Star Gate-Chapter 1068: Being Known Throughout the Ages (I)
Chapter 1068: Being Known Throughout the Ages (I)
Chapter 1068: Being Known Throughout the Ages (I)
Each setback contained a lesson. Li Hao was no longer as flashy as he once was, and he no longer immediately publicized everything he discovered.
After all, I’m not invincible. There are still people who can suppress me in this world. Even without the Divine Nation queen, their god of prophecy can keep a Saint preoccupied if it expends everything in its arsenal. While the Saint on my side didn’t utilize his full strength, that is still an incredible feat.
The divine spirits were awakening and they were beloved by the heavens. Li Hao also knew that his discovery of the Hao Cosmos was another boon to them. When everyone cultivated, these divine spirits also received a certain feedback to their powers. One had to say, they were enjoying ready-made benefits from Li Hao’s efforts.
However, there was nothing to be done about that. These divine spirits were born representing certain great daos. There was also a certain degree of Li Hao’s efforts behind Divine Nation’s current strength. Their divine spirits had awakened so swiftly in large part due to his efforts in promoting all citizens being able to cultivate.
Sadly, the divine spirits didn’t know the meaning of gratitude. Li Hao was quite infuriated about that!
At the same time, he knew that it was useless to be angry. The best plan was to strengthen himself.
......
One day and night had passed when Li Hao next emerged from the Hao Cosmos. Everyone was cultivating inside the pool of treasures, making use of each minute and second they had.
The enormous pool was a bit empty by now. Even so, some martial masters looked at it longingly. A couple fished out handfuls of muck from the bottom of the pool. They crammed it into their mouths, not caring if it was mud or medicinal ingredients covered in dirt.
“Don’t eat that,” laughed Li Hao. “That’s all sludge left behind after a bath. Why are you eating it?”
He Yong swallowed a large mouthful of mud and rolled his eyes at the young man. “It contains extremely dense energy that’s much stronger than mysterious power stones or Water of Life. It’s only because you have a large mine now that you don’t care about this. If this was before, you’d beat everyone here black and blue for a chance to eat it!”
He... made sense. But even though his words were logical, everyone still objected, “Nuh uh, not us. You’re the only one that disgusting!”
“So you’re not disgusting, huh? Don’t eat it then!”
“Do I look like I’d eat this slime?”
“Then what’s your mouth doing?”
“What, you want to take this outside?”
“......” The Silver Moon martial masters that’d been half dead in both body and spirit were now back to their usual selves. They looked around merrily, as if nothing had happened yesterday. Being of stout heart was also a Silver Moon martial master trait.
They would trade insults, but not actually escalate the situation to a brawl. This kind of vitality was better off being utilized against their enemies.
He Yong ignored a leering Thunderleg and exclaimed, “All of us are stronger now. If you’re confident in dealing with that queen of theirs, let’s go kick her door in again!”
Surprise! We’re back after one day to fuck you up!
“How’s everyone done for themselves?” Li Hao shook his head with a smile.
“The weakest of us have opened nine meridians and are ninth level Mountain and Sea!” Tyrant Blade said extremely brusquely. “If it wasn’t for He Yong and some others dragging us down...”
“I’m first level Sun and Moon!” He Yong exploded with rage. “You didn’t treat me like this before you set foot into Sun and Moon yourself, Tyrant Blade! How come you’re mouthing off now?? Why don’t you say it’s Jadelight Sword and the others holding us back?!”
The hopping mad He Yong’s rate of improvement was decent. He commanded ten meridians now and had opened a lot of acupoints. The old man was highly displeased that Tyrant Blade would think so little of him!
Tyrant Blade raised an eyebrow and didn’t say a word. He couldn’t be bothered to compare himself to women and of the men, he felt that He Yong possessed a stronger mentality. It was fine if Southern Fist suffered a bit of scorn. Those with weaker mentalities such as Golden Spear might leave the army in a huff if he accidentally poked them too much.
Therefore, after some thought, He Yong was the best target to attack.
“That’s enough, everyone please be quiet.” An amused Li Hao gestured for everyone to settle down. “Who has opened the most number of meridians by now?”
He didn’t outright probe the crowd as he would’ve before. He’d been immature in his youth, now he knew a little more.
Everyone looked at each other. Who would be the first to expose their strength?
“I don’t know about the others, but I’ve opened five attributed meridians. No, six including the one of body dao. I’ve cleared a total of 210 acupoints. This means twelve meridians in total,” Yuan Shuo volunteered
That put him at first level Sun and Moon, and just peak first level. It wasn’t an astounding level of improvement. Granted, he should be able to swiftly enter second level Sun and Moon after this.
“I’ve opened seven attributed dao meridians,” Hong Yitang coughed gently after Yuan Shuo declared himself. “One of the physical body and 199 acupoints. That makes for a total of eleven.”
He was one acupoint off from twelve meridians and Li Hao suspected that Hong Yitang had purposefully ensured that he was one less than Yuan Shuo. The number was too exact otherwise.
Since Yuan Shuo and Hong Yitang had only opened eleven to twelve dao meridians, the rest wouldn’t have more. However, the young man still looked at the group.
Lin Hongyu prepared to answer the young man when he looked her way. “You don’t need to hide anything,” Li Hao said before she had a chance to. “I’d like to understand everyone’s true strength.”
The woman had high potential and great strength in battle. She was almost seven element Arcanus early on. There were very few stronger than here among those present. Even Hong Yitang and the rest in the past might not be stronger than her. She’d killed a core origin replica by herself, after all.
An awkward expression crossed her face, but she responded, “I’ve opened seven attributed meridians, the physical body meridian, and 203 acupoints...”
Yuan Shuo blinked and looked at her. How was she clearing acupoints so quickly? He was fast enough already and had given up opening other attributed meridians so he could focus on the acupoints. But, he was still only seven acupoints higher than this woman. The key thing was, she was normally preoccupied with running the dynasty and couldn’t dedicate large swathes of time to cultivation.
Yuan Shuo was very perplexed. Although they were both twelve dao meridians, strictly speaking, she’d cleared three more acupoints than him.
Lin Hongyu smiled bashfully, but everyone knew her modesty was fake. She was very skilled at presenting a facade.
“It’s Master Redwood,” she said sheepishly. “It... secretly supported me with a lot of Water of Life. Everyone here knows that I was working with the senior before, therefore...”
No one asked if her words were true or not, but their expressions shifted slightly. Twelve dao meridians and three more acupoints than Yuan Shuo... Although her total number was a bit lower than the old man, it wasn’t in the grand scheme of things. Each fully open dao meridian counted as ten acupoints.
Li Hao inclined his head, not the least bit surprised. He turned to the rest. There was Yao Si, a premier veteran martial master. There was also the secretive Director General Zhao—who knew how strong he was? Another was Chen Zhongtian, a right and proper premier martial master who was even stronger than Yao Si.
These guys had been pretending to be half dead all this time, but Li Hao strongly suspected that they were hiding their true strength. They were probably afraid of eclipsing the Silver Moon martial masters.
That was right!
They were all stronger than the Silver Moon martial masters before. Today, everyone opened acupoints together and trained in the same place with the same resources. How could they be weaker than their Silver Moon brethren?
Li Hao didn’t believe it!
These crafty talents were very possibly hiding their strength. Those sly old foxes!
“There’s no use looking at me,” coughed Director General Zhao when Li Hao looked his way. “I learned of this new martial dao later on and have only cleared 170 acupoints. I haven’t opened a single dao meridian yet and just have the seven of the attributed ones, as well as the one of the physical body. I’m weaker than all of them at eighth level Mountain and Sea.”
“......” Everyone looked at him.
“Clearing acupoints is easy for us.” Even Huang Yu couldn’t help himself. “We have sufficient resources and going all the way to 180 is easy enough. How come you only have 170?”
The 180 acupoints from the start were just opening a dao meridian halfway! It wasn’t fully opening a dao meridian!
You make it seem like all of us have overestimated you by saying you’re just an eighth level Mountain and Sea. You could scare off Ying Hongyue before opening any acupoints and suppress some of those antique core replicas by yourself. Do you take all of us for fools when you say that you’re only eighth level Mountain and Sea??
“It’s true,” Director General Zhao coughed again. “I learned of the new system too late and war soon engulfed Silver Moon...”
Li Hao looked at him silently and said after a while, “I’m not trying to plumb everyone’s secrets, it’s that I might easily give you the wrong opponent if I don’t know how strong you are.
“Take our last engagement, for example.” The young man frowned. “We didn’t achieve greater effect because everyone’s level of strength is different. We were also up against enemies of varying abilities! Teacher should not have gone against any god of the five elements and the plant spirits should not have been in charge of the goddess of life...”
“My strength really is run-of-the-mill,” Director General Zhao emphasized with resignation when he saw how serious Li Hao was. “But I forgot to count the dao meridians of the four limbs that I opened before. Those four are also part of the thirty-six, so that means I’ve cleared 210 acupoints and another eight dao meridians.”
He suddenly had forty more! The group cursed to themselves. You vile rat! The four limbs are part of the system early on, how can you forget?? So this means you’ve got six unattributed dao meridians and eight attributed ones for a total of fourteen!
Director General Zhao suddenly commanded two more dao meridians than Yuan Shuo and the rest. He was the first second level Sun and Moon apart from Li Hao!
Even Yuan Shuo couldn’t help but roll his eyes, but he wasn’t too surprised. Director General Zhao had overseen Silver Moon province. It only made sense that he was so strong. They just looked down on the man for possibly not telling the truth even now.
How despicable!
Li Hao was also surprised. Fourteen dao meridians was a lot. He only had such a high number himself because he’d occupied certain first mover advantages. Director General Zhao was indeed late to the game, but had quickly cleared 210 acupoints. That rate of improvement... was incredible!
One could only say that he had been too strong before, so his conversion was equally quick. Li Hao nodded, they finally had a real second level Sun and Moon.
“I don’t have as many as him, I only have twelve dao meridians,” Chen Zhongtian quickly said when Li Hao looked his way.
Li Hao frowned, to which Chen Zhongtian repeated with resignation, “I mean it, I’m not lying.”
Fine, I’ll believe you for now.
“I have fewer.” Yao Si shook his head. “Just eleven, but almost twelve.”
His look of slight regret didn’t seem to be faked.
“So has no one set foot into second level Sun and Moon apart from Director General Zhao?” Li Hao had to ask. Ten to twelve dao meridians were all first level Sun and Moon. Didn’t they have any more second levels?
As fast as Lin Hongyu was, she needed some more time. No one’s rate of improvement was a nice surprise. Of course, they were stronger than before.
