Returning Home in Glory

Five hundred years! A mere snap of the fingers to the outside world, a few fleeting months, yet five full centuries had elapsed in Silver Moon! This was the true meaning of seas turning into mulberry fields. Li Hao had never truly felt the weight of Xinwu's hundred thousand years. Perhaps only the people of Xinwu could genuinely comprehend it. But the moment he returned to Silver Moon, hundreds of years flashed past in the blink of an eye. Acquaintances who had still been vibrant youths just months ago... In a single breath, Liu Long's son was already a hundred years old. Wang Ming and his peers had surpassed five hundred. Director Zhao and those who hadn't married were one thing, but those who had started families... Liu Long's son was considered young; some already had great-great-grandchildren walking the earth. Time was truly an unyielding blade! As that blade came down, the jarring dislocation of intertwined space and time left Li Hao momentarily dazed. Five hundred years! When he sensed it all, he simply stood where he was, gazing out at the vast throng of aged figures blotting out the sky. Some had never reached the Sun Moon Realm, and those in the Mountain Sea Realm below Sun Moon were on the verge of exhausting their lifespans. Theoretically, a Mountain Sea cultivator could live around a thousand years... but theory was only theory. Around him, the currents of time rippled. For now, he merely looked on in silence with a faint smile, watching the packed ranks of his former comrades-in-arms... members of the Demon Hunting Squad, the Demon Hunting Martial Guard Army, and the Demon Hunting Army... Some he recognized; some he did not. There were also ordinary folk he had barely known back then, even common townsfolk. Over five hundred years, nearly anyone below the Mountain Sea Realm had died of old age, leaving only the powerful among the survivors. Thousand Dou martial masters, naturally, could hardly have survived to this day. Li Hao cast his gaze around, his divine intent sweeping across heaven and earth. In that instant, every person in the entire world seemed laid bare before his senses, as if he were searching for someone. Qian Wuliang and the others exchanged glances. Who was he looking for? Almost everyone he knew in this world was gathered right here. Who could Li Hao be seeking? If someone had died of old age, they generally wouldn't have been close to Li Hao. Those truly close to him... usually wouldn't have succumbed to old age, as reaching the Mountain Sea Realm was relatively easy for them. After a long silence, a soft sigh broke from Li Hao's lips. "Time is truly a slaughterer's blade..." The crowd wondered whether some old acquaintance of his had passed away. Then they heard Li Hao sigh and shake his head repeatedly. "Chief Secretary Yu is over five hundred years old. Minister Hou hasn't even returned yet, and I see she's currently circulating her martial dao, transforming her appearance..." "..." Everyone froze for a second. Li Hao sighed again. "Sister Liu Yan has grown old too..." Liu Long coughed in awkward embarrassment. What a thing to bring up! "Hong Qing... back then she was so young and tender. Now... she's aged as well, looking even older than Martial Uncle Hong..." Hong Yitang's expression twitched with conflicted agony. Dammit, could you shut your mouth? "Aunt Hongxiu... even has streaks of white hair." Hong Yitang's face twisted into an exasperated grimace. Just shut up! Why are you only naming women? You finally managed to open the Silver Moon Stargate, and right now, everyone is watching you, waiting for you, looking up to you with breathless anticipation... Why are you bringing all this up out of nowhere? After indulging his nostalgia for a moment, Li Hao looked at the crowd gathered before him. So many familiar faces. Director Zhao, Liu Long, Wang Ming, Huang Yu, Jade Light Sword... Back then, a group of people had chosen not to depart, electing instead to stay behind and guard Silver Moon. Today, each of them was a regional hegemon, a paramount figure within Silver Moon. Yet in Li Hao's eyes, there was only a bittersweet pang. "Five hundred years... everyone has grown so old!" "..." At this moment, someone couldn't hold back. Tianji gave a light cough. "Actually... is it really that big of a deal? When my clone took a nap here back then, a hundred thousand years passed. It's just five hundred years..." Listening to him, an outsider would think half a million years had slipped by! Was there any need for this? Aren't the people you care about right here? You barely knew the ones who died anyway. Birth, age, illness, and death were the natural order of things. When it came to strangers, who didn't see someone die every day? If no one ever died, Silver Moon's population would have exceeded a hundred billion over five centuries. Just then, Wang Ming seemed somewhat nervous, caught in a strange mix of familiarity and estrangement. For Li Hao, only a few months had passed since his departure; for them, five hundred years had drifted by! It was simply too long ago! The Li Hao in their memories had actually blurred somewhat. Seeing him now, Wang Ming felt a bit less of the old... intimacy, replaced by a heavier sense of reverence. He wanted to try changing that, to act more familiar, to be thick-skinned like in the past, but in the end he couldn't bring himself to do it. All he could manage was a quiet murmur: "Marquis, we've waited for you!" Li Hao clapped him on the shoulder and gave a soft laugh. "Cheap junior brother, when did you start calling me that?" Wang Ming scratched his head awkwardly. In his youthful ignorance back then, he had loved going around bragging that he was Li Hao's junior brother... In truth, Yuan Shuo had only made a casual remark and had never genuinely accepted them as disciples. Yet back then, whenever he said it, neither Li Hao nor Yuan Shuo had minded. Now, five hundred years later, looking back on those days filled him with deep emotion. That pat on the shoulder made him feel as if he had been pulled straight back to the old days. Suddenly, tears threatened to prick his eyes. Lowering his head, a man over five centuries old felt a sudden resurgence of his youthful brashness. He muttered softly, "Five hundred years ago, maybe... I should have gone out with you... Even if I was weak, even if I died out there, at least... I'd know we were in the same time and space..." For five hundred years, knowing Li Hao and the others were out there felt as if they were separated by an entire dimension of time, an entire cosmos. Li Hao said nothing. Beside him, Sword Venerable spoke up. "There is no need to dwell on it. I have been away from Silver Moon for merely fifty-odd years, yet over a hundred thousand years have passed here. The Li family of my era is entirely gone..." It served as comfort for Li Hao, and equally for Wang Ming and the others. Wang Ming and his peers looked on in bewilderment until Li Hao smiled. "This is Xinwu's Sword Venerable!" A collective jolt ran through the crowd! This was Xinwu's Sword Venerable? That name was truly thunderous to their ears. By now, Li Hao had regained his composure. With a light laugh, he looked out across the sea of cultivators filling the sky, his voice resounding across heaven and earth: "Return home, all of you, and make your preparations over the next few days! Having returned to Silver Moon this time, I will remain for a period. Silver Moon is about to undergo a profound transformation! The world will be reinforced, the Great Dao strengthened, and the Great Dao cosmos shall manifest before you!" "The Dao lies right before your eyes!" "The people of Silver Moon cannot remain in self-imposed isolation forever. Sooner or later, you will step outward, beyond this world, beyond this domain!" "The outside is perilous, but it is also wondrous!" "Sovereigns clash, Sovereigns fall, worlds are shattered. A world like Silver Moon can be crushed with a flick of a hand. Once destroyed, the realm perishes, and billions, tens of billions of living beings are annihilated in an instant..." "As people of Silver Moon, there is no need to live in fear. However... you must not be ignorant and reckless!" These words seemed spoken to everyone, yet also to himself, and particularly to youth like Liu Yin. Having regained his cultivation, Liu Yin stood nervously. Ignorant and reckless? Sovereigns? The Marquis of Silver Moon! Just... how powerful was he? He couldn't hold back. Even seeing his father glaring at him, he blurted out, "Marquis of Silver Moon... I..." Li Hao looked toward him. Liu Yin felt an inexplicable surge of dread and swallowed hard. "I am... I am Liu Long's son..." Li Hao smiled. "I know." Only then did Liu Yin breathe a sigh of relief. "I... I want to ask, a Sovereign... what is a Sovereign truly like?" Though he had caught a glimpse earlier, the impression had been indistinct. He had no direct understanding of it! What kind of beings were Sovereigns? What sort of existence qualified as a Sovereign? In that moment, Li Hao sensed that many people were asking the exact same question in their hearts. Five hundred years had brought countless new faces. Back then, battles involving Sovereigns had occurred, but today... they were nowhere to be seen. Far from Sovereign clashes, battles between high-rank Dao Integration experts had almost ceased to erupt. What was a Sovereign like? Li Hao smiled. "Do you want to know? Do all of you want to know?" He seemed to gaze upon every living soul in heaven and earth. In that instant, billions of people felt as if the Marquis of Silver Moon were looking directly at them. Some were nervous, some uneasy, some expectant, and some... harbored a trace of doubt. Just how powerful was a Sovereign? Stronger than a Dao Integration expert, sure—but by how much? What truly defined a Sovereign? Li Hao smiled. Ignorant and fearless. Indeed, the horizon of today's Silver Moon people could not compare to that of his own era, even though there were far more experts now than when he had first risen. Back then, however, Li Hao had witnessed the phantasm of Sword Venerable, seen the Blood Sovereign cleave Silver Moon in two with a single saber slash, and watched the Human King slaughter his way across the realms. Thus, even when he was weak, he knew there was always a higher heaven, always a greater power. His horizons had never been narrow. Yet today's Silver Moon populace possessed exceedingly limited knowledge. He let out a chuckle. Perhaps to show off, or perhaps to make them understand that those of shallow sight needed their eyes opened, his voice rolled outward: "Someone asked me what a Sovereign is like. Then... allow me to show you what a Sovereign truly is!" In that instant, he suddenly expanded into a giant ten thousand zhang tall, and he continued to grow. A colossal hand abruptly blotted out the sky and sun, sweeping endlessly across the entire world! Silver Moon was vast! Having become a medium-tier world, it was astonishingly enormous. Yet at this moment, that colossal hand covered heaven and earth, blocking out the sun, expanding outward from one end of the Stargate to the other. The palm lines on the hand were stark and clear, as though the Great Dao itself had manifested as the creases of his palm. Countless people tilted their heads back, their mouths agape, their jaws dropping to the floor! All they saw was the sky suddenly snuffed out! In the next moment, a cosmos seemed to emerge. Within that cosmos, a solitary star appeared—and that star was utterly minute. Standing beside it, a colossal titan reached out a hand, clasping the entire star within his palm. Li Hao's voice echoed through the void: "Silver Moon, a medium-tier world! Home to billions of living beings... yet among medium-tier worlds, it sits at the very bottom! As a Sovereign, I can hold it in one hand. When my Dao Domain unfolds, it encapsulates all of Silver Moon. With a single thought, Silver Moon's life and death rest entirely within my grasp!" He gave a wave, and dozens of stars abruptly materialized around him. None of them appeared smaller than Silver Moon. Li Hao declared, "These are other worlds. Some are minor worlds... no smaller than Silver Moon, for Silver Moon's advancement to medium-tier was too abrupt. Others are medium-tier worlds, even larger than Silver Moon!" "In the primal chaos, such worlds are found everywhere, easily destroyed with a wave of a hand. These are the spoils of war we seized after annihilating worlds from all directions!" *Boom!* With a casual squeeze of his fingers, an entire world detonated outright. Its world power was instantly seized by Li Hao and merged into Silver Moon. Silver Moon expanded by a massive margin in an instant; its boundary walls pushed outward, and its land stretched into the distance... Under the stunned, petrified gazes of countless onlookers, Li Hao looked down at Liu Yin before him and smiled softly. "This... is a Sovereign!" Behind him, the Sovereigns were rendered completely speechless. *To hell with you!* *Are you trying to terrify a child to death?* Yes, this was a Sovereign, but you had to add a caveat: this was a Sovereign who could match a peak rank six, who possessed a Dao Domain, and who could single-handedly obliterate a medium-tier world! A genuine rank one Sovereign grasping a medium-tier world in one hand? What a joke! Li Hao was doing nothing but scaring the living daylights out of them! At this moment, it was not merely the younger generation that was scared out of their wits—the older generation of cultivators was equally dumbfounded. They had seen Sovereigns before; back then, when Li Hao fought Sovereign Shigu and the others, the commotion had been tremendous and their strength immense, capable of wiping out an entire city in a single strike! Yet... what was a single city? Above a city was a province, and a province contained dozens of cities. Above provinces were over a hundred provinces making up Silver Moon's landmass. They had seen Sovereigns destroy cities, turning Silver City to dust in an instant. They had never seen anyone wrap their hand around the entire world! It seemed as though a casual squeeze would bring about the world's absolute ruin. Liu Yin was thoroughly stupefied. He turned his head to look at his father. *Kill us with a single breath?* *Father... did you... overestimate us?* *Would this even take a breath?* *Would he really need an entire breath to blow us to ash?* *This is a Sovereign?* His father, at the ninth layer of the Dao Integration Realm, had seemed terrifyingly mighty in his eyes, overwhelmingly powerful... yet... yet... what did that amount to here! Before a Sovereign, wouldn't his father be blown to dust with a puff of air as well? His father had also claimed that in the past, the Marquis of Silver Moon had rebelled against and slain a Sovereign while only at the ninth layer of Dao Integration... Was he joking? Or had his father remembered wrong, and the Marquis had been at the ninety-ninth layer of Dao Integration instead? For a moment, heaven and earth fell dead silent. In the next instant, a thunderous roar surged across heaven and earth, reverberating through all of Silver Moon. "The Marquis is invincible!" "The Marquis is peerless!" "..." The roaring chants swelled from tens of thousands to millions, to hundreds of millions, to billions... The entirety of Silver Moon was crying out in a frenzy. There was shock, fear, terror, excitement, and madness... This was a Sovereign? Standing before him, Liu Yin went from terror and shock to apprehension and fierce excitement. Seeing the roar sweep across heaven and earth, he couldn't help calling out softly as well: "The Marquis is invincible..." Liu Long glanced sideways at him, at a loss for words. Normally, this son of his pushed him to the limits of exasperation, impossible to discipline, arrogant and unyielding, fancying himself invincible beneath the heavens and peerless under the sun. Just moments ago, he had been questioning whether the Marquis of Silver Moon was truly that formidable. Look at him now—flipping his attitude like turning a page! Did he have no shame at all? Humiliating the Liu family! Yet deep inside, Liu Long was shaken as well. What level had Li Hao reached now? He was definitely no ordinary Sovereign! They weren't ignorant of what Li Hao had been like upon first entering the Sovereign realm. Though they hadn't taken part in the Sovereign battle back then, they had observed it and watched Qian Wuliang and the others fight. It had never been this terrifying! Crushing a world with a casual squeeze of the hand? What a joke! Back then, Silver Moon hadn't even advanced, yet Sovereign Shigu couldn't even manage to shatter Silver Moon. How could a Sovereign possibly be this mighty? Li Hao's voice rang out once more: "In the primal chaos, I am merely a junior. Five hundred years in Silver Moon is but a few months in the chaos! Naturally, I am no ordinary Sovereign. Chaos Sovereigns are divided into nine ranks, and I am a rank five Sovereign! Above me is rank six, slightly stronger than I am, though only by a margin... Yet above that, a rank seven Sovereign is over ten times stronger than an ordinary rank six!" Li Hao's voice shook heaven and earth: "A rank seven Sovereign is a true World Lord, a hegemon of the chaos! A rank eight Sovereign is a paramount entity of the chaos, and only at rank nine... can one truly be called invincible! Just before my return, eight rank seven Sovereigns died in the chaos. Prior to that, another batch of rank sevens perished, a rank eight Sovereign was nearly blown apart, and hundreds of ordinary Sovereigns lost their lives. Corpses littered the ground, blood flowed like rivers, and Sovereigns fell like rain—this is the primal chaos!" "..." All four directions trembled violently. What? The Marquis was only rank five? Above that, putting aside rank six being stronger, rank seven... was more than ten times stronger? Hundreds of Sovereigns could die all at once? Are you kidding me? The entire populace of Silver Moon was stunned silly. At this moment, Hong Yitang couldn't resist sending a voice transmission: "Isn't... scaring them this hard a bit excessive?" He knew Li Hao was deliberately trying to frighten them a little, and also wanted the people of Silver Moon to behave themselves. Still... putting it this way was downright terrifying. A Sovereign who could crush a world with a flick of his wrist could die alongside hundreds of others in a single clash... Just how horrifying was this chaos? "Did I lie?" No, he hadn't! Still... Hong Yitang was speechlessly resigned. You didn't mention how those hundreds of Sovereigns died! Who killed them? And how did all those rank sevens die? If one really looked into it, both Xinwu and Silver Moon were absolute scourges. Nearly every one of those fallen rank seven Sovereigns had been slain by either Xinwu or Silver Moon. Over the endless years of the chaos, plenty of Sovereigns had fallen. Yet for so many to die all at once, Li Hao, the Human King, and the Supreme were the real culprits. At this point, the entirety of Silver Moon began to recover from the shock, which transformed into fervent fanaticism. Sovereigns were this formidable! As for the Marquis of Silver Moon being a rank five Sovereign, it might not sound like the peak... but it was already absurdly powerful. Besides, the Marquis was young. Supposedly, only a few months had passed in the chaos. To reach rank five at such a young age, wouldn't rank nine be just a matter of time? In that single breath, whatever restlessness and agitation had plagued Silver Moon vanished without a trace. Before absolute strength, any thoughts of rebellion were meaningless. Stand against an existence that could extinguish a world with one hand? Did you really think someone like that cared about the title of Marquis of Silver Moon? Did you think he cared about being the petty tyrant of this tiny world? In the past, they had always felt the textbooks regarding the Marquis of Silver Moon were prone to exaggeration! Only today did they realize... what had gotten into the people of Silver Moon? Did the people compiling the textbooks know how to brag or not? If you don't know how, keep your mouths shut! The materials they provided claimed Sovereigns were so strong they could shatter a city with a single punch... Bah! They used to think that was an exaggeration! Now they realized the people writing the textbooks had definitely composed them with their feet; they were nowhere near true experts. Otherwise, how could they have ever lumped Sovereigns together with city-destroying weaklings? Today, everyone finally understood what a Sovereign was. This was a Sovereign! Of course, if they ever genuinely reached the Sovereign realm, they would realize... it was utter nonsense; ordinary Sovereigns were nowhere near this powerful. Yet Li Hao seemed to feel it wasn't enough. With a hearty laugh, he continued: "During my time in the chaos, I made many friends: the rank seven Sword Venerable of Xinwu, who is also the former king of our Silver Moon; the rank seven Senlan World Lord; the rank seven Sovereign Li Zhu; and Kongji, the son of a rank eight Sovereign who is himself approaching rank seven... Thanks to the aid of these friends, I managed to claim an abandoned rank nine world! A great number of rank seven Sovereigns recently fell there... In the end, everyone gave me face and lent a hand, agreeing to temporarily lend the rank nine Tianfang World to our Silver Moon. We people of Silver Moon have seen little and hold no grand abilities... Being able to visit a rank nine world, to catch a glimpse of its reality and explore an abandoned rank nine realm, will be a fine opportunity to broaden our horizons!" "Therefore, by opening the Stargate today, I hope that any insightful individuals who wish to step outside Silver Moon will do so in a few days... and go see the world of Tianfang! See it while you can, for vast numbers of Sovereigns are currently migrating away, and countless cultivators are being relocated... In due time, Kongji, the crown prince of the Bright Light Divine Realm and descendant of a rank eight Sovereign, will reduce the entire world to silence... turning it into a dead zone. Tianfang World is dozens of times larger than our Silver Moon, and that is merely in its abandoned state..." Stunned like wooden chickens! There was simply too much information packed into those words. Their Marquis of Silver Moon seemed to be extraordinarily well-connected in the chaos, making friends everywhere—and all of them were rank seven or eight powerhouses who gave him face and helped him seize a rank nine world. And today, country bumpkins like them in Silver Moon actually had the chance to visit a rank nine world... Even if it was abandoned, according to the Marquis, it was still an extraordinary place. Crawling with legions of experts. In an instant, countless cultivators grew flushed with excitement. Could... could this be real? The older generation, meanwhile, felt only deeper nostalgia. Indeed, in the past, whenever the Marquis opened his mouth, he handed out benefits. Today was no different. Even after five hundred years, it seemed the Marquis was thriving splendidly in the primal chaos! A rank five Sovereign who could befriend so many top-tier powerhouses. He truly lived up to his title! ... Having displayed his might, Li Hao quelled the restlessness in Silver Moon. A smile surfaced on his face as he glanced at Liu Yin and the other youths... Well, strictly speaking, they were all older than him, yet... Li Hao felt as though he were truly ancient. These people might look grown, but in truth, they were far too green. Young indeed! "You've seen the might of a Sovereign now. Dear nephew, what do you think?" Sword Venerable froze, shooting Li Hao a glance. Where had he picked up that habit? Of all things to learn, why copy the Human King on this? Yet... it didn't seem entirely wrong! If not that, what else should he call him? Liu Long had been the captain of Li Hao's team back in the day and later his subordinate, following Li Hao all the way through, and he was older than Li Hao. If Li Hao didn't call the son nephew, was he supposed to call him brother? Still... Forget it! Sword Venerable felt resigned. Just don't take after the Human King too much. Fang Ping had to assert his seniority over everyone he met; when he saw Tianji, he insisted on calling him nephew... simply because he had made himself peers with the Western Emperor. By now, Liu Yin had shed every ounce of arrogance. He nodded vigorously. "Mighty, absurdly mighty! This junior was a frog at the bottom of a well, looking at heaven through a bamboo tube!" He couldn't resist adding, "B-but if my father and the others had told us earlier that Sovereigns were this formidable... we..." *We wouldn't have dared to act out either!* *Wasn't it just that we lacked perspective?* He couldn't help pressing further: "Back then... supposedly, recording equipment already existed. Why... didn't anyone leave behind recordings of Sovereigns? If you had, maybe we... wouldn't have been so foolish!" Only now did he realize how thoroughly ignorant he had been. Liu Long and the others were left speechless. Recordings? Who would record? Record whom? Some people had made recordings, but those were all dark history and embarrassing blunders. Who had the time to record proper, desperate battles? Besides, your father wasn't even a Heavenly King back then, and Sovereigns were clashing in the primal chaos—where was I supposed to go to record that? Li Hao smiled and looked at the crowd. "Alright, let's not dwell on that. Come, let's find a place to sit, wait a while, and see who else returns to Silver Moon... This time, I intend to elevate all of Silver Moon. Even if it doesn't become a great world, it will reach rank six!" Naturally, the difficulty was immense. Still, who knew if it would work without trying? Going from rank four to rank six—at worst, it would just mean burning through wealth. Other medium-tier worlds in the chaos couldn't afford to burn that kind of wealth, but could he, Li Hao, not afford it? First, elevate the world itself. As for the Great Dao cosmos, there was no rush. World power was actually far easier to boost: refine the Dao web, enrich the world power, densen the world source, and the world would naturally advance. When that time came, Black Panther, as the World Lord, might well pull ahead from behind. Perhaps it could even surpass the Dao Lords to become the first to reach rank six. ... Inside the Marquis of Silver Moon Manor. A crowd composed of outsiders, those who had ventured forth from Silver Moon, and those who had stayed behind gathered under one roof. Listening to Li Hao recount his experiences in the primal chaos, Director Zhao was filled with awe and emotion. Forming alliances across the quadrants, wiping out rank seven great cosmoses, shattering a rank eight great cosmos, obliterating the Red Moon Cosmos and reducing the Lord of Red Moon to a rogue cultivator... A few months of that felt far more eventful than his own five hundred years. Over the past five centuries, Silver Moon had little worth recounting. It had merely developed step-by-step according to established routines! Everything used had been left behind by Li Hao. There had been some advancements in martial dao, but... compared to Li Hao, they were hardly worth mentioning. The greatest change was that they had assimilated even more of Xinwu's legacy civilization. Illiteracy was gone. Academies were everywhere, and martial dao had become something accessible, practiced, and understood by every stratum of society. Housing had improved, and life had become far more convenient. The various plans Xinwu had left behind—including the development of communications, the paving of roads, the perfection of infrastructure, the rise of skyscrapers... All of these had progressed admirably. Aside from that... after five hundred years, Silver Moon, which had possessed only a handful of Dao Integration cultivators back then, now had them everywhere. The resources Li Hao had traded for back then were immense, all transported from the rank eight Bright Light World. They had been enough to support an ordinary medium-tier world. And Li Hao had gifted them entirely to Silver Moon. Now, the cultivators at the Dao Integration Realm across Silver Moon numbered no fewer than a hundred thousand. Those at the Sun Moon Realm numbered at least a million, while Mountain Sea cultivators... were even more numerous. Among the older generation from back then, all the survivors were at least at the Mountain Sea Realm! As for the exact count, it was beyond reckoning! At this point, Director Zhao felt a pang of guilt and helplessness. "Later on, resources began to run dry... Some of the veterans actually had a chance to advance, but... we ultimately stopped providing them with resources, choosing only the best of the best. Many... simply died of old age!" "Furthermore, had we truly opened cultivation without restraint, there would be far more Dao Integration cultivators than this... But reaching Dao Integration consumes too much. Toward the end, we curtailed the resources allocated for it, and even... stood by as internal strife broke out, watching some turn on each other in slaughter." He let out a sigh. Certain things... had actually been condoned by him. For instance, the bloodshed! There were too many cultivators and not enough resources. Furthermore, so many powerful figures had emerged without an external enemy. When mentalities shifted and skirmishes broke out, he had known all along, yet chose not to intervene, deliberately indulging it to a degree. Otherwise, the number of cultivators would be far greater. If they hadn't restricted it, the new generation would have had no chance whatsoever, left without a single scrap of resources. His inaction had earned him no small amount of curses within Silver Moon. Li Hao nodded. "I understand!" He didn't rebuke him, only shaking his head. "There's no need to blame yourself. In a completely sealed world with fixed resources, no external enemies, and the need to maintain peace... to be honest, if it were up to me, I wouldn't know how to handle it properly either. If pushed to the brink... I might have resorted to entrapment, executing a batch first!" It was a desperate measure. Those left behind to guard the realm had faced agonizing choices. A moment of misplaced soft-heartedness could have thrown the entire world into utter chaos. Otherwise, they would have had to follow Xinwu's past example and put everyone into deep slumber, waiting for the day the Stargate opened. Director Zhao let out a gentle breath. "Now that you're back, our hearts are at ease. It's just that from the looks of it, the outside world... isn't peaceful either. In my opinion, there's no need for you to squander too many resources on Silver Moon. From the very beginning, Silver Moon has relied on you to sustain it, feeding so many people with so many resources. Had you used them for your own cultivation, you might already be at rank six or seven... Just letting everyone see the outside world is enough; why waste it?" Li Hao smiled and shook his head. "You cannot look at it that way. For me, the stronger I become, the greater the consumption. That amount of resources wouldn't be enough to push me into rank seven, and reaching rank six wouldn't make much difference!" "Silver Moon, however, will be entirely different once it becomes a great world! Besides, during this journey outside, Qian Wuliang, Martial Uncle Hong, Hongyu, Black Panther, and the others all played crucial roles. In the past, I dreamed of roaming the martial world alone, but later I realized that wandering the rivers and lakes without a few close friends and helpers by your side is no way to survive." "No matter how formidable an expert is, being alone only leaves you open to being surrounded and slain!" "Silver Moon holds immense potential!" Li Hao continued: "The dual Dao cosmoses are only one part of it. Second, Silver Moon possesses the capacity for self-growth! Over the past five hundred years, within a Great Dao cosmos utterly devoid of energy, I noticed that Silver Moon actually managed to expand quite a bit... and that was in a place with zero energy!" It was truly incredible. Just as the Human King had said, Silver Moon was extraordinary. As the bearer of time, it was inherently unique. "If Silver Moon reaches rank six... and if both Dao cosmoses become rank six Great Dao cosmoses... perhaps, with a modest amount of resources, we can give birth to an existence rivaling rank seven!" He looked toward Hong Yitang and the others, smiling. "Two rank six Dao Lords paired with a rank six World Lord—three rank six masters commandeering Silver Moon. Fighting a rank seven shouldn't be difficult at all!" In that manner, Silver Moon itself would possess rank seven combat strength. To Li Hao, that made it well worth the investment! Hearing this, Director Zhao raised no further objections. "As long as you deem it worthwhile. I only meant to say... if Silver Moon ever becomes a burden, that was never the intention of its people!" Li Hao nodded. "I understand! Director Zhao, don't worry too much. This time, I also hope all of you can step into the Sovereign realm. Without becoming a Sovereign, even surviving in the chaos is difficult. If Silver Moon can become a rank six world, an ordinary rank six world can support thirty to forty Sovereigns, but our Silver Moon can support double that!" Dual Dao cosmoses! Just like Xinwu. Xinwu was merely rank seven, and an ordinary rank seven world could accommodate fifty to sixty Sovereigns, yet Xinwu's Sovereigns definitely surpassed that number! Why? The dual paths of Yin and Yang! And that was even with their paths somewhat unbalanced; otherwise, it could accommodate even more. "The passage of five hundred years in Silver Moon is actually a blessing in disguise, giving everyone time to digest and accumulate. Of course, venturing outside has its own advantages. Southern Fist and the others entered Tianfang and bore witness to the battles of Sovereigns, watching rank sevens and rank eights clash in earnest... Sovereigns were as plentiful as clouds, and Dao Integration cultivators were everywhere you reached... Furthermore, Tianfang's world power was fairly dense, with abundant energy... so it wasn't a loss for them either." It was hard to say which path was superior. The prerequisite was that Silver Moon had sufficient resources; otherwise, five hundred years would have yielded nothing. Those who had ventured outside were the ones whose eyes had truly been opened. They wouldn't be as easily hoodwinked as the people of Silver Moon, naively believing that any random rank five Sovereign could obliterate a medium-tier world with a wave of his hand. Each side had its pros and cons. However, among those who had departed, some might not have reached the ninth layer of Dao Integration yet. The ninth layer represented the peak of the Heavenly King Realm, and mastering both the virtual and real daos brought one to the half-step Sovereign stage. Many of those who had left were merely Saints back then, and Saints spanned only the fourth to sixth layers of Dao Integration. In just a few months, they might not have crossed the threshold into the seventh layer. Director Zhao hesitated for a moment before asking, "Did anyone who went out die?" Li Hao shook his head. "I'm not sure yet. Qian Wuliang and Martial Uncle Hong haven't probed the Great Dao cosmos yet. Once we do a thorough check, we'll know. It doesn't matter much; even if someone died, we can just revive them!" He spoke casually, and in truth, it was casual. It wasn't as though a Sovereign had fallen! They were just a bunch of Saints and Heavenly Kings. He had been capable of reviving them in the past, let alone now. It was a simple matter! As long as their core within the Great Dao cosmos remained intact, it was fine. Of course, if the core had been shattered, or the Great Dao cosmos itself obliterated... Li Hao wouldn't have the power to bring them back. If someone had died this time, Li Hao wouldn't even need to lift a finger. The two Dao Lords—one at rank four and the other fast approaching it—were both Sovereigns, and reviving a few Heavenly Kings or Saints was straightforward for them. Naturally, it would incur some consumption, and might even draw down a lightning tribulation... though it shouldn't be overly formidable. Li Hao didn't linger in conversation for long, saying, "While everyone has yet to return, let's make some preliminary preparations. After five hundred years, some people are practically starving to death..." Not starving for food, but starving from an extreme drought of energy. Li Hao added, "First, I will integrate the Dao crystals into the world and the Great Dao cosmos... Once the others return, I'll take you to see something fascinating. The Dao must be comprehended! A Dao forced upward by raw power is inherently unstable! I will dismantle worlds—dismantling them dozens of times—to show all of you what the Dao is, what a Dao web is, and what a Dao Domain is..." These were the very essence of the Dao! He would let them witness how a Dao was woven, how daos merged... This kind of Dao comprehension was somewhat similar to the legacy of Dao Chess, only Dao Chess wasn't as direct. Li Hao would present it to them in a far more visual manner. Granted, doing so would slightly diminish their independent insights. Still... what did that matter? Could every single one of them reach rank seven? Impossible! Li Hao harbored no such delusions. He merely hoped everyone would gain some understanding of the Dao; if they could cultivate to rank six, that would already be enough. Those with genuine talent would eventually grasp the rest on their own. This time, it wasn't just the Silver Moon group. There was also the faction from Xinwu that had pledged allegiance to him back then. Zhang An had become a Sovereign, but what of Li Fuhai, Redwood, General Locust, Turtle Guardian, the Ninth Division Commander... That group of Xinwu cultivators, including the students of Yuanping Martial Arts University and the Battle Heaven Army... He would extend some aid to all of them. In the past, he had been too occupied and strapped for resources. This time, he truly did not lack for them! The harvest from the four worlds had been immense. Furthermore, having slain two rank sevens earlier, the others hadn't asked for the spoils. Li Hao had originally wanted to give the Great Dao power of Deep Sea to Sovereign Wushan, but Wushan had declined as well. With so many resources, it was more than enough! It was only natural that several Sovereigns would be born this time. It remained to be seen just how many could emerge. The more Sovereigns there were, the stronger the two Dao Lords would become. It was just like Xinwu's Supreme: when all the people grew strong, he grew strong. With so many powerhouses in Xinwu, Li Hao wouldn't be surprised if that Xinwu Supreme entered rank eight even before the Human King. The Dao of All Peoples defied conventional logic. Of course, the premise was that one could keep it under control without letting it run wild. Yet the Dao of All Peoples also bore its own constraints. If the people of Silver Moon were wiped out in one fell swoop, no matter how strong the Dao Lords were, they would collapse. On the Lord of Red Moon's side, the death of several rank sevens had forced him to suppress the backlash day after day until he finally lost control and had to sever the connection. That was the price. He had been relatively fortunate that the fusion wasn't absolute; otherwise, the backlash would have killed him long ago. Li Hao didn't spend excessive time reminiscing. After chatting briefly, he began his preparations. Massive quantities of Dao crystals dissolved frantically within the dual Dao cosmoses as if they cost nothing, nearly filling the entire cosmos to the brim. World power was aggressively siphoned by him to reinforce the entire world of Silver Moon. Silver Moon expanded at a rate visible to the naked eye. What had previously become almost an empty shell transformed in an instant into a supreme sanctuary for cultivation. Countless people madly absorbed the power of the Great Dao and the world power. Over the years, the depletion of energy had rendered many utterly unable to cultivate. Some newborns had never even felt the presence of energy, just like Li Hao in his earliest days. Across Silver Moon, large numbers of cultivators began breaking through once more. Their breakthroughs, in turn, fed back into the Great Dao cosmos. The two Dao Lords, having previously stepped out of the Great Dao cosmos, now unfurled the cosmos directly. Just as when Li Hao had presided over it, they opened the Great Dao cosmos wide, allowing the power of myriad daos to spill forth and enabling people to traverse the Great Dao cosmos freely. Only in Silver Moon, with Li Hao having set the precedent, could this happen. Qian Wuliang unconditionally executed Li Hao's policies, while Hong Yitang had always felt he was merely stewarding the Great Dao cosmos on Li Hao's behalf, so he placed no obstacles in the way. Thus, Silver Moon, having been sealed for five centuries, erupted in a frantic frenzy over the span of a few days. A vast multitude of cultivators began advancing through the realms! Meanwhile, the cultivators roaming the distant regions also began returning one after another: Southern Fist, Northern Fist, Heaven Sword, Tyrant Saber, Hou Xiaochen, Yao Si, Bright Light Sword... A vast host of Silver Moon martial masters began returning, accompanied by many Xinwu powerhouses. Some had indeed died in Tianfang... but death was not terrifying; they could be revived. What truly alarmed them was a report from the two Dao Lords: someone... had stepped beyond Tianfang, leaving it entirely. Beyond Tianfang lay the primal chaos, and the crux of the matter was—the ones who had left were not dead! This was the greatest surprise of all. Someone had actually departed Tianfang World! What the hell—was Tianfang not vast enough for you to roam? Where on earth were you running off to! Yet one couldn't help admiring their sheer audacity. To dare exit the Tianfang Cosmos and plunge directly into the primal chaos without being a Sovereign... either they had a Sovereign escorting them, or... they were truly fearless daredevils who had no regard for their own lives. Li Hao had originally suspected Southern Fist and his lot, considering how fat their courage usually was. It wasn't until Hong Yitang uttered two names with a deeply conflicted expression that Li Hao was rendered utterly speechless. "The King of Dali and the Queen of the God Nation?" "Yes!" Hong Yitang nodded. "Those two! Although they haven't fully cultivated our Silver Moon's Dao, they both opened Dao meridians and retain faint connections... Right now, those connections are extremely tenuous, clearly indicating they've journeyed far away!" Li Hao felt helpless. Only after a long pause did he manage: "As long as they aren't dead. I never expected the King of Dali to be this bold, nor did I imagine the Queen of the God Nation would decide Tianfang wasn't enough for her to wreak havoc in. Where has she gone to torment people now?" He felt a wave of pity for whichever world they had landed in. The Queen of the God Nation was a genuine jinx! Truly, even to this day, Li Hao firmly believed that. Whichever world she went to would likely suffer misfortune. He wondered which unlucky soul had either willingly escorted her away or had her latch onto them... Regardless, the two were almost certainly inside a world rather than the chaos itself. Had non-Sovereigns wandered the chaos for this long, they would have perished ages ago! "*Sigh!*" With a sigh, he shook his head. He had originally planned to help those two advance, as they were genuine half-step Sovereigns. It seemed that wouldn't be necessary now. What a pity!