Star Gate

The second day.

Li Hao did not show himself.

"How odious!" the stone agitated. "I am a stone and see mulberry fields turn into the sea when I sit down. What would I care about a mere day or two?"

"He's in more of a hurry than us!" agreed the big seal.

"It's been two days..." hesitated the sword tree. "How about we... Forget it, let's wait a bit longer!"

......

The third day.

The stone didn't say anything.

"Can he have comprehended something at the cliff?" asked the big seal.

"There's nothing there," said a conflicted sword tree. "We would've witnessed the birth of countless powerhouses if there was a fortuitous opportunity there! The Sword Sovereign said himself that powerhouses have countless places for training. True fortune is not found in places of cultivation, but where dao is comprehended!

"When one comprehends dao, sword dao disseminates and leaves behind the true echoes of great dao. That is a true training ground! Otherwise, any random place that a powerhouse sits down at would be a sacred land!

"There are only fragments of technique and sword intent left on the cliff. They're almost useless against Immortals and higher. It's just a reference tool!"

The young man had spent three days in a useless place! There was nothing to be gained there, the sword tree could promise that!

The Sword Sovereign had said so himself. Could he be unaware of a place he'd created and leave something there for an outsider to discover? That would be the biggest joke of all!

"Stone, go take a look..."

"Me?"

"You're born of the earth and can retract your presence. Take a look from a distance and see if he's still there..."

"He's definitely still there!"

"Just go!" snapped the tree. There was nothing the stone could do but vanish on the spot.

The western city gate.

The stone peered into the distance when it appeared and saw a young man sitting cross-legged upon a cliff. He was unmoving.

Well well, you certainly know how to put on airs! Let's see who lasts longer! We're in no hurry! We've already waited one hundred thousand years, what's another few days?

We're in no hurry at all!

The stone vanished in the next moment.

......

At the same time.

Li Hao was incredibly excited upon the cliff face. Stellaris trembled without stop as a surge of building sword intent circulated within it. It was equally exuberant!

The young man's face was pale, finding that there were some drawbacks to this kind of energy. It should take five, ten, or even twenty years to collect this much sword intent. Accumulating so much in just three days meant that the time he'd bypassed... was paid by Li Hao.

In other words, he'd spent ten to twenty years of his own life compressing this time! He'd waited here for ten to twenty years!

"I see!" Li Hao murmured, joy blooming in his heart. Now this was normal. This kind of power would be too terrifying otherwise. If he could use it indefinitely, he could freeze others at will for ten thousand or one hundred thousand years. Now he realized that if he did so, severe backlash would recoil onto him.

"Thank goodness... it's just ten or twenty years of my lifespan..."

He didn't know how long his lifespan was anymore. His primary body was part of the long river. However long it existed was however long he could exist. As for precisely how long... who knew, if he wasn't killed by another?

He wouldn't dare say that his lifespan was infinite, but Li Hao felt that he would certainly outlast those Saints.Those guys can live for one hundred thousand years already, I'd definitely live longer than them!

The sword intent within Stellaris grew stronger!

Li Hao's eyes gleamed, this trip had been highly worth it! Discovering a use for the power of time was an incredible harvest, to say nothing of anything else. The accumulating sword intent gave him the feeling that it might be stronger than one of his blows at full force!

The sword intent was very pure and even came with some might of the Sword Sovereign!

This kind of blow stood a chance of killing a false Empyrean King—one of the ones in Thunderblast. It'd only been three days!

What if I continue to accumulate?

But the new sword intent coming to him seemed to be thinning out. It looked like there wasn't an infinite supply of sword intent here. The Sword Sovereign had indeed cultivated here before, but he didn't seem to have cultivated for very long.

Perhaps he'd need to locate another cultivation spot to gather sword intent more quickly.But... I'll collect everything here first.

Li Hao ignored that the sword tree was waiting for him and began anew.

......

Seven days passed in the blink of an eye.

The western city gate.

A stone, a tree, and a seal appeared at the same time.

"He's a rock!" the stone grumbled in a muffled voice.I'm not! I've been back and forth eight times already, he didn't move a single time!

They were a patient group and could last a long time, but that was before Li Hao arrived. When the city was quiet and still, they had no choice but to patiently endure the passage of time.

But now the young man was here and he raised the idea of a partnership, saying that he would help them slay their enemies. While their immediate action was to refuse him, they were still tempted.

However, Li Hao turned out to be a knave confessing his love to a woman. When she said she'd consider it after he proposed, he outright vanished.

This kind of suffering was indescribable to outsiders. It wasn't like they could knock on his door and say,I agree to your proposal, but where did you go?

At the moment, the trio appeared to be a woman just like that. Li Hao had confessed his love and proposed, then hung them out to dry. It was great emotional anguish.We wouldn't be moved if you hadn't spoken of your intentions! But you're such a scumbag to play the saint after confessing your love!

The three broken defenders of Sword City were furious.That damned bastard! Playing hard to get! Putting on airs! Flighty and unreliable! Bah!

We'll all dig our heels in and see who lasts longer!

......

Seven days.

Li Hao was a little haggard compared to how he'd been seven days ago. Weariness peeked from his eyes, but he was in excellent spirits.

Stellaris could barely keep itself still in its agitation. The sword intent in the surroundings seemed to have all drifted to them and was extracted clean. It had remained for one hundred thousand years because it had been part of a bigger circulation.

That cycle was now broken and the sword intent claimed by another. Seven days of Li Hao's meditation had been the equivalent of his slow extraction for a hundred years.

This had just been one spot in which the Sword Sovereign cultivated, after all, and not the Sword Sovereign himself. There was almost no sword intent forthcoming in the cliff around him.

The ray of sword intent within Stellaris was particularly sharp.

How strong was it?

Li Hao didn't test it. When he sent his mind into Stellaris, he sensed its incomparable strength. The sword could barely keep it under control—Li Hao had to corral it through brute force.

He had a hunch that if this stroke was deployed, it would be stronger than any he'd brought to bear before. That included the day when the blood essence of the exalted emperor exploded! It gave the feeling of being able to spontaneously destroy an Empyrean King level powerhouse!

When the Moon God's primary body appeared, she had rivaled an Empyrean King. However, she'd been spontaneously defeated. If it hadn't been for Li Daoheng making a move, she would've died on the spot.

This blow that'd accumulated in Stellaris gave him the feeling. Li Hao was overjoyed!

While his own strength hadn't improved by much, he'd gained an ace up his sleeves. Also, there were no hidden traps within this strength. It was the Sword Sovereign's own sword intent that he could continue to study.

Li Hao was a swordsman; there was nothing to be gleaned from the faint sword intent before. But now, he could already detect the various meanings of dao within the sword intent—devastation, rebirth, destruction... It was too complicated!

He felt that he needed to study it himself, then use the recombination method withinThe Accounts of Evenroundto replace the various sword intent with the new dao. Only that would he truly form the intent of the Sword Sovereign!

Perhaps he'd be able to restore what the Sword Sovereign's sword intent originally looked like.

Immensely joyous, Li Hao was about to stand up when...

CRACK!

The young man blinked, tilted his head, then promptly shot into the air.

A loud explosion sounded behind him as soon as he left. The cliff shattered!

After losing the support of sword intent, the cliff lost the balance that'd just managed to support it. It shattered upon losing that equilibrium.

BOOM!

The cliff vanished, turning into an even steeper crag. The place where the Sword Sovereign had cultivated at... had been inadvertently destroyed through Li Hao's cultivation.

......

The western city gate.

Just as the three continued to complain about Li Hao's heartlessness, the loud explosion traveled into their ears. They looked over, upon which the stone exclaimed, "How come the cliff's blow up?"

That had been where the Sword Sovereign's sword intent percolated, it shouldn't have detonated, no?

"Damn it, what did that bastard do?"

"He can't have comprehended something, could he?"

"Comprehend what? It was just a bit of sword intent. Did he destroy the cliff face on purpose?!"

"Surely not? With his level of strength, he'd have to erupt at full capability to detonate it. We didn't sense anything like it..."

"That's so strange, did he really gain something from it?"

That was a place where everyone had visited, yet collected nothing from. Meanwhile, a newcomer had reached new enlightenment in just seven days?

Do you think everyone's a fool?!Or that Li Hao was the only smart one among them?

Li Daoheng was intelligent enough, wasn't he? He'd visited the cliff before too, but walked away empty-handed. How was a child of the new age supposed to have found something as soon as he arrived?

"That little bastard's trying to humble us!" pronounced the sword tree. "He purposefully destroyed the Sword Sovereign's cultivation spot to tell us that this is what happens to those who lie to him!"

"......" Lie to him? We just told him to take a look at a cliff, not that there was certain to be something there.

"Blast him!" the seal rumbled. "No matter if that was a place where the Sword Sovereign comprehended dao or not, the great one cultivated there all the same. To destroy it just like this... this child is entirely too brazen!"

The seal and stone vanished; Li Hao arrived the next second.