Preparation

Borrowing the power of the lightning tribulation, his Dao of Tribulation broke through to the seventh rank. His sword struck down Diyang. There was no great trouble. After all, with so many powerhouses lending a hand, if he still couldn't slay a single Diyang, it would have been utterly pathetic. With Diyang dead and Samsara Sovereign retreating into his shell, the other worlds—even if apprehensive and inclined to unite—would hardly be able to reach a consensus in that instant. Thus, the first surprise raid by the experts of the Four Regions was a resounding success. Four eighth ranks slain, ten seventh ranks... and eleven seventh ranks if counting Xiaochen from before. A single raid had yielded glorious spoils. Yet Li Hao was hardly elated. His goal had never really been killing; it was simply that the momentum had reached such a peak that sparing Diyang would have let everyone down. Beside him, the Human King was looking around in all directions, seemingly rather bored. Bored because no one else was stepping up to fight. Li Hao gave it no further thought. With a flick of his hand, a world spun toward the Human King. The Human King caught it instinctively, realized it had come from Li Hao, and chuckled. "Paying your debt?" Li Hao nodded. The Human King grinned. Li Hao smiled as well. "Senior Human King, could you return my IOU?" "The IOU?" The Human King paused, then nodded. The next moment, tens of thousands of IOUs materialized before him, countless slips floating in the air. Sweeping his gaze across them, he soon plucked one from a corner and chuckled. "Actually, there was no rush to pay me back." Li Hao smiled, glancing at the pocket of space the Human King stowed away. Countless IOUs... Just how many people owed him money? His own IOU swiftly flew into his hands. Li Hao merely glanced at it with a trace of sentiment, then waved his sleeve, reducing the slip to ash. At last, the debt was cleared. Oh, he still owed one more. This time... it was about settled. Li Hao smiled. "The Gemini Universe was originally eyed by Xinwu... This time..." The Human King understood his meaning and waved a dismissive hand. "You took it, so naturally it's yours. Whoever kills gets the spoils—that has always been my rule! I don't do equal distribution; whoever contributes gets what they earned. I killed Fusheng and four other seventh ranks, so those are mine, and the rest are yours. Wushan and Kongji held off Fusheng for me earlier, and I just held people off for you... We're even." In short: you take yours, I take mine. Neither owed the other! Li Hao smiled and nodded. "Then... I will go collect the Gemini Realm first, lest complications arise!" "Of course." The Human King looked around. "We pulled off a big hit this time. For a while, these fellows won't dare provoke us. But... be careful. The various factions will definitely find ways to deal with us next." Speaking up to here, he chuckled. "That's when it gets interesting!" With that, he glanced back toward the Thunder Domain and the Four Regions. Raising an eyebrow, he sneered, "That old dragon isn't a good sort either. To think he crept out in secret. You're the one who needs to watch out for him. He might not be in a hurry to target me, but as for you... you slaughtered so many chaos beasts. He won't let you off." The Human King actually felt it was fine that the Dragon Lord had intervened. It was just that... the Dragon Lord didn't have a deep grudge with Xinwu. With Li Hao, however, it was truly irreconcilable. Li Hao had killed his wife, killed a bunch of his subordinates, and engaged in mad slaughter across his territory, wiping out worlds... Even if the Dragon Lord himself didn't truly care, to answer to his race and the chaos beasts... either way, peace was simply impossible between Li Hao and him. Li Hao gave a slight nod. A formidable opponent indeed. Yet he was not terribly afraid. He also glanced back. The Dragon Lord was strong, but he had many things to consider; at this moment, he might not be willing to clash with Li Hao's side. Even knowing this might nurture a tiger that would cause trouble later, the Dragon Lord held back. It was simply because the Dragon Lord had his own plans and arrangements, unwilling to be led by the nose by Li Hao and the others. A nuisance, but nothing truly terrifying. "Then I will take my leave..." Li Hao cupped his hands slightly and led his companions onto the River of Time, heading straight for the distant Gemini Realm. Meanwhile, the Human King tidied up the battlefield a bit. Grinning, he looked at the two iron-eating beasts and said, "I'm off..." The Iron-Eating Sovereign stood dazed and shaken. Dazed that Fusheng had truly been slain, and shaken by the Dragon Lord's sheer might in beating a top outer-region powerhouse like Samsara Sovereign right back to his nest. Only now did a tremor of fear strike him: had he opposed the Dragon Lord and actually survived? Moreover, he was awed by how bold and lunatic these people were. He had thought the Iron-Eating Clan was crazy enough, but compared to these fellows, they lagged far behind. Even sensing reinforcements from Samsara World arriving, not a single one had retreated; Li Hao had even taken the initiative to attack and ignite battle. Had the Dragon Lord not struck, wouldn't these people have clashed head-on with Samsara Sovereign? With countless thoughts spinning in his mind, just as he was about to speak, the Human King smiled. "There's no need to follow me anymore. Samsara has retreated into its shell and is no longer hunting me for your sake. If you want to act alone, find a place to roam on your own; staying with me is very dangerous. If not... you can go to Thunder Lord or find the other people from Xinwu. Either is fine." "Human King... you are leaving alone?" The Iron-Eating Sovereign was surprised, yet felt it made sense. The Human King nodded. Having finally come out, was he supposed to just go back? Right now, he had only seen the Eastern Region; he wanted to keep wandering and exploring. Seeing this, the Iron-Eating Sovereign said no more. The Human King waved his hand, bringing out the corpses and Great Dao power of the four seventh-rank experts. "Consider this your compensation. Fusheng's eighth-rank spoils belong to me, but these are just Great Dao power without any world or universe... Make do with them!" "We cannot accept this..." Before the Iron-Eating Sovereign could refuse, the Human King had already drifted away, vanishing in an instant without giving him the slightest chance to decline. He had always been this overbearing. ... Outside the Gemini Realm. By now, almost every sovereign who could flee had done so. After Li Hao and his party had struck, killing two seventh ranks and destroying the world source, not a single sovereign capable of escaping remained in this realm. "Senior Dao Chess... the Gemini Universe is yours!" Dao Chess was surprised and shaken. "You..." "I owed you!" Li Hao smiled. "Earlier, I took your eighth-rank universe; today, I'm just paying you back! As for the others..." He looked at the group. "We killed six seventh ranks and one eighth rank, all originating from the Gemini Universe. This time, we will shatter them as well and merge them into Gemini to form a complete Gemini Universe. That way, Senior Dao Chess should truly be able to recover eighth-rank strength." Dao Chess had originally been a ninth-rank imperial weapon founded on an eighth-rank universe. His combat prowess wasn't necessarily ninth-rank, but he definitely possessed eighth-rank strength. Now, giving him the complete Gemini Universe, combined with the seventh-rank universe from before, merging them would make recovering his peak strength no longer an issue. As for the others... none showed signs of an imminent breakthrough. At present, absorbing the Great Dao power of a seventh- or eighth-rank sovereign didn't do much for them. It held little significance. Li Hao continued, "Thunder Lord's side has been exposed as well. Senior Dao Chess, quickly absorb and refine it. Queen, take the inhabitants away. Black Panther, go absorb part of the remnant world power and refine the entire world... Then we leave." Those called upon acted swiftly. Dao Chess felt a bit embarrassed that the entire spoils of this battle were going to him, but... after considering it, he said nothing. If he absorbed the entire Gemini Universe, he truly had hope of fully returning to his peak of old: eighth-rank strength! Since Li Hao had put it that way, he was polite no longer. Er Mao, Kongji, and Wushan had no objections. They had all broken through not long ago. In the short term, fighting a major battle was a harvest in itself; clashing with experts, clashing with seventh and eighth ranks, was far more important than devouring energy. Li Hao then looked toward Kang Han, who stood by in utter trepidation. Smiling, Li Hao casually extracted a massive amount of world power and Great Dao power, fused and refined them together into a giant orb, and tossed it to the bewildered Kang Han. "Fellow Daoist Kang Han, your guidance ends here. Be careful; no one should be paying attention to you, so you may leave." Sovereign Kang Han was stunned, finding it hard to believe. Let me go? "Senior, this..." "Go back. While we are still here, ordinary people won't dare come investigate. Once we leave, experts will surely come to probe!" Kang Han's expression was conflicted. These cultivators from the Four Regions were terrifying; as soon as they emerged, they engaged in frenzied slaughter. Yet... why did it feel like they weren't so terrifying after all? They were actually quite reasonable. With conflicted thoughts, he knew staying would be dangerous. Not daring to say much, he bowed slightly. "Then this junior takes his leave!" Though tempted to say something, he kept quiet in the end and swiftly vanished. Li Hao quietly contemplated the various Daos within the Gemini Universe. The universe trembled, the world churned, panic gripped the masses, and countless people were swept into the Divine Kingdom while countless others plunged into the hell beneath it. Within the Queen's Divine Kingdom, the population was now countless, far too vast to calculate. Li Hao merely watched in silence. Too many worlds had been destroyed—many great worlds, and even more medium and small worlds. Vast numbers of people had been dumped into the Divine Kingdom... How many were there now? A trillion? Several trillion? The believers in the Divine Kingdom now barely scraped by on extracted chaos power, while the non-believers in hell fared even worse, clinging to life solely on wisps of chaos energy. In truth, to call it a world was inaccurate; it was merely a warehouse piled high with bodies. Carrying on like this wouldn't work. Too many worlds had been wiped out. Humans, demons, and other beings were all living in this Divine Kingdom, yet Li Hao couldn't take them with him either. Were they to be left in the Divine Kingdom like this, completely reduced to numb, unfeeling tools of faith? Li Hao watched the Queen continually drawing in people, remaining silent. In the battle earlier, after crossing paths obliquely with the Human King, the Dragon Lord, and the others, Li Hao had discovered his strength was clearly still inferior to theirs—there was no doubt about that. Beyond that, there was another difference. Those people had something he didn't, yet lacked something he possessed. What they had more of might be called responsibility: the Human King bore the heavy burden of Xinwu's rise, while the Dragon Lord had to carry the chaos race. All of them had constraints. The Dragon Lord had always been confined to the Four Regions, while the Human King had been tied down to Xinwu, only breaking free recently. And perhaps his carefree days wouldn't last long either. He, on the other hand, had none of that. Though he always carried Silver Moon with him, he merely took it along; it hadn't caused him much hindrance or trouble. He could still go wherever he pleased. His thoughts were somewhat tangled. It wasn't about whether their way was good or bad, but rather... having conquered so many worlds, he possessed something more than the Dragon Lord and the Human King. What he had more of was perhaps hypocrisy, or perhaps a sliver of compassion. Compassion for outsiders... Thus, whenever he broke a world, he would usually see to the survivors rather than leaving them to die. The Human King and the Dragon Lord, however, didn't care. All they cared about was their own one-third of an acre. Perhaps... this was hypocrisy. Because if one chose to care, one should care thoroughly, rather than dumping them all into the Queen's Divine Kingdom like this—without society, without civilization, without agriculture, without anything, except... providing faith! If so, it might actually have been cleaner to let them perish with their worlds. He hadn't harbored such thoughts before. They arose now because the King of Dali was no longer around to take in those unwilling to believe. Watching countless souls plunge into hell and sink into its depths... Li Hao suddenly felt something was amiss. Before this, he hadn't paid mind to it. But right now, with the Gemini Realm newly conquered, how could so many people immediately revere the Queen? Only a tiny fraction did, while tens of billions of living beings in the realm would never believe in her! This wasn't saving humanity, because humans in the Gemini Realm had lived quite well. It wasn't like the Dragon Domain, where vast numbers of humans had willingly turned to faith. In the Dragon Domain, he could tell himself this was salvation, but here... it was not. Watching countless beings sink into hell, Li Hao fell deep in thought. Conquering the Gemini Realm and the Xiaochen Realm had swept up countless lives. Most sank into hell, instantly swelling the once-empty depths with over a hundred billion beings in the blink of an eye. Truly horrifying! And the believers in the Divine Kingdom had multiplied to a staggering degree—over a trillion! So many beings had essentially lost their future. Yes, they had no future. Even those in the Divine Kingdom, though seemingly living in bliss, were living in an illusion. In essence, it was no different from hell; it merely looked better on the surface. Lost in mental illusions, they would sooner or later starve to death, reduced to pure psychic essence. "What's wrong?" Kongji glanced at Li Hao. Seeing him stare intently at the Queen, he transmitted, "Aren't you already engaged? Looking to take a second wife?" Li Hao smiled, unbothered, but sighed softly in transmission: "Brother Kongji... that day in the Dragon Domain, when we killed many chaos sovereigns and claimed we were saving humanity, you said I was hypocritical. Looking back, that was the truth." Kongji paused. Li Hao added, "We've shattered too many worlds. Countless people and demons are now displaced, turned into puppets in the Divine Kingdom—no future, no civilization, no life, nothing at all... only faith and non-faith." Kongji remained silent. It was inevitable. Conquering worlds usually meant total annihilation; preserving these beings was already rare. When worlds devoured each other, who would deliberately preserve mortal lives? It was hardly possible. Besides, there was nowhere to put them. There were simply too many! Having a Divine Kingdom capable of holding so many was already remarkable; in truth, Kongji found it almost miraculous. Li Hao continued, "Everyone yearns for freedom. Before, in their native worlds, they enjoyed a measure of freedom. Now in the Divine Kingdom, believer and non-believer alike have only a tiny patch of space. Surrounded entirely by people, with nothing to enjoy, nothing to learn, only endless crowds... Is this salvation, or destruction?" "Brother Haoyue, this problem is very hard to solve..." Li Hao nodded. "I know. That's why I'm considering something!" Looking at the broken sword in his hand, Li Hao said after a long silence, "I wonder if I should attempt to open a patch of chaos, isolated from the cosmos, suppressed and stabilized by time, opening myriad worlds within it... Place those people inside, letting them develop their own civilizations, their own eras, their own worlds... But the biggest challenge right now is a life source. Otherwise, even if opened, it would remain just a cage!" With a life source, life could be born anew and civilization could flourish; only then would it be a true world. Without it, though the current inhabitants wouldn't suffer immediately, over time... all would perish! Kongji was slightly taken aback and fell into thought. Open a pseudo-chaos? Where could one even open such a thing? Worlds were everywhere; one had to find a secure location. That was one issue. Secondly, regarding the life source and world source, Li Hao had yet to analyze anything substantive—how could he create them? Placing billions of humans inside to live? It was a fine idea; they might become the first generation of pioneers. But... could it work? It would require boundless energy and vast resources... At this moment, Li Hao spoke again: "I haven't had much clue about the life source. Even reversing time easily invites disaster, possibly shattering the Time Star. However, the day I open it will be the day I reopen time! So I won't fear that... The issue of the life source can hopefully be solved by tracing it back through time to recreate chaos... But where would be a good place to open it?" In this moment, the desire to forge a patch of chaos as soon as possible took root. Opening it would mean losing some things, but also gaining much: insights, experience, concepts, comprehension of the Great Dao. What he left behind would merely be his current thousand worlds, mere external constructs. The Four Regions inside the Thunder Domain were actually a great spot, but unfortunately... that was the Dragon Lord's territory, and the Lord of Tianfang had his domain there as well... Thoughts surfaced incessantly. He had entertained similar ideas before, but then it had only been about his own Dao. Now, looking at the countless beings gathered, he knew things couldn't go on like this. Stuffing them all into the Divine Kingdom... was scarcely better than letting them perish alongside their worlds. He quickly suppressed these thoughts for now. Before them, the Gemini Universe began to collapse. Black Panther devoured large swaths of the world, its aura rising once more. The Great Dao Universe had been swallowed by Dao Chess and was being digested. The Queen, having taken in countless living beings on top of those from the seventh-rank world earlier, saw her aura begin transforming toward the fifth rank. There were simply too many people! Her breakthrough was swift, but this ceaseless influx left her unable to properly tend to her Divine Kingdom. They were all casual believers. Such believers were far less valuable than fanatics; ten thousand casual believers might not yield as much faith power as a single zealot, and they made the Divine Kingdom fragile. Yet the Queen said nothing, still immersed in the joy of gathering so many souls, not yet contemplating these drawbacks. ... Li Hao waited a while longer. With a resounding boom, the Gemini Universe collapsed completely. Dao Chess stepped out. His silhouette was no longer ethereal, solidifying into a refined, scholarly man bearing a faint smile. "Thank you!" Dao Chess cupped his hands, smiling at Li Hao. After so many years, he had finally restored it: eighth-rank strength! To reach the eighth rank as an artifact spirit was perhaps unprecedented through the ages. Yet back then, when the Lord of Tianfang departed, he had not taken Dao Chess with him, leaving him behind instead—something Dao Chess had never understood. A million years of depletion had caused him to fall from eighth rank to seventh, and recently even to sixth. Now, after devouring two universes, he was finally back at his peak—eighth-rank power! In this battle, Li Hao's group had slain many experts, all to his benefit. As for the Queen stepping into the fifth rank, Black Panther stabilizing at the sixth rank, and Li Hao entering the seventh rank, these were minor by comparison; stepping into the seventh rank wasn't hard for Li Hao, as only one of his Daos had reached that level. "You are too kind!" Li Hao smiled. "At last, another external debt cleared, taking a weight off my chest. Repaid Senior, repaid the Human King... I don't owe much on the outside now." Whatever debts remained were in Tianfang. With Panlong, Huoyan, and Shuiling of Tianfang, he had interacted and incurred debts, but in retrospect, those debts might not amount to much, though they had seemed daunting at the time. "Let's go. Back to the Thunder Realm first..." Li Hao said with a wry smile. "We originally planned to look around and head south... yet we've barely traveled any distance before having to turn back." The Thunder Lord had been exposed. If Li Hao's group left, the Thunder Lord would be in dire straits. Furthermore, he had slain an eighth-rank sovereign from the Samsara Realm. Samsara had suffered heavy losses—three eighth ranks and four seventh ranks dead—yet it still had a peak eighth-rank sovereign and ten seventh-rank sovereigns, remaining a formidable faction beyond the Thunder Lord's ability to withstand. Before the others could coordinate, the Thunder Realm would likely have to relocate as well. ... Inside the Thunder Realm. The Thunder Lord was brooding. As he repaired the realm, he pondered: now that he was exposed, what should he do? Seeing the eighth-rank powerhouses make their moves, he realized he amounted to little among the eighth ranks. Whether the Dragon Lord, the Human King, or the Samsara Sovereign... none were foes he could contend with. Never mind them—even Diyang and Fusheng were beyond him. And now they had been slain, while he was exposed as the first to strike down an eighth-rank sovereign... Trouble would surely follow. Right then, Li Hao returned. The Thunder Lord was overjoyed! Back! He hadn't felt secure earlier, but with Li Hao's return, he felt far more at ease. ... In the main hall of the Thunder Realm. Those who hadn't gone out looked at Li Hao, excited yet exasperated. Hadn't they promised to keep a low profile? How did they pull off something so earth-shattering the moment they stepped outside? What happened to lying low? They had claimed the Human King was a troublemaker, but their own ability to stir up trouble wasn't behind the Human King's in the least. Li Hao exhaled. "The situation in chaos is very complex... The notion of merely discussing the Dao was difficult from the start..." Everyone was speechless. They should have anticipated this all along. Li Hao continued, "I came back because there are some problems to resolve... and I need everyone to decide together with me!" Everyone looked at Li Hao. Who does he want to attack now? Li Hao was silent for a moment before speaking: "Right now, chaos is gripped by turmoil, while our side... counting all of us as one group, we have three eighth ranks: Dao Chess, Wushan, and Thunder Lord! At the seventh rank, we have me, Kongji, Er Mao, Senlan, and Qian Wuliang working together with Martial Uncle Hong, who can also count as a seventh rank. Three eighth ranks, five seventh ranks, and over a hundred sovereigns... It sounds quite strong, but truthfully speaking, we are still inferior to the Samsara Realm, right?" Everyone nodded thoughtfully. Indeed, they were inferior. Leaving out Samsara Sovereign, they might be comparable, but factoring in Samsara Sovereign and three eighth ranks, they were far behind. "Yet in chaos, Samsara isn't even a supreme hegemon, and it nearly collapsed so easily..." The Thunder Lord chuckled. "That was just bad luck, running into all of us striking together..." Li Hao shook his head. "Not bad luck—it was inevitable! Even without us, there are Chunqiu in the south, Wuxing in the north, and Huntian in the east, all far stronger than Samsara. With chaos in turmoil, under the prevailing tide of events, these second-tier powers must either submit or... be annihilated!" Was there any other path? None. Subjugating them wasn't even easy for hegemons, who would fear betrayal. Li Hao let out a breath. "Before, I didn't understand the outer regions well, but now things are clearer. With our current strength, we can barely scrape by in the East, but in the other three domains... we couldn't survive at all. Furthermore, our reputation is ruined—at least after this, our name in the outer regions has soured! Wolves ahead, tigers behind... Wiping out Gemini this time wasn't worth it; it was a loss, making us detested by the public... Whether heading to the other three domains or returning to the Four Regions, our path has become difficult!" The others hadn't considered this yet. Hearing Li Hao's words, they were taken aback. After a while, the Thunder Lord asked hesitantly, "You mean... we're in a tougher spot now than before?" Surely not? Li Hao pondered and nodded. "Tougher! Think about it: if we go to the other three domains, unless we submit to the three hegemonic forces and sign Great Dao agreements, they wouldn't trust us anyway. Add to that my time abilities have likely been completely exposed—do you think they would ever trust us? Or should we ally with Xinwu to form a new faction?" Li Hao said, "Xinwu's Human King isn't weak. Together with the Cang Emperor, the Supreme, Bright Light, and our group... we could indeed form a formidable power. We might even unite the East, become the Eastern hegemon, and contest the other three regions! But... essentially, we are still inferior to them. Moreover, allying with Xinwu might not go so smoothly. Right now we are merely cooperating; once we truly form an alliance, things will definitely not remain as simple as they are now." The group fell into contemplation. Wushan agreed, "Indeed, very difficult... Cooperation is one thing; an alliance, or even integration... that would be awkward!" Originally, having defeated Diyang and with the Thunder Lord slaying an eighth rank, everyone felt optimistic, thinking things were thriving. But hearing Li Hao break it down, they realized the situation hadn't improved at all—it had become more troublesome! How did it come to this? Wolves ahead, tigers behind. Ahead were the three hegemons; behind was the Dragon Lord. The Four Regions might truly be considered the real Eastern hegemon. Having left the Four Regions, they and Xinwu were actually trapped with no way forward and no retreat. "Then why not join forces with Xinwu and fight our way back?" Wushan suddenly suggested. "Fight our way back into the Four Regions and wipe out the Dragon Lord's faction! Right now, only the Dragon Lord is formidable; Black Tiger and Red Moon amount to little. Now that Dao Chess has stepped into the eighth rank, if we join forces, we could conquer them..." Li Hao shook his head. "The Dragon Lord is very strong. Moreover, the Dragon Domain has many chaos sovereigns and many seventh ranks... We could fight, but if we do take them down, both sides will suffer heavy losses. Do you think the other powers will ignore that?" What should they do then? Li Hao held nothing back, stating plainly: "I currently have an idea... to independently open up a patch of chaos! Right now, there are several difficulties. First, a life source. Second, a suitable location. Additionally, there are other issues, such as the stability of the chaos, establishing rules, and massive amounts of energy..." Li Hao looked at everyone. "This might be our chance to overtake them on the bend!" He met their gazes. "Let us open it together, prepare and mobilize, merge our spirits into the River of the Great Dao, and open a universe! Truly open heaven and earth! That way, we can all absorb vast amounts of the Dao of rules... a Great Dao with true rules... Build from scratch! Perfect and prepare! This can also resolve several problems—such as the countless beings in the Divine Kingdom, and worlds like the Thunder Realm, Silver Moon, and Senlan, which can temporarily merge into it and hide within, hidden from outside eyes. Otherwise, these worlds have become a burden to us!" Li Hao sighed. "Of course, this is helping me, but I believe everyone's gains will not be small either! Since the Human King has come out and is stirring up trouble everywhere, we might as well keep a low profile. Whether the Human King or the Dragon Lord, one has five thousand Dao principles, and the other possesses nearly seven thousand... Truth be told, if the eighth ranks present here were to encounter them, we wouldn't even last against one of them!" Even the Human King, who was comparatively weaker, only appeared to struggle against Fusheng because he had instantly slain four seventh ranks first, slightly elevating the difficulty of killing Fusheng. In a true one-on-one duel, the Human King could have dispatched Sovereign Fusheng in short order. It could only be said that compared to the Dragon Lord and Samsara Sovereign, the Human King was somewhat weaker, but he was still far stronger than the eighth ranks present here. Li Hao said, "Establishing a domain of Dao principles is the path all powerful eighth ranks tread! Yet Thunder Lord, you and the others, after reaching eighth rank, are lacking in this regard... So I believe you should harbor higher ambitions. The eighth rank is definitely not the end, only the beginning! Reconstructing chaos—even a pseudo-chaos—is still chaos!" Thinking of this, Li Hao's heart stirred, and he suddenly asked, "If... we construct this pseudo-chaos within the Chaos Great Dao, like the pseudo-space form of the Divine Kingdom, would that make it even more concealed?" Everyone's heart stirred. None spoke, all falling into deep thought. A single venture outside had shown Li Hao the immense pressure and gap in strength, making him realize that seeking the Dao in this manner might not work. Moreover, going outside easily sparked friction. He seemed to want to take a different path. Since the Human King had gone out, he wouldn't. The Dragon Lord was building up the Four Regions behind them, and Li Hao had nowhere and no inclination to develop territory. If so... why not reopen a patch of chaos? A crazy idea! Kongji spoke up: "It would require massive amounts of energy, right?" "Yes. The Queen can provide a portion, and we have accumulated some savings, but it's still not enough. To construct a chaos, it is definitely insufficient..." Li Hao said. "We also need to find an absolutely quiet and safe location. In addition..." After a moment of thought, Li Hao added, "I still don't understand chaos well enough. Earlier, everyone said the Nine Heavens might be the Dao of a supreme expert. In that case, I might still need to find what I'm looking for, observe the structure of the Nine Heavens, the distribution of those worlds... and thereby refine my Dao once more..." This process would be exceedingly complex. Only after stepping into the seventh rank did Li Hao possess a sliver of capital to accomplish it; before this, he hadn't possessed even that. Reaching the seventh rank through the Dao of Tribulation brought some increase in strength, though not massive, but entering it had broadened his horizons significantly. The crowd began to discuss it eagerly. No longer walking the path of plunder, but the path of creation. It was a good thing, yet fraught with difficulties and complications. After a long pause, Wushan said, "This is a good thing, beneficial to everyone. Naturally we support it. Besides, you are right: blind plundering and slaughtering actually has very little effect on eighth ranks now. For us to reach peak eighth rank, or even ninth rank, is virtually impossible... It's just that the process and the required resources are difficult for us to satisfy right now." Li Hao nodded. "So it will take time... But at least we have a goal, and we can prepare for it!" Li Hao said, "After stepping into the outer regions, we had no clear objective, simply drifting wherever we ended up. That had pros and cons, but the drawback was... no direction, making it easy to run into trouble. This time, we almost had a disaster!" Everyone nodded. Now their interest was piqued, each feeling a sense of anticipation. Opening a chaos? Opening a world was feasible, but opening chaos... could that really succeed? Li Hao lapsed into silence. In the battle earlier, they had slain a host of experts, devoured an eighth-rank universe, and seized a seventh-rank universe... Yet Li Hao had already spotted a glaring flaw: at the seventh and eighth ranks, these universes could no longer satisfy their appetite. To become an eighth rank, how many universes would he have to devour? The same went for the others. Just how many people would they have to kill, how many great worlds would they have to destroy? Energy might be fixed, but that wasn't the point. What mattered was that killing an eighth rank didn't produce an eighth rank; you might have to kill ten to produce one... For everyone to reach the seventh and eighth ranks, until when would they have to keep killing? Perhaps... it was time to change direction. Constructing chaos, opening heaven and earth, establishing their own chaos universe—perhaps this would better help everyone, and also help him perfect his own Great Dao system. Consider this an experiment. Looking again at the sword in his hand... the Sky Sword was far too useless. A sixth-rank sword was completely ineffective. Too weak! Even if it reached the seventh rank, it wouldn't be of much use to him... Moreover, many people ought to see what true heaven and earth really were. Only then could their horizons expand, giving them greater hope of taking a step forward—including the Silver Moon World. If it wanted to step into the seventh rank, perhaps... this was the opportunity. Idea after idea surfaced. After this battle, Li Hao felt no joy of victory. It wasn't merely because he hadn't stolen the spotlight, but because he sensed latent crises and a bottleneck in improving their strength. His side was likely facing a massive bottleneck; they had advanced too quickly. Almost everyone present had made progress—whether seventh or eighth rank, none had been at this level before. Yet after slaying so many experts in one go, only Dao Chess had advanced significantly. As for the Queen's fifth-rank power, Li Hao didn't even pay it mind. Such an outcome was not what Li Hao wanted. ... And on this day, as Li Hao and his party departed, the various powers across the entire Eastern Region swiftly began coordinating with one another. Disaster had struck! The strength of the Four Regions' powerhouses exceeded all expectations. Strength was only one aspect; the crucial point was that these lunatics were far too vicious! Of the sixteen eighth-rank worlds in the East, not only was one gone today, but Samsara had also suffered devastating losses. None of the other great worlds could compare to Samsara, and few could rival Gemini—yet Gemini had been eradicated! How could they not panic? Eighth-rank worlds rapidly banded together, and seventh-rank worlds hurriedly joined in. Li Hao and his companions had inadvertently spurred the unification of the East. It had to be said that their presence tended to cause such phenomena: prompting disparate, scattered factions to coalesce. Meanwhile, news was spreading swiftly toward the western, northern, and southern domains. The Four Regions—formerly known only as the small place housing the Tianfang World—now had several names echoing in the ears of experts: Xinwu's Human King, Thunder Realm's Thunder Emperor, Silver Moon's Li Hao, Yunxiao's Wushan, as well as Bright Light, and to some, Long Zhan. These figures rapidly became the focal point of attention across all factions.