Chapter 1758: Farewell (I)

Chapter 1758: Farewell (I)

“Things should be more lively when the dao stars start coming home,” Li Hao smiled. “It’s not hard to nurture one star, but it’s too hard to care for an entire universe of them! They’re all dao stars of high ranks, after all. I can’t afford to keep them around!”

With that, he waved off the dao chess. “See you later, senior. You can enter the Skyward dao universe now, I’m going to shut it temporarily...”

Aw screw you, you’re in such a hurry! You want nothing more than for me to disappear immediately, don’t you?

You little bastard!

While it was slightly regretful, the dao chess floated through the air, transmitting one line, “The Skyward master... might still be keeping an eye on the world!”

With that, it fully disappeared.

Li Hao raised a brow with a smile and didn’t say anything. He’d long since guessed at that truth, but was surprised nonetheless that the dao chess had volunteered that information.

He looked outside Skyward and gave a long exhale. It was time to leave before anyone else took notice of him. There might be attackers who visited them soon if he lingered!

The young man looked at the Sword Sovereign and Li Zhu in the distance. This might be goodbye. He would leave first, then the seventh ranks. Everyone’s eyes were on the seventh ranks. It was also far more convenient for them to leave compared to himself.

Li Hao then looked at Void. Perhaps his friend would be the only one to keep him company this time...

That guy better leave me alone as soon as he hits seventh rank!

“Where are we going?” Void cocked his head at Li Hao. New Martial was in Blazing Sun Region, Red Moon Region was in tatters, Skyward Region was immensely dangerous...

“We go to Dragon Region!” Li Hao transmitted. “We’ll beat up whoever attacks New Martial! Dragon Region might participate in a battle against New Martial, its world master might even bring his world along.

“We can also take advantage of this opportunity to study a chaos beast’s dao. I haven’t met that many seventh rank chaos beasts yet, so this will be a good opportunity to add to our knowledge.”

He’d seen quite a fair bit of human dao, but not much of chaos beast dao. there might be something new to glean.

Panther was also a chaos beast, which meant it would blend into Dragon Region. Chaos beasts abounded in that part of space. Fifth rank ones were very conspicuous elsewhere instead.

Void nodded, he didn’t care. Anywhere was fine so long as they didn’t march on Light.

......

Skyward.

Li Hao wished to take Silver Moon with him, so the four seventh ranks wouldn’t leave immediately. They would provide some cover for the young man before departing.

......

The eastern world gate.

Dragon Region was situated in the east of the four regions. Li Hao wasn’t familiar with it, but he had a map in his possession. The Sword Sovereign and Li Zhu weren’t familiar with it either, as it hadn’t been long since New Martial’s rise.

It was the Orchid Forest master who knew a bit since he was a veteran sixth rank that’d survived for many years.

“Dragon Region is primarily split by two main factions—the first of chaos beasts and the second of monster spirits!” He gave a brief overview to Li Hao. “Do you know that chaos beasts and monster spirits are different?

Monster spirits were monster spirits, chaos beasts were chaos beasts. Monster spirits were the mutations of chaos beasts after they entered the world, or the native animal spirit inhabitants of the world.

“The greatest difference between them is that chaos beasts can contain worlds within themselves,” continued the Orchid Forest master. “Almost all of them have the innate talent of devouring the world!”

He looked at Panther. “World Master Panther should not have originally been a chaos beast. It might count as the descendent of a chaos beast. Its ancestor was said to be the Exalted Heavenly Dog Emperor of New Martial. The Heavenly Dog... might be similar to the Ash Emperor. Both are chaos beasts.”

“Then are all chaos beasts that enter a world redefined as monster spirits?” asked a puzzled Li Hao.

“Apart from that key difference between monster spirits and chaos beasts, another one is the difference in their dao rules!” The Orchid Forest master didn’t elaborate more on the differences between the Heavenly Dog and Ash Emperor as he wasn’t familiar with them. “Chaos beasts tend to focus on chaos dao no matter if they are seventh or eighth rank...”

Li Hao blinked.

Chaos dao?

“But chaos dao... prevents them from entering a dao universe!”

“That’s right,” nodded the Orchid Forest master. “However, there are some key differences between those seventh and eighth ranks as well. Let me put it this way. The Dragon Region is comprised of major worlds that chaos beasts seized from others!”

Li Hao frowned.

Seized from others?

“Chaos beasts do not cultivate the dao of the worlds, as they are born in the chaos and cannot integrate into a dao universe. They can only grow outside, in the chaos. They seize a major world when they develop to a certain stage.

“Or perhaps they reside within a dao universe or world to begin with, masquerading as a monster spirit. In conclusion, chaos beasts cannot give birth to dao universes. They can only steal one!

“Yet monster spirits can assimilate into a world and grow with it. They can give birth to dao universes, so the worlds that monster spirits reside in may be one of their own creation.”

Such was the greatest difference between the two. Chaos beasts could not produce their own dao universes. They could only be similar to the Sword Sovereign in producing a similar dao domain, not a dao universe.

Li Hao understood this time. “So the senior means that in Dragon Region, worlds that are dominated by chaos beasts were created by others. That means they are formidable in battle—how would they come by this loot otherwise?”

“That’s right!” nodded the Orchid Forest master. “They are born of the chaos and live in the chaos. To us, chaos dao is exceedingly disorderly, but they are used to the mess. That is how they endure generation after generation, and they are stronger than their peers due to the dominance of chaos dao!

“If they can set foot into seventh rank... You see what happened with the Sword Sovereign. They are formidable as they are able to produce their own dao domain. If we do not have home ground advantage or a world to pull from, we will not be able to match them.

“Such is the same for chaos beasts. Once a seventh rank master leaves their world and encounters a chaos beast, they are often overcome. The chaos beast will easily kill them and seize the world!”

Li Hao’s brows knitted together.

“I don’t know that much about Dragon Region,” continued the Orchid Forest master. “I’m unsure of how many worlds there are in that area. I just know that there’s a lot of them, as well as vast sums of monster spirits and chaos beasts. The dragon race reigns over the region with Dragon major world. Their world is the strongest in the vicinity at eighth rank!

“However, there’s another comparatively stronger world in the region that’s at peak seventh rank. It has three to four seventh ranks, making them a half step eighth rank world. It’s held by the monster spirits!” The Orchid Forest master rummaged through his memories for the world’s name. “It should be called the Ironeater major world as a group of monster spirits that eat iron live there. They’re very strong!

“They’ve had some conflict with the dragon race in the past. Chaos beasts normally seize worlds for themselves, whereas monster spirits collectively develop a world and care more about the innate strength of their home...”

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

The Ironeaters?

Li Hao blinked and looked at the Sword Sovereign? Were they pandas? Silver Moon didn’t have these monster spirits, but he recalled the name from his journey through New Martial. The New Martial main world had such creatures in residence.

“They might not be pandas.” The Sword Sovereign smiled when he saw Li Hao look at him. “Don’t jump to conclusions. The chaos is so vast that there are all manner of creatures.”

Very well then.

“All is not at peace in Dragon Region,” continued the Orchid Forest master. “There were clashes between the local monster spirits and newcomer chaos beasts early on. After the Dragon master entered eighth rank, he suppressed the native inhabitants. That created a temporary balance in the region.

“There are also worlds occupied by humans in that area, but they usually keep a low profile and even refuse to put themselves forward. Chaos beasts love to target worlds with humanity as the ruler!

“Of the four regions, human-like races rule the other three regions. Only in Dragon Region are humans the weakest. While there are humans in worlds dominated by chaos beasts, they are usually delegated as slaves.

“If you wish to find some worlds to seize, you can take the ones from the chaos beasts. Whether it was those worlds or dao universes, they did not belong to the chaos beasts to begin with. But there is one point that you must keep in mind...” A solemn tone crept into the Orchid Forest master’s voice. “They are different from the Red Moon master.

“The Red Moon master is greatly weakened after separating from his dao universe, but the same might not hold true for a chaos beast once it is bereft of a dao universe! They focused on chaos dao to begin with. The only use a dao universe provides to them is to purify and refine chaos energy!

“Although their dao and energy is slightly disorganized, they will be even stronger after having them refined by the world and dao universe. Not only that, but the major worlds themselves are not indicative of the number of high ranks.

“There are some chaos beasts in Dragon Region that have attained seventh rank, but not seized a dao universe. That makes them a true chaos beast. They drift through the void in that area as well.”

Li Hao continuously nodded his head, taking in everything the Orchid Forest master was saying. While the latter knew a great deal, there was even more that he did not know because he’d never been there in person.

It was too dangerous. Humans were the weaklings in Dragon Region and easily devoured by monster spirits or chaos beasts.

“Must you really go there, Li Hao?” asked the Sword Sovereign. “Dragon Region has not been thrown into an uproar yet, so there aren’t many opportunities to take advantage of. New Martial will be focusing our activities in Blazing Sun Region. Even if you don’t want to move with us, you’ll have more opportunities in Blazing Sun.”

If the young man went to Blazing Sun, New Martial would be the target that everyone kept their attention on. Silver Moon would have Li Hao, a fifth rank who could kill a sixth rank. He would not draw the eyes of the region, so there would be much more chances for him to take advantage of.

The Sword Sovereign was slightly saddened by Li Hao’s decision.

“New Martial’s in a lot of hot water these days,” smiled the young man. “We might become a burden for you guys if we go. It’s better that we split up. With one in the east and the other in the west, separated by a long distance, we won’t interfere with each other then.

“Uncle Li, the four regions are vast, but also very small. We’ll run into each other sooner or later!”

The Sword Sovereign nodded and said nothing else. It was Fog Mountain who was rather lost.

What do... I do with myself now?