“Don’t I have you to help me?” the western queen said plainly to Li Hao.

“......” Li Hao rolled his eyes so hard that they threatened to get stuck in the back of his head. You trust me that much, huh? What can I do with this, huh? Can I keep the entire chaos under control? I’d be more useful reversing time!

I can go back to the moment in which you verified your dao. But... if I do that... bigger problems will easily develop. What if I reverse time to when the Dragon master arrives? Won’t you be scared out of your mind??

“So the Dragon master rushed directly there?”

“Yes,” Director General Zhao quickly responded. “Ling Yue did this to save people though, we didn’t have any other choice. If the marquis is able to, please save her...”

If the queen had landed herself in these straits because she wished to verify her dao, then he wouldn’t bother with her. But... she was threatening to explode because she was saving humans and themselves.

He needed to make sure that Li Hao was aware of this.

“I understand.” Li Hao nodded, his brows locked in a tight frown. He looked at the queen, sensing the chaos strength that was everywhere. It surged madly toward her.

The power of emptiness couldn’t constrain it. The chaos seemed to pass right through the world of emptiness. In that case, even if they hid the queen in a place without chaos energy, she would explode all the same!

All worlds were located within the chaos. They really were in trouble now! How could they control the inflow into the queen?

They could only... sever her dao!

But her dao was fully melded into the chaos.

“Break all of your daos and leave only the dao meridians,” Li Hao said after some thought. Your dao stars are still within Silver Moon’s dao universe. Figure out a way to walk the paths of Silver Moon. You can’t try this one anymore!”

“Is this the only way out?” The queen paused.

“Right!”

“I thought... nothing is a problem for you.”

“I’m not omnipotent.” Li Hao’s frown deepened. “I’m a fifth rank, alright? I happened to discuss your current problem with Senior Number Two a few days ago. Logically speaking, this kind of situation shouldn’t happen.

“Of course, it was an emergency, so that’s beside the fact. How about this, I’ll help you verify your dao with everything I have. Just give up on this one first...”

That was the safest way. Staying alive was the number one priority.

The queen was a plague of bad luck, but Li Hao had never thought of actually killing her. He hadn’t suffered any losses from their two instances of cooperation. She was in her current condition because she was trying to save people, so he wanted to ensure her survival, at the very least.

It would be safest for her to give up the dao of faith. Only her strength would be harmed then; she would no longer be an exalted emperor. That was nothing. He could help her verify her dao later.

The queen fell silent.

If she gave up her dao, she would’ve worked so hard for nothing. If she gave up the dao of faith, that would be giving up everything. Verifying her dao as a Silver Moon exalted emperor would mean that only her dao star of body dao was somewhat strong.

She would be a weak cultivator then and scrabble for a chance to become a first rank when Silver Moon became a sixth rank world. She would be a first rank under Silver Moon control. Those such as Gan Wuliang and Hong Yitang could kill her whenever they wanted to.

Is this... what I want?

The queen didn’t say a word. It was one thing to be under Li Hao’s thumb in Silver Moon, but if she chose this path, then everyone from Gan Wuliang, Hong Yitang, Panther, Celestial Pole, the Pagoda King, Lin Hongyu... would be able to suppress her.

Was she supposed to be chained away in the future?

“No!” she suddenly said. “I can do it! I have a plan!” She turned toward Li Hao and said rapidly in cool tones, “If we have enough people who believe in me and put their faith in me, I can use their faith to counterbalance the chaos strength! I’ll quickly grow faster, which means I can absorb more chaos strength then and even become its heavenly will!”

“You’re crazy!”

“I’m not! If you can cultivate time, why can’t I cultivate the faith of the chaos?”

“You...”

Damn it! Li Hao wanted to throw up his hands and walk away from the situation! This woman was completely unreasonable!

Taking in more faith is just treating the symptoms and not the root cause! The stronger you are, the faster you absorb chaos energy, do you understand?

You’ll just die in a more horrifying manner!

Chaos strength will rush in faster when you’re a second rank. You won’t be able to handle it unless you quickly break through to third rank. But once you’re a third rank, energy will come in even faster. So you’ll have to look to fourth rank...

Which means that this isn’t something you get under control once you get stronger. That mindset is completely wrong!

The stronger you are, the faster you absorb chaos strength in a crazier way. You need to keep breaking through to stay ahead of it. You’ll eventually reach a balance and won’t be in danger of exploding. But what level of strength will that require?

Seventh rank?

Eighth rank?

Or ninth rank??

Does that idiot understand this at all?!

“I get the logic, but I also believe that every dao has its meaning for existence!” the queen cut in when Li Hao was about to continue on his tirade. “There is no hierarchy in dao. If we can verify our dao through a path, then it is viable!”

Li Hao blinked. “You really have a death wish!”

“You’re the one who said that faith goes to me.” The queen regained her calm. “I’ll need to absorb faith first even if I die. Isn’t that right up your alley?”

Li Hao said nothing else. He’d forcefully suppressed the chaos energy around them, but it was still surging into the queen. He frowned and waved his hand, surrounding the queen and concealing them from the public eye.

“Let’s go back first, we’re too conspicuous here! Also, there are a couple dozen worlds sitting outside. We’ll take them before we do anything else. If all of their humans can place their faith in you, you might be able to maintain your condition for a while. There’s no rush to break through just yet. We need to get a handle on chaos strength first!”

Damn it, this was such a hassle!

A headache brewed at Li Hao’s temples. What’s wrong with following a predefined path? As nice as a divine nation of faith is, it’s also a huge problem!

People from Silver Moon are great at making life difficult! The same goes for my teacher!

The young man cursed more vehemently to himself when he thought of his teacher. The old man got the weirdest ideas in his mind from day to night. He wanted to create a dao domain before verifying his dao. What was wrong with all of these people!

None of you are spring chickens, but you still do all this nonsense! Does the queen really think she can suppress rampaging chaos strength?? Someone would’ve done it a long time ago if it was that easy, why would you get a chance to do so?

Void insists on walking the paths of extreme daos! And me! Me, who insists on tracing time formed by a myriad of daos...

If I’d known it’d be such a hassle, I would’ve picked only one dao and gone straight for seventh rank!

Trains of thought careened toward each other in Li Hao’s mind. He spent a while cursing out other people before turning his ire on himself. Why was everyone so annoying!

......

Back inside the world.

Li Hao looked wordlessly at the continuously expanding queen. Number Two also popped out for a look. The cat turned to the young man after a glance. Wow, there really is a sucker out there somewhere!

We just talked about this and here one is, in the flesh! We’re so lucky!

The others filtered into view at last. Some looked curiously at the big moon—more accurately the fat moon. One had to look closely to realize that it was a moon. It more resembled puffed up pastry at this point.

“She seems to have built a divine nation based on faith and rooted it in the chaos...”

Li Hao knew what Number Two meant. They’d just been brainstorming how to expand their territory. Here the answer came on a silver platter!

But... how big would this divine nation have to be if they wished to take in endless humans? The queen would have to reach at least fourth rank. But once she did, the pace at which she absorbed chaos energy would mean that she’d explode in three days!

This was a useful method to employ, only assuming that one survived it.

Li Hao sank into deep thought and looked at those in front of him. “Wait for the others to arrive first before we decide on anything else. Brother Void, help her keep things under control over the next couple of days. Senior Number Two, absorb some of that chaos strength please...”

The cat twitched its tail. It didn’t refuse.

Li Hao vanished.

......

Within the river of dao.

Li Hao said cross-legged in front of the star of time. He hadn’t considered becoming part of the chaos before. As he’d said to the cat, that was all just theory. But now, someone had actually done so today.

And it was someone from Silver Moon!

Since the queen wasn’t willing to give up this path, they had to deal with the troubles that arose from it. Not to mention, the divine nation that she’d built might be a nice construct, if it really worked out. It would save them a lot of trouble.

A divine nation of faith was similar to a dimension of internal space. It was built from faith and established directly upon the chaos. It wasn’t a world. Only those bearing faith could enter, which meant there were both pros and cons to it.

“Our current issue is that the queen can’t withstand the constant flow of dao strength. It’s too much. As for others siphoning it off... the chaos can replenish however much we take. There’s infinite energy out there...”

The best efforts of the rest of the group would only slow down the rate of the queen’s ballooning. It wasn’t like she would be fine if a powerhouse continuously drained her. She was the only one who could suppress it!

The queen needed to suppress, negate, and even rapidly deplete the infinite chaos energy...

Eh?

Li Hao blinked and looked at the minor worlds in his river. I have a lot of worlds and need a lot of chaos energy as well. Although it’s not the purest energy, it’ll be unadulterated dao strength if I purify it!

What a pity that I’m not the queen. If I was, then my one thousand worlds might drain an incredible amount of energy. What she has wouldn’t even begin to scratch the itch!

“That’s right!” He couldn’t become part of the chaos himself since that would be equally troublesome. He’d have a death wish then.

But I can figure out a way to transfer the queen’s chaos strength into my worlds. Not only will that lessen the burden on her, but I’ll be able to collect some chaos strength as well.

Right now, however, all of that strength is rushing in straight through her great dao. She won’t be able to get rid of it fast enough even if she acts as a conduit!