“The Silver Moon king knows a lot!” frowned the Thunder master.

“I should,” smiled Li Hao. “I’m an elder of the Phoenix Foreign Affairs Office, after all!”

“......” The Thunder master stared at Li Hao. Wat.

“I even signed a dao treaty with them!” Li Hao grinned. “If I actually expose the senior now, Thunder World will teeter on the edge of disaster!”

“A dao treaty?”

“That’s right!”

“What?? Why?!”

“Why not?” Li Hao wasn’t interested in going into these details, so he changed the topic. “Is the senior... not going back to your world?”

How unlucky!

Truly, it wasn’t that Li Hao didn’t want others around, it was that his plans really were derailed if the Thunder master was here. If the man wasn’t on his world and Li Hao commenced his preparations here... then Phoenix major world would certainly be suspicious that the Thunder master had left his world.

Damn it, this means that I’ll be exposed by this guy even if I hide myself well! Phoenix might come take a look at even a small blip. They wouldn’t have cared if he’d just stayed on Thunder World.

Damn it!

He needed to have the Thunder master return home and stay out of his hair. However, the Thunder master cursed to himself as well.

Do you think I want to be out here? It’s because I’m out of ideas! My world is devoid of dao strength and my exalted emperors are running on fumes. There’s also too much chaos tribulation energy around, making it impossible to neutralize the destructive force within our bodies.

I need more dao crystals! You guys are the ones in my way!

Wait, were these two going to try something? He hadn’t done anything yet, but they might cause trouble for him and expose where he was!

I’m so damned unlucky!

Despite ample strength found on the two sides, no one considered working together. They were too unfamiliar with each other and also had different goals in mind.

“This is Dragon major world, it’s exceedingly dangerous!” said the Thunder master. “Phoenix has been keeping an eye on my world, looking for traces of my movements. Or rather, they hope to see me here. It’s very bad that the two of you have shown up here!”

“So the senior means that we should leave?” Li Hao raised a brow.

“It’s too risky being here, it’s best if you two don’t stay for long.” The Thunder master pointed at the worlds in the distance. “There are many sixth rank worlds nearby! Even more important is that I suspect there’s a seventh rank hiding in the surroundings.

“Dragon Region wants nothing more than to kill me. The last thing I trust is that the Dragon master would be so kind-hearted as to leave behind rich pickings after he’s left with his world. So I was wondering just now which world is hiding the seventh rank. Doom will be upon me if I choose the wrong world!”

It wasn’t that easy to kill a seventh rank. It was much more likely that he thoroughly exposed himself in the process instead. While the Thunder master was confident that he would win in a clash, the caveat to that was that he employed dao strength. Then the dao universe would be spontaneously visible in his world, which meant that everyone in the region would know that he was no longer home.

If Phoenix chose to attack then, then he really would be caught between a rock and a hard place.

“Eh?” Li Hao raised a brow. “The senior wishes to attack this place? Senior, you’ve been suppressed by the Dragon master all this time. If you’re going to attack something, you should attack a seventh or eighth rank world. What’s the point of killing minor characters like these?”

He felt that the Thunder master... was rather... incompetent. Why was a seventh rank going after small fry for?

The Thunder master didn’t make a sound. Damn it. I have no money, alright? I’m too poor!

He knew that outsiders wouldn’t believe that a seventh rank world would be that poor. Seventh rank worlds could devour chaos strength themselves to convert into dao crystals. They could support one hundred exalted emperors by themselves.

But... the chaos strength around Thunder World had been extracted by other worlds. It’d been sealed off by Dragon major world for many years and also suffered from chaos tribulations...

Its enormous consumption was yet to be replenished. Thus, it was no exaggeration to say that he was the poorest among seventh rank world masters.

Even the Orchid Forest master was richer than him. Orchid Forest was a normally operating world, after all. It’d depleted its resources only for the breakthrough. The Orchid Forest master didn’t worry about being unable to support his exalted emperors. A seventh rank world produced a large amount of dao crystals everyday.

A veteran seventh rank world like Thunder World could easily host a bevy of exalted emperors. Under normal conditions, having reserves of one billion dao crystals was a given. Any excess would be used to nurture powerhouses. If they didn’t develop homegrown talent, then they would have even more saved.

Who would be out of money and set their sights on a mid rank world? That was just a drop in the bucket!

Li Hao hadn’t thought about this because he’d once calculated the amount of dao crystals produced by a ninth rank world. It was a staggering figure. He’d also never heard of seventh rank worlds being poor. The Orchid Forest master didn’t count, he’d been a newcomer.

So in Li Hao’s eyes, the Thunder master had his eyes set on weaker worlds to pursue revenge. Not to mention, there was a large amount of chaos tribulations in Thunder Region. Wasn’t all of that nutrition for his world?

How could he possibly be short on energy or dao crystals?

He was starting to look down on the Thunder master. The man wasn’t taking advantage of the Dragon master’s absence to challenge seventh ranks or move his world, but had come here to target weaklings.

Are you stealing food from us poor people? That’s so damned annoying!

He had a lot of big stomachs to feed. Himself, Void, Silver Moon... were all gluttons. It hasn’t been long enough since our rise. Even dao strength born in a fifth rank dao universe is just the beginning. It’s insufficient for local exalted emperors. Have you come here just for sixth rank worlds?

Both sides had their own thoughts. The Thunder master ultimately decided to say a few words to get these two guys to leave.

“My world is in dire need of dao crystals. A portion of my exalted emperors cannot maintain peak condition. I need to seize some dao crystals first, as well as some world strength and dao strength to help everyone return to prime form. Only then can I break through the blockade!

“I ask the two friends to leave so that you don’t get dragged into this!

“Dragon Region has sealed us off too tightly over the years. I’d like to attack a seventh rank dao universe, but... I don’t have enough strength to at the moment...”

Li Hao gaped and looked at the man.

“What?” Void blinked.

Dao crystals?

An exalted emperor lacked dao strength? What kind of joke was that?

Thunder World was a seventh rank world with a long history! It wasn’t a newly ascended one. How was it possible to be short on dao crystals, unless it was about to reach eighth rank?

“The two of you aren’t from Dragon Region, so you might not be aware that Thunder World has been sealed off for three hundred thousand years!” sighed the Thunder master. “Half of it’s in the four regions, the other half in Thunder Region!

“We are nearly unable to extract any chaos strength from the four regions. Meanwhile, there are only chaos tribulations within Thunder Region. It takes a great deal of dao strength to absorb tribulation lightning and negate the destructive force within.

“Since the Silver Moon king uses that force, you should know that it is a very difficult force to neutralize. Anyone who doesn’t cultivate it cannot endure it. It must be counteracted with dao strength!

“My world’s dao is pure because we’ve been struck by chaos tribulations for many years. All that can be found in my world is the power of thunder and lightning, but no one cultivates the power of destruction. Even if there are people who do so, even if there are seventh ranks, they are hard pressed to deplete that destructive force...”

Do you guys get it? I’m almost out begging on the streets!

So please, don’t cause any trouble for me. It’s fine if the two of you are here, but the key is that I don’t know what your views are. What if you cause the death of me??

If the two joined hands, any seventh rank without their dao universe and world truly might not be a match for them. He was viewing them as his peers now. The Thunder master would not be adopting this attitude otherwise.

“You’re... broke?” Li Hao paused. “So the senior means... is that you’re out to see... what pickings there are?”

“......” You can say that, but it seems so embarrassing when you put it that way.

However, such was the truth, so the Thunder master didn’t say anything.

“Then this means that Phoenix major world knows of your condition?” A new thought occurred to Li Hao.

“Of course!”

“We’re in trouble!” Li Hao’s face slackened.

Why? 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

“We’re in huge trouble,” he transmitted to Void. “This guy needs dao crystals and Phoenix is well aware of that. He’s out to see what he can grab. If anything happens here, Phoenix will absolutely guess it’s because he’s here! Damn it!”

He’d thought that everything was fine before, that their meeting was a minor matter. But if Thunder World was so dirt poor, then the world master’s appearance here was a blatant Phoenix scheme. They were forcing him to leave his world, expose himself, thereby creating an opening to attack his world and kill him!

So this meant Li Hao’s plans were in shambles after encountering the Thunder master!

The young man didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t known before that Thunder World was scraping the bottom of the barrel like this. Now that he did, he realized that he might be mistaken for the Thunder master once he commenced his plans here!

Hot damn!

If he had been, then seventh ranks would come for his head!

Thank goodness!

Thank goodness we ran into him ahead of time and he hasn’t attacked those worlds yet. Otherwise... we’d be faced with an army right now!

Damn, it’s still unlucky though!

“How many dao crystals does the senior’s world need?” Li Hao asked.

“Huh?” The puzzled Thunder master didn’t respond.

“We can tell that humans have it tough in this region!” Li Hao said. “If the senior doesn’t lack too much, we can offer some support. The senior should swiftly return to your world with dao crystals and keep watch over it.

“I’m worried that Phoenix will discover something amiss if the senior goes back too late. Back when I was still on Phoenix, I’d already discovered that their exalted emperors had all gathered together!

“The senior must have quietly slipped out,” Li Hao said with a look of worry. “Phoenix will certainly continuously send scouts. Once they realize you’re not there, they’ll start their offensive! Real trouble will be upon us then!

“And once the only human major world of Dragon Region falls... it would be a devastating loss for humanity! These losses would be so great that it means several hundred million humans no longer have any support to reply on!

“So how many do you need, senior?”

The Thunder master blinked, the look in his eyes shifting. “I, ah, shouldn’t let the two friends go to such trouble...” he coughed gently.

“We are all fellow humans in Dragon Region! I wouldn’t say this in any of the other three, but here, just name your figure! My friend Void is the crown prince of Light, he has a ton of money!”

The Thunder master was still embarrassed. “There’s no need for this. I just need to bring down a sixth rank world or two to resolve my issues...”

“That’s...” it?