Star Gate

"Guardian Turtle, you guys can keep the seniors company," Li Hao instructed. "You're all familiar with each other and haven't met up in many many years. Star River is a friendly city, so there's no need to keep anything from them. I don't mind, and neither will Dean Zhang."

Zhang An nodded slightly and said calmly, "We can be at ease when conversing with each other and talking about the old times. I will not interfere with that."

"The dean is most generous and open-minded!"

Zhang An smiled with a word. "Let's head inside." He gestured to Li Hao.

"Alright!" The young man strode toward the city lord manor, leaving a group of people looking worriedly at each other. These two... wouldn't start fighting as soon as the doors closed, would they?

The old turtle and others knew that Li Hao was here to claim Star River. But out of the eight families, there were still Saints alive from the Zhang and Zhao families. They'd already relinquished their main cities to Li Hao and seized Star River through painstaking effort after ambushing the Zhous.

It could be said that they'd done everything humanly possible to help, yet here Li Hao was, ready to take even their second homes.

The ancient cities were still very useful at times. For example, when Li Hao self-detonated, all of the Saints would've promptly died if it wasn't for the main cities. The cities were innately a sacred land for energy uptake and cultivation, as well as defensive weapons. It was difficult for outsiders to even infiltrate a main city, to say nothing of invading it.

Giving up a main city now would place Zhang An and the rest in a dangerous position.

Thus, those that'd come with Li Hao were feeling trepidation, but didn't mention it. The Zhang Saint and two elders from the Zhaos were old friends. The spurge tree had lived with them for one hundred thousand years, so this encounter brought mixed feelings all around.

......

The grand hall of the city.

"Sit." Zhang An gestured with a lilt of his chin.

"My thanks." Li Hao took a seat in one of the chairs on the lower ground.

Zhang An didn't sit in the city lord's throne as expected. Instead, he sat down across from Li Hao and summoned a jade flask. "Would you like tea or wine?"

"Wine."

Zhang An blinked, then smiled. "I thought you would opt for tea. Youngsters like you are embroiled in martial dao and rarely drink alcohol. The Human King didn't like to drink. He was too busy when he was young and alcohol easily numbed the body."

"Martial masters of the martial world will become jokes if they don't drink!" Li Hao laughed. "Us Silver Moon martial masters treat alcohol as tea when we journey outside. If word got out that I, Li Hao, drank tea instead of alcohol when outside, Martial Uncle Southern Fist and the rest would laugh their heads off at me if they were still around!"

Zhang An quieted for a second, not saying anything else.Southern Fist.

It wasn't only him who was dead. That day, Li Hao, Hou Xiaochen, Sky Sword, Hong Yitang, Panther, Imperial Guard, and a few others had been the first to enter Evenround Martial. Even Hou Xiaochen was gone now too.

He poured a cup for Li Hao and one for himself. He raised it, throwing back its contents before offering a toast. "You still resent me for the battle at Boundless, don't you?"

"Not really," Li Hao shook his head. "It was my choice, so why should I resent the dean? If there's anyone I should resent, it would be myself! I was too weak and too incompetent to protect those near and dear to me!

"I don't actually resent anyone or myself. After that battle, I switched from passive defense to proactive offense! After that battle, the Silver Moon martial masters and I awoke! It was the blood of my master and the rest that awakened us!"

At this point in time, he no longer had any regrets.

"Silver Moon world, the Red Moon exalted emperor, god of Initial Martial, Zheng Yu, Li Daoheng, Ying Hongyue, and the queen of the west." Li Hao changed the topic. "If they count as six enemies, I've yet to eliminate a single one!

"I either can't kill them, or there's no need to kill them, or I'm unable to kill them..." Li Hao sighed. "My hands are completely tied! Take Ying Hongyue, for example. If it wasn't for the seal, I would've killed him a long time ago!

"I say that I want him to taste pain, but how can my heart be at peace if the murderer of my family and master freely roams around outside? Letting him go for him to suffer is just an excuse I use to convince myself with. In reality, it's because I'm incompetent and am unable to kill him. I alsocan'tkill him!"

Zhang An nodded slightly.Ying Hongyue...

This person had killed Li Hao's parents and brother. It would indeed be hard for the young man to be at peace if he didn't obtain vengeance in return. It was already generous enough that Li Hao could so calmly discuss the man.

Zhang An thought of the Human King. If it was the Human King... he wouldn't care about the bigger picture or that the exalted emperor might break out of the seal. He would've killed Ying Hongyue a long time ago and wouldn't wait so patiently until now!

Li Hao was certainly a ruthless person who could bide his time.

"It's almost winter, which will be the fourth anniversary of my parents' death," Li Hao continued as Zhang An ran through these thoughts. "It was during winter that their car flipped. The car was wrecked and they died at the scene...

"I'd really like to kill Ying Hongyue on that day to offer his head in worship to them!" the young man concluded calmly.

"Do you need my help?" Zhang An raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, please lend me Star River for a few days, that's all."

"......" Zhang An understood Li Hao's motive in coming here this time. "Are you able to ensure the seal's integrity if I lend it to you?"

"I am highly hopeful of doing so! I can transform the eight main cities into the eight heritage weapons and have them suppress the eight directions. They will summon the blade of blood, which will suppress the central region.

"Once I kill Ying Hongyue and seize the eight bloodlines, I can use my dao to control the seal and ensure that it doesn't break for a period of time!"

"The eight heritage weapons?" Zhang An raised a brow.

"Does the dean not know?"

"No."

"Very well, I'll pretend that the dean does not know," Li Hao laughed. "I want to transform the eight cities into the eight heritage weapons to use as the formation's foundation. I'll extract Ying Hongyue from them and completely eliminate him!

"He is a pawn for many people and killing him will change a lot of things. It will also let me vent my hatred! In addition, killing him will bring the added side effect of utterly shattering some people's plans. Everyone thinks that I do not dare and will not kill him!

"The whole world thinks that I will not kill Ying Hongyue so long as I have not completely lost my mind. Ying Hongyue himself thinks that, so he's not afraid of me killing him. No matter how fiercely I snarl or how ruthless Hongyu appears, everyone knows that I won't kill him!"

Li Hao grinned. "I'm going to do what regular people can't do. Since they think I won't, that's precisely what I'll do!"

Zhang An looked at him, a million thoughts running through his mind. That was correct, it was just like Thunderblast of before. Everyone had thought that Li Hao wouldn't and couldn't do it, but he did.

Just like entering the seal to face the exalted emperor. They thought that he wouldn't do it, but he did. The more people thought against something, the more the young man wanted to do it.

So now that the world felt that he would no longer run so wild after accumulating some foundations and capital, what if he really did kill Ying Hongyue? They all thought that he wouldn't do so to avoid releasing the exalted emperor.

By then, all investment in Ying Hongyue would evaporate upon the wind. Li Hao would break everyone's expectations!

Therefore, he must successfully borrow Star River! It would be the end of their friendship if he could not!

Of that, Zhang An was well aware. He simply asked, "How will you seize Galewind?"

Star River was one thing, but Galewind?The Empyrean Kings were one thing, but how will you expel Zheng Yu? Not to mention, half step emperors cannot emerge in the world yet. If Zheng Yu does walk out, the first thing he'll do is to run you through!

"I'll figure it out!" Li Hao said softly. "The queen seizing half of the moon is one such opportunity! Zheng Yu can actually enter this moon. The moon is the core of the world to begin with and is better able to obscure things than the ancient cities.

"If he enters the moon, he'll be like Li Daoheng. Even a half step emperor won't be targeted by the world then..."

"Why would he enter the moon? How will the queen of the west agree to it?" Zhang An still felt that Li Hao was being too idealistic.

If the congregation of the eight main cities was truly able to summon the Exalted Blood Emperor's weapon, then they might suppress the exalted emperor once more. But just the problem of Galewind alone was sufficient to make everyone put the notion to rest.

It was too hard!

Or rather, this was the only option—Zheng Yu had to enter the queen's moon.

"It will be tough... but we can just give it a try," Li Hao laughed. "There are other ways if we can't, shove Zheng Yu into the world barrier, for example. Or drag him into my dao universe, but that's too dangerous and slightly scary! A third idea is to have Li Daoheng manifest the immaterial dao universe so that Zheng Yu will charge in...

"We have many options at our disposal. If it comes down to it, I can just pull him into my dao universe. Zheng Yu will probably be very happy to be greeted with such an opportunity!" Li Hao snorted.

"Don't do anything rash!" Zhang An was starting to nurse a headache. This lunatic might do anything! While the rest of them would have an incredible show to watch as a result, wouldn't it spell the end for Li Hao if a half step emperor entered his dao universe?

A light glinted in Li Hao's eyes as he laughed. That was actually the easiest solution out of all the ones he'd posed. He was willing to throw open the doors to the dao universe and Zheng Yu happened to possess the qualifications to enter. But would he really?

Of course he would!

As for possible traps or ambushes, he wouldn't care at this point. If Li Hao could kill him with the dao universe, he would do so tomorrow, if not today. Then Zheng Yu might as well enter as soon as he had the chance to!

If a half step emperor lacked even this level of confidence, then he could give up cultivation. Therefore, it was much simpler than one would expect to take down Galewind.

Li Hao would go to Galewind first, open the passageway to the dao universe, and surreptitiously connect the city to the passageway. Zheng Yu would take advantage of the opportunity even if it was only available for a split second!

The young man began stroking his chin, which further intensified Zhang An's headache. Based on his knowledge of the lad, Li Hao really was contemplating letting Zheng Yu into his dao universe!