Star Gate

"Don't even bother speculating, I would know where the Sword Sovereign's quarters are if Li Daoheng sent me!" Li Hao laughed. "Therefore, I'm not with him since I don't know. He probably already searched the city before, what use is there for me to search it again?

"And since we're not together, perhaps I can meditate on the sword intent that the Sword Sovereign left behind! I learned my sword intent from the shadow in the eight trigrams formation, so it may not be the most orthodox!"

"The heavens were the Sword Sovereign's blankets and the earth was his bed. He spent most of his time cultivating under my branches. What kind of residence is there to speak of?!"

"He was that poor?"

"......"

"It looks like this visit really will be a wash," Li Hao laughed. "Oh, right, was it really Li Daoheng who slaughtered the Lis?"

"It was him."

"What was his cultivation level then?"

"Empyrean King."

"You're a peak Saint constantly immersed in the Sword Sovereign's sword intent, but you were unable to stand against Li Daoheng? Even if he was an Empyrean King, he should've just risen to that level, no?

"The Sword Sovereign would've assigned him to the campaign if he'd reached that cultivation long ago. I've given it some thought and feel that he probably broke through the moment the Star Gate sealed shut after the Sword Sovereign's departure. How could a veteran peak Saint such as you be unable to stand against a new Empyrean King?"

The sword tree was silent for a moment before saying, "Just as you say, he broke through after the Sword Sovereign left. He was only an initial Empyrean King with an unstable cultivation level, but I was indeed unable to defend against him!

"He was the only Empyrean King within the city and I was the first to be defeated... After that, he massacred the entire city!"

"Why did he want to eradicate the Li family?" Li Hao was curious. "He was part of the Lis as well. After the Sword Sovereign left, Sword City wouldn't have discovered anything amiss about him so long as he didn't expose his betrayal. He could absolutely manipulate the family into working for him. With the family present, he might've been able to kill the exalted emperor a long time ago...

"Given his intelligence, I think you guys wouldn't have discovered anything amiss until the moment he struck at you!"

"You seem to know him well," sighed the sword tree. "Have you met him before?"

"Once, I think, for a split second. I'm not sure if I met his primary body."

"Then how do you know him so well?" The sword tree grew suspicious again.

"It's normal," Li Hao laughed. "One smart person likes to speculate about the thoughts of another smart person. I just haven't figured it out yet, why did he massacre the Lis?"

"I don't know either."

"You don't know?"

"Would I have fallen to him if I'd known?"

That made sense upon further thought. Li Hao waved a chair out of thin air and took a seat.

"Senior, let's sit down and chat," he smiled. "It's rare to meet someone alive in an ancient city..."

'Who are you?" asked the tree after a moment of silence.

"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Li Hao and I am a descendant of the Lis—granted, I don't know if I am or not! Stellaris is my family treasure.

"The world has been sealed away for one hundred thousand years and began to revitalize twenty-one years ago. I was born that year! My parents died four years ago in Silver City. I embarked on the path of martial dao a year ago on a quest for vengeance. I participated in battles throughout the world and now have some small accomplishments to my name.

"Currently, I rule Silver Moon world as it appears on the surface and killed some Empyrean Kings a while ago. However, I feel that the world is vast and that there are many more enemies out there. I am too weak to fight them, so I thought of entering the seal in search of more opportunities... which is how I ended up at Sword City."

The sword tree listened quietly. Setting foot in martial dao a year ago to ruling the world a year later, killing Saints and Empyrean Kings... The young man was indeed very strong. In fact, the list of battle accomplishments was downright amazing. There had been only one person in the tree's age who reached invincibility in three years—the Human King of New Martial.

"Are you the favored son of heaven of the new age?" murmured the sword tree. "A descendant of the Lis... what descendants do the Lis have? If it's not Li Daozong, it's Li Daoheng...

"But with Stellaris on you, perhaps it's just a transfer of the Sword Sovereign's will. The sword eye... probably developed because of Stellaris. You're not a descendant of the Lis. If we must put a label on it... then you can barely count as a descendant of Stellaris."

"......"The fuck, you stinking pile of firewood??Li Hao wanted to break out in blatant insults! You'rethe descendant of Stellaris! You've got a shitty mouth!

As a civilized person, Li Hao felt that he was very polite even toward Zheng Yu. Ying Hongyue and Li Daoheng were the only exceptions. But this tree was really asking for it!

"So you are the chosen one of this age, which means that the heavenly will has been born in this era?"

"Yes."

"You're a liar!"

"What do you mean?"

"I do not sense any heavenly will on you—this place also belongs to Silver Moon! If you were the favored son of heaven, you should not be thus..."

"So that's what you mean?" Li Hao blinked. "I was before and not anymore. I sliced off part of the heavenly will in my last battle, so it's being nice enough to not hunt me down right now. How would it continue to love me?"

"......" This reply made the young man appear even more unreliable!

But after some thought, the tree found it possible since Li Hao had reached such heights after one year. It wasn't without certain knowledge and experience of the world, after all. A tree planted by the Sword Sovereign himself was very worldly. When it came to characters like the one in front of it, anything was possible.

"Do you want to fight that filth?"

"Yes!"

"It will be very hard to... he's a peerless genius! Although I want nothing more than to kill him right now, I must tell you that he was at least a half step emperor one hundred thousand years ago. Not only that, but he might be able to break through to exalted emperor at any time after preparing for so many years!

"Of course, he won't be as strong as a real exalted emperor given that core origin dao has been severed. But even so, a false exalted emperor will be stronger than a half step emperor!"

"I know!" Li Hao nodded.

"So... do you still want to fight him?"

"Senior, he won't let me off the hook even if I don't fight him," Li Hao said with resignation. "He took Stellaris out of the city, modified our bloodlines generation after generation, and let me acclimate to the sword for so long that I can successfully wield it.

"He must have a goal in mind and it should have something to do with ruling over the world, the new dao, and seizing control of the Star Gate. Regardless of what it is, he'll have certain designs in mind. Why else would he abandon Stellaris?"

"You're very smart..."

"This is just a normal deduction, how is that smart?"

The tree was abruptly halted in its tracks with that reply.

"It's normal if the senior still doesn't trust me, but you're almost dead and probably have no hope of seeking out revenge, right? Do you want to take a gamble? If you do, we can keep talking. If you don't, then there's no point in wasting time!

"The senior won't lose anything if you lose the bet because you don't think anyone can beat that guy! If you win the bet, then you win everything because I kill him! It's a potential return of ten thousand on one wager! Do you want to bet on it?" Li Hao cut straight to the chase because who had time to slowly win over the tree?

He sure as hell didn't!

Not to mention, it was just the two of them here. How was he supposed to convince the sword tree that he could be trusted? By sucking up to it?

Would that accomplish anything?

Not at all!

So he would lay it all out and speak frankly.Pick one of two choices, are you going to take a risk or not?

The sword tree must still have a trump card to play. Li Hao felt sure about this because the tree had a very strong desire to survive. It demonstrated a similar reaction to the imperial guard, but the imperial guard had wanted to protect the imperial palace!

Therefore, there must be something that this tree couldn't leave behind either. Otherwise, it would be dead without a doubt!

"Also, he should've broken your core origin dao after he defeated you," Li Hao continued. "If you can survive that... Well, I'm too lazy to guess, but I'll do so anyway. There must be a treasure left by the Sword Sovereign within the senior's body that saved your life. Perhaps the senior is protecting this treasure. But this is obviously just a guess of mine.

"That this city still operates, instead of falling apart after everyone's death, is possibly due to the existence of a treasure stabilizing it! In addition, if the senior really is without any support or ideas, you should be grasping wildly at your last hope upon seeing me. It wouldn't matter if Li Daoheng sent me or not.

"And yet, the senior doesn't react like that. Instead, you keep probing and testing me. It looks like you still have something to rely on!

"You are so unaffected when I say I have killed Empyrean Kings. Can it be that there is something within the city that can be used against an Empyrean King? Of course, that would be a reference to modern Empyrean Kings, not ones of New Martial. If there was something that could take out a New Martial Empyrean King, you would've used it against Li Daoheng that day!"

"......" There was no response forthcoming.

Li Hao looked around, made some inferences, and identified the key points of interest. "There may be other things alive in the city as well, not just the senior. The senior has been waiting for so long, possibly for them. Perhaps you want to capture me!"

The young man relaxed in his seat, even sprawling a little. "Don't bother yourself with such effort. You can't do much to enemies, but you can do a lot to people on the same side. Why be like that?"

The sword tree didn't say a single word! The young man in front of him didn't seem like a young man at all, more like an old monster well experienced in the ways of the world!

"And why should I believe you?" it said after a long moment.

"For no reason other than if you can find someone else, go for it!" Li Hao laughed. "I've said so much and revealed that I can kill Empyrean Kings after cultivating for a year, but you still don't believe me... If you can find another who can travel through the seal like me, then please do so! I don't have any ways of making you believe me!"

It was the tree's turn to be conflicted.

"Wait a bit longer, let me think this over..." it said after a long period of thinking.

"This... Ah, forget it. Do as you wish!" Li Hao laughed. "Can I walk around the city? Are there any other places worth visiting in Sword City apart from this location?"

"There is a cliff beyond the western quarter," the tree said after some thought. "The Sword Sovereign once cultivated there for a period of time. You can go take a look!"

"Will do, thanks!" Li Hao disappeared in the blink of an eye. He would give the tree its space!

A piece of broken stone flew over after long after Li Hao left and landed in the ravaged branches. An even more dilapidated seal flew in after a while, also landing in the tree's branches.

A meeting of the highest Sword City council seemed to be underway between a tree that'd been cut in half, a shattered stone, and a smashed seal.