Star Gate

Li Hao sank into deep thought and opened his eyes moments later. “Director General Wang, release some indestructible matter. I’ll mix it with Water of Life and the treasures within the pool so I can trace the dao meridians.”

The director general’s expression flickered. It was hard to produce more indestructible matter in this age. If he offered too much, his own body would be crippled. It had only been repaired after collecting the trunks of five Immortal level plant spirits!

He sighed and manifested a surge of indestructible matter without another word.

Li Hao took it in hand and extended his senses toward it, nodding after a moment. Indestructible matter was very durable and resilient. The results should be excellent if it was used to create dao meridians.

The young man was fully treating the director general as a lab rat at this point. If they failed, they would just discard the crippled body and find another five Immortal trunks to repair his body with.

It was no big deal.

……

Dao meridians snaked into being according to the layout that Li Hao had committed to memory. This was easily done when there was no corresponding flow of energy from the Hao Cosmos to deal with at the same time.

Soon enough, Li Hao artificially created a body with thirty-six dao meridians. The group exchanged strange glances with each other when they were greeted with it. It was shaped exceedingly like Director General Wang, just a bit younger. There was no presence of life emanating from it at the moment.

“In order to prevent mishaps, let’s try with one body first,” Li Hao remarked. “Let’s see if it can communicate with the Hao Cosmos. If not, creating more would be a waste.” He turned to the director general. “You don’t need to place too much importance on the first try. The director general doesn’t need to sever your core origin dao, but you do need to move your mental strength over. In addition, you’ll need a powerful weapon to be the vehicle for your connection to the Hao Cosmos.”

A powerful weapon?

Director General Wang thought it over and summoned a pair of boxing gloves. “This is all I have… I can’t use the city lord seal on a whim.”

Li Hao glanced at it. It would barely do. Let’s give it a try! He took the gloves and commenced the next stage of the experiment.

More people crowded around them now. Yuan Shuo had returned, bringing Hong Yitang and a few others with him. No one said a word. They watched silently, waiting for a miracle to happen.

After Li Hao finished a few more steps, he forcefully melded the boxing gloves into the dao meridians through use of supernatural characters.

“It’s best if we have a guiding dao meridian as well,” he said. “We’ll use it as the catalyst to beckon to Hao Cosmos energy. Does the director general have a liking for any supernatural attribute?”

Director General Wang blinked. What did he like? So he could choose? How interesting.

“How about the meridian of thunder and lightning?”

“The thunder attribute?” Li Hao smiled. “That’s a nicely powerful one. Since the director general is skilled at boxing, it will be nice to add thunder and lightning on top of that.”

The thunder attribute belonged to the dao meridian of the spine. Li Hao promptly carved one in without further delay. It was complete, but there was no corresponding energy within.

“When we first start the process, there will be no energy inside the dao meridian,” Li Hao explained. “But the various parts of the human body and their dao meridians should be connected to different parts in the Hao Cosmos. They should be able to summon the energy of thunder and lightning.

Here came the most difficult issue. Li Hao now needed to roam the Hao Cosmos and punch through its barrier to connect the body to the dao universe. This was the most critical part. However, the Hao Cosmos was unbounded without end. How was one to orient themself, locate the correct site, and break through it?

That was the most problematic question to answer!

Li Hao sank into deep thought. It was also easy to lose oneself in the Hao Cosmos. If he did, he would be done for.

“I’ll go!” Yuan Shuo suddenly said and chuckled merrily at his student. “I’ll go take a look!”

He’d once traveled through the dao universe. Not only was Li Hao creating a new body for Director General Wang, but it was a deeply meaningful gesture for an artificial meridian to traverse the Hao Cosmos. If it succeeded, it would be a miracle within cultivation history.

This would accelerate exploration of the Hao Cosmos and deepen everyone’s understanding of the new dao. It was also a very dangerous course of action, so Li Hao could not be risked in this endeavor.

“No, I’ll go!” The young man took a deep breath. “I’ll leave Stellaris outside as a homing beacon and put it inside the body. You also have a mission, teacher! You need to coordinate with Director General Wang to control his new body and operate the Five Styles, as well as operate a secret art of wind and thunder!

“Meanwhile, I’ll need to see how position orientation goes. If the signal is too weak for orientation, then I’ll need teacher to help me again from this side to locate where this body’s dao meridian is!”

“It’s all just speculation so far.” Yuan Shuo frowned. “If we cannot communicate or determine location when you’re inside, you might be lost for good inside. Let me do it!”

“No, I’ll do it,” Li Hao laughed. Stellaris circled around him like a tiny dragon as he addressed it. “You’re the foremost sword of the world at present! You need to pinpoint this world’s position as strongly as you can and continuously erupt with the greatest presence you have. You are the catalyst for my return! Otherwise, you will fall silent again if I am lost inside.”

Stellaris vibrated, erupting with a particularly sharp presence. Li Hao could not be lost! If he was, he might survive, but it might be countless eons later when he emerged.

There was no sense of time when it came to the great dao. Once he vanished from Silver Moon and entered the Hao Cosmos, it might be millions of years later when he reemerged.

“We can.. forget it if it’s that dangerous…” Director General Wang couldn’t help but say. Being lost in the dao universe sounded insanely scary.

For a period of time, the powerhouses of Battle Heaven had also suspected if the Human King and the rest were lost in a dao universe.

Of course, not that of core origin, but the enemy’s dao universe!

The universe was vast, but the Human King shouldn’t be lost among the stars with that group of powerhouses by his side. If he’d exterminated the enemy and wanted to fully eradicate their faith and cultivation, he might further march on their dao universe.

Then… he might be lost in it.

This was a possibility that no one wanted to explore further. Bringing the battle to the enemy’s dao universe represented one goal: to eliminate the enemy from the roots and destroy their foundation of cultivation. That was harder than annihilating a world.

Would the Human King do so?

Who knew?

Li Hao laughed and faded out of sight. Not far away, Zhang An sighed softly. The little fellow made the Black Armor quite indecisive at times.

A lot of people came to mind. The little guy resembled a lot of people, but also didn’t resemble them. He was more vicious than anyone when he set his mind to it, but the most gentle soul in the room when he wished to be so.

Zhang An thought of the Human King during his time. Now that was a merciless and unyielding individual. He thought of his grandfather—a benevolent man, but also a flinty personage with the blood of untold individuals staining his hand.

Li Hao had killed people and once imitated the Human King, wanting to rid the world of his enemies. But somehow, somewhere along the way, he lost his direction. He’d been influenced by an unknown factor and grown a so-called woman’s soft nature. He hadn’t killed that many out of the one million supernaturals in the City of Supernaturals.

Many thoughts swirled in Zhang An’s mind. He didn’t know who Li Hao resembled.

Perhaps no one at all. Li Hao was possibly just Li Hao.

Every person who succeeded had their own unique charisma. For example, Zhang An was much stronger than Li Hao, but when he saw the young man leap into the endless dao universe by himself for the sake of legitimacy, the great dao, and heritage… Zhang An found himself lacking when it came to the same resolution and determination.

……

The unending Hao Cosmos.

Li Hao appeared by himself and looked around him at the scintillating celestial bodies filling the void. He grinned, having wanted to roam this space before, but not daring to do so. The opportunity was in front of him this time! Exploring the cosmos contained not only the mission to connect Director General Wang to the great dao, but an occasion of self encouragement.

I want to see just what this great dao universe is like!

Li Hao was no longer content to be restricted to the tiny patch around him. How would people be at ease if he, the pioneer of the new dao, was unfamiliar with it? Therefore, it was time for a round of exploration today.

The young man’s body transformed into a ferocious tiger and pounced forward. He couldn’t sense the coordinates left by Director General Wang’s physical body yet, so he could only aimlessly wander through the dao universe.

Within the cosmos.

Li Hao flew toward the closest celestial body. It was shaped like a sharp sword and he’d been wondering if this was Hong Yitang’s dao meridian. He couldn’t be certain and hadn’t investigated it before. Now, Li Hao approached it without reservation.

The universe was so vast that although he moved at an extremely rapid clip and the celestial body was very close to him, it took a long flight time before he gradually drew near the celestial body.

It was rooted in the void like an upraised sword!

Li Hao approached it with the ferocious tiger, more curious than anything. There were numerous sword marks left behind on the celestial body. Was this Hong Yitang’s dao meridian or not?

It erupted with rays of scintillating sword light when the young man drew near, as if expelling enemies!

……

At the same time, the outside world.

Hong Yitang suddenly frowned and sat down cross-legged. A universe seemed to manifest in his eyes; there looked to be a ferocious tiger ahead of him. He displayed his sword intent and filled the world with it!

That quickly raised attention from others. They looked at him with confusion, whereas Hong Yitang opened his eyes to ask, “Has Li Hao drawn near my area? I seem to see a ferocious tiger pouncing on me…”

Yuan Shuo’s eyes shifted around in rapid thought. The body they’d just created flared with brilliant light.

“Director General Wang, infuse your mental strength into the body and operate the Five Styles method. Hurry!”

The director general immediately projected his mental strength into the new body. Since it was his first time controlling this body, he wasn’t too familiar with it yet. However, he knew the Five Styles method. It’d been made available to the public when everyone discussed it. Since it didn’t focus on the locks of the five organs, it was different from before.

Director General Wang quickly operated the method while Yuan Shuo took up the reins to guide it.

etvolare’s Thoughts

Oh I’m very interested in this whole mapping dao universe to real world thing. And all the mapping to TMR you guys are doing. I feel like I def need to read TMR after I finish SG, it’ll hit so differently.