallen into eternal silence. Only some sword intent floated through it. It drifted without roots, filling the ancient city and bestowing it with some life.

Sword qi wafted throughout the city; it could be found in every nook and cranny. It was like the entire city was a sword! A real one!

Sword City!

The immobile city stirred to wakefulness after the little sword entered it. In the distance, sword qi suddenly erupted from the corner of the eight trigrams that held the Sword Sovereign's shadow! He flung his sword forward!

The Red Moon exalted emperor grunted. This blasted formation had stood for so many years and been weakened a few times. But even now, the shadow of the Sword Sovereign could still make a move. It was infuriating!

At the same time, it represented how strong the Sword Sovereign had been back in the day. Just his shadow alone could maintain a formation to suppress an exalted emperor for one hundred thousand years.

"Li Changsheng, your shadow won't exist for much longer! Rivers of blood will flow in Silver Moon when I emerge from the seal!"

The Sword Sovereign shadow didn't say a word. He simply struck again and again. The Star Gate over his head also exuded a faint radiance, coalescing a restrictive force to suppress the world and prevent the exalted emperor from erupting with power.

Feeble shadows at other positions within the eight trigrams also collected their strength. A tremendous diagram of the eight trigrams slowly came into view.

The exalted emperor furrowed his brows. Why was the formation completely active today? Had he been using too much Red Moon power lately?

The exalted emperor quickly retracted his Red Moon power when his thoughts traveled here. In doing so, he permitted his physical body to collide with a variety of energies. Detonations rippled through the seal. In the distance, Sword City gradually drifted deeper into the black expanse of the void.

The exalted emperor looked back with a slight narrow of his eyes. He'd always suspected that this ancient city was the true Stellaris... but never had any proof to back up his speculation.

He was unable to approach it due to the seal, and when he'd attempted to do so in the past, it caused a noticeable eruption in sword intent. Even the Sword Sovereign's personal sword intent began growing in prominence.

After that, the exalted emperor chose to avoid the city to prevent himself from being completely sealed away.

Sword City should not possess such might if it was only a place in which Li Changsheng had once cultivated at. Therefore, perhaps the city was the real Stellaris and Li Hao only wielded a reproduction. Or the young man's Stellaris might be a sword within a sword. The truth was hard to determine.

"That was the Eternal Sword technique... So he's still alive. How annoying. Has battle started between the two sides yet?"

Were Red Moon major world and New Martial major world at war?

If they were, then the Sword Sovereign would certainly be among the first batch of premier exalted emperors to enter the battlefield. But since his shadow was still present and his sword intent active, that meant he was likely still alive!

The Red Moon exalted emperor couldn't help but feel the slightest bit of doubt. Could Red Moon major world... lose?

There was nothing he could do about the situation; all he could focus on was breaking the seal as soon as possible. Although he felt that the flow of time was different between universes, he wasn't certain if that was actually the case.

The only thing he was reasonably certain of was that Red Moon universe should not have fully fallen. He would suffer grave backlash in that case.

......

Meanwhile, Li Hao was dumbfounded. Why was the city moving by itself?I didn't do anything! It moved as soon as I entered the city!

...could there be people alive in the city?

If there were, why hadn't they shown themselves when Zhang An and his people had entered the seal?

Li Hao was on high alert as he remained unmoving within the little sword. However, Stellaris seemed to be attracted to something and slowly moved through the air, breaking free of Li Hao's control. This enraged the young man so much that he wanted to just snap the sword in half!

If anything went amiss with his visit, it would be the sword's fault!

At the same time, sword intent grew more brilliant within Sword City. Sword intent drifted over from all corners of the city.

Within the city, a large tree shaped like a sword had been pulverized a long time ago. Only some dismal roots remained. The tattered remains of the tree seemed to pulse when they sensed unique sword intent.

In another part of the city, a piece of stone that appeared to be a whetstone also emanated faint sword intent. Dyed with traces of blood from countless years ago, it trembled slightly.

The city seemed to be coming awake again after the return of Stellaris. However, there was no living person to be seen within the streets, just some dilapidated ruins.

Sword City floated further away from the Star Gate, drifting aimlessly through the dark universe. The exalted emperor cast a few glances at it, growing evermore confused as it lost sight of the ancient city.

Sword City has been asleep for many years, why does it suddenly seem like it's revitalizing today?

......

The ancient city was incredibly run-down and deteriorated. In contrast to the other well preserved ancient cities, this one seemed to have undergone countless wars. All sorts of marks from various swords crisscrossed the city remains.

Houses had collapsed and buildings toppled throughout the city. This was a main city, one in which the Sword Sovereign had personally been in residence at. His sword intent protected it, but it was in a very ramshackle state now.

A small sword flew through the city lord manor, at times keening with sorrow. Sword City really had fallen!

Blood branded the city lord manor with vague imprints; the presence of battle still filled it countless years later. Sword intent continued to pass through the city because a grim conflict had once erupted here!

A group of swordsmen had turned on each other here, cutting their opponents down. There'd been internal unrest within Sword City!

Li Hao silently took stock of his surroundings from his position within the little sword. He soaked in information and analyzed the environment. While he'd guessed at Sword City's true state, the situation was a little different from what he expected.

Grisly battle had once broken out. Some people had fought back; they hadn't died without offering any resistance. Each tendril of sword intent here represented a sword wielder. Sadly, all the resisters had been slaughtered to the last.

They were all dead!

Li Hao walked out of the little sword and set foot into the city's domain. A surge of sword intent rose from the bottom of his feet and shot into the air. More sword intent rushed toward him, like they'd sensed the return of Stellaris!

Li Hao felt the advent of death when sword intent rushed over his body. It pierced the bone with bitter cold, being quick and forceful! This was the sword of Sword City!

The young man looked around and sighed softly. Sword City was done for. Even the indomitable Sword Sovereign could not protect the city once he left through the Sword Gate. The descendants of the Lis might have died out long ago.

No—wait, there was Li Daozong and Li Daoheng.

As for himself... he was ninety-nine percent sure he wasn't descended from the Sword Sovereign or even the Sword Sovereign's grand-niece. If he had to be exact, he was an irrelevant modern age human modified by Stellaris.

His family possessed the Li family bloodline likely due to generations of influence from Stellaris after wearing the heritage weapon all this time.

"I see..." Li Hao murmured.I wondered why my family's older generations had a less dense bloodline concentration than later descendants. And I thought we were returning to our origins!

The truth was most likely not that. His father's bloodline was less than his only because Li Hao had been even further modified by Stellaris. His grandfather was probably less than his father...

Each successive generation of his Li family would bear a denser bloodline than the generation before. When it came to his generation, he even grew a sword eye!

The sword eye was one that could identify an opponent's weaknesses and assessed only by the Sword Sovereign.

Again, Li Hao had once thought that this was a sign of returning to his roots, but now... that was complete bullshit. He didn't have a drop of the Sword Sovereign's bloodline in him, what roots were there to return to?

His Li family wasn't descended from the Sword Sovereign, how could they return to their supposed origins of the Sword Sovereign?

They were the iterations of changes from Stellaris!

"So I'm actually not a descendant of the New Martial Lis?" Li Hao couldn't help but laugh with resignation, but that quickly turned into true amusement. "But everyone thinks I am, so I am even if I'm not!"

He counted!

If I don't, then aren't I illegitimate when I say that this world belongs to the Lis? How pissed would I be if Li Daoheng's words carried more weight than mine?

Li Hao's thoughts started to run wildly. In actuality, what did it matter if he was of the New Martial Lis or not? It was one hundred thousand years after that era and countless generations later. Who cared if he bore the family's legacy?

Perhaps not even the Sword Sovereign himself cared. A mundane human generation lasted twenty years. One hundred thousand years was the equivalent of five thousand generations of descendants!

Did that even count as a descendant anymore?

If they insisted on viewing things that way... then there was no way to hold a discussion. Perhaps some far-flung ancestor of his family really came from the Li family of Sword City. Who dared say with finality that that was impossible?

"So this means that you've been in my family for the last one hundred thousand years and modified us generation by generation." Li Hao looked at the little sword in his hand. "You are our success and failure. My parents would be alive if it wasn't for your modifications!

"I also wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for you."

The sword's relationship with his family had been forged through each sip and bite. It was difficult to separate them from each other.

Stellaris had been sealed away as well, so the modifications of the past one hundred thousand years had been an unconscious act. The energy within the sword had seeped into its bearer drop by drop. Given that the sword carried the Sword Sovereign's sword intent, a reversion of bloodline was the most likely outcome.

"Do you remember who brought you out of Sword City?" Li Hao looked at the sword. Was it Li Daoheng? Had he done so to continue the Li bloodline so he could activate the sword, or possibly some other reason?

Or had the heritage weapon really been passed on through a fluke?

It was a pity that while the sword had a bit of consciousness, it'd mostly dissipated after it broke at Boundless. While it'd greatly recovered, it seemed to have lost its memories.

Li Hao had to investigate the city himself in lieu of a response from Stellaris.