Star Gate

"Were there any special characteristics about the Li family members thatcoulduse Stellaris?" Li Hao suddenly asked.

"Special characteristics?" blinked the sword tree. "They were all from the Li family, what could be special about them? They were all sword wielders..."

No shit!

"I'm focused on the family members that could use Stellaris. What kind of use do you mean?"

"Normal usage, of course!" The sword tree blinked again.What do you mean what kind of use?

Li Hao frowned and tried to find a clearer way of explaining himself. Plant spirits weren't all that intelligent. "I mean, did they deploy unprecedented battle strength when they wielded Stellaris?"

"No! Stellaris is just a symbol..."

"Bullshit!" the young man interrupted brusquely. "The Sword Sovereign's personal sword is more than a symbol, it should be very strong! Well, if anyone could've truly used it, they should've been able to fight Li Daoheng.

"It looks like what we see as usage of Stellaris is just the Sword Sovereign bestowing authorization to activate his sword to a portion of people. They can use it because he allows them to, not because they themselves can use it!

"So that means that those who can employ Stellaris are the core members of the family. They're the ones who give orders in emergencies, is that right?"

"That is!" nodded the sword tree after some thought.

"That makes sense! No one can actually use Stellaris, only the Sword Sovereign himself can. The one other type of person who can, apart from him, is cultivators of the new dao!" Li Hao suddenly exclaimed. "I... I think I get it!

"Perhaps the birth of the new dao has something to do with the Sword Sovereign. He didn't devour Silver Moon because he had bigger plans in mind. He wanted to nurture the new dao with the notion of all daos coming together as one!

"He didn't fully succeed before war broke out. It wasn't that Li Daoheng couldn't use Stellaris, but that the Sword Sovereign didn't bestow him with the proper authorization level to use it. But once someone comprehends the new dao, they may be able to!

"It has nothing to do with potential or bloodline. Li Daoheng may have realized that later on, but much, much later on. Perhaps it occurred to him only after I could wield Stellaris. It was then that he deduced that it has something to do with the Five Styles, and that the Five Styles is related to the new dao!"

His teacher had widely sampled from ancient and modern daos for his method, combining everything in a fashion that was similar to the Sword Sovereign's notion of all daos coming together as well. It was a very premature attempt, but one that unintentionally resonated with multiple daos being one. At the very least, it caused five daos to be one!

And so, the door to the new dao was pushed open!

Five daos being one was like firelight vying with the sunlight of the Sword Sovereign's concept of all daos being one. However, it was indeed a miniature prototype.

Li Hao fleshed out a lot of answers in this moment. Stellaris couldn't be employed by just anyone. His teacher should have been among the lucky few, and so was he after he learned the Five Styles!

Cultivators of one specific dao were unable to use it, it had to be those who'd integrated many daos together. If this could occur to him, then the same should occur to Li Daoheng. The man had been observing and keeping tabs on everything all this time.

He may have even learned about it a long time ago, but needed time to train the new dao.

All sorts of ideas came to the fore, stringing many previous incomprehensible questions together. The Sword Sovereign... the new dao!

The new dao universe was tied to the Sword Sovereign. Perhaps it'd been born one hundred thousand years ago, but was neither complete nor perfected. Maybe it was even unable to show itself because it was too close to the core origin universe. It was compressed and had no room to stretch.

Therefore, the Sword Sovereign had been unable to bring this dao universe into existence!

If that was the case, then the Sword Sovereign's all daos being one must have reached a terrifying level. He may be stronger than everyone estimated. Five exalted emperors attacking him at once still may not be able to destroy him!

Silver Moon world may have truly run off of its own accord during battle, or was flung out by the ripples of battle. And since the Sword Sovereign needed to march in reinforcement of New Martial, he didn't have time to immediately set out in search of it.

Or perhaps he felt that Silver Moon was a minor matter and New Martial the more important.

Li Hao's expression shifted slightly as various thoughts came to mind. If Li Daoheng knew the key to controlling Stellaris, why hadn't he taken it from Li Hao in all this time?

"Sword City is the true Stellaris, isn't it?" the young man suddenly asked. "The one I wield should be very closely tied to the real Stellaris, but it may not be the real thing, right?

"The effects may be similar, but the strength it contains is completely different, isn't it?" Li Hao looked at the sword tree. "If my guess is right... Li Daoheng might have visited the city in the past year or several years!

"Let me think... he might've been very weak when he visited because he'd started cultivating the new dao then! He may have even experimented with exerting control over Sword City. The city should've erupted with sword qi a few times before today. It could've shook and quaked all over!"

"......" The three powerhouses looked at him with stunned amazement.

"If he was weak, but you guys still weren't able to kill him... No, that's not right. This means that Li Daoheng probably had a guardian by his side, a half step emperor! His primary body in other words...

"I see!" Li Hao continued to guess. "Li Daoheng must be cultivating the new dao, but he's refined his strength of half step emperor into a puppet to stand guard for him. He's grasped the key to Stellaris, so the city is very important to him!

"Since Sword City is in the seal, most people can't access this place. Even if they can, they are unable to take Sword City with them!" The young man swiftly analyzed present circumstances. "But he's the sort to account for everything, he can't possibly completely ignore this possibility. He must have contingencies within the city, just in case!"

Contingencies!

Li Hao ran quick calculations and pondered the results. "There must be a place within the city, a key location or the heart of the city, that he's sealed away or inserted his own contraption into. Your current state can't be all that you guys have recovered to after one hundred thousand years.

"I'm thinking that the three of you may have tried entering some place and were thrown out of it, possibly even grievously injured! This is why you haven't recovered much after countless years."

The trio didn't say a word and permitted Li Hao to wax eloquent. There was nothing they could say as they were overwhelmed with shock.

The young man continued to consolidate all of the clues.

"It is both a function of the times and destiny that the new dao didn't officially appear until the world revitalized!" he breathed out. "It should have been developing all this time. Li Daoheng missed the best timing, but there was nothing he could do about it. He also doesn't want to be a regular exalted emperor, so he's been waiting all this time!

"He's been waiting for the new dao to appear. That guy probably saw through things a long time ago, but knows too little about the new dao. It wasn't until we discovered the corporeal dao universe that he quickly realized there was an immaterial dao universe. Perhaps he accessed the immaterial right after I entered the corporeal dao universe!"

Li Hao took another look at Sword City.

"The Stellaris that I wield is probably just a copy," he said softly. "Or rather, part of the primary body and not the entire weapon! It won't affect Li Daoheng that much whether he seizes it or not. The key is still Sword City. This city should've been the Sword Sovereign's personal sword!

"Therefore, perhaps the Stellaris I carry is a key to accessing the real Stellaris! And another thing, he's using me to collect the other eight weapons as well as the other main cities!

"He's a very proud person!" Li Hao murmured to himself. "The key to Silver Moon lies in the eight main cities, eight heritage weapons, dao universe, Red Moon exalted emperor, and Star Gate. He and I have both collected a portion of this list, so his ultimate goal is very simple—just defeat me!

"Once he does, everything that is Silver Moon will come into his hands. With that, his accomplishments will absolutely surpass ordinary exalted emperors. Regular exalted emperors wouldn't benefit from this kind of fortuitous opportunity.

"If exalted emperors are further divided into a hierarchy, then he might be a premier exalted emperor second to only the Human King once he succeeds!"

The young man had said everything that could be said! The three tattered survivors of Sword City stared at him, not sure what they could say. Li Hao, however, broke out in a resigned smile. "I knew it. The Li Daoheng that I so easily schemed against before was probably not his primary body! The only factor that he didn't account for is probably..."

Time!

Yes, that was it.

"The Exalted Blood Emperor is the reincarnation of the Tyrant Sovereign—now, don't be in such a rush to deny it. Did the Exalted Blood Emperor once visit the city and meet the Sword Sovereign?"

"He... did, and he did meet the Sword Sovereign."

"And did the Exalted Blood Emperor mention wanting to resurrect anything?"

"I... I don't know." The sword tree was growing flustered. It had commanded the situation before, but now, it could only passively respond to questions because most of what it wanted to say had already been expounded upon by Li Hao!

"You guys were present in Silver Moon at a very early point in time. Were you present when the world was split into eight?"

"Ah... yes, we were. We had just arrived with the Sword Sovereign..."

"Then did Great Li appear in Silver Moon after the world was split apart... Perhaps it wasn't called Great Li then. Did an Initial Martial powerhouse occupy the north?"

"Yes!"

Li Hao nodded once more. There were almost no secrets in the world left to him now. Clearly, everything was meant to resurrect the existence in the blade. The Exalted Blood Emperor had set up a temporary plan, aimed not at Red Moon or anyone else. He simply wanted to bring the cat back.

He wanted to borrow a world, collect some power of faith, use the ferocious blade of blood and its blood qi to nourish the cat, and the presences of the split world and heritage weapons to safeguard his blade!

If the Sword Sovereign didn't devour the world, then he would slowly nourish the cat back to health.

If he did, then the world might erupt with a great backlash of energy the moment the Sword Sovereign sought to do so. A large quantity of vitality might come into being then, which would also revive the cat.

But what kind of existence was this that even an exalted emperor couldn't bring back? The Exalted Blood Emperor was very close to the Human King, could the Human King not manage the deed either?

Why did they have to come to a minor world? That was odd!

But now, Li Hao could tell that the blade wasn't here for the Red Moon exalted emperor or Li Daoheng. The Exalted Blood Emperor didn't care about any of these people. He was only here for the cat!

As for the god of Initial Martial... Li Hao could vaguely understand why he was so bold as to use the Tyrant Sovereign and Sun God's name. Someone backed the god, a fact known by the Sword Sovereign and Exalted Blood Emperor. Perhaps the god was even here at the Exalted Blood Emperor's invitation!

His mission was possibly to protect the blade and the cat within until it fully awakened!

As for everything else... Li Hao frowned slightly. The god didn't even care when Silver Moon was nearly destroyed. Perhaps the god really was from Initial Martial and didn't care about anything related to New Martial.

"The eight heritage weapons... the eight bloodlines... I think he was just borrowing the eight families to supply some energy for his blade! This is to ensure that his blade doesn't lose power after too much time.

"No wonder those of the eight families can approach the weapon!" Li Hao sighed with emotion. "Li Daoheng might be so vicious that he wants to seize even this blade and devour the existence inside.

"Has the Human King Consort ever visited Silver Moon?" That was one question that still lingered for Li Hao. "Why did she leave her personal sword behind?"

It was possible that the Exalted Hard-Headed Emperor hadn't brought the boxing gloves of the Tyrant Sovereign. Rather, it was the Initial Martial powerhouse who'd done so.

But the personal weapon of the Human King Consort meant that she'd probably come in person. Why was that?

This was an outstanding piece of the puzzle that Li Hao was yet to decipher.