Star Gate

A peculiar energy ripple resonated in all directions. The void congealed, time seemed to freeze, and a ray of invisible sword intent arose. It melded into Li Hao's nine blows—formless and intangible!

The nine rays of distinct sword dao were immediately subdued!

The nine types of sword dao had been vying with each other for superiority. But now, they permitted the Sword of Time to remold and refashion them as needed. Li Hao's Stellaris turned translucent.

The young man seemed to spontaneously age some, then grew younger.

Lifeless Sword jerked away and rushed over with his weapon upraised. The longsword burst with incomparable strength. "Kill!"

"Die!!" Li Hao swung his sword as well.

BAM!

The two rays of sword intent crashed against each other; the void stuttered to a halt. Two surges of force swept through the area and blew the three tattered spirits off their feet. They watched the force come their way, but could do nothing to avoid it. They were inflicted with wounds all over in the blink of an eye!

Li Hao stabbed out with his sword, connecting with a Lifeless Sword that seemed mired in a swamp. A very faint crunch sounded out as Stellaris stabbed into its target and began absorbing its essence!

"Not today, you won't!" shouted Lifeless Sword, taking human form once more. Stellaris had already pierced his body—he grabbed it with a single hand, a vicious look dawning in his eyes.

Trying to devour me? Dream on!

But there was a peculiar energy within the sword that interfered with the circulation of his energy. Now that was horrifying! But it wasn't enough, the peculiar surge of strength was rather weak.

A violent devouring force roared to life in his body, making Stellaris tremble in response. All of the sword dao essence that it'd devoured was returned in spades as even some of Stellaris' own essence began drifting away from the latter!

Lifeless Sword was more capable in this area!

"This is why you're a sword and I'm human!" Li Hao suddenly laughed. He suddenly transformed into a river circling Lifeless Sword. Strong river currents washed over his opponent!

Having just occupied the first mover's advantage and now losing his momentum, Lifeless Sword shouted angrily, "This is supposed to be a battle of sword dao!"

How dishonorable!

He was truly losing his temper as the fight went on. Li Hao had seemed like a true swordsman before, but now shamelessly utilized the power of a myriad of daos to attack him with. These were not the actions of a swordsman!

"Swordsmen? No, you still don't understand. The sword is just the form and the dao is the foundation. All daos come together as one sword—this is the Sword Sovereign's principle. If you don't even understand the Sword Sovereign's true philosophy, how can you call yourself a swordsman? Dare you say that the Sword Sovereign isn't a swordsman?"

Was the long river not dao? Of course it was!

"An absurd theory..."

Boom!

The long river furiously battered its target. Although Li Hao's myriad of daos were weak, there was a nascent shape to them. They crashed against Lifeless Sword—the young man having turned back into a longsword, just like when the drop of exalted emperor blood essence washed over him.

The longsword churned through the waters, rushing to and fro and trying to break free!

How would it be that easy?

The longsword continuously exploded with sword intent. Stellaris entered the river as well and started attacking its target!

Bam!

A tremendous battle broke out in the river. The waters shook and a myriad of daos suppressed the longsword. Stellaris once more pierced through the longsword's body and fiercely devoured the energy that seeped out!

It captured every iota of energy!

A self-destructive force brewed from Lifeless Sword after a long while. "You'll never obtain me... just keep on dreaming!" rang the young man's voice.

"You're disappointing me, Lifeless Sword." Li Hao was in no hurry. "The real Li Daoheng wouldn't choose to destroy himself at this moment. He would let me devour him, then kill me to seize Stellaris!

"After Stellaris absorbs you, he'll obtain an even stronger sword after he grabs Stellaris. Is that not the case?"

The young man's threats jerked the longsword to a halt. That was indeed more in line with Li Daoheng's style! What was the purpose of going down in flames?

Since Stellaris has won and is absorbing Lifeless Sword, I'll be stronger if I kill Li Hao and take his weapon after that. Destroying myself would also be ruining my hard fought efforts!

"You... seem to know him well!"

"Just a tad!" The long river vanished when Li Hao materialized and grabbed Lifeless Sword. Endless power of great dao surged in to compress that surge of maddened destructive power. His opponent's hesitation created an opening for him!

"You won't defeat him..." Lifeless Sword trembled. "I'm just a sword, but I made you deploy everything you have to barely keep me under control. How will you defeat him?"

The longsword shook violently, but Stellaris had surrounded it. An overwhelming suction force appeared to madly absorb everything that was Lifeless Sword.

The longsword shook like a leaf, not exhibiting much despair or reluctance despite being not long for this world. "Li Hao, you are just an experimental subject... He is obtaining far more benefits from you than you are from him..."

"I know," Li Hao nodded. "The dao universe is his greatest discovery, so... he owes me! You're interest that I'll collect first. Everything else can wait until after I leave the seal!"

Boom!

A loud detonation rang out as Lifeless Sword began to break apart. It continuously shifted between a sword and a young man.

"Interest?" The decaying sword was still calm. "Perhaps... you'll pay an even greater price than you anticipate!"

Li Hao suddenly laughed, a mischievous tone creeping in. He was no longer as calm and collected before, but somewhat satisfied with himself. "I'll let you in on a secret... you won't be transmitting any messages back to him!"

Lifeless Sword shuddered; Li Hao ripped through the void!

Countless stars materialized into existence! There were also five cities hovering among them. Li Hao shouted sternly as Lifeless Sword completely broke apart. A ray of light flashed through the darkness, as if wanting to break out of the universe.

It was fragments of the spirit that Li Daoheng had left behind! It was so that his sword replica could return to his primary body even after death.

But in this moment, Li Hao tore open the dao universe. It was very hard to access here, but since Li Daoheng had torn open a passageway to the immaterial universe earlier, this created an opportunity for Li Hao.

The tear in the void alerted people that were in the cities. They were... quite surprised to see Li Hao.

"The stars!" bellowed Li Hao.

Stellaris rushed through the void and entered the dao universe, erupting with resplendent radiance. A particular star gleamed with interest in the unbounded void and suddenly appeared in the vicinity.

All beings abruptly froze in place, including the dot of light that sought to escape! The massive star appeared next to Stellaris and circled it with curiosity, sizing up the weapon.

All matter came to a halt!

The 'dao' character over Li Hao's head permitted him to pick up and place his feet forward at a glacial pace. He soon reached the dot of light and smiled at it.

Can you still get away like this? Then I'll take my hat off to ya!

Stellaris had piqued the star's interest—this was something new. Whether or not Li Hao could lure the star over next time would depend on if he had something new and exciting to offer. He seemed to have grasped some of the personality attributes of this star.

It would not appear in the absence of anything interesting.

Li Hao said nothing; he didn't even look at the star. Instead, he punched the dot of light without hesitation!

Boom!

The world fell apart, the disturbance spooking the star. It vanished, whereas the dot of light erupted with piercing light. It immediately crumbled away, producing a young figure that hovered in and out of sight. It was very similar to the figure that Lifeless Sword took shape as, but the look in its eyes was slightly different.

He looked at Li Hao and even addressed the young man. "You cut down my replica... It looks like you have secrets that you do not wish for me to learn of..." He peered into the distance and was shaken when he saw that unique star. "I see... So this is the case... Is this new dao so special?"

Boom!

The shadow flew apart. Li Hao returned to being a river and rushed through the world. As the surroundings shook, a tiny dot of light floated upward—it still wanted to run.

"I knew someone like you wouldn't go down so easily... You wanted to lie low?" came Li Hao's voice. "In your dreams!"

The river thundered toward it, wiping it clean!

That wasn't enough. Li Hao reached out with a hand and grabbed Stellaris. The longsword encircled the world and deployed countless blows in all directions. No abnormalities in space arose from this action. However, Li Hao did not stop.

The 'dao' character over his head suddenly burst with a thousand rays of light, illuminating the universe!

It brought an exceedingly feeble dot of light into view. It was in front of him, nearly invisible, that hunkered in a corner of the universe. Li Hao cut it down!

He still wasn't done. Yanking Panther out of a distant city, the young man jerked the dog awake. "Devour the void!"

Panther was still bleary-eyed with sleep, but it threw caution to the wind and swallowed everything in sight!

All of the void entered its body, as did the endlessly dissipating expanse of energy.

Li Hao suddenly vanished and reappeared over Sword City. He grabbed a significant quantity of Red Moon power—this had been left behind by the exalted emperor. Panther swallowed it all as well.

A thunder tribulation descended upon them!RUMBLE!

While Panther felt like it might die in the cascade of thunder and lightning, there was also an odd sensation growing in its body. An imperceptible dot of light appeared within the dog and fully exploded with a bang!

......

At this time, in another quadrant of the universe.

A muffled grunt sounded, followed by a chuckle. "He's certainly got skill..."

It could be none other than Li Hao that'd done this. Well done!

He'd set up countless traps in Lifeless Sword, but they'd all been dismantled. Who could it be, if not Li Hao?

Is there something you're hiding from me?